Saving Seafood

Whales navigate a perilous route off the NJ Shore

January 23, 2023 — At any given time, 50 or more vessels, ranging from massive cargo ships to small fishing boats, are motoring off New Jersey’s 127-mile coast from New York to Delaware.

The smaller vessels often travel at just a few knots per hour, while larger ones run to 20 knots (23 mph) or more.

Little wonder whales sometimes crash into one of them, receiving what amounts to giant-sized headaches or fatal blows.

Two whales that died in January and were stranded in Atlantic City and Brigantine showed evidence of blunt force trauma associated with vessel collisions. Opponents of  have suggested survey vessels are to blame, but officials suggest otherwise.

Walt Nadolny, a professor emeritus at SUNY Maritime College in New York, has been teaching students for two decades how to avoid whale strikes before they head to sea as merchant mariners.

“The odds are ridiculously low” that the whales struck a slow-going survey vessel, said Nadolny, who has no affiliation with an offshore wind company.

Orsted, a global offshore wind company that started in Denmark, is set to build New Jersey’s first wind farm but has not started construction. In January, it has had one vessel at a time on the water totaling little more than seven days.

Nadonly surmises that it’s highly unlikely an offshore wind surveying vessel, which normally would travel at 8 to 10 knots (9-11 mph), could cause a fatal blow to a whale. Rather, he said, fatal collisions typically occur with bigger ships traveling at least 18 knots (21 mph) or more. Usually only large commercial ships travel that fast.

For example, on Friday morning the Maersk Pittsburgh container ship with a gross tonnage of 74,642 was traveling off the coast of Long Beach Island from New York City to Charleston at almost 21 knots (24 mph), according to tracking provided on marinetraffic.com. Multiple other container ships were traveling at similar speeds.

Many of those fast ships, Nadolny noted, often come from, or are headed to, the busy ports of New York/New Jersey or the Delaware Bay toward Philadelphia. The ships are required to reduce speed only as they near the ports, but they often follow voluntary speed restrictions farther out.

Read the full article at phys.org

Feds research whale mystery after more than a dozen dead whales wash up along East Coast

January 20, 2023 — Fourteen whales have washed up on Atlantic Coast beaches since Dec. 1, but marine mammal experts and some conservation groups urge caution before jumping to conclusions about why these animals and others died.

In total, at least 20 marine mammals from five species — including humpbacks, pilot whales and an orca — have been found dead on beaches from Maine to Florida since Nov. 28.

The deaths have prompted concerns as photos and stories of the whales and marine mammal rescue teams circulate online. On Wednesday, federal officials held a conference call with reporters to try to address swirling questions and rumors.

Read the full article at USA TODAY

NEW JERSEY: Here’s what federal scientists say is likely killing whales off the NJ coast

January 19, 2023 — Seven whale deaths along the coasts of New Jersey and New York in as many weeks have marine scientists seeking answers and federal authorities making assurances that offshore wind development is not to blame.

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, held a phone conference with journalists across the country to address what the agency called an ongoing “unusual mortality event” among humpback whales.

Since early December, four dead humpback whales and one sperm whale have washed ashore New Jersey beaches. Another two whales washed up dead on Long Island beaches.

Read the full article at the Asbury Park Press.

New Jersey: 7th dead whale washes up at Jersey Shore. Calls to stop offshore wind work grow.

January 13, 2023 — The seventh dead whale in just over a month has washed up on the New York-New Jersey coastline, a local photographer and a climate group told NJ Advance Media on Friday.

The humpback whale, the resident said, washed up at a beach in Brigantine.

“This was at the far north end of Brigantine,” said Connie Pyatt, who noted that the whale was dead.

The dead whale washed up just miles from where another whale was found in Atlantic City on Saturday — which itself washed up blocks away from where another humpback whale was found in December.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a non-profit organization which is authorized by the state to rescue marine mammals and respond to whale strandings, did not immediately provide comment Friday.

Read the full article at NJ.com.

Humpback whale washed up in Atlantic City had a head injury, officials say, as groups call for wind turbine inquiry

January 10, 2023 — A young humpback whale that washed up on an Atlantic City beach on Saturday had evidence of a large head injury behind the blowhole, an official from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said Monday.

“The only thing we suspect may have happened is that it was hit by a large boat,” said Sheila Dean, executive director of the Brigantine-based center. “There was a big hematoma.”

With environmental and citizens groups calling for a federal investigation into whether sonar mapping related to future wind turbine projects off the coast may have played a role in four recent humpback whale deaths in New Jersey, Dean said it was premature to conclude about a cause of death.

Others noted that the National Marine Fisheries Service has designated an unusual mortality event for humpback whales based on an increase in mortality that began in 2016, before any wind energy activity.

