Commercial Fisheries

Representatives from the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) regularly provide testimony to Congress, federal agencies and state officials on commercial trawl and longline fishery issues affecting sea turtles. The challenge to protect sea turtles in commercial fisheries is to ensure that fishermen develop new methodology and gear to reduce bycatch because they understand that bycatch reduction does not prevent them from making a living. By modifying gear and techniques to protect endangered sea turtles and other non-target species, fishermen can improve their efficiency and help to safeguard marine ecosystems.

Promoting bycatch reduction within various Regional Fishery Management Organizations will be a cornerstone of STC’s work as these agreements have enormous potential to reduce sea turtle capture.

Fishing boat with trawl nets

Need to reduce sea turtle bycatch

Impact of trawl and longline fishing

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) outlined an implementation schedule for its strategic plan to reduce the accidental capture of sea turtles (known as bycatch) in numerous state and federal fisheries in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. NMFS addresses sea turtle capture in federal fisheries through consultation mandated by Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, but until now, state-managed fisheries and fisheries without a Management Plan have not been regulated. Because certain types of gear are more likely to capture sea turtles than others, the plan will address sea turtle bycatch by gear type rather than addressing specific fisheries. Sea Turtle Conservancy endorsed this approach and has urged NMFS to move expeditiously to develop and implement new regulations for trawl fisheries. This is a multi-step process with several opportunities for public input, including an advanced notice of rulemaking, proposed regulations, and final regulations.

STC has urged NMFS to dedicate the resources necessary to support the comprehensive strategy and work with the states to reduce sea turtle bycatch. We will closely monitor the development of new trawl regulations and provide comments as needed. With regard to the comprehensive strategy, we have asked NMFS to move forward on the characterization of other potentially disabling and fatal gear for sea turtles, such as gill nets and pot fisheries, so that it will not take another five years to begin to address problems in these fisheries.