90% of dolphins in the Indian Ocean have been wiped out by the fishing industry

A new report by an international group of scientists suggests the dolphin population of the Indian Ocean has been decimated, with almost 90 percent of the animals being wiped out by industrial fishing since 1980.

The study suggests this extermination is due to the widespread use of huge gillnets used to catch tuna.

Gillnets are walls of netting that are hung in the water column and are either allowed to drift from floating buoys, or can be fixed in one place. They range in size from 100m to more than 30km in length and operate from less than 5m to more than 20m in depth.

Their use is illegal on the high seas, but the laws are routinely ignored.

The size of the holes in the netting are designed so tuna can get only their head through the netting but not their whole body. The fish’s gills then become caught in the mesh as it tries to back out of the net. As the fish struggles to free itself, it becomes more and more entangled.

Though the nets are designed to target specific species — as smaller fish can slip through the holes and larger fish are supposedly repelled — in practice the nets, particularly drift gillnets, are deadly to an array of species, including sharks, turtles, sea lions, whales, and dolphins.

Dr. Putu Mustika, from James Cook University in Australia, who was among the scientists working on the study, stated despite much of the official data on bycatch being unreliable, scientists had nonetheless been able to come up with a credible picture of the dolphin catch.

“We combined results from 10 bycatch sampling programs between 1981 and 2016 in Australia, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan to estimate bycatch rates for cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) across all Indian Ocean tuna gillnet fisheries,” she said.

“The vast majority of the cetacean bycatch is dolphins. Estimated cetacean bycatch peaked at almost 100,000 a year during 2004−2006, but has declined to 80,000 animals a year, despite an increase in the tuna gillnet fishing effort.”

Dr. Mustika said the research indicated the gillnets deployed in the Indian Ocean had killed about 4.1 million small cetaceans between 1950 and 2018 as fishers pursued tuna.

But she said the true figures may be “substantially higher” as the available records take little or no account of factors such as delayed mortality of cetaceans which escape from the nets or mortality associated with ghost nets — those nets lost at sea.

“The declining cetacean bycatch rates shown by what we can measure suggest current mortality rates are not sustainable. The estimates we have developed show that average small cetacean abundance may currently be 13 percent of the 1980 levels,” Dr. Mustika said.

She warned the UN’s existing ban on gillnets on the high seas is hard to enforce and tuna fishers are allowed to use gillnets within the territorial waters of states bordering the ocean.

“Cetacean bycatch in Indian Ocean tuna gillnet fisheries has been a concern for decades but has been poorly studied, reflecting the political reality that hundreds of thousands of relatively poor fishermen and their families rely on gillnet fisheries,” she said.

The current cetacean bycatch rate may be in the order of 175 cetaceans per 1000 tonnes of tuna, down from an estimate of 600 in the late 1970s, the study suggested.

The countries with the largest current gillnet catches of tuna and likely to have the largest cetacean bycatch are (in order): Iran, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oman, Yemen, UAE, and Tanzania.

Iran and Indonesia have no national monitoring of cetacean bycatch.

The research team was led by Dr. Charles Anderson of the Manta Marine organization in the Maldives. The scientists said there is a need for improvements in monitoring, analysis, and governance and for changes to fishing practices if dolphin numbers are to recover.

Ghost Nets are Creating Death Traps in our Oceans

Swimming off Marine Drive for the Triathlon in the National Games, a swimmer got caught in a ‘ghost net’ which was floating in the area of the sea in which he was swimming. He was lucky to have been able to free himself and make it to the shore without mishap. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many marine life which reside in these waters.

Ghost nets or discarded fishing nets in the ocean cause a massive problem to marine life as well as humans. Independent Film-maker Akansha Tiwari (22) stated that “We are currently working on a film called ‘Tangled Seas’ that talks about a very important issue of discarded fishing nets that constitute over 46% of marine litter in the Pacific garbage patch alone and kills an estimated 6.5 lakh marine animals every year according to studies. We are a group of enthusiastic and hard-working young people, who care about the ocean and marine life.” They have been filming around Pondicherry, Goa, Chennai, and Mumbai besides Malvan and Sindhudurg and are supported by crowdfunding.

