Saving Seafood

With New Camera Technology, Scientists Will Survey Untrawlable Ocean Habitat in AK Next Year

February 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA is releasing more information about its thinking about camera monitoring.

In a recent newsletter, NOAA said cameras can go where humans cannot and new fisheries research tools can save hundreds of hours in analyzing information contained in collected photographs.

NOAA Fisheries scientists are designing the first large-scale image-based fish survey in Alaska, and one of the first untrawlable habitat surveys nationwide.

Bottom-trawl and midwater acoustic surveys have been the main source of fishery-independent data for assessing fish stocks in Alaska. But a bottom trawl cannot sample the steep, rocky areas– untrawlable habitats — that species such as Atka mackerel and rockfishes prefer.  Acoustic instruments can be used in these areas, but are limited in detecting fish on or near the seafloor and cannot discern between fish species or sizes. Untrawlable areas make up to 17% of federally managed areas where bottom trawl surveys are regularly conducted in the Gulf of Alaska, and 54% in the Aleutian Islands.

Historically, untrawlable areas were inaccessible not only to scientific surveys, but also to commercial fishing bottom trawls. That is no longer the case.

“Fishermen have made great technological advances,” explains Kresimir Williams, a fisheries biologist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center who together with colleague Chris Rooper is leading the effort to design a survey of untrawlable habitat in Alaska.

“They are using the latest and greatest gadgets to fish as efficiently as possible. They are using cameras with live view that let them avoid catching boulders in ‘untrawlable’ areas. These areas are not untrawlable anymore – but they are unsurveyed.”

While fishermen use the latest technology, scientific surveys strive to maintain gear consistency to allow direct comparison of survey results over time, so that results from a bottom trawl survey conducted in the 1980s are directly comparable with results from the 2000s. “That consistency gives us confidence that population trends are informative, and can be used to detect changes in fish populations over time allowing the effective management of fish populations. But it hasn’t allowed for the adaptations needed to survey untrawlable areas,” Williams explains.

A number of commercially important fish species– including dusky, northern, harlequin, and yelloweye rockfish– strongly prefer these habitats. Many species of rockfish are long-lived and reproduce later in life, making them particularly vulnerable to overfishing. To keep these fisheries sustainable, managers need accurate stock assessments.

Assessments based on surveys of only trawlable areas for species that live mainly in untrawlable habitat are highly uncertain.  In addition, surveying only trawlable areas may also incorrectly inflate estimates of species such as flatfish, which are predominantly in the trawlable habitats by expanding these results over untrawlable areas where these fish are generally much less common.

Creating rigorous methods for surveying untrawlable habitats will benefit the assessments of both types of fish and the fishing industry and managers who rely on this information to set sustainable fishing quotas.

Take nothing but pictures

The problem of assessing fish stocks in untrawlable habitat is not limited to Alaska. Developing new methods to sample in rock, reef, and other untrawlable habitats is a nationwide NOAA Fisheries effort. Many methods are being explored, but all involve acoustic or optical technologies. Alaska will be one of the first regions to realize an image-based survey of untrawlable habitats if we are able to conduct an initial survey in 2019.

Cameras can go where traditional bottom trawl and acoustic surveys cannot.

The plan for the Gulf of Alaska combines large-scale acoustic and optical sampling. Bottom trawl samples will be replaced with high resolution photos from which fish species and sizes can be identified and fish populations can be estimated. Cameras lowered from ships and moored stationary stereo camera systems will be used where each will be most effective.

“It will be a non-extractive survey,” says Williams. “We will take away nothing but pictures.”

To realize this vision by turning images into data, Williams’ team is collaborating with a University of Washington’s Electrical Engineering department program dedicated to computer automated image analysis. UW researchers and Williams created computer programs that automatically identify and determine the length of fish in the images.

“These sophisticated analysis techniques are widely used in security and medical fields, but are only now becoming accessible for fisheries research,” explains Williams. ”It can hugely reduce the effort required to extract data from images. Until this technique was available, starting a new image-based survey was impractical — it would require a huge number of people and amount of time just to examine photos.”

The new programs are able to analyze the images and determine fish identity and length in one-fifth of the time it would take a trained fisheries biologist to do the task in expenses.

Focus and fine tune

The new survey design is based on many years of research by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and knowledge gained through NOAA’s Untrawlable Habitat Strategic Initiative, which funded several pilot projects for developing the methodology:

Acoustic-optics studies
Experiments with stationary triggered cameras
Bottom mapping and habitat classification efforts
Remotely operated vehicle surveys
Studies of fish response to camera equipment and movement
A study of fish visual spectrum sensitivity
These studies provided information that is being incorporated into the survey design, such as:

Some fish move to different depths during day and night. This knowledge is useful in deciding what equipment to use or what time of day to survey them.

