Saving Seafood

New buoy line changes benefit whales

June 11, 2021 — Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission unanimously approved a proposed plan for new buoy line marking rules for lobster and crab fishermen. The buoy line markings proposal was first introduced to the commission in January, which took recommendations from a public hearing in May.

According to Bob Glenn, a member of the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), these markings are important for the protection of the North Atlantic right whales in Massachusetts waters. In 2020, DMF provided comments to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) saying Massachusetts should have its fisheries, specifically lobster and crab fisheries, listed separately, based on its “very conservative” management program to protect the whales. The list is usually published in September or October, which is why the buoy line markings proposal is being pushed for this year. However, the NMFS was not willing to provide a separate designation, because the gear Massachusetts fishermen use was not different enough from other states in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

The Center for Coastal Studies spotted 89 right whales in March in the Cape Cod Bay area. The whales had migrated elsewhere by May 13, allowing fisheries to open a little earlier than usual. Daniel McKiernan, director of the DMF, said these whales are routinely photographed via aerial surveys within a range from Plymouth to Provincetown. McKiernan said in the past 12 years, there have been only two nonlethal, off-season entanglement cases in Massachusetts. According to a risk reduction model DMF received from NMFS called a decision support tool, the estimates say DMF’s efforts since 2015 have helped reduce marine life mortality by 85 to 95 percent.

Read the full story at MV Times

Lobstermen Banned from Most MA Waters Until Late Spring to Protect Endangered Whales

January 29, 2021 — The state’s Marine Fisheries Commission approved the latest suite of protections for North Atlantic right whales on Thursday, including a three-and-a-half month trap gear closure throughout a large swath of state waters and mandated use of weaker buoy lines.

Already, from Feb. 1 to April 30, no trap pot gear or vertical lines are allowed in an area of over 3,000 square miles around Cape Cod Bay. The new rules from the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission extend and expand the closure up to the New Hampshire border until May 15.

The commission exempted state waters south and southwest of the Cape. Whale survey records showed North Atlantic right whales are rarely seen in that area around Nantucket Sound during the proposed closure period.

The commission, made up mostly of commercial fishermen, voted overwhelmingly in support of the new restrictions because the state’s lobster industry is currently under threat from a federal judge, who could close the fishery outright for failing to protect the whales under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at CAI

MASSACHUSETTS: Fish panel bans inshore lobstering during whale migration

January 28, 2021 — The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission on Thursday approved additional protections for the endangered North Atlantic right whales, including a three-and-a-half month trap gear closure throughout state waters and mandated use of weaker buoy lines.

Meeting via webinar, the MFAC overwhelmingly approved five of the six recommendations presented by the state Division of Marine Fisheries, setting the stage for a hectic start to the state’s 2021 lobster fishing season.

“We think this is surgical and appropriate,” DMF Director Dan McKiernan told commission members. “We believe this is the most responsible way to manage this fishery.”

As the state faces challenges on two fronts — the federal take reduction team initiative to stem whale entanglements and deaths and ongoing federal litigation that names Massachusetts as a defendant in a lawsuit filed under the Endangered Species Act — the commission approved:

* A Feb. 1 to May 15 closure to commercial trap gear in all state waters — including off Cape Ann — to help mitigate whale entanglements, injuries and deaths during the period when the right whales are most prevalent in state waters. The closure is roughly two weeks longer than DMF’s initial recommendation, but the measure gives DMF the power to lift all or part of the closure between May 1 and 15 “based on the presence and absence of right whales.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Decision due next week on seasonal lobstering ban

January 25, 2021 — In China, 2021 is down as the Year of the Ox. In the cold waters off the coast of New England, it is shaping up as the Year of the Whale. The North Atlantic right whale.

Federal regulators, through the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction team, and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries have proposed a series of overlapping new protections for the imperiled species that will have a significant impact on the region’s lobster industry.

In Massachusetts, lobstermen will find out next week whether the state will implement DMF’s recommendations for state waters that include a new seasonal closure on all lobstering from February to May — the time period of the annual migration and feeding along the Massachusetts coast by the whales whose numbers are estimated to have dropped below 400.

The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission is set to meet Thursday morning via zoom. DMF Director Dan McKiernan will present the agency’s recommendations — which also include the utilization of weaker, break-away vertical buoy lines to help mitigate gear entanglements — and the commission will vote.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times