Loggerhead Turtles Die By Thousands In Small Fishery

Industrial fishing operations take most of the blame for collateral impacts to sea-turtle populations, but new research shows that small-scale fisheries--operated by hand from little open boats --can kill as many critically endangered loggerhead sea turtles as industrial scale fisheries. A pioneering case study conducted on small-scale fisheries at Baja California Sur, Mexico found that small scale artisinal fisheries in Baja California Sur can kill 1000 sea turtles per year, and possibly many more. Local fishermen ply these waters for halibut and other bottom fish using gillnets and strings of hooks known as longlines. Their pangas--small, open boats around 25 feet long-- usually fish within about 3 miles of shore, where there are few turtles. But when the fishermen venture farther offshore they share the water with thousands of turtles that spend years fattening up on the abundant food...