New Technology Good News for Sea Turtles

WASHINGTON, DC, January 5, 2004 (ENS) - New fishing technologies developed by the federal government and commercial longline fishers could reduce accidental catch of loggerhead and leatherback turtles by as much as 90 percent, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced today. The system also increased intended catch by nearly a third, federal officials said, and has been endorsed by industry and some environmentalists.

Longline fishing vessels, which cast fishing lines as long as 60 miles with thousands of hooks, have proven successful in catching commercially valuable species such as tuna, swordfish and mahi-mahi, but the indiscriminate nature of the practice has been devastating for sea turtles.

Conservationists estimate as many as 40,000 sea turtles are killed as bycatch by the global longline fishing industry each year.

All six species of sea turtles have been listed as endangered, threatened or vulnerable.

But switching to new hooks and using mackerel instead of squid for bait could dramatically mitigate the impact of longline fishing on sea turtles, National Marine Fisheries Service Director William Hogarth said today.

Rounder hooks have proven less fatal for sea turtles and aid fishers in safely dehooking them. (Photo courtesy NMFS)

For the past three years Hogarth's agency - in cooperation with commercial longline fishing interests - has tested various fishing methods, such as bait and gear type, to determine which combinations worked best to minimize sea turtle encounters in pelagic - or open sea - longline fisheries.

The study determined that switching from the traditional "J" style hook baited with squid to a rounder hook with a smaller opening and baited with mackerel, reduced sea turtle bycatch by 65 to 90 percent.

The new approaches "are the answer we have all been waiting for," said Nelson Beideman, executive director of Bluewater Fisherman's Association, a commercial longline group with 13 vessels participating in the project.

Beideman described the approaches as "practical" and hailed the effort for also producing methods to increase survival rates for sea turtles that do get catch by longline fishers.

New dehookers and dipnets allow fishermen to remove hooks from turtles with minimal additional trauma, according to NMFS, and a device used as a turtle elevator, the "leatherback lift" was crafted to allow fishermen to bring larger turtles on board for dehooking.

The international conservation group WWF endorsed the new methods, and Scott Burns, director of WWF's Marine Conservation Program, said the technologies are not just good for sea turtles, but also "provide economic incentives for fishermen in the process."

Leatherback turtles are considered endangered and are protected under the Endangered Species Act. (Photo courtesy NMFS)

Hogarth added that the new methods could result fewer bycatch related restrictions - some U.S. waters, including the Grand Banks, have been closed to longline fishers because of concerns about sea turtle bycatch.

But the NMFS Director acknowledged that others must follow if the new technologies are to impact a global problem.

U.S. longline fishers account for only 6 percent of the international longline fleet and are only responsible for some 5 percent of global sea turtle deaths, according to NMFS.

Hogarth says the United States would prefer to export technology solutions rather than the practice of closing waters to fishing vessels.

"I am asking all nations to match our efforts and evaluate these techniques in their fisheries so we can meet our shared responsibility to protect sea turtles and allow commercial fishing to prosper," he told reporters.