There are primarily three kinds of nets based on fishing techniques used in Indian waters explained Akansha. Gill nets are a wall of netting that hangs in the water. Gillnets are generally used by small-time fishermen who look for crabs and lobsters and shrimp in the shallow waters. They generally have a low environmental impact with minimal seabed interaction. The size of fish caught can be determined by the mesh size, helping to avoid catching juvenile fish. While particular species of fish can be targeted by area, gillnets do carry the risk of bycatch (accidental capture of unwanted species) and interaction with other marine animals.

Trawl nets or midwater trawls have a cone-shaped body and a closed ‘cod-end’ that holds their catch. Pelagic trawls are generally much larger than bottom trawls and can be towed by one or two boats. They are designed to target fish in the surface and mid-level water, such as herring and mackerel. Acoustic technology is used to locate the position and depth of the target fish and the path of the boat and trawls are adjusted accordingly.

Purse Seine nets are used in the deep sea to target dense schools of single-species fish like tuna and mackerel. A vertical net ‘curtain’ is used to surround the school of fish. The bottom of the net is then drawn together to enclose the fish—like tightening the cords of a drawstring purse.

All these nets either break off or get cut by the fishermen when their accidental bycatch contains a protected marine animal. Turtles, whale sharks are some of the marine creatures which the fishermen can get heavily fined for catching since they are listed under Schedule 1 under the Wildlife Protection Act. One of the easiest ways is to get out of a sticky situation is to slit the net and release the creature. There is also a reward by government departments and NGOs in some parts of the country for releasing these animals in case they are accidentally caught in the nets. This encourages fishermen to save the animal, however, most times they might need to get the animal to the shore in order to be able to document the release which may or may not cause inconvenience to the concerned marine animal. Nets are not supposed to be on the beach, says Tiwari. They are made of materials similar to plastic. The problem is huge and annually over 6.5 lakh marine animals lose their lives due to starvation, injury and suffocation to this plastic waste and nets alone which catch even non-target species, since the nets continue to fish even as broken parts once they are submerged into the sea. The only people who can locate and clear these nets are divers, but since they can dive only for 45 minutes at a time, all they can do is cut the nets into smaller bits before rising up.

Carrying larger pieces becomes very heavy for them, as almost all the cleanups do not have as many divers as you’d like since these initiatives require funds and are on a voluntary basis. There should be more options available to get these nets out. Geo Tagging each net could be a viable option along with creating a market for the nets to be recycled once they have been brought out of the sea

Stags Found Tangled in Marine Pollution

Images show red deer stags on a Scottish island with marine pollution tangled in their antlers.

Two of the animals on the Isle of Rum died after becoming snarled up together in discarded fishing rope.

Another of the deer was photographed with rope and an orange buoy in its antlers.

The images have been published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which manages Rum National Nature Reserve.

Lesley Watt, reserve manager on Rum for SNH, said: “Marine litter is a huge international problem. But small actions can make a big difference, and everyone has a part to play.

“Along with many organizations, SNH recently joined the campaign to bin plastic straws; and we’re cutting down on disposable plastics by providing our staff with re-useable travel cups.

“If you use your own bag for life when shopping, or take litter home after a day at the beach, you could help save an animal’s life.”

The island’s population of red deer have been the subject of scientific research since the 1950s.

Researchers study the animals to better understand their behavior and the effects of climate change on deer.

Dr Richard Dixon, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the photographs of the red deer were a “strong Scottish symbol of a wasteful attitude” to the world’s resources.

He said: “We are used to some of the images of seabirds and some marine mammals and turtles being affected by plastic waste, but this is very much closer to home.

“These are big mammals being affected by stuff that people have just discarded in the marine environment.”

Eaten plastic

Concerns about the level of pollution in the sea off Scotland, and along its coast are increasingly being raised.

