Saving Seafood

Feds accused of dragging feet on threatened whitetip shark review

May 18, 2022 — The National Marine Fisheries Service has for years failed to complete its legally required consultation regarding the effects authorized fisheries in Hawaii and Samoa have on the threatened whitetip shark population, according to a new lawsuit.

The oceanic whitetip shark has suffered a precipitous population decline of up to 88% in recent decades, the Conservation Council for Hawaii says in a complaintfiled Tuesday in Honolulu. The decline is due primarily to the sharks ending up as “bycatch” of longline fishing fleets in the Pacific Ocean that target tuna and swordfish.

The fisheries service has recognized the whitetip shark as a threatened species but so far has failed to complete the so-called consultation it is required to conduct under the Environmental Species Act to determine the impact the fisheries the agency authorizes have on the sharks.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May 13, 2022 — To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are highlighting some of our colleagues who contribute to NOAA Fisheries’ core missions every day. Learn more about more about their career journeys, why they became scientists, their day-to-day jobs, and what Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month means to them.

Meet Kilali Ala’ilima Gibson, Oʻahu Marine Wildlife Response Coordinator

Kilali is an Oʻahu marine wildlife response coordinator. Her job is to coordinate a team to respond to issues with Hawaiian monk seals, whales, dolphins, and occasionally sea turtles. A lot of that is connecting with native and local communities to learn more about some of those hot spot areas where issues may often occur. She spent most of her childhood in the ocean surfing, scuba diving, and paddling in Hawaiʻi and she knew that she wanted to work in a profession where she could focus on protecting her marine ecosystem for the next generation to enjoy.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

How marine heat waves in Hawaii have ripple effects all the way to Arizona

May 12, 2022 — In 2019, about 4,600 miles from Arizona, a marine heat wave cranked up the temperature in the waters around Hawaii. For several sweltering summer months, a low pressure system sat over the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California and led to decreased cooling winds and sea surface temperatures 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal.

Scientists called it “The Blob 2.0.” The original “Blob” developed in 2013 as a strange pool of warm water off the coast of Alaska, then quickly expanded all the way to Mexico in a meteorological phenomenon that lingered until early 2016 and “was so persistent and unusual that it initially defied explanation,” according to NASA.

Marine life suffered in both “Blob” events. In the mid-2010s heat wave, higher ocean temperatures fueled the growth of less-nutritious types of algae. Populations of salmon and other important fish species plummeted, straining the Pacific fishing industry. Fin whales and sea otters started washing up dead while baby seals starved on shore for all to see. And nobody quite knew what was going on.

Read the full story at AZCentral

 

Endangered Hawaiian monk seal population highest in decades

May 6, 2022 — The population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals has surpassed a level not seen in more than two decades, according to federal officials.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials this week said that the seal population has steadily increased over the past two years.

Officials estimated the population has grown by more than 100 from 2019 to 2021, bringing the total from 1,435 to 1,570 seals. Monk seals live only in Hawaii, including the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands where most of the animals are found.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are all within Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the largest protected marine area in the United States and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Michelle Barbieri, the lead scientist at NOAA’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, said the count shows that conservation efforts have been helping. The group travels across the archipelago to provide treatment and rescue to animals in trouble.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

 

Ban On Longliners Using Wire Leaders Takes Effect Next Month To Protect Sharks

May 2, 2022 — A new regulation prohibiting the use of wire leaders in longline fisheries is expected to increase the survival of hooked oceanic whitetip sharks by up to 30%.

The regulation takes effect on May 31 this year and will replace wire leaders — short lengths of wire that stop fish from biting themselves free from hooks — with nylon alternatives. Plastic leaders give sharks a better chance of survival because they can bite themselves free, or fishermen can cut them loose with greater ease.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulation comes after the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and Hawaii Longline Association started addressing the issue in 2020.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

 

New Rule Focuses on Improving Survival of Hooked Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

April 29, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries, working with Hawaiʻi longline fishermen and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, has taken a big step in protecting threatened oceanic whitetip sharks.

A new regulation, effective May 31, 2022, prohibits the use of wire leaders in the Hawaiʻi deep-set longline fishery in favor of monofilament nylon leaders. This is a change that longline fishermen started on their own in November 2020.

Oceanic whitetip sharks were once one of the most abundant sharks in the ocean. Today, they are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Oceanic whitetips are top predators and play a critical role in the ecosystem by maintaining the populations of species below them in the food chain. In the hunt for a meal, oceanic whitetips are sometimes caught unintentionally (or hooked) in longline fisheries as bycatch—one of the greatest threats to their survival. The switch to nylon leaders is estimated to increase the survival rates of hooked whitetips by more than 30 percent!

“The Hawaiʻi fishing fleet sets the standard for longline tuna fishing, with high levels of observer coverage and strong regulations to limit the effects of the fishery on protected species,” said Michael Tosatto, Regional Administrator, NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office. “These new regulations to protect oceanic whitetip sharks continue this long legacy of responsible fishing in the Pacific Islands region. We hope fishing fleets around the world will adopt these practices.”

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

Feds move to protect deadliest shark

April 29, 2022 — Wire leaders will no longer be legal in the waters around the Hawaiian archipelago after the National Marine Fisheries Service prohibited its use to cut down on the accidental deaths of the threatened whitetip shark.

“In an effort to improve survival of oceanic whitetip sharks unintentionally caught in the FEP longline fisheries, this rule prohibits the use of wire leaders, specifically steel wire line within 1 meter of the hook, in the Hawaii deepset fishery,” the National Marine Fisheries Service said in publishing a final rule on Wednesday.

Wire leaders are used by commercial and sport fishermen to ensure that predatory fish are not able to bite through the line when ensnared. The rule is relevant throughout the longline fisheries in the waters off of the Hawaiian Islands.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

 

WPFMC trying to tackle suite of issues, criticizes lack of NOAA support

April 8, 2022 — The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (WPFMC) is trying to tackle multiple problems faced in its jurisdiction, including ineffective whale bycatch solutions, U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultations, creating more-equitable fisheries, and issues regarding fishery rights in American Samoa.

The council has been working to tackle how to handle false killer whale bycatch in the region’s tuna fisheries – mainly in Hawai’i and American Samoa. In 2013, a plan to use weaker circle hooks that are 4.5 millimeters or less in diameter was created. The weaker hooks were supposed straighten and release whales caught while still remaining strong enough to hook bigeye tuna and other marketable fish species.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

NOAA ship leaves Hawaii for historic deployment

March 30, 2022 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) ship Rainier has finally departed on the farthest journey of its 52-year history.

Originally planned for 2020, the ship is on a 3,307-nautical mile expedition to the Western Pacific to map the waters and survey the reefs. The ship set sail from Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 26.

This is Rainier’s first multidisciplinary expedition to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. A team of scientists on board will map the waters from shore to almost 2,000 meters deep. The data collected from this trip will support safe navigation as well as coral habitat and fisheries conservation; it will also support storm surge and tsunami modeling.

Read the full story at KHON2

 

Western Pacific Council Supports Protection of False Killer Whales, Leads US Fisheries Interests in Pacific

March 24, 2022 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council discussed today its position on the future direction for the False Killer Whale (FKW) Take Reduction Plan and agreed to not support adoption of weaker hooks under the Plan due to the potential economic impacts and lack of clear conservation benefit. 

Fishermen are required to use 4.5 mm or less diameter circle hooks intended to straighten and release accidentally hooked FKWs, while retaining bigeye tuna and other fish species of market value. However, this weak hook has not been successful, with only approximately 10% of the interactions resulting in the hook straightening since the Plan’s implementation in 2013. A 2021 study showed that the weight and value of bigeye tuna may be reduced if even weaker hooks are required in the fishery. 

“Weak hooks are not the best way to reduce the false killer whale interactions with the Hawai‘i fleet,” emphasized Roger Dang, Council vice chair for Hawai‘i. “Considering the prices of fuel and bait are up, any economic impacts from using weaker hooks would increase the difficulties in operating under these conditions. We need to focus our limited resources on what we believe will have the greatest impact.”

Council member McGrew Rice pointed out that a weak circle hook will not straighten if the hook is caught in the corner of the animal’s mouth. “The key is to cut the line close to the hook. A hook in a mouth will not kill a fish.”

The Council said the Plan’s priority should be to develop strategies to reduce trailing gear and find solutions to reduce depredation based on the latest FKW abundance estimates and other factors. The Council’s position was also based on input from its advisory groups. 

The Hawai‘i deep-set longline fishery interacts with the pelagic population of FKWs, estimated to be approximately 25,000 in the central Pacific around Hawai‘i, with 2,100 individuals estimated to occur inside the three to 200-mile exclusive economic zone around the State.

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Council members expressed frustration at the continued delay of the Endangered Species Act consultations for the Hawai‘i deep-set longline (DSLL), American Samoa longline (ASLL), and Hawai‘i and territory bottomfish fisheries. Completion dates have been shifting with every Council meeting report for the last two years. Michael Tosatto, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) regional administrator for the Pacific Islands, reported that the current dates presented at the meeting (April to May 2022) are unlikely to be met. Apparently  reported that the current dates presented at the meeting (April to May 2022) are unlikely to be met. Apparently internal and external review steps are required. The Council asked NMFS to provide a timeline for Council’s draft review to assist with planning for advisory body meeting schedules.

Call for US Government to Work Better with Pacific Island Nations

The Council, with representatives from U.S. tuna industries, developed a paper that calls for a task force of federal agencies to work together to implement a new Pacific strategy. The paper’s holistic approach addresses greater U.S. trade and national security interests and how they are tied to the prosperity of U.S. tuna fisheries in the Pacific.

The Council endorsed the new Pacific strategy and recommended the U.S. delegations to the WCPFC coordinate with longline and purse seine fishing industries to implement it. Coordination efforts should lead toward an increase in the Hawai‘i longline fishery’s bigeye tuna quota and enhance opportunities for the American Samoa longline and purse seine fisheries. The U.S. government should ensure U.S. Pacific Island Territories take an active role in developing and implementing these objectives.

In American Samoa, Starkist cannery is the largest private employer. Will Sword, Council vice chair for American Samoa, noted the Council’s Pacific strategy is just what is needed. “It’s imperative to get the U.S. government and state and territory governments working closely with other Pacific Islands to implement a strategy that meets our goals,” said Sword.

“The current playing field is not level for American Samoa because our purse seine fleet is not seeing the benefits that we deserve as a territory” added Archie Soliai, Council chair from American Samoa. “The United States should take seriously the needs of its territories and this plan will help to move this forward.”

The Council recommended a letter be sent to the State Department and NOAA expressing concerns regarding the lack of acknowledgement of American Samoa’s rights afforded to small island developing States (SIDS) in the WCPFC. Under Articles 30 and 43 of the WCPFC Convention, SIDS and Territories receive certain benefits recognizing their aspirations and sovereign rights to manage their own fisheries. They are entitled to special provisions to prevent “disproportionate burdens” from conservation action.

The Council also recommended a letter be sent to the Biden Administration in response to its request for comment on development of its Indo-Pacific Strategy. The letter should reinforce the importance of fisheries to the Pacific Islands and the uniqueness of the Pacific Islands to the Indo-Pacific.

The Council meeting concludes tomorrow with discussions on American Samoa bottomfish and aquaculture management, and equity and environmental justice efforts, among other topics. Instructions on connecting to Webex, agendas and briefing documents are posted at www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars.