Saving Seafood

Study finds California salmon face deadly threat from car tires

December 4, 2020 — A highly toxic chemical used in the production of millions of tires every year is killing salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and it is being detected in streams across Northern California, a new study finds.

Scientists have known for decades that stormwater runoff from roads, highways and other urban areas has been linked to high rates of coho salmon deaths in Washington state, where as many as 90% of salmon in the Puget Sound area have died before they could spawn.

The new study published in the research journal Science on Thursday has identified a culprit chemical for the first time — a commonly used preservative called 6PPD used to give tires longer life.

“I think the broader impact is as we have already found this in San Francisco (Bay) creek water as well as the road runoff,” said the study’s lead author, Zhenyu Tian, a researcher at the University of Washington Tacoma. “We believe this thing is a prevalent contaminant. Wherever you have a busy highway, you have runoff from there and you probably will detect it. Our detection rate for this chemical in runoff is almost always 100%. For coho salmon, it’s definitely a threat.”

Read the full story at The Mercury News

CALIFORNIA: A new program aims to put locally caught fish onto more local plates, regardless of income.

December 3, 2020 — Walter Deyerle, captain of the F/V SeaHarvest IV, explains the basics of the process he and his crew undertake to land sablefish in the waters of the Monterey Bay.

First they lay out a long line, usually set with 2,000 pre-baited hooks, on rods that carry 250 hooks each. The hooks are set 18 inches apart and once the lines are dropped, they expand over about two-thirds of a mile over the sea floor.

Three hours later, the lines are pulled back onto the boat.

“And hopefully,” Deyerle says, “there’s a lot of fish on them.”

A lot of fish means something different during the Covid-19 pandemic. Restaurants are ordering less because there are fewer customers. Exports to Japan are down, because they too have less demand. But when fishing is your life’s work – as it is for Deyerle and his entire family, with aunts and uncles who own the Sea Harvest restaurants, his father running a fish-processing plant while working alongside Walt and his brother, also a commercial fisherman – there has to be a way to get local catch into local bellies.

Read the full story at Monterey County Now

GLENN ROPER: Blue-collar fishermen deserve to make a living

December 1, 2020 — Austen Brown started fishing commercially with his father off California’s coast when he was only 8 years old. By the time he was 13, Austen was making his own living as a fisherman, and he has spent the past few decades fishing for everything from codfish to shark. But perhaps his favorite target is the elusive swordfish. A popular choice among seafood diners, swordfish are most effectively caught using large drift gillnets that hang in the deep ocean.

The swordfish is also a favorite catch for Chris Williams, who has spent more than 40 years plying his commercial fishing trade off the California coast, including targeting swordfish with drift gillnets. Chris and his wife Dania usually sell his catch at Fresh Fish Fanatics, their family-owned business in Oxnard. The Williamses hope to one day leave the business to their three children, who have already begun helping to run it.

These stories are typical. Commercial fishing is often a family affair, with multiple generations working together to support a small business. And for those who love the freedom of the outdoors and the thrill of the hunt, fishing can provide a satisfying career. But recent California legislation threatens to eliminate the drift gillnet industry entirely.

In 2018, California approved a law designed to ban the use of drift gillnets by the year 2024. The law was championed by environmentalists who claim that drift gillnets pose a special risk to threatened sea creatures like whales and sea turtles. But they are mistaken. Existing federal and state regulations like seasonal closures and the required use of acoustic pingers on drift gillnets have already reduced accidental catch of protected species to almost nothing. But for some environmental hard-liners in Sacramento, a symbolic political victory is more important than facts on the ground (or in this case, in the water).

Read the full opinion piece at the Pacific Legal Foundation

California Dungeness season pushed back to Dec. 16

November 30, 2020 — Citing a continuing presence of whales on the central California crab fishing grounds, the Dungeness season opener has been pushed back by an additional two weeks to Dec. 16, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said this week.

Humpback whales were feeding in a familiar nearshore pattern similar to fall 2019 when that season was delayed, and a similar call was made by state officials to delay the crab season start to Dec. 1, pending findings from aerial surveys. The decision came back late Tuesday to hold off again until at least Dec. 16 to prevent risk of crab gear entangling whales.

Based on aerial and vessel surveys and observer reports along the coast, the state agency “after consulting with the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, is enacting a delay in the central management area,” said state fish and wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham in announcing the decision. “Available data indicates the whales still remain in the fishing grounds.”

The California Coast Crab Association complained that the recreational crab fishery was “inexplicably” allowed to start on time in early November even as state officials contended too many whales were around for commercial gear to be set.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: North Bay crab season delayed again

November 27, 2020 — Commercial crab fishing is becoming a turkey of a profession this year, as the season in the zone stretching from Gualala Point south to the Mexico border is delayed again to Dec. 16.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife decided Tuesday to put a hold on the season because the whales have failed to migrate south to their nesting grounds in sufficient numbers. The mammals, which wildlife officials contend risk entanglement with the crab fishing gear, have hung out along the California coast longer than usual.

This is the second time the season has been delayed. It was supposed to start Nov. 15, but those plans were squashed about three weeks ago when the launch moved to Dec. 1.

But the state agency conducted a survey on Nov. 21 and found many whales off shore in the zone from Point Arena south through the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The whales haven’t left the vicinity. If this extends, there’s going to be serious financial consequences to the fleet — and this is on the heels of COVID,” Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Mike Conroy told the Business Journal. He predicted many crab fishermen, who take part in an industry valued at $51 million in California in 2019, would lose their boats and homes.

Read the full story at The North Bay Business Journal

CALIFORNIA: Fishermen in Monterey Bay hit with new wave of Dungeness crab season delays

November 25, 2020 — You couldn’t blame crab fishermen Tim and Dan Obert for feeling like they’re passing through the perfect storm.

First there was the pandemic, which shut down restaurants and, in turn, much of the demand for Dungeness crab. Then a new regulation took effect on Nov. 1 that heavily restricts the Dungeness fishery’s operations when whales and sea turtles are around. Then the state delayed the opening of the Dungeness crab season until after Thanksgiving.

“If you take all three of those things, you will destroy this fishery,” said Tim Obert, 35, of Scotts Valley. “There will be no crabbers left.”

Dungeness crab in Northern California is an integral and celebrated part of the culture of coastal communities stretching from Monterey to Crescent City. Wharf restaurants sling crab legs to thousands of tourists in the spring and summer, while bustling seafood markets feed countless locals during the holiday season.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

CALIFORNIA: Commercial Dungeness Crab Update

November 25, 2020 — The following was released by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife:

The commercial Dungeness crab season in the central management area, Point Arena to the Mexico border, will continue to be delayed due to the presence of whales within fishing grounds and the potential for entanglement. The commercial Dungeness crab season in the northern management area was scheduled to open Sunday, Dec. 1, but was delayed until at least Wednesday, Dec. 16 due to low meat quality. Meat quality testing and delays are a long-standing tri-state industry supported component of the season opener to ensure high quality crab at the start of the fisheries in northern California, Oregon and Washington. In early December, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director will re-assess entanglement risk in the central management area and evaluate risk in the northern management area to inform the season opener for both areas.

CDFW in partnership with researchers, federal agencies and the fishing industry has conducted surveys from the Oregon state line to the Channel Islands to observe marine life concentrations. CDFW has conducted five aerial surveys since late October and more than 10 vessel-based surveys have been conducted by researchers and the fishing industry. Additional sources of data include observations from a network of observers spread across three national marine sanctuaries.

Based on those data sources, “CDFW, after consulting with the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, is enacting a delay in the central management area,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “Available data indicates the whales still remain in the fishing grounds. This risk assessment focused on the central management area because the northern management area was already delayed due to low meat quality. CDFW staff, collaborators and partners have scheduled additional surveys in the next few weeks that, weather permitting, are anticipated to provide the data necessary to reassess whale presence. Our hope is both quality testing and additional marine life survey data will support a unified statewide opener on Dec. 16, just in time to have crab for the holidays and New Year.”

CDFW is planning additional aerial surveys for the first week of December to inform a risk assessment in advance of Dec. 16. When the data indicates the whales have migrated out of the fishing grounds, CDFW stands ready to open the commercial season.

For more information related to the risk assessment process or this delay, please visit CDFW’s Whale Safe Fisheries page.

For more information on Dungeness crab, please visit wildlife.ca.gov/crab.

NFI moves GSMC 2021 virtual, with in-person event still planned in May

November 24, 2020 — The National Fisheries Institute (NFI), the U.S. seafood industry’s foremost trade group, has announced its 2021 Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC) will take place online from 1 to 5 February.

The conference, which offers seafood marketplace data to NFI members and doubles as the NFI’s annual meeting, which was originally scheduled to take place in Coronado, California, U.S.A. in January. In July 2020, NFI announced it would be moving the conference to 23 to 28 May, 2021, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Risk of whale entanglements means a delay for crab season.

November 19, 2020 — Thanksgiving dinner will not include fresh-caught Dungeness crab this year, as state officials delayed the opening of commercial fishing from Nov. 15 to Dec. 1.

Eating Dungeness crab on Thanksgiving, instead of or alongside turkey, is a tradition that goes back decades in the Monterey and San Francisco bay areas. But as concern grew over whales getting entangled in the lines that get dropped to the ocean floor with crab traps, new conservation rules came into play.

In early November, aerial surveys and whale watching boats spotted dozens of humpbacks pausing to forage off the coast as part of a migration that eventually takes them to breeding grounds in Mexican waters. Those observations triggered action by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

“While no one wants to delay the season, CDFW and the Working Group feel a delay is necessary to reduce the risk of entanglement,” CDFW Director Charlton Bonham said in a statement, referring to the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, which includes trade representatives, environmentalists and government officials. “The fleet has gone to great lengths to be more nimble in order to protect whales and turtles, and the results are promising.”

Read the full story at Monterey County Now

Ocean climate bill is a grab bag for marine stakeholders

November 18, 2020 — Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, today introduced the Oceans-Based Climate Solutions Act of 2020.

We could start with the irony of a representative from Arizona introducing an oceans climate bill, hailing not only from a landlocked state, but one most known for its lack of water.

But let’s instead lead with the fact that the blueprint for this bill was introduced and failed to make it out of committee in California — one of the nation’s most progressive states. Now Gov. Gavin Newsom has made an end run around the legislative process by creating an executive order to effect the changes in the bill that could not pass with votes.

The federal bill is more than a mixed bag. Reading its 324 pages felt like swinging at a piñata packed with a mix of treats and lit fireworks.

Read the full story at National Fisherman