May 5, 2014 — Local fishers have won a hard-fought battle against environmentalists working to ban the use of controversial gill nets, which are notorious for snagging unintended victims in their underwater synthetic webs.
A bill in the state Legislature that would have likely shut down a local swordfish and thresher shark drift gill net fishery failed its first committee hearing despite widespread support from ocean and environmental advocates.
Assembly Bill 2019 was killed last week on a 7-6 vote in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. Now, state National Marine Fisheries Service officials are considering transferring the fishery (which is in federal waters) to federal jurisdiction. NMFS’s Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet this week to discuss that as well as alternative fishing methods.
Supporters of AB 2019 were as surprised by its failure as members of the fishery, who have long contended with public criticism. Many gill net fisheries have been constrained or entirely shut down across the country, and those that remain are constantly looking for new technologies to reduce the rate of so-called bycatch.
“There were quite a few of us that were pretty close to having tears running down our face when the judgment came,” said Arthur Lorton, who has fished swordfish off California since gill nets were permitted in the 1980s. “I was very worried about it. If we were shut down, swordfish in restaurants would come from the southern Pacific, where stocks are as healthy and fishing isn’t as scrutinized.”
Read the full story at The Daily Bulletin