Saving Seafood

Huffman Applauds Allocation of $29 Million in Fisheries Disaster Relief Funds

June 21, 2018 — North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman announced today that the federal government has allocated $25.8 million in disaster assistance to those affected by the 2015-2016 closure of California’s commercial Dungeness and rock crab fisheries and another $3.9 million to the Yurok Tribe stemming from the collapse of the fall Chinook fishery in 2016.

“For far too long, the North Coast has been waiting for this federal support to relieve the economic burden from several disastrous fishing seasons,” Huffman said in a statement. “I know that the path to recovery for our fishing communities is long but I’m grateful to see some help is finally on the way.”

The federal allocation from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross comes after Congress passed a bipartisan budget deal in February that provided $200 million in fishery disaster relief.

Read the full story at the North Coast Journal

Judge rules for Oceana in California anchovy dispute

June 20, 2018 — Just how many anchovies are there off the northern coast of California and are there enough to fish commercially?

Environmental activist group Oceana and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have different answers to those questions, and a federal judge’s ruling recently favored Oceana’s view, reducing opportunities for California fishermen.

At issue is the science that NMFS relied on in reaching a 2016 decision to set the total allowable catch (TAC) for northern California anchovy at 25,000 metric tons. The agency set that limit — even though landings typically only total less than a third of that, 7,300t — judging the stock’s maximum sustainable yield to be 123,000t, and calculating an acceptable biological catch of 100,000t. The TAC was set, conservatively, the agency said, at a fourth of that level.

However, after the 2016 rule was adopted, Oceana sued NMFS in federal court arguing that the rule violated principles established in the the Magnuson-Stevens Act because the agency failed “to articulate the scientific basis for this catch limit”.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

OREGON: One state’s plan to save a protected species is to kill another species

June 18, 2018 — For years, hundreds of California sea lions have colonized the docks in the Oregon port town of Astoria, their loafing brown bodies serving as both a tourist attraction and a nuisance begrudgingly tolerated by officials. Authorities have deployed deterrents — including beach balls, electrified mats and a mechanical orca — in futile attempts to scare off the pinnipeds without harming them, because they are protected under federal law.

But when it comes to sea lions that swim their way from the coast to inland rivers, Oregon officials are no longer feeling so indulgent. After years of nonlethal hazing efforts, the state wildlife agency is now seeking permission to kill them.

The sea lions are a target because of their voracious appetite for threatened and endangered fish. They gobble up so many winter steelhead at Willamette Falls, south of Portland, that state biologists say there’s a 90 percent chance the fish run will go extinct. If granted a special permit from the federal government, Oregon could trap and kill as many as 92 sea lions at the falls each year.

The conflict pits one protected species against another in an unusual battle that kill-plan proponents say is lopsided in favor of a thriving predator and that opponents say makes the species a scapegoat. Although hunting, bounties, habitat loss and pollutants caused the California sea lions’ population to drop below 90,000 in the 1970s, it has steadily risen since the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act and now numbers nearly 300,000, or what the act calls “optimum sustainable population.” With the increase of the hulking animals has come tension over resources from beaches to fish.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Why Whale Entanglements Are on the Rise in Monterey Bay

June 13, 2018 — The morning fog in Moss Landing is still thick when Peggy Stap and her volunteer whale rescue crew load up their GPS-equipped buoys, flying knives and repurposed lacrosse helmets.

It’s just after 9 a.m. on this Tuesday morning when Stap steers her 40-foot boat into the harbor. Her 13-year-old rescue dog, a local social media celebrity known as “Whiskie the Whale Spotter,” shares the captain’s seat. After a quick safety check—calm water, good weather—Stap relays the latest radio chatter to her small team of researchers, photographers and curious visitors.

“Tim’s got a gray whale that doesn’t look healthy,” Stap says. She revs the engine and heads for the open waters of the Monterey Bay.

Following up on vague reports from whale-watching boats, fishermen and park rangers has become a near-daily routine for the 63-year-old Michigan transplant. As founding director of the nonprofit research and rescue group Marine Life Studies, Stap has carved out a niche as the Monterey Bay’s go-to first responder for injured whales.

Lately, that means helping to cut loose more and more of the 60,000-pound animals who get caught in crab lines, fishing nets and other ocean hazards. It’s a task that has grown increasingly daunting since 2006, when Stap and Mary Whitney of Carmel’s Fluke Foundation started an early version of the Whale Entanglement Team (WET) that now struggles to keep pace with calls about animals in distress.

“We’ve had three entanglements just in the past couple of weeks,” says Laura Kasa, former director of Save Our Shores and a consultant to the recently formed Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. She says the new organization is prioritizing fundraising for entanglement to ensure rescue crews have necessary supplies.

Read the full story at Good Times

CALIFORNIA: Short salmon season is tough on fishermen

June 11, 2018 — This year’s commercial salmon season is putting local fishermen in a squeeze.

The two separate openings in the first week of May and the last 12 days of June are meant to protect a scarce group of king, or chinook, salmon. But the openings increase the pressure on fishermen, who might not be able to pay off expensive permits and equipment with such restrained fishing opportunity.

“This year they almost shut us down,” said local fisherman Lorenzo Sanchez, 42. Recreational salmon season will run a bit longer, from April 7 until July 2, but is still shorter than a traditional season.

