This article is about how large whales, such as the humpback whale described in the article, are getting caught in large fishing nets. Although not a huge threat to the whale population, it shows how bad commercial fishing is. Whales are already in trouble, and this is just another problem to add to their list. Generally roughly 30 whales get caught in nets each year, and those are only reported cases. The problem is that it is very hard to spot a netted whale. Often the whale can escape, but it brings along with it some of the net, which drags it down. Also the whale could just die if not seen early enough from starvation, the body sinks and so there could very well be many more unreported cases of net deaths. The main problem with actually rescuing the whale is that it is in pain because of the net, so when the divers go in to help it most likely connects it's pain with the divers, not helping the situation. The divers also use very sharp knives, which is also very dangerous to both diver and whale. I found this article to be very sad and almost unsurprising. This is just another example of how horrible commercial fishing is. The bycatch from this type of large net fishing is ridiculous and the whales are just one species that suffers from commercial fishing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment