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Announcements & News |
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Reminders
Abalone
Cook-Off This is coming up! You can attend the Cook-Off while in Mendocino on Oct. 6-7, but to eat abalone you must have purchased tickets in advance. The Cook-Off is held on Hwy 1 -- just north of Mendocino -- from 12 pm to 3 PM Phone Number: (707) 937-5397 (Call between 11am -4 PM) Our club has booked the Mendocino cabin for the weekend. See page 5. Upcoming Meetings November 14 December
- Christmas Party Join the Club! Dues are $35 and include CenCal membership Contact our treasurer Carol Reed at seareed@barbarycoastdivers.org to join. (For information on CenCal, see their website at http://www.cencal.org)
Ossifers, Ossifers I mean Club Officers! Start thinking now about who you want to nominate for the positions of President and Vice President. Bring your nominations to the next club meeting. Treasurer will stay in the capable hands of Carol Reed, and newsletter editor will stay in the hands of yours truly, unless there is a coup, which Carol and I would probably welcome! -- Catherine Zandonella
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At our next club meeting, Wednesday, November 14 Our special guest will be Ron Gaul, who will talk about the SEA TURTLE RESTORATION PROJECT POB 400/40 Montezuma Avenue o Forest Knolls, CA 94933 PH. 415 488 0370 o FAX 415 488 0372 o EMAIL rgaul@igc.org -- http://www.seaturtles.org The Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP) has launched "Reform California's Gillnet Fisheries Campaign" with a speaking tour and media campaign statewide to bring pressure to bear on the state and federal government to reform these wasteful and destructive fisheries. There are 9 different gillnet fisheries in Calif. The three biggest gillnet fisheries target halibut, swordfish/thresher shark and white sea bass. The California Drift Gillnet Fishery for swordfish and thresher shark presently has more than 80 vessels that fish offshore, primarily from the Mexican border to Pt Sur in Monterey County. Drift gillnets can be over a mile long and up to 158 feet wide, the equivalent size of 16 football fields (or 948,000 square feet). They are attached to the stern of a fishing boat and allowed to drift below the ocean surface during the night. The nets, by law, must be pulled up before 2 hours after sunrise. By then, most captured marine life has drowned. Since 1990, 4 species of threatened and endangered sea turtles have been killed by all the gillnet fisheries, including the critically endangered Pacific leatherback, often at numbers exceeding the "allowable" incidental take set by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. Threatened species like loggerhead, green, and olive ridley turtles are also caught in these nets. Also since 1990, Over 20 species of marine mammals have been killed in the swordfish gillnets alone. This includes the endangered sperm and humpback whales. Some large whale species are able to break through the net and escape, but remain entangled and may die later. These distressed species do not make it into the official mortality statistics, which totaled an estimated 188 marine mammals in 2000. Nine species of shark are killed in these nets. Over 3,000 blue sharks were estimated dumped overboard dead in year 2000 alone, over twice that amount in previous years. Many non-shark species of fish are discarded dead as unmarketable. This is mostly due to the bruising and mangling that these nets cause to the fish. Other species are dumped because they are not considered palatable. Over 20 species of fish were discarded in 2000 for these reasons. Despite accumulating evidence of illegal takes under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS has not taken adequate action to regulate the fishery to protect these species. In fact, some of the target fish species are also in decline, and an honest evaluation of the viability of this fishery is needed. The Sea Turtle Restoration Project and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed two legal actions in 2000 to reform California's gillnet fisheries. One action was a 60 day notice against the halibut gillnets north of Pt Conception, which were killing sea otters and a sea bird, the common murre. This forced the DFG to effectively close the central coast gillnets by pushing them out to 60 fathoms in April 2001. The other action was a lawsuit filed to close the swordfish drift gillnet fishery. This action is achieving limited success. In response, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued regulations on August 24th, 2001, that will close areas off northern California and Oregon from August 15 to November 15. This closure is supposed to save most of the leatherback sea turtles from being killed in the swordfish gillnets, but it is not enough. Other sea turtles, marine mammals and seabirds are still dying in these nets. Non-target species Killed in CA Swordfish Drift Gillnet
Fishery Total Estimated Mortality, 1990-2000 Whales Killer whale (6)
Philosophy & Mission: The Sea Turtle Restoration Project fights to protect endangered sea turtles in ways that make cultural and economic sense to the communities that share the beaches and waters with these gentle creatures. With offices in California and Costa Rica, STRP has been leading the international fight to protect sea turtle populations worldwide. The goals of STRP are to:
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Updated: 10-01-01
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