The Massive Waste of Bycatch

Bycatch-unwanted fish and other marine life that get caught up in fishing nets and discarded-is one aspect of the ecosystem-wide destruction caused by factory trawlers.

Factory trawlers use their huge nets to indiscriminately catch everything in their path, effectively strip-mining the oceans of marine life. The term "bycatch" refers to the unwanted ocean life, including "undesirable" specimens of the targeted fish as well as other species, that gets hauled in along with the desired catch. While some of this bycatch is processed into fishmeal or oil, most is thrown overboard dead or dying. In 1994, factory trawlers caught and wasted a record 572 million pounds of marine life off the coast of Alaska.

As part of our national campaign to ban factory trawlers, Greenpeace achieved a major victory in 1997 when the U.S. Congress placed a moratorium on factory trawlers and other large-scale vessels in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries. This ban placed size and horsepower limitations on the boats allowed into these fisheries, protecting marine life in the area from hazards posed by factory trawlers. The moratorium prevented the 369-ft factory trawler Atlantic Star from entering those fisheries. Once enacted, the moratorium played a significant role in helping to focus national attention on the problems of factory trawlers. The moratorium will remain in place through the end of 1998, and will likely be continued into 1999.