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"Driftnets don't differentiate, don't select very well what they catch," he said by phone from Silver Spring, Md. "Anything that swims into them has a pretty good possibility of getting tangled up. So they were catching marine mammals and seabirds and sharks -- anything under the sun, including the target species, which back in those days was either tuna or salmon, depending on the mesh size." If a fish can get its head through the mesh, it will get caught behind the gill flaps, Niemeier said. Bigger species hit the net, twist and turn, and get tangled up. "That's the way a lot of the sharks and marine mammals and seabirds used to get caught, just twisting around in the net." The problem has dramatically declined. Just five or six years ago, he said, there were more than 100 sightings of suspected illegal fishing boats. Last year, there were two sightings. The Coast Guard seized one vessel and the other escaped. "It's still a concern, but at least the numbers are a lot less than they used to be, and it seems like they're using smaller nets," he said. That may be because they're easier to pick up and run with, too. You don't just pick up a 30-mile net very easily."
[Associated
Press;
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