Saving Seafood

Extended: Slow Speed Zone Southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey to Protect Right Whales

December 21, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In Effect through January 4

NOAA Fisheries is extending a Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone) southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

On December 20, 2020, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s acoustic array noted the presence of right whales southeast of Atlantic City.

Mariners, please go around this area or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

The SE Atlantic City Slow Zone is in effect through January 4 for waters bounded by:

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

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

Read the full release here

Extended: Slow Speed Zone in New York Bight to Protect Right Whales

December 21, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In Effect Until January 5

NOAA Fisheries is extending a Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone) in the New York Bight.

On December 21, 2020, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s acoustic array noted the presence of right whales southeast of New York, NY.

Mariners, please go around this area or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

The New York Bight Slow Zone is in effect until January 5 for waters bounded by:

40 41 N
40 01 N
073 03 W
073 55 W

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

Read the full release here

Scientists look for invasive crab ‘fingerprint’ in Alaska waters

December 18, 2020 — Scientists are on the lookout for an invasive crab species expected to move north into Alaskan waters. This year in Southeast Alaska, they added a new tool to the monitoring effort for European green crab, which is a threat to the state’s shellfish and salmon.

European green crab or shore crab have been expanding their range north along the Pacific coast. But this year they were discovered just south of the Alaskan border.

“This Haida Gwaii occurrence last summer puts them very close to us,” said Linda Shaw, invasive species coordinator for the Alaska regional office of NOAA Fisheries. “I really wish I could say we don’t expect them, but prudence dictates that we say, yes, we think it’s a matter of when, not if.”

In July, natural resources managers found male and female adult green crab in Haida Gwaii, formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Read the full story at KTOO

NOAA Fisheries Announces 2021 and 2022 Golden Tilefish Specifications and Emergency Action

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

NOAA Fisheries announces final quota specifications for the 2021 mid-Atlantic golden tilefish fishery and projected specifications for 2022. These catch limits are mostly status quo, with only a slight change in the final incidental quota to account for updated discard estimates.

ABC=Acceptable Biological Catch, ACL=Annual Catch Limit, ACT=Annual Catch Target, TAL=Total Allowable Landings

Additionally, we are implementing the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s request for emergency action to allow a one-time 5-percent carryover of unharvested individual fishing quota (IFQ) into the 2021 fishing year. This carryover allowance will help mitigate the adverse impact of regional closures of restaurants and fish markets during 2020. We will send IFQ quota shareholders a letter indicating how much quota they may carryover.

All other management measures and requirements remain unchanged. This includes the incidental landing limit of 500 lb (whole weight) or 50 percent (by weight) of all fish being landed, including tilefish, whichever is less. The recreational trip limit of eight fish per angler is also unchanged.

For more details on these specifications, read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register and our bulletin.

Atlantic Herring Fishery: Fishing Year Ends December 31

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

NOAA Fisheries reminds participants in the Atlantic herring fishery that the 2020 fishing year ends on December 31.

If you submit a vessel trip report with a landing date of December 31 or earlier, your catch will count against herring harvest limits for 2020.

If you submit a vessel trip report with a landing date of January 1 or later, your catch will count against herring harvest limits for 2021.

Please note, if the date reported by a federal dealer for your landings differs from the landing date on your vessel trip report, we will use the landing date on your vessel trip report to count your catch against harvest limits for a particular herring fishing year.

Questions?

Fishermen: Contact Carrie Nordeen, Sustainable Fisheries, 978-281-9272

Media: Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, 978-281-9175

Record Marine Heatwaves Build Reservoir of Toxic Algae Off the U.S. West Coast, New Study Reveals

December 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Repeated marine heatwaves off the U.S. West Coast starting about 2013 fueled record harmful algal blooms that seeded a region off Northern California and Southern Oregon with toxic algae, a new study has found. That reservoir of harmful algae has, in turn, spread across the West Coast and forced the closure of valuable Dungeness crab and other shellfish seasons every year since 2015.

This year, for example, toxic algae have closed Dungeness crab harvest and some clamming in Washington through December.

“We now can see that marine heatwaves have the ability to seed new offshore hotspots, like ocean ‘crock pots’ where blooms can develop in subsequent years,” said Vera Trainer, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and lead author of the new research.

Early Warnings

The good news, she said, is that offshore surveys and studies have unraveled the way toxic algae spreads through coastal waters. These data can help fisheries managers anticipate and mitigate the impacts. Scientists share that detailed information through regional bulletins that serve as an early warning system for harmful algal blooms.

That way, managers can focus closures in the most affected areas, for example, while others remain open. Or they can open fisheries earlier before the toxins build up in shellfish. The alert system has reduced the need for coastwide closures with widespread economic impacts.

“The most valuable tool we have is knowledge of how these events develop, so we know where to expect impacts, and which areas remain safe,” she said.

Read the full release here

Pacific Leatherback Turtles off the West Coast Disappearing, New Survey Shows

December 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Enormous Pacific leatherback turtles are so ancient they lived with the dinosaurs. Now a new survey shows that leatherbacks that forage off the U.S. West Coast are trending towards extinction in as little as a few decades.

These endangered turtles are the largest living turtles, weighing up to 1,500 pounds. They are fully protected in U.S. waters, likely the safest waters they traverse in their cross-Pacific migrations. After feeding on jellyfish and growing in U.S. waters, adult turtles migrate back west across the Pacific Ocean to beaches in Indonesia and Solomon Islands. That’s where they reproduce and females lay their eggs.

Biologists fear illegal, unregulated, or insufficiently regulated fishing on the high seas may catch and kill many leatherbacks on their year-long treks across the ocean. They also suffer from poaching and loss of habitat in their nesting areas.

“Probably the safest place for Pacific leatherbacks is in the West Coast Exclusive Economic Zone,” said research biologist Scott Benson of NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The Exclusive Economic Zone is the area where U.S. laws apply to 200 miles offshore. “It’s what happens in all of the other waters they are swimming through that really worries us.”

Benson is lead author of the new study of western Pacific leatherbacks, one of two populations of leatherback turtles in the Pacific, published last month in Global Ecology and Conservation.

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Announces 2021 Atlantic Bluefish Specifications

December 15, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces final 2021 specifications for the Atlantic bluefish fishery, as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in cooperation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. These specifications are similar to 2020. The only change is a reduction of 1.14 million pounds in the recreational harvest limit to account for higher than projected recreational discards in 2019.

The final 2021 coastwide commercial quota is 2,767,793 pounds, and the final recreational harvest limit is reduced to 8,344,914 pounds. There is no transfer between recreational and commercial sectors because the recreational fishery is expected to fully attain this harvest limit. This action does not change any other management measures, including the daily recreational bag limit of 3 fish per person for private anglers and 5 fish per person for for-hire (charter/party) vessels. The commercial state allocations for 2021 are provided in the following table. No state exceeded its allocated quota in 2019, nor is projected to do so in 2020; therefore, no commercial accountability measures are required in 2021.

Read the full release here

Slow Speed Zone Southeast of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

December 15, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is implementing a Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone) southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

On December 14, 2020 the New England Aquarium aerial survey team noted presence of right whales in this area triggering a slow zone.

Mariners, please go around this area or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

The Nantucket Slow Zone is in effect through December 29 for waters bounded by:

41 26 N
40 44 N
069 31 W
070 25 W

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

Read the full release here

Size of Alaska’s Western Aleutian Island Passes Larger than Previously Thought

December 15, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

There are thousands of small islands that comprise Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain, but only a few dozen significant passes among those islands. These passes are important bottlenecks for water exchange among the North Pacific, Gulf of Alaska, and the Bering Sea. However, until now there has been limited detail on estimates of pass location, size, shape, length, and depth.

“Flow estimates have been based on rough pass size estimates from over 50 years ago,” said Mark Zimmermann, fisheries biologist from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “We have updated information for eastern, western and central passes along the Aleutian Island chain. This new information will help oceanographers and ecologists better quantify impacts of water flow on Alaska marine ecosystems and better understand environmental and ecological changes that are taking place.”

Two new NOAA Fisheries’ studies provide more detail on the size and extent of the passes and the shoreline around the Aleutian Islands.

One study showed that all of the western-most Aleutian passes, from Kavalga to Semichi, are larger (18 to 71 percent) than previously reported. The last study was conducted for this area in the 1960s. This includes Amchitka Pass (+23 percent), the largest in the Aleutians.

The other study focused on the easternmost pass, False Pass, which posed a particular challenge for co-author Zimmermann. False Pass is unusual: it’s the only Aleutian pass that directly connects the shallow shelves of the western Gulf of Alaska and eastern Bering Sea. It is also the only pass with constricted southern and northern openings. We found this pass to have a single northern inlet to the Bering Sea—however, until recently it had two. This conflicts with current navigational charts, depicting two inlets to the Bering Sea now, compared to just one on the older charts (1926–1943).

“Our analysis of eastern pass sizes compared to the results of the 1960s study generated mixed results,” said Zimmermann. “In some cases, our pass size estimates were larger while in other cases they were smaller than previous estimates.”

In 2005, NOAA scientists updated information on some of the eastern and central passes. When Zimmermann looked at the two eastern passes from that study, he found that they were actually larger than previously thought. He also found that five central Aleutian passes were smaller than reported. The earlier study did not examine western pass sizes. The new studies include much more detailed information about the seafloor and shoreline that was not available at the time of the earlier analyses. As a result, they will be a great new resource for oceanographers and ecologists studying marine systems.

Read the full release here