Photo: Jonas Von Werne | Unsplash
During July the U.S. Senate approved the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act, "a bipartisan bill to phase out harmful large mesh drift gillnets utilized in the federal waters off the coast of California." California was among the last states in the United States where the use of these large mesh drift nets were still allowed. This method is already forbidden in the U.S. territorial waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. The problem with these nets is that they not only catch swordfish, but also dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions and other endangeredspecies; these animals are either injured or killed in the process and later largely discarded. "The bill would phase out the use of the nets and help the industry transition to more sustainable methods like deep-set buoy gear that uses a hook-and-buoy system."
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