Need help Getting lost fishing nets out of the sound.

S

starcrafttom

Active member
As you may know, PSA, Fish NW, and CCA have been working since the 2011 session to pass SB 5661, that requires mandatory reporting of lost or abandoned commercial fishing gear. Current state law merely “encourages” reporting of these “ghost nets” and the system clearly hasn’t work with only 2 reports of lost nets since 2002. Annually this deadly gear kills tens of thousands of fish (including endangered salmon and rockfish), birds and other wildlife and harms important underwater habitat.
SB 5661 is now on the floor of the Senate and needs to pass the Senate by 5:00 PM Tuesday night or it is dead. The bill also received a big boost from Senator Val Stevens, when she pulled the bill to the Senate Floor on Saturday. The bill is also supported by People for Puget Sound, Sierra Club, Audubon, Trout Unlimited, Puget Sound Anglers, Wild Fish Conservancy, Nature Conservancy, Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Scuba Alliance.

Many PSA Chapters have helped in funding removal of the derelict gear and some of have worked on the boats removing it. This derelict gear kills 850,000 mammals, birds, fish, and crustaceans every year. Please act now!

We need you to contact your Senate NOW and urge them to support the passage of SB 5661.


Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/psa/57WEcR4M.aspx
 
Ghost nets are bad news. Some buddies and I came across one a few years ago while diving on the most pristine New England reef's you could imagine called Burnham's Ledge. It covered the complete reef and had dead sharks, fish, lobsters, seals, you name it. It was pretty awful actually. One of my buddies tried to cut a BIG lobster free and got entangled a bit himself. I freed him without incident and then (stupidly) tried to cut the lobster free myself. I mean it was *almost* out and I thought for sure I could do it. 5 minutes later a portion of the net was starting to make it's way around me and I had to abandon it. I eat fish and lobster but it just pisses you off to see this.

I posted on a local scuba website to see if I could drum up volunteers - I also contacted a scuba charter outfit that frequents the reef to see if they would help. A lot of people were apparently aware of it and this dive outfit used their vessels and volunteer divers to pull it up. This is not something you could pull into a C-Dory - you would definitely needed a crane and a lot of deck space. Anyway it was gone the next time we dove there.

Good luck with the effort in CA.
 
Some years ago my son and I went through the locks rafted to a Corps of Engineers vessel. Their job was to ply up and down the sound picking up hazards to navigation. In the short time we had to BS with a crewman he told about the stuff like this and the logs and other flotsam and jetsom they have to deal with. (They also told us where the fish were biting.)
 
You can also support, both financially and politically, the activities of the Northwest Straits Commission derelict gear removal project.

http://www.derelictgear.org/

Sadly this is a problem wherever non-biodegradeable gear is used to harvest fish/shellfish. In addition to informing harvesters of the need to report lost gear, eyes on the water reports to the proper authorities can go a long way to addressing this issue.

jd
 
Great news! Thank you to all that helped in sending in your emails to the Senate yesterday and we were heard.

SB 5661 passed the Senate with a vote of 47-1. We want to recognize the efforts of Senators Sharon Nelson (D – Maury Island) – the bill’s primary sponsor, Senator Kevin Ranker (D-Friday Harbor) –who pushed for a floor vote, and Senator Val Stevens (R-Arlington) –who pulled it from the Senate Rules Committee.

The bill now goes to the House where it will be referred to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. We urge you to contact your House Members supporting SB 5661. With the strong vote in the Senate the bill now moves onto the House, where it may receive a hearing as soon as this week. PSA, Fish NW, NSIA, and CCA have been working since the 2011 session to pass SB 5661, that requires mandatory reporting of lost or abandoned commercial fishing gear. Current state law merely “encourages” reporting of these “ghost nets” and the system clearly hasn’t worked with only 2 reports of lost nets since 2002. Annually this deadly gear kills 850,000 fish (including endangered salmon and rockfish), birds, mammals, and crustaceans and harms important underwater habitat.

There are an average of 11-20 nets lost per year that restarts the repetative killing cycle of our marine life. Letting these "killers" constantly wipe out our marine life can be minimized by immediate reporting, so they can be removed quickly before catastrophic damage occurs. There has been a massive clean up of this gear to date so we need to keep it cleaned up. Please contact the House Committee Agriculture and Natural Resources Representatives now and urge them to help pass SB 5661 and lets help conserve our Puget Sound.

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