On Friday, President Donald Trump vetoed a bill planning to gradually ban the use of large-mesh drift gillnets deployed exclusively in federal waters off the coast of California. Large-mesh drift gillnets are notorious for accumulating high levels of bycatch- incidental capture of non-targeted species such as sharks (Le Fol, Gwendal). Trump claims that such legislation would increase reliance on imported seafood and worsen a multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit.
Trump also claims that the proposed bill “will not achieve its purported conservation benefits.” Sponsor of the bill Dianne Feinstein D-Calif. says that Trump’s veto “has ensured that more whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and other marine species will be needlessly killed, even as we have a proven alternative available.”
According to the fishing bill’s sponsors, large-mesh drift gillnets are left in the open ocean overnight to catch swordfish and thresher sharks. The gillnets measure between 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) and 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and can extend 200 feet (60.9 meters) below the ocean surface. At least 60 other marine species can also become entangled in the nets where they are injured or die, claim the bill’s sponsors.
The use of large-mesh gillnets is illegal in U.S. territorial waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The nets are also banned off the coasts of Washington state, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii. However, the gillnets remain legal in federal waters off the coast of California.
California passed a four-year phaseout of large-mesh drift gillnets in state waters in 2018. The bill vetoed by Trump planned to extend similar protections to federal waters within five years. The bill also authorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to help commercial fisheries switch to more sustainable fishing gear.
Trump believes that Americans will import more swordfish and other species from foreign sources without this fishery. The West Coast drift gillnet fishery is subject to “robust legal and regulatory requirements” for environmental protection that equal or go beyond protections applied to foreign fisheries, Trump claims.
Diane Feinstein vows to “reintroduce the bill on the first day of the new congress” and will push for quick enactment once Joe Biden takes office on January 20th.