Saving Seafood

FishOn: Virus impacts fish-related events

March 16, 2020 — The event closures, postponements and cancellations flooded into the news at the end of last week and the reality of life in the time of novel coronavirus was driven home with extreme prejudice. The far-flung FishOn staff seems to be holding up well in these early days of the burgeoning public health crisis and we hope the same for you and yours. By now, surely you know the drill. Go wash something.

There were a few fishing-related events — some of which we’d already advanced in the pages of the Gloucester Daily Times and on our online platform, gloucestertimes.com — that have been impacted and may have escaped your notice:

* NOAA Fisheries canceled the scoping meetings for revisions to the management plan for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary that were scheduled last week at the New England Aquarium and Maritime Gloucester on Harbor Loop, and this Wednesday, March 18, at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. NOAA said it is organizing an online meeting via webinar for later in March. More details to come.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Scientists Collecting Data on Commercial Fish Species in Wind-Energy Areas

March 16, 2020 — Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries, have started a three-year study of Atlantic cod and other commercial fish species in southern New England waters. The goal is to gather baseline data to address how offshore wind development in the region could impact fisheries.

An autonomous underwater glider is surveying areas in and around Cox’s Ledge. This area includes the South Fork wind-energy lease area south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The glider has a hydrophone to detect fish spawning sounds and an acoustic telemetry receiver to detect tagged fish. The receiver will identify location and seasonal occurrence of hot spots for key commercial and federally listed fish species.

There is little information on Atlantic cod spawning specific to southern New England, according to project lead Sofie Van Parijs. Cod elsewhere are known to form large, dense spawning aggregations in predictable locations relatively close to shore, where they can be vulnerable to disturbance that might impact spawning success.

“Biological sampling will determine the population’s onset of spawning and track growth, maturity, age structure, and other life history parameters,” said Van Parijs, who heads the Passive Acoustics Research Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. “This information will help inform the starting date for our glider surveys each year. We will tentatively conduct these surveys from December through March this year and for longer periods in the subsequent two years.”

Read the full release at EcoRI

Extended Through March 27: Two Vessel Speed Restriction Zones to Protect Right Whales

March 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces the extension of the two existing voluntary vessel speed restriction zones (Dynamic Management Areas or DMAs) south and southeast of Nantucket.

On March 12, 2020, the NOAA aerial survey team observed two separate aggregations of right whales, one 31 nautical miles south of Nantucket and the second 47 nautical miles southeast of Nantucket.

The DMAs are in effect through March 27, 2020. 

These DMAs both cover areas in shipping lanes. Mariners are requested to route around both areas or transit through them at 10 knots or less.

Southeast of Nantucket 

41 02 N
40 15 N
068 58 W
070 01 W

South of Nantucket DMA 

41 11 N
40 22 N
069 32 W
070 37 W

Active Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs)

A mandatory speed restriction of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) is in effect in the following areas:

Mid-Atlantic: November 1-April 30

Cape Cod Bay: January 1-May 15

Off Race Point: March 1-April 30

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating 

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. NOAA is cautioning boaters and fishermen to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking all fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales and remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements. Commercial fishermen should use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are only about 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

North Atlantic right whales are NOAA Fisheries’ newest Species in the Spotlight. This initiative is a concerted, agency-wide effort to spotlight and save marine species that are among the most at risk of extinction in the near future. 

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

More Information

Recent right whale sightings

Find out more about our right whale conservation efforts and the researchers behind those efforts.

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS

Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.

Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law.

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Part of International Team to Study Salmon in Gulf of Alaska Under Continuing Warm Conditions

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

NOAA Fisheries scientists are part of an international team that set sail on April 11. They are studying the impacts of continued warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska on Pacific salmon survival.  It has been estimated that one-third of all Pacific salmon spend the winter in the Gulf of Alaska. While reduced in size compared to previous years, the current marine heatwave affecting the Gulf remains one of the top five largest heatwaves on record in the North Pacific in the last 40 years.

“Salmon affect more people culturally, economically, and recreationally than any other fish in the world,” said Doug Mecum, Deputy Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region. “This International Year of the Salmon expedition in the Gulf of Alaska expands international salmon research on the high seas to build understanding of how a changing climate may influence salmon ocean habitats, distributions, and productivity.”

Scientists suspect young salmon that can find sufficient food and experience enhanced early marine growth are those that best survive their first winter at sea. The survival of these fish largely determines the size of subsequent adult salmon populations. So, scientists think that environmental conditions have the greatest influence on salmon survival during their first year at sea.

“We know that ocean and climate conditions play a major role in regulating salmon abundances,” said Wess Strasburger, who will serve as chief scientist on the first leg of the survey. “But we don’t have a good understanding of the mechanisms regulating salmon abundances in the ocean.”

Read the full release here

NOAA fish study underway on New England offshore wind area

March 12, 2020 — A three-year study of cod and other commercial fish species is underway around New England offshore wind energy sites, part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration effort to better understand how proposed turbine arrays will affect the environment and fisheries.

With universities and other partners, the agency’s National Marine Fisheries Service in December deployed a Slocum electric glider, a type of autonomous underwater vehicle that has proven highly successful in long-term oceanographic studies.

The glider’s instrument payload includes a hydrophone to detect the sounds of whales and of fish spawning, and an acoustic telemetry receiver to pick up signals from fish that have been captured and released with acoustic tags to track their movements.

Now surveying the area around Cox’s Ledge, the glider is covering an area that includes wind developer Ørsted’s planned South Fork wind energy area south of Rhode Island and east of Montauk, N.Y.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Scientists Collecting Data on Commercial Fish Species in Wind Energy Lease Areas

March 12, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries scientists and colleagues have started a three-year study of Atlantic cod and other commercial fish species in Southern New England. Their goal is to gather baseline data to address how offshore wind development in the region could affect these animals.

An autonomous underwater glider is surveying areas in and around Cox’s Ledge. This includes the South Fork wind energy lease area south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The glider has a hydrophone to detect fish spawning sounds and an acoustic telemetry receiver to detect tagged fish. The receiver will identify location and seasonal occurrence of hotspots for key commercial and federally listed fish species.

According to project lead Sofie Van Parijs, there is little information on Atlantic cod spawning specific to Southern New England waters. Cod elsewhere are known to form large, dense spawning aggregations in predictable locations relatively close to shore, where they can be vulnerable to disturbance that might affect spawning success. Van Parijs also heads the Passive Acoustics Research Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

“Biological sampling will determine the population’s onset of spawning and track growth, maturity, age structure, and other life history parameters,” Van Parijs said. “This information will help inform the starting date for our glider surveys each year. We will tentatively conduct these surveys from December through March this year and for longer periods in the subsequent two years.”

Read the full release here

Rare Visitors: Harp Seals in New England

March 12, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

While we’re used to seeing harbor and gray seals in New England, we occasionally get seal visitors from the Arctic. In late winter, it’s not unusual—though it is rare—to see harp seals on our beaches.

Sometimes well-meaning people come across these seals and, while wanting to help them, do exactly the things that cause these animals stress.

Find out more about these seals, and what you should do — and not do — if you come across one on the beach.

Read the full release here

Scallop Research Set-Aside Program Supports 12 Projects for 2020-2021

March 12, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program will support 12 projects during the 2020-2021 award cycle that address resource surveys, economic impacts of offshore wind development on the scallop fishery, links between environmental factors and scallop meat condition, and many other issues.

The awards were announced on March 11 by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, which both are part of NOAA Fisheries. The funded projects focus on scallop research priorities identified by the New England Fishery Management Council, which established the Scallop RSA Program in 1999 through Framework Adjustment 11 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The Council and NOAA Fisheries work together to support research-set aside projects. The Council sets priorities, and NOAA Fisheries manages the RSA competition and administers the program.

Read the full release here

Helping Scientists Protect Beluga Whales with Deep Learning

March 11, 2020 — In the U.S., there are five populations of beluga whales, all in Alaska. Of those five, the Cook Inlet population is the smallest and has declined by about seventy-five percent since 1979. Subsistence hunting contributed to this initial population drop, but this practice was regulated starting in 1999, with the last hunt in 2005. Still, the beluga whale population in Cook Inlet has yet to recover. This population was listed as an endangered species in 2008, with hopes that the population would begin to recover in the near future, but more than a decade later they continue to decline, with a current population estimate of 328 whales.

Like other toothed whales, beluga whales rely highly on sound. They produce acoustic signals to find prey and to communicate; consequently, scientists can use acoustic recordings to study beluga populations and behavior. In 2008, the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) Alaska Fisheries Science Center, in partnership with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, put together an acoustic research program to continuously monitor beluga whale habitat. This program has two main objectives: (1) studying beluga whale behavior and population size, and (2) understanding the extent to which human-generated noise is disrupting beluga populations.

In the past, with raw audio recordings collected by underwater moorings, NOAA scientists used a very basic detector — based on energy levels in certain frequencies — to detect acoustic signals from beluga whales. This detector was tuned toward high recall, i.e., it was tuned to make sure that it didn’t miss any beluga sounds, but consequently allowed many sounds to pass through that were false positives, i.e. uninteresting background noise. Consequently, manual validation was required for each of those detections. This validation process is very time-consuming and labor-intensive, which limits the number of sensors that the team can deploy, and also limits the speed with which the team can provide answers to critical conservation questions.

Read the full story at Medium

Women’s History Month: Talking with Katey Marancik

March 11, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

My interest in a marine science career really started when I was 9 years old. My siblings and I were playing in the waves at our favorite place in the world—Island Beach State Park, New Jersey. The lifeguards started whistling, making everyone get out of the water. It turned out garbage, including syringes, was washing up on beaches nearby. I was furious! No one messes with my ocean, and no one makes me get out of the water except hunger or my mom. This seemingly small event inspired my fascination with how people use the sea and how things move around in it. Whether it’s garbage washing up on beaches from a barge offshore, or it’s fish larvae moving from a spawning site to juvenile habitat.

I went to college and grad school, working with some amazing men and women in the vast marine biology field. I earned my Bachelor of Science in marine biology from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. While there, I narrowed my interests while participating in undergraduate honors research studying the movement of fish larvae through Beaufort Inlet in North Carolina. Fish larvae are so diverse in how they look and how they function in their environment. I was hooked—enjoy the pun!

After college, I earned a Master of Science at East Carolina University studying larval fish communities in and around Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia. I then took on a series of research positions, including my current position where I’ve learned more about the amazing early life history of fish.

Now, I’m a contractor working with the talented and dedicated researchers of the science center’s Oceans and Climate Branch. We collect and analyze plankton and hydrographic data to inform how we understand and manage fisheries and protected species. All these years later, I’m still connecting my long-held fascinations with how people use the ocean and how fish larvae move through it.

Read the full release here