WOW

This just in...

New hook to snag fish, not turtles
Monday, May 3, 2004 Posted: 2:50 PM EDT (1850 GMT) on CNNNNNNNNN......

The few sea turtle hatchlings that reach maturity must also contend with hooks and nets.
Reproductive maturity for sea turtles = 30 years.

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- A new "circular" fishing hook could save thousands of endangered marine turtles snagged accidentally each year by commercial fishermen, the environmental group World Wildlife Fund said on Monday.

The WWF said results of a new study conducted with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Atlantic Ocean showed that the new hook reduced by 90 percent the number of turtles accidentally snagged and killed by longline fisheries.

Lovely....

The new hooks, which are called "circular" but actually resemble the letter "G," do not snag inside turtles or can be more easily removed than the well-known "J"-shaped hook, the WWF said. They are still effective in snagging swordfish, however.

I'm sure the swordfish are pleased...

The J-hooks can lead to internal bleeding or suffocation of the turtles if swallowed. Accidental catches, called "bycatch," is the single greatest threat to marine turtles.

As many as 200,000 endangered loggerhead turtles and 50,000 of the critically endangered leatherback turtles are caught annually by commercial fisheries, the WWF said.

So...if the WWF is correct, that's only 25,000 endangered and critically endangered species of sea turtles that take 30 years before they can reproduce and have a high mortality rate thanks to poachers and bad mr. sea gull and the fact that, because they are turtles they have a poor record on the whole of bringing future generations into the world alive in the first place....do the math. 250,000 a year, minus the under 30 crowd + the over 30's / by the sea gull buffet + the poachers = no more sea turtles, soon.

The WWF will test the new gear in the Pacific by introducing the hook in Ecuador, which has the largest longline fleet in the eastern Pacific region with around 15,000 vessels and which operates where endangered turtles are known to migrate.

15,000? Multiply that shit by 15,000.And that's just Equador. It makes me sad...and angry.