Saving Seafood

13 Environmental NGO’s Call For 100% Observer Coverage on Industrial Tuna Fishing Vessels

June 27, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A total of 13 environmental NGO’s – including Fishwise, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), Monterey Bay Aquarium, PEW Charitable Trusts and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership – are joining forces to request that Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) that regulate tuna fishing in the Indian, Pacific, Atlantic and Southern Oceans, require observer coverage on all industrial tuna fishing vessels.

According to these NGOs, many tuna fisheries lack independent monitoring of fishing activity. This means that illegal fishing, misreported or unreported catch, as well as bycatch of endangered, threatened and protected species, goes unseen. However, RFMOs could change that by requiring that these tuna fisheries have 100% observer coverage – whether it be human or electric.

“100% observer coverage can and must happen soon,” reads a press release from the organizations. “There are no longer credible reasons to delay. We are committed to working together to make 100% observer coverage a reality.”

As part of their effort, the NGOs are seeking support from fisheries organizations, conservation organizations, and foundations. Consumers can also join the fight by signing a petition posted on The Action Network.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Deck Equipment: Rise of the Machine

June 14, 2019 — Cameras start to take over for live observers on deck: What does it mean for owners and operators across the country?

Electronic monitoring programs are on the rise as a way to reduce observer costs, avoid the problems of having another person onboard, and increase data gathering. After testing and implementing several programs, NOAA is developing criteria for EM hardware producers and service providers.

“We hope to have standards by the end of the year,” says Brett Alger, electronic technologies coordinator at NMFS. “Once we lay down the framework, it could allow EM to expand greatly.” In February 2019, Alger spoke at a conference in Bangkok that explored the potentials of electronic monitoring. Presenters talked about the real-time upload, via satellite or cell signal, of video from boats, which could be reviewed by artificial intelligence. “We’re hoping to automate review,” says Alger. “We’re looking at machine learning that could identify and measure fish in a split second.”

According to Alger, the idea of monitoring things like bycatch, discards and quota by putting cameras onboard has been around for 20 years, and the Pacific whiting fishery has used electronic monitoring for 15 years. But establishing EM programs is much more complicated than just hooking up cameras and connecting them to a hard drive.

Among EM service providers, two leaders — Archipelago Marine Research and Saltwater Inc. — have broken ground with several programs around the U.S. coasts. Archipelago provides a complete package of cameras, hard drives and review services. Saltwater offers software and some hardware, and a number of services, including developing a vessel monitoring plan and video review.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA Partners With Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation to Track Red King Crabs in Bristol Bay

June 3, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA is partnering with non-profit group the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation to learn more about Bristol Bay red king crab stocks.

The government organization announced this week that through their new partnership they will be researching how “recent environmental variability drives crab seasonal movements, habitat use, and interactions with groundfish trawl fisheries.” To conduct the research, NOAA and the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation will be utilizing an unmanned surface drone (Saildrone, Inc.) to track the movements of adult red king crabs in Bristol Bay.

“So little is known about where crabs are and how they move,” explained Scott Goodman of the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation. “We have only snapshots from summer surveys. This research will fill in the life history gaps to better inform the management of red king crab as both target and bycatch.”

The NOAA Kodiak Laboratory has already been placing trial tags on female red king crabs, but will begin working with fishermen this June to tag male red king crabs. The tags feature acoustic devices that transmit an ID number, as well as the bottom temperature. Once the crabs are tagged, the saildrone will be deployed in October 2019 to relocate the tagged crabs, and then again in April 2020.

According to NOAA Fisheries scientist Leah Zacher, who is leading the project, relocating the crabs in the fall will help provide information on “how crabs move onto the fishing grounds. Meanwhile, the spring tag relocation will help to “determine the locations where they are vulnerable to being caught as bycatch in trawl fisheries.”

NOAA will begin posting reports from the field beginning this June. You can follow the research on the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Science Blog here.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Fishery observer survey seeks answers for high turnover

May 30, 2019 — Many of Alaska’s commercial fisheries depend on observers having a place on board, but fewer than a fifth of them feel appreciated by the industry, according to a new survey.

Fishery observers sail on vessels with fishermen in federal waters and keep track of catch and bycatch and take biological samples throughout trips. Managers use this information to evaluate stocks and manage fisheries.

The job can be tough, requiring up to a month at a time on the water in rough conditions, and turnover can be high. The survey, conducted by the National Marine Fishery Service in 2016, asked 553 observers why they did the job and what their experiences have been like.

Although three-quarters of them thought the job helped them in their careers and about 69 percent said the days at sea matched their expectations, nearly half them reported being harassed. Only 20 percent said they felt valued by the fishing community, and many said they were disappointed by a lack of opportunity to learn more about science and management, according to the survey findings, published in May.

The original intent of the survey was to help improve retention. Most observers quit after a few years — the West Coast, with about 5½ years, has the longest average tenure. Alaska’s average tenure is about 4.8 years, according to the survey data. Although observers have to have some training or education before taking the job, there’s a lot they learn through experience.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Researchers push back against Hawaii shark protection bill

May 13, 2019 — Legislation meant to protect Hawaii’s shark population was altered at the 11th hour to remove the apex predators from the bill amid concerns from the scientific community.

