Drift Nets Entangle Marine Mammals Off California Coast: Video

The above video isn't for every audience, with graphic images of workers viciously sawing fins off live animals, and showing protective sea life tangled and drowned in commercial drift nets.

Is it more important to capture something on film than to stop it? That is the question viewers are asking after seeing this disturbing video of the use and overuse of "Death Nets."

The animal activist group Mercy For Animals shared their video captured during an undercover investigation to share the brutal reality of commercial drift gillnet fishing.

A new proposed law would begin to move the state of California away from large-scale drift-net use. Mercy For Animals is urging state legislators to pass SB 1017 for just that reason. The group shared the video in hopes of showing the grim picture in order to see stronger laws developed.

"In one particularly disturbing instance, a shark is gasping for air while the animal's tail is sliced off. Minutes later, the shark remains alive and bleeding on the dock of the boat," Lindsay Wolf of Mercy For Animals told ABC7 News.

Wolf said that many of the animals caught as "bycatch" include dolphins, sea lions and sea birds.

"For every one swordfish trapped by the driftnet fishery, it is estimated that seven other animals also are entangled in these nets," Wolf said.

Paul Nicklen, the videographer for the film and National Geographic photojournalist expressed his distress at simultaneously capturing images of the horror playing out in drift gillnet fishing and wanting to aid the animals from the mile-long nets.

"They're 100-feet deep, and designed to kill anything in their path," he told ABC7 in the report.

NOAA responded, saying they are aware of the video, as well as that they take all violations in West Coast drift gillnet fishery seriously. They also told ABC7 that the group is working diligently under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to ensure fisheries operate in accordance with the law.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries division, their office is working with entanglement response partners to safely free marine mammals and turtles from these life-threatening entanglements, as well as gather information to reduce entanglement frequency.

"Our Office of Protected Resources works with entanglement response and stranding network partners around the country to safely free marine mammals and sea turtles from life-threatening entanglements, while also gathering valuable information that can help reduce the frequency and effects of entanglements in the future," a NOAA spokesperson stated on their website in 2017. "Responders have developed specially designed tools and techniques to disentangle whales and other marine animals, all from the relative safety of small inflatable rescue boats. In addition, we use satellite transmitters and receivers to track an entangled animal over time. This satellite tracking method is especially helpful in relocating entangled whales that cannot be disentangled during the initial response."

Along with the drift nets, crab traps are another big problem for the marine wildlife who frequent California waters.

In Dana Point, Captain Dave Anderson is one of those responders to assist with entanglement. He has utilized technology, a sea captain's know-how, and created what he hopes will be a long-term solution toward aiding entangled creatures.

Anderson believes that he has found a possible solution to whale entanglement in relationship to the fishermen who set those traps: a pop-up buoy which stays coiled-up while remaining down at the bottom of the sea.
"When a fisherman goes out to that location, a sonic signal is sent to the buoy, and it pops up to the surface so the fisherman can reclaim his trap," Anderson said. "The buoy eliminates the need for lines and gear to be in the water column, where dolphins and whales can get entangled."

This buoy is currently very expensive, with a per-unit cost of $10,000. Anderson has contacted the builder and hopes to get the cost reduced to just a few hundred dollars, but only if the builder gets an order for 200,000 buoys.

"We are working to create awareness of this device and hopefully members of the fishing community will want to utilize this as soon as possible," Anderson said. "With there being nearly 400,000 Dungeness crab traps off the West Coast, the order for 200,000 units could easily be met!"

For more information, visit: www.DolphinSafari.com

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Image, Mercy For Animals Youtube