Saving Seafood

‘Fishal recognition’ for better fisheries management

June 29, 2017 — To monitor fish stocks in about 3 million square miles of ocean including the North Pacific Ocean and East Bering Sea, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center turned to facial recognition technology — or more accurately, “fishal recognition.”

Part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, the center is working to get more accurate counts of marine life by applying the same facial recognition techniques that identify people to recognize fish according to their facial features underwater.

The agency began experimenting with this technology several years ago and is now on its second generation of camera-based trawl, or CAM-Trawl. It has worked with ADL Embedded Solutions on hardware improvements, such as small form factor embedded Vision Boxes — the image acquisition computers — a Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor to enable real-time processing of image data and waterproof enclosures and connectors.

Before using CAM-Trawl, the traditional method of measuring fish stocks had been to use trawlers to scoop up all the fish in a particular region of the ocean, bring them on deck, count them and then multiply that number out, according to said JC Ramirez, director of engineering at ADL.  “If you did 10 square miles, multiply that by 10 for 100,” for example, he said.

But that method had several shortcomings, including extrapolation errors, high costs and ecological impacts on fish populations.

“They were looking for not only a more benign way to do that, but also perhaps a way that would allow them to cover more regions and get a little bit more specificity on the variations in the data from area to area,” Ramirez said.

Now researchers can pull a rig outfitted with the cameras that are linked back to ADL’s control computer, which typically resides in the wheelhouse. It monitors external sensors such as location, time, pressure sensors and radio frequency identification tag readings. It then, based on sensor input, communicates with one or more Vision Boxes to do the image capture, managing the remote on/off power, clock syncing, and starting and stopping of image collection.

Read the full story at GCN

North Carolina environmental groups readying for a fight against seismic testing in the Atlantic

June 29, 2017 — As the deadline for public comment regarding proposed seismic testing off the Atlantic Coast approaches, several local organizations are gearing up in opposition.

Dana Sargent, head of the Cape Fear Surfrider Foundation’s Offshore Drilling campaign, has helped rally the groups against the proposal.

Members of the Cape Fear Surfrider Foundation, The North Carolina Coastal Federation, Oceana, the Water Keepers Alliance, and others have pulled together to form Don’t Drill NC, an non-profit group dedicated to fighting this proposal.

The proposal, put forward by the Marine Fisheries Division of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), seeks to allow five separate entities to conduct seismic air-blasting tests of the seafloor from the coast of Delaware, to Cape Canaveral, Fla., in an area extending 350 nautical miles offshore.

Although exploratory in nature, these tests are being used to locate areas of valuable oil and natural gas, which, if found, leaves the potential for drilling off the coast of North Carolina.

President Trump issued an executive order, called the “America First Offshore Energy Strategy,” in April of this year, aimed at repealing Obama-era regulations designed to protect the Atlantic coast from offshore drilling.

Read the full story at Port City Daily

Is the Cook Inlet beluga population stable or in danger? Depends on whom you ask.

June 29, 2017 — Alaska’s most urban whales have yet to show any meaningful increase in numbers, evidence that recovery remains elusive for the endangered population despite numerous protective measures imposed in recent years. On the plus side, the Cook Inlet beluga population has not declined notably in the past two years, scientists say.

The latest survey of the small and endangered white whales estimates the population at 328 animals, within a range of 279 and 386, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.

That represents barely any change from the previous estimate of 340 animals, from 2014, but far below the 1,300 belugas that scientists say were swimming three decades ago in the silty, salty water between Anchorage and the Gulf of Alaska.

“Cook Inlet belugas are still in danger of extinction because the population is so small,” said Paul Wade, head of Cook Inlet beluga research at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. “The population trend over the last 10 years has been relatively stable compared to the steep decline seen in the 1990s, but there is some evidence the population has continued to decline slightly. We are concerned that the population is not yet increasing towards its former abundance level,” Wade said in a prepared statement.

The newest population estimate comes from the latest in a series of regular aerial counts conducted by NMFS. The estimate is based on thousands of photographs taken from the air a year ago; analysis of those images is a laborious process, so the count that emerged required a full year of work and review, officials said.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

Fishing Report: NOAA seeks input on sanctuaries and monuments

June 29, 2017 — In a media advisory last week, NOAA said it’s soliciting public comment on National Marine Sanctuaries and Monuments designated or expanded since 2007 to determine if they should exist.

