Saving Seafood

Pacific bluefin tuna quotas soar by 80 percent in 2025

October 11, 2024 — According to NOAA Fisheries, commercial Pacific bluefin tuna fishermen in the United States will be able to harvest nearly 80 percent more tuna in 2025-2026, thanks to new catch limits set by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. The decision, made in September, follows an encouraging stock assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-Like Species, which found the Pacific bluefin population rebuilt a decade ahead of schedule. This increase offers a major boost for U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries, particularly in Southern California, after years of strict conservation efforts.

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission increased catch limits during a meeting in Panama in early September.

U.S. fishermen harvest Pacific bluefin tuna using hook-and-line, purse seine, and drift gillnet gear and land their catch mainly in Southern California ports. Additionally, increases in commercial catch limits will benefit recreational anglers who also catch Pacific bluefin off Southern California. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission resolution that increased commercial catches also called for consistent management of sport fishing.

In 2022, U.S. commercial fishers harvested 368 metric tons, or more than 800,000 pounds, of Pacific bluefin tuna. They earned more than $2.2 million for the catch. The 2-year catch limit for 2025–26 is increasing almost 80 percent, to 1,822 metric tons from 1,017 in 2023–24. That means the U.S. fleet can bring more Pacific bluefin tuna to the docks and seafood markets. This would be a welcome change for captains, crew, and seafood distributors after more than a decade of belt-tightening in the fishery.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Our 2024 College and Other-Supported Education Program Students Share Insights

October 11, 2024 — Since 2006, NOAA has partnered with colleges to provide undergraduate students college-funded summer internship opportunities. Students enrolled in one of the partner colleges apply and participate through that college. NOAA collaborates with other universities to offer internship opportunities to help them fulfill their degree requirements. We also mentor students who receive internship and fellowship support from other sources like professional science organizations.

This year, our science center hosted six students from six states and six different colleges and universities. Projects focused on science communication, fish ageing and condition, eDNA, stock assessments, and the impacts of urbanization and contaminants on fish populations.

In each profile, students share a little about what they liked most about their research projects. They also share their insights about their internship experience, what they’ve gained from it, and more.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Biden-Harris Administration, NOAA invest more than $3.3 million to launch nationwide marine debris survey

October 10, 2024 — Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced an award of more than $3.3 million in funding to support the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project Nationwide Survey. This funding will support a one-year, standalone, nationwide marine debris assessment, done in partnership with 1stMission LLC, that aims to broaden the understanding of marine debris, including the types and amounts of debris found on U.S. shorelines. These funds are provided by NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“Marine debris poses significant threats to water quality, marine habitats and the economic prosperity of coastal communities nationwide,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this investment of over $3 million will help us understand how marine debris affects our shorelines, expand protections for marine environments and the industries that depend on them, and support a healthier and more prosperous future for coastal communities.”

The nationwide initiative builds on more than a decade of collaborative monitoring efforts with partner agencies, community groups and participants through the Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, as well as an earlier federal initiative known as the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program. The data collected through this comprehensive monitoring effort will be made freely available to the public.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Save LBI files notice of intent to sue Atlantic Shores to halt offshore wind project

October 9, 2024 — Citizens group Save Long Beach Island has notified federal agencies of its intent to sue offshore wind developer Atlantic Shores under the Endangered Species Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Act.

The notices give the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 60 days to resolve issues raised in the filings before the group pursues litigation, according to a news release from Save LBI.

An Atlantic Shores spokesperson said the company cannot comment on active litigation.

Read the full article at the The Press of Atlantic City

NOAA releases biological opinion suggesting salmon fishing can continue in Southeast Alaska

October 8, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries has released documentation that will allow salmon fishing to continue in Southeast Alaska more than a year after a judge attempted to shut down commercial salmon harvesting.

In May 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones ruled that a 2019 biological opinion used to authorize commercial salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska was flawed because it did not adequately consider how fishing would impact southern resident killer whales. In his opinion, the judge removed the fishery’s so-called take statement authorization, effectively ending any commercial salmon fishing operations in the region.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Territory not included in NOAA’s “Fisheries of the United States” annual report

October 8, 2024 — The director of the Department of Marine & Wildlife Resources, Taotasi Archie Soliai has written to the Deputy Ass’t Administrator for Regulatory Programs of NOAA, Samuel Rauch III on his concerns about American Samoa not being included in NOAA’s “Fisheries of the United States” Annual Report, pointing to “a longstanding pattern of marginalization for our community.”

DMWR director’s concerns comes on the heels of the 200th Meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council held in Honolulu, last month, where an Indigenous Committee to provide recommendations to federal authorities on cultural fishing rights and related issues was established.

Read the full article at Samoa News

NOAA Fisheries releases implementation plan for National Seafood Strategy

October 7, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries has unveiled its plan for implementing the United States’ first National Seafood Strategy, a document the agency released last year to guide the federal government’s efforts to support the domestic seafood sector.

“The Implementation Plan is where the rubber meets the road,” NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit said. “It outlines the specific actions to achieve the goals we laid out in the strategy to support our nation’s seafood sector and the benefits it provides.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

NOAA confirms link between Maine lobster fishing and right whale death

October 4, 2024 — NOAA investigators have for the first time confirmed a link between the death of a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and the Maine lobster industry.

The whale, right whale #5120, was found dead off the coast of Massachusetts in January 2024, and a necropsy in February found it was entangled in gear with markings that NOAA said were consistent with rope used in Maine state water trap/pot buoy lines used for lobster fishing.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US appeals court removes regional fishery management councils’ pocket veto powers

October 4, 2024 — A U.S. appeals court has ruled that regional fishery management councils can no longer exercise pocket vetoes, meaning that they cannot selectively enforce decisions made by NOAA Fisheries or the office of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

The ruling is a partial victory for commercial fishers Raymond Lofstad and Gus Lovgren, who sued the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council for how it divvied up catch allocations of summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass between commercial and recreational fishermen in 2022.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

AI transforms scallop stock assessments for greater accuracy

October 3, 2024 — Artificial Intelligence and machine learning help researchers take a giant step toward more accurate stock assessments.

Since the early 2000s, New England and Mid-Atlantic scallop fisheries have been managed sustainably through temporary area closures and periodic harvests by vessels limited to seven-person crews. This sound management depends on accurate numbers, and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) relies on data drawn from different sources for its Atlantic sea scallop stock assessments. “We get data from Coonamessett Farm Foundation (CFF), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, and others says Teri Frady, communications chief at NOAA Fisheries. But Frady is particularly interested in new AI-augmented data coming from the work of Dvora Hart at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center—NEFSC—in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. “I’m always interested in what Dvora is doing,” says Frady.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman