|A shrimping boat photographed in 1970|
|Bycatch caught off the coast of Florida|
However, this doesn't mean that fishing operations are necessarily bad. Regulations have greatly reduced overall bycatch and provided protection for a number of endangered or threatened species. Also, food that is caught via fisheries can be a significantly better option than farmed alternatives, depending on the species and methods being used. A good example of this is shrimp. Though some farmed shrimp is not so bad, other shrimp farms seriously damage their environment. The farms are more productive if the shrimp are raised in fresh water, so a large number of farms are set up in mangrove forests and flooded with fresh water. This fresh water contamination will easily kill species in the surrounding area since mangroves are naturally saltwater systems and the species living there are adapted to salt water. Fresh water completely messes with their chemistry, especially their ability to retain essential dissolved minerals. Depending on how and where the shrimp are caught, it's far less damaging to the environment to catch them in the wild.
|A turtle escaping a net thanks to a TED|
I feel lucky to have observed first-hand some of the research that is being done to try and reduce bycatch, specifically in shrimping. Through the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service, I was part of a group to take a trip on the R/V Sea Dawg, a shrimp boat turned research vessel. Some of the research that is being done on the vessel is the use of a different sort of TED that could also act as a more effective BRD. Results were looking promising with very large reductions in bycatch, so hopefully the modified TED will help reduce what can sometimes be absurdly copious amounts of unintentionally caught species. This setup would also be favored by fishers as it reduces the modifications that have to be made to their nets.
The fact remains that certain fishing methods produce far more bycatch than others. Poll fishing is usually more species-specific and less traumatic for what unintended animals that are caught. Purse seining, in contrast, can produce terribly excessive amounts of bycatch. For those who want to be environmentally conscious about their seafood choices, many organizations provide information on which methods are most damaging and what species should be avoided altogether.
Sources are the Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, World Wildlife Fund Smartgear Competition, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Sea Grant Rhode Island. Images are from Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons and are copyright free: one, two, three.