Gillnetters get the boot

Latest victory protects Pacific sea turtles

Posted by Andrew Sharpless (Guest Contributor) at 2:03 PM on 20 Jun 2007

Read more about: oceans | wildlife | fishing

Endangered leatherback sea turtles migrating from an Indonesian beach to feed on jellyfish off the Pacific coast have one less obstacle to overcome.

NOAA has denied issuance of the special exempted fishing permit required for gillnet boats to operate in an area of coast stretching from central California to central Oregon, during the time critically endangered leatherback sea turtles are feeding there.

Commercial fishing operations kill an estimated 10,000 sea turtles annually while harming an additional 334,000. Sea turtles are often drowned when they are inadvertently caught in gillnets.

This is a huge victory for the oceans, as scientists have observed an average of just 178 leatherbacks each year, feeding off this stretch of the Pacific Coast.

For story: Gillnetters get the boot
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Drift gillnets are still legal?

The back story here is that drift gillnets are still legal. Most people think we banned drift gillnets in the 1990s, following bad publicity. Drift gillnets up to 2.5 kilometers are still widely used, and lots of other harmful fishing practices are still used. When will we get serious about fixing problems in our oceans?

by Mark Powell at 3:55 PM on 20 Jun 2007

Hurrah!

As an ex-gilnetter myself I'm glad that the exemption passes will not be allowed. All environmental reasons aside it would be a source for resentment and further arguments in a dying community. Not to mention that the permits would probably all be snatched up by larger operations and family fishers would still get nothing.

Preserving a wild area for any breeding species is essential to preserving the biodiversity of creation and in spite of the difficulties this creates for fishers it must be done.

by Grevangelical at 3:58 PM on 20 Jun 2007

Keep the good news coming

Maybe protecting biodiversity will catch on.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 4:28 PM on 20 Jun 2007

good news?

Yes, of course it is good news. And God forbid that the perfect should be the enemy of the good.

Still, it is interesting to observe that at this stage in the moral evolution of many people, we are very concerned about what harm such fishing gear as gillnets do to cetaceans, pinnipeds and sea turtles, but not nearly so concerned about the targeted species of bony and cartilaginous fishes.

In fact, there is not a single technique used for hunting and killing fish which can possibly be considered humane.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:06 PM on 21 Jun 2007

on a fairly distant note ...

... but not essentially unrelated at all: Hopefully those Gristmill readers who are interested in biodiversity (and are as frustrated as I, perhaps, that the subject of endangered species does not find a regular forum in Gristmill) have seen the unusually good essay by Verlyn Klinkenborg:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/opinion/19tue4.html?em& ...

His immediate subject is the Audubon Society's caution regarding the steeply declining counts of a number of previously very numerous North American birds. But he makes observations which deserve to be extended to what we are doing about all species, including marine wildlife off the Pacific coast.

VK suggests that we are fools, not to be alarmed when population statistics for a particular species have dropped from, say, 500,000 to 5,000 in a matter of decades. "Well, there are still 5,000 of them out there, so we must be doing something right, no?" No. We should pay attention to the "missing" 495,000, and should realize, with a sense of extreme urgency, that whatever we did to kill them off, is before long going to kill off the last 5,000.

This point of his is applicable to all endangered species, including leatherback turtles.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 3:01 AM on 22 Jun 2007

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