At local fish markets, scarce salmon might be available during the season opening, but consumers should expect high prices. During the May opening, said Phil DiGirolamo, owner of Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery in Moss Landing, “it was the highest-priced salmon I’ve ever seen.” Fillets sold in his market for $20-25 per pound, and may well be more expensive this June.

And yet, he said, because of the high quality of the fish, discerning customers keep the salmon in high demand. “We got a few fish at a time and they were sold as soon as we got them,” he said. He expects to sell all the salmon he can get his hands on.

Read the full story at the Monterey Herald

California State Senate votes to ban driftnets for swordfishing

June 8, 2018 — California has taken a key step in its effort to ban the use of drift gillnets and transition to a swordfish and thresher shark fishery that conservation groups claim would reduce the amount of bycatch.

Last week, the California State Senate voted 32-0 to prohibit the use of the large nets by 2023. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), also would compensate fishermen for their nets and provide incentives for them to purchase gear that is less likely to ensnare turtles, dolphins, and other marine life.

California is currently the only state in the country that allows driftnets for swordfish and thresher shark fishing off its coast.

“I am pleased the approach taken in SB 1017 to phase out the use of this damaging equipment earned broad bipartisan support in the Senate today,” Allen said. “I look forward to continuing to work with stakeholders on a plan that protects marine life while being fair to everyone involved.”

According to conservation groups, driftnets can kill or injure up to 70 different species. Fishermen deploy the mile-long nets overnight.

“We have been working to reduce the devastating and cruel impact of this driftnet fishery on whales, dolphins, and sea turtles for 20 years, and passage of this legislation will go a long way toward making the Pacific Ocean safer for endangered marine wildlife,” said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

California Congressman Makes New Push For Marine Sanctuary Off Central Coast

June 8, 2018 — Even though the Trump Administration is proposing to open parts of the California coastline to new oil exploration, a Santa Barbara congressman is pushing for more protections.

Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal is urging Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to follow up on a proposal to create the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.

It would be created on the Central Coast between the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The designation could preserve submerged Chumash cultural sites and protect marine resources.

Read the full story at KCLU

Smart Software Helps Fishermen Catch the Fish They Want, Not Endangered Species

June 6, 2018 — In the ocean, everything moves. Waves push around vast swaths of saltwater, tides ebb and flow, and over time tectonic rumblings transform the seafloor. With all that movement, marine life travels as well—making the oceans one of the most dynamic ecosystems on Earth. This constant shuffling can make it hard to predict where a particular marine species might be on any given day. But that is exactly what Elliott Hazen, a fisheries scientist from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA), is trying to do through new modeling software.

Hazen and a team of other fisheries scientists developed EcoCast in an effort to reduce the unintended bycatch of protected marine species while supporting sustainable fisheries; their results were published last week in Science Advances. EcoCast is already being used to allow fishermen exemptions to fish in certain protected areas in California, and NOAA is working on a smartphone app that will give fishermen this dynamic data in real-time.

The team focused on the California Drift Gillnet (DGN) fishery, which targets broadbill swordfish along the U.S. West Coast. The fishery, which has declined in recent years, only brought in 176 metric tons of swordfish in 2017—down from a historical high of 2,198 metric tons in 1985. DGN fishermen use mesh nets that float vertically in the water to catch the swordfish, but the nets often trap additional species—a phenomenon known as bycatch—including the critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle, blue sharks, and California sea lions.

It’s not just an issue of protecting endangered species, explains Gary Burke, a fisherman in California and a member of the Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara. “Fishermen don’t want bycatch. It breaks our gear and it’s expensive. So, we like to avoid it.”

EcoCast takes an array of oceanographic variables into account to generate a fluid map that highlights areas where fishermen are likely to find high concentrations of their target species and not the protected species they don’t want to catch.

Read the full story at Smithsonian.com

Hawaii: Whales entangled in debris in Hawaii get help from team of drones

June 1, 2018 — Federal rescue teams in Hawaii are now using small DJI drones to help free humpback whales caught in tangles of debris.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary has partnered with Oceans Unmanned of California to use drone technology to assist with whale entanglement response efforts off of Maui.

Oceans Unmanned, a nonprofit founded by former NOAA sanctuary manager Matt Pickett in California, released a video Wednesday offering more details on the program.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Star Advertiser

 

Aniello Guglielmo: Fishermen know the truth about sardines

May 29, 2018 — Listen to what fishermen know about sardines

Reporter Anne Roth quoted me in her article “When will sardines return? Not any time soon say scientists.” But she misunderstood what I said.

I’m one of the fishermen Diane Pleschner-Steele quoted in her comment, “Fishermen are seeing more sardines, not less.” I’ve been fishing for 60 years, and I’ve seen sardines come, go and come back again. But the government surveys that assess the biomass don’t come into coastal waters where the fish are now. In fact, we began seeing an abundance of small sardines right before the 2015 El Niño.

The government now admits they’re missing fish in their stock assessments. We know they’re missing a lot of fish, and we’ve offered to help document the abundance inshore of their surveys. But that’s going to take time, and the bureaucracy moves slowly. When I said, “Unless something drastic happens, I don’t think, I’ll ever fish sardines again,” I also explained that it may take years for government surveys to account for sardines in the nearshore area where sardines are, and I only have a few years of fishing left. But I hope I do fish sardines again in my lifetime.

Fishermen know better than scientists how many fish are in the ocean. It’s time they start listening to us.

Read the full letter to the editor at the Monterey Herald