2) This article, titled "Fishing Gear is Altered to Ease Collateral Costs to Marine Life", talked about new fishing technologies that are being developed in an attempt to lower the extremely high number of marine-inhabitants deaths that occur each year due to bycatch. Some of the technologies discussed included noise-emitting devices attached to fishing nets and hooks that are strong enough to trap their intended prey but break when bitten by larger fish. Researchers have also observed that sharks tend to avoid certain rare earth metals, which could prove to be beneficial in helping to steer them away from getting caught unnecessarily. Some fisherman, however, are skeptical about having to adopt these new methods because they are somewhat inconvenient as well as expensive.
The purpose of my presentation was to make the class aware of the impact bycatch has on our ocean's ecosystems and to explore some possible solutions to this problem.
Discussion Questions:
a. How does the issue of bycatch relate to the concept of "tragedy of the commons"?
b. Compared to other environmental issues, should bycatch prevention be considered high-priority?
c. Who should be economically responsible for the new fishing technologies discussed in the article--conversationalists or fishermen? How can they facilitate a more cooperative relationship?
Additional Research: I looked at this article to get a larger picture of the issue and for relevant statistics.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/fishing/whatwearedoing.html
Link to original news article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23catch.html?pagewanted=all
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