Conservation groups have threatened to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service if the agency does not act to protect endangered sea turtles from longliners in the Gulf of Mexico. (See “Loggerheads Dying on Gulf Longlines” in the Conservation Front section of the January 2009 Florida Sportsman.)

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A recent government analysis reported 974 captured turtles (799 of which were loggerheads) from longline vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. This is more than three times the number of loggerheads the NMFS authorized the fishery to take under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Loggerhead nesting populations in Florida have dropped by over 40 percent in the past 10 years. Nesting on both the east and west coasts are affected by Gulf longline turtle slaughters.

The coalition—including the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Gulf Restoration Network and Turtle Island Restoration Network—asks that the commercial bottom longline fishery be suspended until the National Marine Fisheries Service “meets its legal obligations under the ESA to ensure that the fishery does not imperil sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico.”

The west coast of Florida is ground zero for longliners, but also home base to certain endangered sea turtle populations. Sea turtles become hooked on longlines carrying thousands of hooks targeting groupers and tilefishes. The same baits that attract grouper and tilefish draw turtles searching the ocean floor for mollusks, crustaceans and fish. Longlines are indiscriminate killers which drown the hooked turtles, sometimes as deep as 40 fathoms, by preventing turtles from breaching the surface to breathe.

"The use of longlining in the Gulf of Mexico is tragic,” said Carole Allen, Gulf office director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. “Loggerheads, Kemp's ridleys and other sea turtles die caught by a fishing method that has no regard for the waste it entails and the death of endangered species.”

Recreational anglers in the Gulf know shrimp trawlers and longlines lay waste to juvenile red snapper in the form of bycatch. If turtle advocates and recreational grouper fishermen can come together, there may be an opportunity to go after the destructive and unfair practices of Gulf longliners.

CCA Florida strongly recommends that the Gulf Council and National Marine Fisheries Service take emergency action to prohibit bottom longline gear in the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida.

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THE COUNCIL WILL VOTE ON THE ISSUE NEXT WEEK- January 27 and 28
SEND EMAILS TO: Dr. Thomas McIlwain, Chairman, Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council gulfcouncil@gulfcouncil.org