President Donald Trump’s Offshore Energy Strategy, outlined in his May executive order, has ordered the Secretary of Commerce through NOAA to review whether national monuments and sanctuaries present “lost opportunity” with regard to potential energy and mineral exploration and production.

Many in the fishing community are split about National Monuments. Some believe, as the president does, that profits and jobs should come first. However, a large part of the fishing and conservation communities believe it should be the environment and fish that should be first. Many believe that National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine Monuments serve as a sanctuary and spawning grounds for a variety of sea life and fish and should be left untouched.

For information on National Marine Monuments and Sanctuaries visit NOAA Fisheries website at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

NOAA Fisheries Proposes State Water Exemptions for Scallop Fisheries in Maine and Massachusetts

June 29, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking comment on a proposed rule that would revise the State Waters Exemption Program under the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan.

Under this proposed rule, vessels holding both a Massachusetts state scallop permit and either a Limited Access General Category (LAGC) Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) or LAGC Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Federal scallop permit could continue to fish in state waters once the Federal Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the NGOM Management Area has been fully harvested.

This action would also modify the State Waters Exemption for Maine, which already has this exemption for vessels holding state scallop permits and LAGC NGOM permits, to include vessels that have both a state scallop permit and an LAGC IFQ permit.

Read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register.

We will be accepting public comment on this proposed rule through July 14.

Please submit comments through our e-rulemaking portal or by sending your comments to: John Bullard, Regional Administrator, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Please make the outside of the envelope “Comments on Maine and Massachusetts State Waters Exemption Program.”

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel at 978-281-9175 or jennifer.goebel@noaa.gov

Hawaii Loses A Fishery Council Seat After Governor’s Fumble

June 29, 2017 — Hawaii managed to hold onto one of the two at-large seats it has historically held on the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council thanks to the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands nominating someone from the Aloha State.

Edwin Ebisui, a lawyer, part-time commercial fisherman and the council’s current chair, has been appointed to serve another three-year term, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday.

The other at-large seat will go to commercial tuna fisherman Eo Mokoma of American Samoa, who will replace Kona charter fisherman McGrew Rice after his term ends Aug. 11. Mokoma operates the only active longline boat in the territory, an alia catamaran, according to the nomination letter American Samoa Gov. Lolo Moliga sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Gov. David Ige’s administration twice missed deadlines to submit to federal officials a list of nominees to fill two of the at-large seats that are expiring on the council, which manages fish stocks in nearly 1.5 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean.

The Commerce Department, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was left to choose from the lists of nominees provided by the governors of American Samoa and the Northern Marianas. Guam, the other U.S. territory represented on the council, which has 13 voting members, did not nominate anyone.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

U.S. Commerce Department Announces Appointments to Regional Fishery Management Councils for 2017

June 29, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

The U.S. Commerce Department today announced the appointment of 22 new and returning members to the eight regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries to manage ocean fish stocks. The new and reappointed council members begin their three-year terms on August 12.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act established the councils to prepare fishery management plans for their regions. NOAA Fisheries works closely with the councils through this process and then reviews, approves and implements the plans. Council members represent diverse groups, including commercial and recreational fishing industries, environmental organizations and academia. They are vital to fulfilling the act’s requirements to end overfishing, rebuild fish stocks and manage them sustainably.

Each year, the Secretary of Commerce appoints approximately one-third of the total 72 appointed members to the eight regional councils. The Secretary selects members from nominations submitted by the governors of fishing states, territories and tribal governments.

Council members are appointed to both obligatory (state-specific) and at-large (regional) seats. Council members serve a three-year term and can be reappointed to serve three consecutive terms. Asterisks preceding a member’s name indicate a reappointment.

New England Council (*denotes reappointment)

The New England Council includes members from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. 2017 appointees will fill four at-large seats.

  • Peter Kendall* (New Hampshire)
  • Elizabeth Etrie* (Massachusetts)
  • John Pappalardo* (Massachusetts)
  • Ernest F. Stockwell (Maine)

Mid-Atlantic Council

The Mid-Atlantic Council includes members from the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. 2017 appointees will fill obligatory seats for Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and one at-large seat.

Obligatory seats:

  • Earl Gwin (Maryland)
  • Francis Hemilright* (North Carolina)
  • Steven Heins (New York)
  • G. Warren Elliott* (Pennsylvania)

At-large seat:

  • Laurie A. Nolan* (New York)

Jellied sea creatures confound scientists, fishermen on U.S. Pacific Coast

June 28, 2017 — Drifting throngs of jelly-like, glowing organisms native to tropical seas far from shore have invaded Pacific coastal waters from Southern California to the Gulf of Alaska this year, baffling researchers and frustrating fishing crews.

Known as pyrosomes, they are tubular colonies of hundreds or thousands of tiny individual creatures called zooids, enmeshed together in a gelatinous tunic roughly the consistency of gummy bear candy.

No relation to jellyfish, they resemble bumpy, opaque pickles in the water, typically a few centimeters or inches long, though some grow 1 or 2 feet (30cm or 60cm) in length.

They feed by filtering microscopic algae, or phytoplankton, as they float with the current, and are known to glow in the dark – a bioluminescent characteristic that gives the organism its scientific name — Pyrosoma, Greek for “fire body.”

Pyrosomes have rarely if ever been seen along the U.S. West Coast until 2012, when first spotted in California waters. Since then, they have gradually multiplied and spread north, before exploding in numbers this spring, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Although harmless to humans, they have been especially troublesome to the commercial salmon catch in Oregon, with large globs of the rubbery critters clogging fishing gear by the thousands in recent months. Some have even washed ashore.

“It gets to a point where they’re so abundant, you can’t even fish out there, so you have to pick up your gear and move elsewhere,” Nancy Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Oregon Salmon Commission, said on Monday.

A single five-minute trawl with a research net by scientists off the Columbia River in late May scooped up roughly 60,000 pyrosomes, NOAA reported.

Fishermen were also hit in southeastern Alaska, where some crews suspended operations earlier this year when pyrosome densities were at their height, said Aaron Baldwin, a fishery biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Read the full story at Reuters

A Staggering Amount of Fish Is Wasted Each Year

June 28, 2017 — New research shows that industrial fisheries are responsible for dumping nearly 10 million tons of perfectly good fish back into the ocean each year—enough to fill 4,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. This news comes at a time when nearly 90 percent of the world’s fish stocks are threatened by overfishing.

The research, published in the science journal Fish and Fisheries, shows that roughly 10 percent of the world’s annual catch is tossed back in the ocean. This waste happens for a number of reasons, including fishing practices that damage fish (making them unmarketable), throwing back fish that are too small or out of season, or because only part of the fish needs to be harvested (e.g. Alaska pollock roe). In some cases, fishers caught species they weren’t targeting (called bycatch), or they continue to catch fish even though they’ve caught enough, which they do in hopes of scooping up bigger fish (called high-grading).

“In the current era of increasing food insecurity and human nutritional health concerns, these findings are important,” noted Dirk Zeller, a researcher at the University of Western Australia, a senior research Partner with the Sea Around Us, and the lead author of the new study, in a statement. “The discarded fish could have been put to better use.”

For the study, the researchers examined the amount of fish that has been discarded over the past six decades. Estimates were made for all major fisheries around the world relying on, in the words of the authors, “a wide variety of data and information sources and on conservative assumptions to ensure comprehensive and complete time-series coverage.” Their analysis shows that five million tons of fish were discarded annually in the 1950s, a figure that skyrocketed to 18 tons annually by the late 1980s. This figure dropped to less than 10 million tons over the last decade.

Read the full story at Gizmodo

NOAA Establishes Voluntary Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket

June 28, 2017 — A voluntary speed restriction zone about 15 miles south of Nantucket has been established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division.

It comes after three right whales were spotted in the area recently.

According to researchers, there are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales still in existence.

Those who approach a right whale closer than 500 yards will be in violation of federal and state law and could lead to criminal charges.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com