August 2, 2011
CEO Note: A New Victory for Sustainable Seafood and Healthy Oceans
I have some great news to share with you today. After a long legal battle, Oceana has succeeded in compelling the the federal government to reliably measure bycatch on the East Coast. Bycatch is the fish and wildlife that is thrown overboard, dead or dying, in the process of catching seafood.
Why is this important? Bycatch is one of the greatest problems facing the oceans today. It damages marine ecosystems by needlessly killing fish and wildlife, and it contributes to overfishing, further threatening our wild seafood supply. Worldwide, 16 billion pounds of bycatch are thrown overboard every year. This waste is tragic and completely unnecessary. The government needs to know the extent of bycatch in order to control it.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is required by law to count and report bycatch, but until Oceana’s legal victory, its Northeast region refused to do so. After a clear decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the federal government will establish a clear system for reporting bycatch, including determining how many observers needed on board commercial fishing ships in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.
Oceana has fought bycatch for a decade now, and our campaigns have succeeded in saving thousands of sea turtles from shrimp trawls and longlines in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, as well as multitudes of birds, sharks, dolphins and fish from illegal driftnets in the Mediterranean.
With your support, we’re making the oceans a safer place for wildlife and a better source of sustainable seafood.