Exploring the Rise of Florida's Brazilian Community

 

A full-on and mega deep dive into the effects of ALDFG on marine biodiversity is probs gonna majorly up the count of species that are affected by marine debris, since there's not a lot of solid info on species getting tangled in ALDFG in certain areas Crazy, right? An estimated 76 birbs, 153 fishies and 1100 invertebs were totally wrecked per year cuz they got tangled up in this one gill net, like, RIP. That includes the ones that decomposed and got eaten, ya know? The impacts of ghost fishing on marine communities haven't been clearly determined yet, but the high mortality rates reported for Puget Sound, especially for invertebrates, suggest that ghost fishing effects could be major (CBD, 2016).

Cause it can mess 'em up and suffocate 'em.

Sancho et al. (2003) were like, "Yo, these lost tangle nets in northern Spain catch about 5% of the total commercial catch, fam." And in Canada, this cage trap fishery is all like, "Dude, the ghost fishing mortality is estimated to be around 7% of the landing in our sector, bro." (Breen, 1987). Pecci et al. (1978) found that in a fishing area of USA that ghost-fishing mortality caused by lobster trap on Homarus americanus, accounted for, like, 13% of the fishing effort. The decline of deep water sharks in the North Atlantic has been linked to ghost fishing in the North Atlantic, indicating the potential for a major population vibe (Large et al., 2009).So wild, right? Deformation of bills have been observed in entangled gannets, which is like totally gonna mess up their feeding game (Rodriguez et al., 2013).

OMG, we did this pilot thingy to monitor birds and trash in nests in Helgoland, Germany in 2014 and 2015. 

We followed the protocol from MSFD GES TG ML (2013). It was lit! In the pre-breeding szn in March/April, we checked out the entanglement victims from the previous year. Then, during the breeding peak in June and July, we kept track of any entanglements and litter in the nests. And in the past-breeding szn in September/October, we only recorded entanglements. In 2014, like, out of the 265 nests (40% of the whole gannet squad), a whopping 97% had plastic trash. And in 2015, out of the 345 nests (50% of the entire gannet crew), a mind-blowing 99% had plastic litter. The plastic litter was like, totally filled with nets and pieces of nets, cords, strings, and ropes, plus a bunch of packaging, you know? OMG, so we were like, observing and taking pics of these seals in southwest England, and we noticed that some of them were getting all tangled up. It was cray cray! Between 2004 and 2008, the entanglement rates were all over the place, ranging from 3.6% to 5%. It's like, totally obvious that it had a major impact on the population, you know? 64% of the 58 recorded entanglements had caused mad physical injuries, either causing a tight squeeze or a gnarly wound, or both. Of the 15 cases where the debris causing the entanglement was visible, 14 were totally caught up in fisheries stuff (Allen et al., 2012). A study on the Dutch coast between 1985 and 2010 peeped that entanglement was way more common in grey seals than in harbour seals (39 versus 15 respectively), with youngins being the most frequently recorded. Entanglement went down in some ghost trawl nets and gill nets, fam. Furthermore, the authors were like, "Yo, the mortality from getting all tangled up is probably way higher 'cause they're more likely to find the stranded animals than the ones that straight up die in the sea, you know?" (Hazekamp et al., 2010). Especially weak animals be suffering sublethal vibes tend to yeet to the seabed instead of being washed ashore.

Species be hella different, fam

The chances of being entangled, how intense it is, and what happens all depend on a bunch of factors. These things are like, the vibes of the animal, like how it eats, how big it is, how it acts, where it gets stuck, and what kind of trash is around it (Butterworth et al., 2012). The legit chance of wildlife getting tangled up with trash totally depends on the animal's vibes, how they eat, how big they are, where they're at, how they act, and the environment, like the waves and stuff. The way species get all tangled up depends on the animal's body shape and vibes, ya know? Like, young seals, for instance, they be gettin' all caught up around their neck or body near their front flippers when they stick their head through plastic, rope, or monofilament loops. It's like a thing seals do, maybe 'cause they're curious or just havin' fun, who knows? Cetaceans and turtles may get yeeted on ghost fishing line or net around the mouth, flippers or tail that then can get tangled round the whole body. Yo, getting caught up in those lost trawl nets or whatever totally adds extra drag on an animal, fam. A study showed, like, a 400 g piece of net totally boosted the energy requirement for a Californian Sea Lion by, like, four times fold (Feldkamp, 1985). OMG, like, these tangled milk-producing Northern Fur Seal moms spend way more time in the ocean getting their grub on compared to untangled animals. And, like, the babies of tangled moms have, like, lower chances of surviving than other babies (Delong et al., 1990).