Saving Seafood

Deep-sea crab fishing quota to stay same in 2019

January 2, 2019 — Federal fishing managers are holding the line on the quota for a commercial important species of crab that is fished off of the East Coast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the quota for Atlantic deep-sea red crab will be about 3.9 million pounds, which is the same it has been since 2011.

The crabs are fished using traps, and the fishery mostly takes place off southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic Bight, which stretches to North Carolina. The crabs are used for fresh picked meat and frozen legs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WBNG

Fishing industry rides out more regulatory, environmental gales in 2018

December 28, 2018 — The fishing year began with a changing of the guard at the helm of the regional headquarters of NOAA Fisheries and ended with a federal government shutdown that halted many of the agency’s administrative tasks.

In between, the local and regional commercial fishing industries were buffeted by the same regulatory and environmental gales that have come to define the current fishing crisis and the livelihood of those harvesting seafood from the oceans.

And this being Gloucester, there was — as always — something of the offbeat worth recalling.

So, here in no particular order are some of our most compelling stories from 2018 that chronicled the activity within the fishery and along Gloucester’s historic waterfront.

The Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute broke ground on its new Main Street research facility and headquarters in February. On Oct. 30, GMGI — with the assistance of Gov. Charlie Baker and other dignitaries — formally opened the new facility along the north channel of the Inner Harbor.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Commercial summer flounder fishery closed for the year

December 27, 2018 — If a day without flounder is like a day without sunshine, Rhode Island is looking at a dark end to the year.

Federal fishing managers say they are closing the commercial summer flounder fishery in the Ocean State at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. That means federally permitted fishing vessels can’t bring summer flounder to land for the remainder of the fishing year, which ends on Dec. 31.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the closure is required by regulations because Rhode Island fishermen have brought nearly a million pounds of the fish to docks, which is 98 percent of their quota.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WCAV

A look at the federal shutdown’s potential impact on Alaska fisheries

December 27, 2018 — Hundreds of boats are gearing up for the January start of some of Alaska’s largest fisheries in waters managed by the federal government from 3 to 200 miles offshore.

Meanwhile, the government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall of “artistically designed steel slats” has sent hundreds of thousands of workers home.

Nine of the government’s 15 federal departments and several agencies were shuttered at midnight Friday, and there is no end in sight. That includes the Commerce Department, which houses NOAA Fisheries.

No one at NOAA in Juneau could speak about the impacts a government shutdown might have on upcoming fisheries. All questions were referred “to the White House.”

An emailed response from the White House Office of Management and Budget said that while “it can’t answer agency specific contingency questions,” as it stands now, Alaska’s big winter fisheries will get underway on schedule.

Fisheries management activities — including quota monitoring, observer activities and regulatory actions — are considered “essential activities” that will remain during the shutdown.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Shutdown has varied effect at NOAA

December 27, 2018 — The partial shutdown of the federal government continued into its fifth day on Wednesday and NOAA Fisheries appears to be operating – or not –  just as it did during the partial shutdown that shuttered much of the government back in January.

No one answered the phones at NOAA Fisheries media relations offices in Washington, D.C., and Gloucester on Wednesday – the first full business day following the partial shutdown – so it was difficult to identify which employees whose duties have been designated as essential while up to one-quarter of the government is closed.

In all, the partial shutdown, initiated by lapsed appropriations and President Donald Trump’s campaign to fund and build a wall along the nation’s southern border with Mexico, is expected to impact about 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers.

According to the Department of Commerce’s 177-page plan for an orderly shutdown, staff at NOAA Fisheries’s Office of Law Enforcement, monitors and inspectors will continue working “for the protection of marine fisheries and sustain fisheries management activities.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Public Aquariums Join in Opposition to Seismic Blasting Along Atlantic Coast

December 21, 2018 — A coalition of major public aquariums have announced that they are opposed to the federal government’s pending issuance of permits allowing for repeated seismic blasting along the East Coast in search of offshore oil and gas.

The New England Aquarium says that marine scientists are concerned that the prolonged and extreme noise pollution introduced into already highly stressed ocean environments will disturb marine life from tiny plankton to commercially valuable fish stocks to giant whales.

The Boston-based marine conservation organization has joined the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, the North Carolina Aquariums and the New York Aquarium and parent Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in opposition to NOAA’s recent affirmation of the sound blasting program from Delaware to Florida.

“We do know that there are a range of effects from severe lethal mortality in a number of species as well as sub-lethal effects that effect the ability of animals to communicate with each other and find prey, which can essentially result in larger ecosystem effects,” said Mystic Aquarium’s Senior Researcher, Peter Auster.

“This is ultimately a decision about balancing the desire for exploration and finding new oil and gas deposits with our obligation as stewards of the environment. We just think that the decision that was made doesn’t consider all the risks and we hope that this garners greater scrutiny of the decision and then potentially other decisions down the road.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

East Coast states sue to challenge Trump’s offshore oil move

December 21, 2018 — Nine states along the East Coast have joined a lawsuit challenging a key move by the Trump administration that could allow offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

The states’ Democratic attorneys general are objecting both to the possible harm to marine life from the administration-approved seismic testing and to the potential offshore drilling that could result from the testing.

The states filed a motion to join a lawsuit environmental groups filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

“Seismic testing will have dangerous consequences for hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, including endangered species,” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), who is leading the multistate effort, said in a statement Thursday.

“While the administration continues to place the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of our precious natural resources, attorneys general up and down the Atlantic coast will continue to fight these and other efforts to open the waters off our shores to drilling for oil and gas.”

Frosh announced his lawsuit at Baltimore’s National Aquarium in an effort to highlight what he says would be the damage to marine life from both the testing and any drilling.

Read the full story at The Hill

NOAA issues the most protective authorizations to date on marine mammal impacts from Navy Training and Testing

December 20, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA:

The National Marine Fisheries Service today issued final authorizations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to incidentally, but not intentionally, “take” marine mammals during Naval training and testing in the Pacific. This is the third in a series of five-year incidental take regulations for the Navy’s Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing activities. The final regulations put in place measures that are more protective and include a larger area than those in the proposed regulations or previous regulations.

“The Navy has balanced our conservation requirements for marine mammals with their critical national security requirements for training and military readiness. As the acting NOAA administrator and a retired Navy admiral, I know this is a win-win for marine mammal protection and national defense,” said retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., acting under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere at NOAA.

Under the authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, NMFS evaluates the predicted effects of human activities on protected marine species and may require other agencies and entities to modify their activities to reduce those effects. In this instance, NOAA is imposing stringent mitigation measures expected to reduce adverse impacts to marine mammal stocks and their habitats as well as listed species, including:

  • Shutting down sonar when marine mammals are in the area;
  • Waiting for animals to leave the training range prior to use of in-water explosives, and monitoring of the area post-activity to detect potentially affected protected species;
  • Following protocols to reduce the likelihood of ships striking marine mammals;
  • Imposing operational limitations in certain areas and times that are biologically important (for example, reproduction, migration, foraging); and
  • Implementing a Notification and Reporting Plan (for dead, stranded, or struck animals)

“NOAA has been working with the Navy for more than ten years to understand the effects the Navy’s testing and training has on marine mammals and, over time, we have steadily increased the protections in place,” said Donna Weiting, director of NMFS’s office of protected resources.

NOAA and the Navy worked together to develop a robust monitoring plan, with associated strict reporting measures. Additionally, the final rule includes an adaptive management component that allows for timely modification of mitigation or monitoring measures based on new information, when appropriate.

In this authorization, the anticipated “take” of marine mammals over the 5-year period primarily includes disruption of behavioral patterns or temporary hearing impairment, but may also include some significantly lesser number of injuries and a very small number of mortalities. The authorization will be in place through December 2023.

NOAA reminds people to watch out for humpback whales as they migrate to Hawaii

December 20, 2018 — As humpback whale season gets underway, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary reminds the public that the marine mammals are protected by state and federal laws.

The numbers may vary from year to year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but an estimated 12,000 humpback whales migrate from their feeding grounds off Alaska to breed, calve, and nurse their young in the warm waters of Hawaii.

While some whales have already arrived, the majority are expected to visit Hawaii between January and March.

NOAA reminds the public that federal regulations prohibit approaching humpback whales within 100 yards when on or in the water, and within 1,000 feet when operating an aircraft. NOAA also recommends that vessels travel at a slow, safe speed in areas where a whale strike may occur, with research showing that collisions occurring at speeds above 10 knots cause more whale deaths and serious injuries.

Additional guides and safety tips are available at this link.

Read the full story at The Honolulu Star Advertiser

NOAA Calls for Protection of Female North Atlantic Right Whales

December 20, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues are taking a closer look as to why the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population is growing at far more slower rate than that of southern right whales, a sister species also recovering from near extinction by commercial whaling.

Researchers and colleagues looked at the question and have concluded that preserving the lives of adult females in the population is the most effective way to promote population growth and recovery.

Most of these deaths are attributed to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The findings are reported in Royal Society Open Science.

“Had North Atlantic right whales increased at the annual rate that we show they are capable of, the population number would be almost double what it is now and their current situation would not be so dire,” said Peter Corkeron, who is lead author of the paper and heads the large whale research effort at NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The North Atlantic right whale is one of three species of right whales. Of the three, it lives in the most industrialized habitat and migrates close to shore.

From 1970 to 2009, 80 percent of all North Atlantic right whale deaths (70 of 87) for which the cause is known were human-induced, mainly from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com