According to USA Today, an endangered monk seal died after becoming trapped in the net of an offshore fish farm in Hawaii.
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at a news conference that they believe the 10-year-old monk seal drowned after Blue Ocean Mariculture farm operators opened one panel of a net pen to release a shark who had gotten stuck inside.
David Schofield of NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service explains:
We did not see any signs of trauma or entanglement or any gashes or lacerations. We also saw no gross signs, meaning obvious signs, of disease. The seal, B18, had a stomach full of fish and otherwise appeared in good body condition so we can draw no other conclusion than that the animal did die in the fish pen likely due to drowning or suffocation.
This truly devastating event is unfortunately all too common. With an NOAA expansion underway, tragedies like this will just happen more.
Earlier this year, CBS News reported that NOAA will open fish farms in federally protected waters, 3–200 miles off the coast of Hawaii. Sadly, these farms will be nothing more than floating factory farms. Countless fish will suffer a lifetime crammed in waste-filled pools before facing a brutal slaughter.
A 2010 Mercy For Animals undercover investigation at a fish slaughter facility revealed just how cruel the fishing industry is.
Watch.
In addition to the billions of targeted fish killed each year, countless unwanted animals, or “bycatch, die in fishing nets. In fact, The National Journal estimates that about 20 percent of all fish caught by commercial fisheries is bycatch.
Each of us can help protect animals by switching to a compassionate vegan diet. There’s no question that it’s the most powerful choice we can make.
Click here to order your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide.
Click here for six savory vegan seafood recipes.
