Video Shows Sea Animals Caught as Bycatch by California Driftnet Fishing

Officially labeled drift gillnets^[1], the large nets are used
by industrial fishing operations in some parts of the world. In the
U.S., they are only used in the California driftnet fishery^[2], which stretches from
Los Angeles to the northern tip of the state.

Drift nets hang like walls in the ocean.
They’re made of a patchwork of fishing line that extends as much as
100 feet deep and a mile long. They tend to kill indiscriminately,
meaning they can catch and entrap whatever tries to pass through.
The result is often high amounts of bycatch, or sea creatures
caught by fishers unintentionally.

The California driftnet fishery targets
swordfish and common thresher shark. But many other species are
being impacted, conservationists say.

A 2016
report^[3] by the Turtle Island
Restoration Network looked at bycatch from the fishery for the
decade prior. They found that 22 critically endangered turtles, 900
marine mammals (like dolphins and whales), and 26,000 sharks were
killed as a byproduct of deploying drift nets.

According to Cassie Bradshaw from Turtle
Island, 60 percent of the fishery’s total haul is discarded as
unwanted.

“It’s really disappointing that we can
know how harmful something is and turn the other way,” she
adds.

Sea Legacy co-founder Paul
Nicklen^[4] is not content using
facts and figures to illustrate a story. As a
biologist-turned-photographer, Nicklen has been a frequent
contributor to National Geographic, traveling the world to
photograph wildlife.

When an ocean sunfish or mola^[5], a large fish that
resembles a plate, was caught in a drift net earlier this year,
Nicklen was there with Brock Cahill from Sharkwater to photograph
it.

“I’ve seen the good and the bad in the world, and this was one
of the hardest things I’ve had to witness,” says Nicklen. “This
makes no sense at all.”

The full video released by the four organizations shows
“undercover” footage obtained by Mercy for Animals. They declined
to divulge many details on how they obtained it. But they said they
went undercover from December 2016 to December 2017, on two
different ships owned by two different companies that fish in
waters off the coast of Santa Barbara.

“Consumers have a right to know how the fish [we eat] are
treated,” says Lindsay Wolfe, a representative from Mercy for
Animals. “[The video] is about helping get the information
out.”

Previously, the organization has taken covert video from inside
factory farms to expose what they say are inhumane treatment of
animals.

The new video shows dolphins, sea birds, sharks, and stingrays
all brought aboard fishing boats after getting tangled in gear.

The group’s dramatic video is punctuated by the image of a seal
caught in a drift net. Nicklen says this photo was taken by an
underwater photographer in 1983. It was included in the video
compilation because it underscores how long drift nets have been
harmful for protected marine species, he says.

In response to inquiries, the National Marine Fisheries Service
Office of Law Enforcement said they were aware of the footage and
are conducting an investigation. No additional comment was given.
National Geographic reached out to the California Fisheries and
Seafood Institute^[6], a trade group, but they
declined to comment.

The video was not released in a political vacuum. Turtle Island,
which often works on environmental policy, hopes the video will
persuade California constituents to support recently proposed
Senate Bill (SB)
1017^[7]. That would require more
observers to be aboard industrial fishing vessels.

Observers look for legal compliance and log bycatch. According
to NOAA’s
own records^[8], observers are able to
log only an estimated 20 percent of bycatch in the fishery, because
they can’t be on all boats at all times. Because they fall under
NOAA, observers are funded by the federal government.

Fishing with driftnets is not permitted by Oregon or Washington
and is banned on the high seas by the United Nations. California is
the last remaining state to allow the fishing practice.

Conservationists counter that the nets could have serious
longterm consequences on the health of California’s marine
ecosystems.

As for Nicklen, he hopes his photos will speak for themselves:
“Let the world decide if they find it acceptable or not.”