Dolphins and the Tuna Industry (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-21
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 13... ...
Despite improvements in techniques and in gear that have substantially reduced the number of dolphins killed in the ETP tuna fishery, thousands of dolphins are still killed each year. When the Congress reauthorized the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 on November 23, 1988, it stipulated several amendments to the act.
|
From page 14... ...
Although all three methods of purse seining catch tuna, log and school fishing catch mostly small, sexually immature tuna. Dolphin fishing usually catches large fish that are often sexually mature and produces larger average catches than the other methods.
|
From page 15... ...
As the demand for canned tuna increased, southern California fishermen ventured off the coast of Mexico to catch yellowfin and skipjack tuna (Katsawonus pelam~sJ and by the 1920s, by which time bait could be kept alive for days, boats ventured farther offshore. In the 1930s, mechanical coolers made it possible to freeze the catch on board, further freeing the vessels to explore offshore waters; a fishing area developed as far south as the equator and up to several hundred miles offshore where yellowfin and skipjack tuna were the target species.
|
From page 16... ...
(Skipjack tend to be caught dose to shore, and less than 0.4°/O of the total catch is caught in association with dolphins.) These changes and economic considerations made purse seining so efficient that by 1961 nearly all of the larger bait boats had been converted to purse seiners.
|
From page 17... ...
Eastern Pacific real distribution of yellowfin and skipjack tuna purse-seine catch for April-September 1986 from usable log-book data. (1 short ton = 0.907 metric ton.)
|
From page 18... ...
Dolphin Mortality Associated with the Tuna Fishery Although no accurate data are available for the early years (195~1972) , the increased offshore operation of increasingly sophisticated fishing vessels setting their nets on dolphin herds clearly led to very high mortality in the ETP.
|
From page 19... ...
Reducing Dolphin Mortality Improvements in fishing gear and techniques discussed in Chapters 3 and 7, the mandatory observer program, and the kill quota were responsible for the dramatic decline in the number of dolphins killed by boats in the U.S. fleet.
|
From page 20... ...
The Porpoise Rescue Foundation, funded by the tuna industry, has also contributed ideas and methods to reduce dolphin mortality. The recent declines in mortality, from 130,000 dolphins in 1986 to perhaps as few as 25,000 in 1991, were achieved without any major technological advances or additions to the fishing gear.
|
From page 21... ...
, fishing-gear design and operation, fishery and wildlife management, resource economics, hydroacoustics and communication systems, and remote sensing. The committee has reviewed aspects of the scientific and technical information concerning the following topics, as they bear on the tuna fishery and the incidental killing of dolphins: .
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.