Saving Seafood

Protecting the Pacific’s endangered marine species using artificial intelligence

November 24, 2021 — The pelagic ocean covers over 50 percent of the planet’s surface and many of the species that call it home travel thousands of miles each year, seeking food and suitable nursery grounds. Some of these species end up in your favorite sushi—like Bigeye tuna—while others are some of the most imperiled on the planet, like leatherback sea turtles. Catching one without catching the other has challenged commercial fishers, scientists and fisheries managers to develop innovative solutions.

“In the last several decades, we have seen major improvements to bycatch reduction,” said T. Todd Jones, Fisheries Research and Monitoring Division director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. “We see as much as a 60 to 90 percent reduction in bycatch rates for endangered marine turtles due to gear improvement, for example. The goal is to refine that further.”

Recent efforts by UF/IFAS researchers attempt to do just that by drawing imaginary lines in the vast, open ocean, a seemingly impossible task. But using , scientists are making progress toward protecting  that are not meant to be caught.

Read the full story at Phys.org

Surface Trawl Survey Reveals Shifting Fish Populations

November 23, 2021 — Researchers are predicting low fish runs in the Norton Sound and Northern Bering Sea region again next year, according to research biologist Jim Murphy.

Murphy, who works with the Salmon Ocean Ecology and Bycatch Analysis Group at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Juneau, presented the findings of the recent 2021 surface trawl survey during a Strait Science event. The survey, which tracks marine life across the surface and midlevel of the northern Bering Strait, was conducted in September this year. Researchers studied salmon, seabirds, shrimp, zooplankton and several other marine species.

The surface trawl survey has been conducted every year for almost two decades, and Murphy says when the survey is conducted is crucial. “The timing of the survey was established at the beginning to match the timing of marine entry and dispersal of juvenile salmon from estuarine habitats, and we’ve attempted to keep the timing of the survey as consistent as possible.”

Though the primary purpose of the surface trawl is to track pelagic fish, or species found in the middle and upper water columns, and invertebrate populations, researchers also collect zooplankton and sediments, as well as bottom-dwelling fish, crab and invertebrates.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaska lawmakers in both parties demand action on excessive fisheries bycatch

November 23, 2021 — A grilling on fish that is taken as bycatch didn’t satisfy the appetites of a bipartisan group of Alaska legislators at a special hearing on Nov. 15 by the House Fisheries Committee.

“We probably could not be more diametrically opposed on many things but we are frustrated with the waste of the resource and we are in lockstep. It’s all about the best economics and the best stewardship of our resources,” said Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, who devoted his entire November Capital Report to the topic.

“The fish don’t care if you’re red or blue,” said Sarah Vance, R-Homer, the catalyst behind the bycatch hearing. “We lay aside everything else and focus on good stewardship and making sure that every fisherman is able to get fish in the freezer and food on the table.”

The bycatch issue came to a head this summer when all Yukon River salmon fisheries were canceled due to so few returning chinook and chums. Along with ocean and climate impacts, villagers questioned the takes by huge trawlers that catch and process fish at sea.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Federal judge blocks lobster fishing ban in stretch of Gulf of Maine

October 18, 2021 — A federal judge in Maine on Saturday blocked a seasonal ban on traditional lobster fishing in a stretch of offshore waters in the Gulf of Maine that regulators say is needed to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale from extinction.

In his 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said regulators had relied on “markedly thin” statistical modeling instead of hard evidence to show the nearly thousand-square-mile area they had planned to close was really a hot spot for the imperiled whale.

While the area targeted for closure may be a viable habitat for the right whale, there is no hard proof the whales actually gather there, or even pass through that part of the Gulf of Maine, with enough frequency to render it a “hotspot,” Walker wrote.

The National Marine Fisheries Service had only just this year deployed acoustic devices along the Maine coast that can detect the presence of right whales through their song, Walker noted. When available, such evidence of a hot spot is preferable to statistical likelihoods.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Trawler bycatch debate heats up after Alaska records dismal 2021 chinook salmon returns

October 15, 2021 — Fishermen are calling for state and federal fisheries managers to make changes to salmon bycatch limits for trawlers as chinook salmon numbers plummet across Alaska.

Chinook salmon returns were dismal virtually everywhere in Alaska this year, from Southeast to the Bering Sea, with few exceptions. That follows a trend, as abundance has declined over roughly the last decade. Commercial fishermen have lost most of their opportunity to harvest kings, and sport fisheries have been restricted. Now subsistence fisheries are being reined in to help preserve the runs.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is debating changes in its meeting this month. Trawlers, which use weighted nets to drag either along the bottom or in midwater, are permitted a certain amount of bycatch as they fish for their target species, the largest of which is pollock. Bycatch is always a heated issue, but it is especially so now.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game informed the council in a letter dated Sept. 23 that three index species that it uses to track king salmon runs in the Bering Sea — the Unalakleet, Yukon, and Kuskokwim rivers — didn’t reach a threshold necessary to maintain the current bycatch allowances. That threshold is set at 250,000 fish between the three rivers; this year, there were 165,148.

The Kuskokwim’s run came within its forecasted range, but the other two fell short.

The shortfall in salmon this year hit fishing communities hard, particularly among subsistence fishermen. Amos T. Philemenoff Sr., president of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, wrote to the board that the salmon shortages in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region this year have affected the island’s subsistence traditions. Donations of salmon from commercial harvesters to replace the lost food do not replace the traditions, he said.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

Tribal, commercial fishing groups call for drastic reductions in trawl salmon bycatch

October 14, 2021 — Fisheries managers allow whitefish trawlers to inadvertently scoop up halibut, crab and salmon in their nets. The bycatch rate is relatively low, but because the trawlers catch so much of their target species, the unintended harvest adds up.

In rural western Alaska, where chum and king salmon runs have been performing poorly, the bycatch is raising alarms. While the bycaught salmon is often donated to food banks, it’s of little assurance to those living along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, where subsistence is a way of life.

“We eat dry fish like people from the Midwest eat bread, with every meal,” Mary Peltola told the North Pacific Fishery Management Council this month. She’s the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and lives in the largely Yup’ik community of Bethel. “Our babies teethe on dry fish, it’s the first food most Yup’iks eat, and it’s something that we crave year-round.”

She testified that fishing on the Kuskokwim has been severely restricted to preserve wild salmon stocks. Meanwhile, trawlers haven’t faced new restrictions of their own as they scoop up lucrative whitefish like pollock, cod and halibut. She’s asked the council to work to put an end to bycatch in the industrial commercial trawl fleet.

Read the full story at KSTK

 

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