Loggerhead sea turtles are teetering so close to the brink of extinction that the entire longline grouper fishing industry might need to shut down to give the species a chance to survive.
Longline grouper fishermen and environmentalists thought they had found a balance this spring with new fishing regulations, protecting threatened loggerhead turtles and salvaging a struggling fishing industry.
But new studies on the loggerhead population and an analysis of the proposed fishing rules made it clear Tuesday that longline fishing’s threat to the turtles had been underestimated.