This week, a group of volunteers gathered more than 600kgs of rubbish from the shore at Red Point, Gairloch, in Wester Ross.

Last summer, scientists said some of the world’s deepest living sea creatures had been found to have eaten microscopic pieces of plastic waste.

Researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban sampled starfish and snails from the Rockall Trough off the Western Isles.

Tiny pieces of plastic were found in 48% of the sample animals that live more than 2,000m (6,561.8ft) down.

Also last year, researchers said most of the seabirds examined for a study into the effects of marine plastic pollution had swallowed plastic.

Researchers, including scientists from North Highland College UHI’s Environmental Research Institute in Thurso, investigated 34 species.

They found 74% of them had ingested plastic.

The research involved seabird colonies in northern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Greenland, Svalbard, the Faroes and Iceland.

Sea turtle found dead, wrapped in plastic trash and fishing line on Florida coast

A sea turtle was found dead on the coast of Florida, tangled in plastic waste and a fishing line.

According to a local station in Florida, the turtle’s body was discovered at the Pensacola Beach.

Photos began to circulate online showing the turtle ashore, apparently with fish line wrapped around its fin.

Brantly Keiek, a Florida resident who was able to capture photos of the animal on Monday, stated he saw local animal control officers documenting the incident shortly after he arrived on the beach.

“There was a small group of people gathered on the beach near the deceased turtle and local animal control officers were on the scene documenting the incident,” he said.

Keiek said he decided to share photos of the animal on social media in an effort to “help spread awareness about the importance not littering, especially in coastal areas, where animals can mistake trash as food.”

The report comes several months after a team of researchers found plastic in the guts of all sea turtle species examined in a study back in December.

The study looked at more than 100 turtles from all seven species spanning the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean and found over 800 synthetic particles in the bodies of the turtles.

This amount of plastic being found in sea turtles is a troubling trend that hurts sea turtles and is caused by plastic pollution in our oceans.

“Ghost gear” Plastic has trapped over 1,000 Sharks and Stingrays Since 2009

Over 1,000 sharks and stingrays have been trapped in plastic floating around the ocean over the past ten years, according to a new study.

Over the past 10 years, hundreds of sharks and stingrays have become entangled in plastic waste in the world’s oceans, U.K. researchers said.

University of Exeter scientists stated that plastic had entangled roughly 1,000 animals since 2009, based on their past findings from published studies and reports on Twitter.

According to their new study published in Endangered Species Research, these incidents have involved animals trapped in, lost, or discarded fishing gear, which is also called “ghost gear.”

“Ghost fishing gear appears to be the biggest culprit of entanglement for sharks and rays,” said researcher Kristian Parton.

Image result for shark trapped in plastic

The study is the first of its kind to use social media reports to help track entanglement, Parton said. The team tracked hashtags including #MarineDebris, #entaglement, #shark, and #Ghostfishing, among others, and scrolled back to find the very first time each hashtag had been used for a report of a shark or ray entangled in plastic. The first Twitter report was in 2009.

Due to the fact, these were only reported incidents shared on social media the team’s estimates may be low-balling the actual figure.

The researchers also looked at scientific literature written on the topic for their research. Parton said the team “found twice the number of entanglement reports on Twitter” than was in the scientific literature over the last 70 plus years, despite the Twitter data was covering a much smaller time period.

The team argued that the true number of times that sharks and rays have been entangled in plastic is likely much higher than 1,000, in part because of the imperfections of Twitter data collection and because only a few scientific studies have focused on this.

Parton acknowledged that not every tweet provided equal information, as not every tweet contained photos or videos.

Through Twitter, they identified some species that had never been recorded in scientific studies before as becoming entangled in plastic, such as great white sharks and whale sharks.

“We have set up an online entanglement report form in collaboration with the shark trust, in the hope that citizen scientists can document (shark and ray) entanglement,” Parton said. “This will help us compile more data on the issue, and help us accurately identify worst impacted species and in particular ocean areas.”

