January 23, 2020 — After being grounded since last March, the Hawaii swordfish fishery reported its first landings of the season on Friday, 17 January.
Pacific Business News reported that “The Lady Luck” arrived at Pier 38 Friday morning with about 30,000 tons of swordfish. Within hours, the catch hit the auction floor.
January 21, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Cetacean researchers from the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center are embarking on a winter research cruise. It’s called the Winter Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (WHICEAS, pronounced “why-sees”). They will study cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and seabirds around the main Hawaiian Islands aboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette from January to March. This is a time of year they haven’t previously studied.
This winter survey provides an opportunity to focus on baleen whales such as humpback whales that generally migrate into Hawaiian waters during that period. It will also allow us to examine changes in density of other species between winter and summer. We will use traditional cetacean survey methods such as visual observations and acoustic detections.
The Sette will traverse along a systematic survey grid, but will also deploy Drifting Acoustic Spar Buoy Recorders. These recorders are attached to hydrophones nearly 500 feet (150 meters) deep. These buoys passively drift with the currents and collect acoustic recordings. They provide more detailed records of cetaceans even after the ship has moved to other portions of the study area. The depth of the hydrophones improves our ability to detect beaked whales since they spend much of their time at depth. It also helps us detect the low frequency calls of baleen whales that are missed by our towed hydrophone array.
January 21, 2020 — The US state of Hawaii’s swordfish fishery is expected to land its first catch in nine months this weekend (Jan. 18-19), after closing on Mar. 19, 2019 upon reaching the loggerhead turtle interaction cap.
The fishery produces about 55% of America’s domestic swordfish and supplies 14% of the total US swordfish market.
“Without Hawaii swordfish, US markets will increase their dependence on foreign suppliers,” said Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), which manages the fishery.
“Our pelagic longline fisheries are well managed and rigorously monitored, and regulations are enforced. International fishery management organizations consider them model fisheries and have adopted many of the measures we developed. Our fishery targets the North Pacific stock, which is healthy…and avoids the troubled Eastern Pacific and South Atlantic stocks.”
January 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:
The Hawai’i swordfish fishery is expected to land its first catch in nine months tomorrow. This healthy fishery produces approximately 55 percent of America’s domestic swordfish and supplies 14 percent of the total US swordfish market.
“Without Hawai’i swordfish, US markets will increase their dependence on foreign suppliers,” said Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which manages the fishery. “Our pelagic longline fisheries are well managed and rigorously monitored, and regulations are enforced. International fishery management organizations consider them model fisheries and have adopted many of the measures we developed. Our fishery targets the North Pacific stock, which is healthy (not overfished or subject to overfishing), and avoids the troubled Eastern Pacific and South Atlantic stocks.”
Some of these rigorous conservation measures include rules protecting sea turtles, gear restrictions and a cap on the number of sea turtles with which the fishery may interact. The fishery currently operates under an annual cap of 17 loggerhead and 16 leatherback turtle interactions and has 100 percent observer coverage. An interaction occurs whenever a sea turtle becomes hooked or entangled in longline gear, as recorded by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) observer.
The fishery closed on March 19 last year after reaching the loggerhead cap and reopened on Jan. 1, 2020.
According to a 2019 biological opinion issued by NMFS, the Hawai’i shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish does not jeopardize the continued existence of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtle populations. Ninety-nine percent of turtle interactions in the fishery result in the turtle being released alive. The loggerhead turtle population, which nests in Japan, is growing at an annual rate of 2.4 percent.
The Council has developed amended measures, which were transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce on Wednesday for review and approval. The amendment, which could be effective as early as May 2020, would remove the loggerhead cap and have a leatherback cap of 16. The amendment includes a trip limit of five loggerhead and two leatherback interactions, after which a vessel would be required to return to port. If that vessel reaches the trip limit again, it could not fish for swordfish for the remainder of the year and it could interact with only five loggerhead and two leatherbacks total the following year.
Mike Lee of Garden and Valley Isle Seafood notes: “The Hawai’i swordfish fishery has a multimillion dollar impact to the local economy, which includes several wholesale seafood distribution companies. Hawai’i swordfish is a premium product with high levels of demand. Fishery closures disrupt market channels and leave our customers little choice but foreign imports.”
“For the last two years the fishery operated for about three months due to premature closure and generated around $1.5 million in landed value, said Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA). “By comparison, the fishery produced three times that revenue ($4.5 million) in 2017 and nearly $9 million in 2009. Additionally, closing the fishery forces swordfish vessels to convert to target tuna (ahi) with the risk that the bigeye tuna quota may be reached before the end of the year, when market demand peaks.”
The Lady Luck, the first vessel from the Hawai’i swordfish fleet, is expected offload around 35,000 pounds of swordfish at Pier 38 in Honolulu around 5 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 17. The swordfish could appear on the auction floor around 9 a.m. For more information, contact Eric Kingma, HLA executive director, at (808) 389-2653 or eric.k.kingma@gmail.com or Asuka Ishizaki, the Council’s protected species coordinator, at (808) 522-8224 or asuka.ishizaki@wpcouncil.org.
FAST FACTS ABOUT THE US SWORDFISH FISHERY OPERATING UNDER HAWAI’I LONGLINE FEDERAL PERMITS
January 15, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Entanglement in ropes, nets, and other marine debris is a major threat to the humpbacks and other large whales of Hawai‘i. But attempting to free an entangled, multi-ton whale is inherently dangerous. Due to the risks to whales and humans alike, only trained, well-equipped responders are authorized to engage in large whale disentanglement efforts.
Most often, however, fishermen, tour boat operators, and whale researchers are the ones to first come across the entangled animals. These “first responders” assist NOAA’s Hawai‘i Marine Mammal Response Network with reporting, monitoring, and assessment efforts.
We recognize this vital assistance and the need to better prepare first responders for the task. So, we teamed up with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop a new online training course that outlines the first responder roles of large whale entanglement responses.
“Commercial and recreational fishermen are an untapped resource who could provide a much broader and stronger foundation for entanglement response networks given the right training,” said Tom Dempsey, Oceans Program Director at TNC. “It makes sense to develop a training course for them since they want to be a part of the solution, and they are often onsite when entanglements occur.”
Past efforts have shown that authorized response is the best way to help entangled whales. At the same time, it provides valuable information towards reducing the threat of entanglement to whales. Yet, members of the on-water community who come across an entangled whale can—and do—play a vital role in the response. Specifically, they report, collect information, and monitor the whale from a safe and legal distance until trained teams arrive. By knowing what information to collect, and by taking and sharing photos with the disentanglement team, boaters can help marine mammal responders. With their help, these responders—who have more advanced training, can understand the extent of the entanglement before mounting a response. This enables them to respond with the appropriate gear and strategy.
“Without these efforts in large whale response, we would not be able to save seriously entangled whales, and we would miss opportunities to learn about the impacts of entanglements,” said Ann Garrett, Assistant Regional Administrator of the NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in the Pacific Islands. “This allows us to implement management strategies that continue to protect them.”
December 13, 2019 — When Kingfish Zeeland announced plans to build a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) yellowtail farm in Jonesport, Maine, U.S.A., the company was met with overwhelming support from town officials and residents.
The Maiman’s Kats, The Netherlands-based firm is planning to build a 15- to 20-acre, state-of-the-art RAS facility on a 90-acre waterfront site east of town. The decision comes alongside two larger RAS projects – those of Whole Oceans and Nordic Aquafarms – that have decided to settle in coastal Maine.
November 26, 2019 — Eating ocean fish is good for you, but some fish have significant levels of methylmercury which is bad for you, so you should avoid those fish, right? Wrong, says a new study.
Mothers who ate seafood, even when it contained high levels of methyl mercury, had smarter kids than those who didnʻt eat seafood, says the comprehensive, peer-reviewed study.
“Moderate and consistent evidence indicates that consumption of a wide range of amounts and types of commercially available seafood during pregnancy is associated with improved neurocognitive development of offspring as compared to eating no seafood,” it said.
This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, and some medical wisdom. Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommend against pregnant women eating ahi, over concerns about methyl mercury exposure.
There is no question that thereʻs methylmercury in yellowfin, bigeye and bluefin tuna, and that the amount has been increasing in recent years. There are also significant amounts of mercury in blue marlin and other species.
The Hawai`i Department of Health warns against pregnant women eating any blue marlin, swordfish and shark and recommends severe limits on consumption of tunas.
November 13, 2019 — A rare Hawaiian delicacy and tightly regulated, Kona crab is a small artisanal fishery that lands but a few thousand pounds every year.
Also called spanner crab, all females must be released by fishermen, along with males of less than 4 inches carapace length. But freeing crabs from the traditional baited hoop nets can come at the cost of some crabs’ limbs.
A team of Honolulu-based researchers, funded with a Saltonsall-Kennedy grant from the NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands regional office, is conducting a study to see how those liberated crabs fare in the wild.
Previous research suggests up to 80 percent of the crabs caught are released, according to NOAA. The consultants of Poseidon Fisheries Research are conducting the new study to follow up on 2017-2018 aquarium experiments to determine how often crabs are injured – typically losing one of more dactyls, the last segment of their limbs – and how often they survive.
That study indicated nearly 90 percent of the injured crabs survive. The new phase is a catch-and-release study that will use tags, and the help of Hawaii fishermen, to see how they really do in the ocean.
November 12, 2019 — Recent evidence has shown that adult fish are eating plastics in the ocean and suffering from perils such as malnutrition and toxicant buildup.
Now, for the first time, a study conducted in Hawaii shows baby fish are ingesting tiny plastics, too.
The research, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that both young coral reef fish and open-ocean species are consuming plastic as early as days after they are spawned.
Working in the waters off West Hawaii, an international team of researchers focused on surface slicks — naturally occurring ribbons of smooth water at the ocean surface that are formed when underwater waves converge near coastlines, according to a NOAA news release. These biologically rich ribbons of water aren’t always visible to the eye but are commonly seen, especially if wind conditions are right.
Found in coastal waters around the world, the surface slicks accumulate high concentrations of plankton, a key food source that lures larval fish in huge numbers. These watery nurseries harbor an impressive variety of species from a range of habitats, ranging from the deep ocean waters to shallow-water reefs.
November 11, 2019 — Flying into the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Midway Atoll appears out of the vast blue Pacific as a tiny oasis of coral-fringed land with pristine white sand beaches that are teeming with life.
But on the ground, there’s a different scene: plastic, pollution and death.
With virtually no predators, Midway is a haven for many species of seabirds and is home to the largest colony of albatross in the world.
But Midway is also at the center of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vast area of floating plastic collected by circulating oceanic currents. The Hawaiian Islands act like a comb that gathers debris as it floats across the Pacific. A recent analysis found that the patch is accumulating debris at a faster rate than scientists previously thought.
Midway is littered with bird skeletons that have brightly colored plastic protruding from their decomposing bellies. Bottle caps, toothbrushes and cigarette lighters sit in the centers of their feathery carcasses.