Saving Seafood

Scientists and fishermen team up to help save North Atlantic right whale

August 23, 2018 — Whale researchers and fishermen are out at sea together on a two-week mission, combining efforts to help save the endangered north Atlantic right whale.

These two worlds have usually stayed far apart, but for the first time scientists are onboard a crab boat to do their field work.

It’s been a controversial fishing season in northern New Brunswick.

Whale protection efforts caused many fishing areas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to be closed off, angering fishermen who saw it as an attack on their livelihood — some even taking to protest.

Crab fisherman Martin Noel, captain of the Jean-Denis Martin boat in Shippagan, agreed to take scientists out in the gulf to help them carry out their research this year.

“We don’t want to be called whale killers,” Noel said. “We want to be called fishermen that are implicated in the solution.”

All season, fishermen begged Ottawa to involve them in fisheries management. They felt the federal government was imposing overly strict measures without consultation with industry.

Read the full story at CBC News

 

About 400 Escaped Salmon From Cooke Aquaculture Recaptured in Hermitage Bay

August 20, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Of the 2,000 to 3,000 salmon that escaped from a farm in Newfoundland’s Hermitage Bay, around 400 have been recaptured — a pretty good number, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Some time between July 27 and 30, the salmon escaped from the Olive Cove farm operated by Cooke Aquaculture, after net extensions were sewn onto a pen at the site.

Chris Hendry, regional aquaculture coordinator with DFO, says the rate of recapture to date is actually pretty good.

“Our reports so far suggest that about 400 salmon have been recaptured, so for a two- to three-thousand escape, that’s about a 15-20 per cent recapture rate,” he told CBC’s The Broadcast.

“When we had the last large escape incident back in 2013 and there were capture methods deployed, about 10 per cent of those fish were recaptured. So this seems to be a better percentage of success.”

Investigation to Come

Hendry said the licence to use gillnets for recapturing is set to expire on Friday, but there will be a meeting with DFO, provincial fishery officials and Cooke Aquaculture to assess the recapture process so far and determine if that should be extended.

This week, a humpback whale got snared in those gillnets, and a rescue operation was launched to free the whale, so the use of gillnets was temporarily suspended to ensure no other whale entanglements happened.

Hendry said there will be an investigation into what happened at the Hermitage Bay site, and further discussions once the capture of salmon is completed.

“One of the questions is, in a case of a release of salmon, is there any type of repercussions, and that’s something we would discuss with the province as we both co-deliver the code of containment,” he said.

“It also requires us to do an analysis of any type escape incident and recommendations on improvements or identifying any deficiencies.”

The captured salmon, meanwhile, will need to be destroyed by the company, Hendry said.

“As a condition of the licence, they’re required to dispose of them … but we are requiring them to take samples so we can build on an existing database of genetic and scale samples for identification of farm salmon.”

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

Trade wars forcing Canadian seafood businesses to make tough decisions

August 17, 2018 — American-initiated tariffs are impacting Canadian seafood businesses in unexpected ways.

The growing trade war between the United States and its neighbor to the north began with a 25 percent surcharge on steel and aluminum initiated in May by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

In reaction, Ottawa used the symbolism of Canada Day to launch CAD 16.6 billion (USD 12.6 billion, EUR 10.8 billion) in retaliatory tariffs strategically targeted to products like orange juice, yogurt, coffee, soya sauce, mayonnaise, and bourbon, which are produced in the home districts of key Republican allies of President Trump.

As a result of this, Galen G. Weston, CEO of Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest food retailer, believes the trade war may result in higher prices for retail goods sold in Canada.

“We see a very strong possibility of an accelerating retail price inflation in the market,” Weston said at a recent press conference. On the upside, he added, “We don’t think it’s going to be meaningful [or] super significant, but it certainly will be higher than what it is today.”

Krishen Rangasamy, an economist with the National Bank of Canada, agreed the Canadian tariffs won’t have an overly significant impact on consumer prices. He thinks importers are unlikely to pass on higher prices and those that do will have minimal impact on the consumer price index, around 0.01 percent. However, Karl Littler, a representative of the Retail Council of Canada, suggested in the Financial Post that already-thin retail margins will mean prices have to rise, but not by the full 10 percent Canadian tariff of targeted goods.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Humpback Whale Entangled In Cooke Aquaculture Nets Being Used to Recapture Escaped Salmon

August 16, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Cooke Aquaculture has been told to remove all nets being used to recapture escaped farm salmon after a humpback whale became entangled in one Tuesday morning.

“Earlier this morning, at approximately 11 a.m., a humpback whale became entangled in a gillnet set by Cooke Aquaculture to recapture salmon that recently escaped from the farm in the Hermitage Bay area,” said Jen Rosa-Bian, a communications advisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The company was asked to remove the nets, which were put out to catch a reported 2,500 salmon that escaped the fish farm in late July, because there are several other whales in the area, Rosa-Bian said.

The whale was freed late Tuesday afternoon, according to DFO. The agency said no other information was available at the time.

Laverne Jackman was talking her granddaughter for a walk along the beach line on Tuesday morning in Hardy’s Cove, where she could see a boat putting out the nets.

In the same area where she and her granddaughter had watched whales feeding earlier in the day, according to Jackman, she saw a whale become tangled in one of the nets.

“The whale went into the net, and the next thing we saw was the whale swimming, entangled in the net, dragging the net and the buoys with it,” she said.

“You’d think people would have more sense than to put a net where whales are feeding.”

Cooke Aquaculture had previously told CBC on Tuesday it was working with the proper authorities.

“Unfortunately, reports are that a whale has its tail tangled in a net,” said Joel Richardson, Cooke Aquaculture’s vice-president of public relations.

“We have been in contact with Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and will work with them on solutions. We have also advised the provincial department of FLR [Fisheries and Land Resources].”

DFO says conservation and protection officers are on site and that Whale Release and Strandings, a DFO-authorized group that helps disentangle sea life, is en route.

Whale ‘in distress’

Jackman said the whale looked like it was unable to dive or feed because of the net.

She said her son and daughter-in-law saw the whale still entangled at about 12:30 p.m.

“They could hear sounds that the whale was making, moaning,” said Jackman, who worries the whale will die.

“That’s a very high price to pay for a few bloody salmon.”

Those salmon, who escaped through holes that resulted from a net repair in late July, can be seen in the waters in the bay, she said.

“You can see salmon any time you look out,” Jackman said.

“They’re jumping, and if you go out in boat you can see them going in, through and under the boat. Hermitage harbour is full, and every little cove and bay around here is full.”

DFO says attempts by untrained professionals to release a trapped marine mammal can be dangerous to that animal, even when the intent is to help.

“Marine mammal experts warn against people that are not trained getting involved because it increases the stress on the animals and creates a high risk of injury.”

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

The Trump administration is ensnared in another border dispute — this time with Canada

August 13, 2018 — Canadians often boast that their 5,525-mile boundary with the United States is the longest undefended border in the world. But tempers have frayed on at least one small stretch.

Machias Seal Island is a 20-acre, treeless island teeming with puffins, razorbills, terns, eiders and other seabirds, making it a prime destination for birdwatchers. Canada and the United States both claim sovereignty over the island, which is about 10 miles off the coast of Maine, and the surrounding 277-square-mile Gray Zone, where fishermen from both countries compete over valuable lobster grounds.

In late June and early July, Canadian fishermen said, U.S. Border Patrol agents in speedboats intercepted Canadian lobster boats in the Gray Zone.

“I have no idea where they came from,” said Laurence Cook, a lobsterman and representative of the Fishermen’s Association from nearby Grand Manan Island. “We’ve never seen U.S. Border Patrol in the Gray Zone before.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

An Ailing Orca Was Given Medication in the Wild for the First Time Ever

August 13, 2018 — A team of experts injected an ailing orca calf with a dose of antibiotics, in a medical intervention that’s never been tried before on a wild killer whale.

A team of biologists from NOAA Fisheries, Vancouver Aquarium, and other institutions have been tracking the three-year-old orca, named J50, or Scarlet, for weeks. They’re not entirely sure what’s wrong with her, but she’s dangerously underweight and often lethargic. Scarlet is a member of the J-Pod, a group of about 76 critically endangered southern resident orcas, or killer whales. Maintaining the life of each pod member, females especially, is crucially important, hence the extraordinary and unprecedented measure to administer medication.

Yesterday, Vancouver’s head veterinarian, Martin Haulena, managed to visually inspect Scarlet from a boat near Washington state’s San Juan Island. With the help of his team, Haulena administered a dose of antibiotics at close range using a dart, as AP reports. It’s the first time that a killer whale has been given medication while living in the wild, the CBC reports.

“Response teams reached J-Pod in Canadian waters and followed them into U.S. waters near San Juan Island. While very skinny and small, J50/Scarlet kept up well with her mother and siblings,” explained NOAA Fisheries in a press release. “Vancouver Aquarium’s veterinarian and the team conducted a visual assessment, obtained a breath sample that will help assess any infection, and administered antibiotics through a dart.”

Other orcas in Scarlet’s pod are not malnourished, so food shortage is not considered the problem.

Read the full story at Gizmodo

Ropeless lobster trap creators aim to save money, whales

August 13, 2018 — Ashored Innovations, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, has joined the parade of companies focused on improving lobster fishing.

But Ashored isn’t looking to build a better lobster trap. Driven by new regulations to eliminate the entanglement threat to the North Atlantic right whale, Ashored is focused on developing a reliable, submersible buoy that goes down with the lobster trawl, is geo-trackable, and retrieved via acoustic release technology.

“We’re not reinventing the lobster trap. It’s the buoys we are redesigning,” CEO Aaron Stevenson told SeafoodSource.

After meetings with lobstermen, Stevenson and his partners realized replacing the current-style lobster trap “was going to be a losing battle against fishermen because the cost to replace them would be astronomical.”

“We initially had that notion, but shifted pretty quick to a smart buoy concept,” he said.

Stevenson said a major concern of fishermen about this new, non-visible technology involved not knowing where another fisherman’s traps and lines were and which direction they were laid. Fishermen didn’t want to lay their traps and lines on top of others – or have others on top of theirs.

Ross Arsenault, Ashored’s COO, said they are working to have “the ability to recognize that someone else’s buoys are there, but not recall them. You will only recall your own by using a proprietary signal or a security code.”

“[While] acoustic release technology has existed for a long while, we’re working to develop a modified one and have a few other release mechanisms as our active retrieval release,” Arsenault said. “But the acoustic element is the standard at the moment and we are experimenting with ways to adapt away from that to perhaps find cost savings for the fishermen.”

Theirs isn’t a one-buoy-fits-all solution. In recognition of the various types and depths of waters that lobstermen fish in, Ashored is developing four prototype buoys.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

North Atlantic right whale disentangled 1 week after being spotted

August 7, 2018 — It took an hour and a half to disentangle a 10-year-old North Atlantic right whale that was spotted more than a week ago wrapped in fishing gear.

It was spotted by the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station Sunday afternoon, and reported to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, which ended up disentangling the whale.

Jerry Conway, who has been involved in whale disentanglement for four decades, said the team removed most of the gear from the whale.

“We can’t say that it was entirely disentangled, but we’re quite optimistic that it has been,” he said Monday morning.

Conway said it’s hard to know how far the whale had travelled from the area where it was originally spotted in last week.

“This whale had been entangled for five days … so it could have been anywhere.”

But according to Conway, the whale was spotted just off the coast of Grand Manan Island and it was not co-operative with the rescue team.

Read the full story at CBC

For Marine Life, New Threats from a Fast-Tracked Canadian Pipeline

August 2, 2018 — Nearly everyone involved in the controversy over Canada’s troubled Trans Mountain Pipeline was surprised when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in May that his government would take over the construction from a private company to ensure that additional tar sands crude oil can move from northern Alberta to a port in British Columbia.

The 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would add a parallel pipeline to an existing one, increasing the route’s capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day and helping producers sell crude and refined oil to Asian markets. Trudeau’s action means that a pipeline many thought might never be built is now on a fast track to completion by 2020. Construction is scheduled to begin this month.

The expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline poses a range of environmental impacts and risks — from the possibility of leaks as the new line crosses hundreds of streams, rivers, and lakes across the breadth of the British Columbia wilderness, to the fact that it will allow Alberta’s massive tar sands reserves to be further exploited and contribute large amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. But the most immediate and serious impacts may be to the marine environment along the coast of British Columbia, where the pipeline would terminate at the Westridge Marine Terminal at Burnaby near Vancouver.

The pipeline is expected to lead to a sharp increase in oil tanker traffic in the Salish Sea — a network of inland ocean waterways shared by British Columbia and Washington State — from four tankers a month to 34, along with associated construction and other ship  traffic. Marine biologists are especially concerned about the impact of increased ship noise on a highly endangered population of 75 killer whales, known as the “southern residents,” shared by the two countries.

Read the full story at Yale Environment 360

Progress Toward Massachusetts Senator Bruce Tarr’s Plan to Expand Lobster Processing Backed by Massachusetts State Senate

July 31, 2018 — BOSTON — The following was released by the Office of Massachusetts Senator Bruce Tarr:

The State Senate today gave final legislative approval to a plan that requires the Division of Marine Fisheries to complete a study of the current lobster fishery and provide a recommendation as to the advisability of enacting statutory or regulatory changes to allow the processing of lobster parts in Massachusetts.  The report, will “provide a recommendation as to the advisability of enacting statutory and regulatory changes to allow the processing of lobster parts” for sale in the Commonwealth, is mandated to be issued before the end of the year.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R- Gloucester) successfully sponsored an amendment to direct the Division of Marine Fisheries to implement new regulations permitting on-shore processing of lobsters as part of the Senate’s environmental legislation, an act Promoting Climate Change Adaptation, Environmental And Natural Resource Protection, And Investment In Recreational Assets And Opportunity.

“I believe this study will confirm that our state, which has the second-largest lobster catch in the country, should be processing raw and frozen lobster parts in state rather than sending them to Canada or Maine only to have them brought back for our local consumers,” said Senator Tarr. “We are making progress on modernizing our lobster laws to bolster the fishing industry; give consumers, including local restaurants and food stores, more choices and better values and support coastal fishing communities.”

While the sale of live, cooked, and canned lobster is legal in the state, the legislation will expand the industry market with the inclusion of other lobster products. The amendment could permit wholesale dealers licensed by the Department of Public Health to process unfrozen lobsters, import unfrozen shell-on lobster parts and tails, and allow for the retail of previously frozen raw in-shell tails.

Tarr notes that the study could result in lifting limits on the processing, sale, and transportation of cooked and frozen in-shell lobster parts. Under existing laws, Massachusetts lobstermen and seafood vendors are required to sell or transport lobster out-of-state for processing and then bring them back for sale to consumers in the bay state – often with a ‘Product of Canada’ label.

Following a successful study, which will include an economic and market analysis, potential impacts and benefits, and an assessment of potential state and federal law enforcement issues, the Division of Marine Fisheries will make statutory recommendation.

Up to 80% of lobsters landed in the state are sent to out of state processing facilities.  Industry leaders say the move will facilitate opportunities to create and grow jobs in the state.

Tarr expressed appreciation for coastal Senators Mark Montigny (D- New Bedford),Vinny deMacedo (R- Plymouth), and Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) for their efforts to strengthen the industry and in supporting the legislation.

The lobster industry is a critical part of the Commonwealth’s economy and heritage.  A similar law in Maine has boosted that state’s economy, produced local outlets for product sales, and created jobs.

Learn more at Tarr Talk