Back into the ocean

Photo | May 6, 2009

A Vietnamese crew member releases a shark back into the ocean which was caught on the end of a bait line of a Korean long-liner, the 'Shin Yung 51'. Whilst fishing for tuna, sharks, turtles, dolphins and albatrosses can often end up as unfortunate by-catch of long-line fishing. Yellow Fin and Big Eye tuna stocks in the Central and Western Pacific are now drastically low due to pirate fishing and the over fishing of stocks by foreign, industrial nations. Local fishermen struggle to compete in these waters as sophisticated fishing equipment puts them out of business. Greenpeace are calling for an immediate end to pirate fishing, a 50% reduction in the amount of Pacific tuna caught, and a global network of Marine Reserves to tackle the problem of over fishing.

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