A letter from Jonathan Gonzalez is attached to this presentation (last pages)

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1 A letter from Jonathan Gonzalez is attached to this presentation (last pages)

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10 Agenda Item E.2.c. Supplemental Public Comment June 2014 Ms. Dorothy M. Lowman Chair Pacific Fishery Management Council 7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 101 Portland, Oregon RE: Agenda Item E.2 Drift Gillnet Fishery Transition Issues My name is Jonathan Gonzalez and I am from Santa Barbara, California. I am not a fisherman, a scientist or an environmentalist. I represent the public at large. I am a fulltime graphic artist that wants to spend my short time here on earth trying to do my part to protect what I love for generations to come. I spent 4 years volunteering as the Assistant Director of the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center, and now I spend my free time as a volunteer advocate for responsible fisheries. I want to start with a sincere thank you to you all. I m proud to be an American and I m very proud that I can say with confidence that our fisheries management is better than any other country in the world. I believe that PFMC has a lot to do with that so once again I thank you all. Americans demand swordfish The U.S. consumes more swordfish than any single country in the world Domestic swordfish production supplies less than 25% of U.S. demand What countries do we import swordfish from? Singapore leads the way in swordfish imports that come through California ports, exporting 1,601,763 kilos of swordfish to California ports between 2012 and What do we know about Singapore? Singapore reports zero swordfish catches to the FAO and acts primarily as an intermediary, re-exporting fish between large-scale exporting countries and large-scale importing countries Transshipping fish products obscures the true source of the fish Singapore s sharp growth in swordfish imports to the U.S. coincides with Taiwan s industrial fisheries boom of the early 1990 s, indicating Taiwan as the principal source of swordfish transshipments through Singapore What do we know about Taiwan? Swordfish are caught by Taiwanese long line fisheries that target tunas (and sharks) and have a long history of being guilty of many forms of IUU fishing such as shark finning The vast majority of the Taiwanese swordfish catch comes from the Indian Ocean and according to the IOTC, overfishing of swordfish in the Indian Ocean is likely occurring in recent years as the catch level is above the estimated maximum sustainable yield and possibly not sustainable

11 Agenda Item E.2.c. Supplemental Public Comment (cont.) June 2014 What is restricting domestic swordfish production? Regulations combined with season-round area/time closures limit fishing opportunities From 2000 to 2013, the number of actively fished DGN permits has dropped from 119 to 19, an 84% decrease CA DGN fishery landings have declined by 68% during this same period Overall, the number of California commercial fishermen has dropped 75% since 1980 Comparing East/West coast swordfish fisheries The Atlantic southeast pelagic longline swordfish and tuna fishery (which is MSC certified) logged 1,137 sea turtle interactions between 2001 and 2008 and 308 dolphin interactions between 2007 and The CA DGN swordfish fishery (a.k.a. Curtains of death ) observed only 2 sea turtle interactions between 2001 and 2008 (both of which were released alive) as well as 35 dolphin interactions between 2007 and The best action for the Council to take now is no action at all We are here to discuss 3 main issues regarding the CA DGN fishery and all 3 issues have either been resolved or require more time to resolve. The Council has instructed the HMSMT to help clarify a list of objectives and a timeline for transitioning the DGN fishery, and I worry this puts the cart before the horse. New information presented today by the TRT as well new economics and bycatch data comparing all gear types that target swordfish sheds new light on this complicated situation and should be taken very seriously by the Council. Oceana, TIRN, PEW and TNC s proposals all call for the eventual sunsetting of the DGN fishery while new information suggests this may not be warranted. The CA DGN fishery continues to suffer from an image problem and I believe that a second West coast swordfish information sharing workshop in the near future would benefit all parties involved. It would be a shame for the Council to move too fast and overlook recent scientific information that supports continued DGN fishing in California. I thank you for the Council s transparency and the opportunity to speak to you directly. Thank you, Jonathan Gonzalez EatUSseafood.com