With Every Vessel That Returns to Port with a Hold Full of Fish Comes a Large Amount of Species Incidentally Killed in Fishing G

With every vessel that returns to port with a hold full of fish comes a large amount of species incidentally killed in fishing gears. How can the fishing industry feed people and the economies of the Coral Triangle while keeping the ocean’s fragile balance? WWF / / National Geographic Stock BYCATCH / Brian J. SKERRY

© Bycatch is an urgent issue for marine life, the fi sheries industry and consumers. In the Pacifi c Ocean alone, over four million WWF-Canon sharks, billfi sh, marine turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals / WWF-Indonesia Jason RUBENS are killed incidentally in fi shing gear each year. © / / Observers

Bycatch, a regular occurrence in many ﬁ shing gears

WWF-Indonesia Fishing gear is rarely selective—any species can be caught, including non-targeted species.

Longline fisheries Trawl fisheries Gillnet fisheries / / Observers

Marine turtles and seabirds Large nets dragged along the Gillnet fisheries can be set at are caught when the gear is seabed catch almost everything any depth, posing a major risk / / Mike R. JACKSON dispersed or hauled in. At normal on their path. At shallow depths, for marine turtles, whales, and © fishing depths, it is sharks, bill- bottom trawls also catch marine seabirds among others. fish and juvenile tunas which are turtles. the victims. THE CORAL TRIANGLE — the nursery of the seas — is the most diverse marine region on the planet, covering 6 million km2 of We never catch turtles with these ocean across six countries in the Indo-Pacifi c region. It is home to Crafting solutions for improved fi sheries circle hooks so far. If a turtle is 3000 species of reef fi sh and commercially-valuable species such as caught, it must be the J-hook. We tuna, whales, dolphins, rays, sharks, and six of the seven known are fishing for tuna and we get In the Coral Triangle, WWF has partnered with businesses and local fi shing communities to roll species of marine turtles. tuna, not harming other species. out technological solutions to bycatch. – Kisyono, fisherman Safer longline hooks, less bycatch At ANOVA we are very pleased to An economic and have WWF as a partner towards Replacing “J” hooks by “circle” hooks can reduce actual bycatch rates of longline fi shing by up to 90 sustainable fishing and minimizing percent. In some cases such as tuna fi sheries, “circle” hooks can even increase target catch rates. ecological nightmare bycatch of marine turtles, through circle hook trials and onboard • In Bali, Indonesia, WWF smoothed the transition from “J” hooks to “circle” hooks for several fi shing In the Coral Triangle, the impacts observer programmes on tuna boats, in a move to supply more responsibly-caught produce for ANOVA, a seafood company. fishing vessels that supply us. of bycatch have been devastating. • In Tiwi, Philippines, WWF deployed “circle” hooks on 110 vessels, or about 80 percent of the – Bas Zaunbrecher Populations of nesting marine turtles Southeast Asia Representative area’s artisanal fl eet. have declined in some areas by over Anova Food B.V. • Across the Coral Triangle, WWF is collaborating with Luen Thai Fishing Ventures towards

90 percent; overfi shing of sharks in Culimer believes that improved experimental “circle” hook trials and with an agreement in principle to use these hooks on all of longline fi sheries targeting tuna has seafood quality and extra value to the fl eet’s fi shing vessels. endangered many species; and in fishers is linked to more sustainable fishing practices. That is why Through gradual steps towards more sustainable practices, these fi shing companies can eventually shrimp fi sheries, juvenile “trash fi sh” we directly support implementing score higher in seafood guideline assessments. can outweigh the catch of targeted circle hooks and onboard observer shrimp by more than 10 to one. programmes. In partnership with WWF, we aim to create a ‘critical Through “circle” hooks, more targeted catches mass’ of circle hook users, forming These trends are attributable to indis- a basis for sustainable growth. 80 “Circle” hook criminate fi shing and lack of manage- – Martin Brugman Director, Culimer B.V. “Normal” hook ment over “non-targeted” species. It is 60 this kind of wasteful management that

can have potentially catastrophic food 40 security implications if left unaddressed.

WWF-Canon If the ocean’s fragile balance were to 20 Source: Musthofa Zainudin I, WWF-US collapse, this could have far-reaching / Pet-Soede L, Hitipeuw C, Windya Adnyana IB (2007). Interaction of Sea Turtles with consequences for the viability of the Indonesian ﬁ sheries—preliminary ﬁ ndings. 0 Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter, Issue 6. Jill HATZAI

/ / Simon BUXTON

/ Giving endangered species an escape route WWF-Indonesia Jikkie JONKMAN

Simple techniques are available to help non-target © / / Observers

© species to survive. The Turtle Excluder Device (TED), a simple device that consists of an escape hatch at the back of shrimp trawls, makes it possible for turtles to easily escape from a slow death. For smaller non-target species, the Juvenile Trash Excluder Devices (JTED) excludes objects the same size or smaller than the target species. In addition to preventing sea turtles from drowning, TEDs and JTEDs protect marine biodiversity by allowing other WWF’s Coral Triangle species to escape from trawl nets, beneﬁ ting inshore Programme ﬁ shing communities. WWF’s Coral Triangle Programme is focused on securing the health of the region’s natural resources and the millions of livelihoods that depend on it. OLSOM We are working to ensure that proper environmental, political and socio- William B. F / A economic management is put in place

NOA towards:

NOAA Fisheries Service NOAA • Building a sustainable live reef food ﬁ sh trade • Promoting sustainable tuna ﬁ sheries • Financing marine protected areas Turtle de-hookers • Protecting marine turtles and WWF-Indonesia and handling training reducing their bycatch • Reducing the impacts of climate change / / Observers

© With a few basic skills, ﬁ shers can remove hooks from turtles using “de-hookers”, rescue them from entangle- ment, and handle them when injured. WWF has carriedcarried outout a varietyvariety ofof trainingtraining programmesprogrammes inin longlinelongline

WWF-Indonesia ﬁ sheriessheries acrossacross thethe CoralCoral TriangleTriangle inin turtleturtle de-hooking,de-hooking, rescue and handling techniques, as a critical and / / Observers

Lida Pet-Soede Keith Symington Leader Bycatch Strategy Leader

WWF Coral Triangle Programme WWF Coral Triangle Programme Tel/Fax +62 361 730185 Tel +84 914 435 348 Email [email protected] Email [email protected]

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