Saving Seafood

Notice to Fishermen – Omnitracs VMS Units Must be Replaced by April 1

January 15, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The McMurdo ‘Omnitracs’ Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) operated by vessels with Greater Atlantic Region (GAR) permits will not be supported by it’s satellite provider after March 31, 2020. All current owners of the Omnitracs unit were notified via a letter from McMurdo dated December 19, 2019.

What should you know if you own an Omnitracs unit?

  • This VMS unit must be replaced by April 1, 2020 or risk being out of compliance with VMS regulations in the GAR. The unit will not function with any other satellite provider.
  • List of Type-Approved VMS Units.
  • McMurdo has a replacement unit called ‘Omnicom’ that functions with the Iridium satellite network. This VMS unit is not yet approved for use in the GAR.
  • Vessel owner/operators with questions about their current service or the new Omnicom unit should contact McMurdo directly at 800-262-8722 or at fleetsupport@orolia.com.

What is NOAA doing to help vessels with Omnitracs units?

  • We are working with McMurdo to test their new Omnicom VMS unit so that we can recommend it for approval. However, we cannot say how long this process will take, but are making it a priority.
  • Vessel owner/operators with questions on NOAA’s VMS reimbursement program or their eligibility for VMS reimbursement should contact the Office of Law Enforcement’s (OLE) Helpdesk at 888-219-9228 or ole.helpdesk@noaa.gov. Please be aware this reimbursement program is managed by our OLE Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD versus by OLE’s Northeast Division in Gloucester, MA.

General VMS reimbursement guidance:

  • A vessel owner may be reimbursed for the cost of a new unit if they have not received a previous reimbursement for a unit for that vessel.
  • If a vessel owner was previously reimbursed for the cost of a unit for that vessel, then the government will not issue a second reimbursement for another unit if the government did not cause their current unit to become non-compliant. General VMS questions: Contact the Northeast VMS Team at 978-281-9213 or nmfs.ole.ne@noaa.gov.

General VMS questions:

Contact the Northeast VMS Team at 978-281-9213 or nmfs.ole.ne@noaa.gov

Earth’s oceans are hotter than ever — and getting warmer faster

January 14, 2020 — The world’s oceans hit their warmest level in recorded history in 2019, according to a study published Monday that provides more evidence that Earth is warming at an accelerated pace.

The analysis, which also found that ocean temperatures in the last decade have been the warmest on record, shows the impact of human-caused warming on the planet’s oceans and suggests that sea-level rise, ocean acidification and extreme weather events could worsen as the oceans continue to absorb so much heat.

“The pace of warming has increased about 500 percent since the late 1980s,” said one of the study’s authors, John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. “The findings, to be honest, were not unexpected. Warming is continuing, it has accelerated, and it is unabated. Unless we do something significant and quickly, it’s really dire news.”

Abraham and his colleagues found that the rate of ocean warming accelerated from 1987 to 2019 to nearly 4½ times the rate of warming from 1955 to 1986.

Read the full story at NBC News

NOAA Fisheries Announces Expansion to the Great South Channel and Southern New England Scallop Dredge Exemption Areas

January 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries filed a final rule to expand the Great South Channel and Southern New England Scallop Dredge Exemption Area as requested by the New England Fishery Management Council. The final rule expands the boundaries of the current Great South Channel and Southern New England Scallop Dredge Exemption Areas creating a single area south of 42° 20’ N lat. and east of the Mid-Atlantic Exemption Area. All other regulatory requirements, such as possession limits and the requirement to use dredge gear 10.5 ft or less, remain unchanged.

In addition, the rule implements new prelanding reporting requirements for limited access vessels sailing on an open area days-at-sea.  Limited access vessels are now required to send in a prelanding vessel monitoring system report on all scallop trips.

For more details, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register, and our permit holder bulletin.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Starting this Thursday 1/16 – Plymouth Hosting Lecture Series on Migratory Fish

January 13, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As part of the Town of Plymouth’s 2020 World Fish Migration Day (May 16) celebration, they are hosting a seven part lecture series on Migratory Fish beginning this Thursday, January 16 at 6:30 pm. The series kicks off with a presentation from Dr. Matt McKenzie on How Migratory Fish Have Helped Sustain New Englanders. This lecture series is also supported by Wildlands Trust and Woods Hole Sea Grant.

What is World Fish Migration Day?

World Fish Migration Day is a one-day global celebration to create awareness of open rivers and migratory fish. The event occurs in May every other year, and is coordinated by the World Fish Migration Foundation. This year, the celebration will take place on Saturday, May 16 and the Town of Plymouth is the North American headquarters.

Read the full release here

NOAA celebrating Golden Anniversary throughout 2020

January 13, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA is kicking off a year-long celebration to mark its upcoming 50th anniversary. Since its inception on October 3, 1970, NOAA has become one of the world’s premier science agencies that protects life and property, leads stewardship of the ocean and Great Lakes, and drives the blue economy — a mission that spans from the surface of the sun to the floor of the ocean.

“Over the past five decades, NOAA has grown into a premier science agency essential to our Nation,” said Neil Jacobs, acting NOAA administrator. “We are proud of that legacy and of the people who champion it every day. Our skilled and diverse workforce and partnerships make NOAA a strong and unique agency, and they have set the stage for continued innovation and discovery for decades to come.”

Although NOAA was formally established decades ago, its roots originated a century earlier with the Survey of the Coast in 1807 and the Weather Bureau and U.S. Fish Commission in the 1870s.

“Our nation’s oldest science agencies came together, as one, with a vision to protect and enrich life by better understanding our ocean and atmosphere,” said Cheryl Oliver, director of the NOAA Heritage program, which honors the legacy of NOAA through special events and exhibits across the country. “Today, people depend on NOAA science and services every day, in our homes, on the coasts we love, in our daily commerce, in the seafood we eat and in our personal safety.”

Day in and day out, NOAA serves the nation in many ways including:

  • Leading in environmental science and technology, helping the world adapt to our changing planet. NOAA is innovating, pushing forward with new research, cutting-edge technologies and ground-breaking scientific discoveries that will help us better understand our planet.
  • Building a Weather-Ready Nation. NOAA is at the forefront of weather science, making earlier and more accurate forecasts, equipping emergency responders so communities are informed and prepared for natural disasters. Our forecasts save lives, protect property, boost the U.S. economy and strengthen national security.
  • Serving as leading stewards of a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable ocean. NOAA is leading stewardship of our ocean by ensuring the long-term sustainability of our fisheries, protecting vulnerable marine species and their habitat, and supporting aquaculture.
  • Powering the blue economy. NOAA is exploring, mapping, and observing our nation’s waters — and preserving our underwater parks and coastal reserves. NOAA supports resilient coasts, working waterfronts, marine commerce, and sustainable seafood for a thriving economy.
  • Harnessing big data. NOAA is providing a truly integrated digital understanding of the Earth from data collected by satellites, ships, aircraft, and a vast network of environmental monitoring systems. NOAA leverages this data to help keep the public safe, promote the nation’s economic security, protect and manage resources, and enhance our understanding of the planet.

Throughout the year, visit www.noaa.gov/50-years to find features, events, multimedia, and NOAA milestones as we celebrate five decades of science, service, and stewardship.

Concerns raised with Rafael boat deal

January 13, 2020 — By the start of the new fishing year on May 1, Carlos Rafael, once owner of one of the largest fishing fleets in the country and known as the “Codfather,” will officially be little more than a memory on the New Bedford waterfront.

According to his attorney, John Markey, Rafael will have sold off all of his fishing empire as part of a settlement agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and will be out of the fishing industry forever.

“The Rafaels committed to NOAA to sell their fishing assets and they did that,” Markey said Friday.

Rafael has less than two years left to serve of a 46-month prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to falsely labeling fish, smuggling cash, tax evasion and falsifying federal records as part of a scheme to catch and sell fish for which he didn’t possess the necessary quota.

In August, he reached a settlement agreement with NOAA to pay more than $3 million in fines, sell off his fleet by December 31, 2020, and leave the fishing industry forever.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Marine Stewardship Council’s Certifier MRAG Americas Calls for Audit on Gulf of Alaska Cod

January 9, 2020 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Marine Stewardship Council’s certifying agency for Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod, MRAG Americas of Florida, announced an expedited audit for the GOA Pcod based on the new stock assessment that resulted in the fishery’s 2020 closure last month.

“New information on stock status provided by NOAA Fisheries and decisions of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council in December of 2019” is the basis for a desk-based audit covering Principle 1 (stock status) only, the MSC announcement reads.

Read the full story at Seafood News

To Save Endangered Sharks, You Sometimes Need to Kill a Few

January 9, 2020 — Sharks are some of the most fascinating, most misunderstood and most threatened animals in the world. Many scientists of my generation chose to study these amazing animals explicitly because they’re threatened, and because science can help; this was a major motivation for my choice to pursue a career as a marine conservation biologist, and a major influence in similar decisions by other shark researchers whom I surveyed. As we progress through our education, some of us are surprised to learn that effectively protecting entire species of sharks sometimes requires killing individual sharks—and many non-expert shark enthusiasts are outright shocked to learn this.

Every once in a while, this conflict between the goals of animal welfare and the goals of species-level conservation spill out into the world of social media, when non-expert shark enthusiasts discover that sometimes scientists work with fishermen to gather research samples from the sharks those fishermen have (legally) killed. This happened again recently, when just such a partnership was criticized on twitter by some non-experts.

The truth behind this ‘controversy’ is simple: many of the most important types of scientific data that we need to effectively monitor and conserve shark populations require lethal sampling. To quote a  2010 essay on this topic, “Although lethal sampling comes at a cost to a population, especially for threatened species, the conservation benefits from well‐designed studies provide essential data that cannot be collected currently in any other way.”

Nonlethal methods are being developed and should be encouraged (note: this paper about developing of nonlethal alternatives linked to above is co-written by my PhD supervisor and an Arizona State University colleague)., but they’re a long way from being ready for widespread deployment.

Read the full story at Scientific American

Little Relief in the Deep for Heat-Stressed Corals

January 8, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A team of NOAA scientists recently examined more than a thousand hot water events on coral reefs across the Pacific Ocean. Combining on-site monitoring with satellite records, they found that corals in deeper waters are just as exposed to marine heatwaves as those in shallower waters. They published these findings in Nature Scientific Reports.

This is bad news for coral reefs. These unique ecosystems have already experienced the devastating effects of three global coral bleaching events from hotter-than-normal water. Climate models project that temperatures will continue to rise.

“Scientists primarily use satellite-derived sea surface temperatures to understand heat stress and predict coral bleaching,” said Dr. Scott Heron, an associate professor at James Cook University and partner of NOAA. “It’s immediately available, it’s convenient and it has global coverage. However, because the measurement is only at the very surface of the ocean, there is some uncertainty about how well it reflects what is actually happening on deeper reefs.” In fact, the data might be underestimating the stress caused by these higher temperatures.

Read the full release here

NOAA Researchers Study How Fish Use Artificial Reefs

January 8, 2020 — Shipwrecks and rocky reefs off the coast of North Carolina are home to many commercially and recreationally important fish species. Scientists with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science are researching how and when fish use these artificial and natural reefs. In the fall of 2019, aboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster, the researchers used advanced technology to study how these reefs function as habitat.

The team used two kinds of sonar to survey the bottom and look for fish. The Foster’s multibeam echosounder registered the depth and physical properties of the reefs. Her splitbeam echosounder provided imaging that helps identify the size of fish and the location of the fish relative to the reefs.

Sonar gave the team the big picture, and NOAA divers also collected thousands of photos along the reefs. Using photogrammetry software, the team is stitching the photos together into three-dimensional models, which will provide detailed pictures of the reef structures and the plants and animals living on them.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive