Saving Seafood

Enviros Want Salmon Listed on Maine Endangered List

June 2, 2020 — A coalition of Maine conservation groups is calling on the state to add the Atlantic salmon to its list of endangered species.

Maine’s rivers were once full of the salmon, but their population was decimated by overfishing, damming and environmental factors. They return only to a few rivers, and are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The environmental groups, including Downeast Salmon Federation, the Maine chapter of the Native Fish Coalition, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay and several others, sent their request to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife on Monday. They said the salmon belong protected by the Maine Endangered Species Act because “the only viable Atlantic salmon population in the United States is the Gulf of Maine distinct population segment.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

2020 Species Recovery Grant Awardees Announced

June 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries is announcing the award of $6.5 million in funding to states and tribes through its Species Recovery Grant Program. These grants promote the recovery of species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

States and tribes play an essential role in conserving and recovering species. Threatened or endangered species under NOAA Fisheries’ jurisdiction may spend all or part of their lifecycle in state waters. Successfully conserving these species depends largely on working cooperatively with states and tribes. This year’s funding support our state and tribal partners in a range of activities, such as:

  • Designing and testing new fishing gear to reduce or remove significant sources of mortality and injury.
  • Assessing and monitoring species presence, status, and movement, and collecting genetic information to improve understanding of population distribution, foraging ecology and habitat use, population structure, and restoration efforts.
  • Engaging the public in conservation of Endangered Species Act-listed species.

In the Greater Atlantic Region the funding will support one new award and the continuation of seven multi-year projects that were approved in prior grant cycles.

Read our web story to learn more or visit the complete descriptions of funded projects to states and Tribes.

In another significant ruling for right whales, a federal judge rules that Massachusetts is violating the Endangered Species Act

May 4, 2020 — In another shot across the bow of the lobster industry, a federal judge ruled Thursday that state regulators have violated the Endangered Species Act by licensing lobstermen to use fishing gear that entangles North Atlantic right whales.

The ruling requires Massachusetts officials to obtain a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to license vertical buoy lines, the ropes that connect lobster traps on the seafloor to buoys at the surface.

Those lines are vital to the fishery but have been the leading cause of death of right whales over the past decade, accounting for more than half of all known causes. In the past three years, 30 right whales have died, reducing their population to around 400.

In her ruling, Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court in Boston said the continued use of buoy lines was likely to cause further harm to right whales, which scientists say could become functionally extinct within the next 20 years.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

MAINE: State, lobstermen scramble to respond to judge’s right-whale ruling

April 14, 2020 — The right whale protection lawsuit winding its way through the federal courts for two years has often been called the “wild card” in the battle between environmental groups trying to save the whale from extinction and lobstermen trying to protect their way of life.

Last week, a federal judge played that card, concluding the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to fully document the U.S. lobster fishery’s harmful impact on right whales. The play leaves state and industry officials scrambling to figure out their next move.

“It’s hard to predict how lawsuits will impact future whale rules,” Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher wrote to fishermen on Friday. “Many of you have called or emailed asking about the timing and impacts of this decision. At this time they are still unknown, but may come very quickly.”

The agency is reviewing last week’s ruling to determine what it may mean for Maine’s $485-million-a year lobster industry and what its next steps should be, Keliher said. For now, the Maine fishery remains open to those willing to brave rough offshore waters and pandemic-gutted markets.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lobster fishery violates Endangered Species Act, judge declares

April 13, 2020 — U.S. District Judge James Boasberg filed a 20-page order Thursday, April 9, declaring the American lobster fishery violates the Endangered Species Act.

The federal lawsuit challenged a biological opinion filed by NMFS in 2014 stating that the American lobster fishery “may adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of North Atlantic right whales.”

The judge ruled against NMFS, noting that the agency failed to include an “incidental take statement.” That failure, the judge declared, renders the biological opinion illegal under the Endangered Species Act. The suit — filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation and several other environmental groups — is similar to the California Dungeness crab lawsuit (led by the Center for Biological Diversity) which also claimed the fishery violated the ESA. The finding there forced the crab fishery to file for an incidental take permit, a process that can take years, and negotiate with the plaintiffs on whether there will be fishing seasons in the interim and what those opening and closing parameters will be.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Judge: NOAA Violated Endangered Species Act By Allowing Lobster Traps That Threaten Right Whales

April 10, 2020 — A federal judge ruled Thursday that federal fisheries regulators are illegally allowing lobster traps that pose a threat to the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

U.S. District Judge James Boasburg says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration violated the Endangered Species Act by authorizing the lobster fishery without appropriate attention to its impact on the whales.

