Saving Seafood

As Bering Sea ice melts, Alaskans, scientists and Seattle’s fishing fleet witness changes ‘on a massive scale’

September 16, 2019 — Derek Akeya hopes for calm waters and a lucrative catch when fishing from a skiff in the Bering Sea that surrounds his island village.

But on this windy late summer day, waves toss about the boat as Akeya stands in the bow, straining to pull up a line of herring-baited hooks from the rocky bottom.

Instead of bringing aboard halibut – worth more than $5 a pound back on shore – this string of gear yields four large but far less valuable Pacific cod, voracious bottom feeders whose numbers in recent years have exploded in these northern reaches.

“There’s a lot more of them now, and it’s more than a little bit irritating,” Akeya says.

The cod have surged here from the south amid climatic changes unfolding with stunning speed.

For two years, the Bering Sea has been largely without winter ice, a development scientists modeling the warming impacts of greenhouse-gas pollution from fossil fuels once forecast would not occur until 2050.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

NOAA moves ahead with whale-safety rules

September 16, 2019 — The National Marine Fisheries Service has announced it is reviewing claims by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association that a goal to reduce the industry’s risks of harming North Atlantic right whales by 60% is too high. But the federal agency said it will move ahead with crafting federal rules to reduce the risk to the whales of vertical fishing rope associated with trap and pot fishing.

“In the coming months, we will proceed with rule-making as planned,” Chris Oliver, the agency’s assistant administrator, said in the statement Wednesday.

The fisheries service is in the midst of preparing a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed rule changes, based on a pact approved nearly unanimously in April by the 60 members of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, including the Maine association.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Program aims to provide Alaska Native and rural students with opportunities at NOAA

September 13, 2019 — The following was released by the University of Alaska Fairbanks:

Alaska Sea Grant is partnering with NOAA Fisheries to provide opportunities to Alaska Native and rural students at the federal agency. The goal is to increase their representation in marine-related professions at NOAA Fisheries, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formerly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service.

During summer 2019, NOAA Fisheries and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which houses Alaska Sea Grant, launched a marine education and workforce development program that brought five undergraduate students to the UAF campus for a two-week course run by Vladimir Alexeev, research professor at the International Arctic Research Center. It’s called the Partnership in Education Program Alaska. The program was developed by policy analysts Sorina Stalla and Megan Hillgartner and by UAF faculty member Alexeev.

This summer’s curriculum focused on marine sciences and the drivers of Arctic change, climatology, oceanography, marine resource management and policy, law, subsistence use and perspectives, hydrology, climate modeling, permafrost, interior wildfires, meteorology, atmospheric science and more. Following their course work and a trip to the Toolik Field Station on the North Slope, students applied their knowledge and completed internships with NOAA’s regional Alaska office and its Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Juneau.

Read the full release here

US biologists eye unusual deaths of Alaska ice seals

September 13, 2019 — Seals that rely on sea ice off Alaska’s northwest coast have been dying at uncommon rates, and federal marine mammal biologists Thursday declared an “unusual mortality event.”

The cause of death for nearly 300 ringed, bearded and spotted seals since June 1, 2018, is not known, according to the fisheries arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the management agency for the marine mammals.

“We’re looking at a broad spectrum of possible causes and trying to rule out what we can and narrow it down,” NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.

Viruses, bacteria and algal blooms are possible causes. Water temperature in the northern Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea the last two summers have been higher than normal. The agency is looking at possible ecosystem influences, including diminished sea ice, Speegle said.

Alaska Native coastal communities hunt all three seals for meat and hides as part of a subsistence life.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Preliminary NOAA survey suggests ‘low abundance year’ for king salmon

September 12, 2019 — The latest of several trawling vessels to come through Nome this summer is the Northwest Explorer. As it conducts a research survey in the Bering Sea, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries scientists onboard the ship say they’ve seen signs that this year’s chinook salmon numbers are dwindling.

Jim Murphy is the survey lead for this surface trawl in the Northeastern Bering Sea, as well as a fisheries research biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, based out of Juneau.

“Yeah, we don’t see a large movement, because they still basically come out (of the Yukon River), take a left-hand turn, and go south,” he said. “They (chinook salmon) could be further north, but I think it’s more likely this is going to be a low abundance year for chinook or kings.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

West Coast marine life endangered by ‘blob’ heatwave

September 12, 2019 — A “blob” of warm water in the Pacific Ocean could disrupt the marine ecosystem off the coast of California, similar to an event that occurred five years ago, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The patch, designated the Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave of 2019 and also referred to as a “blob,” is the second-biggest such mass in four decades and, according to experts, is on a similar path to that of one that, from 2014 to 2016, caused toxic algae blooms and killed sea life ranging from sea lions to salmon en masse.

“I am surprised to see something like this develop again so soon after what looked like the end of the marine heatwave in 2016,” Nate Mantua, head of the Landscape Ecology Team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, Calif., told the newspaper.

Read the full story at The Hill

NOAA Fisheries Reissues Policy for Transitioning to New Recreational Fishing Surveys

September 12, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Science and Technology has reissued a policy directive on the process of transitioning to a new or improved recreational fishing data collection design.

As first issued, the directive recognized that making changes to NOAA Fisheries’ recreational fishing surveys can lead to changes in the agency’s recreational catch and effort estimates. The policy directive also stated that a Transition Plan must be developed to account for these changes and the time and effort it takes to integrate new estimates into existing time series and incorporate calibrated statistics into fisheries science and management.

Now, Policy Directive 04-114 (PDF, 4 pages):

  • Formally documents the Marine Recreational Information Program’s (MRIP’s) existing survey certification process as a key step in transitioning to a new or improved data collection design.
  • Establishes that only those survey designs that have been certified or are on the path to certification are eligible to receive technical and/or financial support for implementation from MRIP.

Certified survey and estimation methods meet a shared set of standards, undergo independent peer review, and receive approval from the MRIP Executive Steering Committee. The certification process ensures new or improved survey designs are capable of producing statistics that meet the requirements of the Information Quality Act and can be accepted as Best Scientific Information Available under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Over the past eight years, NOAA Fisheries has certified six survey designs.

Procedural Directive 04-114-02 (PDF, 10 pages) has been issued with this revised policy, and describes the process of reviewing and certifying survey designs and documenting and archiving survey design details.

NOAA says it will do more analysis in wake of criticism of proposed whale rules

September 12, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries on Wednesday said it was disappointed the Maine Lobstermen’s Association pulled its support from the federal plan to implement stronger protections for right whales, but did not specifically address the lobster association’s criticisms of the science used to develop the plan.

The statement from Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said the agency continues to review the lobster association letter and conduct additional analysis on the issues it raised. It said the agency will continue to work with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association “on any clarifying questions or concerns by other fisheries.”

Oliver also stated that the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team strives to develop consensus recommendations, but “the agency will consider the extent of support for alternative proposals when consensus is not reached.”

Oliver’s statement arrived following 11 days of silence from NOAA Fisheries after the Maine Lobstermen’s Association informed the agency on Aug. 30 that it was stepping away from the right whale take reduction plan.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA awards $2M for lobster research, much of it to be conducted in Maine

September 11, 2019 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program has awarded $2 million to lobster research projects and a regional lobster extension program.

Seven research projects were chosen through a competitive process that included expert review, according to a news release.

The projects aim to increase understanding of factors such as lobster biology, distribution and socioeconomic issues associated with a steep decline of landings in southern New England, as they pertain to Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.

Collectively, the projects and the regional extension program are called the Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Ocean heatwave known as ‘The Blob’ is warming up the West Coast – and endangering animals

September 11, 2019 — It could be the return of “The Blob” and scientists are worried.

A huge mass of extra warm water extending from Baja California in Mexico all the way to Alaska and the Bering Sea could result in death for many sea lions and salmon, as well as toxic algae blooms that can poison mussels, crabs and other sea life.

When it happened in 2014 it was dubbed “The Blob” and disrupted sea life between Southern California and Alaska. Now it’s back.

The ocean heatwave began to form in June.

“Temperatures are about as warm as have ever been observed in any of these locations. It developed in mid-June and it’s gotten really big really fast,” said Nate Mantua, head of the Landscape Ecology Team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, California.

Read the full story at USA Today