Saving Seafood

Warm Pacific Ocean ‘blob’ facilitated vast toxic algae bloom

September 30, 2016 –SEATTLE — A new study finds that unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures helped cause a massive bloom of toxic algae last year that closed lucrative fisheries from California to British Columbia and disrupted marine life from seabirds to sea lions.

Scientists linked the large patch of warm ocean water, nicknamed the “blob,” to the vast ribbon of toxic algae that flourished in 2015 and produced record-breaking levels of a neurotoxin that is harmful to people, fish and marine life.

The outbreak of the toxin domoic acid, the largest ever recorded on the West Coast, closed razor clam seasons in Washington and Oregon and delayed lucrative Dungeness crab fisheries along the coast. High levels were also detected in many stranded marine mammals.

“We’re not surprised now having looked at the data, but our study is the first to demonstrate that linkage,” said Ryan McCabe, lead author and a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. “It’s the first question that everyone was asking.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WSBT

Whales, sea turtles, seals: The unintended catch of abandoned fishing gear

September 29, 2016 — There are less than 500 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. And now, one less: This weekend, one of the 45-ton creatures was found dead off the coast of Maine, completely entangled in fishing line — head, flippers and all.

This was not an isolated incident.

In late June, an endangered blue whale wrapped in fishing gear was seen struggling off the coast of Dana Point in Southern California. Rescuers were unable to extricate it before it swam away. And earlier this month, rescuers unsuccessfully tried to free an entangled humpback whale near Newport. Spotters say they believe the humpback eventually found its way free of most of the gear, though they’re unsure if there’s anything still trapped in its mouth.

While any kind of fishing gear can be lost or abandoned at sea, gillnets, crab pots and traps are the most common types that continue to “ghost fish” — entrapping marine animals like whales, seals, sea lions and sea turtles.

Last year, the West Coast saw 61 whale entanglements — a record number that is nonetheless likely to be broken this year. So far in 2016, there have been 60 reports of entanglements as of late September. Why it’s happening is unclear. Researchers say there’s more derelict gear in the water today, and more reported sightings, but population numbers and migratory patterns of whales have also shifted.

What happens when a whale becomes entangled is grim.

“The gear is really, really heavy and when a whale comes in contact with it, it thrashes around to shed the gear,” says Kristen Monsell, attorney, Center for Biological Diversity. Sometimes that works; sometimes it entangles the whale even further.

Read the full story at SCPR

Paying Crab Fishers to Save Whales

September 28, 2016 — For years, California Dungeness crab fishers wanted to haul lost and abandoned crabbing gear out of the sea to keep it from entangling and killing whales but were forbidden by law to retrieve the free-floating lines, wire traps, and buoys, which are considered private property.

Now, with whale entanglements soaring, a bill signed Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown not only rewards fishers for clearing away the hazardous debris but pays for it by making owners of derelict gear buy back their equipment from the state.

The Whale Protection and Crab Gear Retrieval Act was introduced by state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, and approved overwhelmingly by both houses of the legislature. It was backed by a diverse coalition of groups, including Earthjustice, the Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association, and SeaWorld.

Under the new law, which takes effect next year, Dungeness crab fishers can receive a permit to collect lost or abandoned traps after the crab season has closed. They will be paid an as-yet-unspecified bounty for each trap turned in.

Taxpayers will not foot the bill. Instead, owners of the drifting gear will pay fines based on the value of their equipment, typically several hundred dollars for a trap and its lines. Failure to buy back their gear will result in revocation of their vessel permit for the following season. Abandoned or lost gear can be traced to the owner through an identification number attached to each trap.

Read the full story at takepart

California is cracking down to prevent illegal fishing off the coast

September 28, 2016 — California is embarking on a new effort to shield ocean waters from overfishing.

Law-enforcement officials have embraced a statewide ticketing system aimed at poachers and unwitting anglers who illegally catch bass, yellowtail, lobsters and other types of marine life within these zones, which are commonly called MPAs.

California’s continued push to police its network of underwater state parks comes as government officials and scientific leaders from around the world gathered in Washington, D.C., last week for a conference on a wide range of marine issues, including climate change, pollution and restoring diversity of sea life.

Initially spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014, the Our Ocean conference has since drawn commitments to expand or form new preservation zones in sensitive ocean habitats from more than a dozen countries, including Morocco, Thailand and Canada, as well as the European Union and the United Kingdom. Most recently, the Obama administration expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii — now the world’s largest marine protected area.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA: Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Law To Protect Whales From Crab Traps

September 28, 2016 — SAN FRANCISCO — California’s governor has signed legislation meant to reduce the surging number of whales getting caught in crabbing gear.

Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, announced Friday that he approved the bill to pay bounties to crabbers who retrieve lost or abandoned crab pots in the off-season and make the fishermen who lost the crabbing gear pay a fee.

There have been a record number of reported cases of whales getting caught by the ropes of traps set to catch Dungeness crabs. That led crabbing fishermen to join conservation groups in backing the legislation.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBS San Francisco 

Indonesian fishermen tell of being trafficked before SF escape

September 23, 2016 — A San Jose tuna boat captain was sued Thursday by two Indonesian fishermen who said they were forced into high-seas slavery aboard a Honolulu-based fishing vessel for several months before escaping when the boat docked at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

Abdul Fatah and Sorihin, who goes by a single name, filed a human labor trafficking lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Thoai Van Nguyen. They are seeking unspecified damages for purportedly being held captive on the Sea Queen II in late 2009 and early 2010 while fishing for tuna, swordfish and other seafood prized by U.S. stores and restaurants.

Efforts to reach Nguyen were unsuccessful.

The suit alleges the men were barred from leaving the ship, where they were victims of abuse and wage theft while working under dangerous conditions in breach of a contract both men had signed.

Their story echoes those of other men from Southeast Asia and Pacific island countries who say they were misled into working on vessels off Honolulu under poor and exploitative conditions — a situation affecting as many as 140 boats in the area, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.

The investigation found that, due to a loophole in federal law, men desperate for work made as little as 70 cents an hour without basic labor protections. The men are literally adrift, unable to set foot on shore since they don’t have visas.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle 

Singing fish mystery solved melatonin triggers night humming

September 23, 2016 — The singing fish mystery has finally been solved – the night humming is triggered by a hormone that tells most animals, including humans, when it is time to go to sleep – melatonin. For humans and most other living creatures, melatonin anticipates the daily onset of darkness. Not for the singing fish, in his case – it affects the males only – it tells him to start his courtship humming.

For much of the animal kingdom, melatonin, which regulates our body clock, is involved in the synchronization of the circadian rhythms of physiological functions including blood pressure regulation, sleep timing, seasonal reproduction, and several others.

About thirty years ago, houseboat dwellers in San Francisco Bay were puzzled by a humming sound that started abruptly in the late evening and would suddenly stop in the morning.

Rumours were rife among the local human population – perhaps the droning hum came from some sinister underwater military exercise, the shifting of the tectonic plates under the sea, or maybe even some enigmatic alien that was communicating with others of its kind.

Read the full story at Market Business News

Fishermen who fled slavery in San Francisco sue boat owner

September 22, 2016 — SAN FRANCISCO — Two Indonesian fishermen who escaped slavery aboard a Honolulu-based tuna and swordfish vessel when it docked at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf are suing the boat’s owner for tricking them into accepting dangerous jobs they say they weren’t allowed to leave.

Attorneys for Abdul Fatah and Sorihin, who uses one name, say in a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday that they were recruited in Indonesia seven years ago to work in Hawaii’s commercial fishing fleet without realizing they would never be allowed onshore. They have since been issued visas for victims of human trafficking and are living in the San Francisco area.

The lawsuit alleges that San Jose, California, resident Thoai Nguyen, owner and captain of the Sea Queen II, forced Sorihin and Fatah to work up to 20-hour shifts, denied them medical treatment and demanded thousands of dollars if they wanted to leave before their contracts expired. Nguyen did not return calls seeking comment.

The lawsuit seeks payment for debts the men incurred, fees they paid and promised compensation but does not specify a value, and asks for unspecified damages for “mental anguish and pain.”

It comes two weeks after an Associated Press investigation found around 140 fishing boats based in Honolulu, including Sea Queen II, were crewed by hundreds of men from impoverished Southeast Asia and Pacific Island nations. The seafood is sold at markets and upscale restaurants across the U.S. A legal loophole allows them to work without visas as long as they don’t set foot on shore. The system is facilitated by the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as Customs and Border Protection who require boat owners to hold workers’ passports.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KWWL

Can farmed fish feed the world sustainably?

September 14, 2016 — The world’s population is expected to soar by 2.5 billion people by 2050, bringing a host of global challenges – including how to feed so many hungry mouths.

If projections hold, the global demand for animal protein will double over the next four decades, rising along with pressure to find ecologically sustainable food production practices.

Could farmed fish save the day? Just maybe, says UC Santa Barbara’s Steve Gaines. He and his team looked at wild-caught fish, farmed fish and land-based farming to assess the most viable long-term options.

The surprise: Fish farming floated above the rest for ecologic and economic reasons.

But there’s one big catch: Aquaculture has gotten a bad rap with American consumers.

“I meet people all the time who say, ‘I will only eat wild fish because aquaculture is bad,’” said Gaines, dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara.

Gaines has been working to change minds about aquaculture, speaking at conferences around the country like this week’s Monterey Bay Aquarium Sustainable Foods Institute.

While some forms of aquaculture can harm the environment, others have a much lower impact, especially when compared to raising livestock – and in some cases even compare favorably to an entirely vegetarian diet, he said.

Read the full story from the University of California

Port of Hueneme Opposes CA Monument in Letters to Boxer, Feinstein, and Brownley

September 14, 2016 – In letters sent yesterday to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), as well as Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA-26), leaders of the Oxnard Harbor District expressed their opposition to the proposal to declare a new California marine monument under the Antiquities Act.

The letters, which were signed by Dr. Manuel Lopez, President of the Oxnard Harbor Commission, and Kristin Decas, CEO and Port Director of the Port of Hueneme. Their opposition to a new monument was grounded in the potential economic harm of a new monument and the non-transparent way by which the proposal was developed.

Under the current proposal, the declaration of a new monument in California’s seamounts, ridges, and banks, would close off numerous areas of high value to local fisheries, including tuna, mackerel, and market squid. These fishing grounds are responsible for millions of pounds of seafood taken in each year. The loss of the squid business alone would be heavily impactful, according to the letter.

“The current squid landing operation at the Port of Hueneme supports nearly 1,400 direct, induced, and indirect jobs, generates approximately $11 million in annual state and local taxes revenues, and provides $56 million of business revenue to local businesses dependent upon existing squid operations,” the letter states.

Dr. Lopez and Ms. Decas went on to criticize the opaque nature of using the Antiquities Act to circumvent existing fishery management laws to declare a new monument. These laws, according to the letter, were passed in a bipartisan fashion and promote science-based analysis conducted fully in the public forum.

Dr. Lopez and Ms. Decas write that the existing proposal for California was done in the opposite fashion, and that the document proposing the new monument was “drafted and advanced with no science, no NEPA analysis, and virtually no public engagement nor outreach to the parties who will be most affected by this unilateral action.”

The letter instead requests that Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Congresswoman Brownley work with the White House and appropriate regulation agencies to support fishery management under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Read the letter here