Saving Seafood

Humpback Whale Disentangled Off New York All Thanks to a Team Effort

July 31, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries was notified by the U.S. Coast Guard of a distressed humpback whale in the Ambrose Channel of New York on Monday, July 27. One of our New York stranding network partners, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS), immediately began working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) on plans to get a good look at the animal and confirm its location. AMSEAS reached out to the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) in Provincetown, Massachusetts, our lead authorized disentanglement partner for the area, to discuss the situation.

On Monday evening, AMSEAS went out with NYSDEC staff on one of their vessels to the location provided by the USCG. They determined the whale was still alive and able to breathe. It appeared to be anchored in place but staff could not see any entangling material.

After reviewing the initial photos from Monday, AMSEAS and NYSDEC returned to the whale on Tuesday and were able to secure better images confirming the entanglement and its configuration, which were holding the whale’s tail down. After relaying this information back to CCS and NOAA and further assessing the urgent situation, we worked together to plan for a disentanglement attempt.

On Wednesday morning, USCG verified that the whale was still anchored in the same position. CCS disentanglement staff were flown from Massachusetts to New York on a flight donated by our partners at Turtles Fly Too. By Wednesday afternoon, the disentanglement team was able to remove multiple buoys and make cuts through pieces of entangling gear around the whale’s flukes. Despite their best efforts, the whale was still anchored in place, and the team had to leave the whale when it got too dark to continue safely.

Early Thursday morning, the NYSDEC vessels with the AMSEAS and CCS teams were back on the water. The research vessel Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe, from Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute, transported a team member from NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s (NEFSC) Sandy Hook lab to the whale. Working with the R/V Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Drift Collection Vessel HAYWARD, crews used heavy equipment to secure and haul some of the heavy gear, which allowed the CCS team to make cuts that relieved pressure on the whale’s body. Around 4 p.m., final cuts were made releasing the whale from a very large and complicated entanglement.

This event demonstrated the need for a deliberate approach with patience and endurance, and the collaboration of local resources and expertise to support a skilled and experienced disentanglement team.

We are extremely grateful to all of our partners who were involved in what turned out to be one of the most complex whale entanglements we have encountered. Because of them, this whale was given a second chance at life.

Read the full story on our website, including quotes from our partners and a listing of all the organizations involved and their roles.

Read the full release here

Whales Get A Break As Pandemic Creates Quieter Oceans

July 21, 2020 — When humpback whales migrated to Glacier Bay in Alaska this year to spend the long summer days feeding, they arrived to something unusual: quieter waters.

As the COVID-19 pandemic slows international shipping and keeps cruise ships docked, scientists are finding measurably less noise in the ocean. That could provide momentary relief for whales and other marine mammals that are highly sensitive to noise.

Through networks of underwater hydrophones, scientists are hoping to learn how the mammals’ communication changes when the drone of ships is turned down, potentially informing new policies to protect them.

“More needs to be done,” says Jason Gedamke, who manages the ocean acoustics program at NOAA Fisheries. “When you have animals that for millions of years have been able to communicate over vast distances in the ocean, and then once we introduce noise and have increased sound levels and they can’t communicate over those distances, clearly there’s going to be some impact there.”

Read the full story at NPR

Attention Crabbers: Whales spotted off Oregon Coast

July 8, 2020 — The following was released by the West Coast Seafood Processors Association:

Due to recent sightings of humpback whale aggregations on the inshore whale survey transects between Newport and North Bend and fishermen’s reports of humpbacks in the 25- to 50-fathom area between Seal Rock and Coos Bay, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is recommending all gear be moved to shallower water, preferably inside 25 fathoms.

Already, Oregon crab gear from this year’s fishing season was found in June on a dead juvenile humpback whale off of Point Reyes, Calif.

It is in the industry’s best interest to avoid whale entanglements.

Fishermen should also observe best practices to avoid whales, especially during these months of higher ESA-listed humpback and blue whales off Oregon. Those best practices include:

  • Removing fishing gear not actively tended;
  • Use the minimum amount of scope necessary to compensate for tides, currents and weather;
  • Remove excess lines floating at the surface;
  • Maintain gear to ensure lines and buoys are in good working condition and clearly marked;
  • Remove all crab pots from the ocean by August 14;
  • Bring derelict gear to shore in-season; and
  • Consider participating in the post-season derelict gear program.

California Dungeness crabbers protest early shutdown

April 29, 2020 — California state officials are ordering an early end to the southern Dungeness crab season May 15 to protect migrating whales, a move fishing advocates say is out of proportion to the actual risk.

In an April 15 notice Charlton Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, announced the Dungeness season would close and all gear pulled by mid-May, two months early, south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line.

The decision comes as the fishery is winding down, with the California fleet gearing up for a promising salmon season that opens May 1. But it cuts off a sector that is providing jobs and seafood in coastal communities hit hard by coronavirus restrictions and their economic impact, said Ben Platt, president of the California Coast Crab Association.