While the team argues these entanglements were a major animal welfare concern, they were a “far lesser threat” to sharks and rays than commercial fishing. And entanglement is only one way that plastics floating in the oceans could affect marine animals.

In February 2018, a separate study found that microplastic pollution and associated toxins threatened filter-feeding animals such as manta rays, whale sharks and baleen whales.

The researchers stressed these microplastics can be accidentally ingested when these creatures swallow thousands of cubic meters of water in an effort to capture small prey including plankton.

Nova Scotia Resident’s Battle Against Beach Pollution

A man named Allen Shepherd from Harbour, Nova Scotia can be regularly found at beaches in his community doing everything he can to keep the shoreline clean.

As the tide comes in, it leaves behind rope, fishing gear and other trash.

“We’re kind of known to be the driftwood capital of Nova Scotia, but with that driftwood comes everything else with it,” said Shepherd, 46. “There’s masses of garbage that comes in daily. You can clean a beach and go back the next day and there’s more trash that comes in overnight.”

Shepherd said a big pile of rope alone can fill three or four garbage bags.

This week, he packed enough old fishing gear to fill a dumpster, and it’s not the first time he’s filled one to the brim. So far this year, he’s filled four dumpsters with waste from the beach.

Shepherd said he can tell where most of the fishing gear comes from by reading tags on some of the old traps that wash ashore. The gear mostly comes from southwestern Nova Scotia and Maine and makes its way to Advocate Harbour, which is located in the Bay of Fundy in Cumberland County.

Shepherd stores the garbage on his property until he runs out of space and then puts the waste into a dumpster that’s available to him.

He said more needs to be done to clean up beaches and prevent water pollution.

“It’s a movement that has to happen, especially today with the attention that whales and birds are getting,” said Shepherd. “I see on almost daily basis seagulls flying around with bait straps hanging off their legs.”

This year Shepherd has filled over four dumpsters from waste found on the beach.

Ontario Proposing Multi-Line Carp Fishing and Making Fishing More Accessible.

The Ontario provincial government is proposing to allow resident recreational anglers and those visiting the province to use multiple lines when fishing carp from shore.

“This initiative is just one more way we want to make life easier for anglers,” said John Yakabuski, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. “Ontario has excellent carp fishing opportunities and we want to offer people the chance to experience sustainable multi-line carp fishing.”

The government is seeking public feedback on the proposal through an Environmental Registry posting. Anglers, industry and indigenous communities are invited to provide their input on how to improve the angling experience in Ontario.

“This proposal would make Ontario an attractive destination for tourism and competitive fishing events, so it would be a win-win for the people of Ontario and our local economy,” said Yakabuski. “Recreational fishing is a $2.2 billion industry in Ontario and by improving anglers’ experience, we are creating more opportunities for Ontario’s fishing and tourism industries to thrive and succeed.”

Ontario is also making life more affordable by doubling the number of licence-free fishing events in 2019, including Father’s Day weekend (June 15 and 16), freezing fishing licence fees and removing the $2 service fee, and allowing veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members to fish for free in the province. These changes should improve fishing experiences for more people looking to cast there line in Ontario waters. Tangle Free Waters support all fishing activities and hopes these changes will bring more fishing opportunities to Ontario. We hope that all line gets recycled through our Tangle-Less fishing line recycling bins which are being installed across Ontario to combat fishing line pollution.

For more information on fishing in Ontario, please visit: www.ontario.ca/fishing.

Recfishwest Creates Innovative Biodegradable Bait Boxes to Prevent Plastic Pollution.

A new innovative WA product is set to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans.

Recfishwest, in partnership with Mendolia Seafoods, has developed biodegradable bait boxes filled with fish waste to be used as fish burley or lobster baits.

Unlike other bait boxes, these new boxes have no plastic lining nor internal plastic bag to contain the frozen bait.

The product is an environmentally-friendly alternative for 140,000 Western Australians who fish from a boat each year.
Research from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released in 2016 predicted by 2050 there would be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans.

