Saving Seafood

Ramped-Up Efforts to Protect Mexican Fisheries Netting Results

June 2, 2017 — Criminal charges filed against a father-son duo accused of illegally importing sea cucumbers from Mexico for huge profit by selling the seafood delicacy for $17.5 million in Asia have highlighted the tension between keeping fishing sustainable and ensuring fishermen can maintain their livelihood off the ocean. Courthouse News took a deep dive into the current state of Mexican fisheries and found while some depleted fisheries have been restored in recent years, the stakes have been raised for those who make their living selling the prized delicacies.

Last week David Mayorquin and Ramon Torres Mayorquin were arraigned in San Diego’s federal court on charges related to the illegal trafficking of sea cucumbers through San Diego’s port of entry. The two owned and operated Arizona-based seafood company Blessings Inc. and had a legal permit to import the sea creatures – which are related to sea urchins and starfish.

But the Mayorquins skirted international rules on importing sea cucumbers, which allow them to be fished only in season. The animals must also be a certain size and caught in limited quantities to maintain the population in Mexican fisheries like the one in Yucatan where the sea cucumbers purchased by the family were allegedly poached from.

Since the U.S. Attorney’s Office began investigating illegal quantities of sea cucumbers coming through San Diego’s port of entry, the border city has seen a stark drop in imports of the sea creature: over 90 percent in the past three years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Science and Technology.

In 2013, more than 2.4 million pounds of sea cucumbers worth over $27 million crossed San Diego’s border from Mexico. By 2016, only 155,000 pounds of imported sea cucumbers worth $1.1 million was declared at San Diego’s port of entry, according to NOAA.

While enforcement efforts on both sides of the border appear to be deterring illegal poaching and overfishing of protected species such as sea cucumbers, the stakes are higher for those who stand to make millions off delicacies prized in Asian markets.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

West Coast Ocean Acidification Rates Among Highest In World

June 2, 2017 — Carbon emissions aren’t just causing climate change, they’re having a profound effect on ocean chemistry.

Our oceans are becoming more acidic and this is a major threat to fisheries.

Researchers have now recorded some of the highest levels of ocean acidification in the world,  right off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

When oceans absorb carbon, they become more acidic, preventing oysters and tiny marine snails at the base of the food chain from forming shells.

A new study from Oregon State University documents ocean acidification off the coast of California and Oregon.

“What we didn’t know is that if you’re an animal living on the shore, how often do you see a bad day?” Francis Chan, a lead author, said. “And now because we have sensors that are actually taking a measurement of ocean PH every 10 minutes throughout the summer, we can start to build that picture.”

The study found that while there were persistent hotspots of destructive acid levels, there were also areas that stayed within healthy ranges.

Read the full story at Northwest Public Radio

Pelagic Data Systems teaming with Alan Lovewell, Real Good Fish to install vessel tracking systems in California

May 26, 2017 — A new partnership between Pelagic Data Systems and Alan Lovewell’s Real Good Fish will place vessel tracking systems onboard commercial fishing boats in California.

Pelagic Data Systems makes lightweight, solar-powered vessel tracking technology. Real Good Fish is a community supported fishery that makes weekly deliveries of locally caught seafood to about 1,500 shareholders in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas. The partnership will provide Real Good Fish’s members detailed information about where, when and how their seafood – including black cod, dungeness crab, king salmon, lingcod, rockfish, and sanddabs – was caught, via a weekly email newsletter.

“From fishermen to seafood lovers, we’re working together to explore the intersection of seafood and technology in the interest of solving some of the toughest problems that face our oceans and plates,” Lovewell, who founded Real Good Fish in 2012, said. “I would like to see how this technology helps our fishermen and consumers work more closely together to provide a more enriching, empowering, and collaborative experience for our community.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

California, Oregon governors request salmon disaster declaration

May 26, 2017 — California Gov. Jerry Brown and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown called on the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday to declare a federal fisheries disaster due to this year’s unprecedented low number of ocean salmon, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The disaster declaration would allow Congress to appropriate relief funds to aid losses sustained by the salmon fishing fleet in California and Oregon. North Coast representatives including state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) and 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) had asked Jerry Brown to request a disaster declaration earlier this year after the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended restricting salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon.

Ocean salmon fishing for Klamath River salmon is completely closed this year after the council predicted the lowest return of spawning Chinook salmon on record at about 12,000 fish.

Tribes, fishing organizations and North Coast representatives praised the governors’ requests on Thursday.

Read the full story at the Eureka Times-Standard

MAST Open House & Technology Expo Begins May 24 In Hueneme, California

May 19, 2017 — The following was released by The Port of Hueneme:

Each year, the Port of Hueneme hosts the MAST (Maritime Advanced Systems & Technology) Open House & Expo to foster ideas, innovation and leading edge technologies for the advancement of ports and the maritime environment. In attendance and exhibiting their technologies are representatives from some of the region’s most cutting-edge companies, plus marine scientists, maritime industry experts, and academic leaders.

When: Wednesday, May 24 

  • 9:00 am – Networking and Registration
  • 10:00 am – 12:00 pm – PRESS ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND (Press Interviews and Great Photo Opportunities) (Press welcomed throughout the Day) 
  • 10:00 am – 6:00 pm – Exhibits, Demonstrations and Panel Discussions
  • 10:45 am – 12:00 pm – STEM and High School Students arrive for demonstrations
  • 3:45 pm – Social Reception – VIP Speakers and ABCANZ Military Visitors

Where: Port of Hueneme | 333 Ponoma Street, Port Hueneme

Highlights: Over 100 students expected to attend; cutting-edge technology demonstrations; great photo opportunities. Press encouraged to attend at 10:00 am.

Who: Each year, the Port of Hueneme hosts the MAST (Maritime Advanced Systems & Technology) Open House & Expo to foster ideas, innovation and leading edge technologies for the advancement of ports and the maritime environment. In attendance and exhibiting their technologies are representatives from some of the region’s most cutting-edge companies, plus marine scientists, maritime industry experts, and academic leaders.

Students are invited to participate in the morning to observe technologies and demonstrations in the MAST Open House as well as meet with real- life industry pros to discover maritime industry career paths during the Maritime Career Exploration Day fair.

What: MAST fosters leading edge technological innovation and integration in a port and maritime environment. The MAST Lab joins a federated network of leading academic, research, test and evaluation, in-service engineering and operational centers to further expand the region’s ability to provide solutions to national security challenges.

Features of MAST: 

  • Multiple exhibits sharing exciting new technologies and areas of research
  • Relevant technology demonstrations and collaborative opportunities
  • Subject matter expert panels and facilitated discussions
  • Collaborative interchange between public and private sector stakeholders
  • An entry point for business and industry partnerships with education

Read the full release here

Read the full schedule here

US legislators push for fisheries disaster relief in federal spending bill

April 28, 2017 — Congressional and White House negotiators made progress Tuesday on a must-pass spending bill to keep the federal government open days ahead of a deadline as President Donald Trump indicated that U.S. funding for a border wall with Mexico could wait until September.

“We’re moving forward on reaching an agreement on a bipartisan basis,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said, adding that he hoped that an agreement to fund the government through September can be reached in the next few days.

But a big stumbling block remains, involving a Democratic demand for money for insurance companies that help low-income people afford health policies under former President Barack Obama’s health law, or that Trump abandon a threat to use the payments as a bargaining chip. Trump’s apparent flexibility on the U.S.-Mexico wall issue, however, seemed to steer the Capitol Hill talks on the catchall spending measure in a positive direction.

Arriving in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said he will not be leveraged into supporting “bad policies” such as funding for a border wall, increased military spending and cuts to Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies.

“I am not going to vote for a government funding bill that includes overreaching poison pill provisions,” Huffman told the Times-Standard. “If we have a clean government funding bill, I will support it. But I am not going to be bullied into supporting bad policies in a sort of hijacking exercise with government funding.”

Huffman and a bipartisan group of 16 other legislators are urging congressional appropriation committees to include fisheries disaster funding in the spending bill for fishing fleets in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, which includes the California crab fleet and the Yurok Tribe salmon fishing fleet.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Eureka Times-Standard

Congress working to prevent government shutdown; fishery disaster funds up in the air

April 26, 2017 — Congressional and White House negotiators made progress Tuesday on a must-pass spending bill to keep the federal government open days ahead of a deadline as President Donald Trump indicated that U.S. funding for a border wall with Mexico could wait until September.

“We’re moving forward on reaching an agreement on a bipartisan basis,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said, adding that he hoped that an agreement to fund the government through September can be reached in the next few days.

But a big stumbling block remains, involving a Democratic demand for money for insurance companies that help low-income people afford health policies under former President Barack Obama’s health law, or that Trump abandon a threat to use the payments as a bargaining chip. Trump’s apparent flexibility on the U.S.-Mexico wall issue, however, seemed to steer the Capitol Hill talks on the catchall spending measure in a positive direction.

Arriving in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said he will not be leveraged into supporting “bad policies” such as funding for a border wall, increased military spending and cuts to Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies.

“I am not going to vote for a government funding bill that includes overreaching poison pill provisions,” Huffman told the Times-Standard. “If we have a clean government funding bill, I will support it. But I am not going to be bullied into supporting bad policies in a sort of hijacking exercise with government funding.”

Read the full story at the Eureka Times-Standard

More California sea lions are dying because of poisonous algae blooms

April 20, 2017 — During an average year, rescue workers at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach may encounter one pregnant sea lion suffering from domoic acid poisoning — a potentially deadly illness that occurs when the animals eat fish that have been feeding on toxic algae.

In the last two weeks however, the center has recorded 14 sea lion deaths due to domoic acid poisoning.

“Other rescue facilities are also seeing the same animals,” center spokeswoman Krysta Higuchi said. They’re “all over the place.”

In 2007, the last time the problem was this severe in Southern California, 79 sea lions died from domoic acid poisoning despite efforts by the center to rescue them, Higuchi said.

State officials have issued warnings against eating mussels, clams or whole scallops harvested recreationally in Santa Barbara County.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Whale show returns to California’s coast, and it’s amazing

April 14, 2017 — Whale breath smells like fermented Brussels sprouts.

When you’re on the sea and pick up a whiff of that unmistakable aroma, even if only for a moment, it can feel like a 110-volt jolt.

It can mean only one thing: They’re close … real close.

For a few seconds one spring day out of Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay, that smell filled the air around us. We were in a Zodiac inflatable in 60 feet of water off Moss Beach. My fishing partner, Jim McDaniel, turned to me and said, “Do you smell that?”

Before I could answer, a gray whale emerged 30 feet from us, its back jutting through the surface, and then let loose from its blow hole. With a loud whoosh, a misty stream of water rocketed into the air.

The shock of the whale so close — it felt as if he could have capsized us — probably cleared all the cholesterol out of our bloodstreams.

Right on schedule, the whales are back, same time, same place.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

Fisheries Managers Cast Doubt on Sardine Survey Methods

April 13, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fishing for Pacific sardines in California has been banned for the third consecutive year.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Monday afternoon in Sacramento to close the fishery through June 30, 2018, because the population limit of 150,000 metric tons wasn’t met.

Researchers estimate that only about 87,000 metric tons of the oil-rich fish are now swimming around off the coast.

The decision blocks commercial fishers in San Pedro, Long Beach and elsewhere across the West Coast from anything other than small numbers of incidental takes. While sardines don’t command the high price of California shellfish, their plentiful numbers and popularity make them one of the state’s most-caught finfish.

But fishery managers say there’s reason to believe sardines are much more plentiful than studies have found.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center Deputy Director Dale Sweetnam said the acoustic-trawl method that researchers use to estimate the number of sardines is flawed.

The count is done from a large NOAA ship that surveys the entire West Coast by sampling schools of fish, and then bounces sound waves off of them to create a diagram that estimates the size.

But the ship is too large to go into harbors or coastal areas where sardines like to congregate.

“There are questions about the acoustic detector being on the bottom of the ship — how much of the schools in the upper water columns are missed by the acoustics,” Sweetnam said. “Also, the large NOAA ship can’t go in shallow waters, but most of the sardine fishery is very close to shore.”

The fisheries service will soon employ a California Department of Fish and Wildlife plane, along with drones, to survey coastal areas for sardines.

“It will take some time because we’re going to have to determine a scientific sampling scheme,” Sweetnam said. “We’re starting this collaborative work with the fishing industry to extend our sampling grid-lines to shore.”

However, environmental activists cheered the decision to close the sardine fishery for a third season.

Oceana, a worldwide conservation advocacy organization, blames the sardine population decline on overfishing.

“Over the last four years we’ve witnessed starved California sea lion pups washing up on beaches and brown pelicans failing to produce chicks because moms are unable to find enough forage fish,” said Oceana campaign manager Ben Enticknap.

“Meanwhile, sardine fishing rates spiked right as the population was crashing. Clearly, the current sardine management plan is not working as intended and steps must be taken to fix it.”

Industry representatives, however, argue that fishers are reliable environmental stewards and that they are just as eager as environmental activists to protect the long-term survival of marine species.

California fishers were able to replace sardine takes with increased numbers of squid in recent years. This year, promising anchovy stocks and other fish may keep the industry solvent.

California Wetfish Producers Association Executive Director Diane Pleschner-Steele said fishermen are frustrated.

“Fishermen are just ready to pull their hair out because there’s so many sardines and we can’t target them,” Pleschner-Steele said. “I’m relieved that the Southwest Fisheries Science Center acknowledges problems with the current stock assessment and has promised to work with the fishermen to develop a cooperative research plan to survey the near-shore area that is now missed. Unfortunately, this does not help us this year.”

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.