“They say that there’s ‘significant risk.’ But the whale working group determined there was low risk, as they have in all of the recommendations this season,” said Platt, referring to a stakeholder advisory group established in 2015 to assess seasonal risks of gear entanglement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Silence is golden for whales as lockdown reduces ocean noise

April 28, 2020 — In cities, human lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic have offered some respite to the natural world, with clear skies and the return of wildlife to waterways. Now evidence of a drop in underwater noise pollution has led experts to predict the crisis may also be good news for whales and other sea mammals.

Researchers examining real-time underwater sound signals from seabed observatories run by Ocean Networks Canada near the port of Vancouver found a significant drop in low-frequency sound associated with ships.

David Barclay, assistant professor of oceanography at Dalhousie University, the lead author of a paper reviewing the phenomena, examined sound power – a way of measuring “loudness” – in the 100 Hz range from two sites, one inland and one farther offshore. He found a significant drop in noise from both.

Generally, we know underwater noise at this frequency has effects on marine mammals,” Barclay said.

“There has been a consistent drop in noise since 1 January, which has amounted to a change of four or five decibels in the period up to 1 April,” he said. Economic data from the port showed a drop of around 20% in exports and imports over the same period, he said.

The deep ocean site, around 60km from the shipping lanes and in 3,000 metres of water, also showed a drop in average weekly noise of 1.5 decibels, or around a 15% decrease in power, Barclay said. “This gives us an idea of the scale over which this reduction in noise can be observed.”

The reduction in ship traffic in the ocean, which Barclay compares to a “giant human experiment”, has had scientists racing to find out the effect on marine life.

Read the full story at The Guardian

California closes Dungeness crab fishery early

April 24, 2020 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced an early closure to the Dungeness crab fishery south of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line to protect whales and sea turtles from being entangled in fishing gear.

According to the official declaration, the decision co close the fishery on 15 May was made to protect humpback whales, whose migratory path is through the central management area of the fishery.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

What’s tangling up the humpback whales? A food chain snarled by climate change

January 27, 2020 — Karin Forney still remembers when an unusual number of humpback whales started showing up in Monterey Bay a few winters ago. She could see them out her window — so close to the surf that kayakers could literally paddle up to them.

But with this delightful arrival came an alarming number of humpbacks getting entangled in fishing gear that cut into their flesh and often led to death. This sudden crisis confounded scientists, fishermen and animal rights groups.

“We went from virtually no humpback whale entanglements to one every other week — and then during peak, in the spring of 2016 … we were basically on call every single day,” said Forney, an applied marine ecologist at the NOAA Fisheries who scrambled to help the rescue efforts.

“The whales just kept coming.”

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

New Online Course Provides Guidance on How the On-Water Community Can Help Free Entangled Whales in Hawai’i Waters

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.”

Read the full release here

Southeast Alaska fishermen unite against designating critical habitat for humpback whales

January 14, 2020 — Fishermen from different gear groups united against a proposed federal rule to designate Southeast Alaska as critical habitat for humpback whales. Many of the fishermen voiced their opposition during a three-hour meeting hosted by the National Marine Fisheries Service in Petersburg, Jan. 6, 2020.

About 60 people crowded into the Petersburg borough assembly chambers and others overflowed into the hallway. Most were fishermen from Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan. A group from Ketchikan also testified by phone.

They had the same message for the federal government. They don’t want Southeast labeled critical habitat for whales.

“It bothers all of us and I think it’s wrong,” said Chris Guggenbickler, a commercial gillnetter from Wrangell.

The meeting was run by Lisa Manning, with the National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS. She spent about an hour trying to convince the crowd that a critical habitat designation would not affect commercial fisheries.

Read the full story at KTOO

Federal managers extend comment period for humpback whale critical habitat decision

November 25, 2019 — A comment period over designating critical habitat for some of the humpback whales that swim off Alaska’s coastline is being extended by the federal government.

Coastal waters from southern California to the Aleutian Islands could be listed as habitat critical to sustaining three distinct populations of humpback whales. The move by the National Marine Fisheries Service could require future consultation for activities that are permitted, funded or carried out by a federal agency.

“Critical habitat really affects federal actions,” NMFS endangered species act national listing coordinator Lisa Manning explained.  “It’s not something that affects everything that takes place within those areas that everyone’s seeing on the map. The regulatory effect of critical habitat is it requires federal action agencies to make sure their actions don’t adversely affect or destroy the critical habitat.”

Those activities could include vessel traffic, aquaculture, clean water permitting, in-water construction, alternative energy development and work permitted by the U.S. Forest Service on the Tongass National Forest. Manning says there are also indirect impacts possible that the agency has analyzed in documents available on the agency’s website. For instance, the agency’s analysis states the designation may impact how the state of Alaska manages commercial fisheries for herring, a food for the whales.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media