December 31, 2023 — The Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network sued the National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday, accusing the federal agency of failing to protect endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtles and their habitats from sablefish trapping gear that can injure or kill the turtles.
The groups seek to block a Dec. 1 rule that allows pot fishing for bottom-feeding sablefish in protected coastal areas near Oregon and California that have been closed since the early 2000s.
Leatherbacks get tangled in pot traps, causing them to drown to death or become seriously injured, the plaintiffs say, contributing to dwindling populations: If current trends keep up, leatherbacks may be effectively extinct in the West Pacific within 20 years.
“It’s horrific that hungry leatherback sea turtles have to navigate a vast maze of fishing pot strings after migrating thousands of miles to California,” Catherine Kilduff, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release.