Olive Ridley Sea Turtles Need Your Help!
Dear Friends & Neighbors,

Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea (Attribution: Bernard Gagnon, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Olive ridley sea turtle laying eggs (Attribution: Liz Roy, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Olive ridley sea turtle entangled in a ghost net within the Maldives (Attribution: Mstelfox, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Olive ridley sea turtle taken in a drifting net in the Maldives (Attribution: Sébastien Stradal for MDC Seamarc Maldives, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Olive ridley sea turtle, dead, floating in the Arabian Sea, possibly killed by propeller of boat (Attribution: Shyamal, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

(Please click on red links & note magenta)
On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, Mexico’s federal agency for environmental protection announced that more than 300 Olive Ridley Sea Turtles were found dead, floating off the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca, as a result of “ghost nets“. Their shells cracked from more than a week of drying under the sun. This news arrived just days after another 113 sea turtles (most of which were also olive ridley sea turtles) washed ashore in Mexico’s Chiapas state about 100 miles East of Oaxaca.
Marine biologist Bryan Wallace said that the sea turtles in Oaxaca may have been caught by “ghost net”. Excerpt from wikipedia on “Ghost net”, in italics, below:
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea. They can entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver. Acting as designed, the nets restrict movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe.
Environmental impact
From 2000 to 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported an average of 11 large whales entangled in ghost nets every year along the US west coast. From 2002 to 2010, 870 nets were recovered in Washington (state) with over 32,000 marine animals trapped inside. Ghost gear is estimated to account for 10% of all marine litter.
According to the SeaDoc Society, each ghost net kills $20,000 worth of Dungeness crab over 10 years. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science calculated that ghost crab pots capture 1.25 million blue crabs each year in the Chesapeake Bay alone.
In May 2016, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) recovered 10 tonnes of abandoned nets within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and Torres Strait protected zone perimeters. One protected turtle was rescued.
Solutions
Unlike synthetic fishing nets, biodegradable fishing nets decompose naturally under water after a certain period of time. Coconut fibre (coir) fishing nets are commercially made and are hence a practical solution that can be taken by fishermen.
The company Net-works worked out a solution to turn discarded fishing nets into carpet tiles.
Since 2008, the US Fishing for Energy initiative collected 2.8 million pounds of fishing gear, and in partnership with Covanta Energy turned this into enough electricity to power 182 homes for one year by incineration.
A plan to protect UK seas from ghost fishing was backed by the European Parliament Fisheries Committee in 2018. Mr Flack, who led the committee, said: “Abandoned fishing nets are polluting our seas, wasting fishing stocks and indiscriminately killing whales, sea lions or even dolphins. The tragedy of ghost fishing must end.

Biodegradable straws (presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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