Shifting Baselines

Lost, derelict fishing gear as old as 60 years continues to 'ghost fish' and kill lots of marine life across Washington State's Puget Sound all for the sake of nobody. At the American Fisheries Society meeting of the North Pacific International Chapter I attended this week, Ginny Broadhurst the Northwest Straits Initiative spoke on a great project working to remove this web of derelict fishing gear from the waters of Puget Sound. So far, the group has recovered 1286 derelict crab pots and 679 nets. Most of the nets they find are gill nets, which drift and kill fish and other animals until they sink to the bottom and the carcasses rot and then they float back up in the water column and repeat the process for decades and maybe even centuries. The Northwest Straits Initiative wants to remove 90% of derelict fishing gear (some of which they can spot with sonar) from Puget Sound by 2012. (Unlike Puget Sound, many regions of the world suffer from the influx of foreign lost fishing gear and the task becomes more difficult and must be indefinite.)

The gillnet in the video above became derelict during the first week of gillnetting season in San Juan county in August 2006. The fishing boat suffered mechanical problems and had to be towed in to port. The net was cut because the boat equipment could not function to bring it on board and so the boat captain reported the incident and provided the location. The net was removed just one week later by the Northwest Straits Commission derelict gear removal team with support from WDFW and Corps of Engineers. Still, after just one week in the water, the impact of this single net was astounding. Found in the net were:

• 1 dead harbor seal
  
• 30 dead red rock crab
  
• 38 dead kelp crab
  
• 30 dead spiny dogfish sharks
  
• 25 dead sockeye salmon
  
• 5 dead Chinook salmon
  
• 30 dead rockfish
  
• 40 dead kelp greenling
  
• 90 dead flatfish
  
• 110 dead spotted ratfish
  
• 30 dead lingcod

The positive impacts of this kind of work on the water are immediate and yet fishing gear clean up initiatives have trouble getting money. The entire cost of the Northwest Straits Initiative to remove 90% of derelict fishing gear by 2012 is $5 million. Don't suppose the industry responsible for losing the gear might be willing to chip in...?

UPDATE (Mar. 9, 2008): After writing this post, I received an email that read:

A Shifting Baselines reader actually donated to the clean-up of derelict fishing gear in Puget Sound on my behalf. I think this was the most touching and rewarding moment in my blogging history. Thank you!!!