Category

Sea Turtles

UN Proposed Fishing Limits Welcomed

By Sea Turtles

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

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REVISED: Fishing Gear a Death Trap for Sea Turtles

By Sea Turtles

(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.

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Worldwide TV Premiere of New Sea Turtle Documentary

By Sea Turtles

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.

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New Report: Longlines Annually Capture and Kill 4.4 Million Sharks, Billfish, Seabirds, Sea Turtles and Mammals in the Pacific

By Marine Mammals & Seabirds, Sea Turtles, Sharks

Although there have been recent efforts to “mitigate” the devastating impact of industrial pelagic longlines on sea turtles, the problem is not limited to these species. Pelagic longlines are literally wiping out the lions and tigers of the ocean—sharks, billfish and tunas. Industrial longline fishing results in an extensive catch of non-targeted species as “bycatch” creating a global marine biodiversity crisis.

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“Last Journey for the Leatherback?” to Be Screened in Boston This Week

By Sea Turtles

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). The documentary will be screened during the annual 2004 Earthwatch Institute Annual Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge Massachusetts November 5-6. The documentary will be screened at 10AM and 3PM on November 6.

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