Saving Seafood

Judge says NMFS right whale plan still not enough

July 11, 2022 — The latest rules to reduce right whale deaths from lobster and crab gear still don’t go far enough in reducing potential mortality, according to a federal judge who has called for a new hearing to decide on remedies.

In an opinion issued Friday in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg ruled in favor of a key complaint from environmental groups who want the National Marine Fisheries Service to do more to reduce whale entanglements with vertical lines used in East Coast trap fisheries.

Now an extremely endangered species – with a population that plunged from around 481 animals in 2011 to an estimated 345 – the north Atlantic right whale is at risk from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. The gear issue has been subject to litigation in Boasberg’s court since 2018.

A new complaint brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation and Defenders of Wildlife alleged that NMFS’ own projections show that the right whale population would still lose animals to gear entanglement at a rate that would continue the path to extinction.

The plaintiff environmental groups, who have long pushed for more dramatic action from the government, praised Boasberg’s latest opinion.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association – named as a defendant along with the Department of Commerce and NMFS – called the ruling “a mixed bag” and took heart in Boasberg’s intention to seek remedies short of shutting the fishery.

The lobstermen’s association also noted the judge’s acknowledgement that NMFS could find “that projected take [of endangered whales] is in fact lower than originally estimated.”

Read the full story National Fisherman

Weak protection for vanishing whales violates law, judge says

July 11, 2022 — The federal government hasn’t done enough to protect a rare species of whale from lethal entanglement in lobster fishing gear, and new rules are needed to protect the species from extinction, a judge has ruled.

The government has violated both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act by failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled on Friday. The whales number less than 340 in the world and have been declining rapidly in population in recent years.

The ruling came after a group of environmental organizations sued the federal government with a complaint that it wasn’t doing enough to save whales from lobster gear. Boasberg’s ruling validates that claim, said Kristen Monsell, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the largest fishing trade group on the East Coast, said in a statement that it was still reviewing the ruling. The association also pointed to a section of Boasberg’s ruling that said the National Marine Fisheries Service “may find that other measures exist to reduce lethal take, or that projected take is in fact lower than originally estimated.” That renders the ruling “a mixed bag,” the association said.

The whales were once numerous, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era. Some scientists have said warming ocean temperatures are causing them to stray from protected areas in search of food, and that has left them more vulnerable to collisions and entanglement.

Read the full story at Associated Press

Experts Collaborate on Mission to Document Protected Species

July 19, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists from NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center recently completed the first leg of a mission to survey marine mammals and other protected species in waters off the southeast coast of the United States. They are locating, identifying, and counting marine mammals from both the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter and a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft.

The data they collect will be used to assess the abundance, distribution, ecology, and behavior of marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds throughout the U.S. Atlantic. These data are also critical for updating the Atlantic stock assessment reports required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

Usually, we conduct these marine mammal surveys annually but were not able to collect data in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The beginning of this trip has also had some challenges—two tropical storms have made for rough seas and grounded flights.

In spite of these challenges, the ship-board team has logged 325 marine mammal sightings—a single leg record for the team—since departing Newport, Rhode Island on June 12 and arriving in Charleston, South Carolina on July 3. Notable sightings included two large Clymene dolphin (Stenella clymene) sightings, a Gervais’ beaked whale (Mesoplodon europaeus) sighting, and multiple false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) sightings. Scientists were also towing a hydrophone array to collect passive acoustic data—underwater sounds from whales and dolphins. They collected 76 recordings, 16 of which were from sperm whale groups.

Read the full release here

NMFS authorizes sea lion removals to save Columbia River salmon

August 28, 2020 — Up to 716 sea lions may be removed from a Columbia River management zone over the next five years to reduce the animals’ impact on salmon and steelhead populations, under a new federal authorization granted to states and tribes in the U.S. Northwest.

In 2018, the U.S. Congress amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow removal of sea lions from a stretch of the Columbia River between the I-205 bridge on Portland’s east side and McNary Dam. The change also allowed for removing sea lions from Columbia River tributaries below the McNary Dam that are spawning habitat for threatened or endangered salmon and steelhead runs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Whale woes: Maine lobster reps agree to 50 percent cut in vertical lines

May 1, 2019 — After months of speculation and hand-wringing, Northeast lobstermen got a clear message from NMFS at the federal Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team meeting last week: Make drastic changes, or we’ll do it for you.

