Hard-to-swallow hooks save turtles in Latin America

From a Reuters article by John McPaul posted on Planet Ark:

PUNTARENAS, Costa Rica - Endangered sea turtles accidentally caught by fishermen off Latin American coasts usually die but innovative hooks that are too big to swallow are increasingly saving the reptiles' lives.

The use of circular-shaped hooks lets fishing crews more easily remove hooks from the mouths of loggerhead, leatherback and other turtles caught up in long lines meant to catch fish and prevents them from bleeding to death.

Four years ago, the World Wildlife Fund conservation group, or WWF, began encouraging long-line fishermen from Ecuador to Mexico to replace traditional J-shaped hooks, which fish and turtles tend to swallow, with various sizes of circular hooks.

Unlike the J-shaped hook that has its point parallel to the shaft, the circular hook points toward the shaft and is also wider, making it more likely that it will lodge in the lip rather than the throat or stomach, which is fatal, the WWF says.

The WWF believes close to 250,000 endangered turtles, as well as thousands of sea birds, sharks and sea mammals, are accidentally caught every year by long-line fishermen, who troll the ocean with lines strung with thousands of hooks.