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November 20, 2005

Sea Turtles: Off The Hook

Many turtle species of the world are endangered. Some because their eggs are harvested, others due to perpetually ending up in soups. Others are collected as part of the pet industry and some are even considered in traditional medicine. Still more sea turtles are vulnerable to the fishing industry.

Long line fishing has decimated the sea turtle populations, especially in the Eastern Pacific where populations may have dropped up to 90% in the past twenty years according to World Wildlife Fund. Turtles like the loggerhead and giant leatherback swallow the fishing hooks cast in hopes of catching the bistro-favored mahi-mahi as well as tuna.

Conservationalists have been trying out some new types of fishing hooks in hopes of making it more likely that what you want to fish for is what you get, without impacting catch rates of the local fishermen who depend on them. Now they've had some promising findings with circle hooks.

Preliminary results from the first large-scale testing of specially designed fishing hooks ... indicate they can reduce the number of endangered sea turtles killed in long line fishing operations by as much as 90 percent, World Wildlife Fund said today.

...

But the results of a year-long study involving 115 Ecuadorian fishing vessels found that this "bycatch" was dramatically reduced when the boats replaced their traditional 'J' shaped hooks with specially designed circle hooks. "This is a win-win situation. We were looking for a way to save the turtles without putting the fishermen out of business..." said Moises Mug, Fisheries Coordinator for WWF's Latin America and Caribbean program.

Over the past year, Ecuador's tuna and mahi-mahi fisheries each tested one large and one small circle hook.

More at: WWF: Year-long Study Shows Circle Hooks Help Save Sea Turtles

Also, read the full report here.

You can find out more on about the turtle troubles at World’s Top 25 Most Endangered Turtles On Death Row.

Posted by sorsha at November 20, 2005 9:27 PM