Bubbles in the Bathtub: Gill Nets

This is something that I meant to post back in July when it first happened, but it somehow got away from me. I originally submitted it to the Animal Crazy blog at the Orlando Sentinel.

A little background first...

I wrote this in early July while we were on Bald Head Island, North Carolina attaching satellite tags to sea turtles nesting there. You can follow the progress of these animals and find out more about the project on the tracking web site. To set the stage or the following missive, we had been on call each night while interns at the Bald Head Island Conservancy patrolled the beach looking for nesting sea turtles. They would notify us when they found one and we would come out and tag it. Turtle nesting season in North Carolina extends from approximately late May through August, with scattered nesting before and after, and peaking in July. This is a time when adult female sea turtles are obviously coming very close to shore.

I was disturbed to check out the beach early this morning and find a fisherman picking up a gillnet about 25 feet off the beach. He must have set it overnight, I think they are targeting flounder, and was retrieving it this morning. Gillnets are long panels of netting that hang in the water and are pretty much indiscriminate in what they catch. Some people call them "curtains of death" because they catch and kill every large fish (and turtle) that swims in to them, not just the target species.

What's most disturbing is that this is perfectly legal in North Carolina. Most states (including Florida) have outlawed gillnets because they are so destructive. This is particularly frustrating because all of the time and effort that goes in to educating people about sea turtles and working towards their protection. It is just astounding to me that this sort of thing is allowed at all, let alone allowed right off a nesting beach during the peak of nesting season. I hate to think that one of our turtles might end up dead because of one of these nets. Don't get me wrong, I do not have anything against fishermen, but it would be nice to see us evolve towards less destructive fishing practices.

I've attached a photo of the boat picking up the net below.