Ocean Sentry
In a move to protect sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, federal regulators announced Wednesday they are restricting a fishing technique used to catch red grouper in waters off the Florida west coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the use of long fishing lines with hooks and squid bait would be banned from May 18 to Oct. 18, when sea turtles feed in the warm Florida coastal waters.
The ban comes after studies showed that as many as 1,000 sea turtles were being snagged every 18 months in long-line gear. The practice involves baiting lines and laying them on the bottom of the ocean bottom. Of the 1,000 sea turtles caught, scientists estimate that about 800 were loggerheads, a threatened species.
Regulators are looking at cutting the fleet of long-line boats and banning the long-line gear during the prime feeding months for sea turtles between June and August.
The temporary ban was praised by conservationists.
“This is going to be a major benefit to sea turtles, especially the loggerheads that are threatened with extinction,” said David L. Allison, a senior campaign director at Oceana. “This is a prime feeding area for sea turtles that nest all the way up to the Carolinas.”
(From fortmilltimes.com, by Cain Burdeau)
