They're back—bigger and more dangerous than ever. We're talking about driftnets—the great indiscriminate killer of marine life—and Italy's continued illegal use of them.

Driftnets are large gillnets set at or near the ocean surface to catch pelagic fish such as herring, mackerel, or tuna. Left to drift at sea, driftnets entangle everything that swims into them, including non-targeted fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles. Once caught, the animals have no way out. Non-targeted species in driftnets can make-up an estimated 85% or more of a catch, an effect which has earned driftnets the ominous nicknames, "walls of death and "scourges of the seas."

In 1989, the United Nations called, in an unanimous resolution, for the elimination of all high seas driftnets by 1992. The European Union followed suit and banned all sizes of the deadly nets, effective in 2002. Despite this, the fight to eliminate driftnets continues.

In August 2005, prompted by evidence of Italy's continued use of the nets in violation of the ban, Humane Society International (HSI), called on U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez to take steps against Italy under the U.S. High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act of 1992 for the country's ongoing and illegal use of driftnets. The act would allow the U.S. government to impose trade sanctions against Italy.

Italy's Deadly Defiance

Disregarding the European ban on driftnetting, Italian fishers persist in using enormous driftnets for a second summer running. Most nets average between 7–12 miles in length, but one set of nets found last summer demonstrated how willing fishers are to flaunt the law: It measured approximately 48 miles in length.

HSI has worked in Europe on the driftnet issue for more than a decade. In 1998, HSI filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for failing to enforce the U.S. High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act on Italy for illegally driftnetting. While the United States did not enforce an embargo, the court did rule that illegal driftnetting was occurring. As a result of the suit, and rather than monitor driftnet use on the basis of size, the EU placed a ban all high seas driftnet fishing, effective 2002. To facilitate the ban and ease the transition for the fishing industry, fishers were given a buyout to convert to other forms of fishing, or to leave fishing altogether. A conversion schedule was also installed to give fishers ample time to change their practice or to get out of the business.

Despite this, Italy continues to ignore the ban both in practice and in policy. In a series of laws passed between April 2004 and early 2005, the Italian government gave fishers permission to use small-type driftnets. The laws provide a form of legal sanction for Italian driftnet fishers, who have continued using the large nets once out at sea. Equally troubling is evidence that some of the fishers who took the EU buyout money are back—with bigger and more damaging nets.

A 67-day monitoring project conducted in the Mediterranean by HSI—in conjunction with The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and an Italian scientific institute, DELPHIS—during the summer of 2005 found that Italian fishers not only used large-scale driftnets but also avoided detection through illicit actions. On some vessels, the fishers had constructed false panels behind which they hid their large nets—only sliding the panel back and using the nets when they were sufficiently far off shore to go undetected. In other instances, they would strategically place side buoys to cover the license numbers on the boat, forestalling reporting of illegal driftnetting.

The Mediterranean is an important marine habitat—and marine life losses have clearly occurred due to driftnets. Last year's monitoring discovered one large sperm whale found floating dead, with striation marks across it—clear indications that it had been a victim of driftnets. In another instance, the Italian Coast Guard worked by hand for several hours cutting nets to free a mother and calf sperm whale deeply tangled in them. By early August, reports of dolphin and whale moralities from the nets had already rolled in from the 2005 fishing season.

Addressing the Problem

Informal discussions with the U.S. government, the Italian government, and the EU Fisheries Commission have failed to stop illegal activities. Bilateral discussions between U.S. and Italian officials have fared no better. Consequently, Humane Society International is asking the U.S. Commerce Department to activate the first stage in the U.S. High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act. 

The act requires, among other actions, that the Secretary of Commerce publish a list of nations whose nationals or vessels conduct large scale driftnet fishing and that those nations be denied port privileges. In addition, the act provides for ongoing action by the Secretary of Commerce to add to the list if a "reason to believe" exists that such activity is taking place. 

This could ultimately result in embargoes on fish and fish products, such as jewelry from the sea (cameo and mother of pearl), from Italy. 

"Hitting the Italian fishing industry in the pocketbook may be the only way to get the Italian government's full attention on how serious these violations are for marine mammals and other sea life," said Betsy Dribben, chief European representative for HSI.