Turtles Face the End

At this time the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is considering a proposal by several countries to halt industrial high-seas longline fishing. The miles-long gear used in such fishing threatens a wide variety of sea life ranging from sharks to sea turtles to albatross.

Todd Steiner, biologist and director of Turtle Island Restoration Network, writes “Among the greatest of the threats to our future is the decline of our planet’s greatest resource, the oceans." He says that 70% of marine fish species are on the brink of extinction due to over fishing. “A primary threat to those ocean resources comes from industrial longline fishing, an industry that sets over 5 million baited hooks every day (almost 2–10 billion annually), creating a curtain of death. These lines catch anything that bites or is unfortunate enough to get hooked while swimming in their path,” writes Steiner.

In Longline fishing a 60 mile line with 2000 branch lines, each up to 1,200 feet long is deployed. The target species of longlining are primarily top-of-the-food-web predatory fish, such as swordfish and tuna. But those aren’t the only species that get caught up obviously.

For example, the Leatherback Turtle, the largest living reptile on Earth is also a victim. Steiner says, “As longlining has increased, the number of Pacific leatherback females that have safely returned from the oceans to their nesting sites has dropped dramatically.”

And he means dramatically. At Mexiquillo, Mexico where in the 80s almost 5,000 females returned to nest each year, the number is now four. The situation is the same throughout the Pacific.

According to researchers at the 24th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Conservation and Biology, in Costa Rica the Pacific Leatherback has ten years before extinction if nothing is done to reverse these problems. That’s all it will take to wipe out a species that has been around for more than 100 million years. Sources: Biology Daily, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Florida Sportsman