Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: Dungeness crab fishing season delayed due to whale and sea turtle entanglement risk

November 11, 2019 — State Fish and Wildlife officials are delaying the start of the Dungeness crab fishing season due to a threat of whale and sea turtle entanglements.

Charlton Bonham, director of the Fish and Wildlife department, issued a decision to postpone the start date for California Dungeness crab fishermen south of the Mendocino/Sonoma County line for one week — from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22. The decision was based on data indicating the prevalence of whales in the area.

Bonham’s decision to minimize entanglement risk follows a court-approved agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, a Phoenix-based environmental nonprofit that in 2017 sued the wildlife agency, claiming it had fallen short in preventing Dungeness crab fishing gear from killing humpback, blue whales and leatherback sea turtles. Fish and Wildlife is responsible for granting the fishery its permits.

Bonham originally delayed the start of the season until Nov. 23, but moved it up one day after receiving input from the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group. The group, made up of commercial and recreational fishermen, environmentalists, members of the disentanglement network, and state and federal agencies explores ways to minimize whale entanglements in crab fishing gear.

Read the full story at The Orange County Register

CALIFORNIA: Dungeness fleet thankful for Nov. 22 start

November 8, 2019 — For the last several years California’s Dungeness fleet has been trapped between domoic acid delays, slow meat fill, and accusations of whale entanglements that shortened their season on one end or the other (or both, as was the case last year).

Negotiations last week had the start set for Saturday, Nov. 23. That would mean the fleet could drop pots on the 22nd. But it would also put a serious crunch on the Thanksgiving market, which is the most lucrative time of year for the fleet.

Fleet representatives voiced those concerns to Charlton Bonham, director of California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, and won a one-day reprieve to drop pots on the 21st and start the season officially on Nov. 22 for Bodega Bay and points south.

“Losing a week means losing millions of dollars at a key time for the market,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “But the risks baked into the operation of this season under the settlement, not to mention the political risks and the attention focused on this decision, mean the Working Group and fishery managers had to thread a needle. I think we succeeded this time.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Huffman Announces Next Stop on Fisheries Listening Tour

November 8, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):

Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) Chair of the House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, announced today that he will be hosting the next stop on his listening tour on Friday, November 15, at 1:30 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland. This is the third stop on a nationwide listening tour on federal fisheries management designed to engage diverse perspectives, interests, and needs of individuals who have a stake in the management of federal ocean and fisheries resources. The event is free and open to the public and press.

Members of the press interested in attending should submit their RSVP to Mary Hurrell at mary.hurrell@mail.house.gov.

WHO:            Congressman Jared Huffman, fisheries and oceans experts

WHAT:          Discussion on federal fisheries management

WHEN:          Friday, November 15, 2019 @ 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EST

WHERE:       National Aquarium Animal Care and Rescue Center

901 E Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD

Lou and Nancy Grasmick Classroom

Please click here for a map of the location.

Representative Huffman’s panel discussion with experts and stakeholders will include a detailed, technical examination of current and future challenges in federal fisheries management and will explore potential solutions. Guests will be able to submit written questions during the roundtable and provide public comments at its conclusion. Members of the public can register for the event and submit questions ahead of time:

The ideas Huffman receives from this listening tour, and from other stakeholder outreach that is already underway, will inform his introduction of a reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law governing fisheries management in U.S. federal waters.

More detail on Huffman’s listening tour, which was first announced in July, can be found here.

Feds Propose PNW Habitat Protections For Orcas And Humpback Whales

November 7, 2019 — Federal wildlife regulators are proposing to designate large swaths of the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, Washington and California as critical habitat for endangered humpback whales and orcas.

One of the habitat designations is specifically for Southern Resident Killer Whales, which spend about half the year in the Salish Sea north of Seattle. They feed on salmon. There are fewer than 80 of these orcas remaining.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is also proposing two critical habitat areas for two distinct groups of humpback whales that breed off the coast of Mexico and Central America. The new habitat designation covers the Pacific Northwest feeding grounds of the whales.

If finalized, the designation would provide an extra level of protection that would require any federally permitted project to consider impacts to the whale habitat.

“That’s anything from an Army Corps of Engineers permit for construction in water to a Navy sonar testing or training activity or NOAA doing a federal approval for a fishery,” said Lynne Barre, recovery coordinator for the NOAA Fisheries Southern Resident Killer Whale program.

Read the full story at OPB

CALIFORNIA: Start of commercial crab season to be delayed

November 6, 2019 — Another year, another delay to the start of commercial crab season..

This year’s commercial Dungeness crab season will be pushed forward a week to Nov. 22 in an effort to decrease the chances of whales currently off the coast getting ensnarled by fishing lines, according the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

California’s famed Dungeness crab extravaganza has in recent years been a tale of great anticipation, felled hopes, occasional health warnings, season-opener delays and more. Last year, after a three-year spate of seasons put on hold, the commercial season got underway in mid-November, again marked by high hopes for the fisherman shoving off from Half Moon Bay.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

California commercial Dungeness crab season may be delayed

November 4, 2019 — The state may delay California’s commercial Dungeness crab season. The season, which was due to open Nov. 15 on the coast south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line, could now begin on Nov. 23.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife made the announcement Friday in response to a settlement with an environmental group over whale entanglements in commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear. It will make the final decision on Nov. 4. Recreational season will begin as scheduled on Nov. 2.

Even if the eight-day delay to the commercial season happens, it should not disrupt the Bay Area tradition of cracked Dungeness crab on the Thanksgiving table, said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. However, it would cut into a peak period for the local fishing fleet, which has already lost millions of dollars when three of the last four commercial seasons were delayed because of domoic acid contamination from algal blooms.

In its 2017 lawsuit against the state over gear entanglements, Oakland’s Center for Biological Diversity claimed the state was not doing enough to prevent the deaths of endangered whales, which reached record levels in 2015 and 2016. The organization settled the lawsuit last spring, which required the state to take steps to mitigate risk of entanglement of the marine mammals. That included ending last season’s Dungeness crab season three months early, on April 15.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

PFMC: Groundfish Stock Assessment Process Review Webinar to be Held Friday, 12/13/2019

October 30, 2019 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

Participants in the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council’s) 2019 groundfish stock assessment process will hold a meeting via webinar to review and evaluate the 2019 stock assessment review (STAR) process.  The webinar will be held on Friday, December 13, 2019 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) or until business for the day has been completed.  The goal of the webinar is to solicit process improvements to recommend for future groundfish stock assessments and STAR panel reviews.  Process recommendations will be provided to the Pacific Council at their March 2020 meeting in Rohnert Park, California.

Please see the Groundfish Stock Assessment Process Review Webinar Notice on the Council’s website for participation details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer John DeVore  at 503-820-2413; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

California Vintner Steps Forward to Protect Endangered Salmon

October 22, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A vintner in Northern California is upgrading a concrete fish barrier to return native salmon and steelhead to valuable spawning habitat that has been blocked for nearly a century. A cooperative “Safe Harbor” agreement between the landowner Barbara Banke, Chairman and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines, and NOAA Fisheries and other state and local agencies has fostered the improvements. These agreements provide incentives to private landowners who help recover threatened and endangered species.

The story begins in the late 1800s, when two real estate speculators, F.E. Kellogg and W.A. Stuart, bought part of a Spanish land grant in Sonoma County and built a post office, general store, school, cottages, a hotel, and a diversion structure on a nearby stream to provide water for residents and visitors to the town.

Bypassed by the railroads, however, the little town of Kellogg eventually faded away, its remains razed by a wildfire in the 1960s that left only a handful of homes, agricultural buildings, and the water diversion structure and associated water system. Like many such remnant barriers, the concrete barrier reduced stream flow and blocked native fish, such as Central California Coast (CCC) steelhead and CCC coho salmon, a critically endangered species, from reaching their spawning habitat.

Read the full release here

Rep. Huffman files bill to protect, bolster salmon rivers

October 18, 2019 — A California congressman on Thursday, 17 October filed a bill in Congress that he claims would restore and protect the country’s salmon rivers and watersheds.

By drafting H.R. 4723, dubbed the Salmon Focused Investments in Sustainable Habitats (Salmon FISH) Act, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman in a statement said he wants to make the rivers that support salmon populations more resilient. The Democrat’s bill would call on NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate core abundance areas as “Salmon Conservation Areas” and the purest ones as “Salmon Strongholds.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Will new gray whale migration season prove as deadly as the last one?

October 18, 2019 — Gray whales had a rough go last season as they made their annual migration — skinny, emaciated, even dead whales showing up along the West Coast prompting concern over the health of the species.

With the new season’s first gray whales being spotted in recent weeks off the South Bay, Long Beach and Orange County, whale researchers and enthusiasts are hopeful for a healthier season, one that would indicate the whales found enough food to forage in Alaska as they make their trek to the warm waters of Baja, Mexico.

A young gray whale was spotted last week by Harbor Breeze Cruises, which followed it from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Long Beach. Another was seen off the PV Peninsula earlier in the month, and another around Torrance Beach.

Orange County’s first gray whale sighting was reported Tuesday, Oct. 15, first by a diver near the Newport Pier and then by a Dana Wharf boat captain.

Read the full story at The Mercury News