Saving Seafood

Conservation & Environment

After long, steep decline, the North Atlantic right whale population appears to stabilize

October 23, 2023 — There are about 356 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, according to data released Monday from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. That’s actually a bit of good news for the critically endangered species, signaling that the population may be starting to stabilize.

“After years of the population trajectory in being in steep decline, that decline is leveling out,” said Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. Hamilton said he wouldn’t quite frame the population numbers as “optimistic,” though: “I guess I could say it eases the weight on my heart a little bit, but we have a long ways to go.”

Right whales still face significant threats. The leading causes of death and injury to right whales are entanglements in fishing gear and getting hit by boats; climate change and noise pollution are added stressors.

So far this year, researchers from the New England Aquarium have counted 32 injuries to right whales after they were hit by boats or entangled in fishing gear. There have also been two detected deaths of right whales in 2023: a 20-year-old male struck and killed by a boat and an orphaned newborn calf.

“Not only are human activities leading to the deaths of whales, but they’re also leading to these injuries that aren’t outright killing the whale, but they’re stunting their growth. They’re delaying reproduction in females,” said Heather Pettis, a research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. She said the whale population can only recover if their birth rates go up, while their death rates go down.

Read the full article at wbur

A warming Gulf Stream is edging ever closer to shore

October 23, 2023 — Over the last 20 years, the Gulf Stream has warmed faster than the global oceans and shifted closer to the shore, increasing the likelihood that the tropical ocean current could suddenly impact U.S. coastal fisheries, according to a new study published this month.

Physical oceanographers Robert Todd and Alice Ren from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found the Gulf Stream has warmed 2 degrees Fahrenheit and moved 6 miles closer to the eastern continental shelf since 2001, according to findings published in Nature Climate Change.

The Gulf of Maine is most influenced by the Labrador Current, which brings colder water from the north. The oscillating Gulf Stream generally passes 100 miles south of the Gulf of Maine’s southern border, but warm-water breakaways from it can still increase Gulf of Maine temperatures for months at a time.

Scientists say it is too early to know for sure, but increasingly warm core rings that break away closer to shore could have a significant impact on environmental conditions, and marine wildlife, within the Gulf of Maine, according to Todd, the study’s lead author.

“These rings have a very sharp temperature contrast,” Todd said. “They come in and very suddenly you have very warm water in the spot where you had cold water before. It’s temporary, for the life of the ring, but it’s a long enough period of time that the fish, the shellfish, they care.”

This study focused on the general Gulf Stream that hugs the U.S. coast from Florida up to Cape Cod, before it flows east toward Europe, but Todd notes that other researchers have found the number of warm core rings formed by the Gulf Stream has roughly doubled since 2000.

Read the full article at Portland Press Herald

Decline of rare right whale appears to be slowing, but scientists say big threats remain

October 23, 2023 — The decline of one of the rarest whales in the world appears to be slowing, but scientists warn the giant mammals still face existential threats from warming oceans, ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear.

The population of North Atlantic right whales, which live off the U.S. East Coast, fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020 and was down to only about 364 whales as of 2021. Now the whales are at around 356 in total, according to a group of scientists, industry members and government officials who study them.

This suggests the population is potentially levelling off, as equal numbers of whales could be entering the population as are being killed, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said Monday. However, getting an accurate count of the aquatic creatures involves certain ranges of error, which put estimates for 2021 and 2022 at roughly around the same number.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

US Department of Defense awards grant to project aiming to predict how climate change could lead to conflicts over fishing rights

October 22, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded an Oregon State University (OSU) researcher USD 1.4 million (EUR 1.3 million) over three years to predict how fish stocks could shift due to climate change, specifically focusing on movements that have the potential to cause geopolitical tension.

The research aims to support world leaders in reducing the risk of future conflicts and, if tensions do rise, enhancing global preparedness for such instances.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Maine’s young lobster population has fallen 40 percent

October 19, 2023 — Recent assessments show that the population of young lobsters in the Gulf of Maine has dropped, on average, by nearly 40 percent over a three-year period.

The population dip comes faster than fisheries managers anticipated and will eventually trigger changes for fishermen to preserve the spawning stock.

Earlier this year, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved new measures that would change the minimum and maximum catch sizes for lobster in certain parts of Maine. Those changes would occur only if the commission observes an average 35 percent decline in the young lobster population over a three-year period, compared with a prior three-year period.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

A Major Rebuilding Milestone: 50th Fish Stock Rebuilt

October 18, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries and our fishery management partners reached a major milestone this summer. We rebuilt our 50th fish stock. The Snohomish coho salmon stock was declared overfished in 2018 and has now rebuilt to its sustainable level. A combination of responsive fishery management and habitat restoration helped to rebuild this iconic fish population.

