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Action Alert: Longliners want to target conservation area again

| General Government Relations

The East Florida Coast Pelagic Longline Closed Area has been closed since 2001 after it was determined that longlines were killing too many juvenile billfish and swordfish in this known nursery area. Since then, the closed zone is a conservation success story. Now, industrial harvesters have re-filed the application under suspicious circumstances, and thousands of marlin, sailfish and swordfish are projected to be discarded dead over the term of the permit.  Tell the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to reject this new application (scroll down for instructions and a sample message you can use).

Originally framed as a "research project," the new application was filed by Florida Fisheries Solutions LLC. The co-applicant on the permit is Day Boat Seafood Inc., which owns or is associated with all of the longline boats that would be authorized to fish in the conservation zone. They would not only be allowed to sell the fish caught under this permit, but could sell the rights for other boats to fish as well. The permit proposes to make 22 times as many longline sets than deemed necessary to be scientifically sufficient for a similar permit in 2008. 

Send a message to your representatives urging them to reject this permit. This will be the only opportunity conservationists in the region will have to voice their opposition so act today.

How to send a message:

  1. Click here to go to the Council’s online comment form.
  2. Fill out the name, email address, address, and participation sections.
  3. In the “Agenda Item” section, check the box for “Other.” 
  4. Copy the Sample Letter below and paste it into the “comments” section. Please feel free to add your own thoughts.

Sample Letter

As an angler who is committed to conservation, I urge you to reject the application for a permit that would allow longline fishing in the East Florida Coast Pelagic Longline Closed Area.

A known nursery area, longline-fishing has been excluded from the closed zone since 2001. Since then, the closure has been widely considered to be a conservation triumph. If approved, thousands of marlin, sailfish and swordfish are projected to be discarded dead over the term of the permit in the name of questionable science.

We should not risk reversing the amazing fishery recovery by allowing this destructive gear to return.

Please do not support this application and direct NOAA Fisheries to keep this important area closed to longliners.

Thank you very much for your consideration.