For Zack Robinson, fishing isn’t just a job.
"The ocean’s my life," he said.
Robinson has been gill-netting for 15 years, catching halibut and seabass.
"Gill netting is my passion. I love it. There are a lot of misconceptions about net fishing. It’s not a dirty fishery like they say it is. We are not the bad guys, and that hurts, to work so hard and to be told you're no good," Robinson said.
He says that if Assembly Bill 2220 passes, it would threaten his livelihood.
"Any more regulation might take us out completely."
According to RegData's Industry Regulation Index, commercial fishing is the seventh most regulated industry in the U.S., and Ben Hyman with Wild Local warns that over-regulation could spike demand for imported seafood.
"People don’t stop eating halibut or swordfish, what they do is they’ll get it from another source," Hyman said.
The U.S. imports around 65% of our seafood, according to Sustainable Fisheries UW, which comes with a big carbon footprint and unknown fishing standards.
"The more we rely on our local seafood, the better for the planet it's gonna be and the better for fishing families it's gonna be," Hyman continued.
AB 2220 seeks to eliminate gill-net fishing off the Southern California coast in federal waters by 2025, requires independent third-party observers on boats, and prohibits catching certain species of fish and endangered species — all things Kimberly and Charles Ray from Marine Conservation Network agree with.
"Elimination of the gill nets would help with the elimination of shark entanglement," Ray said.
It would also eliminate the bycatch of other species like turtles and sea lions.
Gill nets are already banned off the coasts of Northern and Central California, and this bill aims to bring Southern California in line with the rest of the state.
Kimberly Ray suggests gill-netters can find another way to fish.
"We’ve got to find a way to where they can keep their livelihood, but we also keep our oceans," Ray said.
Fishermen and conservationists agree that protecting the ocean is essential.
"The ocean means everything to us. We want it to thrive for my kids and my grandkids," Robinson said.
But how to protect it, is still debated.
"We already have scientific management that looks at the species we catch, how many do we catch every year. They take data to ensure that it's sustainable. So at this point, I think the bill would be asinine and it would do damage to our fisheries and to some fishing families," Hyman said.
The bill goes to a vote on April 22, 2024.
