40,000 sea turtles are killed anually in the global longline fisheries

Longlines - 40 Miles of Hooks

Pelagic longlines are the fish hook equivalent of driftnets in that each line may be up to 40 miles long and contain hundreds of hooks spread out evenly along the line.

These longlines hook and kill numerous fish species

(such as the severely depleted white marlin),

hundreds of endangered and threatened turtles,

and thousands of sea birds each year.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

reports that 40,000 sea turtles are killed

annually in the global longline fisheries.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), 75% of the loggerhead turtles and 40% of the leatherback turtles taken by U.S.-based pelagic longliners in the Atlantic are caught on the Grand Banks in the North Atlantic.

Pelagic longline bycatch also accounts for 70% of United States blue marlin mortality and 94% of United States white marlin mortality. And some 61 species of seabirds have been recorded as killed by longline operations on at least one occasion.