Saving Seafood

After months of exemptions and tensions with regulators, New England fishermen must resume taking observers to sea

August 17, 2020 — Commercial fishermen have long had their gripes about the government-trained observers required by regulators to monitor their catch.

When the pandemic began sweeping across the nation in March, federal officials halted their work, which involves long hours at sea, often in close quarters with fishermen. But with many captains and deckhands still hauling in their prey, observers resumed their duties in early May in nearly every major port around the country — except those in the Northeast.

The region’s mighty fleet has since received seven exemptions from observer requirements, which the federal government subsidizes at an annual cost of more than $50 million to prevent overfishing.

Now, with observers resuming their work this weekend in ports from North Carolina to Maine, fishermen and their representatives are urging the agency to halt the program again, saying it could have an adverse impact on an industry that lands about $2 billion worth of seafood a year.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Praise for Reduction in Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishing Capacity Reduction Buyback Loan

August 14, 2020 — Politicians are praising the recent news that NOAA Fisheries has reduced the outstanding principal balance on the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishing Capacity Reduction Buyback Loan. The loan has been reduced by nearly $6 million.

In 2000 the West Coast groundfish fishery was declared an economic disaster. In response, Congress authorized a $46 million buyout to reduce overcapacity. $36 million in funds was provided in the form of a loan that the remaining fishing vessels agreed to repay based on a 3.5%-5% fee on ex-vessel revenue over 30 years. Interest started accruing in March 2004, but NMFS did not implement a repayment system until September 2005. Vessels could not make any loan repayments during this time, which added $3.8 million in interest. And now, because of that error, those remaining vessels now owe over $13 million more than they would have if NMFS had immediately implemented a repayment system. The Pacific Coast groundfish industry has made payments of  more than $34 million towards the loan, but as of December 2019 still owed $22.4 million.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Give Pregnant Killer Whales Space to Forage

August 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

With news of multiple pregnancies among the endangered Southern Resident killer whales, agencies and partners are calling for boaters to steer clear of the whales. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries, whale watch leaders, and Soundwatch are asking boaters to give the whales extra space on the water at this critical time.

”The whales, for the first time in a couple years, are very, very present in Puget Sound; and unfortunately we’re having a lot of people get too close to orcas within these regulated boundaries,” said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police Captain Alan Myers. “That bubble of protection is extremely important in order to keep boaters either intentionally or unintentionally from interfering with these animals while they feed, forage, and move about in Washington’s waters.”

A photogrammetry team from SR3 and Southall Environmental Associates last month documented pregnancies in all three Southern Resident pods. While this is promising news, research has shown that many Southern Resident pregnancies fail or the calves do not survive beyond their first year.

The lack of sufficient Chinook salmon prey is a key issue for the whale population. Another concern is the sound from vessel traffic, which can interrupt echolocation clicks the whales use to hunt the salmon. In the presence of vessel traffic, the whales have been observed by researchers spending less time foraging and more time traveling. Research has also found that the speed of vessels, more so than their size, is the biggest factor in determining how much noise they produce. Slowing down is one of the best ways to allow pregnant females to find the prey they need.

Read the full release here

Dam Impact Analysis Model Helps Researchers Assess Atlantic Salmon Survival

August 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries Atlantic salmon researchers have found that Atlantic salmon abundance can increase as more young fish and returning adults survive their encounters with dams. Also, progress in rebuilding the population will depend heavily on continuing stocking of hatchery fish raised especially for this purpose. This information is based on a life history model and new information on changes in the Penobscot River watershed.

The remaining remnant Atlantic salmon populations in the United States are located in Maine, with the largest population in the Penobscot River. Numerous factors play a role in salmon recovery — from predation and habitat degradation to pollution and climate change. The two most influential factors are survival of fish as they navigate dams in the river, and survival during the marine phase of their life. Atlantic salmon are born and remain in fresh water for 1-3 years and migrate downriver through estuaries into the sea. Then they spend 1 to 2 years at sea before returning to the river where they were born to spawn.

“Our findings indicate that Atlantic salmon abundance can increase as survival at dams from the lower to the upper watershed increases. Hatchery supplementation will be necessary to sustain the population when survival is low in egg-to-smolt and marine life stages,” said Julie Nieland, a salmon researcher at the science center’s Woods Hole Laboratory in Massachusetts and lead author of the study. “Increases in survival during both of these life stages will likely be necessary to attain a self-sustaining population, especially if hatchery supplementation is reduced or discontinued.”

Read the full release here

Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program Competition is Open

August 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries, in coordination with the New England Fishery Management Council, is soliciting proposals under the 2021/2022 Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program.

The solicitation closes October 12, 2020. You can review the solicitation and apply online.

Projects supported under the program must enhance the knowledge of the scallop fishery resource or contribute to the body of information on which scallop management decisions are made.

Read the full release here

Pandemic scraps local shrimp study

August 13, 2020 — When NOAA Fisheries recently cancelled four fishery and ecosystem surveys because of pandemic-related health and safety concerns, it was no real surprise that the Northern shrimp survey was one of the casualties.

It’s was just another indication of the star-crossed nature of the once-thriving regional shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine.

The imperiled fishery, which has suffered debilitating declines in its ability to sustain biomass and recruitment, has been closed since the end of the 2013 fishing season. Six times, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission looked at the numbers generated by stock surveys and six times it saw no recourse but to shutter the fishery.

Matters devolved to the point that in late 2019, the ASMFC abandoned the previous policy of single-season closures and closed the Northern shrimp fishery for three years, ending in 2021.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Fisheries: Science Connect 2020 Issue 2

August 13, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This study compiled data on the distribution of over 67,000 marine and terrestrial species, including 44,575 marine species from a variety of taxa, both protected and non-protected species. The study analyzes 30 globally-distributed environmental variables simultaneously through the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) modelling. This approach has the advantage over previous methods by evaluating the relative importance of each variable more robustly and examining how variables interact more clearly. Results indicate that overall, terrestrial diversity is better predicted by environmental factors than marine diversity. The authors call for increased cooperation across scientific domains to advance our understanding of how and why biodiversity is distributed across the globe. This is especially crucial as we seek to understand and manage a rapidly changing planet and face the possible global erosion of biodiversity and hence ecosystem services to human societies. Scientists from a variety of disciplines must come together to find common and global sustainable pathways to reduce the loss of biodiversity.  Portion of Figure 1 from publication, map of global species richness observed, modeled and residual errors.

Gagné et al. 2020. Towards a global understanding of the drivers of marine and terrestrial biodiversity. PLoS ONE 15(2).

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Sets 2020 Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Regulations in the Gulf of Maine

August 13, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is setting Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod and haddock recreational measures for 2020.

The recreational fishery for GOM cod and haddock is managed under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The FMP includes a proactive recreational accountability measure, which allows the Regional Administrator, in consultation with the New England Fishery Management Council, to develop recreational management measures for the fishing year to ensure that the recreational sub-annual catch limits (ACLs) are achieved, but not exceeded. We project that current measures for GOM cod and haddock can be liberalized somewhat without the 2020 recreational fishery’s sub-ACLs being exceeded.

After consultation with the Council, we are making changes to Gulf of Maine cod and haddock management measures as shown in the table below:

Read the interim final rule as filed in the Federal Register and our bulletin.

Read the full release here

Regulators to allow increased squid fishing this year

August 11, 2020 — Federal fishing regulators are allowing increased harvesting of a species of squid this year because of reports that the species can withstand it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it’s increasing the accepted biological catch of shortfin squid from about 57 million pounds to about 66 million pounds. Fishermen bring the squid to shore in New England and the mid-Atlantic states for use as food by humans.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Species may swim thousands of kilometers to escape ocean heat waves

August 11, 2020 — When an intense heat wave strikes a patch of ocean, overheated marine animals may have to swim thousands of kilometers to find cooler waters, researchers report August 5 in Nature.

Such displacement, whether among fish, whales or turtles, can hinder both conservation efforts and fishery operations. “To properly manage those species, we need to understand where they are,” says Michael Jacox, a physical oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration based in Monterey, Calif.

Marine heat waves —  defined as at least five consecutive days of unusually hot water for a given patch of ocean — have become increasingly common over the past century (SN: 4/10/18). Climate change has amped up the intensity of some of the most famous marine heat waves of recent years, such as the Pacific Ocean Blob from 2015 to 2016 and scorching waters in the Tasman Sea in 2017 (SN: 12/14/17; SN: 12/11/18).

“We know that these marine heat waves are having lots of effects on the ecosystem,” Jacox says. For example, researchers have documented how the sweltering waters can bleach corals and wreak havoc on kelp forests. But the impacts on mobile species such as fish are only beginning to be studied (SN: 1/15/20).

Read the full story at Science News