It is a disaster. Worldwide, more than 57 billion pounds of sea life are caught unintentionally and wasted every year, estimates the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. That is more than 200 pounds of dead, discarded marine life for every man, woman and child in the United States. It is one-quarter of all annual marine catches on Earth and more than double the entire commercial marine catch of the world's largest fishing nation, China. But it's not just the amount of waste that is troubling.
Marine biodiversity is under assault, too.
In the southern Pacific, long lines baited for tuna kill tremendous numbers of albatross and other seabirds. In the North Atlantic, trawling nets for bottom fish catch five times more marine life than they send to market. Discarding the future And by wasting so much marine life, fishermen may be literally throwing away the future. The evidence abounds, above and below the water. Sea lions are frequent victims.