U.S. commercial and recreational fishing provided 1.7 million jobs and $253 billion in sales in 2020. When we rebuild overfished stocks to sustainable levels, fishermen are able to catch more fish. Sustainable fisheries support thriving fishing communities, healthy marine ecosystems, and a strong economy.

An Iconic Stock

There are more than 20 different stocks of coho salmon on the West Coast and Alaska. In 2022, commercial landings of coho salmon totaled 13 million pounds and were valued at $16 million.

Salmon is an important source of spiritual and physical sustenance for Western Native American tribes and Alaska natives. For decades, the tribes living near the Snohomish River have restored degraded habitat in the watershed to improve the chance of survival for returning salmon. Under the 2018 rebuilding plan for Snohomish coho salmon, fishery managers began adjusting catch limits based on how many fish were expected to return each year. They set catch limits lower in years when fish numbers were expected to be down. Together, these rebuilding measures—and habitat restoration efforts—rebuilt Snohomish coho salmon to a sustainable level that will support increased catches for fishermen.

50 Stocks Rebuilt in 22 Years

Snohomish coho salmon is the latest rebuilding success in a program that dates back to 2001, when the Atlantic sea scallop was the first stock to be declared rebuilt. Through coordinated efforts with the eight regional fishery management councils and other partners, NOAA Fisheries is a global leader in sustainable fisheries management.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires overfished stocks to have rebuilding plans. These plans are designed to increase the stock size to a sustainable level. Rebuilding measures usually include reducing catch levels or closing off areas to fishing, sometimes for several years. These measures require sacrifices from fishermen. While the majority of stocks are rebuilt in 10 years or less, some stocks take longer to rebuild.

Challenges to Rebuilding Stocks

Fishery management is a challenging and adaptive process. We have successfully rebuilt stocks over the last 20 years, but challenges continue to increase. For example, climate change and warming ocean temperatures can make it difficult to rebuild stocks to historic levels, especially those better suited to a cold water environment. Some of our stocks are co-managed under international agreements. We have limited impact on fisheries outside of U.S. waters, so we work cooperatively with other countries to rebuild those stocks. In some cases, scientific advances change our understanding of what measures will be effective to rebuild a stock. In other cases, scientists are still searching for reasons stocks haven’t responded to management measures.

NOAA Fisheries and our fishery management partners continue to advance new scientific processes and management responses to continue to rebuild stocks.

Humpback whales to stay on Massachusetts endangered species list

October 17, 2023 — The humpback whale will remain on the Massachusetts endangered species list.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries withdrew their proposal to remove the whale from the list.

The group originally proposed removing humpbacks from the list back in February when the agency’s director said that the humpback whale population in Massachusetts waters was not in danger of extinction.

Read the full article at WCVB

Blue crabs are showing up more often in the warming Gulf of Maine

October 17, 2023 — Laura Crane winds her way around a maze of shallow pools at the Webhannet Marsh near Wells. She stops at one pool with a small blue flag poking through the tall grass at the water’s edge, grabs the rope lying nearby, and pulls.

“OK, first trap we already have two blue crabs, said Crane, as she hauls up a small, wire mesh trap from the muck.

And with metal kitchen tongs in hand, Crane attempts to pry away one of the crabs that’s clutching one side. It’s small, with a greenish gray shell and bright blue claws. She measures its size and determines that it’s a male.

Crabs that have been caught before have a small notch clipped from their swimmer paddle. And after a lengthy battle with the kitchen tongs, Crane confirms that this crab has not been tagged.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Working Towards Zero-Waste Seafood

October 12, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Seafood Month is a time to celebrate sustainable seafood for both wild-caught and farmed species. The United States is a global leader in sustainable seafood, underscoring NOAA Fisheries’ strong commitment to building a resilient seafood sector. This would not be possible without our many partners throughout the country and the world.

We sat down with Jhana Young, sustainable seafood manager at Conservation International Hawaiʻi, one of our important partners. Jhana shares CI Hawaiʻi’s sustainable seafood vision, what Seafood Month means to her, the exciting events CI Hawaiʻi is holding throughout the month, and more.

What kind of work does Conservation International do in Hawaiʻi?

Conservation International’s Hawaiʻi program started in 2011 as our only U.S.-based field program. We are part of a global team that works in more than 30 countries to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, and for the well-being of humanity. Our focus in Hawaiʻi involves working with a diversity of partners across the state to underscore the importance of food security and to support sustainability in our fisheries and seafood industry.

We have three pillars or areas of work:

  • Helping fishing communities like Miloliʻi in South Kona on marine monitoring practices
  • Working with government partners in ocean policy
  • Collaborating with our seafood industry and culinary community to uplift sustainable seafood practices

With those three pillars as the foundation, our overarching goal is ocean conservation and shifting people’s perspectives towards valuing our important seafood and fishery resources.