Fishing Flotsam Endangers Marine Life
By Matt J. Weiss, July 27, 2008 @ 02:00 AM (EST)
Source: thechronicleherald.ca
Huge, whiskered male fur seals
called "beach masters" are back on St. Paul Island after swimming a
gauntlet of lost or discarded fishing gear floating in the Bering Sea.
The males, weighing up to 270 kilograms, arrive at the island’s rookeries in May or early June and wait for the females to come onshore to give birth and complete their harems. The scene at first appears idyllic on the treeless, wind-swept island, home to the world’s largest population of fur seals.
But a closer look unveils an ugly truth. The fur seal rookeries of St. Paul are an unintentional dumping ground for tonnes of debris, from plastic bottles and tires to netting and rope in which some seals become fatally entangled.
Some of the junk comes from the domestic fishing fleet — Alaska produces more than half of the seafood landings in the United States — but much of the debris bears identification from Russia, Japan, Korea and other parts of Asia. It’s carried to the islands by ocean currents.
St. Paul Island and neighbouring St. George Island, part of the Pribilof chain, have seen declining numbers of fur seals, which were declared depleted in 1988 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The downturn comes decades after the commercial fur seal harvest on St. Paul and St. George was stopped. The population of fur seals in the Pribilofs is less than half of what it was in the 1950s, when between 40,000 and 126,000 animals were harvested annually.
In 2007, 10,140 adult males were counted on St. Paul, a decrease of more than 10 per cent from the previous year. Numbers declined five per cent on St. George, according to the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. Overall, pup production in the Pribilofs is declining by about six per cent a year.
Meanwhile, concerns about fur seals becoming entangled in debris and dying are increasing. From 1998 to 2005, there were 795 sightings on St. Paul Island of fur seals that appeared to be entangled in debris. Of those, 337 capture attempts were made and 282 fur seals were disentangled, according to the island conservation office.
The males, weighing up to 270 kilograms, arrive at the island’s rookeries in May or early June and wait for the females to come onshore to give birth and complete their harems. The scene at first appears idyllic on the treeless, wind-swept island, home to the world’s largest population of fur seals.
But a closer look unveils an ugly truth. The fur seal rookeries of St. Paul are an unintentional dumping ground for tonnes of debris, from plastic bottles and tires to netting and rope in which some seals become fatally entangled.
Some of the junk comes from the domestic fishing fleet — Alaska produces more than half of the seafood landings in the United States — but much of the debris bears identification from Russia, Japan, Korea and other parts of Asia. It’s carried to the islands by ocean currents.
St. Paul Island and neighbouring St. George Island, part of the Pribilof chain, have seen declining numbers of fur seals, which were declared depleted in 1988 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The downturn comes decades after the commercial fur seal harvest on St. Paul and St. George was stopped. The population of fur seals in the Pribilofs is less than half of what it was in the 1950s, when between 40,000 and 126,000 animals were harvested annually.
In 2007, 10,140 adult males were counted on St. Paul, a decrease of more than 10 per cent from the previous year. Numbers declined five per cent on St. George, according to the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. Overall, pup production in the Pribilofs is declining by about six per cent a year.
Meanwhile, concerns about fur seals becoming entangled in debris and dying are increasing. From 1998 to 2005, there were 795 sightings on St. Paul Island of fur seals that appeared to be entangled in debris. Of those, 337 capture attempts were made and 282 fur seals were disentangled, according to the island conservation office.
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