Numbering only a few hundred individuals (300-350), the population of North Atlantic right whales is recognized as one of the most critically endangered populations of large mammals of the world. One of the threats to right whales is entanglement and entrapment in fishing gear.
Marine Wildlife
Examples of species affected by bycatch in the Northwest Atlantic Ecoregion:
North Atlantic right whale
Right whale
Leatherback sea turtles
Leatherback turtle hatchling leaps toward the sea.
Endangered leatherback sea turtles are slow to mature and have a low reproductive rate. Juvenile and adult leatherback turtles return from southern waters to the Northwest Atlantic each year to feed. Although many leatherbacks caught in longlines are released alive, most have hooks or gear still attached. Fishing gear anchored to the bottom on the ocean floor is also a threat to turtles because if entangled at depth they will drown.
Cold water corals
Redfish
Cold-water corals are slow-growing, but live for hundreds or even a thousand years. Bottom trawls, longline and gillnet fishing gear break, crush or detach corals. Corals provide important habitat for several invertebrates and fish, and their removal results in a reduction in overall physical complexity of the ecosystem.
Atlantic cod
Atlantic Cod
Since the discovery of the new world by Europeans in the late 1400’s, Atlantic cod has been the dominant marine species of the Northwest Atlantic and has figured predominantly in the early European colonization of North America. There are 11 cod stocks in the Northwest Atlantic, four of which have been fished to such low levels that they are under moratorium. In some cases, bycatch is the key threat – in some cases over 50% of the entire cod population has been removed in a single year.