Longline fishing banned in Gulf near Florida
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and federal regulators are closing the longline reef fishery off Florida for six months this year because the gear is thought to interact with too many threatened sea turtles.
Regulators are also considering cutting the longline fleet down to vessels with a yearly average of at least 40,000 pounds of reef fish and closing certain shallow depth areas each year between June and August when turtles are most abundant.
An individual fishing quota (IFQ) program for grouper and tilefish will be implemented and will help reduce fishing effort and catches of sea turtles. In the meantime, a compromise was reached to help save sea turtles and enable some fishermen to stay in business.
Since regulators’ plans are expected to exclude over 50 percent of longline vessels from the fishery, EDF is helping those vessels switch to vertical line gear, which is expected to catch fewer turtles. Financially stable fisheries and communities are essential to achieving conservation goals, so EDF has coordinated a grant program to help pay for up to 50 percent of the conversion.
Questions and program application requests can be directed to Dave McKinney at dmckinney@edf.org or 512.691.3409 or to Marcie Jones at mjones@edf.org or 512.691.3419.