Turtles caught in fishing nets

[Searcaigh]

When my daughter and I came back from our dives yesterday local fishermen, (well, Indian slaves to be exact), were putting out their nets in front of the dive center. They take them out by boat then use two old Toyota Landcruisers to haul the nets in by attaching ropes then continually reversing then forward again, hitch up more rope and reverse again.

Unfortunately their method of fishing is not one that is selective other than selecting everything that is going to be in the area that they have cast the net. Much of the by catch is discarded but of course it is probably dead or dying such as the rays and puffer fish.

Sadly there were four turtles in the catch and my daughter got extremely distressed, shouting at the fishermen to release them.

They fishermen (ignorant illiterate people) have very little concept of how to do this humanely (Yanni wanted my dive knife to cut them free, but that would have caused more trouble), when they did manage to get one of the turtles out of the net, they just grabbed it by the fins (Flippers) and threw it back into the shallows where there are rocks.

Not only were these poor creatures already stressed but I was also worried about the undue physical treatment possibly injuring their fins and also damage to the carapace if they landed in really shallow water hitting the rocks.

I really wonder if we had not witnessed this, what they may have done with these turtles?

 

[Scuba_Noob]

That's pretty sad. People are treating them so cruelly :depressed:. I'd give a ton to see a sea turtle.

The fishermen may be uneducated in marine conservation or may just need to do this job as cheaply as possible. However, their method of returning the turtles into the ocean is obviously inhumane. The ocean conservation education needs to be spread further, especially in places where there is a lot of marine life or endangered species.

But then again, this might be the cheapest and easiest possible method, rather than fishing straight from the boat, so conservation education might not help.

 

[RonFrank]

You can not blame the local fisherman. There need to be things done at the government level. The fisherman are just trying to make a living. I have no understanding on how to effect a change in a foreign country like Dubai. Does the OP?

 

[Simon-]

Sadly, in the UAE, there is scant regard for anything living in the sea.

Dibba port is another sad sight, where the daily catch of sharks (leopard, blacktip, hammerhead) are laid out. From juveniles to pregnant females.

Most of the fishermen aren't local, mainly indian or bangladeshi and trying to get them to change their ways is mission impossible.

We do have the Emirates Diving Association for ecological concerns, but unfortunately, they are a bit of a toothless tiger