A recently released poll commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts supports what Turtle Island has been saying for a while: a healthy majority of Californians support banning driftnet fishing off our coast.
According to the poll:
After poll respondents learned more about the pros and cons of fishing with drift gillnets, support for an outright ban rose to 86 percent, and strong backing for it rose to 66 percent.
A deadly fishery
The California drift gillnet fishery for swordfish and shark is the most dangerous fishery for whales and other marine mammals along the U.S. West Coast from California to Alaska.
Over the past decade, 885 dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals were caught in the large-mesh drift gillnets targeting swordfish and shark.
The ~20 vessels operating in the drift gillnet fishery accidentally capture and kill more whales and marine mammals than any other observed fishery along the U.S. West Coast.
While drift gillnets are no longer used in Oregon, Washington and the High Seas because of their deadly toll on endangered wildlife, California’s drift gillnet fishery targeting swordfish and thresher shark continues to operate.
Nets, as long as the Golden Gate Bridge, are set to “soak” overnight, and catch and drown marine animals indiscriminately.
Want to help us ban this destructive fishery?
Click here to sign our petition. Join more than 27,000 caring people who have already added their names to the petition.