Specifically, he faults the feds for failing to produce an assessment of the potential that whales will be entangled in lobster trap rope and face injury and death.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Judge: Failure to Help Whales Skirts Endangered Species Act

April 10, 2020 — A judge has ruled the federal government failed to adequately protect endangered whales from lobster fishing activities, sending the industry and regulators scrambling to figure out what the future holds for one of America’s most lucrative marine industries.

Environmental groups sued the U.S. government claiming regulators’ failure to protect the North Atlantic right whale from harm was a violation of the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Thursday that the National Marine Fisheries Service did just that by understating lobster fishing’s ability to kill the whales via entanglement in ropes.

Boasberg’s ruling states the service found the “American lobster fishery had the potential to harm the North Atlantic right whale at more than three times the sustainable rate,” but did not take appropriate action about that risk. A remedy will come in the future, the ruling states.

Environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit, heralded the ruling as a victory in the fight to protect the whales, which number only about 400.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Hawaii conservation groups file white-tip shark lawsuit

April 6, 2020 — The National Marine Fisheries Service was asked in a lawsuit filed in Hawaii to protect Pacific oceanic white-tip sharks, which are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The environmental law firm Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of several conservation groups, including the Conservation Council for Hawaii and Michael Nakachi, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and owner of a local scuba diving company, the Garden Island reported.

“No protections exist to prevent fisheries from capturing oceanic white-tip sharks as bycatch,” said Moana Bjur, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawaii. “That needs to change if we are to prevent this incredible apex predator from going extinct. That’s why we’re going to court.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

April 4-10, 2020 PFMC Meeting Notice (WEBINAR) and Agenda Now Available

March 18, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet April 4‐10, 2020 by webinar only, to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, Pacific halibut, coastal pelagic species, and administrative matters.

Please see the April 4-10, 2020 Council meeting notice on the Council’s website for further updates and details regarding webinar participation; schedule of advisory body meetings, our E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines.

Key agenda items for the meeting include Council considerations to:

  • Adopt Final Management Measures for 2020 Ocean Salmon Fisheries
  • Consider Process for Southern Oregon Northern California Coastal Coho Endangered Species Act Consultation Recommendations
  • Adopt Final Incidental Pacific Halibut Catch Recommendations for 2020 and Early 2021 Non‐Indian Salmon Troll Fisheries
  • Adopt a Pacific Sardine Assessment, Final Harvest Specifications, and Management Measures for the 2020‐2021 Sardine Fishery
  • Adopt Final Preferred Harvest Specifications and Preliminary Management Measures for 2021‐2022 Groundfish Fisheries

Meetings of advisory bodies will also be conducted by webinar based on the schedules in the agenda. There will be one opportunity for public comment daily in each of the webinars.

Instructions for how to connect to those webinars will be posted on the Council’s April 2020 Meeting webpage prior to the first day of the meeting.

Please note that the evolving public health situation regarding COVID‐19 may further affect the conduct of the April Council and advisory body meetings. Pacific Council staff will monitor COVID‐19 developments and will determine if there is a need for additional measures. If such measures are deemed necessary, Council staff will post notice of them prominently on our website (www.pcouncil.org). Potential meeting participants are encouraged to check the Pacific Council’s website frequently for such information and updates.

For further information:

Endangered coho salmon preservation an upstream battle in California

March 13, 2020 — The endangered coho salmon of Tomales Bay, north of San Francisco, are getting assistance from a stream restoration effort that could help rescue them from near-extinction locally.

Through the project, fish ecologists hope they can restore habitat to rebuild decimated populations of the historic fish, which once was a staple of indigenous diets and later California commercial fishing.

Central California coast coho salmon formerly were plentiful on the West Coast, but the population has shrunk so low that the fish is listed as endangered in California, Oregon and Washington under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is now illegal to catch coho salmon in California. Cohos are not protected in Alaska.

The fishes’ spawning grounds are becoming hard to find. Unlike Chinook salmon, which lay eggs in rushing rivers, coho prefer small streams.

Read the full story at UPI