Longline fishing is a commercial fishing technique. It uses a long line, called the main line, with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called snoods (or gangions). A snood is a short length of line, attached to the main line using a clip or swivel, with the hook at the other end. Longlines are classified mainly by where they are placed in the water column. This can be at the surface or at the bottom. Lines can also be set by means of an anchor, or left to drift. Hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks can hang from a single line. Longliners commonly target swordfish, tuna, halibut, sablefish and many other species.
In some unstable fisheries, such as the Patagonian toothfish, fishermen may be limited to as few as 25 hooks per line. In contrast, commercial longliners in certain robust fisheries of the Bering Sea and North Pacific generally run over 2,500 hand-baited hooks on a single series of connected lines many miles in length.
Longlines can be set to hang near the surface (pelagic longline) to catch fish such as tuna and swordfish or along the sea floor (demersal longline) for groundfish such as halibut or cod. Longliners fishing for sablefish, also referred to as black cod, occasionally set gear on the sea floor at depths exceeding 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) using relatively simple equipment. Longlines with traps attached rather than hooks can be used for crab fishing in deep waters.
Longline fishing is prone to the incidental catching and killing of dolphins, seabirds, sea turtles, and sharks, but can be considerably more ecologically sustainable than some other commercially significant harvesting methods.
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Incidental catch
Longline fishing is controversial in some areas because of bycatch, fish caught while seeking another species or immature juveniles of the target species. This can cause many issues, such as the killing of many other marine animals while seeking certain commercial fish. Seabirds can be particularly vulnerable during the setting of the line.
Methods to mitigate incidental mortality have succeeded in some fisheries. Mitigation techniques include the use of weights to ensure the lines sink quickly, the deployment of streamer lines to scare away birds, setting lines only at night in low light (to avoid attracting birds), limiting fishing seasons to the southern winter (when most seabirds are not feeding young), and not discharging offal while setting lines.
The Hawaii-based longline fishery for swordfish was closed in 2000 over concerns of excessive sea turtle by-catch, particularly loggerhead sea turtles and leatherback turtles. Changes to the management rules allowed the fishery to reopen in 2004. Gear modification, particularly a change to large circle-hooks and mackerel-type baits, eliminated much of the sea turtle by-catch associated with the fishing technique. It has been claimed that one consequence of the closure was that 70 Hawaii-based vessels were replaced by 1,500-1,700 longline vessels from various Asian nations, but this is not based on any reliable data. Due to poor and often non-existent catch documentation by these vessels, the number of sea turtles and albatross caught by these vessels between 2000 and 2004 will never be known. Hawaii longline fishing for swordfish closed again on 17 March 2006, when the by-catch limit of 17 loggerhead turtles was reached. In 2010 the by-catch limit for loggerhead turtles was raised, but was restored to the former limit as a result of litigation. The Hawaii-based longline fisheries for tuna and swordfish are managed under sets of slightly different rules. The tuna fishery is one of the best managed fisheries in the world, according to the UN Code of Responsible Fishing, but has been criticized by others as being responsible for continuing by-catch of false killer whales, seabirds, and other nontargeted wildlife, as well as placing pressure on depleted bigeye tuna stocks.
Commercial longline fishing is also one of the main threats to albatrosses. Of the 22 albatross species recognized in the IUCN Red List, six are threatened, and nine are vulnerable. The IUCN lists three species as critically endangered: the Amsterdam albatross, the Tristan albatross and the waved albatross. The remaining four are near threatened. Albatrosses and other seabirds which readily feed on offal are attracted to the set bait, become hooked on the lines and drown. An estimated 100,000 albatross per year are killed in this way.
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Safety
In the US, a study found that the risk for non-fatal injuries was 35 per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees, about three times higher than average U.S. worker. (This is compared to 43 per 1,000 in their trawler fleet).
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