Sea Shepherd Clears Pacific Ocean of Deadly Lines

FRIDAY HARBOR, Washington, May 3, 2004 (ENS) - Twenty-five kilometers (16 miles) of monofilament long-line is no longer strung across the Pacific Ocean catching fish and entangling turtles and seabirds.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flagship "Farley Mowat," en route from Friday Harbor to the Galapagos Islands to re-supply a second Sea Shepherd ship patrolling the Galapagos Marine Reserve for poachers, came across the unattended long-line on Friday.

The crew of 25 conservationist volunteers from around the world confiscated the line and all its floats.

The line had been recently set in an area about 580 kilometers (360 miles) southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, they said. There were no identification numbers or names on any of the gear.

The attached radio transmitter locating buoy said it was manufactured in Taiwan.

The white plastic long-line floats had Chinese writing on them, leading the Sea Shepherd crew to speculate that the line was from a Taiwanese long-liner.

Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson (second from left) with volunteers aboard the Farley Mowat (Photo courtesy Sea Shepherd)

The crew freed a sea turtle that had been hooked and was still alive. The crew spent six hours hauling in and stowing the monofilament line in barrels.

After confiscating the line, the crew switched off the radio beacon. "There is now a Taiwanese long-liner searching in vain for their lost weapon of mass destruction," the Sea Shepherd said.

The society is now offering one of the confiscated long-line hooks to any supporter who sends in a donation and requests a hook.

The Taiwanese long-line is not the only fishing gear the crew of the Farley Mowat has found in the Pacific since leaving Friday Harbor on April 23.

At 2350 hours on Sunday, April 25, the crew spotted a strobe light marking what turned out to be a ghost-line floating abandoned in the sea approximately 56 miles off the Pacific coast of Mexico.

The crew confiscated the pole and flag with strobe, a number of floats, 1,400 meters (4,590 feet) of line carrying 66 hooks. There were no fish on the hooks, they said, and the line appeared to have been drifting for a long time.

Three days later, the crew found another ghost-line, drifting abandoned about 175 miles due west of Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico. They retrieved 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) of line, numerous plastic floats and 94 hooks attached to the line.

Sea turtle entangled in abandoned net (Photo courtesy NOAA)

Sea Shepherd has already confiscated hundreds of miles of illegal drift net and long-lines from the world's oceans in its ongoing program.

"There is great financial motivation to destroy life in the sea and little economic incentive to defend it," the society said. "In response, we are fishing for long-lines and every hook pulled from the sea is a hook that will be permanently retired from the business of slaughter."

The crew saw numerous dolphins on its journey, both Pacific white-sided dolphins and Risso's dolphins. They also saw two sperm whales, one that surfaced just 10 meters (40 feet) from the port side of the ship.

The Farley Mowat is on its way to support the Sea Shepherd ship Sirenian, now in her fourth year of a contract to support the Galapagos National Park by patrolling the Galapagos Marine Reserve.

After delivering the supplies to the Galapagos, the ship will transit the Panama Canal to help with the protection of sea turtles in the Caribbean Sea. The society will then turn its attention to opposing whaling by the Icelanders and the Faeroese.

"We also intend to construct and deploy net cutting bottom obstructions on the Grand Banks to rip the nets of illegal bottom trawlers," said the society. "These devices will be railway rails welded into giant jack like structures that will lie on the bottom to snare the bottom drag nets. The idea is to discourage destructive bottom dragging by ripping the nets open as they are dragged across the bottom."