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Alaska’s Bering Sea and Aleutian Island groundfish trawl fisheries this yr caught 10 killer whales of their huge nets. 9 of them died.
NOAA Fisheries is “analyzing collected knowledge to find out the reason for damage or demise and decide which shares these whales belong to by a overview of genetic info,” the company mentioned in a press launch.
Killer whales are protected underneath the Marine Mammal Safety Act, which requires boat operators to report accidents or demise. Every Bering Sea trawler carries two NOAA Fisheries Observers aboard to doc bycatch, however when trawlers drag nets somewhere else off Alaska’s coast they lack one hundred pc observer protection.
Trawler Troubles in Alaska
A lot of Alaska’s trawlers are homeported in Seattle. They fish for pollock and different fish, which get become merchandise like fish sticks and Filet-O-Fish sandwiches.
Within the early Nineties, a trawler on its method up from Seattle dropped a internet to do a follow drag. That one drag caught all the Southeast Alaska rockfish quota, resulting in huge outcry and ultimately resulting in trawling being banned off Southeast Alaska.
In different places in Alaska, trawling is each taking place and being labeled sustainable by Marine Stewardship Council, although it has been documented to destroy coral and different vital habitat important for the ocean ecosystem.
Over the previous decade, trawlers within the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska have bycaught greater than a billion kilos of marine life. That bycatch contains king and chum salmon, crab, halibut, and different species. A lot of the bycatch is thrown overboard useless. Trawlers are allowed to catch a vast variety of chum salmon.
In the meantime, king and chum salmon runs in Western Alaska have collapsed lately. Salmon is the lifeblood of dozens of Alaska Native villages alongside the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, and subsistence fishery closures have huge impacts. Whereas local weather change performs a job within the declines, many Alaskans see a transparent hyperlink to trawl bycatch.
Critics additionally level to the truth that observers can solely doc bycatch that makes its approach to the floor—and the huge, loaded nets of some trawlers have been documented as dragging the underside as much as one hundred pc of the time, probably pulverizing habitat, crabs, and different bottom-dwelling species.
“If what they’re doing underwater with trawl nets was taking place on land the place the general public may see it, it will be shut down tomorrow,” mentioned David Bayes, proprietor of Homer-based DeepStrike Sportfishing.
Greater Than Regular Killer Whale Bycatch
Groundfish Discussion board, a Seattle-based affiliation that operates 19 trawlers accountable for “a quantity” of the whale deaths, mentioned that the extent of killer whale trawl bycatch documented in 2023 is uncommon. Groundfish Discussion board’s captains seen an “improve within the variety of killer whales current close to our vessels, the place they seem like feeding in entrance of the nets whereas fishing.” Nearly all of useless whales had been discovered inside nets.
“We’re dedicated to working with NOAA and fishery managers to find options,” their assertion continued.
Hannah Myers, a College of Fairbanks marine biology scholar who spent per week aboard a groundfish trawler finding out killer whale interactions with the vessel, instructed the Anchorage Every day Information she’s involved by what’s happening deeper within the ocean. It’s possible that killer whales are feeding on fish from the online’s entrance, or utilizing the dragging internet as a fishing support, she mentioned. The whales could also be following trawlers partly as a result of their regular prey is depleted.
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