March 19, 2014 — In recent years, the National Marine Fisheries Services estimates that boat strikes by recreational boaters, who are also not required to report hitting sea turtles, are the second highest non-fisheries related cause of mortality in loggerheads, a threatened species along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.
Representing recreational fishermen, the Coastal Conservation Association North Carolina reacted Monday to last week’s Notice of Intent (NOI) filed by the N.C. Fisheries Association and the Carteret County Fisheries Association to sue several federal and state agencies for violations of the Endangered Species Act.
Maintaining the ESA should be applied equally, the violations allege that while the agencies require commercial fishermen — those who provide restaurants and markets with seafood — to report any interaction with sea turtles, recreational fishermen have been exempt. And between Jan. 1 and Sept. 6, 2013, the N.C. Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network reported 28 strandings of endangered or threatened sea turtles directly attributable to hook and line fishing, or 45% of all strandings reported in that period.
And in recent years, the National Marine Fisheries Services estimates that boat strikes by recreational boaters, who are also not required to report hitting sea turtles, are the second highest non-fisheries related cause of mortality in loggerheads, a threatened species along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The NMFS said the hulls or propellers of recreational fishing boats injured or killed 15% to 20% of loggerhead.
The agencies to be sued are the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Commerce, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, N.C. Environment and Natural Resources and N.C. Wildlife Resources.
The CCA claims no more than 25% of the turtle strandings in North Carolina and 4% of gear caused sea turtle fatalities are attributable to recreational hook and line fishing.
“Plaintiffs’ notice of intent significantly mischaracterizes the relative threat of recreational marine resource users to the conservation and recovery of protected sea turtles as compared to the documented threat to conservation and recovery presented by commercial gear users,” said the CCA.
Representing the fishery associations, attorney Stevenson Weeks, with the Beaufort firm of Wheatly, Wheatly, Weeks, Lupton & Massie, said his clients did not mischaracterize anything. “They only quote from the various turtle plans prepared by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
Read the full editorial at the Carteret County News-Times