On April 17th, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” in an effort to amp up our nation’s seafood production, which threatens decades of bipartisan progress in protecting marine ecosystems from capitalization. This Executive Order also ordered a review of all existing marine national monuments with the goal of opening them to commercial fishing.
Although commercial fishing is an important economic resource, industrial fishing gear – longlines, trawls, purse seines and gillnets to name a few – is far from environmentally sustainable and negatively impact our oceans. Such types of gear damage seafloor habitats, disrupt food webs, trap high numbers of both target and non-target species and contribute to devastating levels of bycatch. Bycatch on this scale impacts endangered whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks and seabirds as well. Simply put, amplifying our nation’s fishing efforts under E.O. 14276 is dangerous, irresponsible and will cause irreversible harm to our oceans.
Join us in taking action today and submit your comment to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Please urge NOAA Fisheries to protect our oceans from further commercial exploitation! The comment period closes on Tuesday, October 14th.
