Turtles, sharks most at risk in long-line fishing introduced in Sabah

Daily Express 1 Feb 09;

Kota Kinabalu: The long-line fishing method introduced recently in Sabah waters through licences to two local companies which will operate 10 boats is among the most depleting fishing methods and one which is non-sustainable, according to Sabah Anglers Association President Datuk Wilfred Lingham.

Leatherback turtles are most vulnerable to this method partly because the light sticks used to attract fish look like jelly fish - their favourite food.

Fish-eating Hawksbill turtles too are vulnerable.

He said long liners are estimated to kill in excess of 40,000 sea turtles, 300,000 sea birds (including the charismatic albatross), thousands of mammals and millions of sharks each year.

In view of this, he said the Fishery Department should rezone long line fishing limits from the 30 to at least 70 nautical miles.

On Saturday, Fisheries Director Datuk Rayner Stuel Galid said the licence conditions issued to the two firms require them to fish 30 nautical miles beyond the mainland.

"Thirty nautical miles is not very far these days and it will severely affect the livelihood of thousands of local coastal fishermen who depend on day-to-day catch," Lingham said.

"It means driving the last nail to the coffin because local fishermen who sink an average of two to three hooks a time can never match the catch of a longline boat which sinks between 2,000 and 4,000 hooks per boat.

"So we are talking about 10 highly mechanised boats each trailing a line potentially 20 miles long and branching with a possibility of 4,000 hooks per line - adding up to 40,000 hooks!" Lingham said.

"Furthermore, the boats may be Malaysian-owned but the operators are 100 per cent seasoned Vietnamese crew," asserted Lingham.

Lingham likened long liners to "vaccum cleaners of the seas which suck in all the live fish" where ever they operate, from bottom dwellers to pelagic, sea turtles and sharks.

"A lot of people think it is okay, let them fish, reasoning that this is just the commercial version of the traditional hook and line fishing. After all, the Vietnamese are just here to teach Malaysian fishermen how to use it!

"But make no mistake. All the facts and experiences elsewhere indicate long line fishing is indiscriminate and deadly," Lingham warned.

"Ocean vessels trail a main line up to 60 miles (about 100km) with secondary lines branching off that have thousands of baited barbed hooks," noted Lingham, quoting the US-based PEW Charitable Trust.

"A total of two billion such hooks are used each year, usually targeting large fish such as tuna, sword fish. But disturbing part is the baited hooks that attract a wide variety of other animals including sea turtles, marine animals, seabirds and non-target fish in what amounts to mass slaughter at sea," Lingham cautioned.

Sea turtles - a darling of Sabah's confident diving industry, are among the endangered victims of long lines because they are attracted to the bait used on longline hooks and die slowly from swallowing them.

They might also be severely injured by a hook in the mouth or by a hook that snags their flippers as they swim near the gears or they can drown if a large fish near them bite a hook and drags the line down so that they cannot surface for air.

"People may argue that the new circle hooks (also barbed) are less deadly but we are remain skeptical and critical," Lingham said.

"Take sharks, long lines are the worse culprit when it comes to shark finning, meaning just taking the fins and throwing the animal back to water, leaving them to bleed to death," he said.

"This (long line) fishing method is very effective in catching sharks because most sharks are surface dwellers and indeed many longline vessels are specifically targeting sharks. Shark fins can fetch a high price due to the demand in for Asian shark fin soup," he said.

"It's a cruel and wasteful practice yet still legal in many places and even though recently countries had started to adopt laws and international agreements against it struck," Lingham noted.

Sharks have no natural enemy except humans because they live at the top of the marine food chain which do their job with supreme efficiency as predators.

Their food range from planktons to crabs to sea urchins and clams.

Their scavenging role help keep the marine environment clean and maintain healthy marine populations because they eat up dead decomposing animals and a penchant in eating weak organisms.

To kill them with such wonton destruction with little brake at sight especially introducing long line fishing here is to lend a hand to destroy the delicate balance of the marine ecosystem as the population they prey on may multiply out of control.