A federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily has reinstated fisheries regulations that ban longline fishing for swordfish while protecting tuna longliners from prosecution if they accidentally hook sea turtles.
Wednesday's ruling in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia follows a decision last month that the biological basis for Hawaii’ s longline fishing regulations was flawed and needed to be redone.
Existing regulations were immediately vacated; meaning anglers could fish for swordfish again but would have no protection under the law if they harmed endangered species, notably sea turtles.
The new ruling puts the old regulations back in place for six months while the National Marine Fisheries Service and its partners establish a new set of regulations, due April 1.
"We are under the gun to get new regulations into place," said Jim Cook, legal liaison to the Hawaii Longline Association.
Some advances in fishing gear technology appear to reduce the bycatch of turtles, so it's possible some longline fishing for swordfish could resume, said Sam Pooley, acting regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu. But Pooley was not certain the new gear would suffice.
A key difference between bigeye tuna and swordfish fisheries is that the longlines are set deep for the tuna, where they are less likely to snag sea turtles. The shallower lines set for swordfish pose more of threat to the endangered creatures.
In the Atlantic, Pooley said, anglers have tried using different hook designs and different kinds of bait, and appear to have reduced sea turtle deaths from longline gear. He said his agency hoped to conduct trials of the new fishing gear in the Pacific, but he was not sure the results would be ready in time for the April 1 deadline.
Cook said he was pleased to see at least a chance of reopening the swordfish fishery. "We do not have a swordfish fishery in place in Honolulu because of these regulations now in place," he said.
Pooley said his agency planned to work through the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council to develop new regulations, and he hoped to include his agency, the council, the longliners and the same conservation groups that have taken the fishery and regulators to court to protect turtles.
The attorney for those conservation groups, Paul Achitoff of Earthjustice, was not available yesterday to comment.
Meanwhile, Hawaii’s longline boats, estimated to total 105, have continued fishing. Cook said he believed the crews were fishing for tuna and did not hook any turtles during the period when they were not protected by the regulations.
Pooley said he had not been informed of any turtle interactions by the fleet, though some of the boats are still at sea. "We have observers on about 20 percent of the trips, and we haven't gotten any information that there have been any hooked," he said.