Saving Seafood

US fisheries sees first IP-based broadband terminal and vessel monitoring

November 26, 2019 — An estimated 4,000 legally licensed commercial fishing vessels are permitted to fish in US Fisheries Management regions. These are required to report their GPS positions via a type-approved secure satellite link.

As explained, iFleetONE VMS is the first mobile satellite terminal to provide secure VMS services for NMFS with full-featured voice and IP-based communications capabilities.

In addition, it is expected, for the first time, to enable every stakeholder in the VMS ecosystem, including NMFS Law Enforcement, fisheries management officials and other end users to have a platform to develop new and previously limited applications.

As such, this terminal and VMS combination is expected to transform regulatory compliance, fisheries governance in US waters to sustain fish numbers and protect ocean habitats, explained Inmarsat’s Eric Griffin, VP for Offshore & Fishing.

Read the full story at Safety4Sea

Federal managers extend comment period for humpback whale critical habitat decision

November 25, 2019 — A comment period over designating critical habitat for some of the humpback whales that swim off Alaska’s coastline is being extended by the federal government.

Coastal waters from southern California to the Aleutian Islands could be listed as habitat critical to sustaining three distinct populations of humpback whales. The move by the National Marine Fisheries Service could require future consultation for activities that are permitted, funded or carried out by a federal agency.

“Critical habitat really affects federal actions,” NMFS endangered species act national listing coordinator Lisa Manning explained.  “It’s not something that affects everything that takes place within those areas that everyone’s seeing on the map. The regulatory effect of critical habitat is it requires federal action agencies to make sure their actions don’t adversely affect or destroy the critical habitat.”

Those activities could include vessel traffic, aquaculture, clean water permitting, in-water construction, alternative energy development and work permitted by the U.S. Forest Service on the Tongass National Forest. Manning says there are also indirect impacts possible that the agency has analyzed in documents available on the agency’s website. For instance, the agency’s analysis states the designation may impact how the state of Alaska manages commercial fisheries for herring, a food for the whales.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Senate right whale protection bill advances

November 22, 2019 — The U.S. Senate last week moved a step closer to providing substantial financial assistance to efforts aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Scientists warn that, with a population of only about 400 animals, the giant mammals face a real threat of extinction. The whales have experienced a high rate of mortality in the past few years resulting mostly from ship strikes and entanglement with fishing gear. The population also has had a low rate of reproduction.

Last Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed the “SAVE Right Whales Act” (the Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales Act of 2019) and referred it to the full Senate for action.

The bill is identical to legislation now awaiting action in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The legislative activity comes at a time when right whale conservation is front and center with federal and Maine fisheries regulators and in the federal courts.

The NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed a set of rules that would, among other things, require Maine lobstermen to reduce the number of vertical buoy lines they use by 50 percent.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is in the process of developing its own proposal to submit to NMFS this month.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Fishery Council clarifies local bottom fishery data

November 18, 2019 — “There is currently no reliable measure of individual number of fishermen in the American Samoa bottom fish fishery,” wrote Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

“The Council is working with the American Samoa Government to improve the quality of fishery data,” wrote Simonds in a Nov. 12th letter providing the Council’s comment on the NMFS proposed List of Fisheries (LOF) for 2020. (The proposed list was published recently on federal portal www.regulations.gov seeking comments)

“Specifically, the Council provides clarification on the source of information used to revise the number of vessels/persons for the American Samoa bottomfish handline fishery from 1,092 to 2,095,” Simonds explained.

She noted that NMFS cites the Council’s Annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report for the fishery participation data in the 2019 LOF, which resulted in the number of vessels/persons revised from the previous 17 to 1,092 in the 2019 LOF, and the subsequent revision to 2,095 in the proposed 2020 LOF.

Read the full story at Samoa News

Makah Tribe whaling hearing begins

November 14, 2019 — A federal agency’s April 4 recommendation to allow the Makah Tribe to resume whaling on grounds that killing the animals would not have a noticeable impact on the species’ population will be put to the test beginning Thursday, Nov. 14, in Seattle.

U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge George J. Jordan will begin reviewing arguments at 1 p.m. on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s decision to grant the tribe a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The hearing room is at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building.

Jordan must make a recommendation “promptly” to Chris Oliver, assistant administrator of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, according to federal regulations, said Michael Milstein, NOAA spokesperson. The hearing is expected to last through Nov. 22.

An overflow room at the Jackson Building will be provided where onlookers can view today’s proceeding on a monitor, Milstein said.

A 2015 draft environmental impact statement on Makah whaling by the National Marine Fisheries Service generated 57,000 comments, most of which were form letters.

Read the full story at The Peninsula Daily News

Federal habitats to protect whales would reach to Alaska

November 12, 2019 — The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed creating critical habitat sites to protect humpback whales that will extend to waters off Alaska, officials said.

The habitats are focused on the feeding areas of groups of humpback whales and include the area off Juneau, The Juneau Empire reported Sunday.

A critical habitat does not establish a sanctuary or preserve, said Lisa Manning, an official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the fisheries service. Manning conducted a public presentation about critical habitats at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau last week.

“It does not affect recreational activities. It does not affect private lands,” Manning said. “It only affects federal activities.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Times

NOAA proposes humpback whale habitat protections

November 11, 2019 — NOAA’s fisheries division, the National Marine Fisheries Service, has proposed creating a number of critical habitat sites ranging from the Channel Islands in southern California to the Bering Sea, including the waters off Juneau.

The critical habitats, created with the aim of protecting the feeding areas of three separate groups of humpback whales, or Megaptera novaeangliae, will not affect anything except for federal agencies seeking to use those waters for other purposes, said Lisa Manning, an official with NOAA. Her presentation to the public on the proposed habitats was held at University of Alaska Southeast on Thursday evening, and was attended by more than 30 people.

“A critical habitat does not establish a sanctuary or preserve. It does not affect recreational activities. It does not affect private lands,” Manning said. “It only affects federal activities.”

The proposed habitats, which cover 175,182 square nautical miles in total, are the traditional feeding areas of three of the 14 major humpback whale distinct population segments (DPS), Manning said. The three groups that come to Alaska and California to summer and feed spend the rest of their time west of Mexico, west of Central America and east of Taiwan respectively. These three groups are currently threatened, and protecting their feeding areas may help them to regain their footing, Manning said. Some of these groups may number 2,000 whales or less.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Feds Propose PNW Habitat Protections For Orcas And Humpback Whales

November 7, 2019 — Federal wildlife regulators are proposing to designate large swaths of the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, Washington and California as critical habitat for endangered humpback whales and orcas.

One of the habitat designations is specifically for Southern Resident Killer Whales, which spend about half the year in the Salish Sea north of Seattle. They feed on salmon. There are fewer than 80 of these orcas remaining.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is also proposing two critical habitat areas for two distinct groups of humpback whales that breed off the coast of Mexico and Central America. The new habitat designation covers the Pacific Northwest feeding grounds of the whales.

If finalized, the designation would provide an extra level of protection that would require any federally permitted project to consider impacts to the whale habitat.

“That’s anything from an Army Corps of Engineers permit for construction in water to a Navy sonar testing or training activity or NOAA doing a federal approval for a fishery,” said Lynne Barre, recovery coordinator for the NOAA Fisheries Southern Resident Killer Whale program.

Read the full story at OPB

Uncle Sam wants you to eat more shark

November 5, 2019 — The following was released by The New Food Economy:

Late last month, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) sent out a newsletter featuring a potentially surprising piece of advice: For a sustainable source of protein, try eating shark sometime. NMFS is an arm of the federal science agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and it’s responsible for protecting fish populations and their ocean habitats.

“While overfishing has greatly depleted some shark populations overseas, U.S. shark fisheries are some of the most sustainable in the world,” it read. I did a double take, racking my memory for the last time I saw shark as an option at the grocery store or on a restaurant menu. The press release seemed to run contrary to my general sense that shark populations were in jeopardy everywhere.

In August, for example, scientists warned that levels of the popular shortfin mako shark in the Atlantic ocean—for which NMFS has catch limits—are so overfished that they would require until 2045 to fully recover, even if a total harvesting ban was enacted. In July, the Animal Welfare Institute published its annual directory of restaurants whose menus include dishes made from shark fin, rising demand for which contributes to declining shark stocks. And in 2013, researchers issued this dire warning: Commercial fisheries kill approximately 100 million sharks every year, far faster than the rate at which sharks can repopulate.

Read the full story at The New Food Economy

Agencies still looking for answers in marine mammal die-off

November 4, 2019 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is still trying to figure out what is causing marine mammals to die at high rates in Alaska.

In September, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an unusual mortality event for three types of seals in the Arctic, including bearded, ringed and spotted seals in the Bering and Chukchi seas.

“Our normal stranding numbers for ice seals is about 20 to 30 a year,” said NOAA Marine Biologist Barbara Mahoney. “So we are dealing with more than five times the dead animals that we’ve had in the past.”

But it isn’t just seals.

In May, NOAA declared an unusual mortality event for gray whales along the West Coast from Mexico to Alaska. As of Sept. 30, the agency reported a total of 121 dead gray whales in 2019.

Read the full story at KTVA