Conservationists worry that the reopening of fishing grounds closed since 2002 off the coasts of Oregon and California could put the turtles at a greater risk of entanglement.
Catherine Kilduff from the Center for Biological Diversity said the initial ban was to protect rockfish, which have rebounded in population since then. But, she said those same areas being opened up also overlap with critical feeding habitat for leatherback sea turtles in Central California.
“That means that there’s likely to be an increase both in the number of leatherbacks that are entangled and the diminishment in the value of this critical habitat,” Kilduff said. “The fisheries service was obligated to analyze those impacts to leatherback sea turtles but they didn’t.”
The reopening of the fishing area was decided at the beginning of December. It allows fishers to once again deploy fish pots in this area, to catch species like sablefish which live near the ocean floor.
These pots are traditionally connected together with long ropes that are attached to a buoy floating on the surface. This makes the pots easy to collect when the boat returns. But, it also means marine mammals like sea turtles can get their flippers caught in the floating ropes.
“Once they get line wrapped around them they are stuck and anchored to the bottom,” Kilduff said. “And because they breathe air they drown if they can’t reach the surface.”
The National Marine Fisheries Service declined to comment on the lawsuit. But, in a response to public comment about the issues, it said there’s been no documented interaction with sea turtles in the area that’s reopening since 2008.
“NMFS is not aware of any information, and CBD has failed to provide any supporting information, that indicates that the action presents a notable increase in potential exposure to sea turtles,” the response said.
Kilduff said a lot has changed since the fisheries service released their latest 2012 Biological Opinion on the threat to leatherback sea turtles. She’d like to see the agency re-analyze the threats to the turtles, and find out ways to reduce their risk of entanglement.
“It might mean changing the gear,” She said. “For example, using pop-up gear, which is a pot that has a buoy that is remotely triggered once the vessel approaches so that the vertical line is not in the water unattended.”
Kilduff said these kinds of traps are more expensive than the ones that use ropes, which is why they aren’t used as much. She said they’d like to see the fisheries service mandate the use of these traps.