Saving Seafood

NOAA scientists propose more protection for right whales in offshore wind area

November 4, 2022 — As America’s offshore wind industry gets ready to launch new clean energy projects off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, conservationists and federal scientists have communicated worries over how the installations could harm the endangered North Atlantic right whale, now numbering an estimated 340.

In light of these potential threats, a federal scientist proposed a “conservation buffer” zone — or area of no wind turbines — of about 10 nautical miles adjacent to the Nantucket shoals and seemingly overlapping with offshore wind development planned in southern New England.

Sean Hayes, chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and the letter’s signatory, proposed the buffer zone in a letter this spring to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) — the lead regulator for offshore wind development. According to maps of the wind lease areas, the proposed 20-kilometer buffer beginning at an area called the “30-meter isobath” in the shoals appears to overlap with an eastern portion of the Massachusetts-Rhode Island wind energy area.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Are scientific bottom trawling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico damaging habitats?

November 4, 2022 — Multiple websites that are affiliated with NOAA detail info about bottom trawling and outline the tools and processes that are associated with many different trawl practices, including their own. NOAA trawl surveys allow the agency to track changes in fish and invertebrate populations across the oceans, providing academic institutions, government agencies and the private sector with essential information.

However, one notable omission from these resources is the impact that they do or could have on the very ecosystems they’re exploring. While NOAA captures plenty of information in an unobtrusive way, bottom trawling efforts cannot be described as such. That insight was broken down in detail back in 2016, when the USGS outlined info about how such practices destroy the natural seafloor habitat by essentially rototilling the seabed. It mentions that bottom-dwelling plants and animals are greatly affected by this practice and can be outright destroyed.

That insight caused some government and private agencies to change how they capture information about seabed ecosystems. However, NOAA’s bottom trawling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico remained mostly unchanged, which recently compelled the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to send a letter to NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. This letter outlines how these practices are needlessly harming seafloor habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. The effort to change the way scientific surveys of bottom habitats are conducted is something that’s been going on for over a decade though.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA backs expansion of US aquaculture industry

November 4, 2022 — NOAA has released its first-ever strategic plan for expanding “a resilient aquaculture industry” in the U.S. over the next five years.

The plan was co-authored by representatives of NOAA Fisheries, the National Sea Grant College Program, and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. The 20-page report states that domestic seafood is a vital resource for the United States, and that aquaculture can be effective in fighting climate change, replenishing wild stocks, and aiding in the recovery of threatened and endangered species.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fighting Labor Abuses in the Seafood Sector

November 3, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Illegal and inhumane working conditions in the seafood sector are not only devastating for the victims and their families, but also contribute to destabilization of maritime security and supply chains, as well as the degradation of fisheries and broader marine ecosystems. NOAA Fisheries recognizes the need to ensure that workers across the supply chain have access to legal, safe, and healthy working conditions.

The international framework to promote legal and safe conditions in the seafood industry is supported by the International Labor Organization, the International Maritime Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The United States is actively engaged in each of these organizations, promoting effective standards, such as transparent recruiting practices, fair wages, and occupational safety and health protection.

Promoting Action in International Organizations

NOAA Fisheries, in cooperation with interagency partners, is advocating for the strengthening of global guidance on labor standards at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, including the development of guidance for industry to promote social sustainability across its supply chains. We are also leading, or are key voices, in discussions at regional fishery management organizations, including the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, to ensure that workers in members’ fleets have access to safe and legal working conditions, including ending forced labor.

Ensuring Goods Made with Forced Labor Do Not Enter U.S. Markets

NOAA Fisheries is part of a comprehensive U.S. Government effort to combat illegal labor practices, including forced labor, in fisheries, in concert with the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, and State. For example, we work with Customs and Border Protection and other agencies to support the identification of potential forced labor practices and violations aboard fishing vessels, as well as products that may have been produced using forced labor. CBP can subsequently prevent merchandise produced in whole or in part in a foreign country using forced labor from being imported into the United States.

Coordinating Government Agencies Addressing Labor Issues in Fisheries 

The Maritime SAFE Act required the formation of an Interagency Working Group on Illegal, Unreported or Unregulated Fishing. The Sub-Working Group on Labor in the Seafood Supply Chain, including Forced Labor, was established in 2021 as a subsidiary working group to focus on labor concerns. The Sub-Working Group’s mission is to develop and facilitate a comprehensive U.S. government response to identify and address labor abuses, including forced labor, in the fishing industry. Currently, the Sub-Working Group is making progress on addressing recommendations from several reports to Congress. These  include:

Public-Private Partnership: Collaborative Accelerator for Lawful Maritime Conditions

NOAA Fisheries recognizes the shared role of government and civil society in preventing illegal and harmful labor practices in the seafood supply chain, as well as promoting legal, safe, and healthy working conditions for workers in the fishing industry.

NOAA leads an initiative known as the Collaborative Accelerator for Lawful Maritime Conditions in Seafood (CALM-CS,and pronounced “calm seas”). CALM-CS brings together key voices from across the seafood sector to collaborate and accelerate progress on key initiatives so that all workers across the seafood sector have access to safe, healthy, and legal workplaces, from aboard vessels to on docks to shoreside processing.

NOAA and the U.S. government strongly value the importance of workers’ voices within these processes. We are committed to ensuring that this work is inclusive of workers and worker’s unions, and their perspectives.

Learn more about CALM-CS. We encourage participation from all stakeholders. You can request more information by emailing calm.cs@noaa.gov.

Ban On Longliners Using Wire Leaders Takes Effect Next Month To Protect Sharks

November 3, 2022 — A new regulation prohibiting the use of wire leaders in longline fisheries is expected to increase the survival of hooked oceanic whitetip sharks by up to 30%.

The regulation takes effect on May 31 this year and will replace wire leaders — short lengths of wire that stop fish from biting themselves free from hooks — with nylon alternatives. Plastic leaders give sharks a better chance of survival because they can bite themselves free, or fishermen can cut them loose with greater ease.

Read the full article at Civil Beat

NOAA Enforcement Helps Protect North Atlantic Right Whales November 03, 2022

November 3, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species. The latest preliminary estimate suggests there are fewer than 350 individuals remaining, including fewer than 70 breeding females. The species has been experiencing an Unusual Mortality Event since 2017. NOAA Fisheries and our partners are dedicated to conserving and rebuilding their population, and NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement plays an important role. We enforce regulations designed to mitigate entanglement in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes, two of the greatest threats to their recovery.

Vessel Speed Enforcement

From November to July, multiple Seasonal Management Areas go into effect on the East Coast. Since 2008, these areas have protected right whales from vessel strikes in their feeding and calving grounds and on their migratory routes. During these times of year, most vessels 65 feet or longer are required to reduce their speeds to 10 knots or slower while transiting the designated areas.

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is charged with enforcing these regulations and helping the public comply with the rules. To enforce the speed rule, we deploy a number of technologies and strategies, including:

  • Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to detect speeding;
  • Portable radar units to detect speeding by vessels not carrying AIS;
  • Active patrolling of Seasonal Management Areas

Thanks to our investigative work, NOAA has assessed $218,500 in penalties across 19 cases for violations during the 2021–2022 season. In addition to these cases, other speeding violations are being actively investigated and may be subject to potential civil penalties.

Beyond enforcement, we also provide the public with the information they need to comply with rules. Since November 2021, we have instructed hundreds of vessel owners along the Atlantic coast about the current vessel speed rule and the potential penalties for violations. In addition, reacting in near-real time and leveraging satellite-based technologies, we have sent more than 100 alerts to vessels operating in close proximity to right whales.

Gear Enforcement

In 2021, NOAA Fisheries issued significant new regulations to address right whale entanglement in the Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fixed trap/pot fisheries. Since these were implemented in May 2022, our Northeast team, state, and U.S. Coast Guard enforcement partners conducted more than 110 lobster and crab pot/trap fixed gear-focused patrols. During those patrols, agents and officers collectively inspected more than 800 individual vessels. They found that more than 75 percent of vessels were compliant with the new regulations designed to protect right whales.

In the Southeast, longstanding gear regulations designed to protect right whales remain unchanged. In June 2022, we prosecuted a person for fishing crab pots without markings and weak links required to protect right whales. They were assessed a $5,500 penalty.

Contact Us

It will take everyone’s cooperation and contributions to save these endangered whales, and put them on a path to recovery.

  • To report a violation, call the Law Enforcement Hotline, available 24/7 at (800) 853-1964
  • To report a whale or other marine animal in distress, call (866) 755-6622 in the Greater Atlantic Region (Virginia to Maine) and call (877-942-5343) in the Southeast Region (Florida to North Carolina)
  • For general law enforcement questions, contact our Northeast Division at (978) 281-9213 (ext. 2, compliance assistance) or Southeast Division at (727) 824-5344

FLORIDA: Marco Rubio, Rick Scott urge NOAA to drop proposed right whale protection rule

November 2, 2022 — Organized pushback against federal efforts to reduce North Atlantic right whale deaths continues to grow in South Atlantic states as shipping and charter fishing interests try to stall or stop the implementation of new speed restrictions for vessels of 35 feet or larger.

As the days wound down on NOAA Fisheries’ public comment period, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott teamed up with fellow Republican Senators from the Carolinas to oppose the new rule.

Their main beef with the rule is it alters “the long-standing and effective navigation safety ‘deviation clause’ contained in the current regulations.’ With regard to port safety and commercial viability, the rule was originally amended in 2008 to provide a navigation safety deviation clause that would allow large commercial ships to safely navigate within the confines of the narrow offshore Federal Navigation Channels (FNC) along the U.S. east coast.”

Read the full article at Florida Politics

Pilot System Could Return Endangered Salmon to Their Historic Habitat

November 2, 2022: The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

State and federal biologists and engineers, in partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, have begun testing an experimental system in Shasta Reservoir. It could help collect young salmon from the McCloud River in future years and return them to their historic habitat.

The Juvenile Salmonid Collection System is a pilot project 6 years in the making. It is part of a long-term effort to help fish better survive California’s hotter, drier future and more extreme droughts. The collection system will float in the McCloud River arm of the reservoir and guide cold water toward a collection point. This cold water flows down from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The initial testing is running from September to mid-November. It will not involve salmon but will use temperature and hydraulic measurements to assess the operation and performance of the collection system.

If successful, the system will be tested in future years with salmon to determine its efficacy and if it can be a critical part of winter-run salmon reintroduction. Biologists expect that juvenile salmon will follow the colder water to that collection point. They can be retrieved there and transported downstream around the dam to continue their migration to the ocean.

System to Collect Juvenile Salmon

Recovery plans call for returning endangered Chinook salmon to their original spawning grounds in the cold McCloud River above Shasta Reservoir. The fish may better survive drought and climate change in that cooler habitat. Juvenile salmon hatched in the river need to be collected as they migrate downstream before or just after they enter the reservoir. The reservoir is home to warmer waters and predators.

“This is an innovative and important project that comes at a critical time for endangered winter-run Chinook salmon,” said Scott Rumsey, Acting Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “While we will need a few years to move this ahead, we have no time to waste in preparing this native California species for the rising challenges of climate change.”

Reintroduction efforts strive to reestablish endangered winter-run salmon in colder, high-elevation rivers where they once spawned before reservoirs blocked their migration. This would improve their resilience to a changing climate and could allow for more flexibility in managing water in the Sacramento River.

An important component of the project has been the commitment of state, federal, and regional authorities to Tribal engagement. Strategic efforts and planning have been enhanced with the support and commitment to developing a partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. The participation of the Tribe brings unique perspectives and incorporates Tribal knowledge to the project.

Important Step for Imperiled Species

This is the first step in creating the infrastructure necessary to connect winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River with cold-water spawning and rearing habitat in the McCloud River.

The testing of the collection system is a separate effort from the transfer of about 40,000 winter-run eggs from the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery to the McCloud River. They incubated in the hatchery throughout the summer. That effort, supported by project partners, was an urgent response to the severe drought and will improve the salmon’s odds of survival this year.

The testing of the system will require intermittent restricted access for boats in the upper McCloud arm of the reservoir, as the system spans the entire channel. California Department of Water Resources and contractor staff will be on site.

Partners on the project include:

  • Shasta-Trinity National Forest
  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife
  • California Department of Water Resources
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • Winnemem Wintu Tribe

MAINE: Lobster union looks to White House for help

October 31, 2022 — A local Maine Lobstering Union member expects to meet personally with President Joe Biden to ask him to prevent the destruction of Maine’s lobster industry.

Ginny Olsen, MLU’s political liaison, said she will ask President Biden to prevent federal agencies from imposing draconian whale-protection rules. The White House meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet, she said, but she is meeting virtually with representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 27.

“I’m throwing any Hail Mary I can think of,” Olsen said in a phone interview.

Getting the president’s attention

Olsen sent a letter last month to Biden saying NOAA is denying climate-change science that shows right whales moved out of the Gulf of Maine.

She further pointed out Biden has ordered federal agencies to review regulations issued during the Trump presidency to make sure they are in line with the science. In Executive Order 13990, Biden directed agencies to address those rules that don’t comply with his administration’s policies—which include listening to climate-change science and creating good-paying union jobs. NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service have ignored that order, Olsen wrote.

She said she was hoping to appease both environmentalists and lobster fishermen with that argument.

After the letter was sent, she said, “We were contacted for further information, which we provided.”

Something else may have gotten the White House’s attention—a letter and press release from Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, calling out Biden for reneging on his campaign promise to save Maine’s lobster fishery.

“You cannot espouse being a president for working people while simultaneously overseeing the destruction of an entire blue-collar fishery and its community’s heritage and way of life,” wrote Golden in a letter dated October 5. He asked for a meeting with Maine’s congressional delegation and lobster industry representatives.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

Feds unveil plan to grow wind power while sparing rare whale

October 31, 2022 — The federal government has outlined a strategy to try to protect an endangered species of whale while also developing offshore wind power off the East Coast.

President Joe Biden’s administration has made a priority of encouraging offshore wind along the Atlantic coast as the U.S. pursues greater energy independence. Those waters are also home to the declining North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 340 in the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a draft plan this month to conserve the whales while allowing for the building of wind projects. The agencies said the ongoing efforts to save the whales and create more renewable energy can coexist.

Read the full article at the Associated Press