December 9, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries is working with fishermen across Cape Cod to see if the Atlantic halibut is showing signs of recovery in the Gulf of Maine as well as the New England region.
A three-part study is currently underway to see if the halibut population is rebuilding after the size of the fish shrunk over centuries.
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is working with local fishermen to understand the life history, stock structure, and movement patterns of the Atlantic halibut.
December 6, 2019 — The US North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) is recommending that the preliminary total acceptable catch (TAC) for pollock in federal waters off the state of Alaska be set at 1.425 million metric tons in the Eastern Bering Sea.
That compares to a 2019 TAC of 1.397m metric tons and represents a 2% year-on-year increase.
The 2020 TAC recommendation falls within the 2m-metric-ton cap for all groundfish species within the eastern Bering Sea.
Additionally, the council recommended cutting the Pacific cod TAC in the Bering Sea by 4% to 141,799t. For Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands, the recommended TAC is 13,796t, up from 12,214t in 2019.
Alaska’s Pacific cod biomass is down considerably in 2020 and will drop further in 2021, according to the draft stock assessment and fisheries evaluation (SAFE) report on stocks in the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands that was released last month.
Jim Ianelli, a veteran pollock scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration previously told Undercurrent News that a higher – or even level — TAC in 2020 would likely prove harder to fish.
December 5, 2019 — As New England lobster harvesters struggle to keep up with the high cost of bait, due in large part to the short supply of Atlantic herring, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued further restrictions to protect the forage fish’s dwindling stocks.
As part of an amendment developed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) and approved Nov. 19 by NMFS, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, midwater trawling has been prohibited within 12 nautical miles of the coastline that runs from the US state of Maine to Rhode Island 20 miles off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, reports The Vineyard Gazette, a Massachusetts newspaper.
The change will give the herring a “buffer zone” to migrate without being pressured by commercial vessels but also allowing them to be eaten by other fish, aiding the health of the overall ecosystem, Janice Plante, the NEFMC’s public affairs officer, is quoted as saying.
Local fishermen, boards of selectmen, state legislators and environmental groups have been pushing for stronger management of the midwater trawl herring fishery for more than 20 years, according to the newspaper.
December 5, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
The Chesapeake Bay is full of special places–including Virginia’s Middle Peninsula. Much of this area, which is bounded to the north by the Rappahannock River and to the south by the York River, is rural. Many residents make their livelihood from farming or fishing, thanks to the region’s vibrant ecosystem.
The waters surrounding Middle Peninsula are also treasured by people and wildlife alike, but like many parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, development, pollution, and runoff from upstream areas threaten their health. To ensure a healthy future for the habitat found here, NOAA and partners are working to restore nearshore habitat for fish and other Bay species.
NOAA and the Virginia Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve recently convened partners from around the Middle Peninsula to discuss the future for nearshore habitat restoration projects that support resilient coastal communities and economies. At the workshop, participants learned more about each others’ efforts, highlighting where they can work together most effectively.
The workshop also included presentations by experts on the importance of habitat to coastal communities in the area, how to use science throughout restoration projects, restoration project ideas that partners could team on, as well as opportunities for participants to make other plans for future work together.
As a result of enthusiasm for work in this geographic area, the Chesapeake Research Consortium is holding a competition (PDF, 5 pages) to help one or two organizations design a nearshore habitat restoration project in the watersheds of the York and Piankatank rivers and Mobjack Bay. The projects that receive funding will design a “shovel-ready” habitat restoration project to help reduce wave energy and erosion while providing nearshore habitat and coastal resiliency. Funding will go toward development of a project design and monitoring plan, making it easier for the project to receive funds for implementation down the road.
December 5, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA:
NOAA and its partners will release the latest scientific observations of climate change in the Arctic, a sensitive part of the world that impacts other parts of the planet, at a news conference on Tue., Dec. 10, at 11:00 a.m. PT, during the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco, CA.
A panel of scientists, led by retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., deputy NOAA administrator, will provide this year’s report on sea ice, snow cover, air temperature, ocean temperature, the Greenland ice sheet, vegetation and ecosystem changes. The Arctic Report Card, updated annually since 2006, demonstrates the importance of long-term observing programs to effectively measure significant changes in the Arctic.
The news conference will also be streamed live on the AGU press events webpage. Reporters can watch the press event in real time and ask questions via an online chat. For more information and instructions, click on the “Webstreaming” button in the Fall Meeting Media Center.
WHAT:
Arctic Report Card 2019 news conference
WHEN:
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 11:00-11:45 a.m. PT
WHERE:
AGU Press Conference Room
Moscone Center South
Third floor, Room 310-312
747 Howard Street,
San Francisco, CA 94103
WHO:
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, deputy NOAA administrator
Matthew Druckenmiller, National Snow and Ice Data Center
Donald Perovich, Research Scientist, Dartmouth College
Mellisa Johnson, Executive Director, Bering Sea Elders
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
NOAA’s Arctic Report Card website will be updated with 2019 findings, photographs, graphics, videos, and other information at the start of the news conference.
December 5, 2019 — New regulations for essential fish habitat off the West Coast of the United States that go into effect in 2020 will extend protections for deep-sea habitats and corals while reopening fishing grounds where fish populations have rebounded.
The new rules were finalized by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (known as NOAA Fisheries) last month, and will go into effect on January 1, 2020. The updated regulations were recommended to NOAA by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and enjoy broad support from the fishing industry and environmentalists alike. The changes will be implemented via an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for groundfish off the US West Coast.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council is responsible for minimizing impacts of human activities on essential fish habitat (EFH), which are habitats deemed vital to maintaining sustainable fisheries. In 2005, the Council established area closures in groundfish habitat that limited the use of bottom trawling and other types of fishing gear that come into contact with the ocean floor.
According to NOAA Fisheries, groundfish fisheries contribute $569 million to household incomes in West Coast communities, from the state of Washington down to Southern California. About 3,000 square miles that had been closed to bottom trawling for groundfish will be reopened when the changes take effect, including 2,000 square miles of a Rockfish Conservation Area off the coasts of California and Oregon that have been off-limits to bottom trawling since 2002.
December 4, 2019 — North Atlantic right whale migration is underway, just in time for Whale Week in Savannah.
Since the first right whale of the season was spotted by fishermen Nov. 23 off Mayport, Fla., biologists have confirmed that sighting plus sightings of four more potential right whale moms.
Only about 400 North Atlantic right whales remain. Deaths, mainly from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, have outpaced births of these bus-sized creatures recently. Biologists have recorded 30 right whale deaths over the last three years and only 12 births.
“We’re going backwards here,” said Barb Zoodsma, right whale biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
That first known arrival from the feeding grounds off new England and Canada to the Georgia/Florida calving grounds was a 19-year-old female nicknamed Harmonia. Records indicate she last gave birth in 2016.
Other whales spotted include “Naevus,” who was seen off Ossabaw Island. “Harmony,” “Arpeggio,” and “Slalom” were spotted off South Carolina.
December 4, 2019 — Representatives from NOAA and the US Coast Guard are using Carlos Rafael’s case as evidence that more regulations and oversight are necessary in the groundfishing industry.
NOAA Special Agent Troy Audyatis explained to a crowd gathered at the New England Fishery Management Council Meeting on Tuesday how NOAA worked with other agencies to catch the so-called Codfather and said, “We need to prevent something like this from ever repeating itself down the road.”
Rafael was sentenced to 46-months in federal prison for falsifying fishing quota, cash smuggling, and tax evasion in a criminal case, and was ordered to pay a $3 million penalty to address the federal government’s civil claims against him which included counts of misreporting and underreporting his groundfish catch.
Audyatis said if there wasn’t an observer, who collects data from U.S. commercial fishing and processing vessels for NOAA, on Rafael’s vessels or a dock-side officer “thousands upon thousands of fish would simply disappear” without being reported.
One of the reasons Audyatis gave for Rafael being able to misreport and underreport was the vertical integration of Rafael’s business.
December 5, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries has wrapped up its 2019 Northeast fall ecosystem monitoring survey.
Researchers aboard the NOAA vessel Gordon Gunter sampled 117 stations along the U.S. East Coast.
Data collected during the cruise helps researchers understand and predict seasonal and yearly changes in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean ecosystem and its fisheries.
Due to weather conditions about 75 percent of the cruise objectives were accomplished, including complete coverage of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England regions, and 97 percent of Georges Bank.
There was reduced coverage in the northern survey area, including just 22 percent in the Gulf of Maine and no coverage of the Scotian Shelf.
Long-term sampling on the cruise includes the use of “bongo” net tows. The fine-mesh nets are attached to side-by-side aluminum rings. The nets get their name for resembling bongo drums when deployed.
December 3, 2019 — Count Alaska’s northern rock sole among the fish species that appear to have more promise as water temperatures continue to increase as a result of climate change, Alaska TV station KTUU reports.
Using biomass data collected from 1982 through 2014 as well as wind and temperature data, Dan Cooper, a fish biologist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and his team have determined that the flatfish species has higher reproductive success in warmer years, according to the NBC affiliate.
Though its females grow to a size of up to 27 inches in length and males up to 19 inches, northern rock sole is harvested significantly less than pollock and Pacific cod, in Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council set the acceptable biological catch for the fish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands at 143,000 metric tons for 2020, yet in 2018 only 60% of the total allowable catch was harvested, the news service noted.