Plastic bottles can not only pollute the ocean, but also save dolphin lives
Scientists have proposed a simple and inexpensive method that can significantly reduce the number of dolphins that accidentally get caught in fishing nets. For this, it is proposed to attach empty plastic bottles to the nets, writes discoverwildlife.com.
The problem is that thin nylon fishing nets are almost invisible to dolphins even when using echolocation. Because of this, marine animals often get entangled in them and die.
Researchers hypothesized that the air inside plastic bottles better reflects sound waves, making it easier for dolphins to notice an obstacle. To test this idea, experiments were conducted off the coasts of Brazil, Peru, and Zanzibar.
The results varied. In Peru and Zanzibar, the bottles did not help reduce cases of dolphins getting caught in nets, but in some cases, they increased the fish catch. The best result was obtained in Brazil, where bottom nets were used. There, the number of accidentally caught dolphins significantly decreased, while the volume of fish caught remained unchanged.
After this, scientists conducted another experiment with bottom nets. It showed that the use of plastic bottles reduced accidental dolphin deaths by approximately 88 percent without harming fishing.
According to researchers, this method can become an effective means of protecting marine mammals, as it is cheap, easy to use, and accessible to almost every fisherman. Similar trials are now continuing in other countries to check whether this method will be as effective under different conditions.
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