Longlines: Miles of Hooks
Longlines are fishing lines up to 40 miles long, with each containing thousands of deadly hooks.
Longlines hook and kill numerous fish species such as the severely depleted white marlin, and hundreds of thousands of endangered and threatened sea turtles, marine mammals and sea birds each year.
Researchers estimate that 200,000 loggerhead sea turtles and 50,000 leatherback sea turtles were caught worldwide by pelagic longline fishing gear in 2000.
Billfish populations, such as blue marlin and white marlin, in the United States have been reduced to low numbers as a result of bycatch in the longline fishery.
