Trump Dumps Rule to Stop Whale, Sea Turtle Drownings
Terrible news for marine mammals and sea turtles up and down the Pacific Coast: The Trump administration has cancelled an Obama-era proposal to limit the number of imperiled whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be injured or killed by swordfish gillnets off California, Oregon and Washington.
Gillnets are set out overnight to drift freely where marine animals feed, creating dangerous, mile-long invisible curtains that entangle species like fin whales, humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins and leatherback sea turtles. Once trapped in gillnets, nontarget wildlife can eventually drown -- and when fishermen haul their nets to the surface in the morning, they're just dumped back into the ocean, whether dead or injured.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.