July 31, 2025 — The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Friends of the Earth plan to sue NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Coast Guard over vessel strikes on whales and sea turtles off the coast of California.
According to CBD, neither NOAA Fisheries nor the Coast Guard have properly analyzed how California shipping lane designations could contribute to vessel strikes on whales or sea turtles.
November 6, 2024 — The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group, in partnership with the Gulf of Mexico Menhaden Fishery, has completed a project assessing methods for observing sea turtle interactions during fishing operations and determined that electronic monitoring proved the most effective.
The goals of the Developing Methods to Observe Sea Turtle Interactions in the Gulf of Mexico Menhaden Purse Seine Fishery Project (Menhaden Project) were to test methods to observe the Gulf of Mexico Menhaden Fishery, collect data on the nature and extent of interactions with sea turtles, and identify ways to work with industry partners to establish voluntary measures to avoid and reduce interactions in the future. After testing a range of observation methods during the 2022 and 2023 fishing seasons, the project has completed implementation.