Saving Seafood

Change Is in the Air: Scientists Suggest New Approaches for Marine Mammal Interaction Mitigation, Spatial Management, Non-traditional Data Use, Hawai‘i Kona Crab Measures

April 5, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council concluded a three-day meeting yesterday in Honolulu with a suite of recommendations to more effectively address issues facing fisheries in the US Pacific Islands. The SSC recommendations will be considered March 18-21 in Honolulu by the Council, a federal instrumentality created by Congress to develop fishery management measures for offshore fisheries in the US Pacific Islands. Recommendations of the Council that are approved by the US Secretary of Commerce are implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

False Killer Whales: 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 (M&SI) 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 (PBR) for the species. This Honolulu-based fishery lands 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 that the Council request NMFS develop approaches to incorporate population viability analysis (PVA) 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 that the Council ask NMFS to provide the data needed for the SSC to develop the PVA in parallel to the NMFS process. 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. It 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. It 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.
  • Planned and tenable compliance monitoring and enforcement.

Read the full release here

Hawaii longliners counting on new biological opinion to save swordfish season

April 4, 2019 — It doesn’t matter that all of the 17 loggerhead turtles that were accidentally caught in the first three months of the year by shallow-set swordfish longliners off the coasts of the US’ Hawaiian islands were released and swam away alive, or that the loggerhead population in the area has actually been growing at a steady rate of 2.4% annually.

Thanks to the terms of a court settlement reached nearly a year ago by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) with three nongovernmental organizations, that number of interactions with an endangered species forced the longliners to shut down immediately for the season on March 19, leaving much of what they say is a healthy fishing stock untouched.

Now the harvesters are counting on a regular meeting by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), scheduled for April 12, in Honolulu, to help get them back on the water as soon as possible.

That’s when an advisory panel is expected to review NMFS’ new draft biological opinion (BiOps) for handling both loggerhead and leatherneck turtles in the fishery and advise the council, which that same day could pass along its own recommendations to NMFS.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Groups sue to restrict salmon fishing, help Northwest orcas

April 4, 2019 — Federal officials say they may restrict salmon fishing off the West Coast to help the Pacific Northwest’s critically endangered killer whales, but two environmental groups are suing anyway to ensure it happens.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a lawsuit nearly two decades ago to force the U.S. government to list the orcas as endangered, and the Wild Fish Conservancy asked the U.S. District Court in Seattle on Wednesday to order officials to reconsider a 2009 finding that commercial and recreational fisheries did not jeopardize the orcas’ survival.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued a letter early last month indicating that it intends to do so. Julie Teel Simmonds, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said the point of the lawsuit is to ensure they finish the job with urgency, given the plight of the whales, and to take short-term steps in the meantime to help provide more of the orcas’ favored prey, Chinook salmon.

“We have got to figure out how to get them more salmon,” she said. “Since 2009 it’s become much more crystallized just how critical prey availability is to their reproductive success and survival.”

The Endangered Species Act requires the government to certify that any actions it approves won’t jeopardize the survival of a listed species. In the 2009 review, experts found that it wasn’t clear how a lack of prey affected orcas, but that the fisheries were not likely to contribute to their extinction.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Reminder: Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Measures

April 4, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Recreational fishing measures from fishing year 2018 for the Gulf of Maine cod and haddock fishery remain in place until we develop and implement any changes in fishing year 2019.

The recreational Gulf of Maine haddock fishery reopens April 15, 2019:

  • Bag Limit: 12 fish
  • Minimum size: 17 inches

Gulf of Maine cod possession is prohibited.

The New England Fishery Management Council has recommended fishing year 2019 (May 1, 2019-April 30, 2020) recreational groundfish measures. We are currently developing the proposed rule. We do not expect to publish a final rule implementing any changes by May 1, 2019. Therefore, the 2018 regulations will remain in effect until they are replaced.

For more, read the permit holder letter posted on our website.

Pacific sardines likely to face another shuttered season

April 3, 2019 — Sardine fishermen on the West Coast are preparing for another year of severe restrictions after a new draft assessment from NMFS shows the the population is continuing its collapse.

The new report, released on March 26, indicates a sardine population of 27,547 metric tons. Any tonnage below 50,000 metric tons is considered “overfished” by NMFS.

These numbers indicate a 98.5 percent collapse since 2006, when the population reached an estimated 1.77 million metric tons, according to NMFS data.

The California Wetfish Producers Association has repeatedly taken issue with NMFS’ assessment strategy. Executive Director Diane Pleschner-Steele has called Oceana-driven claims of overfishing to be “fake news.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Western Pacific Council to Address Sea Turtle Interactions with Sustainably Caught Hawaii Swordfish Longline Fishery

April 2, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Hawaii longline swordfish fishery closed on March 19 after it interacted with the 17th loggerhead turtle for the year. All of the turtles were released alive. The fishery has 100 percent observer coverage, i.e., a federal observer is on every vessel on every trip to monitor protected species interactions. This observer coverage level is extraordinary and an order of magnitude higher than other competing fishing nations. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission requirement is only 5 percent coverage, which most other nations have not met. The United States also operates with measures to reduce and report bycatch at levels that other fishing nations do not implement.

”Closure of this healthy, underutilized fishery is not only an economic loss for the Hawaii fishery but also has no discernible stock conservation benefit for the Pacific,” notes Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds. ”The catch from the Hawaii fleet will be supplanted by the catch from foreign fleets that have far less monitoring and bycatch mitigation.”

The United States was usurped by Taiwan in the late 1990s as the second leading fishing nation to harvest North Pacific swordfish (Japan leads in landings) as US landings declined. The Hawaii fishery accounted for between 55 percent (2017 and 2008) to 34 percent (2012) of the US domestic swordfish landings.

  • The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Biological Opinion (BiOp) Review Advisory Panel meeting will review the BiOp for the Hawaii-based shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish on April 12 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (HST).
  • The 177th Council meeting will be held April 12 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (HST). The Council will discuss the Draft BiOp for the Hawaii-based shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish as well as management of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtle interactions in that fishery (final action).

Projections of the stock through 2026 along with recommendations by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean determined that the stock is not fully utilized and could withstand a significant, yet sustainable increase in harvest. Such an increase in harvest of about 50 percent from recent catches to near maximum sustainable yield would maintain a healthy stock.

The North Pacific swordfish stock was assessed in 2018 and determined to be nearly double spawning stock biomass at maximum sustainable yield (87 percent over SSBMSY) with fishing mortality determined to be less than half of fishing mortality at maximum sustainable yield (45 percent of FMSY). Spawning stock biomass has increased nearly by 10,000 metric tons since 2000 and has not breached below its commonly used biological reference point (SSBMSY) in any year in the stock’s assessment timeline (1975-2016). The stock had only been considered to be experiencing overfishing (breaching FMSY) in 1993.

Lack of supply from the sustainable Hawaii shallow-set fishery may increase pressure on other swordfish stocks to meet market demands. This may have inadvertent consequences to stocks, such as those in the Atlantic, that are not as healthy as the North Pacific stock.

  • The BiOp Review Advisory Panel meeting will be held by teleconference and webinar. The host site is the Council office, 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu. The teleconference number is US toll free (888) 482-3560 or international access +1 (647) 723-3959; the access code is 5228220. The webinar url is https://wprfmc.webex.com/join/info.wpcouncilnoaa.gov.
  • The 177th Council meeting teleconference number is US toll free (888) 482-3560 or international access +1 (647) 723-3959; the access code is 5228220. The webinar url is https://wprfmc.webex.com/join/info.wpcouncilnoaa.gov. Host sites are a) Council office, 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu; b) Native American Samoa Advisory Council Office Conference Rm., Pava’ia’i Village, Pago Pago, American Samoa; c) Guam Hilton Resort and Spa, 202 Hilton Rd., Tumon Bay, Guam; and d) Department of Land and Natural Resources Conference Rm., Lower Base Dr., Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
  • For the agendas and background materials on the meetings, go to www.wpcouncil.org or contact the Council at info.wpcouncil@noaa.gov or (808) 522-8220.

The Council was established by Congress in 1976 and has authority over fisheries seaward of state waters of Hawai’i, Guam, American Samoa, the CNMI and the Pacific remote islands. Recommendations that are regulatory in nature are transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce for approval and then implemented by that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and enforced by NMFS and the US Coast Guard.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Herring skip fish count opening day

April 2, 2019 — Apparently river herring are just like humans: They’re not too crazy about the cold, either.

Monday was the annual opening day for counting river herring at the city’s alewife fishway in West Gloucester and the cold, blustery weather tossed a shutout to the disappointment of about a dozen fish counters, including Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken.

No fish for you.

Unlike last year, when a few river herring returning to the fishway from the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Little River actually showed up on opening day, the fish apparently are operating at a more measured pace this season.

The water was a bracing 7 degrees Celsius, or 44.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That was about the same as last year. But the air temperature of 11 degrees Celsius, or about 52 degrees Fahrenheit, and the whipping wind with gusts up to 30 mph provided their own chilling effects.

“This is colder than they like,” said Eric Hutchins, the Gulf of Maine restoration coordinator for NOAA Fisheries. “But we know they’re on their way because the fish are migrating down in southeastern Massachusetts. It’s just a matter of getting the water a few degrees warmer. A few days of 60-degree temperatures and we’ll have fish.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Allocates $20 Million for West Coast, Georgia Fishery Failures

April 2, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NMFS announced last week that $20 million of federal assistance will be provided to communities affected by fishery disasters in Washington, Oregon, California and Georgia between 2013 and 2017. Congress appropriated these funds through the 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Tribal and non-tribal salmon fisheries will receive the most funding after several fisheries declined due to adverse ocean conditions including “The Blob.” California sardines and Georgia white shrimp also are included on the list.

The email notice to congressional staff said NMFS will notify award recipients of their eligibility for funding and provide guidance on the development of award spending plans. The allocated funds can be used to help commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, charter businesses, shore-side infrastructure, and subsistence users, as well as improve the fishing ecosystem and environment.

The fisheries and their respective allocations are:

2013 Fraser River Sockeye tribal salmon (Washington) – Lummi, Nooksack, Tulalip, Suquamish, Makah, Lower Elwha, Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam: $1,492,000

2013 Fraser River Sockeye non-tribal salmon (Washington): $440,000

2013 Georgia White Shrimp: $1,062,000

2015 Washington Coastal Coho and Pink Tribal Salmon (Washington) – Hoh, Quileute Tribe, Stillaguamish, Nooksack, Muckleshoot, Upper Skagit, Suquamish: $3,856,000

2015-2016 Pacific Sardines (California): $1,640,000

2016 Ocean Troll Tribal Coho and Chinook (Washington) – Makah: $1,654,000

2016 Coastal Tribal Coho Salmon (Washington) – Quileute: $970,000

2016 – 2017 Klamath River Fall Chinook Tribal (California) – Hoopa, Yurok: $1,694,000

2016 – 2017 Klamath River Fall Chinook Non-Tribal (California): $5,042,000

2016-2017 Klamath River Fall Chinook Non-Tribal (Oregon): $2,150,000

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown requested the Oregon Klamath River fall Chinook fishery disaster declaration in May 2017. NMFS made the fishery failure determinations last year but it wasn’t until recently that funding allocations were made. Oregon’s Democrat senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley were quick to applaud the announcement.

“Hard-working Oregon fishermen gearing up for their spring returns have now received a $2.1 million lifeline that will help them support their families and contribute to the economy in their coastal communities,” Wyden said in a press release. ”From commercial trollers to marinas, Oregon’s coastal fishing community fully deserves this good news.”

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

NEW JERSEY: Shore congressman introduces legislation to ban offshore oil, gas projects

April 1, 2019 — A freshman Shore congressman has introduced a bill to ban offshore drilling and seismic testing off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act, proposed by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat representing most of South Jersey and the southern half of the state’s coastal areas, and Rep. Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, would permanently ban oil and gas leasing.

“Our local economy is dependent on fishing, tourism and wildlife watching – the bottom line is offshore oil and gas drilling isn’t worth the risk,” Van Drew said. “It is time to get rid of the harmful and dangerous practice of offshore drilling once and for all.”

The congressman expects the Department of Interior to include both coasts in its next five-year Oil and Gas Leasing Program.

The National Marine Fisheries Service authorized permits late last year under the Marine Mammal Protection Act for five companies to use air guns for seismic surveys from Delaware to central Florida.

Read the full story at WHYY

It’s no April Fools’ joke: 2019-2020 US scallop season kicks off in New Bedford

April 1, 2019 — Ed Anthes-Washburn answered his cellphone on his way to work at the Port of New Bedford, Massachusetts — the US’s most valuable commercial port — on Monday morning by telling Undercurrent News that the 2019-2020 Atlantic scallop season is canceled.

“Didn’t you hear?” the port director asked. Then, with a chuckle, he proclaimed, “April Fools’!” and confirmed that he plans to play this prank all day long.

Contrary to Washburn’s joke, the 2019-2020 Atlantic scallop season has begun in New Bedford, and it promises to be another big one. After landing an estimated 56.8 million pounds of scallops between April 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019, harvesters are loosely projected to harvest 62.5m lbs over the next 12 months.

To make room, US scallop distributors spent last week clearing their inventory, while harvesters were using up the last of their quota from the 2018-2019 season. As Washburn put it, because of the constant work being done to boats and the 60 additional days limited access vessels have to work their quota from the end of the previous season, “The old season never really ends and the new season never really begins.”

Prices were high for the final flurry of 2018-2019 landings.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News