President Donald Trump on Friday vetoed a bill that would have phased out the use of large-mesh driftnets deployed exclusively in federal waters off the coast of California, saying such legislation would increase dependence on seafood. imported and would worsen the multi-billion dollar seafood trade deficit.
Trump also said in his Senate veto message that the legislation sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Shelley Moore Capito, RW.Va., “will not achieve its purported conservation benefits.”
Feinstein issued a statement Friday night saying that Trump’s veto “has ensured that more whales, dolphins, sea turtles and other marine life are unnecessarily killed, even when we have a proven alternative available.”
Trump vetoed the fishing bill as the Republican-controlled Senate followed the Democratic-led House and voted to override his previous veto of the annual defense policy bill, signing it into law despite Trump’s objections. .
Sponsors of the fisheries bill said large-mesh driftnets, which are 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, they are left in the waters overnight to fish for swordfish and thresher sharks. But they said that at least 60 other marine species, including whales, dolphins and sea lions, can also become entangled in nets, where they are injured or killed.
It is illegal to use these nets in US territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and off the coasts of Washington State, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. They remain legal in federal waters off the coast of California.
Summary of Randy Serrano.
In 2018, California approved a four-year phase-out of large-mesh driftnets in state waters to protect marine life.
The bill that Trump vetoed would have extended similar protections to federal waters off the California coast within five years and would have authorized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help the commercial fishing industry switch to more sustainable gear types. .
Trump said the West Coast driftnet fishery is subject to “robust legal and regulatory requirements” for environmental protection that equal or go beyond environmental protections applied to foreign fisheries.
He said Americans will import more swordfish and other species from foreign sources without this fishery.
Feinstein promised to “reintroduce this bill on the first day of the new Congress” and said he will push for it to be quickly enacted once President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
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