All Caught Up

Introduction

The issue of by-catching has many different points of view. Three of the main perspectives are:

Fishermen who are trying to make a living
By-caught dolphins and turtles that innocently lose their lives as a casualty of the economic market,
The average consumer who wants to be able to buy seafood at an affordable price.

How can we reduce the number of dolphins an turtles that are being caught while also meeting the needs of fishermen and consumers?

Task

1. Research the problem with by-catch to create an awareness of the issue.

2. Design an innovative fishing net that could be used to eliminate by-catching. Think about how you could avoid catching large prey while still catching smaller prey.

Make a sketch of your net
Build a prototype
Test it out - you can use large and small balls as your 'prey'
Improve upon your design

3. Demonstrate your design to the class. In your demonstration, make sure to include the following:

A discussion about the problems associated with by-catch and the connection between by-catch and extinction. Are there any animals that are endangered because of by-catch?
An explanation as to how your net works to prevent by-catch.
A demonstration of how the net works.

Learning Targets

Biodiversity and Evolution Step 5: Understands why organisms that once lived on Earth have completed disappeared.