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U.S. Commercial Fisheries Are Killing Lots Of Dolphins
By
Nell Casey
Published Mar 20, 2014
Modified Mar 20, 2014
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Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock
By
Nell Casey
Published Mar 20, 2014
Modified Mar 20, 2014
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International ocean conservation organization Oceana, a vocal watchdog of our planet's aquatic life, has released its latest study on wasted catch in U.S. fisheries. The results aren't pretty. Wasted catch, or bycatch as it's also known, refers to non-target fish and wildlife inadvertently swept up mostly by open ocean trawl, longline and gillnet-type fisheries. The organization estimates that approximately 20% of the U.S. catch is thrown away each year.
"Hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales, sharks, sea birds, sea turtles and fish needlessly die each year as a result of indiscriminate fishing gear," explains report author and Oceana marine scientist Amanda Keledjian. "It’s no wonder that bycatch is such a significant problem, with trawls as wide as football fields, longlines extending up to 50 miles with thousands of baited hooks and gillnets up to two miles long." Of the many fisheries operating, Oceana called out the top nine "dirty" fisheries, who all together threw away nearly 50% of their catch and were responsible for "more than 50 percent of all reported bycatch in the U.S."
Of those nine, three currently operate in New York waters, including two bottom trawl fisheries and one gillnet fishery. Northeast Bottom Trawl discards 35% of its catch, estimated at approximately 50 million pounds of fish annually. The Mid-Atlantic Bottom Trawl discards 33%, with an alleged 200 marine mammals and 350 sea turtles captured or killed annually. Finally, the New England & Mid-Atlantic Gillnet Fishery discards just 16% of its catch but was responsible for capturing 1,200 endangered sturgeon and more than 2,000 dolphins, porpoises and seals in one year.
“Anything can be bycatch,” says Oceana campaign director Dominique Cano-Stocco. “Whether it’s the thousands of sea turtles that are caught to bring you shrimp or the millions of pounds of cod and halibut that are thrown overboard after fishermen have reached their quota, bycatch is a waste of our ocean’s resources." The bycatch problem can be remedied if steps are taken to ban drift gillnets and other trawling methods or avoiding what the organization calls "bycatch hotspots."
Oceana is calling upon the federal government to institute counting methods, mandate cleaner fishing methods and cap wasted catch "using scientifically based limits."
Tagged
byproduct waste
commercial fishing
dolphins
oceana
open ocean trawl
wasted catch
original
Nell Casey
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