[OANNES Foro] NOAA publishes global list of fisheries and their risks to marine mammals

[Mario Cabrejos]

NOAA publishes global list of fisheries and their risks to marine mammals

by  <https://news.mongabay.com/by/ongabay-com/> Mongabay.com 

2 April 2018

https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/noaa-publishes-global-list-of-fisheries-an
d-their-risks-to-marine-mammals/?utm_source=Mongabay+Email+Alerts&utm_campai
gn=07a5331e6c-mailchimp_conservation_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e1ea
8b5f35-07a5331e6c-76256527

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has
published the first list of foreign fisheries, detailing the risks that
commercial fishing around the world pose to marine mammals.

"The [List of Foreign Fisheries] is an important milestone because it
provides the global community a view into the marine mammal bycatch levels
of commercially relevant fisheries," according to
<https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/foreign/international-affairs/list-foreign-f
isheries> a statement published on the NOAA Fisheries website.

"In addition, it offers us a better understanding of the impacts of marine
mammal bycatch, an improvement of tools and scientific approaches to
mitigating those impacts, and establishes a new level of international
cooperation in achieving these objectives," the statement says.

The register is a step toward meeting specific requirements in the
<http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/mmpa/> Marine Mammal Protection Act on the
sources of fish imported into the U.S. It includes nearly 4,000 fisheries
across some 135 countries. These fisheries have until 2022 to demonstrate
that the methods they use to catch fish, as well as other marine animals
such as coral, crabs, lobsters and shellfish, either aren't much of a danger
to marine mammals, or they employ comparable methods and mitigation measures
to similar operations in the United States.

Fishing nets can exact a high toll on animals that fishers don't intend to
catch. Nets themselves  <https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/bycatch> can
trap dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions as bycatch. In Mexico, a
fishery targeting the totoaba for its swim bladders that fetch high prices
in Asian markets
<https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/only-12-vaquita-porpoises-remain-watchdog
-groups-report/> has decimated the tiny porpoise known as the vaquita
(Phocoena sinus). Perhaps as few as 12 remain in the wild.

The lines from traps, pots and nets
<https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/ropeless-consortium-aims-to-end-entanglem
ents-of-declining-north-atlantic-right-whales/> can also ensnare even the
largest animals in the ocean. Recent research has shown that almost every
one of the estimated remaining 451 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena
glacialis) either is toting errant fishing equipment around or it bears the
scars of entanglements with gear. These ropes can cause injuries to right
whales and other animals that can lead to infection or death. And towing
pieces of gear that can be longer than the whale's body causes
<https://phys.org/news/2015-12-fishing-gear-entanglements-north-atlantic.htm
l> what scientists call "parasitic" drag that can interfere with the ability
to find food.

According to
<https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/08/15/2016-19158/fish-and-fi
sh-product-import-provisions-of-the-marine-mammal-protection-act> the 2016
rule requiring the list, the requirement grew out of a 2008 petition to the
Department of Commerce brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and
Turtle Island Restoration Network to halt the import of swordfish from
countries where fishing methods put marine mammals and other animals in
danger. In 2011 and 2012, other environmental NGOs implored NOAA Fisheries
to bar farmed salmon from Canada and Scotland from entering the country.
They alleged that fish farmers
<https://theferret.scot/scottish-government-fish-farming-us-ban-seal-killing
/> shoot seals to keep them from picking off salmon.

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/02054408/510px
-Sea_turtle_entangled_in_a_ghost_net.jpg

Nets pose a threat to other marine animals, such as this sea turtle, in
addition to whales, dolphins and porpoises. Photo by Doug Helton,
<http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/fish1933.htm> NOAA/NOS/ORR/ERD [Public
domain], via
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_turtle_entangled_in_a_ghost_net
.jpg> Wikimedia Commons.

Far-reaching assessments of the fisheries, ranging from the species they
target and the number of boats and fishers involved to the gear used and the
known information about marine mammal bycatch, allowed NOAA investigators to
determine the risks to marine mammals. If they deemed the threats to be
minimal, such as with the cast-net fishery for squid in Indonesia, the team
designated it as "exempt."

If they did find risks, as in about 60 percent of the fisheries they looked
at, they labeled it "export." These export fisheries now must demonstrate by
2022 that they are taking similar precautions to analogous fishing efforts
in the United States - such as using modified gear that reduces the threat
to marine mammals - to continue exporting their take to the U.S. market.

"The long-term conservation impact of the MMPA import rule and the creation
of the List of Foreign Fisheries demonstrate the potential impact of
collaboration on marine mammal conservation on a global scale - a strong
step forward in our efforts to achieve sustainable, resilient fisheries,"
NOAA Fisheries
<https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/noaa-fisheries-develops-list-f
oreign-fisheries-help-evaluate-scope-marine-mammal> said on its site in
November 2017.

 



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
------------ próxima parte ------------
Se ha borrado un adjunto en formato HTML...
URL: <http://lista.oannes.org.pe/pipermail/oannes-oannes.org.pe/attachments/20180411/b747a85c/attachment.html>
------------ próxima parte ------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 88037 bytes
Desc: no disponible
URL: <http://lista.oannes.org.pe/pipermail/oannes-oannes.org.pe/attachments/20180411/b747a85c/attachment.jpg>