Saving Seafood

Right whales pose more problems for Maine lobster industry

August 10, 2020 — Last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, violated federal environmental protection laws several years ago when a “biological opinion” it issued failed to give adequate consideration to the risk the lobster fishery posed to endangered right whales. 

On Monday, the Maine lobster industry was back in federal court in Washington, D.C., as the judge began the hearing testimony on what remedies he should impose to bring the fisheries service, and the lobster fishery, into compliance with those laws. 

At risk for Maine fishermen is the continued use of lobster traps marked by vertical buoy lines. 

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

NMFS looks to resume Northeast observer coverage in August

July 31, 2020 — At-sea observer coverage in the Northeast will resume Aug. 14, but NMFS officials say they will continue to waive monitor requirements on a trip-by-trip basis if covid-19 safety protocols cannot be met.

“Providing seafood to the country remains an essential function even in these extraordinary times, and adequately monitoring United States fisheries remains an essential part of that process,” NMFS administrator Chris Oliver said in a statement issued Thursday.

Oliver said waivers can still be allowed for specific trips in both full and partial observer-covered fisheries, under two sets of conditions: when observers or at-sea monitors are not available for deployment, or when companies providing observer services “cannot meet the safety protocols imposed by a state on commercial fishing crew or by the vessel or vessel company on its crew.”

“Within our limited authority, our efforts are intended to ensure observers and monitors are following the same safety protocols that fishermen are following,” said Oliver.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Feds: White hake, winter flounder overfished

July 30, 2020 — Gulf of Maine white hake, Georges Bank winter flounder and Atlantic Coast bluefish have been added to a list of fish stocks considered “overfishered,” according to a federal government report.

The report, released Tuesday, also said that the list of fish stocks subject to overfishing in the U.S. fell to an all-time low in 2019.

The National Marine Fisheries Service tracks the health of species that U.S. fishermen seek for commercial and recreational fishing. The agency places stocks on its overfishing list when the rate of catch is too big.

The agency determined that only 22 of 321 fishing stocks were subject to overfishing last year, the agency said on Tuesday. Fish stocks are sub-populations of fish species that typically live in a geographic area.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Sen. Cantwell Criticizes “Slow and Inefficient” Implementation of Fishery Disaster Relief Funding, Calls for Streamlining Process

July 30, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

Today at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the top Democrat on the committee, highlighted the devastating impacts COVID-19 has had on the seafood sector and called for a streamlining of the fishery disaster process, criticizing the “slow and inefficient and cumbersome implementation” of fishery disaster relief by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service.

The fisheries sector makes up 60 percent of Washington state’s 30 billion dollar maritime economy, which supports over 146,000 jobs. In her opening statement, Cantwell discussed how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the seafood industry, resulting in a decrease of $21 million in revenue for West coast fisheries—a 40 percent decline compared to the previous five-year average. In January alone, Washington Dungeness crab fishery saw a 37 percent decline in revenue from the previous year. Overall, U.S. seafood sales have dropped an estimated 95 percent this year.

“Despite this staggering economic data, many fishermen have not been able to access the COVID relief funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, the Main Street Lending Program, or even qualify for unemployment based on the nature of their businesses and tax structures,” Senator Cantwell said. “USDA food purchase programs have not been able to provide the support for most seafood products, and some USDA programs, including the Farmers to Families Box Program, specifically block wild caught seafood from eligibility to the program, another blow to the industry.”

“That is why I fought so hard to secure $300 million dollars for the seafood sector in the form of grants and other assistance in the CARES Act to address the loophole. Unfortunately, the industry has yet to see a single dollar of relief due to a slow and inefficient and cumbersome implementation through NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.”

At the hearing, Cantwell also highlighted legislation she introduced with Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) that would streamline the fishery disaster process. “While this bill was written before COVID, it is clear even now…that this is an important aspect of what we need to be doing,” Senator Cantwell said.

Senator Cantwell has been a long-time leading advocate for fishing communities and sustainable fisheries management. In March, Cantwell secured $300 million in economic relief for fishermen suffering from the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, including $50 million for Washington fishermen, from the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In May, Cantwell successfully ensured the release of more than $8.4 million in fishery disaster funds to Washington state communities and Tribes. Cantwell has advocated for reforms to the fisheries disaster process to ensure that small business charter fisherman are included in the Disaster Relief Recovery Act, and throughout her time in the Senate Cantwell has worked with her colleagues to help securefunding for fishing communities impacted by federally-declared disasters.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s opening statement can be found HERE and audio HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s Q&A with witnesses can be found HERE and audio HERE.

NEFMC Approves List of 2020-2024 Research Priorities and Data Need

July 28, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its late-June webinar meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council reviewed and approved a list of research priorities and data needs for 2020-2024. The Council developed this list for two primary reasons.

  1. It clearly identifies and rates the information the Council needs to best manage the fisheries within its jurisdiction; and
  2. It complies with a provision in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act asking regional fishery management councils to provide the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries) with Council priorities to inform the agency of each Council’s needs. The agency then uses this information as it develops budgets and sets its own research priorities.

The Council submitted the 2020-2024 list, which contains 108 items, to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) of NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full release here

URI researcher to map commercial fishing activity to help reduce conflict between fishing, wind industries

July 27, 2020 — The following was released by The University of Rhode Island:

A University of Rhode Island natural resource economist has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to create a new way of documenting where commercial fishing is conducted in southern New England waters. The project is aimed at reducing conflict between the fishing industry and offshore wind farm developers.

“I’m exploring a new way of improving spatial planning for offshore wind,” said URI Associate Professor Thomas Sproul. “One of the biggest sources of delay in the regulatory process for offshore wind has been because of the conflicts with commercial fishing.”

He said that while the National Marine Fisheries Service collects a variety of data about the fishing industry, limited information is available about where commercial fishing occurs.

“There isn’t a consensus map of the ocean that says, for instance, if you put a wind turbine here, it affects 30 percent of the squid fishery,” Sproul said.

He will be taking a novel approach to the problem by combining existing data from numerous sources, including the Automatic Identification System, which identifies the location of every fishing vessel over 65-feet long every minute of every day it is at sea. It will be combined with the government’s vessel monitoring system and vessel trip reports, along with seafood dealer reports, Coast Guard registry records, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ship-board observer program.

Read the full release here

Beavers Could Be A Key Species For Endangered Salmon Recovery In Oregon

July 21, 2020 — Recent guidance from the federal government is, for the first time, promoting the importance of beavers in the recovery of endangered salmon and steelhead in Oregon rivers.

A recently released biological opinion is encouraging landowners to use non-lethal means of dealing with beavers on private property.

“We know that they can provide important benefits that help support recovery of these fish that a lot of people are working toward,” says Michael Milstein, a spokesperson with the National Marine Fisheries Service. “But at the same time, it’s clear that they can cause conflict.”

The study advocates for private landowners to prioritize management tools like fencing when beavers dam culverts. It also asks that beavers be relocated rather than killed, and it sets an average limit of 13 removals of beaver sites per year across the state.

The biological opinion was prompted by a 2017 legal threat from environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Environmental Law Center over the killing of beavers and their role in creating fish habitat.

Read the full story at KLCC

NMFS Doubles Down on Observers; Rep. Huffman Takes Aim at NMFS on COVID-19 Impacts

July 20, 2020 — A California Congressman and National Marine Fisheries Service leaders released statements about pandemic-related issues and COVID-19’s effects on fisheries Thursday, but from opposite perspectives.

Following industry criticism about maintaining at-sea observers and shoreside catch monitors during a pandemic, the agency has allowed observer waivers in some areas but remained steadfast in keeping observer coverage in others. The risk of contagion is too great, fishermen and processors say, but NMFS has disagreed — at least, in some areas.

Read the full story at Seafood News

New technology promises to save the whales by reducing the need for crab fishing lines.

July 16, 2020 — After a slightly better year in 2017, the number of whales getting entangled in fishing gear has gone back up, according to a new report from the National Marine Fisheries Service. Researchers confirmed 105 whale entanglements nationwide in 2018, the latest year for which data is available, noting the number is “much higher” than average.

These findings come as a possible solution emerges out of a collaboration being led by Monterey Bay conservationists, fishermen and fishing gear designers.

On the Pacific coast, whales pass through stretches of ocean that are important for Dungeness crab fishing and they sometimes get caught in lines connecting traps on the ocean floor to buoys at the surface. Technology that is under development would all but eliminate vertical lines and buoys. Using ropeless or pop-up innovations, these new crab traps would sit idly on the ocean floor until receiving an acoustic signal from the fisherman. Only then would the trap release a rope and buoy to the surface.

“We are working with fishermen to see what works and what doesn’t and what allows the fisherman to survive economically,” says Geoff Shester, a Monterey-based scientist with nonprofit Oceana. “The Monterey Bay is the epicenter of the whale entanglement issue.”

Read the full story at Monterey County Now