Saving Seafood

Sens. Markey and Warren press NOAA on observer redeployment while stock surveys remain suspended due to COVID-19

August 19, 2020 — The following was released by The Offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey (D-MA):

Dear Acting Administrator Jacobs:

We write regarding steps that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has taken during the COVID-19 pandemic to manage fisheries stocks in the Northeast. We appreciate the challenges your agency faces in balancing the safety of NOAA employees, observers, fishermen, and broader communities with regulatory requirements for monitoring, observations, and surveys. However, we question the lack of consistency between the current operational plan for monitoring and observation and that for ecosystem surveys.

The dangers posed to the health of both fishing boat crews and observers led NOAA to temporarily waive at-sea monitor and observer coverage in the Northeast. The size of fishing vessels and the nature of the work makes social distancing a challenge, and the cross-jurisdictional nature of the Northeast fishery—with both observers and fishermen often traveling and working across state lines—provides an additional element of risk and complication. NOAA has provided guidance on how fishermen can seek additional waivers for coverage, but directed that at-sea observers and monitors redeploy starting on August 14, 2020.

Read the full letter here

Sen. Chuck Schumer Expresses Concern Over At-Sea Monitoring Redeployment, Says Health & Safety Must Come First

August 19, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY):

Dear Secretary Ross:

I write today to convey concerns regarding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) July 30, 2020 decision to resume the Northeast Fisheries Observers Program (NEFOP) and the At-Sea Monitoring Program (ASM) for the Northeast multispecies fishery amidst the ongoing global pandemic caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the health risks attributed to COVID-19. While these observer programs play a critical role in collecting the data that guides our fisheries management decisions, the health and safety of our fishermen, their families, and the observers must always come first. That’s why I was pleased when NOAA issued a March 24th, 2020 emergency action waiving observer coverage requirements established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and subsequent waivers to the program through August 14th. NOAA’s initial decision in March and its subsequent waivers were necessary to protect the health of commercial fishermen across the country, while allowing them to continue to do their job as essential food harvesters and producers. While I appreciate the initial steps NOAA has taken to protect our fishing community, the decision to redeploy observers has raised questions about whether observers can be deployed without putting the fishing community, and the observers, at risk. Before the agency moves forward, I request NOAA immediately report to me how NOAA plans to guarantee that federal health guidelines are maintained during the redeployment of observers to ensure the safety of captains, crews and observers.

In response to the pandemic, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) developed guidance to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has also developed guidance on preparing workplaces for COVID-19. Guidance from both agencies include recommendations for daily health checks, face coverings, social distancing practices, improved ventilation, and isolation of employees who show COVID-like symptoms.

While some of these safety measures can be easily implemented on a small vessel, others such as isolating individuals with COVID-like symptoms will be challenging if not impossible on a small vessel. I have heard from a number of New York’s commercial fishermen who do not believe their vessels are large enough to maintain an appropriate level of social distancing from observers based on federal health guidelines. How does NOAA plan to ensure observers, fishermen, and providers are complying with OSHA and CDC recommendations so that the redeployment of observers will not pose a safety risk to the observer and fishing communities?

Read the full letter here

Update to West Coast Groundfish and Highly Migratory Species Fleets on Observer and Catch Monitor Coverage during COVID-19

August 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On July 30, 2020, NOAA Fisheries announced national-level criteria for vessels to be waived (released) from at-sea observer or shore-based catch monitor coverage requirements. Observer or monitor coverage may be waived, for both full and partial-coverage fisheries, on a trip-specific basis if one of the following two criteria are met:

  1. Observers or at-sea monitors are not available for deployment; or
  2. The observer providers cannot meet the safety protocols imposed by a state on commercial fishing crew or by the vessel or vessel company on its crew.

We remain committed to the public health and safety of fishermen, observers, and their communities, while fulfilling our mission to maintain our nation’s seafood supply and conserving marine life. Since late March 2020, NOAA Fisheries has been working with West Coast observer and catch monitor providers to implement safety protocols that meet state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Within our limited authority, our efforts are intended to ensure observers and monitors are following the same safety protocols that fishermen are following.

These measures include the following:

  1. One-to-one observer-to-vessel and plant placement. Observers are assigned to one vessel, and catch monitors are assigned to one plant. If an observer or catch monitor must be reassigned, then the observer or catch monitor must self-isolate for 14 days prior to the new deployment. Alternate arrangements may be made if agreed to by the vessel/plant, observer provider, and the observer/catch monitor.
  2. Self-isolation for observers and catch monitors. Observers and catch monitors are self-isolating for 14 days prior to first deployment with their assigned vessel or plant and in between trips or offloads. Self-isolation means they are staying home with limited travel for essential trips and only being allowed limited, pre-approved leave.
  3. Pre-trip screening. Observers and catch monitors complete a pre-trip screening questionnaire before each trip that is designed to ensure that observers are following the provider’s protocols and to screen for COVID-19 symptoms and exposure. Observers and catch monitors that fail the screening are not deployed until they receive a negative COVID-19 test or can complete an additional 14-day self-isolation period.
  4. Testing. Observers and catch monitors are required to receive a viral COVID-19 test according to CDC guidelines in the following scenarios.
      • The observer/catch monitor answers “yes” to any of the pre-trip screening questions.
      • The observer/catch monitor is exhibiting signs or symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
      • The observer/catch monitor has recent known or suspected exposure to COVID-19.
      • When requested by a licensed physician.
      • In conjunction with vessel protocols ahead of deployments.

Vessel owners/operators should notify the Observer Program if their vessel or vessel company are following stricter safety protocols than those listed above that they would like the federally-contracted observer to follow. Contact NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center Observer Program at (866) 780-8064 for groundfish fisheries or West Coast Region Observer Program at (562) 980-4033 for highly migratory species fisheries.

Please give the Observer Program at least two weeks’ notice of the vessel’s specific protocols, and longer if the provider would need additional time to comply with the protocols before deployment. Vessel owners/operators and processors in the West Coast Groundfish trawl fishery should contact their individually-contracted observer/catch monitor providers to discuss specific protocols.

Additionally, NOAA Fisheries is seeking vessels and first receivers that are interested in testing electronic monitoring in lieu of human observers or catch monitors to develop exempted fishing permit applications in all west coast groundfish fisheries.

To discuss applying for an electronic monitoring exempted fishing permit, contact NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Permits Branch at (206) 526-4353.

NOAA Awards $3.1 Million to 21 Small Businesses to Develop New Technology

August 18, 2020 — NOAA has awarded $3.1 million in grants to 21 small businesses from 14 states to support the development of innovative technology for aquaculture, commercial and recreational fisheries, weather prediction, earth and ocean observations and modeling.

“Small businesses across our nation are catalysts for technology innovation, which can produce products and services that support NOAA’s mission while directly benefiting the public and growing the American economy,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

In December 2019, NOAA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program issued a call for applications for Phase I funding in topic areas including aquaculture; recreational and commercial fisheries, weather service improvement and evolution; next generation NOAA observing platforms; and next generation observation and modelling systems.

“As NOAA continues to strengthen its commitment to protecting life and property, we are increasingly reliant on the expertise and agility of the private sector,” said Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., acting NOAA administrator. “Through collaboration with these small businesses, Americans will benefit with increased forecast accuracy and better management of our natural resources.”

Read the full story at Environment Coastal & Offshore

Federal officials approve sea lion kill program along the Columbia River

August 18, 2020 — As expected, federal officials on Friday approved a program to kill up to 716 sea lions along a nearly 200-mile stretch of the Columbia River and its tributaries in an effort to protect salmon at risk of extinction.

The program is a significant step-up in existing efforts, and will be in place for five years.

Targeted are both Steller’s and California sea lions, which will be darted with lethal levels of tranquilizing drugs by authorized teams from states and tribes.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

Multiple Groups, Politicians Call on NOAA to Continue Waiver of At-Sea Observers

August 18, 2020 — At-sea observers in the Northeast were reinstated by NOAA on August 14— but multiple groups and politicians are urging the government agency to reconsider their decision.

Observer coverage has been waived for months due to health concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. However, NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver announced late last month that observer coverage in the Northeast would resume on August 14.

Read the full story at Seafood News

U.S. Adopts Safety Improvements for Observers in Pacific Tuna Fisheries

August 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries this week made effective new regulations to implement measures that will promote the safety of fisheries observers on tuna-fishing vessels. These measures reflect stronger international standards developed through years of U.S.-led negotiations to improve the safety of observers at sea.

For example, the measures require countries and vessel operators to take emergency actions to help observers if an observer is threatened, harassed, assaulted, missing, presumed fallen overboard, injured, or suffering from a serious illness. Also, observers aboard purse seine vessels will now receive emergency communication devices and personal locator beacons before leaving port.

Fisheries observers collect data essential to the international organizations managing tuna fishing in the eastern Pacific Ocean: the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program (AIDCP). IATTC staff use the information collected by observers in fish stock assessments and to evaluate the compliance of member nations’ fishing fleets with international conservation measures.

