Saving Seafood

Fishing industry, feds sign MOU on offshore wind

March 27, 2019 — Fishing interests and federal regulators have signed a 10-year memorandum of understanding in which they pledge to explore collaborating on the science and planning of offshore wind development off the Atlantic coast.

Signatories to the MOU released Tuesday are the National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries; the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is responsible for offshore wind; and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, an organization of fishing companies and associations concerned with offshore development for things like wind power, gravel extraction and aquaculture.

The MOU does not obligate the three parties to do anything specific, other than to consider working together.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Dead Seabirds Do Tell Tales: How Fishery Observers Help Provide Data for Seabird Management

March 26, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Sometimes during regular fishing operations, seabirds accidentally get caught in fishing gear, resulting in injury or death. While this occurrence (also known as bycatch) is unfortunate, it does provide an opportunity to monitor seabird population characteristics and trends over time.

Observers deployed by the North Pacific, Pacific Islands and At-Sea Hake Observer Programs collect seabird bycatch. NOAA’s National Seabird Program works with the nonprofit organization Oikonos to conduct seabird necropsies. Collection of albatross, shearwater, and fulmar carcasses would be impossible without the cooperation of fishermen, observers, and observer program staff members.

What Information Do We Retrieve from Seabird Bycatch Carcasses?

From September 2017 to August 2018, Oikonos sampled a total of 206 seabird carcasses. Scientists and volunteers worked together to:

  • Identify bird species, age, sex, and health status.
  • Complete a variety of important measurements.
  • Support seabird diet studies through the analysis of seabird stomach contents.

Analysts also carefully measure the quantity of plastic ingested by seabirds in order to investigate trends related to the harmful impacts of plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean.

How Do Managers Use This Information?

Scientists and managers use age, sex, and health data from multiple years of deceased birds to identify trends indicative of population status. Necropsies also allow scientists to see how bird populations are responding to stressors such as oil spills, disease, and environmental changes. Regional and species differences in age and sex distributions can be documented and used to understand which groups of seabirds are most vulnerable to fisheries bycatch.

For example, from September 2017 to August 2018, adult black-footed albatrosses caught in Hawaii were mostly females, while more adult males were caught in Alaska. Most seabirds that were captured in both the Alaska and Hawaii fisheries were adults. Adult mortalities can slow population growth more than mortality of juveniles that are not yet able to reproduce.

Read the full release here

Climate Change Is Already Reshaping Commercial Fishing

March 26, 2019 — The ocean has been steadily warming over the past 100 years, absorbing most of the heat trapped by atmospheric greenhouse gases. Unless we swiftly and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the ocean could warm by as much as 4°C in the next 80 years. This puts fish and the people they feed and employ in hot water. Half of the planet relies on fish as a vital source of protein, and the fishing industry employs more than 56 million people worldwide.

Understanding where and why fisheries have been impacted by warming is necessary to ensure that the ocean remains a source of both nutrition and prosperity. In a study published in Science, I, along with colleagues from Rutgers University and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, show that ocean warming has already hurt fisheries’ ability to provide food and support livelihoods around the globe.

Fisheries are like a bank account, where we live off the interest. If fishing reduces the principal too much, the interest is lowered. Similarly, if the environment reduces the interest rate, the interest is also lowered. We combined maps of historical ocean temperature with estimates of historical fish abundance to see how warming has affected the interest rate and returns from the global fisheries bank account.

Fish don’t want their water too hot or too cold. As the ocean warms, they move poleward and into deeper water to follow their preferred temperatures. The impacts of these shifts are complicated; depending on the species, ocean warming and its knock-on effects can either increase or decrease the habitat available to fish. This can either increase or decrease the availability of important species in the food chain. Thus, ocean warming might benefit some fish populations while hurting others.

This is what we found in our research. Although warming has benefited some fisheries, it has hurt others. The losers outweighed the winners, resulting in a net 4% decline in sustainable catch potential over the last 80 years. Four percent might sound small, but it represents a loss of 1.4 million metric tons previously available for food and income.

Some regions have been hit especially hard. The North Sea, which supports large commercial fisheries for species like Atlantic cod, haddock, and herring, has experienced a 35% loss in sustainable catch potential since 1930. The waters of East Asia, neighbored by some of the fastest growing human populations in the world, have seen losses of 8% to 35% across three seas.

Read the full story at Baron’s

Federal regulators scramble as SC fish start to range north for cooler seas

March 25, 2019 — Shrimp boats from North Carolina pulled up to the McClellanville dock last week, loaded down with catch.

They had been trawling unrestricted ocean waters along the North Carolina-Virginia state line — in other words, hauling in shrimp that spawned in the Chesapeake Bay.

Until a few years ago that was unheard of: The bay just didn’t produce shrimp. It’s too far north.

But fish species are shifting their range as seas warm — four times faster than land species, according to a recent study.

The concerns are for a lot more than shrimp. It’s deep-water finfish as well as surface roamers, species like wahoo, snapper, grouper and cobia. Those are among the most sought after game and seafood fish, and the rules for all of them are under review.

As the waters warm this spring, the near-shore shrimping grounds will open. More of the half-million licensed recreational anglers in South Carolina will crank up boat motors and head out. Commercial boats are out there already. While the pressure on species from overfishing is a long-recognized and long-regulated issue, now there is a new one: How long will this fish even be there?

Anxiety is starting to churn in fishing communities over what will happen to their livelihoods or hobbies. The value to South Carolina of its rich shrimp and finfish waters has been estimated at $44 billion per year for both recreational and commercial fishing combined.

Read the full story at The Post and Courier

US judge rules cod quota set-asides for Alaskan cities are unlawful

March 25, 2019 — Washington, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kelly ruled March 21 that the North Pacific Council’s Amendment 113 (A113) to the Bering Sea Groundfish Fisheries Management Plan does not comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) requirements.

The amendment, adopted in 2016, provided 5,000 metric tons of Pacific cod as a set-aside for processing facilities located west of 170 degrees longitude. It named the specific cities of Adak and Atka in the US state of Alaska and the plants located there as the plants that would benefit from this set-aside.

Shortly after the amendment was adopted in late 2016, the Groundfish Forum, United Catcher Boats and other groups who rely on cod, flatfish, and other groundfish in the Bering Sea, filed a complaint challenging the rule, based on five separate claims for relief.

They contended first, that the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) didn’t have the authority to “allocate shore-based processing privileges” and overstepped its authority with this amendment.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Michael Pentony: NOAA patching up relationships with fishermen

March 25, 2019 — So, how’s your March Madness bracket going? Clean as a pachyderm’s patootie? Not so much ours. Our bracket has taken on the very patina of a paper we once wrote on Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury.” That too was full of bad choices, ill-formed thoughts, scratch-outs and an imprint of our forehead where we seemed to have nodded off.

We took a break from hoops last week to check out most of the video of NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator Mike Pentony’s 90-minute sitdown with the editorial board of The Standard-Times of New Bedford, a fine news organization that does a standup job covering the fishing industry in America’s most lucrative fishing port.

The discussion was interesting on a number of levels. Among the most compelling was Pentony’s take on the “evolution of perspectives” that has shaped the relationship between NOAA Fisheries and the Northeast commercial fishing industry.

“It’s fair to say that six to 10 years ago, the relationships between the industry at large and the agency were in trouble, were a real problem. Maybe at an all-time low, I don’t know. But certainly, with my experience, it was a real struggle,” Pentony said. “I think many in the industry – not just the groundfish industry, but the industry at large – saw the agency as the problem. We’ve made progress over the years rebuilding a lot of those relationships, being confident (now) that we could walk in a room and not be perceived as the enemy.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA official talks ‘damage’ to scallop industry from offshore wind

March 25, 2019 — The federal fishing administrator for the Greater Atlantic region told The Standard-Times Wednesday that although offshore wind will not threaten the overall sustainability of the scallop industry, the damage to it could be significant, especially for fishing grounds off New York. But later in the day, he clarified his comments, saying the “damage” remark does not accurately reflect his position.

Michael Pentony’s initial comments came when asked in an editorial board meeting if offshore wind gives the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cause for concern about the sustainability of the scallop industry, particularly with regard to wind turbines off New York.

He began, “I think it’s difficult to say that we have concerns about the sustainability of a three-to-five-hundred-million-dollar-a-year fishery.”

Asked specifically about damage to the industry, he said, “The damage could be significant, and we definitely have concerns about that. I’m less concerned about the overall long-term sustainability of the fishery, but certainly, we have concerns about the impacts of that particular area and how that could … play out.”

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

Idaho Plan Safeguards Wild Steelehead, Per NOAA

March 22, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries has determined that Idaho’s Fishery Management and Evaluation Plan for their recreational steelhead fishery provides necessary protections for salmon and steelhead listed under the ESA.

NOAA Fisheries has determined that Idaho’s Fishery Management and Evaluation Plan (FMEP) for their recreational steelhead fishery provides necessary protections for salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NOAA fisheries has approved Idaho’s plan under section 4(d) Rule.

Under section 4(d), NOAA Fisheries can specify how an activity can be exempt from additional ESA regulations. This applies particularly to “take,” which can include any act that kills or injures fish, and may include habitat modification. The ESA prohibits any take of species listed as endangered, but some take of threatened species that does not interfere with survival and recovery may be allowed.

“Idaho has developed a plan that provides continuing recreational fishing opportunities while ensuring that ESA-listed salmon and steelhead have the protection they need to recover,” said Allyson Purcell, Branch Chief in NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region.

Idaho’s plan came together through collaboration with fishery managers across the Snake River Basin and includes a new basin-wide framework designed to limit total impacts on steelhead from all fisheries in the Snake River Basin. Under Idaho’s plan, fishermen will continue to be required to release any wild steelhead they encounter.

Read the full story at the Fishing Wire

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.