Saving Seafood

Secretary of Commerce approves disaster declarations in AK and WA

December 16, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced today her determination that fishery disasters occurred in multiple Alaska and Washington fisheries over the last several years, including the Alaska Bristol Bay Red King Crab and Bering Sea Snow Crab fisheries. The Secretary, working with NOAA Fisheries, evaluates fishery disaster requests based on data submitted by a state and/or tribe. 

“America’s fisheries are a critical part of our national economy and directly impact our local communities when disasters occur,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These determinations are a way to assist those fishing communities with financial relief to mitigate impacts, restore fisheries and help prevent future disasters.” 

The Secretary found that the following fisheries met the requirements for a fishery disaster determination:

  • 2022/2023 Alaska Bristol Bay Red King Crab and Bering Sea Snow Crab fisheries.
  • 2021/2022 Alaska Bristol Bay Red King Crab and Bering Sea Snow Crab fisheries.
  • 2021 Alaska Kuskokwim River Salmon, Norton Sound Chum and Coho Salmon fisheries.
  • 2021 Chignik Salmon fishery.
  • 2020 and 2021 Alaska Norton Sound Red King Crab fisheries.
  • 2020 Washington Ocean Salmon fisheries.
  • 2020 Copper River/Prince William Sound Coho and Pink Salmon fisheries.
  • 2019 Washington Columbia River, Willapa Bay and Puget Sound Salmon fisheries.

A declared fishery disaster must meet specific requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and/or the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. For example, there must be a commercial fishery failure and significant declines in fishery access or available catch resulting from specific allowable causes such as natural causes beyond the control of fishery managers to mitigate. 

Positive determinations make these fisheries eligible for disaster assistance from NOAA, pending the availability of Congressionally appropriated funds. They may also qualify for disaster assistance from the Small Business Administration. See a summary of fishery disaster determinations, including this announcement, and learn more about fishery disaster assistance.

NOAA Fisheries Announces $2.3M to Support Bycatch Reduction Projects

December 16, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries is pleased to announce the 2023 federal funding opportunity which includes $2.3 million available to support applied management projects and activities under the agency’s Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program, also known as BREP. The funding opportunity outlines five high priority areas including developing innovative and effective technologies, further testing and development of technologies or gear modifications that have already been piloted, improving understanding of post release mortality, developing techniques to reduce interactions between corals and sponges, and international bycatch issues. Non-federal researchers working on the development of improved fishing practices and innovative gear technologies are eligible to apply for funding. The deadline for pre-proposals is January 20, 2023. Full proposals are due April 3, 2023.

Bycatch reduction is a priority for NOAA Fisheries. Bycatch can contribute to overfishing, threaten endangered and threatened species and protected marine mammals, and can close fisheries, significantly impacting U.S. economic growth. For more information on the Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) and program impacts to date, visit NOAA Fisheries’. 

 

NOAA Fisheries seeking comments on plan for abundance-based management of halibut

December 12, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would implement Amendment 123 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) management area.

If approved, the proposed rule would put into place abundance-based management of Amendment 80 trawl sector prohibited species catch limit for Pacific halibut.

Amendment 80’s sector is a fleet of nearly 20 trawl catcher-processor vessels that target Pacific cod, Pacific Ocean perch, Atka mackerel, and Rock, Yellowfin, and Flathead, solely in the Bering Sea.

Read the full article at KINY

Uncertainty scuttles right whale recommendations

December 12, 2022 — The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team ended a two-day virtual meeting on Friday, December 2 without reaching consensus on new recommendations aimed at protecting the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The team—fishermen, scientists, conservationists, and state and federal officials from Maine to Florida—had been charged with advising the National Marine Fisheries Service on a new draft Environmental Impact Statement required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

The team was asked to develop and vote on a package of measures that would further reduce the risk of right whale mortality in the North Atlantic by about 90 percent. While the new measures would introduce changes up and down the U.S. East Coast, they would have hit Maine lobstermen particularly hard. Proposed restrictions would have included a 400-trap limit for all fishermen in Lobster Management Area 1 (which includes the entire coast of Maine), expanded the timeframes of existing closures, and introduced a 100 percent weak rope requirement, among other measures.

“It was pretty significant,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and a member of the team. “Which is why every member of the team from Maine voted against it.”

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comment on Plan for Abundance-Based Management of Halibut in the Bering Sea

December 10, 2022 — The following was released by the NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would implement Amendment 123 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) management area. If approved, the proposed rule would establish abundance-based management of Amendment 80 trawl sector prohibited species catch limit for Pacific halibut.

The Amendment 80 sector is a fleet of nearly 20 trawl catcher-processor vessels that target Pacific cod, Pacific Ocean perch, Atka mackerel, and Rock, Yellowfin, and Flathead sole in the Bering Sea.

This action was initiated by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council at its December 2021 meeting. It is necessary to minimize halibut prohibited species catch to the extent practicable without compromising the ability to attain optimum yield in the BSAI groundfish fisheries.

Pacific halibut is fully utilized in Alaska as a target species in subsistence, personal use, recreational, and commercial halibut fisheries. Halibut has significant social, cultural, and economic importance to fishery participants and communities throughout its geographical range.

Halibut is also incidentally taken as bycatch in groundfish fisheries. The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Fishery Management Plan currently apportions the halibut prohibited species catch limit between the Amendment 80 sector and the BSAI trawl limited access sector. It sets the annual halibut mortality PSC limit for the Amendment 80 sector at 1,745 metric tons.

In recent years, catch limits for the commercial halibut fishery in the BSAI have declined in response to changing halibut stock conditions. Limits on the maximum amount of halibut PSC allowed in the groundfish fisheries have remained constant.

As halibut abundance declines, the PSC limit becomes a larger proportion of total halibut removals. The Amendment 80 sector is accountable for the majority of the annual halibut PSC mortality in the BSAI groundfish fisheries.

Amendment 123 is consistent with the Council’s purpose and need statement for this amendment. It will prevent halibut PSC from becoming a larger proportion of total removals in the BSAI as halibut abundance declines. The Amendment 80 halibut PSC limit should decline in proportion to reduced amounts of halibut available for harvest by all users.

Amendment 123 would replace the current Amendment 80 sector static halibut PSC level of 1,745 metric tons. It would establish a process for annually setting the halibut PSC limit for the Amendment 80 sector based on the most recent halibut abundance estimates.

Read the full release here

STEFAN AXELSSON: Time to Toss the Administrative State Overboard

December 10, 2022 — The following is an excerpt from an opinion piece published in National Review by Stefan Axelsson. Stefan is a third-generation fisherman from Cape May, New Jersey, and is the captain of the fishing vessel Dyrsten.

If you’re a good driver, you follow the rules of the road, obeying the speed limit, coming to full stops at stop signs, and yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks. And that ought to be enough. But now imagine that the government mandated you carry a state trooper in your passenger seat, one assigned to ensure you obey every traffic law at all times — and one whose salary you were obligated to pay out of your own pocket.

Sound far-fetched? It’s not. Something similar is happening to me today.

I make my living fishing out of Cape May, N.J. While I don’t have a state trooper riding in my car, the federal government makes me carry a monitor on my vessel to observe my activities and report back to the government.

And yes, the government wants to force me to pay the monitor directly — at least when I fish for herring — at a cost of more than $700 a day. That comes on top of an obligation to provide the monitor with a bunk and meals during what can be days-long outings. At times, the monitor is the highest-paid person on the boat, outearning both the captain and the crew.

Federal law gives NOAA the power to force me to carry a monitor on my boat, but it doesn’t give the agency the power to make me pay for the monitor. If Congress had passed a law that allowed NOAA to force herring fishermen to pay for monitors, we could at least use our voices and our votes to check the lawmakers who’d voted for it. But since in this instance a federal agency has tried to do the same thing through an unconstitutional, unilateral power grab, we’ve been forced to settle the issue in the courts.

Our case seemed like a slam dunk to me until I learned about “Chevron deference,” a legal doctrine established in a 1984 Supreme Court decision that effectively requires judges to cede their authority to interpret the law to federal bureaucrats. Judges are supposed to be a check on executive-branch abuses, but Chevron deference turns that upside down and transforms judges into rubber stamps for the whims of the federal bureaucracy.

Read the full opinion piece at National Review

An additional editorial on the issue was recently published by the Washington Times. Read the editorial here.

Addressing the possible impact of offshore wind

December 8, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced in a press release a joint strategy “to address potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on NOAA Fisheries’ scientific surveys.” The 37-page “Federal Survey Mitigation Strategy” underscored “the agencies’ shared commitment to the Biden-Harris administration’s clean energy goals of responsibly advancing offshore wind energy production while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use.” The White House has a goal of increasing the nation’s offshore wind energy capacity to 30 gigawatts by 2030, and an additional 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind technology by 2035, according to the release.

According to the release, NOAA Fisheries’ scientists have collected survey data for 150 years that “form the basis of the science-based management of America’s federal fisheries,” including the protection of marine wildlife and increasing understanding and care for coastal and marine habitats and ecosystems.

Read the full article at MV Times

Can big data save the ocean?

December 8, 2022 — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the National Marine Sanctuaries, a crowning conservation achievement akin to National Parks. Places with this designation protect 620,000 square miles of beautiful and diverse ocean and Great Lakes habitats for future generations. By protecting ecosystems and sustainable fisheries, as well as promoting tourism and recreational opportunities, the sanctuaries and other coastal habitats contribute $160 billion to the $373 billion blue economy, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates. Sanctuary managers are turning to new information technology to identify emerging threats to ocean life caused by the absorption of excess heat and carbon dioxide produced by human industrial activity.

From 2014-2015, a massive marine heat wave, dubbed “the blob,” developed in the Gulf of Alaska and spread down the West Coast triggering a cascade of harmful events from Washington to Southern California. Higher ocean temperatures can stress ecosystems by decreasing marine productivity and oxygen levels and disrupting the balance of microscopic algal species, called phytoplankton, to favor harmful species. Some toxic algae produce high levels of a neurotoxin that accumulates in the marine food chain — including important shellfish species such as mussels, clams and crabs — and poisons shellfish-consuming marine mammals and humans.

Read the full article at The Hill

BOEM, NOAA release plan to mitigate wind energy impacts on US fisheries

December 7, 2022 — The U.S. government on Monday, 5 December, unveiled a cross-agency plan to reduce the impact offshore wind energy sites may have on fishery surveys. However, questions remain on how NOAA Fisheries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will be able to completely fund the initiative.

According to a 37-page NOAA technical memorandum, the Federal Survey Mitigation Strategy is designed to come up with ways to ensure population counts conducted by boats and airplanes are not hindered by the construction and deployment of wind turbines in federal waters. While it currently relates to projects in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, federal officials said they believe it will have use in other regions as the government looks to develop offshore wind farms in other parts of the country.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA increases annual catch limits for Gulf of Mexico red snapper

December 7, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries has expanded the catch limits for both the commercial and the recreational red snapper fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite “uncertainties” in the most-recent count of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA increased the total annual catch limit by 300,000 pounds to 15.4 million pounds for 2023, and the overfishing limit from 15.5 million pounds to 25.6 million pounds. Of the annual catch limit, the share dedicated to commercial fishermen will move from 7.7 million pounds to 7.854 million pounds, representing 51 percent of the catch limit, and the recreational share will increase from 7.399 million pounds to 7.546 million pounds, or 49 percent of the total limit. Charter fishermen will receive 42 percent of the recreational catch limit, or 3.192 million pounds.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource