Environment |

First permits issued for new swordfish fishing gear that’s safe for marine mammals

Permits are being issued to commercial swordfish fishermen who forgo large drift nets for a new system that won’t also capture whales and dolphins.

The National Marine Fisheries Service recently issued its first 50 permits to fishermen using a new deep-set buoy gear that, unlike the mile-long, 100-foot-wide nets that drift in the ocean to tangle up fish, uses hooks to target only swordfish.

The permits are going to the drift net fishermen who first agreed to pioneer the new gear and to fishermen who took buyouts to ditch the mesh nets permanently. The plan is to develop a new fishery using the gear and issue 25 new permits each year until 2027.

Geoff Shester, a senior scientist with the nonprofit advocacy group Oceana, is among those who have been pushing for the new gear for years and called the new permits “a banner day for whales, dolphins and sea turtles that swim off our shores,” while also being “a massive leap forward for sustainable swordfish fishing in California.”

“A thriving and profitable swordfish fishery that does not threaten marine life is a win-win for everyone and represents one of the great success stories of fisheries management and ocean conservation, not just here in California but in the nation,” Shester said, adding that the buoy gear is a happy medium between drift nets and the other traditional option of harpooning.

The buoy gear is set to catch fish during the day and fishermen stay close to monitor for catches. Mesh drift nets were often unattended for hours as they floated across the ocean, mostly between sunset and sunrise. And the nets — invented by two San Clemente fishermen — often caught more than swordfish, including whales, dolphins and sea turtles, earning them the name “curtains of death.”

While the fishery is small with only about 20 boats fishing between San Diego and Santa Barbara, the effort to develop it new equipment has taken nearly two decades. During that time, scientists, fishermen, environmental groups and legislators worked collaboratively to find solutions to prevent killing marine mammals while also making sure the multi-million dollar California swordfish fishery remains sustainable and profitable.

In 2015, state lawmakers demanded that the Pacific Fishery Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service transition to alternative fishing methods. In 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation requiring the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to get funding to help fishers make the transition to different gear.

Active fishers who agreed to abandon the drift nets were offered a $110,000 buyout.

Oceana subsequently raised more than $1 million to activate the legislation, Shester said, and the Ocean Protection Council and California Legislature put in the remaining funds of $2.2 million to allow all the fishermen who signed up for the transition program to participate.

Some fishermen sued, and the state settled the lawsuit by not implementing the ban on drift net fishing for those with federal permits. In January, President Joe Biden signed legislation to phase out the remaining federal permits and implement a nationwide ban on large mesh nets by 2027.

According to data from the Pacific Fisheries database, 123 metric tons of swordfish were caught by drift net, and 49.5 metric tons were caught by a combination of harpooning and buoy gear in 2017 before the legislation to transition to new gear.

In 2020, 24 tons of fish were caught by net, and 90 tons were captured by harpoons and buoy gear. In 2022, 20 tons of swordfish were fished by net and 40 tons were hooked by buoy gear and speared by harpoon – but Shester said the fish have generally been harder to find recently.

There has been a notable reduction in other species caught, according to the data.

Shester and other proponents of the new gear said while saving sea life, the change also leads to higher quality swordfish – which are being sold for more than what drift net-caught swordfish sells for. The fish caught are of higher quality because they are fresher, he said.

The way the new gear works is buoys connected to a main fishing line float at the surf. Attached hooks wait to snag swordfish – at a depth of about 1,200 feet where they tend to swim – and fishers monitoring their buoys are immediately alerted and can pull them up quickly.

As the gear becomes more developed, Shester said fishermen could use it to catch other fish by moving the hooks up and down the lines to the depths those species are found at. Presently fishermen can use 10 lines and up to three hooks on a line.

The catch – swordfish typically weighs from 100 to 700 pounds – is sold to restaurants or fish markets with wholesale licenses, or to fish warehouses in San Pedro and San Diego, where the fish becomes fillet or steak.

Jim Heflin, who started as a teen deckhand on a harpoon swordfish boat out of Newport Beach, used the drift nets later on his own Chula, a 68-foot commercial boat now in San Diego.

He sells his fish wholesale to restaurants in California and Arizona, including three he owns in Scottsdale. He was among the first five fishermen to sign up to test the buoy gear. He is now one of the first 50 permit holders.

“I was never a proponent of what the net fishery does,” said Heflin, who has worked with the new gear for several years and calls it “successful” for what he does, which is selling the fish wholesale and using them in his own restaurants.

The restaurants and fish markets are branded for selling “sustainably caught swordfish,” which people are willing to pay extra for, he said. “It’s part of our brand at Chula Seafood.”

Two weeks ago, Heflin went out with his boat and, in three days, caught four or five fish on the hooks of the new gear, he said. During a profitable net trip, he recalled bringing in more than 14 in a similar period. But still, he said, the fish caught this way are better.

“It’s cold, 45 degrees, and the fish come up instantly,” Heflin said. “The product is the best because they’re not sitting on the end of a harpoon line or in a net.”

Still, while the new gear works for him, Heflin said that some net fishermen don’t find the new gear as profitable as the nets. The volume of fish is less and some say that alone makes fishing swordfish more of a semi-retired job. Also, not all fishermen have a pipeline to sell it wholesale and have to go to the open market, where prices fluctuate and where competition is stiff because of cheaper, imported fish.

Still, Shester and Heflin say they believe the market for responsibly caught swordfish is there and that it can be developed to become even more productive than nets.

“We see the market demand for the product,” Shester said, adding that last year the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program recommended deep-set buoy gear caught swordfish as a “Best Choice,” which has helped garner higher prices and market access. “The idea is to start small and grow the fishery. As we raise awareness, it’s a profitable venture “