Bosphorus fish stocks crash as huge trawlers snatch the catch

Bosphorus fish stocks crash as huge trawlers snatch the catch

Source: thenational news

11/25/2022

Bosphorus fish stocks crash as huge trawlers snatch the catch

Credit: AFP

Despondent Sunday anglers watch crestfallen as a trawler winches an enormous net out of the waters of the Bosphorus.

"Clear off!" they shout from the shore, impatient to get their hooks back into the depths of the strait that runs through Istanbul.

"I have been here since 6am but a trawler came and dropped its nets. That blocked us completely," said Mehmet Dogan, fed up at having caught only one fish all day, a 40cm bonito.

It is high season for the popular variety of tuna, with shoals teeming through the Bosphorus on their way from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

But pulled taut across the strait are fishing nets more than a kilometre long.