Saving Seafood

Senator Cantwell Pushes for Changes to Fisheries Disaster Process, Highlights Failures to Support Southwest Washington Fishermen

September 25, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

At a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing today on fisheries disasters, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Ranking Member of the committee, highlighted the importance of responding to fisheries disasters and pushed for reforms to the process.

“In Washington, fisheries are a cornerstone of our maritime economy. Its related businesses and seafood processors, ship builders, gear manufacturers, support 60% of our maritime economy, which is about 146,000 jobs and $30 billion in economic activity,” Cantwell said. “Washington has experienced 17 fishery disasters since 1992, including crab, groundfish, and salmon. Unfortunately, the fisheries disaster process has become more burdensome, and has resulted in less funding and lengthy delays, putting an unnecessary burden on fishermen and fishing communities.”

In particular, Cantwell discussed the 2016 Coho salmon fishery disaster, which impacted fisheries across the state.

“The Coho disaster impacted Tribes, commercial fisherman, charter and recreational fisherman… but not all groups received adequate funding from NOAA,” Cantwell said. “In a shift from previous policy, the administration determined that the charter fishermen should not be included in the economic determination. Thus, I believe Washington did not receive adequate funding for this disaster.”

Ron Warren, the Director of Fish Policy at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, testified at the hearing about the impact of that inadequate funding for Washington state’s economy.

“If you add the charters from the coast and charters from Puget Sound, as well as the troll fishery and other fisheries that had been included, you’d be looking at about $100 million to the state of Washington,” Warren said.

The decision to exclude charter fishermen from disaster funding has impacted communities throughout the state, but it has been particularly devastating in fishing-dependent communities in Southwest Washington, like Westport and Ilwaco.

Butch Smith, President of the Ilwaco Charter Association, said: “The charter fishing industry brings in millions of dollars for Washington’s coastal economy. Nobody knows why charter fishing income was dropped from the 2016 disaster declaration, but in Westport, WA, alone, five charter boats have already left Westport and the Washington coast. People have lost houses and businesses as a result of the disaster. I’m glad Senator Cantwell is working on this issue, and I will work with her to make sure our charter fishermen get the support they need when disasters are declared.”

“I am concerned that the charter fisherman have not been treated fairly, and that’s why I plan to work with you, Mr. Chairman, on bipartisan measures that help ensure that small business charter fishermen are mandated into the Disaster Relief Recovery Act so they do receive adequate funding,” Cantwell said to Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) at the hearing.

Throughout her time in the Senate, Cantwell has prioritized working on issues that impact the fishing industry. In 2015, she introduced bipartisan legislation to create a national ocean acidification monitoring strategy to prioritize investments in ocean acidification sensors to areas that need it most. In 2018, she worked with colleagues in the House and Senate to secure $200 million in federal funding to help communities with declared fisheries disasters. She has also fought to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed from harmful mining and opposed drilling off the coasts of Washington and Oregon.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s opening statement at the hearing is available HERE, audio is HERE, and a transcript is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s Q&A with witnesses is available HERE, audio is HERE, and a transcript is HERE.

MSC urges countries to adapt to climate change as it suspends North Sea cod certification

September 24, 2019 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has announced the suspension of the North Sea cod fishery certification due to stocks of the fishery dropping below safe biological levels.

The suspension comes after the latest scientific advice revealed that the stock – once thought in good health – appears to be in decline despite industry initiatives, such as avoiding catching juvenile fish that are critical to the reproduction cycle. The root cause of the decline is unclear, but scientists suggest that climate change could be an overarching cause.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

The oceans are taking a beating under climate change, U.N. report warns

September 25, 2019 — The planet is in hot water — literally — and that will have dire consequences for humanity, warns a new United Nations report on the state of the world’s oceans and ice.

Over the next century, climate change will make the oceans warmer and more acidic. Melting ice sheets will drive up sea levels at an accelerating pace. Marine heat waves will become 20 to 50 times more frequent, harming sensitive ecosystems. And the total biomass of animals in the sea could drop by as much as 15%, according to the sobering assessment by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“The oceans and ice are in trouble, so we’re all in trouble,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton and a lead author of the report.

But while some damage is inevitable at this point, the report makes clear that society’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades will determine how bad things ultimately get.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Marine heat wave dubbed ‘Blob’ resurges in Pacific; mass deaths of sea life feared

September 23, 2019 — Across vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean extending from Hawaii north to the shores of Alaska, and southeast to near California, a new marine heat wave is underway.

This event is widely referred to as ‘‘The Blob Part Two,’’ or just another ‘‘Blob.’’ The first event, which took place from 2014 through 2016, earned that odd moniker based on its bold red appearance on maps of ocean surface temperatures.

The new incarnation already has caused coral bleaching in the Hawaiian islands and may be tied to strandings of marine mammals along the California coast. If it intensifies and seeps into deeper waters, this marine heat wave could favor another drought in California by altering the jet stream flowing across the Pacific.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Maine Fishermen Prepare For Losses And Gains In A Climate-Changed Ocean

September 23, 2019 — In 30 years, the Gulf of Maine will have been transformed by climate change. Its waters will inexorably grow warmer, and the species that flourish there will be those that can adapt. The same might be said for the Mainers who make their living from the sea. The future of the state’s marine economy may well belong to those who can adapt.

A little over a year ago, reporter Fred Bever visited a small estuary on the far side of Chebeague Island, where lobsterman Jeff Putnam was working on a little side-business.

“These are oysters that I started just this year,” Putnam said at the time.

