To Prevent Orca Deaths, Bottom-Trawl Fishers Try 'Echoreflective' Netting
In the Bering Sea, some killer whales are drawn to trawl vessels that catch large volumes of fish from nets pulled along the sea bottom.
The orcas often gather near below-deck chutes that funnel back to sea discards of whole fish. There, they may feast on halibut, a fish reserved largely for harvest by commercial long-liners and sport and subsistence fishers that cannot be retained by trawlers.
Hannah Myers, a University of Alaska Fairbanks assistant professor, has documented a different type of behavior that...
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