NOAA Fisheries Archives - Page 205 of 219

NOAA Expands Critical Habitat for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales

January 26, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Using new information not previously available, NOAA Fisheries is expanding critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region and southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

This final rule, which was initially proposed in February 2015 and received 261 general comments over a 60-day comment period, does not include any new restrictions or management measures for commercial fishing operations.

North Atlantic right whale mother and calf. Credit: Christin Khan/NOAA

“With two decades of new information and improved understanding since we first designated critical habitat for the species, we believe the expansion will further protect essential foraging and calving areas to further improve recovery of this animal,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “We’re making significant progress in reversing the population decline of the species, and are seeing signs of recovery – up to about 500 animals from the estimated 300 in 1994. But we still have a long way to get to complete recovery. “This rule is based on 35 years of aircraft and ship borne surveys of right whale distribution, research into foraging and prey availability to better understand right whale movements and life history. Together, these data provide a far more robust understanding of the factors critical to species recovery. Based on this information and public comments, NOAA scientists and managers determined a critical habitat expansion associated with feeding in the North and calving in the South is necessary for species recovery.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat within the range of the species consists of areas that contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of the species. The new designation does not create preserves or refuges or any other restrictions that directly affect the public. However, federal agencies conducting, funding or permitting activities in these areas, and project proponents that need federal permits or funding for such activities, are required to work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or reduce impacts on critical habitat.

Figure 1: Comparison of 1994 and 2016 Right Whale Critical Habitat Designations

Read the final rule, along with comments and responses, as filed in the Federal Register this morning.

Read the whole press release on our website.

California legislators call on Gov. Jerry Brown to declare crab fishery disaster

January 25, 2016 — A group of nine California legislators sent a bipartisan letter to Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday calling for him to declare a crab fishery disaster in order to help secure financial assistance for the state’s impacted fishing industry.

North Coast Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) were among the letter’s signatories.

“The delayed crab season is unprecedented in duration and magnitude and California crabbers need our help now more than ever,” McGuire said in a statement. “For the past three months, we have all been hopeful that we could kick off the harvest, but as the holidays came and went and acid levels remained too high, the statewide impact has been catastrophic.”

Read the full story at Eureka Times-Standard

Ohio Gov. Kasich and the New Hampshire Fishermen

January 25, 2016 — When John Kasich tells you that he is a skilled executive, believe him.

Governor Kasich met with several New Hampshire fishermen on 8 January. David Goethel, owner and captain of the 44-foot fishing trawler Ellen Diane, is suing NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for bureaucratic overreach and has explained his position in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Governor Kasich read the op-ed and as a result requested the meeting.

This was not a campaign stop. Nobody took names for a mailing list; nobody handed out bumper stickers. The governor was there to learn and to help.

The impromptu get-together was held indoors in the fish-processing bay at the Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative in Seabrook, N.H. The aroma of fish guts filled the air, reminding me of my school-day summers working on the fish pier in Gloucester.

There were several fishermen present – a small several, as years of government assistance have driven many from the business. The governor listened to them as they expanded their complaints beyond the scope of Mr. Goethel’s lawsuit. I couldn’t hear well, as the non-campaign stop lacked an audio system.

After a few minutes, Governor Kasich said, “OK, can I speak now?” and then went on in a loud but conversational tone to outline what needs doing. First and foremost, he said, get your congressional representatives involved. Have them write letters, forceful letters, to the executive branch. Get the powerful congressional leaders involved, Republicans and Democrats, like Senator Schumer among the latter group.

The fishermen told the governor that there had been several congressional letters in their behalf; all apparently fell on deaf ears. There are currently two letters relative to Mr. Geothel’s lawsuit sent to Dr. Sullivan, the head of NOAA, in early January. One was signed by nine senators and several House members from the five seacoast New England states. The other was from the tenth senator of the region, the obsequious Edward Markey.

Read the full story at American Thinker

NOAA scientist says federal fish counts suffer from ‘perception issue’

January 22, 2016 — WASHINGTON — It’s not easy counting fish. Just ask the people who have to do it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division is responsible for estimating the health and size of dozens of fish stocks in U.S. waters, measurements that help eight regional councils determine which fish commercial and recreational anglers are allowed to catch.

The accuracy of NOAA’s counts is at the heart of a national debate over whether to loosen current catch limits.

NOAA defends the data, obtained through a combination of sampling methods and statistical models. But recreational fishermen and their backers on Capitol Hill, who want to loosen the catch limits, claim they’re based on “flawed science.”

The debate comes as Congress considers reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the law that governs management of federal fisheries.

Richard Merrick, NOAA’s chief fisheries scientist, believes the fish counts are “statistically robust” but acknowledges NOAA could do a better job explaining how it conducts the counts and building trust among stakeholders.

Merrick recently talked with USA TODAY about why NOAA’s counts are under attack and options for improving them.

Read the full story at USA Today

Atlantic Salmon: A Species in Need of a Spotlight

January 22, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Atlantic salmon are an iconic New England species. In addition to the ecosystem role these fish play, they have been an important indicator of economic health in our region. Atlantic salmon once supported lucrative commercial and recreational fisheries, as well as the small bait shops, gear stores, and amenities for fishermen that contributed to the economy. Before this, Atlantic salmon were important to Native American tribes for historical and cultural reasons. Tribes relied on watersheds and their natural abundance of sea-run fish, including Atlantic salmon, for physical and spiritual sustenance.

In the 1900s Atlantic salmon from Maine were so highly valued that for more than 80 years, the first one caught in the Penobscot River each spring was presented to the U.S. President. The last Presidential salmon was caught in May 1992 by Claude Westfall, who presented a 9.5 pound Atlantic salmon to President George H.W. Bush. Westfall’s was the last presidential salmon. Now there too few adult salmon to sacrifice just one, even for the President.

Read the rest of the story about the iconic Atlantic salmon.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Proposed Specifications for 2016-2018 Mackerel, Squid, Butterfish Fisheries

January 22, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA

NOAA Fisheries Announces Proposed Specifications for 2016-2018 Mackerel, Squid, Butterfish Fisheries

NOAA Fisheries is requesting comments on proposed 2016-18 specifications and management measures for the Atlantic mackerel, squid, and butterfish fisheries.

We are proposing to decrease the Atlantic mackerel quota by 56 percent to 9,177 mt because catches have remained low since 2011,and the last stock assessment for mackerel was in 2010. Without a new stock assessment the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee decided to base the 2016-2018 Acceptable Biological Catch on 50% of the long-term median catch.

To keep the catch cap on river herring and shad in the mackerel fishery proportional with the quota, we are proposing to reduce it from 89 mt to 82 mt.

This action also proposes to require longfin squid and butterfish moratorium permit holders to use 3-inch mesh when possessing more than 5,000 lbs, up from 2,500 lbs, and to clarify that 5-inch (square or diamond) or greater strengtheners may be used outside the 3-inch mesh to avoid breaking nets during large hauls.

Finally, we propose to suspend the Pre-Trip Notification System (PTNS) requirement for longfin squid and butterfish moratorium permit holders.

To get all the details on these proposed specifications and management measures, read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register today and the background documents posted on our website.

We are accepting comments through February 22.

Please submit comments either through the online e-rulemaking portal or by mailing your comments to:

John Bullard, Regional Administrator

National Marine Fisheries Service

55 Great Republic Drive

Gloucester, MA, 01950.

Please mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the Proposed Rule for MSB Specifications.”

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

Read the full release at the NOAA Fisheries website

Secretary of Commerce approves measure to reduce Bering Sea halibut bycatch

January 20, 2016 — The following was released by the NOOA Alaska Regional Office:

The Secretary of Commerce has approved a fishery management plan amendment to reduce halibut bycatch in four sectors of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. NOAA Fisheries anticipates the amendment will reduce the actual amount of halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands by approximately 361 metric tons compared to 2014. It may also provide additional harvest opportunities in the directed commercial, personal use, sport, and subsistence halibut fisheries.

In recent years, the International Pacific Halibut Commission – the joint U.S.-Canadian body charged with management of Pacific halibut – has determined that the exploitable biomass of halibut has declined, particularly in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. This decline has resulted in reductions to the catch limits for the directed commercial halibut fishery in Area 4, in particular Area 4 CDE in the eastern and northern Bering Sea.

Groundfish fisheries–which seek to catch species like pollock and yellowfin sole–regularly encounter halibut as bycatch during their fishing operations.

In response to declining commercial catch limits for the directed commercial halibut fishery, in June 2015, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended reducing halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. The council’s recommendation was Amendment 111 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

Amendment 111 reduces the overall Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limit by 21% to 3,515 metric tons (mt). The PSC limits are reduced by specific amounts for the following groundfish sectors:

Amendment 80 sector by 25% to 1,745 mt;
BSAI trawl limited access sector by 15% to 745 mt;
BSAI non-trawl sector by 15% to 710 mt; and
Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program (CDQ sector) by 20% to 315 mt.

The Secretary approved Amendment 111 after determining that it is consistent with the national standards in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

NOAA Fisheries will publish a final rule for the measure this spring, which will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. For more information, visit NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional website.

Study: Gulf of Maine warming faster than thought

January 19, 2016 — The news just keeps getting worse for cold-temperature fish such as cod in the ever-warming waters of the Gulf of Maine.

A new study, conducted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers and appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Oceans, reached an ominous conclusion: the waters of the Gulf of Maine, which a previous study showed to be warming faster than 99.9 percent of the rest of the planet’s oceans, are continuing to warm at an accelerated rate and are expected to continue doing so for at least the next 80 years.

“The Gulf of Maine is really being subjected to a one-two punch,” said Vincent Saba, a NOAA Fisheries scientist and lead author of the study. “On one hand, the region is dealing with the elements of global warming being experienced in all of the oceans, but there also has been a change in the circulation of the two gulf streams that feed into the Gulf of Maine.”

The result, according to Saba, is that more of the warmer water contained in the shifting Gulf Stream is making its way into the Gulf of Maine from the south, while less of the colder water from the Arctic and Labrador streams are entering the gulf from the north and east.

“The Gulf of Maine really sits at the intersection of those two currents,” Saba said.

Saba said the climatic models used in the study project the warming trend could continue for the next 80 years, potentially rising another 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit and setting the stage for extreme and potentially ruinous changes in the region’s ecosystem.

Read the full story at The Salem News

The Lost Whaling Fleet is finally found

January 18, 2016 — During the summer of 1871, a mini-armada of American whaleships hunting for bowhead whales in the Arctic Ocean gambled against the weather, and lost. As the fleet sailed north, the temperature plummeted, and unrelenting winds pushed massive ice floes toward the coast, which first pinned the whaleships in place, and then began crushing their hulls. In the end, 32 whaleships were destroyed in what became the greatest single disaster in the history of American whaling.

For nearly a century and a half, the remains of those ships were hidden from view, but no longer. This past summer, archaeologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, using sonar and sensing technology, found the hulls of two whaling ships in the same area where the disaster occurred. These ships, whose discovery NOAA only recently made public, are almost certainly part of that ill-fated fleet.

The story of the so-called Lost Whaling Fleet is one of the most dramatic in America’s long and turbulent history of whaling. Since the mid-1800s, American whalers had been pursuing bowhead whales in the Arctic. These massive creatures, which can grow more than 60 feet long and weigh up to 100 tons, yielded as much as 300 barrels of oil, widely used for lighting.

But by the time the whaling fleet headed north in 1871, the whale oil market had been virtually eliminated. After the discovery of petroleum in 1859, an ever-increasing amount of that “black gold” was pumped from the ground and refined into a flood of cheap kerosene that ultimately displaced whale oil and other illuminants.

What the whalers of 1871 wanted from the bowheads was not oil, but the hundreds of strips of baleen that were hanging down from the roof of their mouths. Whales use this keratinous material, which when viewed from the side resembles a comb with hairy fringes on the inner edge, for feeding. Baleen was valuable because it was made into hoops for hooped skirts, and stays for stomach-tightening and chest-crushing corsets, which were fashionable at the time. Bowhead whales were especially prized, because they had the longest baleen of any whale, reaching lengths of nearly 14 feet.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Questions schooling around at-sea fishing monitors

January 16, 2016 — The battle over the cost and scope of at-sea monitoring of Northeast groundfish vessels, now being played out on various regulatory and legal platforms, promises a hectic end to the current fishing season and a complex start to the next.

There are no shortage of questions.

When will the federal government run out of money and shift the responsibility for paying for observers to the permit holders?
How will NOAA Fisheries respond to the recommendations from the New England Fishery Management Council that would significantly alter the at-sea monitoring program in the 2016 fishing season, which begins May 1?
How do the fishing sectors, once they are handed the responsibility of paying for observer coverage, negotiate new contracts with monitoring contractors when they don’t know what rules will be in place for the remainder of this fishing season and the beginning of the next?
Finally, what affect will the federal lawsuit, filed by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel seeking the elimination of the monitoring program, have on the process in the short and long terms?
“Knowing what the numbers are going to be and what the process is going to be is really important,” Northeast Seafood Coalition Executive Director Jackie Odell told the Gloucester Fishing Commission on Thursday night. “That kind of certainty is really essential.”

Presently, that certainty is nowhere to be found.

Proposed rule changes

Odell was before the board seeking its commitment to support the proposed rule changes for at-sea monitoring approved by the council in December. Those measures are designed to alter the methodology and cost of providing observer coverage to make the program more efficient and ease the ultimate burden of assuming the responsibility for paying for the coverage.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times