Observers / WWF-Indonesia

How can the shing industry help?

With mounting pressure from consumers around the world demanding seafood that do not harm marine life, alongside regional and international management forums calling for the use of more environmentally responsible shing methods, seafood industries in the Coral Triangle now have a unique opportunity to stay ahead of this curve and drive positive change by proactively seeking win-win solutions for reducing bycatch while ensuring that their business stays in business. A growing list of industry players are now working with WWF on solutions that address conservation and sustainability issues without compromising their prot margins. If you have a shing interest in the Coral Triangle you can work with WWF to:

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

What WWF is doing

Introducing innovative gear to reduce marine turtle bycatch such as Circle Hooks, TEDs and JTEDs. Providing onboard observer programs to help assess the ecological impacts of sheries and assist managers in mitigating them. Providing a systematic way of trialing circle hooks with industry, building trust and support among shing communities, managers and seafood companies. Building shers capacity to remove hooks from turtles using de-hookers, rescue them from entanglement, and handle them when injured. Developing industry partnerships by working with a growing number of seafood companies and retailers seeking to improve the sustainability of Coral Triangle sheries.

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

Identify common objectives for sheries best practices and bycatch reduction for sheries relevant to your business; Test and trial gear solutions such as Circle Hooks, gauging their feasibility, monitoring their effectiveness and relative impacts on marine turtles and other species; Partner in awareness-raising and training programs with shing communities, including at-sea methods for the recovery and release of marine turtles; and Support the expansion of longline vessel observer programs, aimed at a more comprehensive understanding of bycatch and prescriptions for more responsible management.

Every year in the Coral Triangle, millions of kilograms of non-target sh species are caught in shing nets and are thrown back into the sea or otherwise wasted. Bycatch the incidental harvest of non-targeted and/or unmanaged marine speciesoften consists of endangered species such as sharks, juvenile tunas and marine turtles.

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

www.panda.org/coraltriangle/bycatch/

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

Contact us
Lida Pet-Soede
Leader WWF Coral Triangle Programme Tel/Fax +62 361 730185 Tel +41 22 364 9430 Email lpet@wallacea.wwf.or.id

Keith Symington
Bycatch Strategy Leader WWF Coral Triangle Programme Tel +84 914435348 Email keith.symington@wwfgreatermekong.org

Brian J. SKERRY / National Geographic Stock / WWF

BYCATCH

 Cat HOLLOWAY / WWF-Canon

The Coral Triangle is at risk. Overshing of sh stocks, and intense exploitation of tuna, turtles and reef sh are making people vulnerable to ecological damage.

Whats in your net?

Many shing techniques can be very efcient at catching the desired sh species. But this often comes with a large amount of bycatch. Some shing gears such as bottom trawls can catch everything else in its path. Gillnets retain all species caught in its mesh, leading to signicant removal of under-sized sh from the ocean, and needlessly drowning marine turtles. Longlines typically catch juvenile tunas, sharks, billshes and other sh species, and lure marine turtles to its baited hooks. Some of this bycatch may be tossed overboard dead or dying, while many of these non-target species may ultimately nd a market and be utilized. However, even if utilized, such non-target sh are by-and-large unmanaged stocks, with little or no knowledge base for management and no real protection whatsoever from overshing. This indiscriminate removal of marine life leaves ocean ecosystems unhealthy, sheries unsustainable, and key species for urgent conservation, such as marine turtles, continuously threatened.
Mike R. JACKSON / WWF-Canon

Evidence has shown that the use of Circle Hooks over the traditional J hook in tuna longline sheries can reduce the bycatch of marine turtles by as much as 80%, while not decreasing the target catch. The use of bycatch excluder devices in trawl sheries have likewise proven to be effective in improving selectivity and ensuring that unwanted sh, juvenile sh and other species such as marine turtles are excluded from the catch.

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

Jason RUBENS / WWF-Canon

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

N: 18 BOATS; 51 TRIPS

Steve BEVERLY

First hook 120 m

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

Deepest hook 340 m

Adjustments to the methods and techniques used in shing may also reduce bycatch. For example setting deeper longlines, modifying the mesh and materials used in gillnets, changing the time of shing or decreasing the length of time gear is submerged (soak time) can all help reduce bycatch. Rescue techniques for hooked marine turtles can also be employed to reduce their mortality.

Jill HATZAI / WWF-US

nursery of the seas is the most diverse marine region on the planet, covering 5.4 million square kilometres of ocean across six countries in the IndoPacic. This center of marine life is home to more than 3,000 species of reef sh and commerciallyvaluable species such as tuna, shelters thousands of whales, dolphins, rays, sharks and 6 of the 7 known species of marine turtles. It directly sustains the lives of more than 120 million people.

Seamus MURPHY / WWF-Canon

THE CORAL T R I A N G L E the

Observers / WWF-Indonesia

The pervasiveness of bycatch problems in sheries such as tuna and shrimp is one of the most urgent marine conservation and resource management issues in the Coral Triangle.

A solutions-based approach
Proven solutions to the bycatch problem do exist, while many more are in development. Innovative gear such as Circle Hooks for use in tuna longlines, as well as Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) and Juvenile Trash Excluder Devices (JTEDs) for trawl gearhave been developed and applied in some sheries and have shown remarkable success in reducing bycatch.