Chapter VIII — Impacts of Marine Debris 



would be limited to that which might be provided 

 through the Marine Entanglement Research Program. 



The Commission did not receive a reply from the 

 office, nor was it provided results of the Center's 

 technical evaluation of the recommended gear retrieval 

 project; however, in April 1995 the Service's North- 

 east Regional Office announced plans to make avail- 

 able $4.5 million in grants under its Fishing Industry 

 Grant Program. Among other things, the grants were 

 intended to develop methods of eliminating or reduc- 

 ing bycatch. An owner of several groundfish fishing 

 vessels in the New England sink-gillnet fishery, who 

 was also concerned about the number and effect of 

 lost gillnets, submitted a proposal to the Service for a 

 pilot study to assess the amounts and impact of lost 

 gillnets in two major sink-gillnet fishing areas off 

 New England. The proposal, developed in coopera- 

 tion with scientists from the New England Aquarium, 

 involved retrieving lost gillnets with grappling hooks 

 following a systematic sampling protocol. Knowing 

 of its interest in such work, a copy of the proposal 

 was sent to the Commission by the vessel owner. 



After reviewing the proposal, the Commission 

 wrote to the Service's Northeast Regional Office on 

 26 May 1995 and to the Director of the Service on 25 

 July 1995 expressing strong support for the proposal. 



In its letter to the Regional Office, the Commission 

 noted that derelict fishing gear has been accumulating 

 on fishing grounds in New England for decades and 

 since there were no data on its amount or effects, 

 efforts to collect such data were urgently needed. It 

 also noted that, while the proposed sampling scheme 

 was scientifically sound and very well designed, it 

 seemed possible that the project's most fundamental 

 objectives could be answered by sampling a smaller 

 number of areas than proposed. Therefore, the 

 Commission urged that if the amount of the request 

 was a limiting factor in deciding whether to approve 

 it, consideration be given to reducing the sampling 

 effort, which would lower the project cost. In this 

 regard, the Commission also noted that some funding 

 support for the project also could be provided by the 

 Service's Marine Entanglement Research Program. 



In its letter to the Director of the Service, the 

 Commission enumerated the potential benefits of the 



project. For instance, it could demonstrate a major 

 new mitigation approach for improving fish habitat, 

 minimize a major source of mortality for commercial- 

 ly valuable fish and shellfish resources, reduce one of 

 the most biologically hazardous sources of marine 

 debris, and generate valuable data for fishery manag- 

 ers on a source of mortality for fish and shellfish 

 stocks that is not presently addressed in fishery 

 management models. 



By letter of 9 August 1995 the Service advised the 

 Commission that it had decided against funding the 

 proposal, given other grant requests. No alternative 

 approaches were suggested to meet the objectives that 

 the proposal sought to address, and as of the end of 

 1995 no action had been taken or proposed by the 

 Service to assess derelict gear amounts or impacts in 

 New England. 



Workshop on Reducing Bycatch 



During the course of commercial fishing operations 

 there is an inevitable catch of non-target species, 

 including unmarketable and restricted species of fish 

 and shellfish, as well as species of marine mammals 

 and sea turtles. This non-target catch, called bycatch, 

 is usually discarded overboard and survival rates of 

 discarded species are typically very low. The cumula- 

 tive impact of bycatch-related mortality on individual 

 species and marine ecosystems has been recognized as 

 a serious fisheries management issue internationally 

 (see Chapter V) as well as domestically. 



To examine bycatch problems and possible solu- 

 tions being developed and applied worldwide, the 

 U.S. fishing industry organized and sponsored a 

 international workshop held in Seattle, Washington, 

 on 25-27 September 1995. Entitled "Solving Bycatch 

 Workshop: Considerations for Today and Tomorrow," 

 a major objective of the workshop was to exchange 

 practical knowledge and ideas that U.S. fishermen 

 might apply to minimize the bycatch of non-target 

 species. Because of the Marine Mammal Commis- 

 sion's efforts to address marine debris pollution, and 

 because of its concern about the ecological effects of 

 lost and discarded fishing gear, a representative of the 

 Commission was invited to present a paper on marine 

 debris entanglement and ghostfishing. 



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