Activity- Part 3
Bycatch majorly impacts the environment as it catches large populations of already over-fished species, without great accuracy. There are numbers even as much as 90% of the catch is thrown back because they are either not the right fish or they are undersized. Catching undersized fish negatively affects the population because they are not suitable to be sold, and are thrown back dead or dying. Long Lines are a configuration of shorter lines attached to one another to create one “long line”. Having thousands of hooks at a time in the open ocean causes many other marine animals, such as sharks, dolphins, and even birds, to get caught and. Also, the wrong species of fish can get caught, which creates a loss of time and production. FADs are large nets that catch fish when there are enough in the area. Their catch can be up to 80% bycatch, which negatively affects the populations of already endangered and overfished species. The removals of these FADS are necessary due to their low accuracy in a catch and destructive nature to the marine ecosystem. Fisheries are declining because of this said destruction, as other destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling, can destroy 1/5 of the sea floor fauna and flora at a time, and also because of large equipment that processes 1,000s of tons a fish in a year, such as super trawlers owned by American Seafoods.