Whaling may be a big problem for the whales, but there are other troubles too: Pollution and Bycatch.
Pollution is lethal to all animals and plants, big and small. Many plastic shopping bags kill millions of sea animals each year from getting trapped in it or swallowing it, including whales and dolphins. Whales and dolphins also get tangled, trapped, and drown in free-floating drift nets and discarded fishing nets.
Bycatch is when innocent and unwanted creatures are accidentally caught in fishing gear such as nets and hooks. In purse seines, hundreds of dolphins are caught and killed along with the Yellowfin tuna the nets were meant to catch, which the dolphin pods follow in search of food. Purse seining works by surrounding a school of fish with a massive wall of netting reaching from the sea bed to the surface. Like a drawstring bag, the net closes up and the netting forms a sack that gets smaller and smaller. The contents are either scooped out with smaller nets or pulled aboard the fishing vessel. Fortunately, Purse seining is currently banned in the US.
You can help: Use reusable canvas shopping bags instead of disposable plastic ones. If you do have any plastic shopping bags, reuse them. If you can, pick up stray plastic bags you find outside that are not in trash cans. Also, you can buy dolphin-safe tuna where dolphins were not harmed when the tuna was caught.
0 Responses to “The Problem Isn’t Just Whaling”