Warning: This text accommodates photos of lifeless fish
The movie exhibits the seabed plagued by 1000’s of lifeless fish, shellfish, and critically endangered flapper skate. Environmentalists say it’s an perception into the true environmental value of bottom-trawling for scampi.
Giant volumes of fish and different marine life are routinely caught in bottom-trawl nets used to comb the seabed. Charities say the unintended bycatch is a selected downside in prawn trawl fishery as a result of small mesh measurement of the nets.
The fisherman, who took the video and requested to not be named, mentioned it didn’t appear like a one-off.
Picture:
Rope tied round a lifeless flapper skate
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The flapper skate shut up
“It appears to be multiple dumps because the fish are in varying stages of decomposition.”
“I felt a deep sadness especially when I saw the dead flapper skate, when I saw the rope on the base of its tail. The sadness quickly turned to anger for the wastefulness involved and mistreatment of this beautiful creature.”
Skippers are required by regulation to launch flapper skate caught unintentionally. Though bycatch isn’t a criminal offense, the regulation does require all skates and rays to be launched instantly.
“This clearly did not happen here, as the flapper skate had a rope tied around its tail,” explains Nick Underdown from the charity Open Seas.
“This shows the wasteful bycatch of other species caught in the trawl nets, which is often discarded at sea, hidden from public view.”
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Lifeless shellfish on the seabed
Open Seas known as on the Scottish authorities and supermarkets to do extra.
“The scampi industry and the supermarkets have made a lot of profit selling consumers a product that is often branded “responsibly sourced” while failing to do anything to actually resolve this issue,” mentioned Mr Underdown.
“As a priority, the Scottish government must reinstate sensible spatial limits on this type of fishing in our coastal seas.”
The charity additionally known as for limiting trawling in delicate sea lochs and coastal areas and bringing in higher vessel monitoring to establish hotspots of hurt.