The bait product itself is made from local fish waste, such as sardine by-products, which will result in less fish waste heading to landfills. The new packaging means there is no need to take plastic bags out when fishing.

Prior to the introduction of the plastic bag ban on July 1, 2018, Western Australians used more than 670 million plastic bags a year, with about seven million ending up in the environment as litter.

“With predictions that there is likely to be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, we need to be doing everything we can to reduce our use of plastic,” Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly said.

“This new biodegradable fishing option has the potential to reduce hundreds of thousands of plastic bait bags coming into contact with our aquatic environment.

“Each year Western Australians make about 400,000 boat trips for recreational fishing. If these fishers think about reducing plastic bag use for bait or opt to buy one of these plastic-free bricks, there is the potential to significantly reduce the amount of plastic on board boats.

“Fishers can either place the bait box filled directly into the bait basket of a lobster pot or use the contents of the box as fish burley.

“An added bonus of this WA product is that it uses WA fish waste, which could help minimise biosecurity concerns surrounding current international and national bait products.

“I congratulate Recfishwest and Mendolia Seafoods for developing this positive new product.”

The bait boxes will be available from selected retail outlets.

Tangle free Waters welcomes innovative new products that combat plastic pollution in our oceans like Recfishwest’s biodegradable bait boxes. To learn more about what else Recfishwest is doing to protect our oceans and prevent pollution in our waters checkout their website at https://recfishwest.org.au.

Article via Bunburymail.com

*Recfishwest Fishing Development Officer, Matt Gillett with the new WA owned product.*

Adidas Is Making 11 Million Shoes Built From Recycled Ocean Plastics

Adidas has stated they will make 11 million shoes made from recycled plastic waste, in order to help clear up the world’s oceans and generate awareness against plastic pollution.

The plans were announced earlier this year, when Adidas explained it would be working with environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans to intercept plastic waste on beaches in places like the Maldives before it reaches the sea.

The recycled plastic waste is made into a yarn, which can be used to create the upper material of the shoes.

Adidas, has produced more than five million pairs of shoes from recycled plastic last year and is increasing their number due to the success of this new initiative.

Image result for adidas making shoes out of ocean plastic

Adidas has also signed the Climate Protection Charter for the Fashion Industry, which means it has agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.

In 2019 Adidas hopes to more than double its previous efforts – working towards its wider goal to use 100% recycled polyester in all apparel and footwear by 2024.

Eric Liedtke, Adidas Executive Board member responsible for Global Brands, said: “With Adidas products made from recycled plastic, we offer our consumers real added value beyond the look, functionality and quality of the product, because every shoe is a small contribution to the preservation of our oceans. After one million pairs of shoes produced in 2017, five million in 2018, we plan to produce eleven million pairs of shoes containing recycled ocean plastic in 2019.”

Gil Steyaert, Executive Board member responsible for Global Operations at Adidas, said: “Sustainability at Adidas goes far beyond recycled plastic. We also continue to improve our environmental performance during the manufacturing of our products. This includes the use of sustainable materials, the reduction of CO2 emissions and waste prevention. In 2018 alone, we saved more than 40 tons of plastic waste in our offices, retail stores, warehouses and distribution centres worldwide and replaced it with more sustainable solutions.”

The latest product in their range of recycled products is a limited edition version of Adidas’ TOUR360 XT golf shoe, which was unveiled earlier this week.

The TOUR360 XT Parley shoe. Credit: Adidas

This is the first ever golf shoe made from recycled plastic waste intercepted from beaches and coastal communities, the shoe features a sock-like design with a cushioned sole.

“Our company is extremely focused on sustainability and we wanted to incorporate that mission into our sport,” – Masun Denison, global footwear director at Adidas Golf.

“This is the first golf shoe we’ve ever made that incorporates upcycled materials and this is just the beginning. In a sport that’s played outdoors and where sustainability is often under the microscope, we feel this is a massive step forward for the game.”

Tangle Free Waters support organizations that creates initiatives like the Adidas recycled shoe line and hopes more companies put a focus on environmental protection and pollution awareness.