Oceana Calls on Fishery Management Council to Help Protect Threatened Species
Oceana Press Release (received via email) 4 Aug 09;
Alexandria, VA, August 4, 2009 – Oceana is calling for fast action to protect loggerhead sea turtles from destructive fishing gear today as the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) meets in Alexandria, Va. Two trawl fisheries managed by the MAFMC are catching illegal levels of loggerhead sea turtles, a species listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In the Mid-Atlantic alone, an estimated 770 loggerhead sea turtles are caught in trawl fisheries each year, many of these caught in the two MAFMC fisheries. Florida beaches, where most loggerhead nesting in the U.S. takes place, have seen nesting declines of more than 40 percent in the last decade.
“Every dead sea turtle counts,” said Elizabeth Griffin, marine scientist and fisheries campaign manager at Oceana. “The destructive practices of these fisheries are not only illegal, but are pushing loggerhead sea turtles towards extinction.”
The fisheries, summer flounder, scup and black sea bass and Atlantic mackerel, squid and Atlantic butterfish, are catching 10 times more sea turtles than what is authorized under their ESA permits. Without an avenue for escape, sea turtles likely drown when captured in trawl fishing gear due to forced submergence. If they do escape, they are often injured from the great stress of being netted and are left more susceptible to further injuries and death.
“The government knows these Mid-Atlantic fisheries are catching and killing illegally high levels of threatened sea turtles,” said Griffin. “It’s time for the Council to take a stand to reduce the impact of Mid-Atlantic trawl fisheries on loggerheads.
Turtle excluder devices (TED), escape hatches that allow sea turtles to escape from fishing nets, are not required in many trawl fisheries known to catch and even kill sea turtles. Trawl nets equipped with properly sized and functioning TEDs can lead to a 97 percent reduction in sea turtle entrapment.
To date, the only federal fisheries required to use TEDs in trawls are summer flounder and shrimp. Unfortunately, in the summer flounder fishery, TEDs are not required at all times when and in all areas where the fishery catches sea turtles. When TEDs are used in this fishery, their required size is often too small for larger turtles to escape through.
Oceana’s formal letter to the Council.
About the Summer Flounder, Scup & Black Sea Bass Fishery:
This fishery targets three species: summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), scup (Stenotomus chrysops), and black sea bass (Centropristis striata). Commercial fishermen target these species within the Middle Atlantic Bight – a coastal region ranging from Massachusetts to North Carolina. However, black sea bass are fished as far south as Cape Canaveral, Fla. These three species make up the majority of the Mid-Atlantic groundfish fishery and are managed under one fishery management plan because they occupy similar habitat and are often caught simultaneously.
The primary gear types used in this fishery are mobile trawl gear, pots and traps, gillnets, pound nets and handlines. Bottom trawling is the predominant fishing method for each species, landing 90 percent of summer flounder, 74 percent of scup and 56 percent of black sea bass. Landings are distributed differently among Atlantic coastal states by species and year. Recently, North Carolina is leading in summer flounder landings, Rhode Island in scup and Virginia in black sea bass.
About the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid & Atlantic Butterfish Fishery:
This fishery targets four species along the Atlantic coast: Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), short-finned squid (Illex illecebrosus), long-finned squid (Loligo pealeii) and Atlantic butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus). While a number of gear types are authorized for this fishery, mid-water and bottom trawls are most widely used.
About Trawl Fisheries:
Trawl fisheries operate by towing funnel-shaped nets through the water or along the seafloor. While trawls generally target specific species or groups of species, their unselective nature results in the catch of anything that is too large to escape through the mesh of the nets, including sea turtles.
About the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The Mid-Atlantic is one of eight regional Fishery Management Councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. The Council prepares fishery management plans designed to manage fishery resources from where state waters end, out to the 200-mile limit from New York to North Carolina. These waters are also known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Contacts: Dustin Cranor, 202.467.1917, 202.341.2267 (cell) or dcranor@oceana.org
Elizabeth Griffin, 202.467.1913, 202.271.5645 (cell) or egriffin@oceana.org
