Pacific Loggerhead Conservation Area Closed to Drift Gillnets to Protect Sea Turtles - Oceana

Victory | June 1, 2016

Pacific Loggerhead Conservation Area Closed to Drift Gillnets to Protect Sea Turtles

On May 19, Oceana and its partners requested NOAA Fisheries meet its legal responsibility to close Southern California waters from swordfish drift gillnets to protect endangered loggerhead sea turtles. Unusually warm ocean waters – triggered by El Niño conditions – have brought young loggerhead sea turtles into southern California waters to feast on small, pelagic red crabs. Once the sea turtles arrive off the California coast, they risk drowning from entanglement in mile-long nets. NOAA Fisheries closed the Pacific Loggerhead Conservation Area on June 1 as requested.