Less competition than expected at sea

2004/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Arrantza
• Ingurumena

Fishermen claim that whales and seals exhaust fish banks and must die to protect the fishing sector. However, animal protection societies consider that overfishing leaves these mammals without food and endangers the future of some endangered species.

However, according to the first global investigation in this regard, it seems that in most cases it is a useless debate. In fact, this study has shown that marine mammals and fishermen rarely faenan in the same shoals.

On the one hand, the location of marine mammals and, on the other, fishing areas have been analyzed. After processing all the data, the researchers conclude that 80% of the catches do not overlap between mammals and fishermen, or that, in case of overlap, they are very scarce.

These data are provisional and scientists consider the study to be quite general. However, there seems to be some conflict between fishermen and mammals.