Saving Seafood

Science

Biden’s 30×30 plan gives hope, but also uncertainy

June 16, 2021 — On May 6th, the Biden administration released the “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful” report that instructed NOAA to expand the National Marine Sanctuaries System, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, to “help restore fish populations and better protect threatened and endangered species.” This report is considered the administration’s plan to meet the 30% of land and water protected by 2030 or “30 by 30” initiative put forth by executive order (E.O. 14008) in January 2021.

Before getting into the specifics of this report, it is worth reviewing the history of the “30×30” planning process and some of the initial responses from stakeholders:

  • October 2015 – Jane Lubchenco and Kirsten Grorud-Colvert publish a paper in Science Magazine titled: “Making waves: The science and politics of ocean protection”. This paper is credited for introducing the 30% global marine protected area (MPA) target.
  • September 2016 – The World Conservation Congress voted to support increasing the portion of the ocean that is highly protected to at least 30% to help effectively conserve biodiversity.
  • November 2020 – U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva introduced the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act. Title II of this act called for expanding marine protected areas (MPAs) in U.S. waters to equal 30% of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
  • November 2020 – Immediately after this introduction, more than 830 seafood industry stakeholders sent a letter to Rep. Grijalva expressing their concern about the proposals under Title II.
  • December 2020 – 28 prominent marine scientists sent a similar letter of opposition to Congress, questioning the justification for 30% MPAs described in Title II.

When the Biden administration introduced the 30×30 initiative in January 2021, various fishing industry stakeholders were upset for similar reasons described in the letters of opposition towards Title II of the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW

Scientists Support Combined Management Measures for Uku, Review Mitigation Tactics for False Killer Whales

June 16, 2021 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council supported the combined management of the commercial and noncommercial sectors of the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) uku fishery. Commercial fishery data is submitted mandatorily through monthly reports. However, variabilities in the noncommercial data from the voluntary Hawai‘i Marine Recreational Fisheries Survey (estimated bi-monthly) raise uncertainties about the reliability of this system as a tool for in-season tracking against the annual catch limit. Improvements in data collection systems and establishing a proper management framework for sector allocation are required if the uku fishery is to be managed separately.

In September 2020, the SSC set the acceptable biological catch for uku at 297,624 pounds for fishing years 2022 to 2025. The MHI stock is not overfished or subject to overfishing.

The Committee noted that the decision whether to use sector allocation of the total annual catch target is purely a management action. A 2020 stock assessment from the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center indicates that noncommercial fishers harvest smaller fish compared to commercial fishers due to fishing location and gear type differences. From a scientific standpoint, this justifies managing the uku fishery separately. The SSC chair suggested that the group conduct a risk analysis to determine if management measures should be different for the two sectors in the future.

A working group of the SSC highlighted their preliminary findings on alternative approaches to reduce impacts to false killer whales (FKWs) in the Hawai‘i deep-set longline fishery. The draft issues paper reviews the history of the Pacific Islands Region FKW Take Reduction Team and their recommendations, past SSC recommendations, cetacean avoidance research and interaction reduction measures, among other topics.

The group suggested, for example, that mitigation strategies should focus on removing the trailing gear from an accidentally hooked FKW instead of using weak circle hooks, which to date have proved ineffective. Also, they noted there is not enough demographic information, such as survival rates at different ages and reproductive rates, to do a population assessment or diagnose trends for FKWs. The working group will work with the full Committee to review the findings and associated recommendations.

The meeting continues through Thursday, June 17, 2021. Instructions on connecting to the web conference, agenda and briefing documents are posted at www.wpcouncil.org/event/140th-scientific-and-statistical-committee-virtual-meeting.

Fishing Report: US agencies take on wind farm fish surveys

June 14, 2021 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have joined forces to address fish survey challenges presented by offshore wind farms. The NOAA and fishermen have expressed concern about the ability to do fish surveys in wind farm lease areas.

The aim of this joint BOEM/NOAA program is to mitigate the impact of not doing surveys in areas that have traditionally been studied.

NOAA Fisheries’ scientific surveys are essential for setting quotas for commercial and recreational fishermen, as well as monitoring and assessment for recovery and conservation programs for protected species and essential fish habitats.

The program will address impacts from exclusion of NOAA Fisheries’ sampling platforms from the wind development area due to operational and safety limitations; impacts on the random-stratified statistical design that is the basis for scientific assessments, advice and analyses; as well as alteration of benthic and pelagic habitats and airspace in and around the wind energy development. A timeline for initial actions will be developed as part of the program.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal

A fear of great whites? Shark center aims to show fact vs. fiction

June 11, 2021 — There’s an 18-foot shark hanging in the air, waiting to greet you at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Shark Center the next time you visit.

“Curly” is a life-sized replica of the largest recorded white shark tagged off Cape Cod. It’s one of many new features added to the Shark Center during a “pretty big renovation” that took place in winter 2020, says center manager Heather Ware.

The center is an arm of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which has a mission to “support scientific research, improve public safety, and educate the community to inspire white shark conservation.”

But because of COVID-19 concerns, not nearly as many people got to hear that message, or see “Curly” or the rest of the renovation last summer as intended. Typically, the shark center would have had about 17,000 visitors in the summertime. Last year, just over 3,000 came by.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal

$210M federal award to fund UH research focused on how ecosystems are changing

June 10, 2021 — A small trap sits on the coral reef for four months, imprisoning tiny particles for environmental DNA analysis. These findings give researchers a snapshot in time of the microhabitats of our oceans, and in the long-term, a sense of how our ecosystems are changing.

This is just one of the many research projects developed by students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa through the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research — a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Last week, NOAA set plans to continue their 44-year-old partnership, awarding $210 million to the University of Hawaii — more than double the amount of previous funding. The money will go toward the next five years of research for NOAA’s new institute: the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research.

According to deputy director of NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Tia Brown, CIMAR “will help NOAA achieve our mission to better understand the ocean and atmosphere, which depends on all the research that we do … as well as the data and information to make sound decisions for healthy ecosystems, communities and a strong blue economy.”

In fiscal year 2022, CIMAR will continue the work of JIMAR while expanding to eight new research themes: ecological forecasting, ecosystem monitoring, ecosystem-based management, protection and restoration of resources, oceanographic monitoring and forecasting, climate science and impacts, air-sea interactions, and tsunamis and other long-period ocean waves.

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

OSU chosen to lead NOAA institute for marine research

June 9, 2021 — Oregon State University said Tuesday it has been selected to host a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration institute focused on collaborative study of the rapidly changing ocean and expanded demands on its use.

The Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, or CIMERS, will focus on four research themes: conservation, protection and restoration of marine resources; marine ecosystems; ocean acoustics; and ocean, coastal and seafloor processes.

The institute will be eligible for up to $37 million in funding over the next five years, with potential for renewal for five more years.

“NOAA’s significant support of this collaborative marine institute underscores Oregon State University’s longstanding contributions in leadership, research and teaching to protect and enhance our oceans,” said OSU Interim President Becky Johnson. “We must accelerate that work due to the extraordinary pressures and changes taking place in our oceans and climate. OSU’s collaborative model of engaging many colleges, academic disciplines and external partners is well-suited to address these issues.”

NOAA supports 20 cooperative institutes in 28 states and the District of Columbia, providing funding to extend basic and applied research beyond the federal agency’s capacity. The institutes also serve as a training ground for future NOAA employees through undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral education programs that align with NOAA’s mission.

Read the full story at KTVZ

A U.S.-Funded Study Of Whales’ Hearing Is Going Ahead Despite Concerns For The Whales

June 9, 2021 — An international team of scientists is preparing to trap a dozen baleen whales off the coast of Norway and conduct hearing tests on them to gauge their sensitivity to human-made sounds such as sonar.

Researchers have tested the auditory faculties of smaller animals in captivity, but this would be the first time scientists have ever captured live whales in the wild to assess their hearing.

“This has been a long-standing issue, this lack of information on how sensitive the hearing of these large whales is,” said the project’s principal investigator Dorian Houser, of the National Marine Mammal Foundation.

“We’re trying to get the first measurements to empirically show what they hear and how sensitive to sound they are,” he said.

The goal of the project, which was initiated and is partly funded by the U.S. government, is to use what they learn to regulate human-generated noise in the waters where these whales swim. It could have implications for the military as well energy companies.

Read the full story at NPR

Papers Explore Massive Plankton Blooms with Very Different Ecosystem Impacts

June 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:

“The big mystery about plankton is what controls its distribution and abundance, and what conditions lead to big plankton blooms,” said Dennis McGillicuddy, Senior Scientist and Department Chair in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Two new papers explore this question and provide examples of conditions that lead to massive plankton blooms with vastly different potential impacts on the ecosystem, according to McGillicuddy, co-author of both papers. Both papers also point to importance of using advanced technology—including Video Plankton Recorders, autonomous underwater vehicles, and the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s Coastal Pioneer Array—to find and monitor these blooms.

In one paper, Diatom Hotspots Driven by Western Boundary Current Instability, published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), scientists found unexpectedly productive subsurface hotspot blooms of diatom phytoplankton.

In the GRL paper, researchers investigated the dynamics controlling primary productivity in a region of the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), one of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems. In 2019, they observed unexpected diatom hotspots in the slope region of the bight’s euphotic zone, the ocean layer that receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur. Phytoplankton are photosynthetic microorganisms that are the foundation of the aquatic food web.

Read the full release here

What Happens After Dam Removals

June 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Maine’s Penobscot River has more than 100 dams, many of which are aging and no longer serve their original purpose. Removing dams is becoming more common, with the purposes of addressing hazards posed by these aging dams, returning natural river flow and function, or both.

For Atlantic salmon and other species of sea-run fish, the last 200 years of dammed rivers and disconnected streams have, combined with historic fisheries and lower marine survival, spelled decline, and for Atlantic salmon, disaster. The storied Atlantic salmon runs had fish returning by the thousands to Northeast rivers. They are now limited to just a few rivers in Maine, with fewer than 2,000 fish returning each year. These runs are heavily reliant on hatchery-raised fish. The Penobscot River is home to the largest remaining population of endangered Atlantic salmon in the United States. Dams have been identified as one of the primary factors in the decline of Atlantic salmon.

Over the last decade, researchers have been studying whether removing two Penobscot River dams in 2012 and 2013 improved ecosystem conditions for salmon and other aquatic species. So far, results are promising.

Read the whole story on our website.

Read the full release here

Returns & rebounds: Electronics suppliers and installers are ready for service, following a year of restricted global supply chains

June 7, 2021 — Regardless of where one stands on the mask mandate for commercial fishermen, it’s safe to say coronavirus has affected almost every aspect of fisheries. The marine electronics market is working a double-edged sword.

“Demand is through the roof,” says Furuno’s Matt Wood. “And we have products back ordered.”

Furuno is not alone. More than 18 months of restrictions aimed at combating the pandemic resulted in a significant slowdown of imports from Asia, including marine electronics products. But as fishermen gear up for a return to something more like normal, suppliers and installers of the latest fishfinders and transducers have their hands full.

Among the rising stars in the Furuno line is the DFF3D echosounder, introduced three years ago. Fishermen are using the split-beam sounder with different transducers in a variety of applications.

“These have really caught fire,” says Wood. “And we’ve just scratched the surface of what they can do. In the East they are using them with Time Zero for bottom building, in Southeast Alaska, too.”

Some salmon trollers have reported good results with the DFF3D. “They can use it to steer side to side,” says Wood. “Salmon are hard to see on any sounder, but if you look at it long enough, you can see them.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman