Long Lines Up Close

It is increasingly en vogue to be enviornmentaly aware, friendly, or just plain green. In becoming so, long lines become an enemy. Long lines are something most people seem to have heard about these days. But they don't effect most people, no matter how enviornmentaly concious they are. It is nice to recycle at home where a garbageman conveniently picks up your recycling from in front of your house. Not buying bottled water in tiny plastic bottles even helps cut down on pollution. These are ways to help the world we live in. My camera seems to continuously find itself infront of situations that defy and laugh in the face of people who make efforts to help our world. Yesterday one of those situations arose. About 25 miles offshore of Costa Rica we ran into a long line that had probably been in the water less that 8 hrs. We were looking for spinner dolphins and bait balls in the hopes of filming them. We had seen lots of the spinner dolphins several days previous. Instead we found a few miles of long line. On it we found a green turtle that had taken the squid bait, and gotten hooked. The long lines are after tuna, sharks, swordfish and marlin. The turtles are just a by catch that gets disposed of. We took a moment to take some pictures and film the scene before releasing the turtle. It is ironic that the tin can which held some tuna, and is now being recycled in a far off place, has affected this turtle so far out to sea. It is just another example of the imbalance present in the world. I'd like to thanks my brother Ben for his amazing photography, and Capt. Rick of the Kingfisher for helping us out this week.