May 20, 2021 — An international group of marine scientists have called on G7 countries to prioritize planning ocean protections at the next summit, to take place in Cornwall, England, next month.
The scientists’ statement, dubbed “Seven Asks for the G7,” includes a list of seven actionable steps that could be taken to protect the oceans. Those steps, according to the letter, are central to addressing climate change and supporting “human wellbeing.”
May 20, 2021 — The National Marine Fisheries Service — better known as NOAA Fisheries — released its annual report on the health of the nation’s fishing industry on Thursday, and once again the Port of New Bedford took top honors as the nation’s highest-grossing commercial fishing port.
New Bedford ranked No. 1 for the value of seafood landed at its port for the 20th consecutive year in 2019, with $451 million worth of fish hauled in by its boats. That was up by $20 million compared with the year before, and far outpaced the second-ranked Port of Naknek, Alaska, which had $289 million worth of landings.
NOAA officials said New Bedford’s dominance remains driven by sea scallops, which account for 84% of the value of all landings there.
The city fell from the top spot for nine years during the 1990s, which NOAA attributed at the time to factors including “the 1994 collapse of the New England groundfish fishery and declining numbers of sea scallops.” But New Bedford retook its crown in 2000 and hasn’t given it up since.
New Bedford’s catch leads the nation in value despite placing far from the top when it comes to total volume, ranking only 14th, at 116 million pounds. The top port by that metric has been Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for 23 years. Dutch Harbor is 763 million pounds a year of landings, with pollock the biggest category.
May 20, 2021 — After decades under lax regulation, the Louisiana House voted 67-28 Wednesday to require the state’s largest commercial fishery to cast its nets farther from the state’s fragile coastline.
Louisiana waters supplied 40% of the menhaden caught in 2019 across the United States, a catch worth tens of millions of dollars, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. In a given year, the industry’s 180-foot-long vessels and 1,500-foot-long nets ensnare 700 million to 1 billion pounds of the tiny, dart-like silver fish off the state’s shores.
But if House Bill 535 becomes law, Louisiana would forbid menhaden trawling within a half mile of shore, to reduce coastal erosion and limit damage to shallow nurseries of popular game fish species such as redfish and speckled trout. The bill now goes to the Senate. (Here’s how the House voted.)
Menhaden, also known as pogies or shad, are a keystone species in marine ecosystems, providing food for a wide range of larger fish and birds. When caught commercially, the oil-rich fish is ground up into animal feed, health supplements and fertilizers.
In negotiating the latest bill’s text, menhaden industry representatives stood firmly behind a quarter-mile exclusion zone, stating reports from recreational anglers were hyperbolic. Omega Proteins owns two of the three menhaden reduction plants on the Gulf Coast; Daybrook Fisheries owns the other. Louisiana hosts one in Abbeville and one in Empire.
Omega Proteins’ public affairs manager, Ben Landry, said a half-mile exclusion could cut into the industry’s bottom line as almost one fifth of menhaden harvest occurs within a half mile of the coast. That means some could lose jobs.
“I’m not saying some of that won’t be made up outside of that half mile,” Landry said. “But I can’t promise you that. Who’s family around here could face a 20% cut and then be told, ‘Oh, that’s not going to impact you.'”
May 19, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
What is your key responsibility?
I translate the research that our scientists do into educational activities or resources. I develop and foster partnerships between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and other agencies and organizations. I believe education helps to strengthen relationships between communities and our scientists. It is a way to give back to the communities where we do research by sharing and exchanging information with students, families, and community members. We focus on all levels of education, from K-12 to undergraduate internships to graduate fellowship opportunities. We also do informal education opportunities to reach the general public.
What is your educational background?
I grew up and went to school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science, Scientific Applications, from the University of Alberta. I had initially wanted to study biology or zoology, but somehow got the idea that there weren’t many jobs in biology. So I studied computers instead, with a minor in biology/zoology. As an undergraduate, I volunteered at an international mammalogy conference held at my university. At the conference I met Dr. Ian Stirling, a polar bear biologist. I got the opportunity to work in his lab as a volunteer and later as a student technician.
He connected me with the Hawaiian monk seal research program at the NOAA Fisheries lab in Honolulu. That inspired me to pursue a Master’s degree in zoology, studying injuries in Hawaiian monk seals. I worked for the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu for a few years, studying population dynamics of Hawaiian monk seals. Then I moved to Seattle to work in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Mammal Laboratory. First I worked on Antarctic fur seals, and later on harbor seals and ice-associated seals in Alaska. Finally, I moved into education and outreach coordination.
May 19, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
For over 40 years, NOAA Fisheries has awarded grant funds under the Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) program to organizations nationwide working to address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries, and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable. Of the 43 projects selected nationally for 2021 funding, 12 projects were from the Greater Atlantic Region, requesting approximately $2.84 million in federal funding.
Awardees
Read more in our web story or review the list of all proposals recommended for funding.
May 18, 2021 — Endangered species like salmon and orca get lots of attention in Washington. We painstakingly track their numbers, and each new baby, individual death or a population crash has the potential to spur international reactions. But some species they rely on rarely achieve recognition.
These small, silvery creatures — herring, anchovies, euchalon and more — shuttle energy through the food web between primary producers, like microscopic plants and algae, and bigger aquatic predators.
“They’re small fish that most people don’t typically see but that really make the marine food web go round for larger organisms … that pay attention to where those things are and where they’re not,” says Dr. Jen Zamon, a research fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center who works on forage fish. “And if they’re moving around, that’s going to change the distribution of everything else that’s feeding upon them.”
“Pretty much anything in the water that has a mouth big enough to fit a forage fish in it eats forage fish,” says Phil Dionne, a research scientist with the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife who specializes in forage fish.
May 18, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries announces final management measures for the Atlantic Sea Scallop fishery for the 2021 fishing year (April 1, 2021 – March 31, 2022). The landings for fishing year 2021 are projected to be lower than 2020.
Framework 33:
Read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register, and the permit holder bulletins (Limited Access and LAGC) posted on our website.
Questions?
Fishermen: Contact Travis Ford, Sustainable Fisheries, 978-281-9233
Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103
May 17, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
To increase your online security, NOAA Fisheries’ GARFO is changing the way that vessel owners and operators login to Fish Online. By June 1, vessel owners must create a Fish Online user account and vessel operators will also need to create an account to report electronically using a GARFO Fish Online app and to view their previously submitted eVTRs.
May 14, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):
A bipartisan bill introduced this week seeks to end slavery and human rights abuses in the international seafood supply chain and fight illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, commonly known as IUU fishing.
“IUU fishing is an environmental and humanitarian crisis, and the U.S. should be a global leader in solving it,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife and sponsor of the bill, H.R. 3075, called the “Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act.”
“Illegal fishing operations damage ocean ecosystems and healthy fisheries, and are often the same ones that rely on atrocious, illegal practices like human trafficking and forced labor,” added Huffman, who introduced the bill Tuesday with Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.).
Among other things, the bill would expand NOAA’s seafood import monitoring program to cover all species and increase data requirements for monitoring, including the consideration of labor conditions and improved detection of imports deemed to be at risk of IUU fishing.
Last year, the Government Accountability Office criticized U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for not doing enough to stop the use of slaves and illegal labor practices in the seafood industry.
Customs works with officials at the seafood import monitoring program and others to find seafood that has been illegally produced (E&E News PM, June 18, 2020).
The focus on the issue has grown in Congress in recent years, with the U.S. importing nearly 90% of its seafood.
In 2016, the Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of stories that exposed the use of slaves in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The stories showed how the seafood ended up in U.S. supermarkets. After the 18-month investigation, more than 2,000 slaves were freed.
The Huffman-Graves bill would also establish new seafood traceability and labelling requirements, increase outreach on seafood safety and fraud issues, and seek to improve both seafood inspections and the federal enforcement of seafood fraud.
Another provision in the bill would expand the authority of U.S. officials to revoke port privileges for any fishing vessel associated with IUU fishing.
“Our new legislation tackles IUU fishing to protect human lives, promote responsible fishing around the world, and level the playing field for U.S. fishermen,” Huffman said in a statement.
“Not only do we need to ensure an ethical seafood supply chain, but we also need to stop IUU products from entering our markets and competing with those who follow the rules and who keep our domestic fishing industry sustainable.”
Up to a third of the annual global seafood catch, or as much as 56 billion pounds, is the product of IUU fishing, according to estimates.
In the United States, a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2019 found nearly 11% of the nation’s total seafood imports — worth $24 billion — were the products of illegal or unreported fishing.
That report also found that if those IUU imports were eliminated, U.S. fishers would increase their income by nearly $61 million per year.
“The United States can close our markets to illegally sourced seafood, and this bill offers a promising pathway to level the playing field for U.S. fishermen, protect workers at sea and prevent seafood fraud,” said Beth Lowell, deputy vice president of U.S. campaigns for Oceana, one of a handful of organizations that endorsed the bill.
Fisheries research
Separately, Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young introduced H.R. 3128, a bill that would establish the American Fisheries Advisory Committee, a panel that would aid in the awarding of federal grants for fisheries research and development.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee yesterday approved its version of the legislation, S. 497, the “American Fisheries Advisory Committee Act,” sponsored by Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) (Greenwire, May 12).
May 14, 2021 — Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $92.2 million in competitive grant funding through the 2018 Farm Bill’s Local Agriculture Market Program as part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers Initiative.
The Local Agriculture Market Program includes $77 million for the Farmers Market Promotion Program and Local Food Promotion Program. What does this mean for the fishing industry? Both grant programs are open to seafood businesses, tribes, NGOs, and fishing associations who are involved in local, regional, and direct seafood marketing and distribution. This injection of funding represents a major opportunity to strengthen the resilience of our nation’s food system and put domestic seafood on our country’s menu in a meaningful way.
The United States is a major producer of seafood. However, an estimated 71 to 90 percent of the seafood we consume is imported. Our reliance on seafood trade makes our seafood economy vulnerable to socioeconomic, political and environmental shocks. No more apparent has this been than during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. According to NOAA Fisheries, landings were down by an astonishing 29 percent during the first seven months of the pandemic in the United States. This affects everyone from the fishing crews to captains, dealers, processors, and shoreside communities.