Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Measures for the Jonah Crab Fishery

March 21, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries seeks comments on proposed measures for the Jonah crab fishery that complement the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Jonah Crab.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recommended these measures for managing Jonah crabs in federal waters. The management plan was initiated after an increase in landings.

Proposed measures include limiting Jonah crab harvest to those who already have a limited-access American lobster permit, a minimum size, protection for egg-bearing females, and incidental catch limits.These proposed regulations do not expand trap fishing effort. They propose to regulate the catch of Jonah crabs that is already occurring in the American lobster fishery.

For more details or to comment on the proposed measures, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register and the draft environmental impact statement on our website.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Transfer of Georges Bank and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic Yellowtail Flounder Quota

March 21, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is transferring unused quota of Georges Bank and Southern New England/Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder from the Atlantic sea scallop fishery to the commercial groundfish fishery.

If the scallop fishery is expected to catch less than 90 percent of its Georges Bank or Southern New England/Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder quota, we are authorized to reduce the scallop fishery quota for these yellowtail flounder stocks to the amount projected to be caught, and increase the groundfish fishery quota by the same amount. This adjustment helps achieve optimum yield for both fisheries, while still protecting from an overage of the annual catch limits.

Based on the current projections, the scallop fishery is expected to catch 80 percent of its allocation of Southern New England/Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder quota, and 44 percent of its Georges Bank yellowtail allocation.

We are transferring 0.78 mt of Southern New England/Mid Atlantic yellowtail flounder from the scallop fishery to the groundfish fishery, and 18.53 mt of Georges Bank yellowtail flounder through the end of the 2018 fishing year (April 30, 2019).

For more information, read the rule as filed today in the Federal Register.

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester seeks fish counters for river herring run

March 21, 2019 — Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The same goes for river herring at the city’s Little River fish run in West Gloucester.

The city, with NOAA Fisheries and the state Department of Marine Fisheries, is embarking on another year of visually counting river herring, or alewives, that migrate into the Little River and up the fish run to the Lily Pond spawning area to begin another life cycle for the important species.

As the river herring spawning run commences and a new counting season beckons, the fisheries partners want to expand the cadre of volunteers who help count fish along the recently reconstructed and improved fish run next to the city’s West Gloucester water treatment plant off Essex Avenue.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA questions Vineyard Wind environmental impact study

March 21, 2019 — A Gloucester-based division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has raised concerns that a government environmental impact study about the proposed Vineyard Wind project lacked sufficient detail.

Michael Pentony, the head of NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, warned in a March 15 letter that the report on Vineyard Wind completed by the U.S Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in December included conclusions that were not well supported by data and needed additional analysis of several key angles of impact.

“We determined that many of the conclusory statements relating to the scale of impacts for biological and socioeconomic resources are not well supported in the document,” Pentony wrote in his letter to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “Specifically, impacts categorized as major appear under-inclusive, while impacts designated as moderate seem overly inclusive.”

The letter, posted online by fishing industry advocacy group Saving Seafood, serves as the office’s official response to the federal draft environmental impact statement on the construction and operation plan for Vineyard Wind’s proposed offshore wind farm.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Fisheries Issues Public Comments on Vineyard Wind Project

March 20, 2019 — (Saving Seafood) — Last Friday, in a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NOAA Fisheries expressed concern over how the proposed Vineyard Wind offshore energy project may negatively impact New England’s fisheries, marine life, and ocean habitats.

The letter was the agency’s official public comment on BOEM’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Vineyard Wind project, which is proposed for off the coast of Massachusetts. In the letter, NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator Mike Pentony raises issues with BOEM’s analysis of the project’s negative impacts.

Specifically, the letter notes that the BOEM analysis does not include “the most accurate or updated data on fishery landings and associated revenue” for several fisheries, including squid, Jonah crab, and American lobster. The letter also faults BOEM for not sufficiently addressing the potential economic impacts of the project, particularly on the issues surrounding fisheries displacement.

