Trump vetoes California fishing Bill over seafood trade deficit

President Donald Trump vetoed a good Costs on Friday (Jan 1) that could have gradually ended the application of large-mesh drift gillnets deployed exclusively in federal waters off the coast of California, saying such legislation would increase reliance on imported seafood and worsen a multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit.

Trump also said found in his veto message to the Senate that the legislation sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein of California, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia “will not achieve its purported conservation benefits.”

Trump vetoed the fishing Costs as the Republican-controlled Senate followed the Democratic-led House and voted to overturn his earlier veto of the total annual defense policy Bill, enacting it into regulation despite Trump's objections.

The fishing bill's sponsors said large-mesh drift gillnets, which measure between 1.6km and 2.4km long and will extend 60.9m below the top of ocean, are left found in the waters over night to capture swordfish and thresher sharks. However they stated at least 60 additional marine species - including whales, dolphins and sea lions - may also become entangled in the nets, where they are hurt or die.

It is illegitimate to use these nets in US territorial waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and off the coasts of Washington condition, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. They continue to be legal in federal waters off California's coast.

In 2018, California passed a four-year phase out of large-mesh drift gillnets in state waters to safeguard marine life.

The Costs Trump vetoed would have extended similar protections to federal waters off California's shoreline within five years and authorized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help the commercial fishing industry move to more sustainable types of equipment.

Trump said the West Coast drift gillnet fishery is at the mercy of “robust legal and regulatory requirements” for environmental safeguard that equal or go beyond environmental protections put on foreign fisheries.

He said Americans might import more swordfish and other species from foreign options without this fishery.