Long-line fishing
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Long-line fishing is a commercial fishing technique that uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from a single line. Swordfish, tuna and Patagonian toothfish are commonly caught by this method. It is also practiced on a smaller scale in New Zealand, where a twenty five hook maximum is prescribed by law.
Longlines can be set to hang near the surface, for instance in tuna fisheries, or on the sea bottom, such as in the Patagonian toothfish fishery.
Long-line fishing is controversial because the lines can lead to significant bycatch, often of endangered species such as sea turtles, petrels and albatrosses. Methods to mitigate such incidental mortality have been developed and successfully implemented in some fisheries. These include the use of weights to ensure the lines sink quickly, the deployment of streamer lines to scare birds away from the baited hooks as they are deployed, setting lines only at night with ship lighting kept low (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.
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