Across The Planet, A Net Closes On Nature - US Pushes For More Drift Nets

'Curtains of death," as longline fishing and drift gillnets have often been termed - due to the number of sea mammals, turtles and seabirds killed or injured in their deadly embrace - may again be allowed along the Pacific coast of the United States. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council is locked in debate over the issue; but more than 133 scientists from 24 countries have appealed to it to not give the go-ahead to these two fishing practices.

In 1991 the United Nations banned drift nets on the high seas; in 2004 longline fishing was banned along the US west coast; and the Oregon coast was closed to drift gillnet fishers - who target swordfish - from August 15 to November 15 each year (to protect endangered leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles).

Prof Rudy van der Elst, director of the Oceanographic Research Institute in Durban, said the council was perceived as a strong body, doing good work. While unattended drift gillnets often did a huge amount of damage, he said, if properly managed, longline fishing was not as lethal as many believed. "Trawling is possibly worse," said Van der Elst. However, longlines had to be properly set to ensure they did not snare seabirds and other creatures.

According to Dr Robert Ovetz, of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project in the US, since 2002, 64 dolphins, whales, seals and sea lions had been killed by the drift gillnet fishery in west coast areas which remained open to gillnetting. The proposed exemption, he said, would allow as many as two-thirds of the remaining 36 vessels in the drift gillnet fishing industry to return to previously closed areas.

EDIT

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20060319105338128C697143

Plenty of things we have not killed yet.
I've heard pan fried elephant is good eating.

He's interviewing someone who says 90% of all the big fish (tuna, sharks, etc.) are GONE! KILLED OFF!

between the overfishing, and the dead zones off the coasts where smaller fish used to live... :cry: