“Long lines are a done deal,” Dr. John Hunter, December 8, 1999

Pacific Fishery Management Council clears the way for controversial long line Exempted Fishing Permit for Southern California Bight © The Sportfishing Conservancy

Pacific Fishery Management Council clears the way for controversial long line Exempted Fishing Permit for Southern California Bight.

That "Long lines are a done deal" sentence was uttered to Bob Osborn in 1999 when the threat of instituting a commercial long line fishery in the Southern California Bight looked unavoidable. Dr. Hunter directed the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) Highly Migratory Species (HMS) plan team back then and to all concerned, long lines did look inevitable.

Since then however, Bob Osborn and many other dedicated professionals and organizations have maintained a continuous presence at the Council level, successfully working for the substitution of less destructive, more selective fishing gear for the west coast. Bob has served on the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel now for over two decades.

His background as a CPA has allowed him to search out details that while in the past might have been overlooked, have proved instrumental in conforming fishing practices to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and providing viable alternatives to traditional long lines. One of those alternatives, deep set buoy gear has shown to be effective at reducing bycatch, thus providing a conservation based alternative to long lines.

However, a new threat of long lines in the Southern California Bight emerged at the Pacific Fisheries Management Council meeting on Saturday, September 11. This time the threat comes from, of all places, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

CDFW representative, John Ugoretz, put forth a modified long line proposal that while answering some problems with this highly destructive gear ignores the fact that it will be employed untested in the Bight. Why is this so important? Threatened sharks, marlin and Bluefin tuna are frequent visitors to the Bight and in need of conservation, not a new, untested "Exempted Fishing Permit" long line fishery that the Ugoretz proposal calls for.

A wiser approach would be to continue incremental experimentation within the successful Deep Set Buoy Gear exempted permit program. DSBG offers a well-researched and trusted platform with existing participants ready and willing to take on the research necessary to further develop the west coast commercial fishery for swordfish.

A special thanks goes out to Bob for researching the potential problems this long line fishery presents and a courageous thanks goes out to Cory Ridings, newest member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, for understanding the drawbacks of experimenting with this potentially highly destructive gear and voting accordingly. Thank you and hats off to both!

Tight lines,
Tom