Putnam established the Sandy Point oyster farm to add a new revenue stream to his business, and, he says, provide future options for his children.

“Hopefully the lobster resource will still be strong when they grow up, and that will be there and that will be an option but there’s certainly no guarantee that’s the case,” he said. “So I wanted to show them there is another way to make a living.”

With the state’s lobster harvest now appearing to fall off from recent record levels, Bever called Jeff this week to see how the oysters are coming along.

Read the full story at Maine Public

All the pressing questions on fish migration

September 19, 2019 — It’s not 20 questions—it’s even more: Now researchers have identified 100 pressing questions on fish migration.

An international team of researchers, lead by Robert Lennox at NORCE (Norwegian Research Centre), have developed the list of questions, published in a paper by the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Fish migration is of high ecological importance, and many  depend on predictable migrations of fish for their subsistence and livelihoods.

At the same time, fish  is under significant threat, Lennox and his co-authors point out.

To ensure a , researchers therefore need to identify the pressing questions, and answer them in the years to come.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

The Gulf Of Maine’s Temperature Was ‘Normal’ This Year — Which Is The New Cool

September 19, 2019 — It’s often reported that the Gulf of Maine’s waters are warming faster than 99 percent of the largest saltwater bodies on the planet. But scientists will tell you the trend can be volatile. This year, for instance, surface water temperatures in the Gulf have been their coolest since 2008. That may be providing some relief for some of the Gulf’s historic species, but ongoing climate change means that long-term prospects are still uncertain.

Lobsterman Seth Dube fishes 400 traps from his boat, the Alison Nicole, out of Camp Ellis in Saco.

“Off and on most of my life, and my father did it and my grandfather and now me, hopefully my boy,” Dube says.

This has been a good decade for Dube and the rest of Maine’s lobster fleet, with record catches most years since 2010. But this year, the beginning of the big summer harvest – when lobsters molt, shedding their old hard shells to reveal new, soft shells – was slow. Lobstermen and some scientists associate that with cooler water temperatures earlier this year.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Study Looks at Vulnerability of Eastern Bering Sea Fish, Crab, and Salmon Stocks to Climate Change

September 19, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA scientists and partners have released a Climate Vulnerability Assessment for groundfish, crabs, and salmon in the Eastern Bering Sea. They looked at the potential impacts of changing climate, ocean temperatures, and other environmental conditions on 36 groundfish, crab and salmon stocks. Of these, four rockfish stocks, flathead sole and Tanner crab were determined to be the most vulnerable. Several other fish stocks were seen as potentially more resilient. This is because they may be able to move to areas with more favorable environmental conditions, such as more food and optimum water temperatures for growth and survival.

“Alaska fisheries are really important—they contributed 58% of U.S. landings and 29% of U.S. ex-vessel value in 2016, with the majority of Alaska landings and value obtained from the Eastern Bering Sea shelf,” said Robert Foy, director, Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “In the past few years water temperatures have been much warmer than average making the need for studies like this all the more imperative. Our science both in the field and in the lab is critical to monitor ecosystem changes and provide short-term and long-term forecasts to help commercial, recreational and subsistence communities anticipate and respond to changes that impact their way of life.”

Thirty-four scientists assisted with this stock analysis. They considered the likelihood of exposure to climate change, and the sensitivity and adaptability if exposed.

Researchers used existing information on climate and ocean conditions, species distributions, and species growth and development. They estimated each stock’s overall vulnerability to climate-related changes in the region.

Read the full release here

Is ‘The Blob’ back? New marine heat wave threatens Pacific

September 18, 2019 — In the fall of 2014, marine ecologist Jennifer Fisher was stunned when jellyfish and tiny crustaceans typically found in warmer waters filled her nets off the coast of Oregon. The odd catch was just one sign of the arrival of a vast patch of warm water that came to be known as “The Blob”—a massive marine heat wave that lasted 3 years and dramatically disrupted ecosystems and fisheries along North America’s Pacific coast.

Now, with oceanographers warning that a new Blob could be forming in the Pacific Ocean, Fisher is again preparing for strange encounters when she heads out on a research cruise later this month. “This is a very similar situation,” says Fisher, who works at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

This time, however, Fisher and other scientists say they won’t be taken by surprise. They are preparing to more quickly share data on heat wave impacts with each other and with managers who may have to impose new catch limits to protect valuable fisheries. When The Blob arrived 5 years ago, “we didn’t realize the impact” it would have, recalls Toby Garfield, a physical oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, California. “We’re going to stay ahead of this one.”

Read the full story at Science Magazine

Scientists See A Hotter, Wetter, Less Snowy Future For Maine

September 17, 2019 — All this week, Maine Public – and more than 250 other news outlets all around the world – are reporting stories on climate change as part of the  “Covering Climate Now” project. In Maine, scientists say that climate change means hot summers, warm winters, more rain, and less snow, along with a warming gulf of Maine, and that will affect the state’s fisheries, its  economy and traditional ways of life.

Professor Ivan Fernandez of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine is one of the authors of the report, “Maine’s Climate Future.”  He told Maine Public’s Nora Flaherty that since the findings came out out in 2015, there have been many big changes in the state and globally, including an acceleration in the pace of change.

FERNANDEZ: What we’ve seen in the last five years is, obviously, a continuation – most of the time, evidence of an acceleration of many of the trends for climate change. We’ve also, obviously, lived through a few years where we have hurricanes and fires, and where we’re witnessing the loss of communities and island nations due to these sorts of climate related disasters. And so the I think the public awareness and the mounting evidence of these extreme events has picked up the pace in the last few years.

Read the full story at Maine Public