January 7, 2014 — On October 1, 2013, a female humpback whale washed up dead on a Long Island beach. Its 20-ton body, discovered by an early-morning surfer, bore signs of trauma. The cause of death, although it's being investigated by the federal government, is no great mystery. According to researchers on the scene, the whale's wounds were consistent with injuries from fishing nets.
Every year, 650,000 whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals are killed or injured by fishing operations around the globe. Most of this harm occurs outside U.S. waters. In the United States, fishermen are taking steps to protect marine mammals from harm, but other countries lag far behind in using similar protections. And, as detailed in a new report from NRDC, these countries illegally export millions of tons of seafood — worth billions of dollars — into the United States. American consumers are unknowingly eating the catch — including lobster, tuna, even fish sticks — that is driving some species of whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals toward extinction.
When fishing gear scoops up, hooks, entangles, or otherwise harms another creature not destined for market, it's called bycatch: an innocuous term for a senseless waste of marine life. Bycatch occurs all over the world's oceans on a massive scale. When I spent time with fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, they told me they would toss back 10 pounds of fish, or more, for every pound of shrimp they caught. Most of this fish is dead or dying when it gets back in the water. Bycatch is more than just waste — for some marine mammals, bycatch is the main reason their species is headed toward extinction.
North American right whales, which rank among the most endangered whales on the planet, are prone to getting tangled in the long ropes of crab and lobster pots, or stuck in nets meant to trap fish like hake and halibut in the North Atlantic. With an estimated 500 individuals left, the untimely loss of even a single whale threatens the survival of the species. Every year, one or two right whales die from encounters with fishing gear. In Maine, lobstermen use special breakaway ropes that can help an entangled whale free itself. Canadian lobstermen, however, are not required to do so. The same whale that escapes a Maine lobsterpot might perish in a Canadian trap set just a few miles away.
Read the full story at the Huffington Post