Saving Seafood

NOAA reports entangled adult right whale, dead whale calf

January 12, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries reported it has spotted a “heavily entangled” North Atlantic right whale 20 miles off the coast of Rodanthe, North Carolina – just days after a right whale calf was documented dead near Morehead City, North Carolina.

The entangled whale, NOAA Fisheries said, had several wraps of line around its mouth and tail, with additional line trailing behind it. According to NOAA Fisheries biologists, the images indicate that the entanglement constitutes a “serious injury,” meaning the whale is likely to die from the entanglement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: Offshore wind critics call for investigation of New Jersey whale strandings

January 10, 2023 — Groups opposed to offshore wind energy developments called on federal officials to suspend all survey work on those projects off New Jersey and New York, and investigate recent humpback whale strandings including two dead juvenile whales that washed up at Atlantic City, N.J. two weeks apart.

The New Jersey-based environmental group Clean Ocean Action organized a Monday press conference at Atlantic City and a joint letter to President Biden, demanding a shutdown of all offshore wind development activity in the New York Bight pending an investigation into “the unprecedented number of dead, predominately juvenile, whales washing up in the last 33 days on the New Jersey/New York coastline.”

“Six whales washing-up on the New Jersey/New York coastline in just over a month is unprecedented,” the groups wrote. “As concerning, none of the whales exhibited obvious causes of death such as ship strikes, entanglements, or predator attacks. With one major exception, no clear differences can explain or suggest this alarming number of deaths in the region.

“The exception is the ongoing geological seafloor-mapping and surveying and other pre-construction and construction actions by numerous offshore wind energy developers.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: And now the work begins

January 9, 2023 — President Joe Biden on December 29 signed into law the $1.7 trillion spending bill that delays new whale rules for six years and allocates about $55 million to develop ropeless fishing gear. That money will also pay for research to figure out where, when and if the endangered Atlantic right whale is in the Gulf of Maine.

The delay comes as a big relief to Maine fishermen. They had been anticipating new rules aimed at reducing the risk to the right whale by 98 percent. Many predicted the end of lobster fishing in Maine, the loss of businesses that depend on the fishery, and the transformation of coastal Maine into a touristy collection of condos and marinas. Some Maine lobstermen have already left fishing.

Once the bill became law, the clock started ticking for lobster fishing groups, Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and congressional delegation staff. They have 180 days to come up with a plan to use real-time whale sightings to trigger temporary protections for the animals, also known as dynamic area management, according to Ginny Olsen, political liaison for the Maine Lobstering Union.

“If there’s a sighting of a whale, [the fishery] will be closed,” Olsen said.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

Lobster legislation a ‘Christmas miracle’ for Maine’s industry – if it passes

December 22, 2022 — Maine’s congressional delegation has perhaps never been so united as it was in adding a provision to the massive government spending bill that they believe could save the lobster industry from economic ruin.

Lawmakers in Washington are working feverishly this week to pass the omnibus appropriations bill that would fund federal agencies through the next fiscal year. The current stopgap spending measure expires Friday. Maine’s delegation succeeded in adding a rider to the bill that would protect Maine lobstermen for six years from federal regulations they claim could decimate the state’s iconic industry and coastal economy. Environmental groups, however, contend the provision announced Tuesday could wipe out the endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The rider would essentially reverse a federal court decision this summer on new lobstering regulations by preventing them from taking effect until Dec. 31, 2028.

This would not only bring the fishery back into compliance with environmental laws but would also give fishery officials and researchers time to study potential new types of lobster gear less likely to entangle the whales, and to learn more about them and how much they frequent Maine waters.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

Wind industry group says turbine restrictions for whales could threaten commercial viability of projects

December 21, 2022 — An organization that represents and lobbies for the wind industry has warned that a recommendation from federal scientists to limit turbines in offshore lease areas to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale could threaten the commercial viability, efficiency and utilities contracts for some projects.

Climate change is affecting the whale and its prey, according to researchers. And offshore wind, which the Biden administration has called on to address the climate crisis, might add to existing stressors from the noise created during construction and operation, to the turbine impacts on currents and prey distribution.

In a letter first published by The Light last month, NOAA scientist Sean Hayes proposed establishing a “conservation buffer” zone or turbine-free area overlapping with wind development planned in Southern New England. But the American Clean Power Association (ACP), which represents the wind industry, said such a buffer would cause the removal of a “significant number” of turbines from several projects.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

Maine lawmakers use spending bill to delay lobster restrictions

December 21, 2022 — Maine’s congressional delegation slipped an amendment into the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that would delay for six years new protections for endangered whales to protect Maine’s lobster industry.

The amendment would leave existing lobster fishing regulations in place for the time being, thwarting new restrictions aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. A federal judge previously delayed the new rules until 2024 to give the government time to craft them.

Read the full article at wbur

Save whales or eat lobster? The battle reaches the White House

December 12, 2022 — President Macron of France may not have realised it, but he walked into another fishing war earlier this month when he and 200 other guests were treated at the White House to butter-poached Maine lobster accented with American Osetra caviar and garnished with celery crisp.

At issue was the lobster, currently subject to a court ruling designed to prevent Maine’s lobstermen from trapping the crustacea in baited pots marked by lines that can fatally entangle feeding North Atlantic right whales. There are now just 340 such whales, with only about 100 breeding females, making the species one of the most endangered on the planet.

The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative celebrated the choice, saying it was “proud” that the guests were “enjoying the delicious taste of Maine lobster”. The international advocacy group Oceana countered that “lobster on their menu cannot be considered sustainable by any definition”.

The dispute between Maine’s $1bn lobster industry, which employs more than 10,000 lobstermen, the White House and new protections issued by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has deep roots.

The right whale population has dropped from 500 a decade ago while Maine’s lobster industry has boomed. The industry disputes that its vertical lines attached to buoys are to blame. Some point to ship collisions, others to gillnets.

Read the full article at The Guardian 

Uncertainty scuttles right whale recommendations

December 12, 2022 — The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team ended a two-day virtual meeting on Friday, December 2 without reaching consensus on new recommendations aimed at protecting the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The team—fishermen, scientists, conservationists, and state and federal officials from Maine to Florida—had been charged with advising the National Marine Fisheries Service on a new draft Environmental Impact Statement required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

The team was asked to develop and vote on a package of measures that would further reduce the risk of right whale mortality in the North Atlantic by about 90 percent. While the new measures would introduce changes up and down the U.S. East Coast, they would have hit Maine lobstermen particularly hard. Proposed restrictions would have included a 400-trap limit for all fishermen in Lobster Management Area 1 (which includes the entire coast of Maine), expanded the timeframes of existing closures, and introduced a 100 percent weak rope requirement, among other measures.

“It was pretty significant,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and a member of the team. “Which is why every member of the team from Maine voted against it.”

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

MAINE: Maine Republicans want to end tax breaks over lobster bans

December 10, 2022 — Maine Republicans are pushing back against a boycott effort targeting lobster sales, with a plan to eliminate tax breaks for Whole Foods and other food companies that pull the popular crustacean from their stores.

Legislation expected to be filed by the GOP minority for consideration in the next session would prevent Whole Foods, or other groups that ban lobster sales from getting tax breaks available to Maine businesses.

The proposal would also prohibit the state from entering into contracts with the nationwide grocery store chain.

Last week, Whole Foods announced plans to stop selling lobster caught in the Gulf of Maine at hundreds of its retail stores across the country. The company cited concerns raised by a pair of sustainability groups over the impact of the lobster industry on critically endangered north Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at the Center Square

Offshore Wind – Not Maine Lobstering – Threatening Endangered Right Whales: Bloomberg

December 3, 2022 — Previously unseen government documents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have revealed that the off-shore wind industry poses a severe threat to endangered right whales.

The documents, obtained by Bloomberg via Freedom of Information Act request, will provide ammunition to lobstermen and elected officials as they fight burdensome federal regulations on Maine’s most prized fishery.

Sean Hayes, the chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s National Northeast Fisheries Science Center, explained the threat wind turbine construction and operation presents to the endangered mammals in a May 13 letter to to officials with the federal Interior Department.

“Additional noise, vessel traffic and habitat modifications due to offshore wind development will likely cause added stress that could result in additional population consequences to a species that is already experiencing rapid decline,” Hayes said in his letter, according to Bloomberg.

Read the full article at Maine Wire