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Halt Deadly California Gillnet Fishery Expansion

Enough is Enough - Stop the California Drift Gillnet Expansion and End the Curtain of Death

The California drift gillnet fishery for swordfish and shark continues to capture and kill dolphins and sea lions, and to toss back, dead and damaged, 20 to 30 percent of its catch of fish. The capture and deaths of two endangered sperm whales were observed in the drift gillnet fishery in 2010, equal to an estimated total of 16 whales caught and injured or killed in the fishery.

Because the drift gillnet fishery is so deadlly to marine life of all kinds, it has been severely restricted. The use of longline gear to catch swordfish along our coast has been completely banned due to bykill of sea turtles. Yet federal fishery officials in defiance of longstanding California state policy and conservation laws are trying to expand this unsustainable fishery again!

Take Action! Tell National Marine Fisheries Service and the Pacific Fisheries Management Council to halt any further action to expand the California drift gillnet fishery for swordfish and shark or to introduce a pelagic longline fishery for swordfish and sharks off the U.S. West Coast.

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Subject:

Your Letter:

Dear National Marine Fisheries Service and Pacific Fisheries Management Council,

I am writing to urge the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (the Council) to halt any further action to expand the drift gillnet fishery for swordfish and shark or to develop a new pelagic longline fishery for swordfish and sharks off the U.S. West Coast.

Drift gillnets have been banned on the High Seas and along most of the U.S. West Coast because of high bycatch of marine life including endangered whales, dolphins, sea turtles, shark, tuna and other non-target fish. Recently two endangered sperm whales were entangled and killed in the California drift gillnet fishery. That is why it's called the curtain of death!

It makes no sense to invest taxpayer dollars in or support controversial federal efforts to develop a pelagic longline fishery for swordfish when the State of California and the Pacific Fisheries Management Council have already taken actions to prohibit it due to the high levels of bykill associated with the fishery and the take of endangered and threatened species.

Several new developments to protect endangered sea turtles along the West Coast must be considered in relation to the swordfish and shark fishery, including the designation of nearly 42,000 square miles of ocean as critical habitat for the endangered Pacific leatherback and the uplisting of the Pacific loggerhead from threatened to endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

For these reasons, I urge you to stop the plan to expand the swordfish fishery before it goes any farther. Instead, I urge you to begin to phase out the drift gillnet fishery along our coast, permanently ban longlining under any circumstances and to support sustainable fishing practices that don't compromise the health of endangered species, fisheries and our oceans.

Sincerely yours,

Dan Wolford

Pacific Fishery Management Council
7700 NE Ambassador Place
Suite 101
Portland, OR 97220-1384
US

Rod McInnis

National Marine Fisheries Service
501 W. Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200
Long Beach, CA 90802
US

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