Tell Our Senators to Support a Ban on Gillnet Fishing

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

Cast out in the dark of night for 12 hours at a time, a fishing gillnet is a dangerous tool used to trap fish by their gills — but that’s not all they’re catching and killing.

Gillnets are nonselective in their catch, meaning an innocent seabird could get caught by its wings or an unsuspecting dolphin could become trapped by its fins.

Right now, there’s a bipartisan bill ready to ban this practice and prevent these senseless deaths. We just need to win our U.S. senators’ support. Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=44591 to tell Sens. Patrick J. Toomey and Robert P. Casey to support a ban on gillnet fishing.

From deep sea turtles to seagulls and everything in between, our ocean ecosystems all depend on each other in a beautiful but fragile web of life.

As our marine ecosystems face increased pollution, overfishing and rising ocean temperatures, they can’t afford any more senseless — and preventable — deaths.

Yet gillnets cause just that: One study found that gillnets were responsible for nearly half a million seabird deaths each year.¹ Another study uncovered that gillnets killed more than 50 porpoises in one California bay.²

In total, the wall of dangerous netting formed by gillnets traps and kills at least 60 marine species other than the fish they’re meant to catch.³

So we’re calling on Congress to stop this dangerous practice. Are you with us?

For an unsuspecting dolphin or sea turtle swimming under the moonlight, a run-in with a gillnet could yield deadly consequences. Trapping and even drowning some animals before they expire, these nets have no place in our waters — especially when there’s plenty of safer alternative fishing nets.

A previous Congress agreed that we need to get rid of gillnets — a similar bipartisan gillnet ban passed until it met President Trump’s veto.

Now that we have a new administration in the White House, the ban has a better chance of becoming law and saving our marine life. That’s why we need you.

Tell your senators: Vote “yes” on the gillnet ban.

1. Michael Wines, “Fish Nets Found to Kill Large Numbers of Birds,” The New York Times, June 12, 2013.
2. NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, “California harbor porpoises rebound after coastal gillnetting stopped,” Science Daily, January 21, 2021.
3. Darlene Superville, “Trump vetoes California fishing bill over seafood trade deficit,” USA Today, January 1, 2021.