“In some cases, if fishermen are displaced from an area they will move somewhere else, which can have direct economic impacts such as increased fuel costs, longer trips, etc., as well as indirect impacts such as increased conflicts with other fishermen,” the letter states. “However, it is also possible that the fish are simply unavailable to the fishery outside of the area.”

NOAA similarly criticizes BOEM’s analysis of potential mitigation measures for the project, noting that “the analysis is solely dependent upon an undefined financial mitigation package, while impacts to the fishing communities go beyond just revenue loss.”

Other areas of the DEIS criticized by NOAA include its limited analysis on critical habitats, impacts with marine mammals and endangered species, and the effects of project development and construction. The agency offered to continue to collaborate with BOEM to address these issues.

Read the full public comments here

 

NOAA Fisheries Approves Monkfish Quota for 2019

March 19, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is implementing monkfish quotas for the 2019 fishing year that we announced on July 12, 2017. There have been no overages in 2018, and there is no new biological information, so we are now finalizing the 2019 quotas that were previously announced. The quotas are the same as the 2017 and 2018 quotas and are in place until April 30, 2020.

All other requirements remain the same.

For more details, read the rule as filed in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin on our website.

Whales are facing a big, deadly threat along West Coast: Massive container ships

March 18, 2019 — One day last May, a container ship entered the San Francisco Bay with extra cargo.

A 45-foot-long dead female fin whale was draped across the ship’s bow. The impact with the ship had broken her back, ruptured her organs and caused severe internal bleeding.

Ten whale deaths were attributed to ship strikes in 2018 — the highest number on record in California since NOAA Fisheries began tracking in 1982. The mortality rate represents an enormous increase from the average 3.4 ship strike victims recorded annually in the five previous years.

Five of the 10 whales that died with boat collision injuries in 2018 were endangered or threatened fin, blue and humpback whales. Despite the prevalence of whale mortalities linked to ship strikes, few rules are in place on the West Coast to mitigate collisions.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Innovative Techniques Will Provide Vital Age Data for Key Forage Fish

March 14, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries scientists are developing cutting-edge techniques to age eulachon, a key forage fish, by reading the history recorded in its ear stones.

The eulachon is a little fish that plays a big role in the ecosystem, history, and culture of northwest North America. But in recent decades populations have declined dramatically over much of its range. Age data are crucial to accurately assess stocks and sustainably manage this vital prey species.

Despite its importance in the ecosystem, the eulachon has been little studied compared to many commercially fished species. Currently, there is no established method to age eulachon.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

Review of noise impacts on marine mammals yields new policy recommendations

March 13, 2019 — Marine mammals are particularly sensitive to noise pollution because they rely on sound for so many essential functions, including communication, navigation, finding food, and avoiding predators. An expert panel has now published a comprehensive assessment of the available science on how noise exposure affects hearing in marine mammals, providing scientific recommendations for noise exposure criteria that could have far-reaching regulatory implications.

Published March 12 in Aquatic Mammals, the paper is a major revision of the first such assessment, published in 2007 in the same journal. Both efforts were led by Brandon Southall, a research associate at the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and senior scientist at Southall Environmental Associates.

“One of the things we did in 2007 was to identify major gaps in our knowledge, and we now have considerably more data. We thought there was enough new science to reconvene the panel and revisit these issues,” said Southall, who served as director of NOAA’s Ocean Acoustics Program from 2004 to 2009.

Read the full story at UC Santa Cruz Newscenter

NOAA Fisheries Announces Increase in Common Pool Possession and Trip Limits for Gulf of Maine Cod and WITCH Flounder

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

The common pool possession and trip limits for Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod and witch flounder are increased, as summarized in the table below, for the remainder of the 2018 fishing year, through April 30, 2019.

The Small Vessel Category trip limit of 300 lb of cod, yellowtail flounder, and haddock combined remains in place.

For more information read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin as posted on our website.

Read the full release here