WDCS welcomes NMFS move to ban gillnetting in Southeast Restricted Area
WDCS applauds that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for taking steps to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. On November 15th, 2006, the NMFS has announced that it will ban gillnetting in the Southeast Restricted Area, the only known calving are for this species. WDCS was part of a meeting last spring, recommending the closure in this area as a result of a female calf that was killed in a gillnet off of Florida last January. “We acknowledge the hardship to the fishermen that will result from the closure but believe the risk of entanglement to this particularly vulnerable portion of the population is too significant to gamble” said Regina A. Asmutis-Silvia, WDCS Sr. Biologist. In the last two years, at least 15 North Atlantic right whales have died, most as a result of ship strikes and entanglements in fixed fishing gear. WDCS will continue to work to save this species from extinction. If you’d like to learn more about this fishery closure, please go to: http://www.nero.noaa.gov/whaletrp/Emergency%20Rule_RW_Gillnet_11-15-06.pdf.
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