Saving Seafood

Science is a strategy

July 13, 2023 — A first-in-the-U.S. pilot research project to develop sustainable practices for farming sablefish has now progressed to the point that a full-color sales sheet can boast to wholesalers about the “pearly white flesh, large velvety flakes, and sweet, rich flavor” of this native deep-sea fish, long a traditional food of the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.

The sablefish comes from the experimental net pens at the Manchester Research Station on Puget Sound in Washington, the result of a research collaboration and partnership among NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, and the University of Washington.  

While scientists have overcome many daunting challenges during the pilot project, social and political pushback against aquaculture cloud the future of exactly how and where commercial rollout will occur in the U.S. The precedent already exists in Canada at Golden Eagle Sablefish in British Columbia, which is producing sablefish in partnership with the Kyuquot-Checleseht First Nations.

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America

US FDA, NOAA release DNA barcode library to identify fish

July 13, 2023 — A team of researchers from NOAA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and other partners have released the first batch of fish DNA barcodes, curated DNA sequences that can be used to identify and authenticate seafood.

Identifying seafood after processing has removed any identifiable features is difficult – fillets of one species can look identical to another. DNA testing offers one solution and can provide concrete identification, but full genetic sequencing can be time-consuming. With DNA barcodes, scientists can sequence a short, standardized section of the DNA and compare it to a library of similar sequences to determine its species quickly and efficiently.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Sharks, Rays, and Climate Change: Impacts on Habitat, Prey Distribution, and Health

July 13, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

Climate change has significant impacts on marine ecosystems, including warmer ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and increased severity and frequency of storms. These shifting conditions can have critical effects on the health and distribution of marine species. As these climatic events intensify, predatory species like sharks and rays are shifting their geographic distributions based on prey and habitat availability. Their complex and variable life histories mean that climate change will impact individual species differently, making it important to understand species-specific vulnerabilities and needs.

In 2023, NOAA Fisheries celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, which has put many species on the path to recovery. Since it was enacted, no listed marine or anadromous species have gone extinct. However, climate change will continue to make the recovery of endangered species more challenging. Through climate-focused science and management, we aim to better understand the potential impacts of climate change on endangered species to foster their recovery into the future.

NOAA scientists say offshore wind fishery surveys won’t fill data gaps

July 11, 2023 — Monitoring plans by federal agencies and offshore wind power developers will not be enough to make up for the disruption that building dozens to hundreds of wind turbines will bring to annual fisheries surveys on the Northeast U.S. continental shelf, according to a recent report by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists.

“We found that project-level monitoring studies as currently designed for the NES (Northeast continental shelf) ecosystem will not yield information that can mitigate impacts to NOAA Fisheries scientific survey time series from offshore wind development,” wrote authors Elizabeth T. Methratta, Andrew Lipsky and Jason M. Boucher of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

With three wind turbine projects now approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management – and more in various planning stages from southern New England to the Carolinas – BOEM and NOAA recognized early that constructing wind turbine arrays would force changes on how NOAA conducts its annual at-sea surveys to monitor U.S. fish stocks and other marine resources.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Pacific News Minute: American Samoa’s tuna industry pressured by Biden’s plan

July 11, 2023 — A regional fishery council is warning that the Biden administration’s plan to block off U.S. territorial waters in the Pacific would end American Samoa’s tuna canning industry.

Commercial fishing is currently allowed within 50 to 200 miles of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

It’s made up of Baker, Howland, Jarvis Islands, Johnston, Wake, Palmyra Atolls and Kingman Reef.

However, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s proposal to expand the sanctuary would completely cover the U.S. exclusive economic zone.

Read the full article at Hawaii Public Radio

NOAA Fisheries wants to create a nationwide law enforcement database

July 11, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries wants to create a new national database to collect private and public information – including vehicle registrations, phone records, social media accounts, and more – to help its law-enforcement division conduct investigations.

The agency issued a notice in late June seeking contractors capable of building the new system. Companies currently have until 12 July to submit capability statements to NOAA Fisheries as they prepare an official solicitation.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Federal at-sea monitors have New England groundfishermen pushing back

July 10, 2023 — If longtime New Hampshire groundfisherman Dave Goethel were an I-told-you-so kind of guy, this would be his moment.

Goethel, a 2004 National Fisherman Highliner, was the plaintiff in a 2015 lawsuit, subsequently joined by Northeast Fishery Sector 13, that opposed NOAA’s requirement that fishing vessels pay upward of $700 per day for at-sea monitors.

The case was dismissed. A federal court said it should have been filed within 30 days of the observer program’s creation, not 30 days after NOAA later decided to charge fishermen.

Goethel’s appeal was dismissed as well.

If the courts got rid of his lawsuit, they couldn’t get rid of Goethel. Now retired, his name is on an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the Supreme Court case of Loper Bright Enterprises, a family-owned herring fishing company that is raising the same issue Goethel raised.

The issue as most of us relate to it is whether the Magnuson-Stevens Act implicitly grants NOAA the authority to compel fishermen to pay observer salaries. The underlying question, however, is how much leeway a federal agency has when implementing laws passed by Congress.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA is looking to add regulations for some boat speeds to help protect whales, but what are the impacts?

July 10, 2023 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is proposing stricter speed restrictions for boats in the Atlantic, and environmental groups and boating industry experts are sparring ahead of the administration’s December deadline.

NOAA’s proposed rule would expand on existing requirements by reducing the maximum speed limit for commercial and recreational boats of 35 feet or larger to 10 knots, or about 11.5 mph, in zones across the East Coast. Currently, speed reductions only affect boats 65 feet or larger.

“When you require a vessel to go under 11 miles an hour, which is roughly the speed you would ride your bicycle in your neighborhood, then you don’t take into account the sea conditions,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy.

Anglers said an exemption from going 10 knots if the National Weather Service has issued a gale-force warning isn’t adequate. A gale force warning is issued when winds hit 39 mph. But even at 35 mph, winds can cause safety issues for boaters and guests, he said.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

NOAA’s plan to slow boats ignites whale of a fight

July 9, 2023 — Capt. Fred Gamboa has led fishing trips off the New Jersey coast for the last 17 years, but he fears he will soon lose many customers if required to slow down his boats to meet new federal requirements to protect one of the most endangered whales in the ocean.

Gamboa, a charter boat operator from Point Pleasant, N.J., charges $4,800 to take people on an 18-hour tuna fishing trip 100 miles from shore. Under a new rule proposed by NOAA Fisheries, he’d have to travel at a top speed of roughly 11 ½ mph for part of the year, as opposed to his normal cruising speed of 30 to 40 mph.

“It would take nine to 10 hours to get out there — no customer would ever pay for that trip,” he said.

Gamboa, 56, and thousands of other boaters along the Atlantic coast are lobbying Congress to block NOAA’s plan. But NOAA officials say that forcing boats to slow down during certain times of the year is a matter of survival for the North Atlantic right whale, which are particularly vulnerable to collisions.

Boaters and the recreational fishing industry have flexed their political muscle by winning key allies from a growing chorus of NOAA critics on Capitol Hill, but they’re opposed by a united front of green groups that want the agency to act quickly before any more whales — there are only an estimated 340 whales now remaining — are killed by vessel strikes.

“We need seasonal slowdowns to protect right whales in danger zones, just like we have lower speed limits to protect children near schools,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney with Defenders of Wildlife.

Read the full article at E&E News

Slow US Customs and Border Protection system blamed for missed IUU investigations

July 9, 2023 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection is too slow in passing on information about potential illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing imports, making it difficult for NOAA Fisheries to conduct inspections, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

NOAA Fisheries manages four separate programs designed to stop the import of IUU products, but it cooperates regularly with CBP and other agencies to target potential IUU products being shipped into the United States. In 2019, for example, CBP, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and NOAA Fisheries worked together to discover that 32 Spanish companies were mislabeling albacore tuna as bonito to avoid higher tariffs. Through that investigation, CBP was able to recover USD 600,000 (EUR 550,110) in lost tariff revenue.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource