Fishing nets, used to catch swordfish along the California coast, have entangled and killed other sea life by the thousands, according to a months-long investigation by NBC Bay Area. While the number of sea creatures unintentionally captured in the nets has decreased since the 1990s, critics insist the risk posed to wildlife remains far too great.
Other states and even the United Nations have taken steps to ban or restrict the use of the fishing nets, known as drift gillnets. However, California fishermen insist the impacts are exaggerated and argue the nets remain the best tool in catching swordfish along the west coast.
These are invisible curtains of death that are just placed out in the ocean, said biologist Todd Steiner. Everything that swims into it becomes its victim.
Steiner leads the Turtle Island Restoration Network, a Marin-based conservation organization, which works to protect some of the ocean’s most vulnerable creatures, including those that have become entangled.
Drift gillnets are typically 100 feet tall and can stretch up to a mile long, or roughly the entire span of the Golden Gate Bridge. The holes throughout the mesh nets need to be at least 14 inches wide. The nets must also remain attached to a boat, and can only be dropped into the ocean from about sunset to sunrise. While swordfish remain the main target of the nets, Steiner says the fishing gear indiscriminately catches other sea life.
This is basically a barbaric way of catching fish, he said.
Dolphins, sharks, sea lions and even endangered species of sea turtles and whales are among a long list of sea creatures that have been caught and killed in drift gillnets along the West Coast since 1991, according to an analysis of government records. To determine how often California’s drift gillnets unintentionally catch and kill sea life, including endangered and threatened species, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit obtained 25 years-worth of federal data.
Fishermen only keep about 22 of percent of what their drift gillnets catch along the California coast, according to data collected by NOAA. What isn’t brought onboard is sometimes killed after becoming entangled in the nets that includes endangered and threatened whales and sea turtles. The NBC Bay Area Investigate Unit obtained 25 years-worth of government records to calculate how often marine life is thrown back into the ocean after getting caught, unintentionally, in drift gillnets. The analyzed data covers the time period from May 1, 1991 to January 31, 2016.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which regulates the use of drift gillnets, randomly places government employees aboard fishing vessels to document how often marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, and even fish are caught and killed in drift gillnets. According to an Investigative Unit analysis, fisherman only kept about 22 percent of what their drift gillnets caught over the past 25 years. The rest is tossed back into the ocean either alive, injured, or dead.
Observers only board between 10 and 30 percent of all fishing trips that use the nets. So in order to determine the rate for entire fleet of boats using the nets, the federal government calculates estimated totals each year. According to those estimates, drift gillnets have killed more than 87,000 sharks, 3,400 dolphins and 1,100 sea lions over the past 25 years. The nets are also estimated to have killed more than 380 whales and 100 sea turtles, which include endangered and threatened species.
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