Saving Seafood

LOUISIANA: Judge’s order delays implementation of Turtle Exclusion Devices for vessels

September 29, 2021 — A US District Judge has granted a motion from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for a preliminary injunction on the federal Turtle Exclusion Devices for some vessels.

LDWF says the order delays implementation of the requirements of TEDs in skimmer vessels 40 feet in length or greater in Louisiana inshore waters until February 1, 2022. The motion for the injunction was granted on September 9, 2021.

LDWF says that on December 20, 2019, the Final Rule was published requiring skimmer vessels 40 feet in length or greater to have an approved TED installed by April 1, 2021. In March 2021, NOAA delayed implementation of the Rule to August 1, 2021 due to a lack of outreach and availability of TEDs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2021, NOAA released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to require TEDs on all skimmer vessels, regardless of vessel length.

Read the full story at KATC

 

Maine Lobstermen’s Association Sues Feds Over Right Whale Protection Plan

September 28, 2021 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has filed suit against the federal government over its plan to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from becoming entangled in lobster gear.

MLA executive director Patrice McCarron says a 10-year plan issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service this summer should be revised to reflect actions the industry has already taken.

“We are literally on a course to have our fishery erased, eliminated in ten years, because the plan’s not based upon the science. And the first phase of the plan has weaknesses, too, not based upon the best available science,” she says.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

New Study Develops Alternate Methods to Manage Gray Seal Bycatch

September 27, 2021 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Marine mammal conservation is one of the top goals of U.S. ocean management. That is why it’s particularly important for regulators to have an accurate estimate of how fisheries and other ocean users may impact marine mammal populations. A new study looks at ways of strengthening and fine-tuning existing marine mammal management and assessing the impacts on one marine mammal population in the western North Atlantic, the gray seal.

The study, from Drs. André Punt, John R. Brandon, Doug DeMaster, and Paula Moreno, is the culmination of a 3-year research project led by Dr. DeMaster and conducted in collaboration with the scientists at NOAA’s Northeast Science Center, with funding from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries. It specifically examines a key variable in marine mammal management, the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) level.

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, marine mammal populations are managed according to their Potential Biological Removal (PBR), which determines the level of mortality (and serious injury) that is sustainable for each marine mammal population. When bycatch of a marine mammal population nears or exceeds its PBR level, restrictions are often imposed on nearby fisheries as a precautionary measure to prevent the population from becoming depleted.

In the case of gray seals, assessments of human-caused mortality levels are complicated by the fact that the gray seal population exists on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Determining when the gray seal PBR is exceeded is subject to errors due to incomplete information, meaning that certain management decisions could unnecessarily trigger fishing restrictions (termed by scientists as ‘false positives’) or needed restrictions are not imposed (known as ‘false negatives’). These restrictions often include catch limits of commercially valuable species, limits on what kinds of gear can be used, and other regulations that can be costly for the fisheries forced to adopt them.

To address this, the authors assembled the best available data on the western North Atlantic grey seal population and Canadian fisheries. This allowed them to produce two key estimates when assessing whether gray seal bycatch exceeds the PBR level. It used a more realistic, species-specific rate of gray seal maximum net production (i.e., 14.1% per year), rather than using a generic default value for other seal species (12% per year). If adopted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), this would increase gray seal PBR level by 18%. The study also used an extrapolated bycatch estimate for adjacent Canadian waters, which had not previously been attempted.

The study found that, in comparison to the base model currently used by NMFS, this approach is more robust to transboundary movements and uses a more accurate estimate of maximum net production of gray seals, allowing managers to adopt more appropriate management measures on fisheries while still achieving precautionary conservation goals for the grey seal population. The results can provide a blueprint for other assessments of marine mammal-fishery interactions for similar transboundary marine mammal stocks.

View the full study here

 

Some sharks are more likely to die after ‘catch and release,’ study finds. Here’s why

September 24, 2021 — Longlining, a commercial fishing technique that drags a main line with baited hooks through the water, is convenient when catching massive amounts of swordfish and tuna, but it also traps what experts call “bycatch” — unintended victims that may face dark fates after release back into the ocean.

Sharks are often attracted to and caught on these baited longlines; it’s one of the many culprits behind declining shark populations. Certain rules called “no-take regulations” require fishermen to release some species when accidentally hooked, but a new study of over 300 sharks found that some are much more likely to die after “catch and release” than others. The study was published Sept. 15 in the journal PLOS One.

“The assumption behind no-take regulations is that the shark will swim away and live out its normal life after it’s released, but we know that for some sharks, that’s not true,” study lead author Dr. Nick Whitney, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life in Massachusetts, said in a news release.

After five years of longline fishing that targeted five of the seven most commonly caught species in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Keys, the researchers learned as many as 42% to 71% of blacktip and spinner sharks will die after being caught and released alive. Others, such as sandbar and tiger sharks, were more resilient; only 3% or fewer died after release. Bull sharks were also one of the more hardy species. The animals were caught near Madeira Beach, Key West and Naples, Florida.

The team learned 90% of the post-release deaths occurred within five hours of returning to the water, and 59% occurred within just two hours. Blood samples and tracking data revealed the stress of the capture process, or injuries acquired during it, leads to the unnecessary and disproportionate demise of some sharks.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

US Senate approves drift gillnet ban again

September 21, 2021 — A bill banning large drift gillnets from being used in federal waters has unanimously been approved in the U.S. Senate.

Now S.273, also known as the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act, heads to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration. The bill’s chances there are good, considering the legislative body passed the same measure last year. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed the bill on 1 January, claiming it would lead to more imported seafood entering the country.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Maine’s Next Generation Of Lobstermen Brace For Unprecedented Change

September 20, 2021 — The latest federal rule, announced on Aug. 31 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is part of a plan to stop endangered North Atlantic right whales from getting caught in fishing gear by 2030.

The agency estimates that the population’s decline has accelerated in recent years, with 368 right whales remaining. NOAA has documented 34 right whale deaths since 2017, with at least nine of those mortalities confirmed to have been caused by entanglements in fishing gear, including gear used by commercial gillnet or lobster and crab fisheries on the East Coast.

NOAA’s new rule requires lobstermen to use gear with state-specific markings that can be traced if a whale gets caught, among other modifications such as weak points in fishing lines that allow entangled whales to break free. The rule will also allow lobstermen to use so-called ropeless gear — a costly and controversial new technology that’s still in the early stages of development — in fishing areas that will be closed in certain seasons.

“The beauty of the lobster industry is that there’s been a place for everybody,” says Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “We’re at risk of putting too many barriers in that are really going to create winners and losers, so it’s scary.”

McCarron says fishermen want to do their part to protect whales, but she says no Maine lobster gear has ever been confirmed to have caused the serious injury or death of a right whale. A NOAA spokesperson counters that its scientists are unable to determine the source of most entanglements and nearly half of mortalities go unobserved.

Read the full story at NPR

 

NMFS funding $2.2 million for bycatch reduction projects

September 17, 2021 — NMFS funding $2.2 million for bycatch reduction projects. Federal officials announced $2.2 million in funding is being awarded to partners around the U.S. to support innovative research through the NMFS Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program.

Incidental bycatch of non-target fish, protected marine mammals and sea turtles “can have significant biological, economic, and social impacts,” NMFS said in announcing the awards.

“Preventing and reducing bycatch is a shared goal of fisheries managers, the fishing industry, and the environmental community. Working side-by-side with fishermen on their boats we’ve developed solutions to some of the top bycatch challenges facing our nation’s fisheries.”

At the top of this year’s list are projects to develop so-called ropeless gear for the Northeast lobster and other fixed-gear fisheries, to reduce entanglement incidents with the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale population, recently estimated to number less than 400 animals.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA Fisheries Awards $2.2M to Support Bycatch Reduction Projects

September 9, 2021 —NOAA Fisheries has awarded approximately $2.2 million in grants to support 12 projects under our Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program. Out of the 12 awarded projects, 5 were awarded to the Greater Atlantic Region totaling $1.07 million. Bycatch reduction is a top priority for NOAA Fisheries, as outlined in our National Bycatch Reduction Strategy because bycatch can contribute to overfishing, can threaten endangered and threatened species and protected marine mammals, and can close fisheries, significantly impacting U.S. economic growth. This year’s projects focus on several priority bycatch issues related to a variety of species, including whales, turtles, sharks, sturgeon, and halibut.

Projects in the Greater Atlantic Region will focus on developing gears to reduce interactions between whales and turtles in vertical buoy lines, reducing the capture of Atlantic sturgeon in large mesh gillnets, and increasing our knowledge of porbeagle bycatch in the groundfish bottom trawl fishery.   

NOAA Fisheries’ Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program has resulted in innovative technological solutions to some of the nation’s top bycatch challenges. NOAA Fisheries is proud to continue to partner with fishermen, fishery managers, industry, and the environmental community to avoid and minimize bycatch.

For more information about this year’s recipients and selected projects visit our website.

ALASKA: Subsistence users, scientists seek answers for chum salmon declines

August 31, 2021 — Bill Alstrom lives in St. Mary’s on the lower Yukon River. It used to be that if he wanted fresh salmon for dinner, he’d throw a net in the river to catch a couple. But with fishing closures this season, he can’t do that anymore.

“It’s hard to comprehend that this is happening in my lifetime,” said Alstrom. “It makes me sad just thinking about it.”

Chum salmon stocks have sharply declined over the last two years in Western Alaska. It’s a major problem because people in the region, like Alstrom, depend heavily on the fish for food and for work. With chinook salmon low for decades, chum were the fish that families could depend on until last year, when the summer chum run dropped below half of its usual numbers. This year, the run dropped even further, to record lows. The State of Alaska has closed fishing for chum to protect the runs.

Scientists are in the early stages of trying to understand the crash.

Biologist Katie Howard with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said that the chum declines are not just occurring in the Yukon River.

“When we talk to colleagues in the Lower 48 and Canada, Japan, Russia, they are all reporting really poor chum runs,” she said. “So it’s not just a Yukon phenomenon. It’s not just an Alaska phenomenon, but pretty much everywhere.”.

So why are the chum numbers so low? The short answer is that no one really knows for sure. But there are a lot of theories.

Every week during the summer, subsistence users, biologists and fishery managers gather on a weekly teleconference hosted by the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association. They share information and ask each other questions, and the subsistence users bring up one theory for the decline again and again: bycatch.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Planet Tracker analyst calls for increased observer coverage on distant-water fleet

August 25, 2021 — If one percent of global fisheries subsidies were redirected to onboard monitoring, the proportion of wild-catch fishing monitored by observers could create a meaningful impact in reducing illegal fishing and bycatch, according to Planet Tracker Financial Analyst Francois Mosnier.

Mosnier, a financial analyst covering seafood companies at the financial think tank, said he believes an additional USD 222 million (EUR 190.2 million) is needed to expand observer coverage to 20 percent across all regional fishery management organizations, which cover the cost of observers through a levy on fisheries. Currently, observers cover just 2 percent of all catches recorded by RFMOs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source