A fisherman’s enormous catch recently ignited a debate over whether fishers should be allowed to keep bycatch that is caught and landed without the proper permit, which would have allowed the fishing vessel to legally keep or sell the catch. Unfortunately, small-government advocates pounced and argued that the seizure was yet another example of federal government overreach and mismanagement. However, small-government advocates are either naive or are ignoring a plethora of facts and issues.
Basically, if commercial fishing vessels fish in state or U.S. federal government waters, then these fishing vessels are required to hold a permit. The permit allows the fishing vessels to use certain gear, in certain areas, to fish for, catch, land and sell certain species. For example, a fishing vessel with a groundfish permit to catch cod, haddock, and certain flounder species with a bottom trawl net can’t keep a bluefin tuna, an endangered, pelagic species, that is caught with the fishing vessel’s bottom trawl net — unless, for some reason, the permit authorizes the fishing vessel to keep the tuna. The purpose of utilizing permits is to control the number and types of fish caught in order to avoid overfishing and the economic collapse of fisheries.
Recently, a bottom trawler owned by Carlos Rafael landed a bluefin tuna weighing an incredible 881 pounds. However, since his fishing vessel’s permit didn’t allow him to keep the bluefin tuna, which was caught in his bottom trawl, the boat owner, unfortunately, had to surrender his tuna over to the feds. The commercial fishing vessel, apparently, did have a permit to keep a bluefin tuna caught and landed on a rod and reel.
Of course, debate ensued regarding whether the fishing vessel should have been forced to surrender its valuable catch, which was sold for “less than $5,000.” I believe that Monica Allen, the deputy director at NOAA Fisheries public affairs, put it best:
“We’re leaders among 45 countries in the conservation of this fish. Failure to enforce the regulations would damage our credibility internationally,” Allen said. There are not enough bluefin for those fishermen who target it as their sole focus, she added. “If trawl fishermen were allowed to keep bluefin, even when caught accidentally, that would create an incentive. If the stocks are rebuilt, this could actually become a way to catch them.”
Rafael, however, dismissed this logic out of hand. “That makes no sense, and I think that shows what they know about these fish,” he said.
Of course, seizing the bluefin tuna makes sense. If one fisher, who doesn’t have the proper permit, is allowed to keep a bluefin tuna, then more fishers would want to keep a tuna that was caught and landed without the proper permit. Furthermore, it would be a nightmare for enforcement and for efforts to conserve species that are severely depleted. Also, allowing a fisher to keep a tuna, if he or she doesn’t have the proper permit to do so, would make a mockery of the regulatory system. Obviously, such a move would also be unfair to fishers that have had their catches seized in the past or who have been fined in the past or who have had to discard bycatch overboard in the past.
No one, I imagine, wants to regulate commercial fishing, but the practice is inherently unsustainable, so regulations and plans are required. It’s true that there are many fishers that are conservation-minded, but it still takes cooperation between fishers, fishery managers, fishery observers, regulators (and regulation), and scientists to produce a sustainable fishery. No group can do it alone.
In a fishery, which can mean many things, fishers target certain species for personal consumption or for market. However, sometimes, fishers catch other species in addition to the species that they’re targeting. These non-target species are known as bycatch, and even though bycatch might be illegal to keep, to consume, to target, or to market, bycatch may still be incidentally caught in some fisheries.
Therefore, if the fisher doesn’t have a permit to keep certain species or if the species is illegal to keep, it’s simply wastefully discarded overboard. Bycatch isn’t wasted, however, if a fisheries observer is onboard to scientifically sample the species or if the fishers keep the specimen to turnover to scientists for research. As a result, bycatch can yield valuable data about a species and its interaction with commercial fishing gear.
Due to being incidentally caught, some species, in particular, are at risk. For example, populations of endangered species, valuable species, or species that are easily caught as bycatch in certain fisheries suffer from illegal fishing or from fisheries that are inefficient or dirty. However, fisheries research can result in improvements that mitigate or even eliminate bycatch of certain species (thus making the fishery cleaner), so cooperative research is important in ensuring continued seafood production and in making fisheries more sustainable.
Directed fishing for bluefin tuna in the Gulf has been prohibited since the early 1980s, however bluefin are caught incidentally by longline fishermen who target other species. The Gulf of Mexico is the only known spawning area for the western stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a historically overfished species. Many bluefin die from the stress endured in this incidental capture in warm water even if fishermen release them.
“NOAA worked with longline fishermen from the Gulf to test the weak hook carefully over the last three years,” said Eric Schwaab, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “Our cooperative scientific research with fishermen is showing that this new technology can protect bluefin tuna in the Gulf while still allowing fishermen to target yellowfin tuna and swordfish.”
The weak hook is a circular hook constructed of thin gauge wire, and is designed to straighten when a large fish, such as bluefin tuna, is hooked, releasing it but holding on to smaller fish. The average size of bluefin tuna landed in the Gulf of Mexico longline fishery is 485 pounds, while the average for yellowfin tuna is about 86 pounds.
Yellowfin tuna and swordfish are valuable commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, supporting fishing jobs on approximately 50 vessels as well as jobs on shore. The two species bring longline fishermen annual dockside earnings of $7 million. Research showed that the weak hook could result in some reductions in target catch while some longline fishermen have reported weak hooks did not hurt their businesses.
“During our tests, we used regular hooks for half our hooks and half were the new weak hooks,” said Capt. Mike Carden, a longline fisherman from Panama City, Fla. who took part in the cooperative research. “We were so happy with the weak hooks we quit using the heavy hooks. The weak hook releases fish we don’t want to catch. Because it’s smaller and lighter, we catch more yellowfin tuna on the weak hook. There’s several of us who have gone to the weak hook.”
The agency release included a supporting comment from a captain of one of the 50 or so commercial longline vessels in the fishery:
“During our tests, we used regular hooks for half our hooks and half were the new weak hooks,” said Capt. Mike Carden, a longline fisherman from Panama City, Fla., who took part in the cooperative research. “We were so happy with the weak hooks we quit using the heavy hooks. The weak hook releases fish we don’t want to catch. Because it’s smaller and lighter, we catch more yellowfin tuna on the weak hook. There’s several of us who have gone to the weak hook.”
The Pew Environmental Trusts, which has been tracking the issue closely, gave a very mixed review to the move. Here’s a statement e-mailed to me by Dave Bard, a spokesman, followed by a video the group has produced on bluefin and the gulf:
Pew is pleased that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has recognized the major bycatch problem with bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico, the fish’s only known spawning area in the western Atlantic Ocean. The agency has issued a short-term solution requiring the use of “weak” hooks starting May 5, 2011. Pew is also pleased that NMFS has left the door open to consider long-term solutions including time and area closures. But, a year-round prohibition on surface longlines is the only way to provide effective long-term protection for bluefin tuna and other rare and beautiful species in the Gulf. This prohibition would still allow fishermen in the Gulf to catch swordfish and yellowfin tuna; they would just be required to use more selective alternatives to wasteful surface longlines.
Here’s the video report:
You can continue reading more about this story at Dot Earth.
I think that the bigger problem for harp seals is the loss of sea ice due to global warming.
- Brian Skerry
In this TED talk, National Geographic photojournalist Brian Skerry illustrates, with his underwater photography, the ocean’s natural glory, but he also shows the horror that anthropogenic activities have brought onto oceans around the world. For example, the true unseen costs of a shrimp dinner might be hundreds of pounds of bycatch, which are animals and plants that are caught with the targeted species, by fishermen, but these animals and plants have no commercial value. Bycatch is are often killed during the fishing process and thrown back into the sea as trash.
One of Brian Skerry’s most celebrated underwater images is this diver with a Southern right whale. You can see more of Brian Skerry’s right whale images inNational Geographic Magazine’s October issue or here and here.
IMAGE: The top image shows the new species of migratory manta ray and the bottom image shows the resident species of manta ray
Manta rays (Manta birostris) are giant cartilaginous filter feeders of the order Rajiformes, which includes skates and many other species of rays. They are the largest of all ray species and are often associated with pelagic or coral reef waters (oceanodromous or residents of reefs). Giant manta rays are distributed worldwide and remain a scientific mystery. Certainly, there are more species to be discovered, and many believe that more species exist.
A marine study in Mozambique by Andrea Marshall aims to gather more information on giant manta rays. She is a PhD marine biologist sponsored by the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF). Recently, Andrea’s work has revealed a new species of manta ray through genetic and morphological studies.
The SOSF study has also observed reproductive behavior. Giant manta rays have a very low, minimum population doubling time, so the large marine animals are vulnerable to overfishing since they “are now known to give birth to a single large offspring about 1.4m in size after a year of gestation and, once reaching maturity at about 4m across, typically produce a pup every other year.” Modern fishing pressure may influence how large these rays can grow, since recent research on whale sharks shows that because “humans have over-exploited the whale shark — the world’s largest living fish — to such a degree that the ocean giants are actually shrinking in size.” Giant manta rays are often bycatch in the industrial tuna fisheries as well. From the Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom:
The manta now confirmed as a distinct species is the larger of the two and shys away from divers rather than seeking interaction.
Little is known about its lifestyle or migration patterns and Marshall has only ever witnessed it arriving at sea-mounts or at particularly productive areas along a coastline to feed on plankton before disappearing back into the deep ocean.
Although both species are harmless the larger, migratory manta has retained the presence of a non-functioning sting in its tail.
Other differences between the two species lie in colour, skin texture and reproductive biology. The smaller of the two species is not migratory and is often encountered at coral reefs where they congregate to be cleaned by parasite-eating fish in locations such as Hawaii, the Maldives, Mozambique, Australia, Japan and the Island of Yap.
The more commonly known ray resides in the same areas year round making it particularly susceptible to fishing pressure. If resident rays continue to be fished unsustainably they face localised extinction.
The larger rays, migrants and ocean wanderers which makes conservation management difficult, are fished heavily particularly in southeast Asia, and thousands are killed each year.
Many fall victim to ghost nets and are killed alongside other marine creatures as by-catch. Rays are also threatened by habitat degradation, boat traffic and disturbance by divers.
This old image illustrates the size that giant manta rays can reach. This particular specimen was caught of the coast of New Jersey:
This is an image from one of my presentations on trawl fisheries when I worked for NOAA/NMFS. I cannot remember where I found the image (it may be a Greenpeace image), but it shows a manta ray as bycatch amongst some type of Scombridae species, possibly skipjack tuna. Note the Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) in the background too.
A fisherman’s enormous catch recently ignited a debate over whether fishers should be allowed to keep bycatch that is caught and landed without the proper permit, which would have allowed the fishing vessel to legally keep or sell the catch. Unfortunately, small-government advocates pounced and argued that the seizure was yet another example of federal government overreach and mismanagement. However, small-government advocates are either naive or are ignoring a plethora of facts and issues.
