A Second Fishery Management Council Votes to Protect Deep-Sea Corals
A new press release has been posted to the Oceana Web site
(http://www.oceana.org):
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A SECOND FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL VOTES TO PROTECT DEEP-SEA
CORALS
(http://northamerica.oceana.org//index.cfm?sectionID=10&fuseaction=35.detail&pressreleaseID=202)
October 5, 2004 (WASHINGTON, DC) -- Delivering a second major
victory for the oceans in two weeks, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery
Management Council unanimously voted today to accept the recent
New England council decision to protect deep-sea coral
communities in New England and mid-Atlantic submarine canyons
from destructive monkfish bottom trawling gear. These decisions
are the first indication that fishery managers are using new
scientific research to protect invaluable marine life, such as
deep-sea corals.
The Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils
manage the monkfish fishing area that runs from New England down
to North Carolina. By adopting the Oceana-supported amendment to
the monkfish management plan that includes significant
protections for deep-sea corals in the ocean off New England and
the mid-Atlantic, they are setting the example for other fishery
management councils around the nation to make similar decisions.
The amendment bans fishing for monkfish by bottom trawling and
gill-netting in the Oceanographer and Lydonia canyons, where
marine scientists have identified and studied large deep-sea
coral communities. The decision also limits the size of the
bottom trawling roller gear and rockhopper gear on the mouth of
the nets to no more than six inches in diameter in the submarine
canyon areas off the shores of the mid-Atlantic states known as
the "southern management area" of the monkfish fishery...
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Read the complete release on Oceana's Web site:
http://northamerica.oceana.org//index.cfm?sectionID=10&fuseaction=35.detail&pressreleaseID=202
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