Longline fishing endangers sea turtles
Tuesday, November 26, 2013 - 10:00
in Biology & Nature
When a marine turtle is incidentally by-caught by a longliner, fishermen try to cut the line —without hauling it on board— and release the turtle into the sea. However, a research published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series alerts that about 40% of post-released turtles die some months later due to the impact of longline fishing. The study is signed by experts Lluís Cardona and Irene Álvarez de Quevedo, from the Department of Animal Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio), and Manu San Félix, from Vellmarí Formentera. It is the first scientific study based on satellite tracking of a group of loggerhead turtles released into the sea after being by-caught by Spanish longliners.