Estimated Marine Turtle Death Toll From Industrial Fishing In The Millions Over Past 20 Years - BBC

[hatrack]

Millions of marine turtles have been killed over the past two decades through entrapment in fishing gear, according to a global survey.

Described as the first global synthesis of existing data, the study found especially high rates of "bycatch" in the Mediterranean and eastern Pacific. Six of the seven sea turtle types are on the Red List of Threatened Species.

Writing in the journal Conservation Letters, researchers advocate much greater use of gear safe for turtles. These include circular hooks rather than the conventional J-shaped hooks on long fishing lines, and hatches that allow the reptiles to escape from trawls.

EDIT

The raw material from the study came from records of bycatch - incidental catches in fishing gear - from different regions of the world. Over the period 1990-2008, records showed that more than 85,000 turtles were snared. However, those records covered a tiny proportion of the world's total fishing fleets. "Because the reports we reviewed typically covered less than 1% of all fleets, with little or no information from small-scale fisheries around the world, we conservatively estimate that the true total is probably not in tens of thousands, but in the millions of turtles taken as bycatch in the past two decades," said Dr Wallace.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8604723.stm

[babyblonde]

1. humans the deadliest

species:nuke: