Saving Seafood

Red Grouper Reallocation by NOAA Fisheries Punishes Commercial Fishermen and Seafood Consumers, Jeopardizes Red Grouper Sustainability

May 2, 2022 — The following  was released by A.P. Bell Fish Company, the Gulf of Mexico Reef Shareholders’ Alliance, and the Southern Offshore Fishing Association:

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries formally published their decision to take fish from commercial fishing families, the seafood supply chain, and the seafood consumers they serve. The publication of the Final Rule implementing Amendment 53 to the Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan comes despite NOAA Fisheries admitting that doing so will increase recreational discards, put more strain on the recovery of this species, and reduce the amount of red grouper that all fishermen can enjoy in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Red grouper is the foundation of my family’s business that has existed in Florida for more than 80 years,” said Karen Bell, third-generation owner and President of A.P. Bell Fish Company located in Cortez, Florida. “We pride ourselves on catching and serving our customers fresh, wild, sustainably-caught red grouper from the Gulf of Mexico. Now NOAA Fisheries is making it difficult for us to serve our customers and stay in business.”

The ostensible purpose of Amendment 53 is to account for new data from NOAA Fisheries based on the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) Fishing Effort Survey (FES), which indicated the recreational sector catches more red grouper than previously estimated. But instead of using these new data to spark a discussion about better management and more accountability to ensure all fishermen stay within their catch limits, NOAA Fisheries and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Gulf Council) chose to use these new data to literally “rewrite history” to justify taking 32% of the commercial sector’s quota and giving it to the recreational sector.

“Somehow NOAA Fisheries took this new recreational FES survey, magically revised 35 years of data about what recreational anglers caught in the past, and told us that commercial fishermen need to give up some of our quota so these anglers get more fish to catch in the future,” said Ed Maccini, president of the Southern Offshore Fishing Association (SOFA), based in Madeira Beach, Florida. “But unlike commercial fishermen who report and weigh every pound of fish we land, recreational anglers don’t have to report what they catch or even be accurate in what they choose to report. It’s all basically guesswork by NOAA Fisheries. And now they’re taking our quota away based on these highly uncertain and wildly changing estimates.”

Commercial fishermen remain baffled as to why NOAA Fisheries would make such an anti-conservation decision when the red grouper stock recently reached some of the lowest levels on record. Furthermore, according to the Gulf Council’s own analysis, rewarding the recreational sector with more allocation “is more likely to result in an overfishing or eventual overfished status of red grouper.”

“This is a lose-lose-lose situation: our businesses are taking a hit, seafood consumers are taking a hit, and the health of the red grouper stock is taking a hit,” said Jason DeLaCruz, owner of Wild Seafood Co. in John’s Pass, Florida. “The commercial sector is stuck with getting a smaller slice of a smaller pie, yet the recreational sector is allowed to throw back more than 3.7 million red grouper every year, and a few years back they threw back more than 6 million red grouper – that’s more fish than commercial fishermen are allowed to land. Amendment 53 reduces everyone’s quotas so that the recreational sector can discard more fish. It’s such a waste.”

The public opposition to Amendment 53 has been overwhelming – all told, more than 99.3% of all testimony recently submitted to NOAA Fisheries opposed Amendment 53. This opposition came from a wide range of industries and sectors including:

  • Commercial fishermen
  • Commercial fishing organizations (in the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the country)
  • Federal commercial fishing coalitions (representing commercial fishermen from Alaska to California to Maine to the Gulf of Mexico)
  • The restaurant industry
  • The seafood supply chain
  • Charter/for-hire fishermen and fishing organizations
  • Scientists
  • Economists
  • Environmental organizations
  • Lawyers/legal advisors, and
  • Seafood consumers (literally thousands of them)

“Amendment 53 is illegal. Period,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, based in Galveston, Texas. “It maximizes discards, unfairly penalizes commercial fishermen by taking away their quota to cover dead discards by recreational anglers, and increases the risk of overfishing. This is opposite of what Congress intended when it adopted the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.”

Recommended 2022 Species Recovery Grants Projects

May 2, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries is recommending roughly $6.2 million in funding for state and tribal projects through its Species Recovery Grants Program. Around $3.6 million in funding is proposed for 12 new awards to eight states, a territory, and one federally recognized tribe. Another $2.6 million will support the continuation of 13 multi-year projects that were approved in prior grant cycles.

States and tribes play an essential role in conserving and recovering species. Threatened or endangered species under NOAA Fisheries’ jurisdiction may spend all or part of their lifecycle in state or tribal waters. Successfully conserving these species depends largely on working cooperatively with states and tribes. This year’s proposed projects support our state and tribal partners in a range of activities, such as:

  • Assessing and monitoring endangered and threatened species presence and status, including evaluating abundance, spawning, and foraging behaviors
  • Collecting demographic and genetic information to improve understanding of population distribution, habitat use, and impacts of human threats
  • Increasing the number of individuals for outplanting by improving captive reproduction, health, and survival of an endangered species
  • Assisting with animal stranding responses
  • Determining the importance and assessing threats of specific prey populations to the diet of endangered species
  • Engaging the public in conservation of Endangered Species Act-listed species

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

 

New Rule Focuses on Improving Survival of Hooked Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

April 29, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries, working with Hawaiʻi longline fishermen and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, has taken a big step in protecting threatened oceanic whitetip sharks.

A new regulation, effective May 31, 2022, prohibits the use of wire leaders in the Hawaiʻi deep-set longline fishery in favor of monofilament nylon leaders. This is a change that longline fishermen started on their own in November 2020.

Oceanic whitetip sharks were once one of the most abundant sharks in the ocean. Today, they are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Oceanic whitetips are top predators and play a critical role in the ecosystem by maintaining the populations of species below them in the food chain. In the hunt for a meal, oceanic whitetips are sometimes caught unintentionally (or hooked) in longline fisheries as bycatch—one of the greatest threats to their survival. The switch to nylon leaders is estimated to increase the survival rates of hooked whitetips by more than 30 percent!

“The Hawaiʻi fishing fleet sets the standard for longline tuna fishing, with high levels of observer coverage and strong regulations to limit the effects of the fishery on protected species,” said Michael Tosatto, Regional Administrator, NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office. “These new regulations to protect oceanic whitetip sharks continue this long legacy of responsible fishing in the Pacific Islands region. We hope fishing fleets around the world will adopt these practices.”

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

NOAA announces $6.2 million in endangered species recovery grants

April 29, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Communications:

NOAA Fisheries is proposing 12 new projects and the continuation of 13 multi-year projects under the Species Recovery Grants Program, with up to $6.2 million in new funding. The program supports management, research, monitoring and outreach activities that have direct conservation benefits for endangered species.

Up to $3.6 million in funding for new awards are proposed for projects in Alaska, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Florida, Maryland, Oregon, Puerto Rico and to the Makah Tribe. And up to $2.6 million in funding will continue to support 13 existing projects approved through prior grant cycles.

“States and tribes play an essential role in conserving and recovering species,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, and acting assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and deputy NOAA administrator. “NOAA is responsible for endangered species that may spend all or part of their lifecycle in state waters, and successful conservation depends on our cooperation with valued state and tribal partners.”

This year’s recommended projects support our state and tribal partners in a range of activities, such as:

• Assessing and monitoring endangered and threatened species, including evaluating abundance, spawning and foraging behaviors.

• Collecting demographic and genetic information to improve understanding of population distribution, habitat use and impacts from human threats.

• Assessing the impacts of climate change on species’ predator-prey interactions, and population distribution, abundance and recovery.

• Improving captive reproduction, health and survival of endangered species.

• Assisting with animal stranding responses.

• Assessing threats of specific prey populations to the diet of endangered species.

• Engaging the public in conservation of Endangered Species Act-listed species.

The Species Recovery Grant Program began in 2003 and is an example of how NOAA advances funding opportunities and partnerships towards recovering species while supporting our mission of preserving marine resources for future generations.

During this period of the selection process, the application approval and obligation of funds is not final. Each application is being “recommended” for funding. This is not an authorization to start the project and is not a guarantee of funding. A complete list of funded projects to states and tribes is available online. Awardees will be notified directly when applications are approved in the coming months. For more information about this year’s proposed projects, please visit the NOAA Fisheries website.

 

Right whale defenders question energy industry donations

April 27, 2022 — A group opposing wind projects off the coast of Massachusetts released a report Tuesday that documents contributions from wind energy developers to environmental groups in the state, donations that the authors of the report say cast questions on the ability of groups to analyze the impacts that wind projects have on the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

The report, released by the Save Right Whales Coalition, catalogs $4.2 million between wind developers like Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind, and Orsted to environmental groups in Massachusetts such as the Environmental League of Massachusetts, New England Aquarium, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The flow of money, coalition member Lisa Linowes said, raised a “red flag” for potential conflicts of interest when it comes to investigating the environmental impacts of offshore wind development in places where the North Atlantic Right Whale resides. The whale is one of the most endangered large whale species in the world, according to NOAA Fisheries.

“The public has come to trust the word of these organizations, that when they say wind turbines can be safely sited within and near the waters where the right whale lives, breeds, feeds, that they will be safe,” Linowes said. “Based on their public statements and based on the donations … we should question the priorities of these organizations.”

The Save Right Whales Coalition study says the New England Aquarium received a “donation pledge” of $250,000 in 2018 from Bay State Wind, a joint venture between Orsted and Eversource during the 2019 procurement process for offshore wind energy, an undisclosed amount from Vineyard Wind in 2019, and an undisclosed amount in 2020 from Equinor, a petroleum company with offshore wind ventures.

Read the full story at WHDH

New global forecasts of marine heatwaves foretell ecological and economic impacts

April 22, 2022 — Researchers have developed global forecasts that can provide up to a year’s notice of marine heatwaves, sudden and pronounced increases in ocean temperatures that can dramatically affect ocean ecosystems.

The forecasts described in the journal Nature could help fishing fleets, ocean managers, and coastal communities anticipate the effects of marine heatwaves. One such heatwave, known as “the Blob,” emerged about 2013 in the northeast Pacific Ocean and persisted through 2016. It led to shifting fish stocks, harmful algal blooms, entanglements of endangered humpback whales, and thousands of starving sea lion pups washing up on beaches.

“We have seen marine heatwaves cause sudden and pronounced changes in ocean ecosystems around the world, and forecasts can help us anticipate what may be coming,” said lead author Michael Jacox, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Monterey, California, and NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

Marine heatwave forecasts will be available online through NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory. The researchers called the forecasts a “key advance toward improved climate adaptation and resilience for marine-dependent communities around the globe.”

Read the full story at ScienceDaily

Protect the North Atlantic right whales: are you ready for the deadline?

April 22, 2022 — Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fishermen have until May 1, 2022, to make the necessary gear modifications to help protect North Atlantic right whales. Are you ready?

Announced last fall, the final rule to implement new measures to protect North Atlantic right whales is fast approaching. As compliance assistance is in place to support fishermen changing gear to protect right whales, the National Marine Fisheries Service Greater Atlantic regional administrator Michael Pentony says “these regulations are critical to protecting the endangered North Atlantic right whale and keeping this valuable and important fishery open for business.”

In a “leadership message” April 20, Michael Pentony said “most participants in the Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fishery are nearly finished with the needed gear modifications and ready for the deadline. However, unanticipated supply chain delays are preventing some of the fleet from fully coming into compliance.”

“I want to assure fishermen who are making good faith efforts to comply with these new measures but are not able to procure compliant gear that we understand the difficulty of their situation,” Pentony added. “We are working closely with our state and federal enforcement partners to implement a graduated enforcement effort that will focus on compliance assistance rather than civil penalties until we have determined that localized supply chain issues have been sufficiently resolved.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA acknowledges shortage of gear to protect whales

April 22, 2022 — The federal government is acknowledging that supply chain issues will prevent all lobstermen from having gear needed to protect North Atlantic right whales before a May 1 deadline.

The rules will still go into effect on that date, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it will use a “graduated enforcement effort” until supply problems are resolved.

“I want to assure fishermen who are making good faith efforts to comply with these new measures but are not able to procure compliant gear that we understand the difficulty of their situation,” wrote Michael Pentony, NOAA Fisheries’ Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic regional administrator, in a letter.

“We are working closely with our state and federal enforcement partners to implement a graduated enforcement effort that will focus on compliance assistance rather than civil penalties until we have determined that localized supply chain issues have been sufficiently resolved,” he continued.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Northeast midwater trawl exclusion zone won’t be enforced – for now

April 21, 2022 — The New England inshore waters are effectively open again for midwater trawling, after the National Marine Fisheries Service decided not to enforce the exclusion zone struck down by a federal court ruling.

In a terse email advisory Thursday, NMFS officials said a March 29 order by U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin now means the restricted area regulations – a key feature of Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan – means “the inshore midwater trawl restricted area regulations are not in effect and will not be enforced.

“NOAA Fisheries retains its opportunity to seek review of the court’s vacatur order, including to seek a stay of the court’s vacatur order pending appeal, and is considering its options,” according to the agency statement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Survey identifies top tech needs of US seafood harvesters

April 21, 2022 — A survey performed by the Seafood Harvesters of America, along with NOAA Fisheries scientists, Conservation X Labs, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, and the Alaska Ocean Cluster has identified the most-pressing needs of U.S. fishermen.

The survey, which had 186 respondents, asked members of the fishing industry what their top technology needs are. The survey found “clear opportunities” for new technology in commercial fishing to make it safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource