Landry
Scott
Landry
Scott
No Thumbnail Available
Search Results
Now showing
1 - 2 of 2
-
PresentationDon’t assume it’s ghost gear : accurate gear characterization is critical for entanglement mitigation [poster](Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2017-10-25) Henry, Allison G. ; Barco, Susan G. ; Cole, Tim ; Johnson, Amanda ; Knowlton, Amy R. ; Landry, Scott ; Mattila, David K. ; Moore, Michael J. ; Robbins, Jooke ; van der Hoop, Julie ; Asmutis-Silvia, ReginaEntanglement is a significant conservation and welfare issue which is limiting the recovery of a number of marine species, including marine mammals. It is therefore important to reliably identify the causes of these events, including the nature of the entangling gear in order to reduce or prevent them in the future. A recently published review of marine debris assessed 76 publications and attributed a total of 1805 cases of cetacean entanglements in “ghost gear”, of which 78% (n=1413) were extracted from 13 peer reviewed publications. We examined the 13 publications cited in the review and found that the specific gear type or status of gear involved in the reported events was rarely mentioned beyond the fact that it was fishing related. This is likely due to the fact that determinations of debris as the entangling material are very difficult. In fact, in reviewing 10 years of large whale entanglement records for the U.S., the authors of another study reported that Hawaii was the only region in which any entangling gear was positively identified as ghost gear. The assumption that entangling gear is marine debris unless otherwise stated is dangerous because it could impact efforts to modify or restrict risk-prone fishing in key marine mammal habitats. Entanglement in actively fished gear poses a very real threat, and claims that only lost or abandoned fishing gear is responsible for entanglements can undermine conservation efforts.
-
PreprintRebuttal to published article “A review of ghost gear entanglement amongst marine mammals, reptiles and elasmobranchs” by M. Stelfox, J. Hudgins, and M. Sweet( 2016-11) Asmutis-Silvia, Regina ; Barco, Susan G. ; Cole, Tim ; Henry, Allison G. ; Johnson, Amanda ; Knowlton, Amy R. ; Landry, Scott ; Mattila, David K. ; Moore, Michael J. ; Robbins, Jooke ; van der Hoop, JulieWe reviewed the findings of the recently published article by Stelfox et al. (2016): “A review of ghost gear entanglement amongst marine mammals, reptiles and elasmobranchs” published in this journal (Volume 111, pp 6–17) and found that they are both flawed and misleading as they do not accurately reflect the prevalence of “ghost gear” cases reported in the literature. While we commend the authors for recognizing the importance of attempting to quantify the threat and for recommending more comprehensive databases, the methods, results and conclusions of this review have not advanced the understanding of the issue. As authors of the papers on whale entanglements in the North Atlantic that were reviewed by Stelfox et al. (2016) and others who are knowledgeable about the topic, we provide specific comments regarding misrepresentations of both the source of entanglement (e.g., actively fished gear versus “ghost gear”) and the number of reported entanglements for whale species included in the North Atlantic.