Saving Seafood

2021 Commercial Halibut Season Is Set to Open

June 16, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The first 3-day commercial halibut fishing season of 2021 in federal waters off the West Coast begins next week. It starts on Tuesday, June 22 at 8 a.m. and ends on Thursday, June 24 at 6 p.m. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement will be conducting patrols throughout the season along with our partners.

Patrols will focus on ensuring compliance with the rules and regulations governing commercial halibut fishing. These include:

  • Proper marking of fishing gear
  • Permitting and vessel documentation
  • Minimum size and possession restrictions

All setline or skate marker buoys carried on board or used by any U.S. vessel for halibut fishing must be marked with either the vessel’s state license number or registration number. The markings must be in legible characters at least 4 inches high and one-half inch wide in a contrasting color visible above the water.

Learn more about commercial halibut fishing regulations

Our partners in these patrols include:

  • U.S. Coast Guard
  • Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police
  • Oregon State Police
  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Read the full release here

California’s latest bid to bolster its economy? Releasing 17 million fish into the San Francisco Bay.

June 10, 2021 — California is rolling out a fresh strategy to keep its economy afloat — releasing 17 million salmon into the San Francisco Bay.

Millions of Chinook salmon raised in hatcheries will bypass California’s drought-stricken riverbanks to be released directly into colder, downstream sites in the San Francisco Bay, in an attempt to maximize their survival rate amid some of the most extreme environmental conditions the state has ever faced.

By the end of June, around 16.8 million young adult salmon, also called smolt, will travel more than 30,000 miles by truck from hatcheries to direct release sites around the coastline.

At the release sites around the San Francisco, San Pablo, Half Moon, and Monterey bays, the salmon will be set free to make their way into colder ocean waters.

Read the full story at Business Insider

New Strategy Applies Local Knowledge and Science to Salmon and Steelhead Recovery in Northern California

June 2, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Salmon and steelhead in Northern California have been in trouble for more than 100 years, primarily because of habitat damage and loss resulting from human activities. Climate change has only worsened these habitat problems. For the last 50 years, communities have worked to restore this habitat in hopes of reversing the fortunes of these fish. Scientists and local restoration communities are seeking new ways to maximize the benefits of habitat restoration so that rivers and streams can support healthy fish populations again.

One new approach to maximize these benefits is the Salmonid Habitat Restoration Priorities (SHaRP) process. The process creates a strategy to rebuild salmon and steelhead within a watershed by focusing on restoring its healthier, less impaired areas. Scientists expect that improved fish survival and reproduction in these restored areas will enable faster recolonization of the more degraded areas.

“The SHaRP process builds upon existing recovery plans and identifies very specific actions to create real wins for declining species. This approach to conservation offers the restoration community a seat at the table to design a near-term recovery strategy to maximize restoration impacts for their watershed,” said Barry Thom, NOAA Fisheries West Coast Regional Administrator.

NOAA Fisheries and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) developed the SHaRP process. They first applied it to the South Fork Eel River, a few hours drive north of San Francisco Bay. Historically, the Eel River supported hundreds of thousands of Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead. Today, these three species reflect only about 5 percent of their historical numbers.

Read the full release here

California closing Dungeness season June 1 as humpback whales migrate

May 25, 2021 — California crabbers must pull their gear by noon June 1, with a decision by state officials to end the season, anticipating movement of humpback whales from their breeding grounds back to coastal waters.

The closure will shorten the season by four weeks in the central management zone and six weeks in the northern management zone. But the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program – developed after court challenges from environmental groups seeking to prevent gear entanglements – is working, state officials say.

The agency made its preliminary determination a week before the announcement, said Ben Platt, president of the California Coastal Crab Association.

“What’s extremely frustrating is that the Whale Working Group voted 10-2 to keep the state open with a 30 fathom depth restriction. The only whales spotted were outside of this depth,” said Platt. “This was already the management in the northern half of the state for the past two week period.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: Dungeness crab fishing season ends four weeks early

May 25, 2021 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is ending the Dungeness crab fishing season early on June 1 because of an increase in humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean.

On May 18, Charlton Bonham, director of the state agency, announced that recent survey data indicated an increase in humpback whales returning from their winter breeding grounds to California fishing grounds.

In a press release, Bonham said that considering the data and recommendations from the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group and other stakeholders, he assessed the entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced the early closure of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery.

All commercial crab traps must be removed from the fishing grounds by noon on June 1.

Read the full story at The New Times

CALIFORNIA: Monterey Bay area affected by shortened crab season

May 21, 2021 — With the higher number of humpback whales descending on Central Coast waters, and out of concern with them becoming entangled in crab lines, state officials said this week that they will close the Dungeness crab season on June 1, four weeks early.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which regulates the state’s crab fishery, issued the decision Tuesday following agency Director Charlton Bonham’s assessment of entanglement risk to humpback whales and critically endangered leatherback sea turtles.

The closure will begin statewide at noon on June 1.

“It has been a very difficult year for many in our fishing communities and I recognize that every day of lost fishing further impacts families and small businesses,” Bonham said in a statement.

Read the full story at the Monterey Herald

Gov. Newsom’s California Comeback Plan Includes Significant Increases for Fish and Wildlife

May 18, 2021 — Proposed budget increases for California will help shark and swordfish gillnet fishermen transition out of the fishery.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday introduced his California Comeback Plan, which includes significant fiscal resources aimed to protect California’s diverse fish, wildlife and plant resources and the habitats on which they depend, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a press release. The proposed budget increases show the Newsom administration’s investment in California’s biodiversity both for its intrinsic, ecological value as well as for future generations of hunters, hikers, fishermen, birders and outdoor enthusiasts.

Read the full story at Seafood News

California ropeless gear bill dies without a hearing

May 3, 2021 — A California bill that would have required the ropeless pop-up gear in Dungeness crab and other trap fisheries by 2025, died without a hearing last week in the California State Assembly. Dubbed the Whale Entanglement Prevention Act, (AB-534) was introduced in February by Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and was largely written by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Bonta was sworn in as California’s attorney general on April 23, and no other assembly member chose to pick up the bill after his departure.

“It was a true David and Goliath moment for the fishing industry. It shows when the facts are on our side and we work together, we can actually win,” said Ben Platt, a Crescent City-based fisherman and president of the California Coast Crab Association. “It was the consensus if we were mandated to go ropeless, we’d all go out of business.”

California fishermen were blindsided by bill when it was introduced, as new Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) regulations were instituted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in November. The RAMP rules — among other things — keep fishermen off the water when the presence of whales exceeded a certain threshold in state crab districts, as happened in November and December.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California Commercial Salmon Season to be Reduced — Maybe by Half

March 16, 2021 — The California commercial salmon season, due to start May 1, will be only about half as long as last year’s season, after the Pacific Fisheries Management Council settled on three proposals for the dates and months fishing can take place this season.

“Time on the water is cut this year in an effort to have more salmon return to the rivers to spawn to meet our management objectives,” Kandice Morgenstern, environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said after the council’s decision Thursday.

Read the full story at Seafood News

CALIFORNIA: Innovative fishing gear is being tested to reduce impact on whales and sea turtles

February 22, 2021 — A new collaborative project between environmental groups, the state, scientists, and Dungeness crab fishers is testing innovative new gear designed to reduce the impact of whales and sea turtles getting caught in fishing gear.

This is in response to California’s recent state regulations to reduce the risk of endangered whales and sea turtles getting caught in commercial Dungeness crab gear. The regulations went into effect last November, and when high numbers of humpback whales were sighted off the coast near San Francisco and Monterey Bay, the opening of the commercial Dungeness crab season was delayed by about a month.

Since 2014, the number of interactions between whales and fishing gear has been historically high. In 2019, for example, 26 whales were entangled off the West Coast, 17 of which were humpback whales.

“There’s a vertical line attached to the trap that goes to the buoys at the surface,” said Greg Wells of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation who is managing the collaborative gear-testing research project. “That’s the part that poses an entanglement risk for whales and other marine life.”

Read the full story at The Monterey Herald