Saving Seafood

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office Announces Fisheries Research Funding Opportunity

March 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Up to $250,000 in total fiscal year 2021 grant funds is available to support research into how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species change their behavior to deal with changing habitat and climate. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office’s Fisheries Research Program invites applications through April 26, 2021.

Climate change is already affecting the Chesapeake Bay—and the wildlife that lives there. Between 1901 and 2017, the average air temperature in the Chesapeake Bay watershed rose (depending on location in the watershed) between 0.4 and 2.5 degrees F. Increases in water temperature can affect fish spawning areas and migratory patterns. We also expect a shift to more frequent high-precipitation storms, which will affect salinity levels. That in turn will affect fish species distribution and diversity.

We want to better understand how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species will be affected as conditions change. Resource managers can include that science in their decision-making process. Projects funded through this grant will help us gain that knowledge.

The grants will also provide funding to improve social science around fisheries and habitat. We hope to quantify the role of nearshore habitat for local communities and fisheries in the Middle Peninsula area of Virginia. There are many habitat conservation and shoreline restoration efforts under way there.

We want to help develop the next generation of scientists in NOAA’s mission areas. We are interested in supporting research projects that employ and educate undergraduate or graduate students from groups underrepresented in marine science careers, including minorities.

The deadline for application is April 26, 2021. We invite potential applicants to learn more about the application process by joining us for a webinar on February 26 at 1 p.m. EST.

Read the full release here

$1 Million Available for Atlantic Salmon Habitat Restoration Projects

March 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA is announcing the availability of up to $1 million in funding in 2021 for projects to restore habitat for Atlantic salmon in the Gulf of Maine region. The Gulf of Maine distinct population segment (DPS) of Atlantic salmon is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. It is also a Species in the Spotlight, one of nine species most at risk of extinction in the near future.

Atlantic salmon are an iconic species of the Northeast. They once returned by the hundreds of thousands to most major rivers along the northeastern United States. Now, they only return in small numbers to rivers in central and eastern Maine. These populations comprise the Gulf of Maine DPS.

Degraded habitat is one of the largest obstacles facing the recovery of threatened and endangered species like Atlantic salmon. Habitat restoration helps repair areas that have been destroyed by development, blocked by dams, or otherwise subjected to habitat destruction. Through funding and technical assistance, NOAA supports projects that restore the habitats that threatened and endangered species need to survive.

In addition to species recovery and rebuilding fish populations, habitat restoration projects yield community and economic benefits such as increased coastal resilience and recreational opportunities. Restoration projects also create an average of 15 jobs for every million dollars invested.

Proposals for this funding opportunity are due April 12, 2021. NOAA will accept proposals with a federal funding request between $300,000 and $1.5 million over a three-year award period. For more information, view the Fiscal Year 2021 Atlantic Salmon Habitat Restoration Partnership Grants funding opportunity.

Read the full release here

Feds eye expansion of dogfish catch

March 8, 2021 — Federal fishing regulators are considering letting commercial fishermen catch more of a species of shark in the coming year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it’s considering allowing more harvest of spiny dogfish in the 2021-22 fishing year. Fishermen catch dogfish off the East Coast.

The top producing states include Massachusetts and Virginia.

The NOAA said the proposed revisions increase catch limits by nearly 10%. That would increase the commercial fishing quota to more than 29 million pounds.

That’s more dogfish than fishermen usually catch in a year. Fishermen brought more than 18 million pounds of spiny dogfish to docks in 2019. The last year in which fishermen brought more than 30 million pounds to docks was in 1999.

Read the full story at The Boston Herald

Give Us Your Input on Making Fisheries and Protected Resources More Resilient to Climate Change

March 5, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA has started an agency-wide effort to gather initial public input in response to Section 216(c) of the Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad (EO 14008) issued on January 27, 2021.

Section 216(c) of EO 14008 directs NOAA to collect recommendations on how to make fisheries, including aquaculture, and protected resources more resilient to climate change, including changes in management and conservation measures, and improvements in science, monitoring, and cooperative research.

The comment period opened March 3, 2021 and will close on April 2, 2021.

For more on this effort and how to submit comments, please visit our new story on the effort.

NOAA extends right whale protection zones to mid-March

March 5, 2021 — The federal government is extending three protective zones off the East Coast that are designed to prevent collisions between ships and whales.

The zones are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 360. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said  the protective zones are located south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, east of Boston and southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Mariners are asked to avoid the areas altogether or transit through them at 10 knots or less. The three zones were established in late February. The Nantucket zone has been extended to March 13 and the Boston and Atlantic City zones have been extended to March 14.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a growing issue worldwide. FIU hosts conference in search of solutions

March 5, 2021 — Every time wild-caught fish is bought at a restaurant, store or waterfront dock, there is a one in five chance that it was caught outside of the law, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated – IUU – fishing is a growing issue worldwide. The global, economic and environmental effects are catastrophic, with coastlines around Latin America being some of the most impacted.

Recently during a telephonic press briefing, United States Coast Guard Vice Admiral Steven Poulin spoke on the urgency of the matter and the role the Coast Guard is playing in addressing this problem.

“IUU fishing undermines coastal state sovereignty,” Poulin said. “We in the Coast Guard are putting our strategies to address this problem into action.”

Southern Command is also making IUU fishing one of its priorities. At the IUU Fishing Conference on Feb. 3, Southern Command and other key groups emphasized the need for international cooperation, collaboration, leveraged technology, and transparency. Hosted by FIU’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, the conference reached more than 3,000 viewers from more than 49 countries.

Read the full story at FIU News

Study: Chinook salmon are key to Northwest orcas all year

March 4, 2021 — For more than a decade, Brad Hanson and other researchers have tailed the Pacific Northwest’s endangered killer whales in a hard-sided inflatable boat, leaning over the edge with a standard pool skimmer to collect clues to their diet: bits of orca poop floating on the water, or fish scales sparkling just below the surface.

Their work established years ago that the whales depend heavily on depleted runs of Chinook, the largest and fattiest of Pacific salmon species, when they forage in the summer in the inland waters between Washington state and British Columbia.

But a new paper from Hanson and others at the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center provides the first real look at what the whales eat the rest of the year, when they cruise the outer Pacific Coast — data that reaffirms the central importance of Chinook to the whales and the importance of recovering Chinook populations to save the beloved mammals.

By analyzing the DNA of orca feces as well as salmon scales and other remains after the whales have devoured the fish, the researchers demonstrated that the while the whales sometimes eat other species, including halibut, lingcod and steelhead, they depend most on Chinook. And they consumed the big salmon from a wide range of sources — from those that spawn in California’s Sacramento River all the way to the Taku River in northern British Columbia.

Read the full story at OPB

Salmon Conservation Key to Saving Killer Whales

March 4, 2021 — The endangered Southern Resident killer whales in the waters near Washington and British Columbia have stalled in their population recovery, and, according to new research, a major factor limiting their growth is their preference for preying on Chinook salmon.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, researchers present new data on environmental stressors facing the orcas and propose investment in the conservation of Chinook salmon to aid in the recovery of the population.

Killer whales are some of the most recognizable mammals in our seas with their distinct black and white markings. While they can be found in every ocean, they have broken off into small populations, creating different sub-species known as transient, offshore, and resident. The three groups are unique to one another, with different physical attributes as well as social structures and behavioral habits.

There are multiple populations of resident killer whales, but the authors of this study looked specifically at Southern Resident killer whales. These orcas mostly inhabit the waters around Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, and make up the smallest of the resident populations.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Federal plan to save right whales has Gov. Mills concerned about Maine’s lobster industry

March 4, 2021 — Gov. Janet Mills has “grave concerns” about a federal plan to save the North Atlantic right whale from extinction, citing its impact on Maine’s lucrative lobster industry.

In a letter to Michael Pentony, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional fisheries manager, Mills said she proposed rules aimed at reducing whale entanglement in fishing gear would “necessitate the complete reinvention of the Maine lobster fishery as we know it.”

“The state of Maine is adamant that our federal government must take aggressive action to remedy the inequities of this framework in the years ahead,” Mills wrote.

NOAA is drafting new rules to reduce the possibility of entanglement of right whales in “vertical” line fishing gear such as lobster traps. The rules are set to be finalized on May 31.

Mills’ comments were accompanied by a detailed analysis of NOAA’s plan, pointing out flaws in the research and the federal agency’s assumptions about the impact of vertical gear.

Read the full story at The Center Square

New Slow Zone off Virginia to Protect Right Whales

March 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On March 3, 2021, an observer on board the HDR Naval research vessel observed the presence of right whales east of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Virginia Beach Slow Zone is in effect through March 18, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

East of Virginia Beach, March 3-18, 2021

37 10 N
36 32 N
074 51 W
075 40 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here