Fisheries observers often face hazardous situations at sea. Rough waters churned up by storms, as well as busy decks with crews pulling in their catch, create dangerous conditions. Observers can also encounter difficult situations on board a vessel with fishing crews who can view them as intrusive.

Read the full release here

Questions remain as monitors return to boats

August 17, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries will redeploy at-sea monitors and other observers aboard Northeast fishing vessels today for the first time since March despite continued health and safety concerns from fishing stakeholders.

The federal fisheries manager first excused the vessels from carrying all observers with a March 20 waiver that it extended six times because of pandemic-related health and safety concerns.

During a Wednesday webinar, as NOAA Fisheries officials discussed how they hope to complete the deployment safely, it became clear there would be no seventh extension despite the tenacity of the pandemic.

It was also clear that the path toward redeployment still has some murky stretches, which NOAA officials quickly conceded.

“There are a lot of unknowns,” said Katherine McArdle, branch chief for the agency’s Fisheries Sampling Branch. “We’re going into this with a very sensitive and gentle manner.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fisheries Survival Fund Questions NOAA Over Decision to Reinstate Observers, But Cancel Surveys

August 17, 2020 — Why are fishery surveys being canceled but at-sea-observers being reinstated? That’s the tough question that the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) is asking. FSF submitted a letter to NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver on August 13, just one day before the resumption of observer programs in the Northeast region.

“As you know, FSF represents the significant majority of full-time Limited Access permit holders in the Atlantic scallop fishery,” the letter reads. “Our members are home-ported along the Atlantic Coast from Massachusetts through North Carolina. The scallop industry recognizes the value of observers, as well as the difficulty of decisions NMFS is confronting during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, FSF still does not understand why NMFS cancelled unique fishery-independent surveys critical to resource management yet is reinstating less critical fishery-dependent data collected by observers when other options (VTRs, vessel tracking, and electronic monitoring) are available.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

The Last Lobster Supper?

August 17, 2020 — Mark Ring has been fishing the Stanley Thomas for nearly 30 years. With its red hull, the sturdy boat is the watercraft incarnation of Ring himself—a burly guy with permanently ruddy cheeks just above the hairline of his Vandyke beard. It is his second boat. It is also his last. Ring started lobstering when he was a teenager. Back then, he recalls, he didn’t have to go far from shore to set his traps. He’d head out and, barring thick morning fog, he could see the coastline and hundreds of lobster buoys bobbing in the waters before him. “You could drop your cages and hear them hit the bottom,” Ring says in a steep North Shore accent, leaning against the Stanley Thomas’s worn center console while remembering the old days. He’d haul his yellow traps up from the sea floor, the ropes slimy with algae, the cages bursting with lobsters aggressively clawing to get out. After a typical nine-hour day, Ring would return to the marina, hoist his traps onto the wet deck, and offload 2,000 lobsters.

That’s all changed now. The days are longer and the haul is harder won. When Ring motors out predawn from the backshore Gloucester marina where he’s docked the Stanley Thomas for years, he must power out farther to deeper, colder water. “The lobsters are just not settling in 6 feet of water like they did 15 years ago,” he says. “They want to find the optimum temperature. And that temperature is at 20 feet.” When Ring heads back in at the end of a long day, the lobsters in his traps have far too much legroom. He is netting less than half of what he used to.

In the face of climate change, throughout New England, the American lobster is vanishing, and the lobsters that remain are quickly heading farther out to sea in search of colder waters. Rising pH levels in the waters closer to shore have also contributed to weaker shells, which reduce the chances the lobsters will make it to market alive. More often than not, lobstermen are tossing this weak-shelled catch back into the ocean. Such factors help explain why lobstermen across New England are seeing the weight of their landings continue to dip; last year, Maine’s landings dropped by 21 million pounds, to about 100 million, the lowest in more than a decade.

That’s a steep decline, but it’s nothing compared to what will become of the industry if the self-coronated “Prince of Whales,” New Hampshire’s Richard “Max” Strahan, has his way. He has all but made it his mission to end lobster fishing in order to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale—and, as a result, the future of the beloved lobster roll as we know it is looking pretty bleak. His adversaries have a different nickname for him: Mad Max.

A career endangered-species activist, Strahan sports an overgrown mustache, a floppy fisherman’s hat, and a smug grin. He’s filed more lawsuits than he can practically count on behalf of the right whale, and never eats seafood. “I’ve ruined more than a few clambakes,” he says. “Just try to put a lobster in a pot in front of me!” He has been arrested multiple times, and his frequent outbursts have earned him a police escort at most meetings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, where he shows up to advocate for whales and also trade insults with lobstermen. For very good reasons, his only listed contact is a post office box.

Read the full story at Boston Magazine