Vol. 6 (2): December 2003

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PLUNDERING THE PACIFIC

Paul Koberstein

Editor of Cascadia Times

The cats who run the fishhouse

Who runs the Pacific Ocean?

Western Pacific council pushes plan
to quash historic coral reserve

Marine animal casualties

How to speak “fisheries”

Science Friction

Marine animal casualties

Killed by longline fisheries in the Pacific: Four sea turtles and an albatross

Leatherback sea turtle

Endangered throughout its global range.Unlike many other sea turtles, the leatherback has a soft rubbery shell. The species feeds primarily on jellyfish and is capable of diving to depths greater than 3,000 feet. The Pacific population has been decimated by foreign and U.S. longline fleets.

Green sea turtle

Threatened except for the population breeding on the Pacific coast of Mexico, which is listed as endangered. Greens comprised 14 percent of the annual observed take of all species of turtles by the Hawaiian-based longline fishery in the 1990s.

Olive ridley sea turtle

Threatened throughout its global range, with the Mexican nesting population endangered. Threats are mortality from fishing and harvest of females and their eggs. Olive ridleys comprised 18% of the annual take of all species of sea turtles by the Hawaiian longliners.

Loggerhead sea turtle

Threatened. It has a reddish brown, bony carapace, with a comparatively large head. Adult loggerheads range in weight between 150 and 400 pounds. NOAA estimates that 5,000-50,000 loggerheads are killed each year by fishing activities.

Black-footed albatross

The population of black-footed albatross in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands dropped as longlining expanded in the 1990s. Each year hundreds of thousands of seabirds die globally from longliners and become unintended “bycatch”. The birds dive for the baited hooks.

Marine Mammals entangled in Pacific Ocean Fisheries

Fishing operations disturb, harass, injure, or kill marine mammals, either accidentally or deliberately. The International Whaling Commission estimates that between 65,000 and 80,000 whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals die in global fisheries every year.

For any given species of marine mammal killed in a fishery, the number is often small, but often so are the species’ populations. For example, in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, a groundfish trawl fishery kills or injures an average of 7.8 endangered Steller sea lions each year.

A fishery for thresher shark and swordfish off California and Oregon annually kills or seriously injures 82 California sea lions and nearly 24 northern right-whale dolphins.

Since 1996, there have been at least 11 reports of humpback whales entangled in pot gear from the Alaska crustacean pot fishery. Of these entanglements, at least 2 likely killed the endangered whale.

Southeast Alaska/Gulf of Alaska/Bering Sea

Bearded seal
Beluga whale
Gray whale
Dall’s porpoise
Fin whale
Harbor porpoise

Harbor seal
Humpback whale
Killer whale
Northern elephant seal
Northern fur seal
Northern Pacific whitesided dolphin

Pacific walrus
Ribbon seal
Ringed seal
Sea otter
Spotted seal
Steller sea lion

Hawai‘i

Bottlenose dolphin
False killer whales
Hawaiian monk seal

Rough-toothed dolphin
Risso’s dolphin
Short-finned pilot whale

Spinner dolphin
Sperm whale

California/Oregon/Washington

Baird’s beaked whale
Bottlenose dolphin
California sea lion
Common dolphin, shortbeaked
Common dolphin, longbeaked
Cuvier’s beaked whale
Dall’s porpoise
Harbor porpoise
Harbor seal
Humpback whale

Killer whale
Long-beaked common dolphin
Mesoplodont beaked whale
Minke whale
Northern elephant seal
Northern fur seal
Northern Pacific white-sided dolphin
Northern right-whale dolphin
Pacific white-sided dolphin

Pygmy sperm whale
Risso’s dolphin
Sea otter
Short-beaked common dolphin
Short-finned pilot whale
Southern Pacific white-sided dolphin
Sperm whale
Steller sea lion
Striped dolphin

Copyright © 2003 Paul Koberstein, Cascadia Times. The Monachus Guardian. All Rights Reserved