Saving Seafood

NMFS begins online public sessions for right whale gear rules

January 13, 2021 – New gear regulations proposed for the Northeast lobster fishery will be presented in online public sessions beginning Tuesday evening, as the National Marine Fisheries Service pitches its newest effort to meet endangered species requirements for the northern right whale.

The new package of changes to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, is NMFS’ bid to satisfy a federal court ruling that the agency must do more by May 31, 2021 to protect the East Coast right whale population, now estimated to number fewer than 400 animals and less than 100 breeding females.

The new steps aim to reduce the number of vertical lines in the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries by requiring fishermen to fit more of their traps between buoy lines.

Fishermen will need to add new weak insertions or weak rope into buoy lines, so that whales have a better chance to break free in the event of an entanglement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

CARES Act relief funding straggles into 2021

January 13, 2021 — As 2020 drew to a close, one-third of the $300 million in aid set aside for the fishing industry through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act remained for delivery as states laboured to complete distributions.

Lagging farthest behind were Alaska and Washington state, the nation’s top volume seafood producers, and at $50 million each the largest designated shares of the aid package. The states finally released their final draft spending plans on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, for approval by NMFS.

This week the Jan. 15 deadline is approaching for fishermen to apply for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Seafood Trade Relief Program, a $530 million package to help compensate for an estimated $250 million in losses in trade wars with China and the European Union.

Nineteen U.S. species are covered under a formula based on fishermen’s catches in 2019 and calculated losses from increased tariffs on U.S. seafood exports.

After the Department of Commerce announced its system for distributing direct aid, coming up with state-by-state plans lagged well into the fall. In Alaska there was protracted public debate over how to allocate equitably the aid among the state’s vibrant and varied fisheries. There was wide disagreement over who should qualify — including Alaska residents and its large fishing workforce with homes in other states, and how to split the money between commercial fishing, processing and the recreational charter and guide sectors. One chafing point was state officials’ intent to give the charter sector a bigger share than the 5.5 percent recommended by NMFS.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA proposes new round of whale protections

January 6, 2021 — A proposed rule released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Dec. 30 aims to lower North Atlantic right whale entanglements in commercial fishing lines. Its release follows two years of research, public meetings and comment.

Federal regulators found the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) proposal submitted last January to be lacking — by 8 percent.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service seeks a 60 percent risk reduction to whales while the Maine DMR plan would only achieve a 52 percent reduction, NOAA informed Maine DMR in January 2020. Both proposals increase the number of traps per trawl line to reduce the number of vertical lines in the ocean, allow for gear marking to identify which state a whale fatality occurred in, require weak links in lines that would allow an entangled whale to break free and provide for seasonal closures in one lobster management area (LMA).

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

A new Trump rule could shrink protected habitat for endangered wildlife

December 16, 2020 — The Trump administration adopted a rule Tuesday that could shrink the historic habitats of plants and animals threatened with extinction, an action that opponents say will make it more difficult for them to recover.

On their way out of office, the directors of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service established a rule that changed the definition of what determines a habitat under the Endangered Species Act. It was the second major rollback the administration has made to the signature wildlife protection law.

Under the new definition, only “critical habitat” that can sustain the species in question can be protected, as opposed to a broader habitat the plant or animal might one day occupy if it is suitable.

“This action will bring greater clarity and consistency to how the Service designates critical habitat,” Rob Wallace, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, said in a statement. “Making the Endangered Species Act more effective at conserving imperiled wildlife and more transparent and user friendly for stakeholders represents a win-win for everyone.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

NMFS planning for offshore aquaculture areas

December 15, 2020 — Now in the early stages of planning, NMFS officials are seeking public comments on the potential for “aquaculture opportunity areas” off southern California and the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s an early step in what will be a three-year process to identify those areas and develop “programmatic” environmental impact statements, agency workers said in a online virtual public information session 3 December.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

PFMC: Ecosystem Subcommittee of the SSC to hold online meeting January 12, 2021

December 14, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council’s) Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will hold an online meeting to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (CCIEA) team on how COVID-19 impacts may affect its annual Ecosystem Status Report to the Pacific Council.  The meeting is open to the public and will be held Tuesday, January 12, 2021 beginning at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and continuing until 1 p.m. or until business for the day has been completed.

Please see the Ecosystem Subcommittee of the SSC meeting notice on the Council’s website for additional details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer John DeVore at 503-820-2422; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

NMFS extends East Coast vessel speed limits to protect right whales

December 11, 2020 — The National Marine Fisheries Service extended a “slow zone” voluntary vessel speed restriction zone southeast of New York Harbor on Wednesday, with escalating pressures to do more for protecting the extremely endangered northern right whales.

The speed zone notification, calling for vessels over 65 feet to maintain 10 knots or less, was already in effect when an acoustic buoy monitored by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute again detected right whales in the New York Bight, NMFS said in a Dec. 9 notice to mariners. The agency earlier issued a Nov. 20 alert for an area southeast of Atlantic City when sensors picked up right whales there.

A recent reassessment of the right whale population estimated the animals’ number at 366, with 94 females of breeding age, down substantially from 400 individuals – at that number, already one of the most endangered species on Earth.

NMFS is under intense pressure to do more to protect the whales under the Endangered Species Act, with vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement topping human interactions.

The agency has proposed new gear and area restrictions in New England lobster fishery areas, and environmental groups are pushing for action.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Western Pacific Council Supports Longliners’ Request to Test Bird Scaring Lines

December 8, 2020 — The Hawaii Longline Association is continuing its efforts to be proactive at mitigating or avoiding effects to threatened or endangered species. In this case, seabirds.

The Association requested an experimental fishing permit for the deep-set longline fishery to test tori line efficacy without the use of blue-dyed bait when fishing north of 23° N. latitude when the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council met last week. The Council endorsed the application and recommended the National Marine Fisheries Service issue the permit as soon as possible. If approved, the permit would be the first of its kind issued in the Western Pacific Region and field trials could start in early 2021, the Council said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population gets a boost: 2 newborns spotted off US coast

December 8, 2020 — Biologists from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida knew immediately what they were seeing: It was a North Atlantic right whale calf.

They couldn’t help but be ecstatic.

“Soon enough, the team knew the mother would surface for a breath of air and the calving season would have the first live mother-calf right whale pair,” said Melanie White, a research biologist who serves as the aquarium’s North Atlantic Right Whale Conservation Project Manager.

The calf, found swimming on Dec. 4 with a first-time mom known as Chiminea off the coast of Cumberland Island in Georgia, was the first of two live calves found over the past week, the National Marine Fisheries Service tweeted Monday.

The second, born to 16 year-old Millepede, was spotted Monday while swimming with bottlenose dolphins off Vilano Beach in Florida.

Read the full story at USA Today

GIB CHASE: Right whale, wrong decisions

December 4, 2020 — There is no second chance with extinction. So why is it taking the National Marine Fisheries Service so long to implement protective measures for the endangered North Atlantic right whale?

The species was considered endangered in 1970, three years before the Endangered Species Act was legislated. For the past 50 years it has been a constant struggle to fulfill the obligations of this law and provide adequate protection for its recovery. Four years ago, NOAA declared the drastic increase in right whale deaths an “unusual mortality event” and supposedly a concentrated effort was to be made to reverse the trend and save the species. We’re still waiting. The act is clear on what needs to be done, but decisions being made do not uphold the law.

Instead of carrying out its congressional legislative mandate, the Fisheries Service has repeatedly authorized actions harmful to continued existence of the whale. As a result, we have witnessed lawsuits and legal complaints against the agency for not doing the job entrusted to it. Among the claims made are: making false and misleading statements, omitting scientific research findings and recommendations from its own staff, falsely implying a consensus of scientists that reopening of a restricted fishing area wouldn’t adversely affect the species, refusing to close certain areas to reduce entanglements, controlling information being released to the public and, most importantly, granting priority to the lobster fishery responsible for the majority of whale deaths. Downplaying effects of fishery activities on the species, inadequately addressing ship strikes and failure to notify ships to reduce their speed are other accusations. These actions violate the legal requirements of the Endangered Species Act and reflect poorly on the agency, its mission, integrity and employees.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times