Trump vetoes California fishing bill over seafood trade deficit

President Donald Trump vetoed a bill on Friday that would have grually ended use of large-mesh drift gillnets deployed exclusively in federal waters off coast of California, saying such legislation would increase reliance on imported seafood and worsen a multibillion-dollar seafood tre deficit.

Trump also said in his veto mess to Senate that legislation sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., "will t achieve its purported conservation benefits." Trump vetoed fishing bill as Republican-controlled Senate followed Democratic-led House and voted to overturn his earlier veto of annual defense policy bill, enacting it into law despite Trump's objections.

fishing bill's sponsors said large-mesh drift gillnets, which measure between 1.6 kilometers and 2.4 kilometers long and can extend 60.9 meters below surface of ocean, are left in waters overnight to catch swordfish and thresher sharks. But y said at least 60 or marine species - including whales, dolphins and sea lions - can also become entangled in nets, where y are injured or die.

It is illegal to use se nets in US territorial waters of Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, and off coasts of Washington state, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. y remain 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 protect marine life.

bill Trump vetoed would have extended similar protections to federal waters off California's shoreline within five years and authorized National Oceanic and Atmospheric ministration to help commercial fishing industry switch to more sustainable s of gear.

Trump said West Coast drift gillnet 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 or species from foreign sources without this fishery.