Saving Seafood

Longline fishing hampering shark migration

August 21, 2019 — Longline fisheries around the world are significantly affecting migrating shark populations, according to an international study featuring a University of Queensland researcher.

The study found that approximately a quarter of the studied sharks’ migratory paths fell under the footprint of longline fisheries, directly killing sharks and affecting their food supply.

Dr Bonnie Holmes, from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, wanted to find out why shark numbers have been declining significantly over the past 20 years.

“We’re losing these incredible creatures, and we know so little about shark movements and what drives them,” she said.

“I joined an international research effort, using new technologies — like satellite tracking and big data analysis — to help answer some critical questions.”

Read the full story at Science Daily

Study finds fishermen who venture to new grounds benefit

August 21, 2019 — In 2009, excessive bycatch of endangered sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a five-month closure of the Gulf’s longline fishery. Boat captains unexpectedly found themselves locked out of prime fishing grounds, and were forced to look elsewhere to make a living.

As it turned out, some captains fared better than others in this endeavor. And their experience has implications for fishermen today who are adapting to changing environmental and regulatory conditions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

DAN MORRIS: Maine Voices: Lobstermen threatened with the extinction of their way of life

August 15, 2019 — The word “extinction” has been thrown around a lot lately by environmental groups that believe that Northern right whales are on the verge of just that. Though right whales number more than 8,000 in the Southern Hemisphere, only 400 to 500 are believed to be in the Northern Hemisphere.

Fishermen, whose only master is Mother Nature, and who have been admired over the years for their tenacity and independence, now have been cast as the villain in the whale story. Large, well-funded, out-of-state environmental groups would have you believe that these whales are going extinct and that Maine fishing gear entanglement is a major reason why.

These groups have proposed things like ropeless fishing and refuse to believe that ideas like this are not practical in Maine. Can you imagine how a fisherman could set his 20- to 30-trap trawl into water 300 to 400 feet deep, not knowing where any of his competitors’ trawls might have been set days before? As if hauling long trawls in deep water isn’t dangerous enough, hauling up one’s trawl with another one or two draped over it can be life-threatening.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Provincetown rescue team frees entangled right whale off Cape Cod coast

August 7, 2019 — On Friday, Aug. 2 the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team (MAER) from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), in collaboration with the Northeastern Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) partially disentangled a North Atlantic right whale, one of only about 400 individuals left, east of Cape Cod.

The entangled whale was initially discovered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, on July 4, 2019 by Transport Canada. Despite a horrific entanglement, the whale was highly mobile. On July 19 it was spotted again by an aerial survey team from NEFSC and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. A response team from New England Aquarium (NEAQ) was in the area and succeeded in attaching a telemetry buoy to the whale to track its movements for disentanglement.

Over the next two weeks the whale traveled east, out of the Gulf, then south, past Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. During that time Canadian disentanglement teams made several attempts to free the animal and were able to make some cuts to its entanglement.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Scientists Are Trying to Keep Sharks From Commercial Lines

August 5, 2019 — Scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Wachapreague are doing research this summer that could result in a way for commercial fishermen to keep sharks from interfering with their fishing lines.

VIMS Eastern Shore Lab has the advantage of being right on the water and near the last undeveloped stretch of barrier islands on the East Coast.

“There is only one lab in all of Virginia that has running seawater, which you need to keep sharks,” said VIMS scientist Richard Brill.

That lab is in Wachapreague.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Our Fishing Is Driving Sharks To Extinction

August 1, 2019 — In a world so big, it may be unfathomable to think our human touch has reached every corner. Yet our mentality of overabundance has leeched and tainted even the remotest parts of our oceans. In a ground-breaking Nature report, a team of more than 150 scientists have come together to showcase just how our major high seas fishing activities impact sharks.

There are over 500 species of shark worldwide and many large ones call the open ocean home. While it may be hard for them to find food in this vast blue desert, our technology has made it so we can find large quantities of it in very little time. Fishing fleets are the biggest threat to all sharks, but especially large ones as they account for over half of all identified shark catch globally in target fisheries or as bycatch. This unsustainable trend has paved the way for declines in some population numbers, like the regional declines in abundance of shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus).  While scientists knew that sharks and fishing fleets shared the same areas, they didn’t know just how much fishing takes place in areas where sharks aggregate. This was crucial evidence needed to fight for catch limits in the high seas, where there is currently little to no management or enforcement for sharks.

Read the full story at Forbes

Global Threat to Sharks Highlighted in Nature Paper Co-Authorized by Mote Scientists

July 31, 2019 — The following was released by Mote:

A new study in the prestigious, peer-reviewed, scientific journal Nature reveals that major high seas fishing activities overlap significantly with important shark hotspots worldwide.

Study partners point out that North Atlantic blue sharks and shortfin mako – the fastest shark in the sea – have on average 76% and 62% of their space use, respectively, occupied by longline fishing  vessels each month, and even internationally protected species such as great white and porbeagle sharks are at risk of bycatch in such fisheries. The study calls attention to the danger of accelerating shark population declines and disappearance of their hotspots, along with opportunities for more sustainable management of fisheries and shark populations internationally.

The study included 150 scientists from 26 countries who combined their knowledge and data from nearly 2,000 satellite-tagged sharks. Co-authors from Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research have tracked white, bull, hammerhead, whale and multiple other shark species with satellite tags over decades of conservation-focused science, some in collaboration with research partner OCEARCH.

  • Read the full news release from Nature below and view the journal article here: https://rdcu.be/bLze0

Below is a statement from Dr. Robert Hueter, Director of Mote’s Center for Shark Research, who served as a study co-author along with Mote Senior Biologists Jack Morris and John Tyminski.

Read the full release here

Sharks Have Few Places To Hide From Fishing, Study Shows

July 24, 2019 — Ocean-dwelling sharks often like to hang out in areas that also get frequented by industrial fishing ships, which puts them at grave risk of being caught either for food or as bycatch.

That’s according to a new study in the journal Nature that mapped the activity of 23 shark species and fishing vessels around the globe.

Researchers tracked more than 1,500 sharks with satellite tags and combined that data with information on ship movements taken from safety technology that vessels use to avoid collisions at sea.

“Tens of millions of these pelagic sharks are being caught by industrialized fisheries in areas where there’s little or no management, and some populations have declined as a result,” says David Sims, a U.K.-based marine ecologist at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and the University of Southampton.

Fishing vessels can catch sharks accidentally, because their long lines can extend for miles and have more than 1,000 hooks.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

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