I strongly oppose raising the limits of the number of sea turtles allowed to be
caught in the Hawaii-based shallow-set longline swordfish fishery. Every death
or injury of a sea turtle in this fishery has serious consequences for their
future survival. Allowing more sea turtles to be killed or injured in the
swordfish longline fishery means jeopardy for the species. Even holding the line
on the existing fishery as proposed in "Alternative 1A" is unlikely to be
protective enough. All other alternatives proposed in the regulation (1B to 1F)
are completely unacceptable.
The expansion of the Hawaii-based longline fishery would:
• Violate the Endangered Species Act (ESA) because the ESA requires NMFS to
ensure that sea turtle populations not only continue to survive, but recover;
• Violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act because the Hawaii pelagic longline
fishery is known to injure and kill humpback whales and false killer whales, but
NMFS has yet to take the required steps to reduce fishery-related harm to these
species;
• Violate the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MTBA) because the existing
Hawai'i-based longline fishery kills migratory birds that are protected under
the MBTA and an expanded fishery will kill more; and
• Violate the the Magnuson-Stevens Act because this federal law requires fishery
managers to end overfishing immediately and rebuild overfished populations of
bigeye and yellowfin tuna, not increase catch levels of these species in the
Hawaii longline fishery.
Please count this comment as one individual.
Thank your for seriously considering my views.
Comment from Robert Redmon
This is comment on Proposed Rule
International Fisheries Regulations; Fisheries in the Western Pacific; Pelagic Fisheries; Hawaii-based Shallow-set Longline Fishery
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