Saving Seafood

Fishing regulators look to reduce tangled turtles

February 15, 2017 — By Aug. 1, Chatham fisherman Jamie Eldredge has pulled the 200 conch pots he has in Nantucket Sound.

He has made the summer switch to fishing for dogfish in the Atlantic Ocean.

In doing so, Eldredge has avoided what has become a major headache for conch fishermen — large leatherback turtles that get tangled up in conch and lobster lines while pursuing jellyfish. In Nantucket Sound, a significant number of those turtles die, three times more than anywhere else in Massachusetts, and state fishery scientists are worried they may be targeted by a lawsuit charging they are not doing enough to protect an endangered species. In a series of public hearings held in coastal and island communities this month, they asked conch fishermen for ideas on how to deal with the problem.

State Division of Marine Fisheries officials think they know the answer: pull all conch pots in August.

“There’s something about that overlap of animals at that time of year, and what’s happening in the fishery, that’s very deadly for them (leatherbacks),” said Erin Burke, a Division of Marine Fisheries aquatic biologist specializing in endangered species.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

Scientists, fishermen fight to save leatherback sea turtles

October 11, 2016 — Despite strict protections off the West Coast, leatherback turtles are in danger in other parts of the Pacific, scientists and fishermen said at a conference called to celebrate California’s official marine reptile.

The meeting, held in La Jolla last week, offered a status update on the ancient marine species, in advance of California’s Pacific Leatherback Conservation Day on Oct. 15. With populations down by more than 90 percent since the 1980s, the animals are ranked as one of eight marine species at greatest risk of extinction, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

Fishermen and researchers say that U.S. fishing limits designed to keep leatherbacks from getting caught in nets may unintentionally lead to more ensnarement in countries where rules are looser. For the globally roaming species, it will take more than one country’s efforts to stave off extinction.

Leatherbacks are ocean-going leviathans that can weigh up to a ton, and swim nearly 7,000 miles across the Pacific, devouring jellyfish.

Read the full story at the San Diego Union-Tribune

$240K grant supports leatherback sea turtle study

August 18, 2016 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries $240,398 to study leatherback sea turtles off Cape Cod in areas considered to be dense with fishing gear, according to NOAA.

The work is expected to provide critical animal behavior and habitat data needed to develop fishing gear that would help address significant leatherback entanglement problems in Massachusetts, according to a statement from NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

New England boaters beware: Leatherback sea turtles are huge but hard to see

July 9, 2015 — It should be easy to spot leatherback sea turtles. They can weigh up to 850 pounds and grow up to 8 feet long.

But at sea their slick, black soft shell camouflages them, making them difficult for boaters and fishermen to see.

Each year as many as two dozen of the endangered species wash up along the Massachusetts coast, including a 560-pound, 5-foot-4-inch female adolescent leatherback found recently in Barnstable.

The turtle, which had signs of scarring from entanglement wounds around its hind flippers and evidence of a recent, more severe entanglement around its neck and left front flipper, was taken to the aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy.

Boat strikes and marine ropes are the most common human causes of leatherback deaths. Moorings and lobster trap lines are also dangerous.

“We want boaters to be aware,” said New England Aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse.

During July and August, these majestic giants travel up the coast past Cape Cod Bay and the South Shore to the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at the Swansea Herald News