Saving Seafood

MAINE: Second round of meetings scheduled on right whale issue

August 23, 2019 — Lobstermen will get another bite at the right whale problem over the next few weeks at a series of meetings scheduled by the Department of Marine Resources.

The meetings are being held to discuss rules proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service that could force Maine fishermen to cut the number of vertical buoy lines they use by 50 percent.

Earlier this week, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher announced that he would hold a second round of meetings with each of the state’s seven Lobster Zone Management Councils to consider area-by-area suggestions of how to deal with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s proposed rule that would require a 50 percent reduction of vertical endlines on lobster traps in much of the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Detecting Fish from Ocean-Going Robots to Complement Ship-Based Surveys

August 23, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The ocean is vast, and fish swim.

These are challenges for scientists who need to find out when, where, and how many, fish are found in Alaska’s marine waters. They also want to know which species and what ages are found there—all information essential to managing Alaska’s valuable commercial fisheries sustainably.

Recent advances in autonomous vehicle and fish finders or echosounder (sonar) technology may help overcome those challenges. A new NOAA Fisheries study demonstrates that unmanned surface vehicles can expand the range and duration of ship-based acoustic fish surveys.

“This opens a window in time and space that we didn’t have using ships alone,” said Alex De Robertis, the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center scientist who led the study. “Ship-based surveys are limited because they are short, and mostly done in summer—we don’t know what happens the rest of the time. Our results show that oceangoing robots such as saildrones now make autonomous long-term acoustic measurements possible.”

Read the full release here

Fishermen question settlement of convicted Carlos Rafael

August 23, 2019 — The penalties keep coming for New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael, the self-styled “Codfather” who once dominated groundfishing in the Northeast with one of the largest independently owned fleets in the country.

He is halfway through a 46-month federal prison sentence for violations that included falsely labeling fish, smuggling cash, tax evasion and falsifying federal records. He also was fined more than $300,000 and ordered to sell off two vessels and permits in that criminal case.

This week, Rafael was hit with more than $3 million in fines and a lifetime ban as part of a settlement agreement in a civil case brought against him by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Troubling questions, concerns raised about off-shore wind farms

August 22, 2019 — Oceanographer Jon Hare listed the effects of offshore wind development on the marine environment.

There’s disturbance to the sea floor during installation of turbine platforms. Noise from pile-driving and other activities. Increases in boat traffic. Lighting of the project site. Dredging for electric cables.

The impacts can be far-reaching.

“Putting a pile into the sediment in essence is habitat alteration,” said Hare, a science and research director with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “You’re taking relatively smooth, unconsolidated sediments and converting it to hard structure, converting that habitat into something else.”

Although Hare didn’t name Vineyard Wind during a seminar on Wednesday, or talk about the company’s 84-turbine wind farm proposed in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, the potential impacts he detailed speak to some of the reasons why NOAA has raised concerns about the project, which has led to further scrutiny of the application by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

MAYOR MITCHELL DISCUSSES NOAA LEGAL SETTLEMENT WITH CARLOS RAFAEL

August 22, 2019 — Mayor Jon Mitchell is expanding on his comments on the settlement reached this week between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the imprisoned “Codfather” Carlos Rafael.

As part of the settlement, Rafael will have to give up all commercial fishing by December 31, 2019, and all scalloping by March 31, 2020. In addition, Rafael is ordered to a $3,010,633 civil monetary penalty and relinquish the seafood dealer permit issued to Carlos Seafood by September 1.

According to NOAA, Rafael I is required to sell his fishing vessels and permits and will be allowed to keep the proceeds. Free to sell his licenses to whomever he pleases, Rafael has indicated that he intends to keep all of them in New Bedford.

Read the full story at WBSM

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on a Control Date for the American Lobster Fishery

August 22, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking comments on a control date (a date that may be used to establish eligibility) of April 29, 2019 for the American lobster fishery, as we consider ways to reduce threats of entanglement by fixed-gear fisheries to North Atlantic right whales.

In April 2019, NOAA Fisheries convened the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (TRT) to discuss management measures to reduce the risk of serious injury and entanglement of endangered whales in fishing gear. At the meeting, the New England states and the offshore lobster industry committed to reducing the risk of serious injury and mortality from lobster gear to the North Atlantic right whale by 60 percent in all lobster management areas. The specific measures to achieve this goal are not yet finalized, but will focus on reducing the number, and lowering the breaking strength of, vertical lines used in the lobster trap fishery.

Following the TRT meeting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s  Lobster Management Board established a control date of April 29, 2019, and recommended that NOAA Fisheries do the same for federal waters.

Read the full release here

Blue Harvest tipped as likely buyer of Carlos Rafael’s groundfish fleet

August 22, 2019 — Blue Harvest Fisheries, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by private equity Bregal Partners, is believed to have moved to the front of the pack in the chase to nab the 32 groundfish permits and 19 related draggers owned by Carlos Rafael in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Quinn Fisheries, a longtime area scalloper, appears a lock, meanwhile, to land Rafael’s 11 scallop permits and related vessels, as previously reported.

The competition is on to acquire Rafael’s sizable commercial fishing operation following the civil settlement announced on Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

IG: NOAA, NASA Launched Next-Gen Satellite With Known Issues, Scrubbed Performance Metrics from Contract

August 21, 2019 — Persistent problems with the premier sensors of the GOES-R series satellites—designed to provide the next generation of weather observation for North America—were identified before launch and not properly tested or resolved, according to a new inspector general report.

Further, the Commerce Department IG found evidence that program managers changed the evaluation criteria for the contractor after the issues were identified—metrics that would have led to a 40-75% reduction in payment had they remained.

The GOES-R series of satellites includes GOES-16—launched November 2016—and GOES-17—launched March 2018—as well as the pending GOES-T and GOES-U still in production. The satellite constellation is equipped with a set of next-generation sensors to better predict weather patterns, including the Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI, the “most essential instrument for mission success of the GOES-R satellites,” according to the IG.

Read the full story at NextGov

East Coast squid fishery to be restricted through end of ‘19

August 20, 2019 — Federal fishing managers are restricting the fishery for a commercially important species of squid for the rest of the year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says restrictions on the fishery for illex squid, which are also called shortfin squid, begin on Wednesday morning. Vessels won’t be allowed to bring more than 10,000 pounds per trip of the squid from federal waters to docks.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Day

New lawsuit seeks protection zone for Northwest orcas

August 20, 2019 — A new U.S. lawsuit filed Monday seeks to establish a whale protection zone for endangered orcas in the Pacific Northwest.

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance sued NOAA Fisheries in U.S. District Court in Seattle, saying the agency has failed to act on a petition it filed in 2016.

The petition sought to bar vessels from a 10- to 12-square-mile (26- to 31-square-kilometer) area west of San Juan Island where the orcas, called southern resident killer whales, feed from April through September each year. Any vessels exempted from the ban would be required to abide by a “no wake” rule in the zone.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News