Saving Seafood

As Vineyard Wind Moves Forward, Fishermen and Scientists Raise Questions About Impact

November 23, 2021 — The Biden administration has approved America’s first large-scale, offshore wind power project – Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts. But for every supporter of the project, there are detractors raising questions. Lisa Fletcher looked at the pros and cons of ‘reaping the wind’ on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”

Ms. Fletcher examined what the project could mean for New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation’s top grossing fishing port, and its valuable scallop harvest, which averages around $400 million a year in landings.

“The amount of wind farms they’re proposing will displace fisheries,” said Ron Smolowitz, the owner of Coonamessett Farm in East Falmouth, Massachusetts and a former fishing captain who worked with NOAA. “The fish will adapt, the fishermen can adapt, but they’ll need funding.”

Mr. Smolowitz said that current funding proposed by Vineyard Wind to compensate fishermen for their losses is “nowhere near enough.” The proposed funding would average roughly $1 million a year over the 30-year life span of the project, Mr. Smolowitz said, while one scallop vessel alone can gross $2 million annually, and there are 342 scallop vessels. “And that’s just one fishery,” he said.

Ms. Fletcher also examined other obstacles for the project, including the potential threat to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“The industrial activity will increase shipping markedly both during the construction phase as well as during the maintenance phase,” said Mark Baumgartner, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mr. Baumgartner said he and his team are working on deploying acoustic monitoring, with funding from Vineyard Wind, to help prevent ship strikes with right whales.

Watch the full story here

New How-To Guide for Observer Trip Selection in Alaska

November 23, 2021 — NOAA Fisheries has produced the first comprehensive manual describing the  Observer Declare and Deploy System—the ODDS. This web-based system determines which fishing trips require observer or electronic monitoring (EM) coverage in the federal groundfish and Pacific halibut fisheries off Alaska.

The ODDS is one of only two systems in the United States where fishermen, managers, and observer providers can all interact with information on past and upcoming fishing trips.

The ODDS was built and is maintained by the Fisheries Monitoring and Analysis division of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Since its launch in 2012, ODDS has successfully logged more than 50,000 fishing trips.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

US considers creating national marine sanctuary off Hawaii

November 22, 2021 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering additional protections for waters off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

NOAA announced the proposal to designate oceanic areas of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which is already one of the largest protected natural areas in the world, as a national marine sanctuary on Friday. The agency opened the plan to public comment through January.

The designation would build on existing protections meant to maintain marine habitats and wildlife. The new rules would apply only to oceanic areas, not the islands that are already part of the monument.

Read the full story at the AP

Secretary of Commerce issues fishery disaster determination for the 2019 Atlantic herring fishery

November 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA:

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced today her determination, at the request of several Northeastern states, that a fishery disaster occurred for the 2019 Atlantic herring fishery.

“Fishery disasters don’t just impact local communities—they ripple out into the broader economy impacting consumers and businesses far beyond the coast,” said Secretary Raimondo. “Resilient and sustainable fisheries are not only essential to our coastal communities, but play a vital role in supporting our blue economy and our nation’s overall economic wellbeing. With this determination, we proudly support our fishing industry and will work with the affected communities to help them get back on track.”

To reach a determination, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce works with NOAA Fisheries to evaluate the fishery disaster requests based primarily on data submitted by the requesting states. Fishery disasters must meet specific requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and/or the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act, such as causing economic impacts to a commercial fishery and declines in fishery access or available catch resulting from specific allowable causes.

Positive determinations make this fishery eligible for disaster assistance from NOAA. Some fishery-related businesses impacted by this fishery disaster may also qualify for certain Small Business Administration loans. The allocation of funds will be determined in the near future.

The Secretary has received additional requests for fishery disaster determinations from several other states and Tribes. NOAA Fisheries is currently working with the requesters to finalize those evaluations.

Learn more about fishery disaster assistance.

NOAA considers marine sanctuary off Hawaiian Islands

November 19, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA announced today it is initiating the process to consider designating the marine portions of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument as a national marine sanctuary. This designation would build on existing management in the marine portions of the monument by adding the conservation benefits and enhanced long-term protection of a national marine sanctuary.

The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Report for Fiscal Year 2021 directed NOAA to initiate the process to designate the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument as a national marine sanctuary to supplement and complement, rather than supplant, existing authorities. Stakeholders and partners, including the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council and the State of Hawai’i, support the current sanctuary designation process.

Since the designation of the site as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve by President Clinton in 2000, the designation as a marine national monument by President Bush in 2006, and the expansion of the monument by President Obama in 2016, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has been a key partner and co-managing agency in the management of Papahānaumokuākea. NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State of Hawaiʻi and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs co-manage the monument, and that hallmark co-management structure will continue. This initiative is being conducted in cooperation with the co-trustees.

“Papahānaumokuākea’s ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from threats such as marine debris, invasive species, and climate change,” said Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., NOAA Administrator. “Designation of the monument’s waters as a national marine sanctuary would complement the efforts of the four co-trustees to safeguard the monument’s natural, cultural, and historic values.”

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the largest contiguous fully-protected conservation area under the U.S. flag, encompassing an area of 582,578 square miles of the Pacific Ocean—an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined. Home to the highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal, threatened green turtles, extensive coral reef habitat, and many species found nowhere else on earth, the complex and highly productive marine ecosystems of the monument are significant contributors to the biological diversity of the ocean.

Papahānaumokuākea is of great importance to Native Hawaiians. Throughout the expanse of the monument, there are many wahi pana (places of great cultural significance and practice) where Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners of today reconnect with their ancestors and gods. The monument is also home to a variety of post-Western-contact historic resources, such as those associated with the Battle of Midway and 19th century commercial whaling.

Many of the monument’s extensive education, outreach, and research accomplishments have been executed under the authority of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act. Sanctuary designation would enhance the benefits and expertise offered by the National Marine Sanctuary System and NOAA staff.

Designation would also allow NOAA to apply additional regulatory and non-regulatory tools to augment and strengthen existing protections for Papahānaumokuākea ecosystems, wildlife, and cultural and maritime heritage resources. The sanctuary designation would not include any terrestrial areas or change the monument designation.

NOAA is accepting public comment on the proposal through Jan. 31, 2022. For more information on the proposed sanctuary designation and how to comment, see the Federal Register notice. Learn more at here.

Please view our media resources page for images, video, and maps.

 

Intertidal: Managing the Gulf of Maine’s migratory highway

November 18, 2021 — Travel between countries is beginning again in many places in the world. Travel for humans, that is. For those that live in the natural world, this is the season for migration and travel is just part of the normal cycle of things regardless of political boundaries. This is particularly true in the water where there is a literal fluidity of movement from place to place: shallow to deep, north to south, or salty to fresh. The ocean is perhaps the best example of a global resource where all the water is connected, and so is everything that lives in it.

In an effort to recognize the cross-boundary nature of ocean creatures, states and even countries sometimes work together to monitor who lives where and when. The Gulf of Maine is a boundary-crossing body of water on multiple levels. While it has “Maine” in its title, it stretches across New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts to the south. To the north, it reaches up into Canada. One of the groups that has pulled together the many parties working on and studying the Gulf of Maine recently received funding to address the issue of marine debris in a collaborative way.

The Gulf of Maine Association is a non-profit whose mission is “to maintain and enhance environmental quality in the Gulf of Maine and allow for sustainable resource use by existing and future generations”. Partners in the Association have worked together on both research and policy in the past. The recently awarded grant is part of a larger initiative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s (NOAA) North America Marine Debris Prevention and Removal program that provides funding to prevent and remove debris from the oceans across the country as well as down into Mexico and up into Canada.

Read the full story from the Times Record at the Portland Press Herald

NOAA, groups back adding climate mandates to fishing law

November 18, 2021 — The following was released by the office of Rep. Jared Huffman:

NOAA’s top fisheries official yesterday endorsed a plan that would require the agency for the first time in its history to add climate change requirements to its management of the nation’s fish stocks.

“Fisheries management must continue to adapt as our ocean ecosystem faces unprecedented changes due to climate change,” Janet Coit, the head of NOAA Fisheries, told a House Natural Resources panel.

Testifying before the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, Coit said NOAA appreciates “the overarching climate focus” of a proposed overhaul of the nation’s primary fishing law, the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Coit weighed in as the subcommittee heard testimony on a bill, H.R. 4690, sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), that would reauthorize the law and require NOAA to create plans for “climate ready fisheries.”

If approved, it would mark the first time that climate change received a mention in the federal fishing law, which Congress last reauthorized in 2006.

Read the full release from the office of Rep. Jared Huffman

Endangered whales off US coast at center of fierce fight

November 16, 2021 — A judge ruled in favor of Maine’s multimillion-dollar lobster industry, pushing back on efforts to protect endangered species and limit how much fisherman can capture marine life.

The seafood industry is a huge part of Maine’s economy; in 2018 the state’s lobster fishery alone was valued at more than $400 million and brought in approximately 119 million pounds of lobster. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), American lobster was the most valuable single species harvested in the U.S.

But all that harvesting has affected marine life. The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium (NARWC) announced in October that the North Atlantic right whale population dropped to 336 in 2020, an 8 percent decrease from 2019. The group said 2020 was the lowest number for the species in nearly 20 years.

The federal government had attempted to protect endangered right whales, with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo authorizing a partial closure of a fishing zone along the Maine coast that would have prohibited the use of buoy lines that many marine life are hurt or killed by. It was intended to restrict commercial lobster fishing for four months and was the first step in a 10-year plan to protect North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full story at The Hill

Gulf Menhaden Population Continues to be Sustainably Harvested, According to Recent Scientific Stock Assessment

November 12, 2021 — The Gulf menhaden population has once again been confirmed to be sustainably harvested, based on the results of a recently approved stock assessment conducted by NOAA Fisheries biologists and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC). Managers at the GSMFC approved the final assessment at their annual meeting in late October.

The assessment, which is based on data from the Gulf menhaden fishery for 2018-2020, finds that Gulf menhaden are neither overfished, nor are they experiencing overfishing. This confirms the results of the last major Gulf menhaden assessment, released in 2019, which reached the same conclusions about the health of the species.

The assessment document went so far as to state that ‘In general, there is little risk of overfishing or of being overfished.’ This statement truly drives home the point that this is a very healthy stock and responsible fishery.

Read the full story at the Albuquerque Express