Saving Seafood

Right Whale Use of Southern New England Wind Energy Areas Increasing

July 30, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Right whales are increasing their use of southern New England waters, including regions slated for offshore wind energy development, according to aerial survey data collected during the last decade. Offshore wind energy installations are proposed in waters off the south coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Understanding and minimizing the potential impacts from construction noise, increased vessel traffic, and habitat alteration will be crucial to protecting and conserving this endangered species. This research supports the Administration’s goal of deploying offshore wind while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use.

The study was published July 29 in Endangered Species Research. Marine mammal researchers from NOAA Fisheries and colleagues at the New England Aquarium and the Center for Coastal Studies examined aerial survey data collected between 2011–2015 and 2017–2019. The data was collected in offshore waters including the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Wind Energy Area. The data from these two time periods were used to quantify right whale distribution, residency, demographics, and movements in the region.

“We found that right whale use of the region increased during the last decade, and since 2017 whales have been sighted there nearly every month, with large aggregations occurring during the winter and spring,” said Tim Cole, lead of the whale aerial survey team at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study.

Read the full release here

Saving the Seas: Smarter Hooks and Nets

July 15, 2021 — Last year, fish consumption reached a global annual average of 37.5 pounds per person. Meanwhile, cod and bluefin-tuna populations have collapsed, and animals ranging from whales to turtles have been added to the Endangered Species Act. Our voracious appetite isn’t the only problem. Fishermen catch a lot of things unintentionally, in what Tim Werner, director of the New England Aquarium’s Marine Conservation Engineering program, calls the “collateral damage” of commercial fishing: bycatch.

Compared with the more intractable problem of overfishing, technological solutions to bycatch abound. Bycatch ensnares coral, sponges, starfish, sharks, whales, turtles and even birds. It is “one of the more immediate threats that marine diversity faces,” Werner says. It has led to the assumed extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin, has nearly wiped out the Gulf of California’s vaquita porpoise (fewer than 200 remain), and threatens the survival of the North American right whale (400 remain) and the short-tailed albatross. A United Nations report estimates bycatch at 7.5 million tons a year, or 5 percent of the total commercial-fishing haul. Because most available data is self-reported, Werner says that the U.N.’s numbers “woefully underestimate” the problem. A more representative statistic, he says, comes from Gulf of Mexico shrimp fisheries, some of which dredge up to five pounds of bycatch for every pound of shrimp.

The good news is that compared with the more intractable problem of overfishing, technological solutions to reduce bycatch abound. Shrimp companies, for example, have begun using “turtle-excluding devices,” metal grates at the front of a trawl net that let the shrimp in and keep the turtles out. Fishermen who use long subsurface “gillnets” have begun to deter porpoises by equipping these nets with battery-powered acoustic “pingers.” In the best cases, pingers have reduced casualties from 25 porpoises per net to one. At Florida Atlantic University, associate professor Stephen Kajiura is trying to protect sharks by affixing rare-earth elements to the lines that fishermen use to catch tuna. The metals react with seawater to create an electromagnetic field that repels sharks (as well as skates and rays).

Read the full story at Popular Science

Two endangered right whales entangled in fishing gear in Gulf of St. Lawrence

July 14, 2021 — A New Brunswick-based whale-rescue team says two North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are entangled in fishing gear, a dangerous situation experts say risks killing the endangered animals.

Mackie Greene, director of the Campobello Whale Rescue program, said Wednesday the group tried last week to free Snow Cone, a female who had been originally spotted entangled off Cape Cod, Mass., last spring. Greene said an American crew removed some of the rope at the time but had to call off their efforts because of bad weather, adding that the whale continued north into Canadian waters.

“She was spotted in May in the Gulf and we responded and were able to get 30 feet of rope off of the whale, but she still has rope wound in her mouth, in her baleen and some trailing lines,” he said.

Greene said his team was able to remove three pieces of rope last week, adding that the animal appears healthy and is feeding; however, he said, more rope needs to be removed. “Snow Cone has a pretty sad story,” Greene said. “She’s a female, born in 2005. The year before last she had a calf and was coming north and the calf was run down and killed.”

He says a larger, mature whale that’s also entangled in gear has been spotted about 80 kilometres northeast of Shippagan, N.B., in an area where all the right whales appear to be congregated. Unlike Snow Cone, Greene said it appears the whale likely became entangled in the Gulf — perhaps the result of fishing gear that had been lost.

Read the full story at The Toronto Star

Gulf of Saint Lawrence snow crab fishery withdraws from MSC, launches new FIP

June 16, 2021 — A new comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP) has been launched by New Brunswick and Quebec seafood processors and fishermen associations, which they hope will lead to reduced entanglements with North Atlantic right whales.

The main objective of the new FIP is to regain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the fishery, which was suspended for Area 12 and Sub-Areas 12 E and 12 F in 2018 due to incidents resulting in right whale deaths. As part of the launch of the new FIP, the fishery has “decided to withdraw” from the MSC program to focus its efforts on the improvements needed to regain certification – in part because the FIP would run past the expiration date of the suspended certification – according to a release by the recently launched “snow crab zone 12.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Births among endangered right whales highest since 2015

April 5, 2021 — North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than scientists have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all.

Survey teams spotted 17 newborn right whale calves swimming with their mothers offshore between Florida and North Carolina from December through March. One of those calves soon died after being hit a boat, a reminder of the high death rate for right whales that experts fear is outpacing births.

The overall calf count equals the combined total for the previous three years. That includes the dismal 2018 calving season, when scientists saw zero right whale births for the first time in three decades. Still, researchers say greater numbers are needed in the coming years for North Atlantic right whales to rebound from an estimated population that’s dwindled to about 360.

“What we are seeing is what we hope will be the beginning of an upward climb in calving that’s going to continue for the next few years,” said Clay George, a wildlife biologist who oversees right whale surveys for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “They need to be producing about two dozen calves per year for the population to stabilize and continue to grow again.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Slow Zones Extended Protect Right Whales: Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket

March 17, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On March 16, 2021, the New England Aquarium aerial survey team observed two aggregations of right whales. The aggregations were observed south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA and south of Nantucket, Island, MA. Both the Martha’s Vineyard, MA and Nantucket Island, MA Slow Zones are extended through March 31, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

South of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, March 7-31, 2021

41 21 N
40 41 N
070 15 W
071 06 W

South of Nantucket, MA, March 7-31, 2021

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

Extended Slow Zones to Protect Right Whales

March 1, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces the extension of three voluntary right whale Slow Zones (1) south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, (2) east of Boston, Massachusetts and (3) southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

On February 26, 2021, the New England Aquarium’s survey team observed the presence of right whales south of Nantucket. The Nantucket Slow Zone is in effect through March 13, 2021.

On February 27, 2021, Rutgers University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution slocum gliders detected the presence of right whales east of Boston, MA and southeast of Atlantic City, NJ. These Slow Zones are in effect through March 14, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through them at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

Southeast of Atlantic City, in effect through March 14, 2021

39 25 N
38 44 N
073 44 W
074 36 W

East of Boston, in effect through March 14, 2021

42 40 N
42 00 N
069 57 W
070 52 W

South of Nantucket, in effect through March 13, 2021

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

Protecting right whales: Advocates, fishermen say proposal needs more work

March 1, 2021 — A fatal collision that killed a baby whale and injured his mother in waters south of Brunswick is the latest impetus for advocates of whales to respond by the March 1 deadline for public comments on proposed federal rules intended to protect right whales.

The infant and his mother, named Infinity, were struck Feb. 12, off St. Augustine Inlet, Fl. The captain of a 54-foot sport fishing vessel reported that he’d driven over a whale. The boat began taking on water and the captain grounded the boat to prevent her from sinking, according to a report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. No human injuries were reported.

The 22-foot-long carcass of the infant whale washed ashore at Anastasia State Park. The mother, known in scientific circles as Catalog #3230, was spotted off the coast of South Georgia on Feb. 16, with “two new cuts on her left side suggestive of a vessel strike,” according to a report from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

This incident helped fuel an attendance of more than 300 at last week’s virtual public hearing on the proposed revision of a federal regulation regarding the protection of whales from commercial fishing gear. Attention to the plight of right whales is increasing as their numbers dwindle. Fewer than 350 of the mammals are thought to exist, according to a report issued Wednesday by the New England Aquarium, which has studied right whales for 40 years.

Read the full story at The Saporta Report

Study finds human-caused North Atlantic right whale deaths are being undercounted

February 25, 2021 — A study co-authored by scientists at the New England Aquarium has found that known deaths of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales represent a fraction of the true death toll. This comes as the death of a calf and recent sightings of entangled right whales off the southeastern United States raise alarm.

The study, published this month in Conservation Science and Practice, analyzed cryptic mortality of right . Cryptic mortality refers to deaths resulting from human activities that do not result in an observed carcass. The study’s authors combined data on whale encounters, , serious injuries, and necropsies from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Identification Database curated by the New England Aquarium with the serious injury and mortality database held by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The scientists concluded that known deaths of the critically  accounted for only 36% of all estimated death from 1990 to 2017.

“Our work has shown that 83% of identified right whales have been entangled one or more times in , and an increasing number of these events result in severe injuries or complex entanglements that the whales initially survive. But we know their health becomes compromised and they eventually succumb and sink upon death,” said Amy Knowlton, senior scientist with the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

‘Ropeless’ Lobster Fishing Could Save The Whales. Could It Kill The Industry?

February 22, 2021 — By using this technology, Martin eliminates the need to use vertical ropes which can be deadly for North Atlantic right whales diving for food. Rope entanglement is a leading cause of death for the mammals that can weigh as much as 70 tons. In fact, more than 85% of right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at least once, the majority multiple times, according to a report from the New England Aquarium.

Today, with an estimated 370 North Atlantic right whales remaining, the species is classified by the IUCN Red List as critically endangered, one step from extinction.

To save the whales from the brink, state authorities have instituted seasonal fishing closures in waters off New England. More protections from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, which some fishermen consider burdensome, are still pending.

Conservationists hope that fishermen like Rob Martin can prove ropeless fishing can save both the whales and the lobster industry.

Many lobstermen, though, say they prefer the closures to the technological leap they would have to make to adopt ropeless fishing.

Read the full story at NPR