Saving Seafood

Gulf of Maine waters warmed to highest fall temperatures on record

January 13, 2022 — The Gulf of Maine – which has been warming faster than 96 percent of the world’s ocean areas – experienced its warmest fall surface water temperatures on record last year in what scientists tracking it call a “distinct regime shift” for the ecosystem.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland announced its findings Wednesday in its seasonal warming report, which showed average sea surface temperatures in the gulf hit 59.9 degrees, or more than 4 degrees above the long-term average.

Last fall’s figures exceeded even those in the infamous “Northwest Atlantic Ocean heat wave” of 2012, which triggered a two-year explosion in green crabs that devoured clams and eelgrass meadows and led to the starvation of puffin chicks. That warming cycle also triggered the early shedding of Maine lobsters, which fueled armed confrontations between Canadian lobstermen and truckers trying to carry the soft-shell boon to New Brunswick processing plants at the height of Canada’s own lobstering season.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Portland Press Herald

 

USCG, Canadian Coast Guard Target IUU Fishing in North Pacific

November 5, 2021 — The U.S. Coast Guard has wrapped up a joint patrol with Canadian, South Korean and Japanese fisheries officials to target illegal fishing operations in the North Pacific. The operation was hosted by the US Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf, and it included the deployment of a Fisheries and Oceans Canada aircraft patrol based in Japan.

The boarding and inspections teams found prohibited fishing gear; failure to maintain records of catch; improper vessel markings; and illegal retention of salmon. Overall, the operation detected 42 violations of regional fisheries management organization rules, including 25 serious violations. These will be reported to the vessels’ flag states, which could potentially choose to exercise the option to take enforcement action.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

 

Fishery Closures and the Ghosts of Past Mistakes

October 22, 2021 — David Christian, a 63-year-old gill-netter, first heard about the Pacific salmon fishery closures via cellphone while he was getting his 11-meter Grizzly King gill-netter ready to fish for salmon. The news spread quickly across the calm June waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as fishers jumped on the radio to figure out what had just happened.

The radio chatter was incessant as fishers wondered aloud where they’d be allowed to fish, if they would be out of business, and what the future would hold. “Everyone was freaking out because all of those questions were unanswered,” Christian says, adding this policy will likely end British Columbia’s commercial salmon industry.

Announced on June 29, the closures are part of the latest plan by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to overhaul the Pacific salmon commercial industry in an attempt to save crashing salmon stocks. Pacific salmon harvests are down to just eight percent of their historical averages. The fishers were reacting to the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), a CAN $647.1-million plan covering everything from habitat restoration to financial aid for fishers. Its goal: save the salmon and shrink the size of the commercial industry built around them.

Under the PSSI, DFO plans to close 57 percent of the 138 Pacific salmon fisheries along the west coast of British Columbia and Yukon. Closures will help protect at-risk salmon stocks from ending up as by-catch, says Neil Davis, DFO acting regional director of fisheries management. Fishing for salmon in the ocean—unlike traditional practices where Indigenous communities fish in rivers—makes it practically impossible to separate at-risk stocks from healthy stocks.

Davis says closures will protect more than 50 salmon stocks, such as the interior Fraser River coho and Okanagan River chinook, which are being evaluated by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada for listing under the Species at Risk Act.

Read the full story at Hakai Magazine

 

Resources Available to Assist Fishermen with Transition to Electronic Reporting

October 7, 2021 — The following was released  by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is moving away from paper vessel trip reporting requirements in the Greater Atlantic Region. Beginning on November 10, 2021, most fishermen permitted to fish federal marine waters from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to the Canadian border will be required to submit their vessel trip reports electronically. They must be submitted to NOAA Fisheries within 48 hours of the conclusion of a fishing trip. The new reporting requirement applies to all federally permitted vessels except those holding only a permit for American lobster.

There is a wealth of information for fishermen making the transition from paper to electronic reporting, including a number of detailed tutorials and recordings of previously held training webinars. Learn more and watch a new short video on how to use the new eVTR app on our website.

If you have additional questions about electronic reporting requirements in the Greater Atlantic region:

•Contact the Industry Support Line at (978) 281-9188.

•Contact your local Port Agent.

Read the full release from the NOAA Fisheries

 

How ‘ghost’ fishing gear affects at-risk species and fisheries’ bottom line

August 5, 2021 — Southwest Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s most productive lobster fishing region, spanning more than 21,000 square kilometers and contributing a significant portion of the country’s lobster supply.

With a busy fishery, though, has come the growing challenge of abandoned, lost and discarded fishing  (ALDFG)—a collection of , ropes, hooks, cables and other fishing-related equipment that drift through the water column or litter the ocean floor. It is a global problem, but one that hasn’t been widely quantified.

Researchers at Dalhousie University wanted to find out how much gear might be in the Southwest Nova Scotia (SWNS) fishing zone and how it might be affecting the existing fishery. Their recently published  provides the first preliminary assessment of environmental and economic impacts of ALDFG on the commercial  industry in the area.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Canada announces big cuts to commercial fishing to protect wild salmon that Washington’s orcas eat

June 30, 2021 — Canada is slashing and closing commercial coastal fishing on more than 100 salmon stocks and permanently downsizing the fleet through voluntary license buybacks in an urgent effort to protect wild salmon from extinction.

Stating Pacific salmon are in long-term decline with many runs on the verge of collapse, Bernadette Jordan, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced Tuesday that bold action is needed now to stabilize and rebuild stocks before it is too late.

Salmon managers on the U.S. side of the border also are taking steps in an effort to respond to dwindling salmon stocks upon which endangered southern resident orcas rely, including increasing funding to certain hatcheries to increase production.

Some of the Canadian reductions announced in a video news conference Tuesday went into effect immediately. The cutbacks are part of a broader $647 million initiative to save wild salmon, including habitat improvements and a reconsideration of Canada’s aquaculture industry in B.C. waters.

The closures and reductions affect commercial salmon fisheries and First Nations communal commercial fisheries.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

Canada launches C$647 mln strategy to stave off Pacific wild salmon collapse

June 9, 2021 — Canada launched a C$647.1 million ($535.10 million) strategy on Tuesday to restore Pacific wild salmon stocks that are on the brink of collapse due to climate change, habitat degradation and harvesting pressures.

The investment, first announced in the federal budget in April, will be the largest ever government contribution to efforts to save the species, which has huge cultural and ecological significance on the west coast.

“Many Pacific wild salmon are on the verge of collapse, and we need to take bold, ambitious action now if we are to reverse the trend and give them a fighting chance at survival,” Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said in a statement.

The government’s Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative will focus on stronger science and habitat restoration, stabilizing and growing the salmon populations, modernizing fisheries, and deeper coordination between stakeholders including indigenous people and the fisheries industry.

Read the full story at Reuters

High Liner struggles in Q1 as pandemic seafood-buying surge wanes

May 18, 2021 — Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada-based High Liner Foods reported weaker sales and profits in the first quarter of 2021, while acknowledging “global supply challenges.”

The value-added seafood company recorded USD 243.4 million (EUR 199 million) in sales in Q1 2021, down USD 25.2 million (EUR 20.6 million) from Q1 2020. By volume, the company’s sales decreased by 7.5 million pounds to 69.8 million pounds. Its gross profit shrunk by USD 1.1 million (EUR 900,000) to USD 57.7 million (EUR 47.2 million) and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) declined by USD 2.9 million (EUR 2.4 million) to USD 27.8 million (EUR 22.7 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Feds enforcing fishery, distancing rules to protect southern resident orcas

April 15, 2021 — For a third year in a row, the federal government has ordered fishery closures and imposed limits on vessel movements to protect the critically endangered southern resident killer whale population.

The measures by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans focus on the main threats to the orcas: lack of access to Chinook salmon stocks, acoustic and physical disturbance, and contaminants.

The commercial and recreational salmon fishery will be closed in a portion of Swiftsure Bank from July 16 to Oct. 31, and in Juan de Fuca Strait from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31.

DFO is also enforcing a new closure for commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in the southern Gulf Islands, where closures will be triggered by the first confirmed presence of southern resident killer whales in the area.

Monitoring will begin in the area on June 1. If a southern resident killer whale sighting is confirmed, the fishery will be shut down and remain closed until Oct. 31, the department said.

Distancing measures will also be enforced. For a second year, vessels will be prohibited from coming within 400 metres of any orca in coastal waters between Campbell River and Ucluelet, including Barkley and Howe Sound. This is in effect year-round until May 31, 2022.

Read the full story at The Times Colonist