Lights on fishnets can save turtles, dolphins
While fishnets are used to catch fishes for the seafood business. The fishnets also capture marine animals including dolphins, turtles and other sea creatures that form an indistinctive part of the flora and fauna. Given the fact, a new study suggests, placing lights on fishing nets reduces the chances of sea turtles and dolphins being caught by accident, new research shows.
LED lights along the top of floating gillnets cut accidental ‘bycatch’ of sea turtles by more than 70 per cent, and that of small cetaceans (including dolphins and porpoises) by more than 66 per cent.
The
study looked at small-scale vessels departing from three Peruvian ports between
2015 and 2018, and found the lights didn’t reduce the amount of fish caught
from ‘target species’ (ie what the fishers wanted to catch). The results of the
study were published in the journal Biological Conservation.
“Gillnet
fisheries often have high bycatch rates of threatened marine species such as sea
turtles, whales, dolphins, and seabirds,” said lead author Alessandra
Bielli, who carried out analyses as part of her master’s research at the Centre
for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
“This could lead to declines in the
populations of these non-target species — yet few solutions to reduce gillnet
bycatch have been developed.
