Thursday, March 09, 2006

Sons-of-Bitches

Not medicated enough so here's one last post for the night.

"Federal fish managers are proposing to relax rules designed to protect endangered leatherback sea turtles and allow some fishing off the West Coast ....

The changes, which must obtain final approval from the National Marine Fisheries Service, would open up drift gillnet fishing off the California and Oregon coasts from south of Monterey, Calif., to just north of Newport, Ore.

Drift gillnet boats use 900-foot nets that float about 10 yards below the surface to catch swordfish by the gills. Leatherback sea turtles can become entangled in those nets and die.

The ancient creatures are the largest sea turtles and typically weigh from 500 to 1,500 pounds.

Since 2001, drift gillnet fishing has been banned from August to November in a wide area off the West Coast."

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