By Todd Steiner
When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) allowed the sablefish fishery to expand into designated critical habitat for leatherback sea turtles, Turtle Island and Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) went into action and filed a federal lawsuit challenging the opening of nearly 2,000 square miles of leatherback sea turtle critical habitat to sablefish pot fishing.
The legal action, filed August 14, 2024 challenges the unlawful issuance of a regulation to allow sablefish pot fishing in nearshore waters off the West Coast that threaten this critically endangered species. The motion seeks summary judgment on their Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and asks the Judge to vacate the sablefish pot fishery Reopening Rule.
The West Coast pot fishery for the bottom-dwelling sablefish — also known as butterfish or black cod — strings 15 to 50 fish pots on the seafloor to a surface buoy. Leatherbacks and whales can get tangled in the lines that attached the pots to the buoys leading to serious injury and death. The new rule expanded fishing in new areas including crucial feeding areas off California’s central coast in the Cordell Bank, Greater Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries.
A simple solution to this problem could be accomplished with a new regulation requiring to convert to new ropeless or “pop-up” fishing gear, see https://seaturtles.org/ropeless-gear-can-help-save-the-lives-of-whales-and-sea-turtles/. The groups are asking the court to vacate the sablefish pot fishery Reopening Rule.
Turtle Island and CBD now await the decision of Federal Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín.
Read the summary judgement here: https://seaturtles.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/46-Pls-MSJ-2024-08-14.pdf
Learn more about the lawsuit and sablefish pot fishery threat to leatherbacks here: https://seaturtles.org/lawsuit-aims-to-protect-pacific-sea-turtles-from-fishing-gear/
