They call them curtains of death. They are miles of floating fishing nets that form a labyrinthine deadly floating trap. They are imperceptible and deadly to marine animals such as turtles, whales or dolphins. On May 23, the lightning rescue of a humpback whale in Mallorca, who died between the remains of these meshes, made the front pages of local newspapers and TV stations. “The reality, however, is that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” explains biologist Ricardo Sagarminaga, who, after a month and a half expedition in the Alborán Sea (the westernmost area of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Africa), managed to deploy of this illegal fishing gear by Moroccan vessels.
In parallel with the whale rescue in Mallorca, a team from the conservation organization Alnitak photographed a Moroccan fleet while fishing with these banned nets in international and Spanish waters bordering the marine reserve of Alboran Island (48 miles from the peninsula). Sources from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food confirm to this newspaper other sightings by the fisheries inspectorate and also confirm that in April last year the Spanish authorities detained five Moroccan-flagged vessels and confiscated prohibited fishing gear in Ceuta waters. “The boats were sent to the port where their nets were confiscated,” said a ministry spokesman.
These “passive fishing nets” became popular in the 1980s and were used to catch tuna and swordfish. They were widely used by the Mediterranean fleet due to their tremendous efficiency. They could measure up to 20 kilometers and for years their use led to the accidental capture of thousands of whales and other species, according to data from Oceana, an organization that launched a strong campaign to enforce its ban throughout the Mediterranean earlier in the century. In 2002, the European Union banned them from their waters. International pressure from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), of which Morocco is a part, forced the African country to ban them as well in 2013. The same sources from the Ministry of Fisheries explain that the government, through the European Commission, has reported these irregular practices to ICCAT.
Illegal “driftnets” photographed in the port of Nador (Morocco).ALNITAK
Biologist Sagarminaga had spent months preparing the expedition in the Alborán Sea using the Toftevaag sailboat to confirm the use of this gear in the fishing grounds shared between Spain and Morocco halfway between the two continents. I had a suspicion for a long time. Especially since February after a female beaked whale, a very difficult species to spot, appeared in this gear on a beach in Almería. Two months later, two more sperm whales turned up dead on the beaches of Mallorca, also tangled.
The immensity of the sea and the tremendous opacity that always surrounds it always make it difficult to prove illegal fishing practices. In order to catch the boats unprepared, the conservation organization used cunning and science. Thanks to a system developed by the Coastal Observation and Forecasting System of the Balearic Islands (SOCIB) led by oceanographer Joaquín Tintoré, the conservation team managed to study the trajectory of the whale that emerged in Almeria through the variability of currents. Possible coordinates were marked where the whale could have become entangled before it was dragged onto the beach. The system was deployed two years ago to identify poaching areas that caused an avalanche of turtle rescues in the Balearic Islands in 2019.
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Finally, four months later, the Almería whale has served to reveal this “environmental disaster”, as the biologist puts it. “In 20 miles we found about fifty nets. To get to the coordinate unseen, we use the full moon days to walk with our lights off and night vision. In these cases, the fishermen leave the nets afloat at night, turn off the lights and wait a few hours before collecting them. As soon as we approached the area, the fishermen turned on their lights and yelled at us to leave. We faked an engine failure. While a colleague made it look like he was repairing it with a tool, others of us took photos,” says the oceanographer.
A Moroccan boat recently photographed fishing with illegal driftnets in international waters of the Alboran Sea.ALNITAK
Sources from the Balearic Government’s Fisheries Inspectorate, who have noticed an increase in the remnants of illegal fishing swept away by the currents, define Alnitak’s images as “revealing” and believe they clearly show an illegal fishing spot in the Mediterranean Sea by part of the Moroccan fleet . In parallel with the survey at sea, the conservation organization also surveyed the other side of the strait through a local contact who took pictures of dozens of boats loading nets in the Moroccan ports of Alhucemas, Medik and Nador.
The Alnitak organization explains that in recent years, marine fauna rescue centers in the Alborán Sea, the Balearic Islands, France, Italy and Malta have seen an alarming increase in the number of whales, dolphins and turtles found dead or injured. “This practice must be stopped. It’s outrageous,” says Debora Morrinson, director of education and conservation at Palma Aquarium, the foundation that coordinated the humpback whale rescue and whose recovery clinic has been overwhelmed by turtle rescues since 2019. Alnitak is now following the trail to find the illegal fishing spot where the Mallorcan humpback whale has become entangled. Despite being released, the 25-ton animal appeared dead days later on a beach in Tavernes de la Valldigna (Valencia), a victim of injuries caused by the “curtains of death”.
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