Protecting marine turtles and the jobs of fishermen at the same time is no doubt a tough task. Florida’s shoreline has been engulfed by oil and gas development and is critical to the long-term economic and sustainable future of the state. In May this year the federal government has informed Florida’s commercial longline fishermen along the entire Gulf Coast they could not go fishing — for at least five months and possibly longer — for fresh grouper prized by restaurants and fish markets across the state. That was because baited fishing hooks used by grouper fishermen.
It is fact that the Florida economy, like that of the rest of the nation, is facing difficult times. It has an unemployment rate higher than 10 percent and can ill-afford to lose another 2,000 fishing-dependent jobs. At the same time loggerhead sea turtles are a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. And federal law requires the government to undertake reasonable and prudent measures to protect them.
According to Nelson it is good to protect sea turtles but it is also important to support the working fishermen and women and the Florida coastal community businesses that depend on commercial fishing. Florida industry with the need to protect loggerhead sea turtles. It is informed that there has already been a significant amount of research devoted to cutting down turtle bycatch in other fisheries, namely the north Pacific tuna fleet.