“On day three of the TRT meeting, NMFS Deputy Assistant Administrator Sam Rauch… did not mince words in stating that the TRT’s job is to identify measures to reduce right whale serious injury and mortality from lobster gear by 60-80 percent,” said Maine Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Patrice McCarron in an April 29 letter to members. “He was clear that the TRT meeting gave the fishing industry its opportunity to shape how that reduction is achieved. If we failed that task, NMFS would begin rulemaking without our advice and decide for us.”

The 64-member team — established in 1996 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act — includes East Coast fishermen and associations representing fixed-gear fisheries, fishery managers, environmental organizations and scientists. Maine’s lobster industry holds four seats on the team, including McCarron’s.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA: Team to Focus on Right Whale Survival This Week

April 22, 2019 — The following was published by NOAA Fisheries:

On April 23, a group of approximately 60 fishermen, scientists, conservationists, and state and federal officials will come together to discuss ways to further reduce serious injury and mortality of endangered North Atlantic right whales caused by trap/pot fishing gear. The group will meet in Providence, Rhode Island for four days. At the end of the meeting, they hope to agree on a suite of measures that will reduce right whale serious injuries and deaths in fishing gear in U.S. waters from Maine to Florida to less than one whale per year, the level prescribed by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

“Tackling entanglements is critical to the recovery of the North Atlantic right whale population, and we can’t do it without the assistance and cooperation of those who know best how the fishing industry interacts with large whales,” says Mike Pentony, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region. “The continued participation and dedication of our industry, science, NGO, and agency partners is absolutely necessary to future success.”

About Right Whales

These whales, which got their name from being the “right” whales to hunt because they floated when they were killed, have never recovered to pre-whaling numbers. Due in part to conservation measures put in place to protect these whales from incidental entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes, we saw steady population growth from about 270 right whales in 1990 to about 480 in 2010. But in 2010, another downward trajectory began. This downward trend, exacerbated by an unprecedented 17 mortalities (particularly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fishery) in 2017, brought a new urgency to modify the existing Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan.

That Plan, developed by the team of stakeholders meeting next week, identifies a number of conservation measures from area closures to gear modifications that U.S. fixed gear fishermen have already implemented. Despite these efforts, today the population is estimated to be fewer than 411 whales. Only twelve births have been observed in the three calving seasons since the winter of 2016/2017, less than one third the previous average annual birth rate for right whales. This accelerates the trend that began around 2010, with deaths outpacing births in this population.

Take Reduction Planning

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that if serious injuries and mortalities to a population of marine mammals due to U.S. commercial fisheries is above a level that the stock can sustain, NOAA Fisheries convene Take Reduction Team to develop consensus recommendations on how to reduce this threat.

The immediate goal of a Take Reduction Team is to develop a to reduce incidental mortality and serious injury to a level, known as the “potential biological removal” level, that allows the stock to stabilize or grow, rather than decline. Although it’s been in existence since 1997, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan has not been able to consistently reduce serious injuries and mortalities to below the potential biological removal level.

Cost of Entanglement

Entanglements are currently the leading cause of known right whale mortality. More than 80 percent of right whales carry scars that indicate that they have been entangled in fishing lines, and nearly 60 percent of those are entangled more than once. Not all entanglements drown whales.  Some prevent a whale from feeding, increase the energy a whale needs to swim and feed and cause pain and stress to the animal, which weakens it. Biologists believe that the additional stress of entanglement is one of the reasons that females are calving less often; females used to have calves every 3-5 years, and now are having calves every 6-10 years.

In recent years, most documented fishing gear entanglements of large whales (like right and humpback whales) that result in serious injury and mortality come from trap/pot gear. The traps lie on the ocean floor and are connected to buoys at the surface by long vertical buoy lines.

Many whales that are entangled are discovered after the event, with no gear attached. In some instances, gear is retrieved, analyzed, and stored for future analysis; much of this retrieved rope is consistent with buoy lines. That said, 71 percent of all recovered/observed gear (2009-2018) from right whales cannot be matched to a specific fishery or site.

Strategies for Reducing Risk

In Providence next week, the Team will be developing and discussing potential measures to modify the Take Reduction Plan, including updates to the current gear marking strategy, seasonal area closures, and reducing the risk of vertical lines through the use of weak rope. Many of these measures were proposed by Team members during an October 2018 meeting to discuss possible options to discuss at the April 2019 meeting. In advance of this meeting, the team particularly requested two things: 1. Clarification of a target percent reduction in serious injury and mortality, and 2. An ability to evaluate and compare different risk reduction elements from Team proposals.

A Target Reduction Level

Based on the 2016 population estimate, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s North Atlantic right whale stock assessment establishes a potential biological removal level of 0.9 whales per year — i.e. slightly less than one whale suffering human-caused mortality or serious injury from any source in a given year.

Currently, NOAA Fisheries estimates that U.S. fisheries are responsible for 2.5 to 2.6 observed serious injuries and mortalities each year. Scientists estimate that we only observe 60 percent of the serious injuries and mortalities, which would bring the U.S. total to about 4.3. To get to 0.9 will require a reduction of 60-80 percent of serious injuries and mortalities.

A Risk Analysis Decision Tool

Determining how to judge the expected conservation value of any particular measure is a complicated task. To create a model to assess risk reduction, the model needs to first identify the current risk landscape, overlaying information on the density of trap/pot vertical lines, the distribution of whales, and the relative risk of the gear configuration associated with the lines (strengths/diameters of lines, lengths of trawls). Working collaboratively, the model combines Industrial Economics Inc.’s improved trap/pot vertical line model and the Duke Marine Spatial Ecology Lab’s marine mammal density model, as well as risk assessment weights provided by Take Reduction Team members, Agency large whale scientists and managers, and permitted whale disentanglers. With these data sets, scientists at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center developed a risk assessment tool that will be used at next week’s meeting.  This tool represents a substantial leap forward and provides the Team with the best available information to determine risk and support their deliberations.

Next Steps

After this meeting, we will use recommendations from the Team to begin rulemaking in May. At various points during rulemaking there will be a continued opportunity for public comment.

“I’m confident we have the right people around the table to tackle this problem,” says Mike Asaro, Acting Protected Resources Assistant Regional Administrator. “This is a complex issue but with the cooperation and active engagement from the people who know this issue best, I have hope that following the meeting, we will have a solid set of conservation measures to proceed to rulemaking that will allow the fishing industry and whales to coexist and thrive.”

Canadian-U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting: U.S. and Canadian lobstermen have a whale of a problem

April 17, 2019 — Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher sure knows how to quiet a room.

On April 5, about 100 members of the U.S. and Maine lobster industry — fishermen, dealers, scientists, and regulators — gathered for the 15th Canadian-U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel in Portland. There they heard Keliher announce that he’d just received an email from NOAA Fisheries announcing that, in order to protect endangered right whales, “the U.S. fishery will likely have to be reduced 60 to 80 percent.”

It’s a testament to the cardiac health of Maine and Canadian lobstermen that the statement didn’t produce a mass heart attack, especially since it came during a discussion of what fishing restrictions might be imposed by NOAA Fisheries this spring to meet the demands of the federal Endangered Species and Marine Mammal Protection acts.

What almost everyone in the room heard, though, wasn’t all that Keliher said. Thanks to a snafu with the microphone, the audience missed the beginning of the NOAA statement that said “whale mortalities” from U.S. fisheries would have to be reduced by “60 to 80 percent,” not the fisheries themselves.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

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

April 10, 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 15 right whales sighted in this area on April 7.

This DMA is in effect through April 23, 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 April 30

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.

More Info

Recent right whale sightings

Find out more about our right whale conservation efforts and the researchers behind those efforts.

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS

Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.

Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-9175

Change Is in the Air: Western Pacific SSC Suggests New Approaches for Suite of Issues

March 19, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Scientific and Statistical Committee of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council concluded a three-day meeting last week in Honolulu with a suite of recommendations to more effectively address issues facing fisheries in the U.S. Pacific Islands. The Council will consider those recommendations this week.

Regarding false killer whales, the SSC recommended inclusion of a population variability analysis to supplement the use of and reduce the variability of potential biological removal estimates.

The Southern Exclusion Zone (SEZ), a 132,000 square mile area in the offshore waters around the main Hawaiian Islands, was closed to the Hawai’i longline fishery on Feb. 22, 2019, after its interactions resulted in a mortality and serious injury determination for two false killer whales. With the SEZ closed, less than 18 percent of US exclusive economic zone around Hawai’i remains open to the fishery.

The SEZ may reopen in 2020 if the average estimated false killer whale M&SI in the deep-set longline fishery within the remaining open areas of the EEZ around Hawai’i for up to the five most recent years is below the potential biological removal for the species, the WPRFMC said in a press release.

The Honolulu-based longliners land about $100 million of sashimi-quality tuna, which stays principally in the state.

The PBR is defined by the Marine Mammal Protection Act as the maximum number of animals that can be removed, not including natural mortalities, from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach and maintain its optimum sustainable population, i.e., its maximum productivity keeping in mind the carrying capacity of the habitat and health of the ecosystem. The SSC recommended the Council request NMFS develop approaches to incorporate population viability analysis to supplement the use of PBR and to reduce uncertainty in PBR estimates. PVA is a species-specific risk assessment method frequently used in conservation biology.

The SSC also requested the Council ask NMFS to provide the data needed for the SSC to develop the PVA in parallel to the NMFS process. Furthermore, it also asked that NMFS develop serious-injury determination criteria for false killer whales that are probability-based. Currently, NMFS considers the impact of a false killer whale determined to be seriously injured to be equivalent to the impact of a dead false killer whale, even though animals determined to be seriously injured are released alive.

Spatial Management: A subgroup of the SSC worked to define benefits and limitations to spatial management actions relative to regional fishery issues and management objectives. The working group explored time-area closures; adaptive/real-time closures and restrictions; permanent no-take closures; and alternative non-spatial management actions, such as gear restrictions.

Members also discussed objectives of management actions, such as increasing targeted bigeye and albacore tuna abundance and reducing Hawai’i longline interactions with sea turtles and false killer whales. The group also identified criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of spatially managed areas. The SSC reviewed the outcomes of the working group and recommended that effective spatial management should have the following:

  • Objectives and performance metrics explicitly specified prior to developing a spatial management area in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the spatial management. The performance metrics should concurrently address conservation, economic and social objectives;
  • Regular monitoring of the performance of the spatial management area; and
  • Planned and tenable compliance monitoring and enforcement. The SSC said permanent closed areas are likely less effective than modifying fishing gear or methods to minimize protected species bycatch. It recommended regulations that would allow industry to find voluntary means to reduce bycatch and have input in the development of mitigation measures.

Hawai’i Kona Crab: The SSC evaluated the benchmark assessment of the Hawai’i Kona crab fishery and determined it is the best scientific information available for status determination and setting harvest limits.

The scientists said the assessment possibly accounted for a limited portion of the stock due to the small geographic extent of the commercial fishery relative to the larger distribution of the stock in Hawai’i as well as a lack of information on noncommercial fishing activities.

It suggested that female crabs discards be recorded on fishermen trip reports and that a stock assessment model be used that can account for sex-specific dynamics, since State of Hawai’i management measures allow the take of males but requires females to be discarded. The SSC recommended that the sex ratio of Kona crab at Penguin Bank be studied to evaluate the potential effects on the stock from the sex-selective fishery and reiterated its strong recommendation that extension of the closed season, changes in mesh size, retention of females and other alternative management options be evaluated to stimulate fishermen participation in this healthy fishery. Fishery participation had declined significantly after the non-retention of female Kona crabs went into effect.

U.S. Territory Longline Bigeye Tuna Quota: Regarding the federal quotas of longline-caught bigeye tuna for the U.S. Pacific Territories that participate in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, the SSC noted that the projected impacts of allowing each U.S. Territory to transfer 1,000 or up to 2,000 metric tons of their 2,000 mt quotas to permitted U.S. longline fishing vessels would not lead to bigeye overfishing and are consistent with the Commission’s management objectives.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site, it has been reprinted with permission.