Lawsuit seeks more turtle safeguards against longliners

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

Environmentalists have filed a new lawsuit aimed at further restricting longline fishing to protect endangered sea turtles.

The Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, on behalf of the Turtle Island Restoration Network and Center for Marine Conservation, argues in its suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service that new regulations still fail to protect leatherback and green sea turtles.

"We're open to any possibility to try to ratchet down the number of turtles they kill," said Tim Echenberg, Center for Marine Conservation program counsel.

The Hawai'i Longline Association last month filed its own suit against the fisheries service, claiming that the existing regulations are too restrictive and that the fishery does not threaten the survival of turtle species.

Hawai'i's longline fishery for swordfish has been closed entirely and the tuna longline fishery limited as the result of earlier legal actions brought by the environmental organizations.

The Hawai'i tuna longline fishery is prohibited from fishing during April and May in the waters from 15 degrees north latitude southward to the equator.

"This is the time of year the fleet is normally going down south, and that's been closed to them," said Paul Dalzell, pelagics coordinator with the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

About one-third of Hawai'i's longline fleet — 35 to 40 of 110 boats — has left the state, Dalzell said. Most are boats that did not have the equipment aboard to convert to efficient tuna fishing.

Data from on-board observers suggested that swordfish fleets took most of the turtles, he said.

But the environmental groups counter that for critically endangered species, even a small number may still be too much.

Eichenberg said the fisheries service's own biological opinion indicates that any loss of leather-

back turtles further threatens the survival of the seriously endangered species.

"The fisheries service has a duty to ensure that (its regulatory actions are) sufficient to bring the take of turtles beneath the jeopardy threshold," said Paul Achitoff, attorney with Earthjustice.

"You cannot authorize a fishery to kill an endangered species where that killing is likely to jeopardize its existence."