Saving Seafood

NOAA Announces Determination Not to List Alewife or Blueback Herring Under the Endangered Species Act at This Time

June 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As part of our joint responsibility with U.S Fish and Wildlife Service for implementing the Endangered Species Act, we review whether species require protections under the Act.

We have completed a comprehensive status review and found a low risk of extinction for alewife and blueback herring throughout their range as well as for four alewife distinct population segments (DPS) and three blueback DPSs along the east coast of the United States.

After careful review of the status of both these species and of the identified DPSs, we have determined that listing alewife or blueback herring, or any of the seven identified DPSs under the Endangered Species Act as either threatened or endangered is not warranted at this time.

While river herring have declined from historical numbers, recent fisheries management efforts in place at the federal and state levels help to reduce the risks from fishing mortality for these species. Although some areas within the range continue to struggle, robust populations of these broadly distributed species are found in other portions of their ranges, with some areas supporting populations in the millions or hundreds of thousands.

With continued management and additional efforts to improve habitat connectivity, populations in areas of the range that are at low levels may also see improvements in the future.

Find Out More

Read the Listing Decision and download the Status Review Report

Find out how we’re reopening rivers for fish migration, read a recent story about native fish returning to a Massachusetts river after nearly 200 years, and get the latest on a recently completed river restoration in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Read the full release here

More than 260 dolphins found stranded along the Gulf Coast since February. Scientists aren’t sure why.

June 17, 2019 — Scientists are trying to determine why more than 260 bottlenose dolphins have been found stranded along the Northern Gulf of Mexico since the beginning of February.

The number of dolphin deaths is about three times higher than the average for the time period, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

The strandings in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the panhandle of Florida have been declared an Unusual Mortality Event, or UME.

A UME is defined under the Marine Mammal Protection Act as “a stranding that is unexpected; involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population; and demands immediate response.”

Read the full story at USA Today

State of the Science Conference set for UMaine-Machias

June 17, 2019 — Big science is coming to Downeast Maine next week.

On Monday and Tuesday, June 17 and 18, the Eastern Maine Coastal Current Collaborative (EM3C) will host a State of the Science Conference at the University of Maine at Machias.

The conference will discuss ecosystem-based fisheries management in eastern Maine and will bring together experts from local governments, fishing, science and academic communities. It is the first step toward producing a comprehensive understanding of the region’s watersheds, intertidal, nearshore and offshore ecosystems, including their governance and socioeconomic factors.

EM3C is a partnership among three fisheries organizations: the Stonington-based, nonprofit Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries; the Maine Department of Marine Resources; and NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency that manages fisheries at the state and federal level.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

The Coastal Squeeze: Changing Tactics for Dealing with Climate Change

June 17, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Protecting Essential Fish Habitat

One of the things we do in the Habitat Conservation Division is consult with other agencies who are doing projects that might affect fish species and their habitats. If, for example, the Army Corps wants to give the state of New York a permit to dredge a river or build a bridge, they consult with us to determine how they can minimize the effects on the most important fish spawning, nursery, and feeding areas that are deemed “essential fish habitat.” Without essential fish habitat, of course, we lose fish.

Climate Change is Happening Fast in the Northeast

We’ve been seeing the signs of climate change for decades. Sea levels and sea-surface temperatures have risen throughout the world. But, here in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, we are seeing surprisingly fast changes compared to other parts of the world.

  • The average sea-surface temperature on the Northeast Shelf has increased by about 2.3°F since 1854, with about half of this change occurring in the last few decades.
  • In particular, the waters of the Gulf of Maine are warming dramatically in recent years– faster than 99 percent of the global ocean between 2004 and 2013.

Read the full release here

Deck Equipment: Rise of the Machine

June 14, 2019 — Cameras start to take over for live observers on deck: What does it mean for owners and operators across the country?

Electronic monitoring programs are on the rise as a way to reduce observer costs, avoid the problems of having another person onboard, and increase data gathering. After testing and implementing several programs, NOAA is developing criteria for EM hardware producers and service providers.

“We hope to have standards by the end of the year,” says Brett Alger, electronic technologies coordinator at NMFS. “Once we lay down the framework, it could allow EM to expand greatly.” In February 2019, Alger spoke at a conference in Bangkok that explored the potentials of electronic monitoring. Presenters talked about the real-time upload, via satellite or cell signal, of video from boats, which could be reviewed by artificial intelligence. “We’re hoping to automate review,” says Alger. “We’re looking at machine learning that could identify and measure fish in a split second.”

According to Alger, the idea of monitoring things like bycatch, discards and quota by putting cameras onboard has been around for 20 years, and the Pacific whiting fishery has used electronic monitoring for 15 years. But establishing EM programs is much more complicated than just hooking up cameras and connecting them to a hard drive.

Among EM service providers, two leaders — Archipelago Marine Research and Saltwater Inc. — have broken ground with several programs around the U.S. coasts. Archipelago provides a complete package of cameras, hard drives and review services. Saltwater offers software and some hardware, and a number of services, including developing a vessel monitoring plan and video review.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New Stock Assessment Process Underway in the Northeast

June 14, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

After more than two years of development and planning, a better and more collaborative fishery stock assessment process is debuting in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. The new process puts stock assessments on a regular schedule.  It also makes assessments more flexible, with more opportunities for research.  It allows more input from industry, and will help continue to provide the best possible scientific advice to managers to ensure the long-term health of fisheries.

As Mike Simpkins, chief of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Resource Evaluation and Assessment Division says, “Longer term assessment planning gives us more opportunities to communicate with our partners, both external researchers and industry.” Simpkins’ division leads fishery stock assessments for NOAA Fisheries in the Northeast.

Whats New?

The improved process has two types of assessments: management and research. The former updates or enhances current assessments, the latter is more comprehensive and can involve new research and extensive changes in the assessment. Both types will be reviewed by an independent panel of experts to ensure that they deliver high-quality science.

By agreeing years, rather than months, ahead on a long-term schedule of assessments, there is now time to develop research specifically for that assessment, and to involve more external researchers and fishermen in that work.  There is also more flexibility to include new information during management assessments.

Read the full release here

Feature: The Entanglement Tango

June 14, 2019 — Despite an ongoing federal trade war with China imposing tariffs on seafood exports and a looming bait crisis as herring quota were slashed in the Atlantic, Maine’s lobster fleet still managed to haul in crustacean cash. The fleet landed 120 million pounds of lobster worth $484 million in 2018, the fishery’s third-highest annual value ever.

Coming off a profitable year, lobstermen might normally be energized gearing up for the peak summer and fall — but the latest news in the industry’s labored relationship with the Atlantic’s endangered right whale population had them focused on the future of their livelihood instead of the upcoming summer.

In April, NOAA informed the industry that in order to reduce mortality and serious injury to right whales, the U.S. fishing industry would need to reduce risks to whales by 60 to 80 percent throughout New England.

To reach those goals, fishing stakeholders on the federal Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team agreed to attempt a drastic measure: significantly reducing the number of vertical lines used by the region’s lobstermen. In Maine, where thousands of small-scale lobstermen catch the majority of the U.S. lobster haul, that means reducing vertical lines in the water by at least 50 percent.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fisheries Survival Fund: HabCam Failure Threatens 2019 Atlantic Sea Scallop Survey

June 12, 2019 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The loss, recovery, and now electrical failure of the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center “HabCam”habitat mapping camera means that the all-important 2019 Northeast sea scallop survey now continues as a dredge-only survey. The federal survey will thus conclude on June 15 without crucial sampling instruments, including cameras that photograph the ocean bottom. The HabCam, towed just above the ocean floor, provides a non-invasive, extensive, optically-based survey of the Atlantic scallop resource and ocean floor. NOAA Fisheries is working to make the HabCam a centerpiece research and survey tool.

For its part, the scallop fishery is one of the nation’s most valuable and sustainable. On average, over a half billion dollars of scallops are landed each year in New England and Mid-Atlantic fishing ports. The fishery has prospered in large part due to NOAA Fisheries and scallop-industry funded cooperative research teams from universities and foundations obtaining and using real-time data and information regarding scallop growth and abundance. Federal scientists use the HabCam and a dredge survey, and the federal surveys are supplemented with cooperative dredge and optical surveys, conducted in partnership between the fishing industry and its research partners.

On June 6, the HabCam was being towed by the Research Vessel Hugh R. Sharpin the area known as the Great South Channel and hit an uncharted object in about 130 feet of water. The HabCam separated from the ship when the weak link in the tow cable broke. According to NOAA, this is “intended when tension is too great [in order to limit] damage to both the instrument and the ship’s tow winch.” Four days later, on June 10, commercial divers recovered the instrument. “The vehicle was inspected and minor repairs made, before deploying this morning. The HabCam initially operated as usual, but soon encountered power problems,” NOAA reported.

This disruption will hamper the survey, especially in the Great South Channel, which is a vital scallop harvesting area. The optical survey is particularly important due to the presence of numerous boulders in this area, which make dredge surveys difficult or impossible. This is an area with high yield to the fishery, and one dredge survey is inadequate to determine the size of the biomass in the area.

Government researchers charter the Research Vessel Hugh R. Sharpfor only a specific numbers of days each year, so any day lost has an impact. As a result of this failure, the survey will be conducted for fewer days, and we will therefore have less data to manage the scallop resource.

No matter how staunchly officials protest to the contrary, the HabCam’s loss and electrical failure willimpact our ability to manage the resource.

Sadly, this is the second time in just three years that the $450,000 HabCam has been lost and recovered while operating. On May 20, 2016, scientists aboard the Hugh R. Sharpresearch vessel were conducting scallop surveys about 75 miles southeast of Delaware Bay, between New Jersey and Delaware, when, according to NOAA, the HabCam “separated from the tow cable and the vessel” in about 80 meters of water.

Considering that this is not the first time this has happened, and bearing in mind that by the NOAA Science Center’s own declaration, the weak link is inserted intentionally to limit potential damage to the instrument, it is difficult to understand why no contingency plan is in place to address a loss situation that is both predictable, and known to arise if or when the weak link does its job.

Despite the seriousness of this equipment failure to the survey’s success, NOAA did not inform the public or the industry about this failure until it was directly and publicly asked about the status of the survey at this week’s New England Fishery Management Council meeting, a full five days after the incident occurred. The industry stands ready to partner with the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and asks that the science center improve its dialogue and communication with the industry and the taxpaying public.

NOAA Fisheries – FB19-032: Recreational Harvest of Golden Tilefish Will Close in Federal Waters of South Atlantic on June 17, 2019

June 12, 2019 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

WHAT/WHEN:

The 2019 recreational fishing season for golden tilefish in South Atlantic federal waters will close at 12:01 a.m. (local time) on June 17, 2019. Recreational harvest for the 2020 fishing year in South Atlantic federal waters will open at 12:01 a.m. (local time) on January 1, 2020.

WHY THIS CLOSURE IS HAPPENING:

The 2019 golden tilefish recreational catch limit is 2,316 fish. Reports indicate that recreational landings have reached the 2019 recreational catch limit.

According to the regulations, NOAA Fisheries must close the recreational sector when the recreational catch limit has been reached. This closure is necessary to protect the golden tilefish population.

DURING THE CLOSURE:

Recreational harvest or possession of golden tilefish in or from federal waters of the South Atlantic is prohibited.

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.

‘A major punch in the gut’: Midwest rains projected to create near-record dead zone in Gulf

June 11, 2019 — As rain deluged the Midwest this spring, commercial fisherman Ryan Bradley knew it was only a matter of time before the disaster reached him.

All that water falling on all that fertilizer-enriched farmland would soon wend its way through streams and rivers into Bradley’s fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Mississippi coast. The nutrient excess would cause tiny algae to burst into bloom, then die, sink and decompose on the ocean floor — a process that sucks all the oxygen from the water, turning it toxic. Fish would suffocate or flee, leaving Bradley and his fellow fishermen nothing to harvest.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana State University confirmed Bradley’s worst fears in forecasts published Monday, predicting this spring’s record rainfall would produce one of the largest-ever “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico. An area the size of New Jersey could become almost entirely barren this summer, posing a threat to marine species — and the fishermen who depend on them.

“It’s just a major punch in the gut,” said Bradley, a fifth-generation commercial fisherman from Long Beach, Miss. Bradley is executive director for Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, a nonprofit that supports the state’s fishermen.

Bradley said he plans to travel to D.C. this month to ask federal lawmakers to declare a fisheries disaster, making relief funds available to affected fishermen. “To have a total wipeout,” he said, “which is what we’re going to have here now, I don’t know if our guys are going to be able to make it.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post