Saving Seafood

Spiny lobster and squid lead California’s fishing economy, says new report

May 27, 2016 — While California’s seafood sales overwhelmingly relied on imported animals, commercial fisheries landed nearly 360 million pounds of fin- and shellfish in 2014, according to a federal report released Thursday with the most recent figures on the nation’s fishing economy.

The state’s seafood industry, including imports, generated a whopping $23 billion — more than 10 percent of the nation’s $214 billion total sales in 2014 from commercial harvest, seafood processors and dealers, wholesalers and distributors, and importers and retailers.

As such, most of California’s nearly 144,000 industry jobs came from the import and retail sectors, according to NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Fisheries Economics of the U.S. 2014 report. Nationally, 1.83 million jobs are supported by the fishing industry.

California shellfish were the most lucrative product in the state’s home-grown seafood market, with crabs and spiny lobsters native to Southern California getting the most money per pound of all the species fished, at $3.37 and $19.16 per pound, respectively.

But market squid were overwhelmingly the most commonly landed species, with 227 million pounds caught.

“In California, shellfish have always been more important, at least in terms of value,” said Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association. “This includes squid and Dungeness crab — usually the top two fisheries in value, and spiny lobster, which was an $18 million fishery in 2015.”

California fishers relied heavily on healthy market squid stocks in 2014 but, as El Niño weather conditions entered the following year, squid landings dropped significantly, Pleschner-Steele said.

“We’re now just starting to see squid landings, but at low volumes,” she said.

Read the full story at the Long Beach Press-Telegram

Challenge to California’s shark-fin ban fails in U.S. Supreme Court

May 24, 2016 — California’s ban on the possession and sale of shark fins survived a legal challenge Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Bay Area suppliers and sellers of shark fin soup, a traditional dish in the Chinese American community.

Federal law prohibits shark “finning,” the removal of fins from sharks, but does not forbid possessing or selling shark fins. California lawmakers went a step further with a statute that took effect in July 2013 and had the impact of removing shark fin soup from restaurant menus.

Restaurant owners and shark fin suppliers, joined by Chinese American community organizations, argued that the state was exceeding its authority and was interfering with a commercial fishing market that the federal government had intended to preserve. But a federal appeals court ruled in July 2015 that the federal laws recognize the importance of conservation and allow states such as California to adopt their own protective measures.

Read the full story at SFGate

Pacific Fishery Management Council Warns That Feinstein ‘Drought Relief’ Bill Would Harm Salmon Runs

May 18, 2016 — SAN FRANCISCO — A new Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) letter warns that a federal drought relief bill contains many provisions harmful to salmon. The Council sent the letter to Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson in response to their request for the Council’s analysis of the bill’s effects on salmon.

Among the key findings of the Council; the bill calls for taking water badly needed by salmon, and it will harm salmon runs and fishing jobs. Specifically, the PFMC letter states:

— The bill would “cause irreparable harm to California salmon and the commercial, recreational, and tribal fishing communities that depend on them.”

— “Maximizing supply” means reducing the water available to salmon.”

Read the full story at WONews

CALIFORNIA: Monterey Bay squid season basically a bust

May 13, 2016 — MONTEREY, Calif. — If Monterey had a signature restaurant dish, cioppino and fried calamari would battle it out for the top spot. But the common ingredient in each is squid, those prehistoric looking cephalopods (scientific name loligo) that school in the cool, nutrient-rich waters of Monterey Bay.

In August a worldwide television audience tuned in for “Big Blue Live,” a BBC-PBS production that showcased our marine sanctuary teeming with sea life, from tiny shrimp to giant blue whales.

Then “the boy” arrived.

“Once El Niño showed up things started to look different in the bay,” said Sal Tringali, president of Monterey Fish Company, who oversees a five-boat fleet that provides local restaurants with most of their fresh seafood, including squid.

Not to panic; our shared “Serengeti of the Sea” is still a pristine habitat. But warming waters along the West Coast have changed the waterscape — at least for now. For example, local squid fishermen have turned out their bright boat lights because the season is basically a bust.

Read the full story at the Santa Cruz Sentinel 

California Fishermen Fight to Restore Otter-Free Zone

May 9, 2016 — PASADENA, Calif. — California’s shellfish industry fought the federal government’s termination of a “no-otter zone” along the Southern California coast at a Ninth Circuit hearing on Friday.

Four fishing industry groups sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2013, claiming its decision to end a long-disputed sea otter translocation program would “severely compromise if not destroy” shellfish and other marine fisheries on the southern coast.

Nixing the program would lead more than 300 sea otters to occupy a previously “otter-free zone” within 10 years and prey on the shellfish which fishermen depend on for their livelihood, the plaintiffs claimed in their 2013 complaint.

But environmental groups had long pushed for the government to end the program, claiming it was a disaster from the start and that it bowed to the interests of the oil and fishing industries.

The program relocated 140 sea otters to San Nicholas Island and established an otter-free zone south of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, where fishermen harvest sea urchin, abalone and lobster.

Under the program, fishermen who accidentally killed otters in the zone could not be federally prosecuted, and the government was to use nonlethal means to capture any otters that wandered into the zone.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

Fisheries scientists to address flaws in past forage fish research

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – May 2, 2016 – Dr. Ray Hilborn, a marine biologist and fisheries scientist at the University of Washington, has launched a new initiative aimed at addressing key issues surrounding forage fish science and the impacts of forage fishing on predator species. Dr. Hilborn’s Forage Fish Project is one of several scientific efforts occurring in the next few months to expand the existing body of scientific research on forage fish.

Comprised of 14 renowned fisheries scientists from around the globe, the Forage Fish Project held its inaugural conference last month in Hobart, Australia, where it identified shortcomings in the existing forage fish research. Specifically, it found several issues with work produced by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, whose April 2012 report, “Little Fish, Big Impact,” concluded forage fish are vulnerable to overfishing, among other findings.

The Forage Fish Project, which includes two members of the Lenfest Task Force, began work to address these flaws, with the goal of producing an accompanying study later this year.

In Hobart, Project members found that most of the models used in previous forage fish studies, like the Lenfest Task Force report, left out factors such as the natural variability of forage fish stocks, and the extent of size overlap between fisheries and predators. The group also found multiple indications that the Lenfest study greatly overstated the negative impact of forage fishing on predator species.

“Most [food web] models were not built with the explicit intention of evaluating forage fish fisheries, so unsurprisingly many models did not include features of forage fish population biology or food web structure that are relevant for evaluating all fishery impacts,” according to minutes from the Hobart meeting.

Two upcoming fishery management workshops will also evaluate forage species on the East and West Coasts of the U.S., the first organized by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The workshop, which will be held in La Jolla, Calif., from May 2-5, will focus on how to improve stock assessment methods for northern anchovy and other coastal pelagic species. Attendees will evaluate model-based assessment approaches based on routinely assessed pelagic species from around the world, consider non-assessment approaches to estimate fish stocks, and develop recommendations for how the SWFSC should evaluate coastal pelagic fish stocks in the future.

A similar forage fish workshop will be held May 16-17 in Portland, Maine. This workshop will focus on Atlantic herring, with the goal of establishing a rule to specify its acceptable biological catch (ABC), the recommended catch level for any given fish species. An effective ABC rule will consider the role of Atlantic herring in the ecosystem, stabilize the fishery at a level that will achieve optimum yield, and address localized depletion in inshore waters.

Ultimately, these various forage fish workshops and projects are striving to use the best available science to update previous research and determine sound management practices for forage species.

Read the full minutes from the Forage Fish Project conference in Hobart, Australia

Learn more about the upcoming coastal pelagic species workshop in La Jolla, Calif.

Learn more about the upcoming Atlantic herring workshop in Portland, Maine

CALIFORNIA: Marin group’s bill to phase out gill nets moves forward in Legislature

April 28, 2016 — A West Marin environmental group is sponsoring legislation to end the use of drift gill nets off the state’s coast, saying they inadvertently scoop up and kill other species, including federally-endangered leatherback sea turtles.

Marin’s Turtle Island Restoration Network has sponsored Senate Bill 1114, which would phase out the use of gill nets in favor of another method that better targets what the gill nets seek: swordfish. The change would prevent turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks and pinnipeds from being taken, the group says. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water earlier this month, the first stop during its journey in the Legislature. An appropriations committee is expected to take it up next month before more votes.

“Despite the fact that Pacific leatherback sea turtles are the largest sea turtles on the planet, they are no match for the driftnet fishery,” said Peter Fugazzotto, Turtle Island’s program manager. “This deadly fishery has been operating at too high of a cost to marine wildlife.”

Read the full story at the Marin Independent Journal

CALIFORNIA: Increased pulse flows for fish begin on Stanislaus River

April 27, 2016 — Agencies that control flows on the Stanislaus River below Tulloch and New Melones reservoirs began increased releases Monday from Goodwin Dam.

The increased flows are intended to supplement spring fish flow requirements set by a National Marine Fisheries Service 2009 biological opinion, according to federal Bureau of Reclamation staff. 

The Bureau of Reclamation is acting in conjunction with Oakdale Irrigation District and South San Joaquin Irrigation District to increase flow releases from Goodwin Dam in the Stanislaus River. 

Goodwin Dam is downstream from Tulloch and New Melones dams. 

As of Monday, Tulloch Reservoir was holding 60,005 acre-feet, 90 percent of capacity, and New Melones was holding 637,441 acre-feet, 27 percent of capacity. 

Increased flows from Goodwin are scheduled between midnight and 10 a.m., “to minimize public impact,” Bureau of Reclamation staff said. The flows are expected to range from 1,400 cubic feet per second to 3,200 cfs. 

Flows from Goodwin are expected to begin ramping down by Thursday and return to 1,400 cfs by Saturday. 

People in and along the Stanislaus River downstream from Goodwin Dam to the confluence of the Stanislaus and the San Joaquin River are advised to take safety precautions due to the increased flows.

Read the full story at The Union Democrat

D.B. PLESCHNER: Sardines not collapsing, may be in recovery

April 25, 2016 — On April 10, the Pacific Fishery Management Council closed the West Coast sardine fishery for a second straight year. The council followed its ultra-conservative harvest control policy and relied on a stock assessment that does not account for recent sardine recruitment.

But in fact, there are multiple lines of evidence that young sardines are now abundant in the ocean.

In addition to field surveys, fishermen in both California and the Pacific Northwest have been observing sardines — both small and large — since the summer of 2015. And California fishermen also provided samples of the small fish to federal and state fishery managers. During the council meeting, the industry advisory subpanel — comprised of fishermen and processors — voiced concern with the inability of acoustic surveys — on which stock assessments are largely based — to estimate accurately the number of fish in the sea. These surveys routinely miss the mass of sardines in the nearshore, where the bulk of the fishery occurs in California, and in the upper water column in the Pacific Northwest, where Oregon and Washington fishermen catch sardines. The recruitment we’re seeing now seems much like the recruitment event following the 2003 El Niño. The years 1999-2002 were characterized by strong La Niña conditions, similar to the years 2010-2013. And what happened after the early 2000s? By 2007 the West Coast sardine population hit its highest peak in recent memory.

So by all appearances the sardine population is likely on the upswing — not still tanking as many environmentalists and media reports are claiming.

Read the full opinion piece at the Monterey Herald

Pacific Council Finalizes Salmon Recommendations

April 19, 2016 — The Pacific Fishery Management Council finalized their recommendation for ocean salmon seasons on Thursday, April 14. Draft copies of the adopted seasons can be viewed here. Seasons are not official until being signed by the Secretary of Commerce and adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission for waters from 0-3 nautical miles.

The adopted regulations reflect the very challenging issues with poor forecasts for numerous ocean salmon populations. These salmon have variously been affected by several years of extreme drought conditions in California, and followed last year by poor ocean conditions resulting from the recent El Nino event along the Pacific Coast.

The commercial troll salmon seasons North of Cape Falcon will have no coho salmon quota this year, and Chinook quotas, season length, and open periods and open period limits. From Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt. the Chinook seasons will have a number of closures throughout the season, reduced weekly landing limits during the fall period, and limited to fishing only in nearshore waters during October. While the area from Humbug Mt. to the OR/CA border will have reduced June and July quotas from recent years, no fishing allowed in August and September, reduced landing limits, and several additional closed periods in June and July.

Read the full release at The Fishing Wire