“The decline of the leatherback in the last five years is nothing short of catastrophic, and it is imperative that the global community come together to eliminate the use of the most destructive forms of industrial fishing before it is too late.”

—Dr. Sylvia Earle, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic

Protect Sea Turtles & Stop Longline Fishing / Pacific - Archived

The nesting population of Pacific leatherback sea turtles has plummeted from 91,000 in 1980 to fewer than 5,000 in 2002, a decline of 95%. Pacific beaches in Mexiquillo, Mexico and Playa Grande, Costa Rica that are famed for the annual arrival of thousands of nesting sea turtles, reported just 4 and 58 leatherback arrivals last year, respectively.

Marine scientists warn that unless immediate and significant steps are taken, the leatherback, which has swum the oceans since the time of the dinosaurs, will be extinct within 10 years. The plight of the world’s largest and most wide-ranging sea turtle may foreshadow a host of other extinctions.

What’s to blame, and what can be done? In an open letter to the United Nations printed in the New York Times on Feb. 18, over 400 scientists and 100 organizations said the main threat to sea turtles is longline fishing. Global Response joins a worldwide coalition in calling for a moratorium on pelagic (high seas) longline fishing and gillnetting in the Pacific.

According to the California-based Sea Turtle Restoration Project, longliners set up to 10 billion hooks in our oceans every year in their quest for swordfish and tuna. Longliners cast a fishing line up to 60 miles long on the ocean’s surface, dangling as many as 3,000 baited hooks at various depths depending on the fish they are targeting.

But longlining is non-selective; any bird, fish, or marine mammal that bites the bait or becomes entangled in the lines is caught. Worldwide, the accidental "bycatch" constitutes one quarter of the annual seafood catch and is thrown overboard, usually dead or dying. Approximately 40,000 sea turtles are caught and killed by longline operations each year, and 23 species of seabird are in danger of extinction due to impacts from longline fishing.

Longline fishing also contributes to the disastrous overfishing of ocean resources, leading to depletion and collapse of fisheries that provide the main source of protein for some 950 million people, mostly in the developing world. The United Nations reports that over 70% of global fish populations are now overfished or at the brink of being overfished, compared to just 5% reported only 40 years ago. In addition to the direct loss of a critical food resource, declining fisheries threaten the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and the tourist industry in coastal communities.

A moratorium on longline fishing in the Pacific, in combination with strict protection of nesting beaches, can save the leatherback from extinction, says Dr. Larry Crowder of the Marine Laboratory at Duke University. Dr. James Spotila of Drexel University predicts, “Longline and gillnet fishing in the Pacific will end during our lifetimes. It’s just a question of whether we stop now, while we can save the leatherbacks and provide help for the fishers. Or whether we’ll allow this fishery to collapse, at which point leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles will be long gone.”

Evidence of overfishing and wasteful bykill led the United Nations General Assembly to impose an effective ban on driftnet fishing in the early 1990s. Now is the time for equally decisive action to stop destructive longline fishing in the Pacific.

How You Can Help

Urge the United Nations to institute a moratorium on the use of longlines and gillnets in the Pacific.

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