State Denies Request to Overturn 30-Year Ban on Long-Line Fishing

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 13, 2007 at 12:03 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The National Marine Fisheries Service asked a state agency to allow longline fishing off the California coast. That method of fishing has been banned by the state. The federal agency wants to test new

The National Marine Fisheries Service asked a state agency to allow longline fishing off the California coast. That method of fishing has been banned by the state. The federal agency wants to test new longline fishing gear as part of an experiment. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

The California Coastal Commission rejected a short-term permit to allow longline fishing for swordfish. Longline fishing uses 60-mile-long lines with thousands of hooks floating near the surface. But more than half of the fish caught aren't swordfish. Karen Steele is with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project.

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Steele: So that means for every 10 hooks set, 5-to-7 of these hooks actually catch a marine species that is not targeted by the fishery. So that's a significant amount of marine species that are being caught and killed in regards to you know, capturing a marketable fish.

She says the permit would have allowed use of longlines in critical habitat area for the endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle. The National Marine Fisheries Service recommended granting the permit. Rod McInnis is a regional administrator with the fisheries service in Long Beach. He says the agency disagrees with the decision.

McInnis: They're staff report includes some interpretations of data that we don't see as consistent with what's been demonstrated by the research that National Marine Fisheries Service has done.

He says the agency wanted to find out if updated fishing gear would reduce the injuries to other species. McInnis says the agency hasn't decided yet how to respond to the decision. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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