Gulf Restoration Network

Help Protect Sea Turtles from Longline Fishing

NOAA turtle image Sea turtles will soon start crawling ashore to nest on beaches throughout Florida and the Gulf of Mexico in a magnificent ritual that's millions of years old. But, unless we do more to protect sea turtles in the Gulf, fewer turtles will reach the beaches to nest.

Sea turtles are getting snagged on commercial fishing lines that stretch for miles. Turtles foraging along the continental shelf grab the bait and drown before fishermen retrieve their miles long lines.

In Florida alone, the number of loggerhead sea turtle nests plummeted by 40 percent in the past decade. Please ask the National Marine Fisheries Service to do more to protect these threatened species.

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February 09, 2010

Subject:

Dear Dr. Lubchenco:

The National Marine Fisheries Service must act quickly to protect threatened and endangered sea turtles from death and injury in the Gulf of Mexico bottom longline fishery.

In 2005, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) determined that up to 113 “hard-shell” sea turtles (loggerheads, Kemp’s ridley, hawksbill, and green turtles) could be caught by longline fishing boats during a three-year period without jeopardizing the species’ survival.  The most recent data indicates the bottom longline fishery far exceeded the turtle take authorization.

Between July 2006 and the end of 2007, the government estimates that the Gulf of Mexico bottom longline fishery, which targets reef fish like grouper and tilefish, resulted in the capture of nearly 1,000 threatened and endangered sea turtles – more than eight times the number allowed - and that in more than 80% of these incidents, the turtles were injured or killed.

The continued operation of the bottom longline fishery in the Gulf is likely to result in the continued death and injury of sea turtles. The loggerhead turtle faces an especially serious threat from Gulf longline fishing due to the severe nesting decline over recent years. The level of takes in the commercial bottom longline reef fish fishery is impeding the recovery of loggerhead sea turtles and continued longline fishing will result in the continued death and injury of the loggerhead, jeopardizing the future existence of this species and possibly other hard-shell turtles.

In January, the Gulf Fishery Management Council submitted a resolution to NMFS requesting that it close the bottom longline fishery until analysis can be done to ensure that continued fishing will not jeopardize the sea turtles.  In response to pressure from conservation groups, the agency published a request for comment on potential emergency action in the Federal Register, accepting comments until March 27. However, NMFS has not yet taken action to address this problem, instead allowing the bottom longline fish fishery to proceed with business as usual.  Satellite tracking data shows that loggerheads frequent the area used by the bottom longline fishery and past observer data from this fishery shows that sea turtles are regularly captured during the spring.  Therefore, continued bottom longline fishing is very likely to cause further harm to loggerheads and other sea turtle species.

I write you to ask that your agency and the new administration fulfill its duty under federal law. I am calling on NMFS to halt the Gulf of Mexico bottom longline fishery until it can analyze what measures are necessary to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

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