Saving Seafood

It’s no April Fools’ joke: 2019-2020 US scallop season kicks off in New Bedford

April 1, 2019 — Ed Anthes-Washburn answered his cellphone on his way to work at the Port of New Bedford, Massachusetts — the US’s most valuable commercial port — on Monday morning by telling Undercurrent News that the 2019-2020 Atlantic scallop season is canceled.

“Didn’t you hear?” the port director asked. Then, with a chuckle, he proclaimed, “April Fools’!” and confirmed that he plans to play this prank all day long.

Contrary to Washburn’s joke, the 2019-2020 Atlantic scallop season has begun in New Bedford, and it promises to be another big one. After landing an estimated 56.8 million pounds of scallops between April 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019, harvesters are loosely projected to harvest 62.5m lbs over the next 12 months.

To make room, US scallop distributors spent last week clearing their inventory, while harvesters were using up the last of their quota from the 2018-2019 season. As Washburn put it, because of the constant work being done to boats and the 60 additional days limited access vessels have to work their quota from the end of the previous season, “The old season never really ends and the new season never really begins.”

Prices were high for the final flurry of 2018-2019 landings.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Lifejackets for Lobstermen seeks to change culture and save lives

April 1, 2019 — Life jackets save lives. That’s the simple message that Lifejackets for Lobstermen is trying to spread across port cities in Massachusetts and Maine.

The message may seem intuitive, but according to statistics from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, it’s not.

From 2010-14, lobster fishing deaths ranked the highest in occupational fatalities in East Coast Fisheries and in 80 percent of those deaths, from either falls overboard or vessel disasters, none of the recovered victims was wearing a life jacket.

In response to this trend, the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety: Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (NEC) used a grant from NIOSH to work with 181 lobstermen in Massachusetts and Maine to find out what they could do to increase life jacket use.

They gave the lobstermen one of nine different styles of life jacket at random and asked them to use it for a month and share their input on things like comfort and their ability to work while wearing it.

The study and the feedback they received led to their project Lifejackets for Lobstermen.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Extended: Voluntary Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

March 29, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) previously established south of Nantucket has been extended to protect an aggregation of 6 right whales sighted in this area on March 28.

This DMA is in effect through April 13, 2019.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less. Whales were spotted in or near shipping lanes so please be especially vigilant when traveling in these areas.

Nantucket DMA coordinates:

  • 41 12 N
  • 40 28 N
  • 070 36 W
  • 069 31 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Cape Cod Bay SMA — in effect through May 15

Off Race Point SMA– in effect through March 29

Mid-Atlantic U.S. SMAs (includes Block Island) — in effect through April 30

Southeast U.S. SMA — in effect through April 15

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. With an unprecedented 20 right whale deaths documented in 2017 and 2018, NOAA is cautioning boaters to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking commercial fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales, remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements, and use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are slightly more than 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

Read the full release here

Coast Guard study of travel routes underway

March 29, 2019 — The Coast Guard has begun a study of vessel traffic in and around the seven offshore energy lease areas south of the Islands to determine if any new vessel travel routes are necessary to improve navigational safety, according to Tuesday’s notice in the Federal Register.

“Vineyard Wind appreciates the Coast Guard’s efforts to address the important question of transit lanes through the formal PARS process,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “The study’s future results will provide important information for orderly development of the New England offshore wind area in a way that ensures safe navigation for all mariners.”

While Vineyard Wind is the only leaseholder south of the Islands with a contract to sell electricity from what is expected to be an 84-turbine wind farm, there potentially will be several distinct wind farm installations, across what is close to 1 million acres, each with a unique number of turbines, turbine sizes and turbine layout.

Last year, two competing proposals for navigation routes were announced by stakeholders following forums held in southeastern New England. Vessels that could be affected might be traveling between Georges Bank and and New Bedford, Point Judith, Rhode Island, or Montauk, New York, according to the Federal Register notice.

A vessel transit layout announced in September was from a Massachusetts state government-organized fisheries working group on offshore wind, with one east-west route, one north-south route and one diagonal route. But in early December, Rhode Island commercial fishermen said they needed wider corridors, in the range of 4-miles wide, to safely maneuver their vessels.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New England seeing a huge spike in beached sea turtles

March 28, 2019 — At a sea turtle hospital housed at an old New England shipyard, a biologist leans over a table and uses a needle to draw blood from a sick loggerhead before tagging its flailing flipper.

These were the first tentative steps toward a return to the ocean for this juvenile nicknamed Honey Bun and hundreds of other loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley and green turtles stranded this winter on Cape Cod beaches.

The number of warm water turtles stuck on beaches here has risen dramatically in the past decade, according to the Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. This year, volunteers recovered 829 helpless turtles washed up on the sand — about half of them dead including some frozen solid. That’s nearly twice what they found in 2016 and 10 times more than in 2008.

Cape Cod is believed to have one of the largest annual turtle strandings in the world. There are occasional strandings in Florida, Texas and as far north as the Chesapeake Bay. But those tend to be isolated events connected to cold snaps involving a few dozen to a couple of thousand turtles.

Some experts think New England’s spike in cold-stunned turtles is a climate change story with a twist: the hook-like projection of Cape Cod into the Atlantic helps trap turtles drawn there by warming waters but weakened when the ocean cools down. Most rescued turtles suffer from compromised immune systems and pneumonia due to hypothermia. Exposed to cold water for prolonged periods, they become lethargic and can’t move or eat. The ones that survive take months to recover.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

How Cities Can Protect Themselves from Rising Waters

March 28, 2019 — Across the U.S., policymakers are scrambling to protect their communities from the effects of climate change.

In January, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker proposed real-estate tax increases to fund dam and drainage system upgrades, which would help residents cope with future floods and storms. Meanwhile, a few months earlier, officials from several Florida counties agreed to work together to minimize the damage caused by rising sea levels.

Adaptation efforts like these are crucial. Four in 10 Americans live in coastal areas. and this population will surge in the coming years. Sustained flooding can cripple homes and infrastructure like roads, bridges, subways and wastewater treatment plants.

Policymakers have limited time and resources, so they should rely on the latest computer modeling and other technologies to identify and implement the most efficient adaptation strategies.

Rising water levels have already wrought havoc across the country. From 2000 to 2015, coastal “sunny day flooding,” or flooding caused by high tides rather than storms, more than doubled on the Southeast’s Atlantic coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. And it increased 75 percent on the Northeast’s coast.

Climate change is also making storms more destructive and frequent by heating up ocean waters, increasing flooding. The United States experienced its most expensive hurricane season in history in 2017; storms caused more than $300 billion in damages. Flooding and other damage from Hurricane Harvey alone forced 37,000 Texans into shelters in September 2017. Last year, Hurricane Michael caused at least 45 deaths and more than $12 billion in losses.

Read the full story at Scientific American

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester groundfish sectors consolidate

March 28, 2019 — The decline of the region’s commercial groundfish industry has claimed another casualty — Gloucester-based Northeast Fishery Sector III.

The sector, one of two Gloucester-based groundfish sectors within the original 16 commercial groundfish sectors approved by NOAA Fisheries in the 2010 transition to catch shares, will be deactivated for the upcoming 2019 fishing season. The reason: its exhausted roster of vessels and permits won’t financially support an active sector.

Most of the remaining active vessels — estimated to be less than a half-dozen entering the new fishing season — and their permits will be rolled into Gloucester-based Northeast Fishing Sector II for the new fishing season set to open on May 1.

“Because of lack of activity in the sector, it just couldn’t support itself financially,” said David Leveille, manager of Northeast Fishing Sector II. “It just wasn’t generating enough income to justify remaining an independent sector. If we ever get Gulf of Maine cod back, maybe the sector can become active again.”

Leveille estimated Sector III vessels possessed a total of about 36 groundfish permits.

“But at this point, I don’t know how many of those will be active,” he said, adding that the addition of the Sector III vessels will bring Sector II’s active roster to 35 boats and about 128 permits.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Raises Concerns About Effects of Wind Farm and Undersea Cables

March 27, 2019 — A federal agency responsible for the stewardship of marine resources has raised questions about the impacts of the nation’s first “utility-scale” wind farm planned for waters approximately 14 miles south of the Vineyard.

Responding to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s nearly 500-page draft environmental impact statement, the National Marine Fisheries Service, informally known as NOAA fisheries, said in a letter that many of the conclusions drawn in the report about the limited or modest effects of the project on marine habitat lack sufficient evidence and require further examination.

“We determined that many of the conclusory statements relating to the scale of impacts for biological and socioeconomic resources are not well supported in the document,” a letter from the fisheries service to BOEM states. “Specifically, impacts categorized as major appear under-inclusive, while impacts designated as moderate seem overly inclusive.”

Last Thursday, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission closed a public hearing on two, 220 kilo volt undersea cables that would run through Edgartown waters to connect the wind farm to mainland Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind, the energy partnership that won the rights in a federal auction to build the proposed 84-turbine farm, intends to bury the cables at a target depth of 6.6 feet below the ocean floor.

During the hearing, many members of the public who testified cited the BOEM draft environmental impact statement that, among other things, assesses the effects of the project on marine life as minor. But in the letter to BOEM, the fisheries service questioned those conclusions and requested a more detailed analysis of the project.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Fishing Year 2019 Atlantic Sea Scallop Management Measures Go Into Effect April 1

March 27, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The management measures for the Atlantic Sea Scallop fishery for the 2019 fishing year go into effect on April 1, 2019.

Framework Adjustment 30 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan:

  • Sets specifications for the scallop fishery for fishing year 2019, including Days-at-Sea (DAS) allocations, Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs), and sea scallop access area trip allocations. These allocations are similar to those set in the 2018 fishing year. This action also sets precautionary default 2020 specifications, in case we implement the next framework after the April 1, 2020 start of the 2020 fishing year;
  • Allocates effort into three rotational access areas (Mid-Atlantic, Nantucket Lightship-West, and Closed Area 1). Scallop landings allocated to Closed Area 1 are flexible and can be landed from any available access area;
  • Sets a 205,000 lb Northern Gulf of Maine total allowable catch for 2019 that will be split as 137,500 lb for the Limited Access General Category (LAGC) and 67,500 lb for the limited access fleet;
  • Standardizes default specifications for Limited Access DAS and LAGC IFQ allocations; and
  • Standardizes the approach used to set the number of access area trips available to the LAGC IFQ fleet.

Read the final rule as published in the Federal Register, and the permit holder bulletins for the Limited Access and Limited Access General Category scallop vessels available on our website.

Read the release here

Warming oceans cast a chill over New England’s sea turtles

March 26, 2019 — If we ignore the dangerously shifting global climate system, there will be consequences: more extreme rainfall, more intense hurricanes, drier and longer wildfire seasons, and continued sea level rise all loom on the horizon. In fact, extreme weather changes are already being seen around the globe.

But one of the lesser known, already visible impacts of climate change is on sea turtles. A recent paper, led by UMass Amherst doctoral candidate Lucas Griffin, links a rapidly warming Gulf of Maine to increased sea turtle strandings on Cape Cod.

“We were surprised the results suggested this increase was linked with warmer sea surface temperatures,” Griffin says. The scientists originally thought the strandings might be associated with how many young sea turtles hatched. But turtles, it turns out, are just one of many Gulf of Maine species “exhibiting a similar shift in both habitat distribution and in phenology patterns.”

The Gulf of Maine is in crisis: The region is warming faster than 99 percent of the global ocean. Fish stocks are moving north, key food web events like the spring plankton bloom are occurring earlier in the year, and regional waters are staying warmer for longer. Griffin’s team used both machine learning and Bayesian statistical methods—using existing data and probability to quantify uncertainty in inferences—to analyze the relationship between water temperatures and the number of cold-stunned turtles, the potentially lethal turtle equivalent of hypothermia. The innovative approach confirmed what local naturalists and wildlife biologists had been observing for years: Warmer waters in the region actually lead to an increased threat of cold-stunning.

Read the full story at Massive Science