Turtle Island Restoration Network

Forest Knolls, California—New proposed guidelines issued last December by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to address the plight of critically endangered Pacific leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles is set for a vote March 7-11. Specifically, the guidelines recommend that fisheries posing the greatest threats should be subjected to “temporary and spatially-limited controls.” The recommendation to limit fishing in certain areas is welcomed by environmentalists who urge the UN to specifically identify and take action on some of the hot spots of turtle-fishing interaction.

Program Broadcast Nationwide Andy Peri of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project’s Mercury Awareness Program was featured in the second half of this week’s Ecotalk episode broadcast nationwide on Air America….

Forest Knolls, California—New proposed guidelines issued today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have repeated the recommendation of an earlier panel of experts that immediate attention be given to the plight of critically endangered Pacific leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles. Specifically, the report recommended that fisheries posing the greatest threats should be subjected to “temporary and spatially-limited controls.” Environmentalists are welcoming the recommendation to limit fishing in certain areas, and are urging the UN to specifically identify and take action on some of the hot spots of turtle-fishing interaction

(Forest Knolls, CA)-—New fishery observer data has shown that every endangered olive ridley sea turtle caught by the Hawaiian longline tuna fleet was killed. Additionally, because the fishery has exceeded its annual legal allowable catch and kill limits of threatened olive ridley sea turtles, environmentalists are urging the closure of the fishery and a more comprehensive solution to protect marine life which includes a United Nations Pacific-wide moratorium on industrial longline fishing.

Forest Knolls, CA — The nonprofit Sea Turtle Restoration Project has released the new documentary, Last Journey for the Leatherback? by the Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Stan Minasian (dir. The Last Days of the Dolphins?, The Free Willy Story: Keiko’s Journey Home). Last Journey for the Leatherback? will make its worldwide television premiere to 24 million U.S. homes on Link TV (DIRECTV channel 375 and Dish Network channel 9410) on Friday, December 10, 2004 at 20.00 (EST). The film will also air three more times on Saturday, December 11.

Andy Peri of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project was interviewed with Bonnie Jean Primbsch on KUSP’s Talk of the Bay on December 6, 2004. Click here to listen to the…