Saving Seafood

Modernizing Catch Reporting in Hawaii and American Samoa Longline Fisheries

August 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced last week that the requirement for the Hawai‘i and American Samoa pelagic longline fisheries to electronically report their catch will be effective Sept. 7, 2021. This regulation is intended to reduce human error, improve data accuracy, save time for fishermen and NMFS, and provide more rigorous monitoring and forecasting of catch limits.

Development of the electronic reporting (ER) system for the Hawai‘i and American Samoa longline fisheries ramped up about 2014. After several years of development, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) began rolling out the tablets in 2019 for Hawai‘i longline vessels to use on a voluntary basis. At its September 2020 meeting, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council took final action recommending mandatory implementation.

To support PIFSC’s ER outreach to Vietnamese-American fishermen, the Council hired a Vietnamese-speaking staff. The outreach team introduces the tablet, conducts training and follows up with them after their initial trips to help resolve any issues.

Approximately 115 of the 150 Hawai‘i longline vessels have been trained and are now voluntarily using the tablets ahead of mandatory implementation. PIFSC is also coordinating with local NMFS staff in American Samoa to roll out training for the longline vessels based in Pago Pago. PIFSC will continue to provide training support to bring all vessels into compliance.

After Sept. 7, 2021, Hawai‘i longline vessels and Class C and D American Samoa longline vessels will be required to use electronic logbooks once the following criteria are met:

  1. NMFS notifies the permit holder of the requirement.
  2. Permit holders have received the ER tablet (at no cost).
  3. The vessel operator has obtained an individually assigned user account from NMFS.

Fishermen will be allowed to use paper logbooks as a backup if vessels experience any electronic logbook or transmission problems.

In the past, longline captains filled out one logbook sheet for every day of fishing during their trip. Then they submitted their full trip’s log sheets to PIFSC when they returned to port. The data were verified and manually entered into a database by PIFSC staff.

There was often a several week delay between when the paper logbook was filled out by the captain and when it became available to fishery managers to compare the latest catch information with catch quotas. The delay creates a significant challenge to predict when the fleet will reach annual catch limits, such as for bigeye tuna.

Electronic logbooks automate and streamline many of these steps, allowing near-real-time catch reports. Each vessel is equipped with a tablet loaded with ER software. The tablet is connected to a vessel monitoring system, which transmits the daily logbook data via satellite to NMFS. Daily catch data submission will be required under the new rule while operating in U.S. waters around Hawai‘i, American Samoa and adjacent high seas.

The Federal Register notice is available at: www.wpcouncil.org/fr-notice-electronic-logbooks-for-hawaii-and-american-samoa-pelagic-longline-fisheries-august-5-2021.

Critical habitat for killer whales extended south along California coast

August 6, 2021 — The Biden administration extended critical habitat designations for the highly endangered Southern Resident orca population, to cover nearly 16,000 square miles of Pacific waters from Washington south to Point Sur, Calif.

The whales currently have had critical habitat protected in the inland waters of Washington state, where the Southern orca population of just 75 animals is highly dependent on chinook salmon – stocks that themselves are in danger from habitat loss and pollution in the region.

A final order from NMFS, published in the Aug. 2 Federal Register and taking effect Sept.1, maintains the Puget Sound protected region and extends the critical habitat designation out to the 200-meter (656-foot) sea floor contour.

“This revision is based on over a decade of research that improved our knowledge of Southern Resident killer whales’ geographic range, diet, and habitat needs, including their movements up and down the West Coast,” according to a NMFS announcement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

EDF building bridges between US, Japanese fisheries managers

August 4, 2021 — A virtual climate and fisheries workshop hosted in July by the Environmental Defense Fund had the goal of building bridges between fisheries managers in Japan and the United States.

The seminar organized by the New York City, U.S.A.-based NGO brought together scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service and Japan’s Fisheries Research and Education Agency to discuss current and future climate-related changes in fisheries, data gaps impeding optimal management practices, and opportunities for collaboration.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Atlantic Fishermen in NCLA Video Explain the Need to Reel in NOAA’s at-Sea Monitor Rule

August 2, 2021 — The following was released by the New Civil Liberties Alliance:

The New Civil Liberties Alliance released a video today outlining why it is unconstitutional to force Atlantic herring fishermen to fund government-mandated monitors at sea. It is “the equivalent of having a cop in your car who’s policing you while you drive, and you have to pay his salary out of your own pocket,” said Meghan Lapp, Fisheries Liaison & General Manager for Seafreeze, Ltd. about the rule being challenged in Relentless Inc., et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, et al.

The Relentless Inc., Huntress Inc., and Seafreeze Fleet LLC are small businesses of high-capacity freezer trawlers incorporated in Rhode Island and Massachusetts that have commercially fished Atlantic herring as well as Loligo and Illex squids, butterfish, and Atlantic Mackerel for more than thirty years. The rule penalizes NCLA’s clients unfairly by making them pay for herring monitors even when fishing for other catches.

NCLA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, represents these private fishing companies in their lawsuit against the Department of Commerce (DOC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC). The at-sea monitor mandate, issued in 2018, is unlawfully “industry-funded.” These agencies do not have statutory authority from Congress to order additional industry funding for a program that the agencies think is underfunded, but they have issued a rule that threatens the livelihoods of fishermen regardless.

Earlier this week, NCLA presented oral argument before the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Both sides have moved for summary judgment.

Read the full release here

Endangered orcas get new protection from US government

August 2, 2021 — Endangered killer whales received new habitat protections from the U.S. government Friday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service finalized rules to expand the Southern Resident orca’s critical habitat from the Canadian border down to Point Sur, California, adding 15,910 square miles (41,207 square kilometers) of foraging areas, river mouths and migratory pathways.

Seattlepi.com reports that the total protected area now encompasses more than 18,000 square miles (46,620 square kilometers).

“These critically endangered orcas are finally getting the federal habitat protections they desperately need,” said Julie Teel Simmonds, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Where have all the codfish in the Gulf of Maine gone?

July 30, 2021 — The “New World” was built on the codfish. In the 1600s, John Smith built a colony of fishermen on the Isles of Shoals off Strawberry Bank, New Hampshire.  According to his writings, the cod were so plentiful that you could walk across the water on their backs.

While this is obviously a huge exaggeration, there were a lot of cod.

Without means of refrigeration, salted fish was the best way to ship large amounts of protein to countries throughout the world without worry of spoilage. The colony of fishermen on the Isles of Shoals spent their days fishing, cutting and salting the cod for shipment to England.

What happened to the iconic New England cod?

The entire colonial economy in New England was built around this iconic fish. So much so that the weathervane atop the State House in Massachusetts is a golden codfish.

So, what has happened to the cod?  If you are a recreational fisherman, you know that you are allowed only one fish per day at certain times during the year. The commercial fishermen have all been given a personal quota for cod.  If they reach their quota, they need to purchase or lease more quota from someone who has extra. The price to “lease” these fish in order to catch them can be exorbitant.

To keep fishing for other fish, many of the commercial fishermen must pay more for leased cod than they can sell the actual fish for. Cod has become a commodity on the market being bought or hoarded by non-fishermen to make money off the backs of the active fishermen.

Read the full story at SeaCoast Online

Oceana sues NMFS over California sardine management

July 20, 2021 — Alleging that West Coast fisheries managers are repeating mistakes of the past half-century, the environmental group Oceana is suing NMFS over its approval of the latest sardine management plan and demanding more action to rebuild the stock.

“Despite these hard lessons, NMFS repeats these management failures in Amendment 18,” states the group’s complaint, filed by the legal group Earthjustice July 14 in the U.S. District Court for northern California, naming Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, NOAA and the fisheries agency.

Oceana says NMFS should not have approved the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s amendment to the coastal pelagic species management plan, allowing managers to “chose a suite of already disproven, status quo management measures that will keep this population at levels too low to support either the ecosystem or the primary fishery that relies on sardine for half a century or more.”

Managers recognize that the sardine stock size is primarily driven by environmental factors, and that there is inadequacy of surveys used in assessments, said Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association.

“Oceana just refuses to acknowledge the reality,” said Pleschner-Steele. “We’ve been arguing for years that the surveys don’t capture the (accurate number) of fish.”

The accusation of “status quo is misrepresenting management,” said Pleschner-Steele. The council and NMFS need flexibility to improve surveys and assessments, monitor environmental factors and consider the fishing community needs with “the only reasonable rebuilding plan,” she said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New coral protections off New England take effect this month

July 19, 2021 — New coral protections are scheduled to take effect in the waters off New England later this month.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has published new rules designed to protect corals on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. Those are two key commercial fishing areas off the New England coast.

The new protections take effect on July 26. One of the new rules establishes the Georges Bank Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area, which is located on the outer continental shelf in New England waters.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Empire Wind plans power delivery to New York in 2025

July 13, 2021 — Electricity from the Equinor and BP Empire Wind project should start coming into New York’s power grid in 2025, according to updated plans the joint venture has filed with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The first offshore wind energy project laid out for the New York Bight is a 79,350-acre tract, shaped like a slice of pizza wedged between two of the ship traffic separation lanes in the New York Harbor approaches.

With the enormous volume of vessel traffic in the region – container vessels at the port of New York and New Jersey, coastwise tug and barge tows, plus commercial and recreational fishing fleets – navigation has been the foremost issue since New York state energy planners first began looking to ocean wind as a power source.

“There is certainly a concern about setback” from the shipping traffic lanes, said Lucas Feinberg, a project manager with BOEM, during a July 8 online virtual public scoping session hosted by the agency.

Early on, planners agreed to a 1-nautical mile setback along the Empire Wind frontage along the shipping lanes. Formally known on charts as traffic separation schemes, the lanes fan out from the New York Harbor entrance at Ambrose Light.

Read the full story at National Fisherman