Saving Seafood

Attention: Fish Online (FOL) eVTR App for iOS users

July 29, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This notice applies to all vessel operators currently using the iOS FOL app to report eVTR’s. If you have not already done so please update your current version of FOL for iOS to the newly released version 3.1.12. This version provides more information in the alerts when an error occurs during the submission process.

What to Do:

  1. Upon opening the app please note the app version located at the bottom of the screen. If you’re running an older version (anything other than version 3.1.12), there is often a green bar running across the page saying ”Update Available” that you can click to download the current version.
  2. If you’re running an older version and the update bar is not visible, go to the Apple App Store on your device and search for “NOAA Fish Online” and click “Open”. This will update your device to the current version.

Warning: When updating the app there is no need to delete or uninstall the older version before proceeding. Deleting the app will remove all submitted and unsubmitted trips from your device. Deleted unsubmitted trips cannot be recovered. Submitted trips will always reside safely in the GARFO database and are easily accessible and are available for download.

footer

Shasta River Habitat Restoration Builds Salmon’s Resilience to Rising Temperatures

July 28, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Many species, such as salmon, rely on cool waters to survive during the hot summer months. But with temperatures rising due to climate change, these cold-water habitats are being threatened. In California’s Shasta River, a NOAA-supported habitat restoration project is helping to keep waters cool for salmon.

The Shasta River is an important tributary of the Klamath River, which was once the third largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast. Historically, the Shasta River supported more than 80,000 salmon each year. Today, however, only up to a few thousand adult salmon return to the river each year.

One of the issues facing Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and threatened coho salmon in the Shasta River is a lack of healthy habitat. In particular, high water temperatures and poor water quality during the hot summer months can lead to lethal conditions for salmon.

Juvenile salmon need access to cool water to survive warm summer temperatures. In healthy habitats, trees and other vegetation growing along the banks of rivers and streams provide shade that keeps the water cool. Deep, fast-moving waterways also stay cooler than shallow, slower-moving ones. As water temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, maintaining these cold-water habitats for salmon becomes more crucial.

On Big Springs Creek, a tributary to the Shasta River, water temperatures were heating up as high as 77 degrees Fahrenheit—too warm for salmon to tolerate. These high temperatures were caused in part by uncontrolled livestock grazing. Cows were eating the vegetation that otherwise would have provided shade and kept the water cool. They were also trampling the streambed, creating a shallower, wider river channel that was more easily heated by the sun’s rays.

Read the full release here

NOAA’s first tribal research coordinator aims to build partnerships with Alaska’s Indigenous communities

July 27, 2021 — For the first time, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a tribal research coordinator.

Mabel Baldwin-Schaeffer was born and raised in Kiana, a small Iñupiaq village on the Kobuk River in Northwest Alaska. She said she’ll bring that perspective with her as the first tribal coordinator for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s communications program.

“Near and dear to my heart has always been to improve local participation and to engage rural communities and research development,” she said. “I am most excited to work with elders and local people in the community.”

NOAA is a key federal leader of environmental research. Those involved say the new position is a step toward better representation for Alaska’s Indigenous communities.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

eVTR Instructional Webinar This Thursday Afternoon

July 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The first in a series of instructional webinars to provide vessel operators and others with a walkthrough of GARFO’s two electronic vessel trip reporting applications- the Fish Online Web app, and the Fish Online iOS app- will be held this Thursday, July 29 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

This webinar is focused on operators in Port Agent Bill Duffy’s area of southern Massachusetts, including Boston, the South Shore, Cape Cod and the Islands, and New Bedford.

Future instructional webinars will include demonstrations of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program’s (ACCSP) eTrips/mobile v2 and eTrips online applications. Other eVTR applications may also be included in these webinars. Anyone is welcome to join any webinar.

How Do I Join?

More information can be found on our webpage for this series: How to Use Electronic Vessel Trip Reporting Apps. This page includes webinar login information.

Questions?

Contact your local Port Agent.

Commercial Closure for Blueline Tilefish in South Atlantic Federal Waters on August 1, 2021

July 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

What/When:

  • The commercial harvest of blueline tilefish in federal waters of the South Atlantic will close at 12:01 a.m., local time on August 1, 2021. During the commercial closure, all sale or purchase of blueline tilefish is prohibited, and harvest or possession of blueline tilefish in or from federal waters is limited to the recreational bag and possession limits while the recreational sector is open.

Why this Closure is Happening:

  • The current commercial catch limit is 117,148 pounds whole weight. According to the accountability measure, harvest must close to prevent the catch limit from being exceeded.

After the Closure:

  • The harvest or possession of blueline tilefish is limited to the recreational bag and possession limits while the recreational sector for blueline tilefish is open.
  • These bag and possession limits apply in the South Atlantic on board a vessel with a valid federal commercial or charter vessel/headboat permit for South Atlantic snapper-grouper, and apply to the harvest of blueline tilefish in both state and federal waters.
  • The 2022 commercial fishing season for blueline tilefish in the South Atlantic will open on January 1, 2022, with a commercial catch limit of 117,148 pounds whole weight.

This bulletin provides only a summary of the existing regulations.  Full regulations can be found in the Federal Register or at https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=383bc195ccbeab4fd6bec1c24905df34&node=sp50.12.622.i&rgn=div6#se50.12.622_1193.

NOAA Fisheries Sets Management Measures for Northeast Multispecies

July 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Effective Today

We are approving the previously proposed Framework 61 developed by the New England Fishery Management Council that sets or adjusts catch limits for groundfish stocks for the 2021 fishing year (May 1, 2021 – April 30, 2022), including the three stocks managed jointly with Canada. For 2021, Framework 61 decreases six stock quotas, and increases four stock quotas compared to 2020. These revised catch limits are based upon the results of stock assessments conducted in 2020 and are intended to help prevent overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks.

This action also revises the status determination criteria for Georges Bank and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic winter flounder, implements a revised rebuilding plan for white hake, and implements a universal exemption to allow sectors to target redfish.

Read the final rule as published in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin.

Read the full release here

Alaskan Scientists Continue Humpback Research as Whale Watching Industry Aims to Rebound

July 26, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Juneau, Alaska is one of the most popular whale watching tourism destinations in the world. Roughly 1.3 million tourists visited the city in 2019 via cruise ship, and more than 330,000 of those visitors participated in local whale watching trips during their port-of-call.

In 2020, cruise ships did not visit Juneau due to COVID-19, and whale watching companies lost a majority of their business. This provided a rare opportunity for scientists to study humpback whale behavior and health in the absence of vessel traffic and heavy whale watching tourism.

Heidi Pearson of the University of Alaska Southeast partnered with Shannon Atkinson of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and NOAA scientists Suzie Teerlink and John Moran to collect baseline data during this unusual time. Their research will help us understand how changes in vessel activity potentially impact whale behavior and health.

The scientists are currently in the second year of the study. Field crews from the UK’s BBC visited Juneau during last year’s field season to collect footage of the collaborative research project that they have now compiled into a featurette that is being circulated around the globe.

Read the full release here

For first time, U.S. fishing law could include climate focus

July 26, 2021 — A long-awaited overhaul of the nation’s primary fishing law would require NOAA to devise plans for “climate ready fisheries” to deal with shifting stocks, under a bill expected to be introduced later today.

If approved, it would mark the first time that climate change received a mention in the landmark Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which Congress first passed in 1976.

The law, which has not been reauthorized since 2006, governs fishing in all federal waters. It would be revamped under legislation sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the chair of a House subcommittee that oversees fisheries.

Huffman, who conducted a two-year national “listening tour” to collect ideas on how to change the law, plans to introduce his bill this afternoon.

“When Magnuson was written and reauthorized, most, if not all, of the climate impacts that fishery managers are dealing with were not contemplated,” Huffman said in an interview on Friday. “It’s one of the biggest changes.”

Huffman said his bill, called the “Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act,” will otherwise include no “radical or dramatic changes.”

“We set out to modernize and fine-tune and improve a statute that is universally revered by most stakeholders and experts — it’s not like this is something that was terribly broken,” said Huffman, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife.

Read the full story at E&E News

National Academies Completes Consensus Study Report on Recreational Fishing Data and Strategies to Support In-season Management

July 23, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has completed a consensus study report, “Data and Management Strategies for Recreational Fisheries with Annual Catch Limits.” NOAA Fisheries appreciates the hard work of the National Academies in conducting a comprehensive study and providing recommendations on a challenging and important topic.

The report affirms what the National Academies suggested in its 2017 independent, expert review of NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Recreational Information Program, “Within their intended scope and design constraints, MRIP data are critically important for fisheries management.” Annual estimates of landings and discards are usually sufficient for stock assessments of commonly encountered species but by their nature, do not meet in-season management’s demand for near real-time monitoring data. While in-season management of recreational fisheries is rare, this report does provide a number of data and management-related recommendations that could improve MRIP’s contributions to recreational fishing projections, forecasting, and other in-season management tools.

The report includes substantial technical content. NOAA Fisheries will carefully review the National Academies’ findings and recommendations and develop our response in accordance with the provisions of the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018. 

Read the full release here

Explore Essential Fish Habitats with our Updated Interactive Mapper

July 23, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We’re excited to launch an updated version of the Essential Fish Habitat Mapper with improved layout, navigation, and functionality. EFH is the habitat managed species need to complete their life cycles and it serves a foundational role in sustainably harvested U.S. seafood. The EFH Mapper is an interactive tool for viewing important habitats for managed fish species.

Users of the tool can discover where managed fish species spawn, grow, or live in a chosen location on the map. They can also generate a report with supporting documentation. They can access maps of EFH areas protected from fishing and habitat areas of particular concern; fishery management plans; and embedded NOAA nautical charts. They can also download GIS data.

The redesigned tool includes the following improvements and new features:

  • Simplified layout and menu options for easier navigation
  • Added ability to look at all data within a specific region, find locations by address or latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and control data layer visibility
  • Customized data filtering tool for the region of interest
  • Increased context and information provided in pop-up windows
  • Improved response time for accessing species information and generating reports of supporting materials

Read the full release here