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For Immediate Release, February 7, 2011

Contact:  Todd Steiner, Turtle Island Restoration Network, (415) 663-8590 x 103, cell (415) 488-7652 or Teri Shore, Turtle Island Restoration Network, (415) 663-8590 x 104, cell (707) 583-4428
Paul Achitoff, Earthjustice, (808) 599-2436
Marti Townsend, KAHEA, (808) 372-1314
Miyoko Sakashita, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 436-9682 x 308

Endangered Sea Turtles Saved From Capture in Hawaii Swordfish Fishery

Settlement Means Fewer Loggerheads Will Be Hooked by Deadly Longlines

HONOLULU— Fewer rare sea turtles will die on the swordfish industry’s longlines in Hawaii under an agreement between environmental groups and the government that settles a lawsuit challenging the feds’ plans to dramatically increase the number of turtles that could be killed. The Center for Biological Diversity, KAHEA and Turtle Island Restoration Network sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for allowing 46 imperiled Pacific loggerhead turtles to be hooked last year; the new court-ordered settlement caps the number at 17 per year. Meanwhile the Fisheries Service is weighing whether loggerheads need more protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“It made absolutely no sense to have one arm of the Fisheries Service increasing the lethal capture of loggerheads, while the other arm is in the process of determining whether loggerheads should be uplisted from threatened to endangered,” said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. “With extinction looming, these animals need more protection, not less.”

Conservation groups represented by Earthjustice filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 2009 rule allowing the swordfish fleet to catch nearly three times as many loggerhead sea turtles as previously permitted. This settlement freezes the number at the previous cap of 17 while the government conducts additional environmental studies and decides whether or not to classify the loggerhead as endangered, rather than its current, less-protective status of threatened. For leatherback turtles, the bycatch limit remains at 16 per year. Already in 2011, four loggerheads have been caught in the longline fishery, according to the Fisheries Service.

“Sea turtles have been swimming the oceans since the time of dinosaurs. But without a change in management, they won’t survive our voracious quest for swordfish and tuna,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center. “If loggerheads are going to survive in the North Pacific, we need to stop killing them in our fisheries.”

“Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are nearly extinct, so this bycatch rollback helps right a serious wrong,” said Teri Shore, program director at Turtle Island Restoration Network. “We can’t allow these rare sea turtles to disappear for a plate of swordfish. It’s tragic that it took a lawsuit to correct this fishery problem.”

Swordfish longline vessels trail up to 60 miles of fishing line suspended in the water with floats, with as many as 1,000 baited hooks deployed at regular intervals. Sea turtles become hooked while trying to take bait or become entangled while swimming through the nearly invisible lines. These encounters can drown the turtles or leave them with serious injuries. Sea birds such as albatross dive for the bait and become hooked; marine mammals, including endangered humpback whales and false killer whales, also sometimes become hooked when they swim through the floating lines.

“With this decision, Hawaii's public-trust ocean resources can be better managed for our collective best interest, and not just the interests of this commercial fishery,” said KAHEA program director Marti Townsend. “This is a victory not just for the turtles, but for Hawaii's people who rely on a healthy, functioning ocean ecosystem.”   

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Turtle Island Restoration Network is a nonprofit environmental organization committed to the study, protection, enhancement, conservation, and preservation of the marine environment and the wildlife that lives within it. TIRN has approximately 30,000 members, many of whom reside in the state of Hawaii, and has offices in the United States and Costa Rica.

KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance is a community-based organization working to improve the quality of life for Hawaii’s people and future generations through the revitalization and protection of Hawaii’s unique natural and cultural resources. We advocate for the proper stewardship of our resources and for social responsibility by promoting multi-cultural understanding and environmental justice.

Earthjustice is a nonprofit, public-interest, environmental law firm. The Mid-Pacific office opened in Honolulu in 1988 and has represented dozens of environmental, native Hawaiian, and community organizations. Earthjustice is the only nonprofit environmental law firm in Hawaii and the Mid-Pacific, and does not charge clients for its services.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 320,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


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