Turtle Island Restoration Network joined a coalition of various NGO’s including Natural Resources Defense Council, American Cetacean Society, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Endangered Habitats League, and Ocean Defenders Alliance in support of our recent request to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to authorize ropeless gear for the commercial Dungeness crab fishery.
Ropeless gear reduces or eliminates the presence of vertical lines and offers a means to continue fishing when whale and/or sea entanglement risk is high. Authorization of this gear is a key milestone toward advancing solutions that provide opportunities for fishermen to continue fishing during periods of elevated entanglement risk while continuing to prevent whale and sea turtle entanglements.
To read the letter, find it here.
