Nine fisheries that produce just 7 percent of the fish sold on the United States market are responsible for more than half of America's bycatch, the surplus fish and drowned animals tossed back into the sea after crews have completed their haul, a new study says.
According to the report from conservation group Oceana, American fishing fleets throw out a whopping 2 billion tons of wasted edible fish and drowned animals each year, Discovery News reported.
Garnering data from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Oceana found that 17-22 percent of the catch brought in by American fishing fleets can be wasted. The nine guiltiest parties can throw away as much as 66 percent of their catch while accounting for a mere 7 percent of the total haul for the U.S. fish market.
"Anything can be bycatch," Dominique Cano-Stocco, campaign director at Oceana, said in a press release, as quoted by Discovery News. "Whether it's the thousands of sea turtles that are caught to bring you shrimp or the millions of pounds of cod and halibut that are thrown overboard after fishermen have reached their quota, bycatch is a waste of our ocean's resources. Bycatch also represents a real economic loss when one fisherman trashes another fisherman's catch."
The nine fisheries that make up more than half of the total wasted U.S bycatch are the Southeast Snapper-Grouper Longline Fishery, California Set Gillnet Fishery, Southeast Shrimp Trawl Fishery, California Drift Gillnet Fishery, Gulf of Alaska Flatfish Trawl Fishery, Northeast Bottom Trawl, Mid-Atlantic Bottom Trawl Fishery, Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Longline Fishery, and New England and Mid-Atlantic Gillnet Fishery.
As found in the Ocean study, the Southeast Snapper-Grouper Longline Fishery had the most waste with as much as 66 percent of fishing catches discarded. Records showed that more than 400,000 sharks were snagged on the baited hooks attached to the 50-mile longlines in a year.
The California Set Gillnet Fishery came in second place with 65 percent waste, including more than 30,000 sharks and rays along with mackerel and other edible fish during a three-year period.
Sea turtles, whales, dolphins and sea lions are other creatures that were listed as bycatch casualties.
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