Saving Seafood

Two percent of the world’s North Atlantic right whales have died in the last two months

August 1, 2019 — A Canadian surveillance plane was scanning the waters of Gulf of St. Lawrence when it made a grisly discovery: The carcass of a North Atlantic right whale, one of some 400 remaining in the world, was drifting in the current, much of its skin sloughed off.

From there, the news would only get worse. The next day, another dead right whale was spotted in the same body of water. And an 18-year-old right whale was entangled in fishing gear near Quebec, with a rope cutting into its head and over its blowhole.

It’s been a devastating summer for the endangered marine mammal. Since the start of June, eight North Atlantic right whales — or 2 percent of the global population — have been found dead in Canadian waters, alarming scientists, conservationists and government officials who had believed they had begun to make progress in protecting the imperiled species.

“It’s a horrifying step toward extinction,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, the executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation USA. “They’re a quiet, understated superhero, and we’re losing them.”

Necropsy results are still pending for most of the whales, but preliminary findings for three of them suggest ship strikes.

Particularly troubling about this year’s deaths is that four of the whales were breeding females, of which fewer than 100 remain. Calving rates have dropped 40 percent since 2010, according to scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, making the deaths of the females a major blow.

“This is currently very clearly not sustainable,” said Philip Hamilton, a research scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston. “At this rate, in 20 years, we’re going to have no more breeding females, and the population will be effectively extinct.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Massachusetts backers push again to expand lobster processing

July 25, 2019 — Massachusetts could reform its long-standing limits on selling and processing lobster parts, in an effort to capture trade in frozen product now processed in Canada.

The state budget for fiscal year 2020 includes a provision that would set out a framework for new regulations governing the sale, transport and processing of unfrozen, shell-on lobster parts.

Pushed by state Sen. Bruce Tarr, the Republican minority leader in the state Senate, the effort to expand processing has bipartisan support seeking to overcome resistance to similar measures that passed the in the Senate of the legislature in the last three years, but failed to make it into law after opposition in the lower House.

Backers say too many Massachusetts lobsters end up shipped to Canadian processors, when the Bay State could be modernizing and expanding its own processing sector as Maine has been doing. Lobster can be sold live, cooked or canned in Massachusetts, but state law requires lobstermen and seafood vendors to sell or ship their lobsters out of state for processing.

“We have the second-largest lobster catch in the nation yet, without this change in law, our raw and frozen lobster parts are processed in Canada or Maine only to then be brought back to local consumers,” said Tarr in a statement after the measure was accepted by legislators in a final budget conference report. “By modernizing these lobster laws we bolster the fishing industry, give consumers more choices, and sustainably support coastal fishing communities.”

A study by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries recommended changing the processing law, citing growing consumer interest in value-added lobster products in the form of shell-on tails and claws.  Massachusetts lobster could compete in the global market when processed in state, while now as much as 80 percent of those lobsters get shipped out for processing elsewhere, the agency reported.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Lobster bill survives budget deal Legislation to allow in-state sale, processing of unfrozen, shell-on, lobster parts

July 24, 2019 — It’s now up to Gov. Charlie Baker to decide whether Massachusetts will allow more in-state lobster processing to make the Bay State lobster industry more competitive with its contemporaries in Maine and Canada.

The legislation to allow the in-state sale, transport and processing of unfrozen, shell-on lobster parts — a persistent, years-long campaign by state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr — has survived the Massachusetts Legislature’s conference committee and is contained in the $43.1 billion budget awaiting Baker’s approval or veto.

The governor has 10 days to review and act on the budget prepared by the conference committee, which is comprised of representatives of the Senate and House. Any items vetoed by Baker are subject to legislative override, which would have to be initiated in the House and carry by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.

“We have the second-largest lobster catch in the nation, yet without this change in law, our raw and frozen lobster parts are processed in Canada or Maine, only to be brought back to local consumers,” Tarr said in a statement. “By modernizing these lobster laws, we bolster the fishing industry, give consumers more choices and substantially support coastal fishing communities.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Bountiful Alaska salmon catches affecting Canadian farmed prices

July 18, 2019 — A bumper sockeye run from the US state of Alaska’s prolific Bristol Bay fishery is thought to be putting downward pressure on Canadian farmed prices, the Norwegian investment bank Nordea believes.

In a recent written comment, analyst Kolbjorn Giskeodegard wrote that the seasonal drop in farmed prices is typical during the second quarter as wild stocks come online. However, this year’s unexpectedly strong sockeye return in Alaska has put some 45,000 metric tons of sockeye above the preseason forecast of 80,000t to 85,000t.

Canadian farmed prices have stayed closer to $5 per kilogram from the April to June 2019 period, below last year’s $7/kg average during week 22 of the year

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NOAA Fisheries Sets 2019 Management Measures for Northeast Groundfish

July 18, 2019 — We are approving Framework 58 and implementing new catch limits for seven groundfish stocks for the 2019 fishing year (May 1, 2019 – April 30, 2020), including the three stocks managed jointly with Canada. These revised catch limits are based upon the results of stock assessments conducted in 2018.

In 2019, commercial groundfish quotas increase for four stocks from 2018: Georges Bank cod (+15%), Georges Bank haddock (+20%), Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder (+31%), and Acadian redfish (+2%); and decrease for three stocks: Gulf of Maine haddock (-5%), Georges Bank yellowtail flounder (-50%), and American plaice (-7%).

Framework 58 also:

  • Exempts vessels fishing exclusively in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Regulatory Area (i.e., in international waters) from the domestic groundfish fishery minimum fish sizes to allow them to better compete in the international frozen fish market.
  • Extends the temporary change to the scallop accountability measure implementation policy for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder to provide the scallop fishery with flexibility to adjust to current catch conditions while still providing an incentive to avoid yellowtail flounder.
  • Revises or creates rebuilding plans for five stocks: Georges Bank winter flounder, Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder, witch flounder, northern windowpane flounder, and ocean pout.

In this rule, we are also announcing:

  • Reductions to the 2019 commercial quota for Gulf of Maine cod by 29.2 mt because the quota was exceeded in 2017.
  • A permanent extension of the annual deadline to submit applications to lease groundfish days-at-sea between vessels from March 1 to April 30 (the end of the fishing year); and
  • Changes to the regulations to clarify that vessels must report catch by statistical area when submitting catch reports through their vessel monitoring system.

Read the final rule  as filed today in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin available on our website.

Read the full release here

Canada Announces New Protections for Rare Right Whales

July 11, 2019 — The Canadian government is announcing new protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales following a string of deaths and entanglements involving the marine mammals.

Six of the whales have died in Canadian waters in the last several weeks, and necropsies show three of them appear to be due to vessel strikes. The Canadian government said three more whales have been found entangled in rope, and it’s unclear whether they will survive.

Cape Cod Bay is home to most of the species during part of the year.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Baby lobster numbers spell trouble for shellfish population

July 1, 2019 — Baby lobsters are continuing to appear in high numbers off some parts of Canada while tailing off in New England, raising questions about what the valuable shellfish’s population will look like in several years.

University of Maine scientist Rick Wahle has documented trends in baby lobster density for years, and released new data for 2018 this month. The new data reinforce recent trends about lobsters that show upticks off sites in Atlantic Canada, such as some areas in Nova Scotia, Wahle said. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Maine reported below average numbers from Bar Harbor to Cape Cod, he said.

Young lobsters settle into the ocean bottom, where they take shelter as they grow. Wahle tracks where lobsters are settling in 23 areas from Rhode Island to Prince Edward Island, Canada. This year’s data showed high totals in Canadian locations such as St. Mary’s Bay, Nova Scotia, and the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, but low numbers in Maine fishing areas such as the Midcoast region and Casco Bay.

American fishermen compete with Canada for the same species of lobster, which anchors one of the most lucrative fisheries in either country. Some scientists have said the shellfish appear to be moving north as waters warm.

“It’s as if this wave that has crested in Maine is now increasing in Atlantic Canada,” Wahle said.

New England’s commercial harvest of lobster has been strong in recent years, but it’s dependent on young lobsters growing to maturity. Some New England sites, such as those off Rhode Island, show few baby lobsters at all.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Canada Has a New Fisheries Act. How Does It Stack Up?

July 1, 2019 — Canada has the longest coastline in the world, yet it has long been a lax outlier in fisheries management. But with an overhaul of the federal Fisheries Act now complete, the sense among advocates and fisheries experts is that the tide is about to turn.

The passage of Bill C-68 on June 21 means that for the first time since the Fisheries Act was enacted in 1868, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is required to manage fish stocks sustainably and put rebuilding plans in place for those that are depleted.

Josh Laughren, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy organization Oceana Canada, says that in 20 years we may look back and see the new criteria around sustainable management and rebuilding stocks as a transformational change.

“We now have [legislation] that says the purpose of fisheries management is to keep stocks healthy and return them there if they’re not healthy,” Laughren says.

However, the United States is still ahead in terms of the government’s legal obligations, he says. The Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates annual reports to Congress about which stocks are overfished, how to determine if stocks are close to being overfished, and how overfishing will affect stocks.

“Then they have to outline what they will do about it,” Laughren says, noting that management plans must include clear targets and timelines, and a failure to meet them often lands the government in court.

“[The Magnuson-Stevens Act] is far more prescriptive than [Canada’s] Fisheries Act. And there’s evidence it works,” says Laughren. “The US has 45 rebuilt stocks since that law was put in place in 1976.”

In Canada, of 26 critically depleted stocks, only five have rebuilding plans. Further, only 34 percent of fish populations in Canada are healthy, and more than 13 percent are critically depleted.

Read the full story at Hakai Magazine

University researchers square off over proof that Canadian aquaculture is sustainable

June 26, 2019 — A couple researchers who focus on finfish aquaculture at the same prestigious Canadian university are squaring off this week over an eight-page paper from one of them that suggests “there is virtually no evidence to support decades-long narratives” about its sustainability in Canada.

That’s what it says in the summary of the study, which was published recently in the online journal Marine Policy. The article, written by Inka Milewski, a research associate in the biology department of Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ruth Smith, a community research partner, is also to be included in the September print edition of the publication, though it is already getting attention in the Canadian press.

Milewski and Smith say, for their research, they examined the progress Canada has made towards translating sustainable aquaculture policy goals into measurable outcomes using the 11 potential environmental, social and economic sustainability indicators identified by the country’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans in 2012.

Their conclusion: Little progress has been made.

“Sustainability indicators should provide the public with concrete measures of government accountability on policy narratives and goals,” Milewski is quoted as saying. “In the absence of meaningful measures of sustainability, Canada’s declared aquaculture policy goals risk being reduced to mere political catchphrases.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Grandmother and Grandfather Among 4 Endangered Whales That Died This Month

June 26, 2019 — Four North Atlantic right whales were found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada in the last three weeks, representing about one percent of the remaining population that is closely watched.

One, named Punctuation, was a breeding female who had mothered eight calves and then gone on to have several grandchildren, making her death a significant loss for a dwindling population. She had been sighted as long ago as 38 years.

Another, known as Comet, was roughly 33 years old and well known to whale-watching experts, who also said that he had become a grandfather.

Two others were a younger male named Wolverine that died earlier this month, and an 11-year-old female that was found dead along with Comet near New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula on Tuesday night.

The New England Aquarium, which tracks the endangered population, said in a statement: “The loss of sexually mature females is biologically a major loss to this species that has seen a precipitous population decline over the past several years.”

The aquarium noted that hundreds of the right whales had migrated northward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence as warming waters reduced their food source, mainly copepods in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at The New York Times