Saving Seafood

Trump’s proposed cuts to NOAA alarm Maine’s marine community

March 7, 2017 — A Trump administration proposal to slash funding for the federal government’s principal marine agency and eliminate the national Sea Grant program is prompting alarm in Maine’s marine sector because it depends on services provided by both.

President Trump wants to slash the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – the agency responsible for fisheries management, weather forecasting, nautical surveys and assisting marine industries – by 17 percent, The Washington Post reported Friday. And he wants to eliminate NOAA’s Sea Grant program, the marine equivalent of the federal agricultural extension and research service, in the fiscal 2018 budget, which begins Oct. 1.

“There was a lot of concern when the news broke, and a flurry of messages went out to our congressional delegation from fishermen and aquaculturists who understand how they benefit from Sea Grant,” said Paul Anderson, director of Maine Sea Grant at the University of Maine in Orono, one of 33 Sea Grant universities in the country. “I don’t now if on October 1st we will all of a sudden not exist.”

The news has sent reverberations across Maine’s marine community, which has long benefited from the partnership between UMaine and the federal government. Sea Grant researchers created the Fishermen’s Forum – the industry’s premier event – in 1976, and also helped found the Portland Fish Exchange and the university’s Lobster Institute, which researches issues of concern to the industry.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said the cuts to NOAA would be terrible for fishermen. “The industry relies pretty heavily on their forecast reports on the wind and the wave heights and make decisions day to day if they are going to go out, so those satellites are really important,” she said. “And nobody loves (the National Marine Fisheries Service), but keeping them fully funded and their research going is essential to manage our fisheries.”

She noted that recent cuts to the agency’s right-whale monitoring program had hurt fishermen because if scientists didn’t have time to find the whales, they had to assume they weren’t there, increasing the regulatory burden on lobstermen, whose gear the whales sometimes get entangled in.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Study finds preliminary recovery of coastal sharks in southeast U.S.

February 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science:

A new analysis of population trends among coastal sharks of the southeast U.S. shows that all but one of the 7 species studied are increasing in abundance. The gains follow enactment of fishing regulations in the early 1990s after decades of declining shark numbers.

Scientists estimate that over-fishing of sharks along the southeast U.S. coast—which began in earnest following the release of Jaws in 1975 and continued through the 1980s—had reduced populations by 60-99% compared to un-fished levels. In response, NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service in 1993 enacted a management plan for shark fisheries that limited both commercial and recreational landings.

Now, says lead scientist Cassidy Peterson, a graduate student at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, “We’ve shown that after over two decades of management measures, coastal shark populations are finally starting to recover and reclaim their position as top predators, or regulators of their ecosystem. Our research suggests we can begin to shift away from the era of  ‘doom and gloom’ regarding shark status in the United States.”

Joining Peterson in the study, published in the latest issue of Fish and Fisheries, were VIMS professor Rob Latour, Carolyn Belcher of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Dana Bethea and William Driggers III of NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and Bryan Frazier of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

he researchers say their study based on modeling of combined data from 6 different scientific surveys conducted along the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico between 1975 and 2014 provides a more accurate and optimistic outlook than previous studies based on commercial fishery landings or surveys in a single location.

“Data from shark long-lining operations or shark bycatch can be suspect,” says Peterson, “because what looks like a change in abundance might instead be due to changes in fishing gear, target species, market forces, or other factors.”

Research surveys are scientifically designed to remove these biases. Survey crews purposefully sample a random grid rather than visiting known shark hot spots, and strive to use the exact same gear and methods year after year to ensure consistency in their results.

But even with these safeguards, data from a single survey often aren’t enough to capture population trends for an entire shark species, whose members may occupy diverse habitats and migrate to different and far-flung areas depending on age and sex.

Read the full report at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science

New rules mandate circle hooks to protect dusky sharks

February 28, 2017 — The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has officially made final some new recreational shark fishing regulations to fulfill a legal obligation they have to provide additional conservation for dusky sharks which will likely take effect in 2018.

The news will probably confuse some anglers who know a thing or two about shark fishing and shark regulations as dusky sharks have been a no-take-prohibited species for more than a decade.

So how could they, and why would they initiate new fishing regulations for a fish anglers are not allowed to fish for in the first place?

The short answer to that question is that according to the (very questionable) catch data that NMFS has to work with, recreational anglers along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico are catching and keeping a fair number of dusky sharks that they mistakenly think are legal species of sharks.

According to NMFS, even though the reported number of dusky sharks harvested is low, they are required by law to do something that will help reduce the mortality of these sharks by the recreational fishery.

Read the full story at DelmarvaNow

Alaska Longline fleet awaits word on fishing season start

February 27, 2017 — Commercial longline fishing fleets in Alaska are awaiting word about whether the season for halibut and black cod will actually start on March 11th. That’s the date voted on for halibut fishing by the International Pacific Halibut Commission in January. Typically the National Marine Fisheries Service also opens long-line fishing for black cod on the same day. This year that’s all up in the air.

The reason for the uncertainty is an executive order from President Trump in January requiring for every one new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination. Trump also issued a 60-day freeze on new and pending regulations until they had been reviewed by the head of an agency appointed by the president.

The start dates for the fishing seasons require the publishing of regulations in the Federal Register. As of late February those regulations had not yet been published. During a recent stop in Ketchikan, Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said she’s trying to get to the bottom of what the president’s executive order means for Alaska fisheries.

“While I like the idea of eliminating some of the regulatory underbrush I think we recognize that in certain areas and this is exactly one of those we count on our agencies to be prompt and diligent in laying down these regs so that people can engage in their business and their livelihood,” Murkowski said. “We need to make that happen.” Murkowski said she didn’t yet know about whether the season would be able to start on March 11.

Read the full story at KFSK Community Radio

Rep. DeFazio increases fishermen catch limit

February 21, 2017 — The following has been released by the office of Representative Peter DeFazio:

Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) today cut through bureaucratic red tape in the Trump Administration and helped to secure an increased catch limit for groundfish species caught in the Pacific Northwest Region.

Every two years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sets a biennial catch limit for several groundfish species, such as canary and widow rockfish, caught in the Pacific Northwest region. Because of overfishing, the industry had not had access to healthy rockfish markets in decades.  Thanks to the efforts of Oregon fishers, the population has been rebuilt.  Due to the recovery of the species, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) substantially increased the catch limits for the 2017-2018 season.

Unfortunately, NMFS did not finalize the implementation prior to January 1, 2017. When President Trump took office, he instituted a 90-day freeze on all new federal regulations made after January 1, suspending the groundfish catch limit at the lower 2015-2016 levels.

Congressman DeFazio intervened with the Trump Administration and urged them to provide a waiver exempting the catch limit from the regulatory freeze. As a result of his efforts, after the Federal Register is published next week, groundfish fishermen in Oregon will immediately be able to fish at the higher 2017-2018 catch limit.

“Unfortunately, Oregon’s fishermen got caught in the Trump Administration’s blanket regulatory freeze, so I jumped in,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio.  “I’m happy that the White House provided an exception so we could help a critical industry in the Pacific Northwest.”

Read the full Press Release here

Feds to Analyze Environmental Impacts of Western Pacific Longline Fisheries for Bigeye and Tuna

February 17, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — HONOLULU — The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced on Monday that it will prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on the U.S. Pacific Island deep-set tuna longline fisheries, which target bigeye tuna.

The PEIS will analyze the environmental impacts of management of deep-set tuna longliners, which operate out of Hawaii, American Samoa, and the U.S. West Coast. The need for the proposed action is to manage deep-set tuna longline fisheries under an adaptive management framework that allows for timely management responses to changing environmental conditions, consistent with domestic and international conservation and management measures.

The PEIS will be developed in coordination with the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council based in Honolulu.

Tuna longline fisheries use two distinct gear types: shallow-set vessels target swordfish near the surface and deep-set vessels target tunas deeper than 100 meters.

The deep-set tuna longline fisheries have greater levels of vessel participation, fishing effort, catch, and revenue than the shallow-set fishery. NOAA Fisheries previously evaluated the effects of the shallow-set fishery, so it will not be included in this PEIS.

The primary deep-set tuna longline fisheries are the Hawaii and American Samoa longline fisheries. Access to the Hawaii longline fisheries is limited to 164 vessel permits, of which about 140 vessels are active. Of these active vessels, about 20 may also shallow-set during any given year. Most vessels in the Hawaii deep-set tuna longline fleet homeport in Hawaii and about 10 operate from ports on the U.S. west coast. These vessels target bigeye tuna.

Access to the American Samoa deep-set tuna fishery is limited to 60 permits. Historically, a few deep-set tuna longline vessels operated out of Guam and the CNMI, but these fisheries have been inactive since 2011.

“The PEIS is a proactive step in the management of deep-set tuna longline fisheries,” said Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds. “It streamlines environmental review for future management decisions and facilitates the ability of fisheries to adaptively respond to changing conditions.”

Management tools used for deep-set tuna longline fisheries include limited assess programs, vessel size limits, area constraints, observers, satellite-based vessel monitoring systems, gear configuration and specific handling and releasing bycatch methods.

Potential management issues include territorial bigeye tuna specifications and transfers, changes to permitting programs, and new gear requirements to further reduce bycatch.

Potential environmental, social and economic issues include the catch of target tuna and non-target (such as sharks) species, interactions with protected species, gear conflicts, and impacts on the ecosystem.

Public comments may be made at the scoping meetings listed below, sent electronically via the agency, or by mail to Michael D. Tosatto, Regional Administrator, NMFS Pacific Islands Region (PIR), 1845 Wasp Blvd., Bldg. 176, Honolulu, HI 96818.

Public scoping meetings on the PEIS will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 21 in Hilo and Feb. 23 in Honolulu, Hawaii; Feb. 28 in Utulei, March 1 in Tafuna and March 2 in Pago Pago, American Samoa; March 7 in Susupe, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI); and March 9 in Mangilao, Guam.

All comments must be received by April 14, 2017.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Ask a Scientist: Why NOAA matters for the West

February 17, 2017 — On Feb. 5,  Congressional Republicans, led by Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, released a press release asserting that one study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — which found a hypothesized “hiatus” in the planet’s warming trend to be nonexistent — was incorrect. According to the press release, NOAA “retroactively altered historical climate change data (which) resulted in the elimination of a well-known climate phenomenon known as the ‘climate change hiatus.’” The press release cited an interview with former NOAA employee John Bates in the British tabloid Daily Mail.

The research done by current NOAA scientists, and published in the prestigious research journal Science in June 2015, concluded that the “hiatus” was an artifact of the source of their sea surface temperature measurements, and not an actual reflection of climate trends. The new work presented a more accurate climate change model based on a comprehensive look at available global data.

It’s not the first time the agency has gotten tied up in political wrangling. NOAA was created in 1970 when former President Richard Nixon combined several federal agencies. Its roots stretch back to the 1800s, though, when Americans began to make large scale, coordinated efforts to take the measure of their world: Their financial wellbeing—and their lives—depended on it. The young nation lacked even the most basic standardized information about its weather or coasts. Early agencies that eventually became NOAA worked to fill the gaps. These efforts have not always been well received in the halls of government.

In 1870, for example, former President Ulysses Grant created the Office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries — precursor to NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates the nation’s commercial and recreational ocean fishing — to investigate why Eastern commercial fisheries were collapsing. Some Congressional Republicans ridiculed the idea, moving to include an investigation into the state of the nation’s grasshoppers and potato bugs.

Political drama aside, NOAA’s mission is to “understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.” High Country News recently asked Waleed Abdalati, director of the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) — a joint program with NOAA based in Boulder — to explain NOAA’s work and how it impacts Westerners. Research topics at CIRES range from the effects of climate change on Western water to the effects of hydraulic fracturing on air quality.

Abdalati, a former chief scientist for NASA, got his PhD from the University of Colorado in 1996 for work on the Greenland ice sheet. Today, his graduate students continue those studies, trying to understand how its melt contributes to rising sea levels.

High Country News: What kinds of things does NOAA do out West?

Waleed Abdalati: We say NOAA’s “from the surface of the sun to bottom of the ocean and everything in between.”

We have a global monitoring division here that basically monitors what’s in our air and where it came from — things like ozone, methane released from fracking, trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

We’re also developing systems that improve weather forecasts and systems, and help us understand how our climate is changing and why, and the implications for water resources out West.

An aspect of NOAA’s work that doesn’t get a lot of attention is the Space Weather Prediction Center. A lot of people don’t realize the sun has weather! Our satellite systems, our navigation systems – a lot of the electronics that we rely on – are vulnerable to major events from solar activity. So there’s a whole enterprise here that’s working to understand what the sun is doing.

Another area that NOAA works in is called the National Centers for Environmental Information, which are the stewards of environmental information.

Read the full interview at High Country News

Fifth Circuit sides with commercial fishermen in Gulf red-snapper case

February 12, 2017 — In a dispute pitting recreational anglers against commercial fishermen in the management of red snapper in Gulf waters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has sided with the interests of the Charter Fisherman’s Association.

The Coastal Conservation Association and other private fishermen sued the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries and others in federal court in New Orleans in April 2015 challenging a rule that regulates the recreational sector of Gulf of Mexico red snapper.

Known as Amendment 40 to the Reef Fishery Management Plan, the rule adopted earlier in 2015 calls for “increased flexibility in future management of the recreational sector in order to reduce the likelihood of recreational-quota overruns, which could negatively impact the rebuilding of the red-snapper stock,” the opinion stated.

Read the full story at the Louisiana Record

NMFS fisheries regulation potentially affected by Trump executive order

February 8, 2017 — President Donald Trump’s executive order directing all federal agencies to repeal two existing regulations for each new one is affecting the ability of the National Marine Fisheries Service to regulate the U.S. fishing industry, according to industry groups and two Democratic U.S. representatives.

According to a letter sent to President Trump by House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl Grijalva and Water, Power, and Oceans Subcommittee Ranking Member Jared Huffman, the executive order will prevent NMFS from opening or closing commercial and recreational fishing seasons in federal waters; making in-season adjustments to conservation and management measures; or implementing new or revised fishery management plans without first seeking a waiver from the Trump administration.

“All fisheries that take place in federal waters require regulatory action to open and close season, set catch limits, modify conservation and management measures, or adjust participation eligibility requirements,” the letter said. “In many cases, multiple regulations must be enacted each year for a single fishery and that is a good thing – American fishermen depend on active, science-based management to ensure that their individual operations and their industry are economically and environmentally sustainable.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

North Pacific council director a possibility for top fish post

February 8, 2017 — It would make sense for an expert on Alaska to oversee the nation’s fisheries, even if he is a Texan.

Chris Oliver, the executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for the past 16 years, didn’t ask for a consideration as the new assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service; rather, the most powerful fishing industry voices in the nation’s most profitable region asked.

He doesn’t know if the new administration will offer it or if he’d want it if it did.

Still, looking at his history, knowledge and reputation, he seems in many ways a natural fit.

“There’s no guarantee…that I would say yes if they offered it to me,” he said after the North Pacific council wrapped up its recent meeting Feb. 6 in Seattle. “But I’ve got a lot of people who’ve expended a lot of effort, and my understanding is I’ve got a pretty strong backing from our congressional delegation. I’m inclined to do it because it interests me.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce