Saving Seafood

Hawaii launches hotline to report ghost fishing nets

June 4, 2021 — Hawaii has a new hotline to report ghost fishing nets, derelict gear and other plastic debris that washes ashore across the Hawaiian archipelago.

In a statement Thursday, state officials announced the new hotline, which uses phrasing from the Hawaii Pidgin language in the number: 833-4-Da-Nets.

State wildlife officials partnered with environmental groups to create the hotline so people can report marine debris that can then be quickly removed.

As they drift throughout the ocean, ghost nets and other fishing line continue to catch fish, sometimes entangling Hawaii’s humpback whales, sea turtles, endangered Hawaiian monk seals and seabirds.

“The idea is to have people call in hazardous nets immediately,” Kristen Kelly of Hawaii’s Division of Aquatic Resources Protected Species Program said in the statement. “We can mount a rapid response to remove these nets from our shorelines as quickly as possible and before they drift back into the open ocean.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

NORTH CAROLINA: Hard-hit fishermen turn to new catch: cleaning up marine debris from southeastern shoreline

January 11, 2021 — Since July, a four-man crew of local commercial fisherman has switched their catch, resetting their lines on a different kind of haul: marine debris.

Unlike their lifelong trade of harvesting shellfish, the crew has found stocks of marine debris are plentiful. After walking nearly all the marshes from Sneads Ferry to Zeke’s Island, the men have encountered a seemingly endless yield of abandoned marine and construction debris.

Each storm and tide cycle churns up new debris for the crew to collect. With a 24-foot Carolina Skiff and a few homemade sleds assembled for clamming, the men trek through soupy shorelines, hauling about one ton of debris a day out of the waterway.

“We all grew up on the river — all of us did. But from the very first day we started this project, we had no idea the amount of debris out there,” crew supervisor Joe Huie said.

Tapped by the North Carolina Coastal Federation to help carry out a yearlong $2.4 million federal abandoned vessel and marine debris-removal program, the team is happy to have found steady work and put their skills to use. On their first day working the contract, the crew hoped they’d be able to find enough material to satisfy the program. Instead, they’ve found a theoretically neverending job (so long as the contract keeps getting renewed).

“After the first day, I said, ‘We could do this forever.’ I’m not even joking. We all looked at each other and said, ‘We could do this forever.’  Because that’s just how much it was,” Huie said. “We found so much debris we didn’t know if we could do the job. We were just physically exhausted at the end of the day. The first summer we did the contract I lost 27 pounds. It was brutal. It was a hot summer.”

Read the full story at Port City Daily

Marine Debris Removal Grants Available

July 16, 2020 — Applicants have until Sept. 4 to submit a letter of intent for review for marine debris removal project grants.

The fiscal year 2021 Marine Debris Removal grant competition is through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program.

The projects awarded through the removal grant competition are to create long-term, quantifiable ecological habitat improvements for NOAA trust resources. Priority will be given for efforts targeting derelict fishing gear, abandoned and derelict vessels and other medium- and large-scale debris, according to NOAA.

The letter of intent submission period for removal projects began Wednesday. Applicants who submit successful letters of intent will be invited to submit a full proposal following the review period.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

Save Our Seas 2.0 tackles global marine debris crisis

November 12, 2019 — We may have plenty of political differences, but we come from coastal states. That means we have a front-row seat to the peril of plastic waste and marine debris flowing into our oceans at the rate of around 8 million metric tons per year. We understand what it will mean for our fishing and tourism industries when the weight of plastic in our oceans equals the weight of fish in the sea — something projected to happen by mid-century. We don’t have a moment to lose in confronting this problem.

That’s why we built a coalition in Congress and gathered input from environmental and industry stakeholders alike. Despite a divided Washington, that work resulted in a bill that won broad, bipartisan support. When the Save Our Seas Act became law last October, it was a moment of bipartisan progress on a vital issue — one to be celebrated.

Before the president’s ink on Save Our Seas was dry, our bipartisan trio of senators began developing the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act. We sought to harness the momentum behind the first bill to up the ante on combatting the global marine debris crisis. Marine debris requires multifaceted, multisector solutions with a global reach, and the United States ought to be driving these solutions.

Read the full story at Roll Call

Fishing Gear Recovery Project Begins in Cape Cod Bay

April 8, 2019 — The Center for Coastal Studies has begun field work with area lobstermen to remove, document, and properly dispose of lost, abandoned or derelict fishing gear in Cape Cod Bay.

“Mobilizing Diverse Stakeholders to Remove Derelict Fishing Gear from Beaches & Bay” is a project funded by the NOAA Marine Debris Program. It takes place during the winter season, when lobster fishing is prohibited in the bay to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales who feed here.

The CCS Marine Geology Program will first conduct side-scan sonar surveys in areas identified by fishermen as locations where lost gear likely exists.

Commercial fishing vessels from each area are enlisted to recover the gear by towing grappling equipment in targeted locations.  Once returned to shore, the derelict gear will be sorted for recycling, disposal, or return to rightful owners.

“Who better to help in this effort than the fishermen who have dedicated their lives to understanding the environment?” said Demi Fox, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Northeast Regional Coordinator.

“They have a critical desire to protect the ecosystem upon which their livelihoods depend, and we are grateful for their expertise. The NOAA Marine Debris Program appreciates the hard work of passionate partners like CCS and the fishing community.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

NORTH CAROLINA: Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project Begins Mid-January

January 4, 2019 — A large scale cleanup project to improve water quality, remove fishing debris and collect derelict crab pots from all of Eastern North Carolina’s coastal sounds will soon get underway.

Commercial fishers and North Carolina Marine Patrol will participate in the annual cleanup effort which takes from January 15th to February 7th.  Now in its third year, the project received $100,000 in funding from the General Assembly, allowing the North Carolina Coastal Federation to hire and train 76 local fishers to remove lost fishing gear during the “no-potting” period.

“This is helping the economy,” said Sara Hallas, the Coastal Education Coordinator for the North Carolina Coastal Federation.  “This is a slower time of the year for the fishing industry, especially for the crabbing industry, the fishing would be closed during this time of the year. So it does give them an option for employment during the slow winter season.”

Crews, which are comprised of two people, are paid $450 per day.  Last year, 3,496 crab pots were collected from coastal fishing waters.  But Hallas expects crews will encounter more marine debris this year because of Hurricane Florence.

Read the full story at Public Radio East

Divers haul in large amount of debris from marine monument

November 13, 2018 — A team of divers hauled in nearly 165,000 pounds (75,000 kilograms) of abandoned fishing nets and plastic waste during a cleanup expedition at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, federal officials said.

The 18 divers left Sept. 19 and returned Oct. 29 from a trek to the chain of isles and atolls located 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) northwest of the main Hawaiian islands, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the expeditions.

The divers hauled in about 82 tons (74 metric tons), which is comparable to the weight of 45 mid-sized cars or one space shuttle, NOAA said.

The team of divers from NOAA Fisheries and University of Hawaii’s Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research sorted out the debris Friday.

The group split the debris into categories such as plastic laundry baskets, fishing nets, tires, buoys and smaller personal-care items such as plastic toothbrushes and combs.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is uninhabited by humans. But due to its central location in the system of circulating currents called the North Pacific Gyre, the debris has been carried by currents to its shores for decades.

NOAA’s marine debris team has been going on expeditions to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands almost yearly to survey and remove litter since 1996. Cumulatively, including the last mission, teams have collected about 2 million pounds (0.91 million kilograms) of debris.

The litter does ecological damage at Papahanaumokuakea, said NOAA’s Kevin O’Brien, who served as chief scientist for the mission this year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Protecting Paradise: Marine Debris Team Does the Heavy Lifting

The team removed more than 160,000 pounds of lost or abandoned fishing nets and plastics from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, an ecologically and culturally significant area, part of the Papahānaumokuāea Marine National Monument.

November 12, 2018 — Stretching 1,200 miles northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands, a chain of remote islands and atolls known as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are hundreds of miles from the nearest human populations. Yet, these beautiful coral reefs and uninhabited shorelines are centrally located in the North Pacific Gyre, where currents gather marine debris from all around the Pacific Ocean.

NOAA’s marine debris team travels from island to island by ship and small boat, carefully pulling derelict “ghost” fishing gear off of underwater reefs and collecting plastic debris from shorelines. They clean up nets and other debris that damage coral reefs and threaten wildlife, including endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles. Hauling debris is often a dirty, exhausting, and sometimes fly-filled task, but the team loves its work.

Read and view the full story at NOAA Fisheries

Before Kanye visit, Trump signed bill to help reduce plastics in ocean

October 15, 2018 — Before his much publicized visit with American musician Kanye West on Thursday, US president Donald Trump helped advance efforts to remove some of the mountains of plastic floating in the ocean by signing the Save Our Seas (SOS) Act.

The law, sponsored by senators Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, and Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, will allow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to declare severe marine debris events and authorize funds to assist with cleanup and response efforts.

“Every year, over 8 million tons of garbage is dumped into our beautiful oceans by many countries of the world,” Trump said during the signing ceremony. “That includes China, that includes Japan, and that includes many, many countries.

“This waste, trash, and debris harms not only marine life, but also fishermen, coastal economies along America’s vast stretches. The bad news is it floats toward us. I’ve seen pictures recently, and some of you have seen them, where there’s — a vast, tremendous, unthinkable amount of garbage is floating right into our coast, in particular along the West Coast.

“…This dumping has happened for years and even for decades. Previous administrations did absolutely nothing to take on the foreign countries responsible. We’ve already notified most of them and we’ve notified them very strongly.”

The SOS Act was introduced in March 2017 before being passed by unanimous consent in the Senate in early August 2018 after an identical bill, sponsored by Alaska representative Don Young, a Republican, was passed by a voice vote in the House in late July.

The law, which was supported by both the plastics industry and some ocean conservation groups, also reauthorizes NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, which carries a mission of supporting research on marine debris and the authority to take action to prevent and clean it up.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

President Trump Signs Save Our Seas Act

October 15, 2018 — The following was released by the President of the United States:

Today, I have signed into law S. 3508, the “Save Our Seas Act of 2018” (the “Act”). The Act reauthorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program for 5 years, promotes increased safety in the maritime industry, and promotes interagency and international action to reduce the amount of marine debris.

The Act, however, raises constitutional concerns. Sections 206(b), 208(a)(1), and 216 of the Act purport to dictate the position of the United States in external foreign affairs, and section 208(a)(2) of the Act purports to require an update to certain congressional committees on the progress of international negotiations. My Administration will treat these provisions in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority as the sole representative of the Nation in foreign affairs, and with the President’s constitutional authority to withhold information protected by executive privilege, the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations.