Saving Seafood

LOUISIANA: Trump administration moves forward with Gulf fish farming plan despite court decision

September 9, 2020 — Floating cages with fish by the thousands may be popping up in the Gulf of Mexico after all.

President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing ahead with a controversial plan to start an offshore aquaculture industry in the Gulf despite a federal appeals court ruling last month that appeared to block it.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans decided on Aug. 3 that the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration does not have the authority to set rules for offshore fish farms. Environmental and commercial fishing groups celebrated the decision, calling it a landmark victory in a long battle to prevent aquaculture in federal waters.

But NOAA and other federal regulators say the ruling won’t halt plans they are carrying out in accordance with an executive order Trump signed in May that aims to remove regulatory barriers impeding aquaculture. The Trump administration says offshore fish farming will broaden markets for the seafood industry and help meet growing demand for fish.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

Computers Now “See” Animals on the Ocean Bottom

September 8, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s annual sea scallop research survey uses a towed sampling device called the HabCam. It collects approximately 5 million images of the ocean bottom off the Northeast United States. Scientists and volunteers then manually examine an astonishing 100,000 of these images, roughly 2 percent of the number gathered. They focus on identifying just four targets: sea scallops, fish, crabs, and whelks.

So, a wealth of data is going uncollected owing to the sheer volume available and just how labor-intensive pulling it out of images can be.

Researchers have turned toward finding ways for machines to help identify sea life in these images, faster and more efficiently than humans can. This would improve population data for sea scallops. By more thoroughly examining each image, all kinds of information about other sea life and their habitats can also be captured.

Enter Dvora Hart, an operations research analyst at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Hart has been at the forefront of estimating sea scallop populations numbers from images taken by devices like the HabCam. The upcoming 2020 sea scallop assessment will once again use improved population data collected from images.

“HabCam gives us photos of animals in their natural environment without disturbing them; however, much of the information in the images is not collected because human annotators can only mark a small percentage of the available images,” said Hart. “Automated annotators can mark all the images and, given proper training, can identify a multitude of different targets—not just sea scallops, fish, crabs and whelks.”

Hart is part of an interdisciplinary team that developed the world’s first advanced automated image analysis software for the marine environment. The Video and Image Analytics for the Marine Environment, VIAME for short, uses convolutional neural networks—a recent advance in artificial intelligence. These networks  teach computers to recognize species and features of their habitats in the images taken by the HabCam.

The work is so significant that Hart and her team won a 2019 Department of Commerce gold medal for their work. This recognition is the highest honor award offered to department employees.

Read the full release here

NOAA’s Sea Grant program announced USD 2 million in support of US lobster

September 8, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries’ Sea Grant has announced a grant of USD 2 million (EUR 1.68 million) to support the Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative.

The grant is intended, according to a release from NOAA, to “address scientific and stakeholder needs associated with this important fishery.” The nine research projects earning funding are focused gaps in scientific knowledge about how the American lobster is being impacted by environmental changes.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Do River Channels Always Change When Dams Are Removed? It Depends

September 8, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Dams are constructed for many purposes, including energy generation, water supply, flood control, and recreation. Dams can also impact the environment, both when they’re built and again when they’re removed. Researchers from the University of Maine, U.S. Geological Survey, and NOAA collaborated to determine what happens to the shape of rivers when a dam is removed. They found that the changes can be minimal under specific geologic and site conditions.

For more information about this study read our web story or the online journal article.

2020 Meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Consultative Committee

September 4, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is announcing the 2020 meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Consultative Committee. This meeting is held annually to ensure that the interests of U.S. stakeholders in the fisheries of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean are adequately represented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization.  NAFO Consultative Committee members and all other interested U.S. stakeholders are invited to attend.

Date:

The meeting will be held September 9, 2020, from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST.

How to Attend:

The meeting will be held virtually via Webex.  Please visit the events page for additional information.

For Additional Information Contact:

Shannah Jaburek, Regional Office,  978-282-8456

Seeking Nominations for Candidates for the Marine Mammal Atlantic Scientific Review Group

September 4, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries published a Federal Register Notice on September 3, 2020 soliciting nominations to three independent marine mammal scientific review groups.

The three independent regional scientific review groups, covering Alaska, the Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico), and the Pacific (including Hawaii), were established under section 117(d) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to provide advice on a range of marine mammal science and management issues.

We would like your assistance to identify qualified candidates for the Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico) review group. We are seeking individuals with expertise in one or more of the following priority areas (not in order of priority): Protected species conservation, wildlife management, and policy/science interface especially in the non-governmental sector; line-transect methodology, mark-recapture methods, survey design, and quantitative ecology; life history and ecology, particularly large cetaceans and delphinid species; Gulf of Mexico cetacean population dynamics; Southeast U.S. cetaceans; Northeast U.S. Large Marine Ecosystem (LME); marine mammal health, physiology, energetics, and toxicology; genetics; fishing gear and practices, particularly fisheries with marine mammal bycatch, fishery bycatch estimation, and bycatch reduction; ecosystem climate impacts; and manatees.

As you consider nominating candidates, please remember

  • A Scientific Review Group member cannot be a registered Federal lobbyist or foreign agent;
  • Service is without pay, except for reimbursable travel and related expenses; and
  • Individuals serve for a term of three years, for no more than three consecutive terms if re-appointed.

Nominations are due by October 5, 2020.

Maine lobster industry nets $2 million for research

September 3, 2020 — For the second straight year, $2 million has been awarded for lobster research in the Gulf of Maine. Four of the nine NOAA Sea Grant projects will be conducted by Maine organizations, totaling $559,181 in funding for Maine-based research projects.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, announced the Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative funding on Thursday, saying, “This critical federal funding will build on their efforts to support the health of Maine’s lobster fishery and help ensure its continued success.”

The $2 million will support Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank American lobster research priorities, which is aimed at understanding how environmental changes are affecting American lobster in the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

NOAA to boaters: Watch out for right whales

September 2, 2020 — Federal fisheries regulators are asking mariners to either go slow or find a route around an area south of Nantucket where groups of right whales have recently been spotted as the endangered mammals migrate.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it established a “dynamic management area” south of Nantucket where “an aggregation of right whales” was seen on Monday. There are estimated to be fewer than 400 right whales remaining on Earth. Boaters are encouraged to slow their vessels to 10 knots or less or to avoid the area altogether.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Reminder: Atlantic Herring Fishery Restrictions in Management Area 1A

September 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries reminds participants in the Atlantic herring fishery that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts implement fishery restrictions, including landing limits, landing days, and spawning closures, on herring landed from herring management area 1A.

Details of these fishery restrictions can be found on the Commission’s Atlantic herring webpage.

NOAA Fisheries revises seafood reporting requirements in wake of Hurricane Laura

September 2, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries has announced revised reporting requirements for federal seafood dealers in portions of both Texas and Louisiana through 5 October in response to the damage caused by Hurricane Laura.

In a bulletin released 31 August, NOAA Fisheries identified several Texas counties and Louisiana parishes that will be under new reporting requirements due to the determination of “catastrophic conditions” existing in the area. Hurricane Laura hit Southwest Louisiana in the morning of 27 August, bringing with it 150-mile-per-hour winds.

Read the full story at Seafood Source