Saving Seafood

NOAA: 2017 whale entanglements worse than average, improvement over 2016

December 7, 2018 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report on Thursday, 6 December that indicates 2017 was a worse than average year for the entanglement of large whales, but an improvement over numbers in recent years.

That news was of a worse-than-average year was also tempered by the fact that of the large whales entangled, right whales had fewer entanglements in the U.S. Northeast than in previous periods. The most frequently entangled large whale species in 2017 was the humpback, which accounted for 49 of the 76 entanglements, according to NOAA.

Right whales accounted for only two of the 76 entanglements, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at Seafood Source

Food chain disruption eyed in Hawaii whale sighting decline

November 29, 2018 — Research into the decline of humpback whale sightings in Hawaii points to a food chain disruption likely caused by warmer ocean temperatures in the whales’ feeding grounds in Alaska, federal officials have said.

U.S. and international researchers, wildlife managers and federal officials were meeting in Honolulu on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the decline in sightings of humpbacks that traditionally migrate each autumn from Alaska, where they feed during the summer months, to Hawaii, where they mate and give birth during the winter.

Data presented at the meetings shows a strong correlation between warming oceans and the missing whales, said Christine Gabriele, a federal wildlife biologist who monitors humpbacks at Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska.

Three factors have warmed the ocean in Alaska since 2014, the same year scientists noticed a decline in sightings in Hawaii.

There was a change in an ocean current known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a warm El Nino period in 2016, and a massive “blob” of warm water in the region.

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a current that switches between cool and warm periods over the course of many years, switched to warm in 2014.

Data shows that “it was more favorable for the whales when we were in a cold period, and then less favorable when the (Pacific Decadal Oscillation) switches to warm,” Gabriele said.

Read the full story at The Hawaii Tribune Herald

Fisherman Risks His Life to Save a Humpback Whale

November 14, 2018 — As they headed back toward the central California coast after fishing for slime eel in the Pacific Ocean, Sam Synstelien and Nicholas Taron made a troubling discovery: a humpback whale was entangled in a buoy’s rope, frantically trying to free itself.

Synstelien immediately called the U.S. Coast Guard but was told it might take a few hours for someone to get there. The two commercial fishermen thought that could be too long for the whale to survive its predicament.

“(The whale) was just swimming in counter-clockwise circles,” Taron told NBC Bay Area. “You could tell he was stressed and being held to the bottom.”

Instead of waiting for the Coast Guard or leaving the whale behind, Synstelien and Taron decided to try to save its life. They cranked up the volume on the radio of their 27-foot-long boat (aptly named “Persistence”) and shouted into the microphone to get the frantic, 40-foot-long humpback’s attention.

“We were screaming at the whale, ‘You’re either going to help us out and quit swimming away or else, like, good luck,’” Taron said.

The two were able to cut through the rope wound around the whale’s tail, but the rope still entangled its midsection. Synstelien decided to try to free it himself. As Taron recorded a video on his cell phone, Synstelien jumped onto the whale and shimmied up its back.

Read the full story at Care2

After Many Decades Away, Humpback Whales Are Back In Long Island Sound. This Small Fish Could Be The Reason Why.

October 29, 2018 — One of the smallest, oddest and least-studied fishes in Long Island Sound may be playing a role in attracting one of the world’s largest ocean creatures to the waters along Connecticut’s coastline.

The tiny fish is called a northern sand lance or sand eel, and experts say it could be one of the reasons why massive humpback whales have returned to the Sound in recent years.

Sand lances, at 3 to 6 inches in length, are true fish but look like little silvery eels. They are also a favorite food of humpbacks, which can reach up to 60 feet in length and weigh as much as 40 tons.

“Most people don’t even know their name,” David Wiley, the research coordinator for the Stellwagon Bank National Marine Sanctuary off Cape Cod, said of sand lances. “But they’re extremely important.”

After many decades of absence, humpbacks returned to the Sound beginning in 2015 and at least a few have been recorded feeding in the waters between Connecticut and Long Island or off New London every year since.

Marine scientists believe the sand lance is far from the only reason why humpbacks have been returning to the Sound. They point out that other prey species favored by humpbacks, including menhaden and herring, have also been on the increase in the waters off Connecticut’s shoreline and are likely key to the humpbacks’ return.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

 

HAWAII: Kauai counters seeing fewer whales, too

October 4, 2018 — Annual February humpback whale counts from Kauai have dipped to less than half the number they were in 2014, keeping in rhythm with recent statewide research.

Every year the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary holds three counts during the time the whales are in Hawaii — once in January, once in February and the last in March.

Humpback whales are generally in Hawaiian waters from November to May, with peak season being January through March, to breed and have their young.

The 2017 season on Kauai kicked off early, with the one of the first sightings reported Oct. 18, from a Blue Dolphin Adventures tour.

The counts occur simultaneously throughout the islands, with volunteers recording whale sightings during 15-minute periods and on Kauai, data is accumulated from 15 sites.

In March 2015, Kauai and the Big Island averaged two whales every 15 minutes, and Oahu averaged three every 15 minutes.

March 2014 yielded an average of three whales every 15 minutes on Kauai and Oahu, and two per every 15-minute time period on the Big Island.

Kauai reported four whale sightings every 15 minutes in March 2013, and Hawaii and Oahu calculated an average of three. That year, Kauai averaged two whale sightings from all sites.

Researchers have recorded a decline in the number of whale sightings, but also the number of songs and sightings of mother and calf pairs.

Read the full story at The Garden Island

Humpback whale sightings around Hawaii declining

October 1, 2018 — Whale researchers are spotting a trend in the Hawaiian Islands — a decline in humpback whale sightings.

Not only are there fewer sightings, fewer male Hawaiian humpback whales have been recorded singing, and the number of mother-calf pairs has been diminishing for the past three seasons, according to the researchers. While the trend has been consistent over the past three years, the scientists refrained from sounding an alarm about the whales disappearing as a new season is around the corner.

“They’re not all gone,” said Ed Lyman, who is with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. “We are seeing indications of fewer whales near the islands where our effort is … There are still plenty of whales out there.”

The peak of the season is usually between January and March, when thousands of humpback whales migrate from Alaska to Hawaii to mate, calve and nurse their young, although they can be spotted in November or earlier, and stay as late as May.

Lyman, a researcher and the sanctuary’s whale entanglement response coordinator, said for him, the first signs of the decline were in late December 2015.

That’s when he got calls from whale-watching tour operators on Hawaii island, inquiring about their late arrival. Lyman reached out to tour operators on other islands, as well, and found them saying the same thing — the whales were late, and there were fewer sightings. He got the same reports from contacts in Mexico.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser

 

Fishing regulators approve measures to conserve Atlantic herring

September 26, 2018 — New England fishing regulators on Tuesday approved two measures aimed at conserving the dwindling Atlantic herring stock.

The New England Fishery Management Council approved a rule that “establishes a long-term policy that will guide the council in setting catch limits into the future” at a meeting in Plymouth.

Such an option will result in more herring being left in the water “to serve as forage and be part of the overall ecosystem,” according to the council. Under that proposal, catch limits can be adjusted based on new information.

Additionally, the council approved a measure aimed at preventing midwater trawlers from fishing too close to shore for herring. The boats are banned from fishing within 12 miles of shore, an area stretching from the Canadian border through Rhode Island, that includes areas east and southeast of Cape Cod, according to the council.

Recent surveys have found that the Atlantic herring population in the Gulf of Maine is at risk of collapse. The fish provide a crucial source of food to species that include cod, striped bass, and humpback whales.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Two dead humpback whales wash up in Boston area

September 24, 2018 — A whale carcass reported by state police Friday morning at Revere Beach is a male humpback calf that had originally washed up in Cohasset on Sept. 7 and was towed out to sea Sept. 14, according to Jennifer Gobel with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Biologists with the New England Aquarium in Boston inspected the carcass in Cohasset but were unable to do a full necropsy because of the weather, aquarium spokesman Anthony LaCasse said.

Gobel said the federal agency is working with local authorities in Revere on a disposal plan for the carcass.

Also on Friday, an aquarium team planned to inspect another humpback carcass that washed up on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor, LaCasse said.

Since January 2016, an elevated number of humpback whale deaths have occurred from Maine to Florida, leading to a federal declaration of an unusual mortality event. That declaration allows for the release of more money and support to investigate the deaths. Since the unusual mortality event was declared, there have been 81 documented deaths as of Aug. 29, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NMFS, ENGOs Agree to Deadlines for Humpback Whale Habitat Designations off West Coast

August 29, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation reached a settlement with the National Marine Fisheries Service last week to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean. the Center said the whales face threats from fisheries, ship strikes and oil spills.

The agreement, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to follow the Endangered Species Act’s requirement to designate critical habitat by June 28, 2019, and finalize those boundaries a year later. Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered, and a third as threatened, in September 2016.

“Today’s victory means Pacific humpback whales will be safer in their ocean home,” Center Attorney Catherine Kilduff said in a press release. “While delaying these protections, the Trump administration proposed opening the Pacific up to offshore oil drilling and let fishing gear tangle up dozens of humpbacks. This agreement ensures the whales will finally get the protections they need.”

One population of endangered humpback whales that feeds off California’s coast numbers around 400 individuals, meaning any death or injury from entanglement could hurt their recovery the Center said in the statement. Several whales were tangled in fishing lines from fixed gear fisheries in recent years, but many were also the victims of ship strikes.

Ship strikes and oil spills are the other major threats to West Coast humpback whales, according to the Center’s statement. A study found that an estimated 22 humpbacks off California, Oregon and Washington die each year after being hit by ships. That number could increase if additional offshore oil and gas drilling were allowed, as proposed by the Trump administration earlier this year. Additionally, potential oil spills increase the risk to whales and other marine life.

The three plaintiffs filed the suit in March.

The potential critical habitat areas will raise public awareness about what areas are essential for conservation, and provides substantive protections for the habitat from adverse modification by federal government activities, Kilduff said in an email. The habitat protections also will help safeguard ocean areas essential for migrating and feeding. Evidence shows that endangered or threatened species that have protected critical habitat are twice as likely to show signs of recovery as those without it, according to the three groups.

NMFS identified humpback whale populations that needed critical habitat designations in 2016. Those included the three that are, at times, in U.S. waters: the threatened Mexico population that feeds off the U.S. West Coast and Alaska and the endangered Central America population that feeds almost exclusively off California and Oregon. The agency revised the listing status of the humpback whale from a global population to 14 distinct population segments (DPS). However, NMFS also found that critical habitat for these three populations were not determinable when it identified the 14 humpback DPS.

According to the settlement, NMFS must pay $10,000 in attorney fees to the Center and the two other plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, the seafood industry remains concerned, awaiting the details. Fishermen and processors also are concerned about the Center’s lawsuit against the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, filed late last year, regarding whale entanglements.

Kilduff said this settlement will have no effect on the lawsuit against the state.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

Feds Agree to Designate Habitat for Endangered Humpbacks

August 27, 2018 — In a victory for humpback whales and environmentalists, the federal government agreed Friday to establish critical habitat protection for endangered or threatened whales by 2020.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued the federal government earlier this year, accusing the National Marine Fisheries Service of not following through on a 2016 plan to designate two groups of Pacific Ocean humpback whales as endangered and a third group as threatened.

One group that feeds off the coast near California includes around 400 whales who are listed as endangered and face injury or death from fishing gear and other hazards.

In their Northern District of California lawsuit, the center said the federal government “has not made a critical habitat determination (i.e., proposing to designate critical habitat or finding that it would not be prudent to do so) for the Western North Pacific, Mexico, and Central America” populations of humpback whales.

The lawsuit said whales are also in danger from oil spills, being struck by boats and other hazards in the ocean. They called the federal government’s lack of action a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, his administration has announced plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling across the United States, including the West Coast and Alaska.

The center filed a similar lawsuit against state of California claiming fishing lines, crab traps and other gear endangered whales along the Pacific Coast.

On Friday, the parties announced a settlement that would establish critical habitat protections for whale populations in the western North Pacific, Mexico and Central America by 2020. The agreement includes a timeline, beginning with a proposal to the Federal Register by June 2019, for the fisheries service to determine critical habitat.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service