NOAA Issues No Krill Bill

NOAA Issues No Krill Bill, which means that no one fishes for krill off the West Coast, and federal fisheries managers want to keep it that way so the tiny shrimp like creatures remain as plentiful as possible as food for whales, salmon, and seabirds.

NOAA Fisheries Service on Monday, July 20th, 2009, issued a final rule barring krill fishing inside the 200-mile limit in the Pacific off California, Oregon and Washington. This area will be the Exclusive Economic Zone or EEZ. 200 nautical miles seaward of U.S. territories, off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.

Now, if we could just keep America’s submarines out of that area as well.

What Are Krill?

Krill are like shrimp or planktonic crustaceans, and a critical component of the marine ecosystem. There are many types of planktonic crustaceans.

What Is Krill Used For?

Krill are taken primarily off Antarctica, where scientists have raised concerns the fishery has upset the food chain, making life tougher for penguins and other marine life.

What Is Krill Used For?

Krill is processed into food for salmon farms, as well as home aquariums, and an fish oil consumed by people.

What Fish Hugging Leftist Thought This Up?

The idea to save krill for marine life originally came from managers of the national marine sanctuaries off California, who became concerned in 2003, after rockfish populations declined in mass numbers. Then in 2005, when a downturn in krill populations was blamed for starving sea birds and other West Coast marine life.

NOAA Issues No Krill Bill because people have set the food chain off balance. The ecosystem in this area is in a rare balance.

“Krill is a critical prey for a huge number of vertebrate species there, including whales, salmon and rockfish,” stated William Douros, NOAA’s West Coast regional director of marine sanctuaries.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council sets ocean fishing limits, and staffer Mike Burner are also backing the sanctuary managers’ concerns.

“The council has had to severely cut back harvests of rockfish and salmon, both of which depend on krill for food, and it made no sense to further reduce that food supply by opening a new fishery,” Burner stated.

Environmentalists are happy campers, as a new approach to fisheries management based on maintaining the overall health of an entire ecosystem, rather than just focusing on population numbers of a specific species at a time.

“It’s proactive and precautionary taking action now before there is a crisis, rather than waiting for a big problem to occur and then having to deal with it,” stated Oceana spokesman, Ben Enticknap.

Finally the heavy hitters are in on keeping the overall health of an entire ecosystem going. Score a big one for the birds, mammals and fish of the west coast of America. But…I wonder why Alaska isn’t in on this. Should be ask the exiting Sarah Palin who has no concerns for the ecosystem in her state? Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, why bother. She has her eye on a bigger fish, the Presidency.
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