trawl Archives - One Earth - One Ocean e. V.

Malaysia plane: Search goes on in ocean’s stirred ‚teacup‘ of garbag

guenther — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:29:18 +0000

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-malaysia-plane-garbage-20140331,0,6568580.story

Malaysia plane: Search goes on in ocean's stirred 'teacup' of garbage

By Barbara Demick
This post has been updated. See the note below for details.
March 31, 2014, 8:23 a.m.

BEIJING ? The search and rescue teams working off the west coast of
Australia seeking the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 discovered
what oceanographers have been warning: Even the most far-flung stretches
of ocean are full of garbage.

For the first time since the search focused on the southern Indian Ocean
10 days ago, the skies were clear enough and the waves calm, allowing
ships to retrieve the "suspicious items" spotted by planes and on
satellite imagery.

But examined on board, none of it proved to be debris from the missing
plane, just the ordinary garbage swirling around in the ocean.

"A number of objects were retrieved by HMAS Success and Haixun 01
yesterday," reported the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in a news
release Sunday. "The objects have been described as fishing equipment
and other flotsam."

[Updated at 8:38 a.m. PDT on March 31: A cluster of orange objects
spotted by a search plane on Sunday drew the same results, the
Associated Press reported the following day: It was just fishing
equipment.]

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Lobster Trap Debris in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: Distribution, Abundance, Density, and Patterns of Accumulation

guenther — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:01:33 +0000

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19425120.2013.852638

Amy Uhrin, Thomas Matthews & Cynthia Lewis (2014) Lobster Trap Debris in
the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: Distribution, Abundance,
Density, and Patterns of Accumulation, Marine and Coastal Fisheries:
Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science, 6:1, 20-32
DOI:10.1080/19425120.2013.852638

Abstract
The fishery for spiny lobster Panulirus argus in the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary is well chronicled, but little information is
available on the prevalence of lost or abandoned lobster traps. In 2007,
towed-diver surveys were used to identify and count pieces of trap
debris and any other marine debris encountered. Trap debris density
(debris incidences/ha) in historic trap-use zones and in representative
benthic habitats was estimated. Trap debris was not proportionally
distributed with fishing effort. Coral habitats had the greatest density
of trap debris despite trap fishers' reported avoidance of coral reefs
while fishing. The accumulation of trap debris on coral emphasizes the
role of wind in redistributing traps and trap debris in the sanctuary.
We estimated that 85,548±23,387 (mean±SD) ghost traps and
1,056,127±124,919 nonfishing traps or remnants of traps were present in
the study area. Given the large numbers of traps in the fishery and the
lack of effective measures for managing and controlling the loss of
gear, the generation of trap debris will likely continue in proportion
to the number of traps deployed in the fishery. Focused removal of
submerged trap debris from especially vulnerable habitats such as reefs
and hardbottom, where trap debris density is high, would mitigate key
habitat issues but would not address ghost fishing or the cost of lost gear.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19425120.2013.852638

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Marine debris in bottom trawl catches and their effects on the selectivity grids in the north eastern Mediterranean,

guenther — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:03:57 +0000

Ahmet Raif Erya?ar, Hüseyin Özbilgin, Ali Cemal Gücü, Serdar Sak?nan,
Marine debris in bottom trawl catches and their effects on the
selectivity grids in the north eastern Mediterranean, Marine Pollution
Bulletin, Volume 81, Issue 1, 15 April 2014, Pages 80-84, ISSN
0025-326X, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.02.017.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14001131)
Abstract: In this study composition of marine debris and their blocking
potential on the selectivity grid systems deployed on demersal trawls
were investigated in the north eastern Mediterranean. For this, a total
of 132 hauls were examined in two fishing season between 20 September
2010 and 19 February 2012. Results showed that plastic items were the
most abundant debris (73% in terms of weight) and they were followed by
metals (10%). Because of plastics and packing debris, it is highly
probable that grids may have been blocked in 85% of trawl hauls. The
bathymetric and geographical variability in the quantity of debris were
evaluated, and concluded that particularly in some areas where direction
of currents and bottom topography favor deposition, such devices may
easily be rendered ineffective by the plastics and packing debris in
particular. To solve this problem, several solution proposals are submitted.
Keywords: Bottom trawl; Marine debris; Selectivity grid; Plastic; Mersin Bay

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