Marine Turtle By-catch Reduction in Long-line Fisheries - Eco
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Transcript Marine Turtle By-catch Reduction in Long-line Fisheries - Eco
Marine Turtle By-catch
Reduction in Long-line
Fisheries in the Eastern
Pacific Ocean
Moises Mug
(1)
, Carlos Drews
(2)
(1) Fisheries Program Leader for LAC
(2) Marine Program & Species Coordinator for LAC
WWF - Marine & Species Program for Latin America and The Caribbean
Global fish crisis
48% of fish stocks in
South American Pacific
waters are overexploited
(FAO)
Mahi-mahi
Yellow-fin tuna
WWF Carlos Drews
When marine turtles meet fisheries …
Marine Turtles
Fisheries
LAC Fisheries
Program Leader
Moisés Mug
Bycatch
250.000 loggerheads and 50.000
leatherbacks caught yearly in
longlines globally.
Sandra Andraka
Senior Bycatch Officer
Critically endangered leatherbacks
- a bycatch mitigation response
Working principles (after
Martin Hall)
No one wants to
catch turtles
No one wants to put
fishermen out of
business
Data courtesy of Rotney Piedra
MINAE
98% decline in 20 years!
Up to 70 miles long - 8,000 hooks
Longline fisheries
J- hooks
Circle hooks
Large circle hooks reduce marine turtle catch rates by
over 60% (NOAA/NMFS in the Atlantic).
Pacific Longlines:
Tuna, Mahi Mahi, Swordfish…. and turtles! .
Outcomes:
Turtles and fisherman together
leading transformation!
New gear
• Transform 20% of1.Eastern
Pacific fleet to better fishing gear
2. Fishermanturtle
take the lead
• Save the Pacific leatherback
3. Governments
• Set a ground-breaking
precedentand
in amarkets
powerful tuna fishery
management body (IATTC)
• Stimulate fisherman lead reform across 11 Pacific countries
© Michael Patrick O´Neill
The largest, field based,
fisheries conservation project in
the history of marine
conservation
•
Region-wide collaborative work (8 countries)
•
A team led by WWF and IATTC: Industry, artisanal
sector, exporters, fisheries authorities, NGOs from
•
Mexico
•
Guatemala
•
El Salvador
•
Costa Rica
•
Panama
•
Colombia
•
Ecuador
•
Peru
•
Partners: WWF, IATTC, NOAA, USAID, US State
Department, WCPFC, Japan, Ocean Conservancy,
Mustad, Packard, Royal Caribbean, OSPESCA, …
SOLUTION: Large Circle hooks and BestFishing Practices
Source: IATTC
TECHNOLOGY: substitute J hooks with
large C hooks across Pacific fisheries
BEST FISHING PRACTICES - Marine
stewardship: rescue & release
techniques for turtles
VOLUNTARY ADOPTION: hook exchange
Time/area management: next steps
OUR CHALLENGE in the
Eastern Pacific Ocean
Altar 11 (Ecuador)
1,229 industrial fishing vessels in
the EPO (10% EPO coastal
countries) (larger than 24 m long, mean size is
45.5 m). Fishing trip duration 4-6 months.
Chen Chieh 21 (Taiwan)
More than 3,800 fishing vessels,
including artisanal smaller than 24
m. Plus thousands of outboard motor boats that
211 Donwon (Korea)
fish with long-lines (16,000 only in Ecuador).
Fishing trip duration 5 to 30 days.
Fong Kuo 6 (Vanuatu)
IATTC covers industrial long-line
fisheries. Artisanal long-line fleet in
LAC is an opportunity.
Our goal: 2,000 vessels in
3 years … the tipping point.
Don Jorge (Costa Rica)
Artisanal fleet - Manta,
Ecuador
Almost 4 years of work
(2004-2007)
> 80,000 J hooks replaced
> 1,000 experimental fishing trips
in all countries.
• No fisherman has ever returned to
using J-hooks
> 3,800 fishermen and 138 onboard observers trained
• Central American fishers forming
sustainable fisheries foundation
> 300 captains and their fishing
vessels in the program
• Programme acknowledged as
excellent model
> 86 vessels completely
transformed.
• Wal-Mart Central America prepared to
preferentially source fish caught on
circle hooks
Working relationships with NOAA
and Mustad (200,000 hooks
donated).
Hook performance on turtle bycatch
Turtles caught per 1000 hooks
3.5
Changes in hooking location
Mahi-mahi fishery
3
% (“bad hookings”)
2.5
J hooks
2
1.5
- 60%
1
J Hooks
C Hooks
53%
C14
- 27%
15%
C15
14%
15%
0.5
Hall et al. Crete 2006
0
Tuna fishery
Mahi-mahi fishery
Hook performance on target species
Fish caught per 1000 hooks
60
50
J Hooks
C Hooks
40
- 20%
30
+ 22%
20
10
0
Tuna fishery
Mahi-mahi fishery
First voluntary, multi-national observers
program with artisanal fishermen in the world
The greatest assett
TRUST
Bycatch mitigation
Selective gear
Best practices
Competitive
markets
Data collection, monitoring & evaluation
On-board observer program
Capacity
Access rights
Sustainable fisheries
Management