The bill was intended to extend protections already in place for manta rays to include all rays and sharks, West Hawaii Today reported Tuesday.

It would have made it illegal to “capture, take, possess, abuse, or entangle any shark, whether alive or dead, or kill any shark, within state marine waters,” the measure said. There were exceptions for academic research, but the scientific community found them inadequate.

University of Hawaii shark researcher Kim Holland said researchers would be forced to apply for permits from Department of Land and Natural Resources personnel without scientific expertise.

“It will be virtually impossible to prove that someone is ‘knowingly’ fishing for sharks,” wrote Holland, adding state enforcement resources are already insufficient for current polices.

Holland also said the bill was too ambiguous in defining terms such as “take” and “harassment.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Star Advertiser

Tuna Experts Mark 10 Years of Collaboration, Come Together for Workshop on Mitigation of Environmental Impacts of Tropical Tuna Purse Seine Fisheries

May 9, 2019 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation & Common Oceans ABNJ Tuna Project: 

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) and the Common Oceans ABNJ Tuna Project co-sponsored the Mitigating Environmental Impacts of Tropical Tuna Purse Seine Fisheries workshop, held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) Headquarters in Rome, on 12-13 March 2019. The workshop reviewed the progress cross-sector research and advocacy efforts have made in reducing bycatch and other environmental impacts and also identified main focus areas for future activities.

Workshop sessions focused on: (1) bycatch of the tuna purse seine fishery; (2) sharks and rays; (3) small bigeye and yellowfin tuna; (4) fish aggregating device (FAD) structure impacts; (5) FAD management; and (6) looking ahead: the next 10 years. Each session comprised an expert presentation followed by a discussion panel including representatives from across the multi-sector workshop participants. The newly released report detailing the six sessions is now available for download. The report also offers data-rich presentations for each session.

Read the full release here

Trump administration opts not to pursue appeal of driftnet ruling

April 23, 2019 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has decided against appealing a federal judge’s ruling that NOAA Fisheries illegally withdrew a proposal that would have placed hard caps on the bycatch of protected species caught in California’s swordfish drift gillnet fishery.

On Monday, 15 April, when its brief was due to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the administration instead filed a notice to dismiss its appeal voluntarily. As a result, NOAA Fisheries will begin talks with the Pacific Fishery Management Council to determine the limits that should be placed on such species as humpback whales, loggerhead turtles, and leatherback turtles.

The PFMC initially worked with key stakeholders to establish caps on nine species, and NOAA Fisheries published the draft review for implementation in October 2016. However, eight months later, after Trump was elected president, the agency reversed its course.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Federal appellate court upholds NOAA Fisheries’ definition of bycatch

April 18, 2019 — A panel of federal appellate judges has upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled on NOAA Fisheries’ method for assessing bycatch in New England fisheries.

The ruling, which was announced on Friday, 12 April, in the District of Columbia chambers of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, allows NOAA Fisheries to use statistical sampling to determine the amount of bycatch. It stems from a 2011 court case where judges ruled the agency did not establish methodology standards to assess the number of other species caught and discarded when harvesting selected fish.

In both instances, environmental group Oceana pursued the lawsuit.

After that decision, NOAA Fisheries decided to utilize human observers on vessels. In most cases, the observers were trained biologists who reported on a vessel’s harvest. However, since it was too expensive to place an observer on every vessel, the agency created a statistical formula that allocated the observers in a fashion that reduced bias. This enabled NOAA Fisheries officials to build fishery-wide assessments based the observers’ findings.

Oceana filed the subsequent suit in July 2015 and argued that the sampling method implemented violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act. In addition, it claimed that observers were only counting the bycatch of species under management plans within the agency.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

How Scientists Are Using Real-Time Data to Help Fishermen Avoid Bycatch

April 15, 2019 — From 1990 to 2000, fishermen seeking swordfish off the coast of California accidentally caught and killed over 100 leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles, and injured many more.

In 2001, the federal government established the Pacific Leatherback Conservation Area, a 250,000-square-mile region off the coast of California that is off-limits to fishing boats from August through November.

Since then, the number of turtles killed as bycatch has plummeted, but a handful of animals still die from being entangled in fishing nets each year—too many, environmental advocates say. And at the same time, the closure of the giant oceanic region means the once-$15 million swordfish industry has become a $2 million industry, and the number of boats plying the waters has decreased significantly.

Scientists and ocean advocates are hoping to find a way to both protect sea turtles and other threatened species and help fishermen make a living. To this end, many are looking at dynamic ocean management, a strategy that uses advances in real-time data collection to help fishing vessels meet fish where they are—and avoid all other bycatch.

Read the full story at Smithsonian.com

DC Circuit Sinks Challenge to Fishing Bycatch Rule

April 15, 2019 — The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld the government’s method of counting fish and other sea life that are unintentionally swept up in commercial fishing nets.

Fishing boats often throw back this unwanted haul, known as bycatch, but the creatures often do not survive the ordeal. Concerned about the impact to the undersea habitat, Congress has required the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a way of counting bycatch.

The NMFS changed its method for counting bycatch in 2015, after a court struck down an earlier change because it included a provision that allowed the government to go around the normal method if it had a budget shortfall. Because the agency controlled the amount of money that went towards counting bycatch, the D.C. Circuit held the policy was not the standardized method Congress had called for.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service