Technology helps turtles escape
All too often turtles are the accidental victims of commercial fishing. They get caught in the hooks, and even if the fishermen try to release them, the traditional J-hooks do too much damage, causing internal bleeding and suffocation. The turtles just can't survive that.To try to help the turtles, the World Wildlife Fund is sponsoring a trial of a new kind of hook, and they are already seeing a 90% success rate. The turtles can be safely released, and the fishermen are still able to maintain their catches of tuna and swordfish. (The pros and cons of that kind of fishing is another post...)
The circle shaped hooks are made by Mustad, the world's largest fishing hook manufacturer based in Norway. Together with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) they donated over 250,000 circle hooks to the WWF trial.
In addition to testing and distributing the new technology, WWF is also training the fishermen who volunteered for the pilot, helping learn to avoid accidentally catching turtles, and if that fails how to safely release them.
I'm sure the fishermen are just glad to have a way to avoid hurting the turtles that doesn't adversely impact their livelihood. This is the best way to convince people to support the environment - a solution with no personal or professional economic disincentive. Let's hope this new hook spreads like wildfire to the rest of the commercial fishermen out there!
In addition to testing and distributing the new technology, WWF is also training the fishermen who volunteered for the pilot, helping learn to avoid accidentally catching turtles, and if that fails how to safely release them.
I'm sure the fishermen are just glad to have a way to avoid hurting the turtles that doesn't adversely impact their livelihood. This is the best way to convince people to support the environment - a solution with no personal or professional economic disincentive. Let's hope this new hook spreads like wildfire to the rest of the commercial fishermen out there!
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