Read the full article the Philadelphia Inquirer  

Whales Off California Coast Delay Commercial Crab Season

November 25, 2022 — For the fourth year in a row, the start of the commercial Dungeness crab season in California will be delayed to protect humpback whales from becoming entangled in trap and buoy lines, it was announced Monday.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that it was delaying the start of the commercial season, which traditionally begins Nov. 15, until further notice for waters between the Mendocino county line and the border with Mexico.

Authorities first announced a delay late last month. The situation will be reassessed on or before Dec. 7 and if conditions allow commercial crabbing could be permitted on Dec. 16, the department said.

Read the full article at NBC San Diego

Lawsuit calls for feds to protect California humpback whales from gill nets

October 28, 2022 — The Center for Biological Diversity is suing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, claiming it is not protecting endangered Pacific humpback whales from entanglements in California drift gillnets.

The Center, in the lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday, claimed that in the past two fishing seasons, about 12 Pacific humpbacks were caught in the California drift gillnet fishery. Researchers claim this excessive harm to endangered humpback whales violates the Endangered Species Act.

Whales caught in drift gillnets can drown or become constricted by nets as they swim away, causing stress, injuries and infections. This makes any entanglement of a humpback whale in drift gillnet gear an unlawful “take” under the act.

The fishery allegedly leaves mile-long hanging nets in the ocean overnight to catch large fish like Pacific bluefin tuna, swordfish and thresher sharks. The fishery then discards more than half of the fish caught, the lawsuit alleges. The fishing effort takes place from Aug. 15 through Jan. 31 and overlaps with important areas for sea turtles, threatening those endangered animals as well.

The Center claims NOAA Fisheries failed to adequately analyze the impact on the humpback populations listed under the act in 2016. Entanglements can lead to death, injury and lower calving rates in whales.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Environmental group sues feds for failing to protect humpback whales from deadly fishing gear

January 11, 2022 — The Center for Biological Diversity sued the National Marine Fisheries Service Monday, accusing the agency of failing to protect endangered Pacific humpback whales from deadly entanglements in sablefish pot gear off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington.

Here’s the center’s news release on the lawsuit:

Monday’s lawsuit challenges the federal permit given to the fishery in December to kill and injure endangered humpback whales without any changes to avoid harming whales. Fishing gear entanglements are a leading threat to endangered humpbacks that migrate along the West Coast, where 48,521 square nautical miles were designated as critical habitat in April.

Read the full story at KTVZ

 

An ‘unforgettable’ humpback disentanglement raises new hope about ‘weak’ fishing rope

October 1, 2021 — As a naturalist leading whale watches out of Gloucester, Jamie McWilliams has seen her share of entangled whales. This past August, a familiar, grim scenario seemed to be unfolding in front of her.

This article was first published by CAI.

“From a distance — we were probably half-a-mile away — we saw a whale splashing and thrashing at the surface,” she said on a sunny Friday morning aboard a Cape Ann Whale Watch boat. “And it’s: a) acting erratically, and b) you can see the line and the buoy.”

From her perch on the boat, McWilliams identified the entangled whale as the six-to-eight-month-old calf of a humpback named Jabiru. She and her 250 passengers watched the calf struggle with a rope from lobster gear wrapped around its flipper, and more rope threatening to bind its tail. Then, unexpectedly, it began circling the boat.

“So it passes underneath the bow, goes down the right-hand side, and then with all the gear attached, goes down underneath the stern, or the back, of the boat, and then pops up on the left-hand side,” McWilliams said. “And I’m watching and I’m watching and I’m watching…”

And then she saw something incredible happen – something she’d never seen in six years leading about a thousand whale watches.

“And I’m watching, and it’s there, but there’s no gear,” she said. “So I literally turn to my captain and I’m like, ‘The gear is gone. Like, where’s the gear?’ He was like, ‘What do you mean it’s gone?’ And I’m like, ‘It’s not there.’ Like, ‘What just happened?’ you know?”

Read the full story from WCAI at New Hampshire Public Radio

 

When a Right Whale Dies

November 4, 2019 — Around 3 p.m. on September 16, 2019, Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) received a call about a very decomposed whale carcass. It was floating about 4 miles south of Fire Island Inlet of Long Island, New York. Dead whales floating in the waters off Long Island have been a fairly common occurrence over the last few years, mostly humpback and minke whales. When AMSEAS reported the call to us at NOAA Fisheries, we were prepared to assist with what has now sadly become somewhat routine response planning.

Day 1: Mobilizing the Response

Response planning involves a series of coordination calls. We need to:

  • Make arrangements to tow the carcass to a beach (usually public but not crowded).

  • Arrange heavy equipment (front loaders, backhoes) to help position the carcass.

  • Secure the carcass from tides and possible souvenir hunters.

  • Assemble a team to take measurements and samples (necropsy team).

  • Handle media and bystander inquiries.

  • Plan for the disposal of the carcass—usually deep beach burial, but sometimes other options are considered.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries