Water is Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6yuKXKD2WI

Havasu Falls, Grand Canyon

Sustainable Fishing - bycatch

What is "bycatch"

Most fisheries catch unwanted animals along with their target catch. This non-target catch, known as "bycatch", is normally thrown back into the ocean, dead or dying. Tuna fishing is no exception to this rule. Longlines, for instance, can catch sharks, rays, sea turtles, seabirds and many species of fish. Globally, it has been estimated that 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherback sea turtles are hooked by longlines every year.

Purse seines are no better, with bycatches consisting of a diverse array of marine life, including dolphin fish, billfish, wahoo, triggerfish, barracuda, rainbow runners, sharks and sea turtles, especially when used in conjunction with floating objects (known as fish aggregating devices, or "FADs" - used to attract schools of tuna).

There is virtually no bycatch* associated with the trolling or pole and line techniques, which are regarded as the best fishing methods for tuna, a fact worth remembering when you buy. 

Below is a very informative description of commercial fishing methods published by Wild Planet Foods.


Other resources to learn about sustainable fisheries:

FishWiseA sustainable seafood consultancy that promotes the health and recovery of ocean ecosystems through environmentally responsible practices.

Seafood WatchThe Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program helps consumers and businesses make choices for healthy oceans. Our recommendations indicate which seafood items are "Best Choices," "Good Alternatives," and which ones you should "Avoid."

SeaChoice
Based on scientific assessments, SeaChoice has created easy-to-use tools that help you make the best seafood choices.

Blue Ocean Institute
At Blue Ocean Institute, we seek to inspire a deeper connection with nature, in everyone touched by an ocean.

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There are 2 main methods used to catch tuna in commercial fisheries that Wild Planet endorses as a best practice method:

1. Troll-Caught Albacore

Commercial fishing vessels that harvest younger surface-swimming albacore are called "jig boats" because they fish with jigs. They are also called "trollers" since they "troll" for albacore.

"Trolling" means to catch fish by towing a lure or baited hook behind a slow-moving boat. In the albacore fishery, trollers attach ten to twenty fishing lines to the vessel's outriggers. These fishing lines are of different lengths and are also spread out along each outrigger to help prevent them from getting tangled up with each other.

Attached to the end of each line is a jig, which is a rubbery fishing lure with a hook in it. Jigs are shaped to look like squid and come in a wide variety of colors. The jigs are trailed in the water behind a moving boat, and some albacore will bite a squid-like jig and get hooked. The hooked albacore is immediately removed from the water and prepared for freezing.

Because jigs are designed to catch fish on the ocean's surface, they simply cannot reach the older, larger albacore that swim in deep waters far below the surface. This is why other types of fishing gear are used to catch older albacore, and why "troll-caught albacore" always refers to the younger, tastier, Omega 3 rich albacore.

2. Pole and line

Pole and line fishing has been practiced for centuries in several different parts of the world. The method involves attracting a school of tuna to the side of a "bait-boat" by throwing live sardines and anchovies overboard. This creates a tuna "feeding frenzy" and fish are hauled out of the water, one-by-one, using pole and line. The size of the tuna caught this way is small, mostly consisting of albacore and skipjack, but also some yellowfin and bigeye.

There are two additional tuna harvest methods that Wild Planet considers as environmentally inferior and not in compliance with optimum conservation of marine resources:

1. Purse Seines

Go to Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Seafood Guides to get the facts on how harmful this method can be.

Purse seines are large nets that can measure over 2 km long and 200 meters deep. They are deployed in a circular form around a school of tuna, hanging vertically in the water column. Once the fish are completely encircled by the net, it is drawn tight at the bottom, like a purse, to prevent the fish from escaping below. It is then brought alongside the fishing vessel, hoisted out of the water, and the fish are brought on board. Purse seines are used to target mostly yellowfin tuna and skipjack, and on a world scale account for roughly 60% of all the tuna landed. They are the preferred fishing gear of the French and Spanish fleets.

2. Longlines

Longlining is the most common method used to catch albacore worldwide. Per Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, longlines attract a variety of open ocean swimmers, such as endangered sea turtles, sharks and other fish, resulting in wasteful bycatch*. Also, as the line is deployed into the water, seabirds dive for the bait, are ensnared on the hooks and drown. Since there are no integrated international laws to reduce bycatch, international longline fleets are contributing heavily to the long-term decline of some of these threatened or endangered species.

Longline gear involves the use of a main line of up to 150 km in length from which as many as 3,000 shorter branch lines, each with a baited hook, are dangled in the water column. The mainline is kept afloat by a series of buoys attached at intervals. The gear is passive, in that it captures whatever fish happen to take the bait. Longlines operate mostly at depths between 100 and 150 metres, but can be set as deep as 300 metres when targeting bigeye. Longlines are used to catch the high-value fish that are marketed as sashimi, historically in the Japanese market but also increasingly in North America and Europe. Since very high quality fish is needed for sashimi, most vessels are equipped with "flash freezers" to freeze the fish to -60oC almost immediately. Taiwan and Japan are specialists in longlining, targeting primarily bigeye, with some yellowfin and albacore.

Do Your Representatives Represent You?

The League of Conservation Voters 

2013 National Environmental Scorecard

See how those who represent YOU in the US House and Senate voted in 2013.
  
This is an easy to use interactive database that shows you how your Congressperson voted on bills, resolutions, nominations, etc ...  You can learn a lot here.

If your Representatives have truly been your advocate, call or email them and say "Thank you".  If they haven't, let them know that too.  

Click here for contact information for all US Senators and Representatives.


Overview of the National Environmental Scorecard

Since 1970, the National Environmental Scorecard has been providing objective, factual information about the most important environmental legislation considered and the corresponding voting records of all members of Congress. The Scorecard represents the consensus of experts from about 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who select the key votes on which members of Congress should be scored. LCV scores votes on the most important issues of the year, including energy, global warming, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, and spending for environmental programs. The Scorecard is the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health, and energy issues. 

Overview of the 2013 National Environmental Scorecard

There is a jarring disconnect between the frightening climate change developments of 2013 and the results of the 2013 National Environmental Scorecard. As the scientific consensus around climate change and its impacts only solidified, climate change deniers ramped up their rhetoric, pushed harmful legislation that would exacerbate the climate crisis, and blocked all efforts to address it. Indeed, the first session of the 113th Congress is widely acknowledged to be one of the least productive and most dysfunctional in our nation’s history and will likely be best remembered for shutting down the government. In stark contrast to the congressional denial and dysfunction that ran rampant in 2013, President Obama made significant progress in addressing the climate crisis through executive action.

This Scorecard comes on the heels of another record breaking year of global climate change impacts, ranking as one of the five hottest years ever recorded, replete with perilous extreme weather, including stronger storms, more intense wildfires, and longer droughts. In the U.S. alone, there were seven separate weather and climate disasters in 2013 with price tags exceeding $1 billion. In May, the planet hit an alarming milestone when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 400 parts per million, the highest level in human history.

Read the full overview of the 2013 National Environmental Scorecard here.

You can download the complete report HERE.