Saving Seafood

NMFS, ENGOs Agree to Deadlines for Humpback Whale Habitat Designations off West Coast

August 29, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation reached a settlement with the National Marine Fisheries Service last week to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean. the Center said the whales face threats from fisheries, ship strikes and oil spills.

The agreement, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to follow the Endangered Species Act’s requirement to designate critical habitat by June 28, 2019, and finalize those boundaries a year later. Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered, and a third as threatened, in September 2016.

“Today’s victory means Pacific humpback whales will be safer in their ocean home,” Center Attorney Catherine Kilduff said in a press release. “While delaying these protections, the Trump administration proposed opening the Pacific up to offshore oil drilling and let fishing gear tangle up dozens of humpbacks. This agreement ensures the whales will finally get the protections they need.”

One population of endangered humpback whales that feeds off California’s coast numbers around 400 individuals, meaning any death or injury from entanglement could hurt their recovery the Center said in the statement. Several whales were tangled in fishing lines from fixed gear fisheries in recent years, but many were also the victims of ship strikes.

Ship strikes and oil spills are the other major threats to West Coast humpback whales, according to the Center’s statement. A study found that an estimated 22 humpbacks off California, Oregon and Washington die each year after being hit by ships. That number could increase if additional offshore oil and gas drilling were allowed, as proposed by the Trump administration earlier this year. Additionally, potential oil spills increase the risk to whales and other marine life.

The three plaintiffs filed the suit in March.

The potential critical habitat areas will raise public awareness about what areas are essential for conservation, and provides substantive protections for the habitat from adverse modification by federal government activities, Kilduff said in an email. The habitat protections also will help safeguard ocean areas essential for migrating and feeding. Evidence shows that endangered or threatened species that have protected critical habitat are twice as likely to show signs of recovery as those without it, according to the three groups.

NMFS identified humpback whale populations that needed critical habitat designations in 2016. Those included the three that are, at times, in U.S. waters: the threatened Mexico population that feeds off the U.S. West Coast and Alaska and the endangered Central America population that feeds almost exclusively off California and Oregon. The agency revised the listing status of the humpback whale from a global population to 14 distinct population segments (DPS). However, NMFS also found that critical habitat for these three populations were not determinable when it identified the 14 humpback DPS.

According to the settlement, NMFS must pay $10,000 in attorney fees to the Center and the two other plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, the seafood industry remains concerned, awaiting the details. Fishermen and processors also are concerned about the Center’s lawsuit against the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, filed late last year, regarding whale entanglements.

Kilduff said this settlement will have no effect on the lawsuit against the state.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

Feds Agree to Designate Habitat for Endangered Humpbacks

August 27, 2018 — In a victory for humpback whales and environmentalists, the federal government agreed Friday to establish critical habitat protection for endangered or threatened whales by 2020.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued the federal government earlier this year, accusing the National Marine Fisheries Service of not following through on a 2016 plan to designate two groups of Pacific Ocean humpback whales as endangered and a third group as threatened.

One group that feeds off the coast near California includes around 400 whales who are listed as endangered and face injury or death from fishing gear and other hazards.

In their Northern District of California lawsuit, the center said the federal government “has not made a critical habitat determination (i.e., proposing to designate critical habitat or finding that it would not be prudent to do so) for the Western North Pacific, Mexico, and Central America” populations of humpback whales.

The lawsuit said whales are also in danger from oil spills, being struck by boats and other hazards in the ocean. They called the federal government’s lack of action a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, his administration has announced plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling across the United States, including the West Coast and Alaska.

The center filed a similar lawsuit against state of California claiming fishing lines, crab traps and other gear endangered whales along the Pacific Coast.

On Friday, the parties announced a settlement that would establish critical habitat protections for whale populations in the western North Pacific, Mexico and Central America by 2020. The agreement includes a timeline, beginning with a proposal to the Federal Register by June 2019, for the fisheries service to determine critical habitat.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

MARK HELVEY: Protect California’s Drift Gillnet Fishery

August 24, 2018 — WASHINGTON — California’s drift gillnet (DGN) fishery has come under attack in recent months. One of the most prominent media attacks was a July Los Angeles Times editorial “Dead dolphins, whales and sea turtles aren’t acceptable collateral damage for swordfishing,” which irresponsibly called for the shut down of the fishery. Like many similar critiques, it overlooked the ways DGN fishermen have worked to reduce bycatch and the unintended consequences of shutting down the fishery.

It is first important to note that the DGN fishery operates legally subject to all bycatch minimization requirements in federal law. This includes not just the Magnuson-Stevens Act—the primary federal fishing law—but also the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These statutes are precautionary and conservation-minded, and help make U.S. fisheries some of the most environmentally conscious and best managed in the world.

DGN fishermen have collaborated extensively with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service over the years to further reduce bycatch. Since 1990, the fishery has operated an observer program to effectively monitor bycatch. It has deployed devices such as acoustic pingers to ward off marine mammals from fishing gear, has established the Pacific Offshore Cetacean Take Reduction Plan to further reduce marine mammal interactions, and has implemented time/area closures to reduce interactions with endangered sea turtles.

These measures have led to significant progress in reducing bycatch. For example, no ESA-listed marine mammals have been observed caught in the DGN fishery since the 2010-2011 fishing season and no listed sea turtles since the 2012-2013 season.

As mentioned in the Times editorial, there is indeed good news from fisheries deploying new, experimental deep-set buoy gear. But it is just that – experimental, and it is still unclear whether it will become economically viable. And while fishermen hope that it does, the volumes produced won’t make a dent in the over 80 percent of the 20,000 metric tons of swordfish consumed annually in the U.S. that comes from foreign fisheries.

Often missing from the discussion of the drift gillnet fishery is that most foreign fisheries are far less regulated and are much more environmentally harmful than any U.S. fishery. Should the U.S. DGN fishery be shut down, it will only further increase our reliance on this imported seafood. All U.S. fishermen abide by the highest levels of environmental oversight relative to their foreign counterparts, meaning that U.S. caught seafood comes at a fraction of the ecosystem impacts occurring abroad.

Californians need to understand this and help protect U.S. fisheries that are striving to do things the right way. California’s DGN fishermen provide seafood consumers with a local source of sustainably-caught, premium quality swordfish. We should thank them by keeping them on the water.

Mark Helvey had a 30-year career with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) before retiring in 2015.  He served as the last Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries with the NMFS Southwest Region in Long Beach, representing the agency on fishery conservation and management for highly migratory and coastal pelagic species on the west coast.

 

Environmental forums across Southern California will focus on oil drilling, public lands

August 21, 2018 — Concerned with the prospects of new offshore oil drilling and easing of protections for public lands, environmentalists and community leaders will hold a series of public forums throughout Southern California over the next two weeks.

In addition to expert panels, organizers have invited state and federal legislators to participate in the events, which will include town halls in Newport Beach, Santa Clarita and Irvine.

“At stake are valuable fisheries and a way of life for many coastal communities,” according to a release by organizers. “The events will provide a venue for local community members and experts to discuss how a healthy ocean impacts their lives and how they can work with their elected leaders to protect the coast.”

The Trump administration is pursuing a plan to open new offshore oil leases throughout U.S. waters, including those off the entire California coast. Additionally, environmentalists have become increasingly concerned about federal recreation lands since the administration shrunk several national monuments last year and is considering dialing back some wildlife protections of the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at The Daily Breeze

NOAA Recognizes Companies for Slowing Down to Save Whales

August 20, 2018 — NOAA has presented awards to 13 global shipping firms for their commitment in helping prevent deadly ship collisions with whales. The companies participated in a Voluntary Speed Reduction initiative by slowing their ships to speeds of 10 knots (about 11.5 mph) or lower while transiting vessel traffic lanes outside the Golden Gate during whale feeding season, from May through mid-November.

The national marine sanctuaries of North-central California – Greater Farallones, Cordell Bank, and Monterey Bay sanctuaries – are prime foraging grounds for several endangered whale species, and through these same waters pass some of the heaviest shipping traffic in the world. In a spirit of “share the road,” the voluntary slowdown initiative is a collaboration between NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the shipping firms, the Bay Area Air Quality Control District, and local NGOs.

The initiative program builds on decades of research by scientists and conservation groups who study the whales’ distribution patterns during their spring-through-fall foraging seasons along with vessel traffic patterns. It is modeled on similar efforts in Southern California and on the East Coast. In addition to providing whale protection benefits such as a reduction in risk of ship strike and a reduction in ocean noise, ships run more efficiently at slower speeds, which results in reduced greenhouse gas and particulate emissions and improves air quality for Bay Area residents.

This spring, five whales that had been killed by ship strike washed up on Bay Area beaches; three of these were endangered blue and fin whales. Several species are still recovering from whaling impacts, which had decimated most populations. But their recovery is not absolutely assured, since new threats have emerged in the meantime, primarily human-related.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Group sues to expand protected orca habitat along West Coast

August 17, 2018 — An environmental group sued President Donald Trump’s administration Thursday to make officials move more quickly to protect the Pacific Northwest’s endangered orcas.

The recent grieving of one whale for her dead calf and scientists’ extraordinary attempts to save another from starvation highlight the urgency of their plight, the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity said as it filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

There are just 75 orcas remaining in the Pacific Northwest population, the lowest number in 34 years. They’re struggling with a dearth of chinook salmon, their preferred prey, as well as toxic contamination and vessel noise.

The lawsuit says the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to act on the center’s 2014 petition to expand habitat protections to the orcas’ foraging and migration areas off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California — even though the agency agreed in 2015 that such a move was necessary.

The center says the protections would help reduce water pollution and restrict vessel traffic that can interfere with the animals.

“Time is running out fast for these magnificent, intelligent orcas,” Catherine Kilduff, an attorney with the organization, said in an emailed statement. “It’s heartbreaking to watch them starving to death and mourning their dead calves. Every day that Trump’s people delay action is a step toward extinction for these whales.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press

CALIFORNIA: Threat of El Niño has Pacific squid fleet on edge

August 7, 2018 –All eyes and ears were on water temperatures and foreign trade tariffs as seiners hit their strides in the West Coast squid season. Cooler ocean temperatures last fall fostered hopes that the environmental pendulum had begun swinging in favor of squid production. But as the summer of 2018 ensued, the threat that El Niño conditions may be returning set fishermen and processors on edge.

“We’re watching the inklings of an El Niño,” said Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association, in Buellton. “It’s an interesting season. It started well, and it’s still going… better than when we were in the throes of El Nino.”

In late June, Oregon had posted healthy landings, and Pleschner-Steele said harvest numbers had begun picking up in California. The commercial squid season runs from April 1 to March 31 of the following year, and seiners fish on a quota of 118,000 short tons. Pleschner-Steele says the fleet hasn’t caught the quota in recent years, given oceanic conditions and other factors, and that the set quota is an optimal harvest number.

As of June 28, the seiners had landed 9,931 tons of squid.

On July 3, Pleschner-Steele said it was unlikely the fleet would catch the quota this year. The pending shortage in the harvest might be a good thing, in terms of curbing volumes headed to troubled markets in China.

The recent trade fracas between China and the United States predicated a stiff tariff on U.S. squid products shipped to China, one of the West Coast industry’s primary markets.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Salmon farmers in California fear Trump will destroy their industry

August 6, 2018 –Salmon farmers in California say they are worried that President Trump’s administration will cause irreparable harm to their industry.

Huge agribusinesses in the Central Valley — a Republican stronghold in the blue state —  are pushing for the federal government to pump more water their way to be able to operate their farms, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The newspaper reported that the water, which flows through the valley’s rivers, is vital to salmon fisheries and the existing ecosystem.

Trump, however, appeared to side with the large Central Valley fish farmers.

“You have a water problem that is so insane, it is so ridiculous, where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” Trump said in 2016. “They have farms up here, and they don’t get water. I said, ‘Oh, that’s too bad. Is it a drought?’ ‘No, we have plenty of water. … We shove it out to sea.’ … The environmentalists are trying to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish.”

The Times noted that Trump was referring to smelt, a small fish that is an indicator of the overall ecosystem’s health.

Read the full story at The Hill

Does California’s Bay Area Have Enough Water for Economic Growth and Salmon?

July 31, 2018 — California’s Economy is thriving and its population is growing. San Francisco County alone added more than 120,000 jobs in five years – a huge leap in economic productivity that owes itself largely to the lucrative worlds of finance, technology and biotechnology. As people from around the country and the world continue clamoring to find their place in one of the most expensive and most congested cities, an important question is emerging in public discussions: Does California have enough water to go around, or will natural resources be sacrificed for economic success?

“That’s a question of carrying capacity and social values,” said Peter Drekmeier, policy director of the environmental organization Tuolumne River Trust, which lobbies to protect the main waterway from which San Francisco receives its water.

Drekmeier is one of many who believe that California can grow as an economic powerhouse while maintaining productive aquatic ecosystems resembling their natural and unimpacted character – if, that is, water is divided fairly and consumed efficiently. Others, however, feel that the state’s economy – including agriculture but also urban elements – will need more water in the future, even if this drives some fish species extinct.

These differing perspectives are at the heart of a current policy battle in California as the State Water Resources Control Board works to finalize a plan that will determine how much water should be left in critical rivers feeding the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It’s a decision that will impact not just fish and farms, but urban areas like the San Francisco Bay Area where strongly held environmental values may be challenged by economic aspirations.

Trouble for Fish

The Tuolumne River is a major tributary of the San Joaquin River, which feeds into the Bay-Delta, the linchpin for California’s statewide water delivery system. It’s also the place from which the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission draws the majority of its water to serve 2.7 million people in San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

As recently as the 1940s, more than 100,000 fall-run Chinook salmon spawned annually in the Tuolumne. In 2015, a little more than 100 of the fish swam up the river. Today, the river, studded with several dams and heavily diverted for human use, is considered by many to be in critical condition, and scientists and river advocates say what the Tuolumne and its native fishes need more than anything else is increased flows of water.

“Water is just one component of habitat, but it’s a very important one,” said Rene Henery, a biologist with the conservation group Trout Unlimited.

State agencies agree, and early in July the State Water Resources Control Board released its final draft of a plan to increase the amount of water left in the Tuolumne and two other San Joaquin River tributaries to about 40 percent of their historic, or “unimpaired,” winter and springtime flows. This Bay-Delta Plan Update was announced on July 6 and would allow for flows as low as 30 percent and as high as 50 percent between February and June, a key period for juvenile salmon migrating toward the ocean.

“While multiple factors are to blame for the decline [in the Central Valley’s Chinook salmon runs], the magnitude of diversions out of the Sacramento, San Joaquin and other rivers feeding into the Bay-Delta is a major factor in the ecosystem decline,” the board said in a statement.

Read the full story at News Deeply

 

JOHN McMANUS: Close to Home: Stop efforts to kill salmon and fishing jobs

July 23, 2018 — Today, many Northern California commercial fishermen sit in harbors along our coast worrying about their bills and waiting for another disastrously shortened salmon season to begin. Many businesses that serve the normally robust sport salmon fishery also have suffered because of the delay. River fishing guides have lost half their season as well.

Salmon numbers are predicted to be down from the lingering effects of the last drought and the damaging water allocation decisions that put salmon fishing families last. Meanwhile, San Joaquin Valley congressmen are hard at work tilting the balance of water in California toward valley agricultural barons.

These House members are acting like this is their last, best chance for a huge water grab. There are four separate riders in House budget bills aimed at seizing more Northern water at the expense of salmon and fishing families. None are responding to a crisis in agriculture. The past decade has seen record harvests, revenue and employment for California agriculture.

For salmon, it’s another story. During the past decade, California salmon fishermen have seen the two worst crises in state history. Our fishery was shut down entirely in 2008 and 2009 following record siphoning of Bay-Delta water. The Golden Gate Salmon Association and other fishing groups are seeing a second crisis today as salmon try to fight their way back from the drought.

Read the full opinion piece at The Press Democrat