A Win for HMS Conservation in the Pacific? Not So Fast…

While no action was taken by the federal Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) at its November meeting to advance further consideration of its recently proposed measure to consider authorizing a Shallow Set Longline (SSLL) fishery for swordfish in waters off California November meeting. The PFMC did authorize its governmental Highly Migratory Species Management Team (HMSMT) to analyze effort, catch, bycatch data of subsets of Hawaii’s shallow-set longline observer data, document domestic and foreign supply of swordfish on the west coast and Hawaii and current conservation impacts on each, assess potential mitigation of such impacts that might reduce the

TBF Responds to New Pacific Fishery Management Council Initiative

The Pacific Fishery Management Counsel is proposing to authorize the use of shallow-set longline gear to fish for swordfish off the West Coast of the United States. Below are the official comments by President of The Billfish