Driftnet fishing
The drift net fishing is a method of passive fishing , which in the waters of the EU is illegal and many other areas.
Drift nets are used as fishing gear, which are combined to form a so-called fleet. The main objects of driftnet fishing are herring , salmon and tuna . If a school hits a drift net floating in the water, the fish push their heads through the net mesh and cannot go any further. The pressure on the throat causes the gills to spread, so that the fish hangs up when it retreats.
The drift net is a rectangular net that floats vertically. The dimensions of the nets vary widely, ranging from 26 meters in length for herring fishing to 60 kilometers in length for tuna fishing. A ban on the use of offshore drifting nets over 2.5 kilometers has been in force since 1992, although there are concerns that longer nets will continue to be used.
On the upper ledge of the nets, buoyancy bodies made of cork or similar material are attached. The number of floats depends on the dimensions of the nets, the expected catch, the weight of the lines, the buoyancy of the floats and other factors.
The simple fleet consists of 10 to 20 nets and is only used when fishing with small ships near the coast or on inland lakes . To launch, the ship is turned with the bow into the wind and then drifts backwards with the slowly turning propeller . After starting to reverse, the end marker buoy is first deployed , followed by the nets and the other parts of the fleet. The drift is usually at night, and obtaining the morning, it includes 6 to 8 hours.
criticism
Driftnets cannot be used for selective fishing . Countless whales (mainly bottlenose dolphins and other dolphins ) die in driftnets as they become entangled and suffocate, as do sharks , seals , sea turtles and sea birds . This happens especially when hunting tuna . Environmental organizations like the WWF , the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society , Greenpeace or Earth Iceland Institute (USA) believe that the number of accidental catches per year was several million animals and protested years against the use of these also nets of death mentioned fishing gear .
In addition, driftnets are also lost and drifting in the sea for years. According to one estimate, over 1,200 kilometers of networks are lost every year in the north-east Atlantic alone.
1991 the world sailor and author founded Rollo Gebhard specifically the association society for the rescue of dolphins eV to exile driftnet fishing of the oceans.
Legal situation
Worldwide
Driftnets are outlawed worldwide because of their immense bycatch rates . The UN banned their use in 1991 with resolution A / RES / 46/215.
Europe
In the EU until the end of 2001 there was an insufficiently monitored exemption for drift nets up to 2.5 km long. Their use was banned only in 2002 . This did not apply to the Baltic Sea , however , where drift nets could be used for salmon fishing until the end of 2007 without length restrictions .
Since January 1, 2008, driftnets have been banned in all EU waters without exception.
Reintroduction of driftnets by the EU
On December 21, 2006, the EU issued the Council of Ministers regulation on management measures for the sustainable use of fish resources in the Mediterranean .
Here, ground nets, which are actually only placed on the seabed, are redefined. All nets anchored to the ground with a maximum height of 30 meters, which are either stretched close to the sea bed or freely floating in the water column, are now also considered to be ground-level nets . Conservationists see a reintroduction of driftnet fishing in these so-called floating nets, as floating nets cannot be distinguished from them and when floating on or near the surface of the water in the pelagic they have similar catching properties as driftnets.
Illegal driftnet fishing
Today, driftnets are primarily used by pirate fishermen who operate illegally . According to estimates by the environmental organization Greenpeace, there were 400 to 500 driftnet fishermen in the Mediterranean alone in 2006, fishing for bluefin tuna and swordfish with nets over 20 kilometers long .
Alternatives when fishing for tuna
With a few exceptions, other methods of catching tuna have become established today:
Pelagic longlines primarily for catching bluefin tuna , bigeye tuna or southern bluefin tuna for the fresh fish market, especially to Japan for sushi and sashimi, and yellowfin tuna as canned tuna. The bycatch rate (sea birds, sea turtles, sharks and rays) is high and, according to the FAO, is around 20 percent of the total catch.
Purse seine , with a comparably low bycatch rate of around 5% of total catch, which is below the global average bycatch rate of all fishing methods of 8%.
Trolling and bamboo fishing with an average bycatch rate of only 0.7% of the total catch.
See also
swell
- ↑ Drift nets - fishing gear - fish stocks. Retrieved October 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Paul Watson - Confessions of an Ecoterrorist [1] ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Deepclean campaign. ORF, accessed on September 27, 2015 .
- ↑ Our mission. Society for the Rescue of the Delphine eV, accessed on June 26, 2017 .
- ↑ Large-Scale Pelagic Drift-Net Fishing and Its Impact on the Living Marine Resources of the World's Oceans and Seas. (No longer available online.) Center for International Law (CIL), archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 27, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 812/2004 of the Council of April 26, 2004 laying down measures against whale by-catches in fisheries and amending Regulation (EC) No. 88/98 , accessed on September 27, 2015
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 1967/2006 of the Council of December 21, 2006 on measures for the sustainable management of fishery resources in the Mediterranean , accessed on September 27, 2015
- ↑ Fishing techniques. Society for the Rescue of the Delphine eV, accessed on June 26, 2017 .
- ↑ Despite the prohibition: “Walls of Death” continue to kill. Greenpeace Austria, accessed on September 27, 2015 .
- ↑ SAFE and its impact on tuna stocks. Society for the Rescue of the Delphine eV, accessed on June 26, 2017 .
literature
- Peter C. Mayer-Tasch: Sea without fish? Profit and world food. 1st edition Campus Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-593-38350-0
- Hans-Peter Rodenberg and Gudrun Pawelke: See in Not. The greatest source of food on the planet: an inventory. 1st edition Marebuchverlag, 2004, ISBN 3-936384-49-5