Some fish move around and others stay close to one location. Understanding these behaviors helps determine what camera equipment to use.

Fish are more sensitive to certain wavelengths of light. The survey will use lighting within a spectrum that fish are least likely to avoid.

Until now, many estimates of fish populations made using traditional survey approaches have been relative — you know if there are more or less than other years, but you don’t know exactly how many there are. That approach often requires several years of data to detect a trend, and consistent methods from year to year, even if those methods become outdated. Williams found an innovative way to use new stereo camera systems to calculate the volume of water represented in each image. That enables researchers to calculate the number of fish per volume of seawater (fish per cubic meter), an absolute estimate.

“With the new survey, we are shooting for an absolute estimate– the actual number of fish. That gives you a much more precise piece of information to work with. And you can keep improving the gear instead of being constrained to using the same techniques for consistency. It’s exciting, using these advanced technologies to do something completely new,” says Williams. “It’s the next place to go.”

This story originally appeared in SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

VIRGINIA: Labor Joins Business Groups In Opposition to ASMFC Menhaden Allocation

AFL-CIO, United Food & Commercial Workers, Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers Association, Seafood Council, and Watermen Urge Virginia to Reject Commission Decision

February 7, 2018 (Saving Seafood) – WASHINGTON – Virginia business and labor groups have united in calling on Virginia’s General Assembly to reject a reduction in the state’s menhaden quota. In a letter to the Chairmen of Virginia’s Senate and House committees on Agriculture and Natural Resources, the groups argued that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) decision to redistribute a share of Virginia’s menhaden allocation to other states is unfair and damaging to Virginia businesses and workers.

The letter, sent yesterday to Chairman Richard Stuart of the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee and Chairman Danny Marshall of theVirginia House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee was signed by the Virginia AFL-CIO, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Manufacturers Association, the Virginia Seafood Council, the Virginia Waterman’s Association, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400.

In November, the ASMFC voted to raise the coastwide allocation of Atlantic menhaden by 8 percent but redistributed it in such a way that the two largest menhaden producing states – Virginia and New Jersey – saw their percentage of the coastwide catch reduced. Under Virginia law, the state legislature must pass legislation accepting the decision of the ASMFC before any such determination becomes effective in the Commonwealth.

“The ASMFC re-allocated the number of menhaden each state could land, giving increased shares to states with little to no menhaden fishing activity,” the groups wrote. “This plan unfairly takes from Virginia while increasing the total allowable catch on the Atlantic Coast by 16,000 metric tons.”

In their letter, the groups argued that the ASMFC could have avoided this problem by increasing the quota further; they pointed out that scientists on the Commission’s Menhaden Technical Committee previously concluded that the coastwide quota could be increased by over 40 percent without a risk of overfishing.

Virginia’s General Assembly is currently considering legislation that would accept the ASMFC’s quota and reallocation plan. The letter calls on legislators to vote against the pending bill.

“Should Virginia reject this, they will stand up for all fisheries managed by the ASMFC,” the groups wrote in their letter. “Should Virginia accede to the ASMFC on this issue, in the future other states may team up on Virginia, take our allocation of other fish, and distribute it to other states.”

The request from organized labor and business groups comes at a delicate time for the ASMFC. As their letter notes, there is recent new precedent for a state that believes its own rules provide adequate conservation to successfully appeal a decision made by the ASMFC. Last June, the Commission recommended to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that New Jersey be found out of compliance with new rules on recreational summer flounder fishing, known as Addendum XXVIII. However, Secretary Ross did not agree with the Commission’s determination, and ruled New Jersey to be in compliance, marking the first time the Commerce Department had rejected a noncompliance recommendation from the ASMFC.

In a letter to ASMFC Executive Director Robert Beal, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Chris Oliver wrote, “New Jersey makes a compelling argument that the measures it implemented this year…will likely reduce total summer flounder mortality in New Jersey waters to a level consistent with the overall conservation objective…” As a result, “the Secretary has found that the measures are likely to be equivalent in total conservation as those required under Addendum XXVIII,” Administrator Oliver wrote.

According to the ASMFC, the menhaden fishery is sustainable and the stock remains healthy. The Commission’s most recent stock assessment, completed in 2017, concluded that menhaden is currently not overfished and is not experiencing overfishing.

 

Network seeks to bring together data on harmful algal blooms

February 6, 2018 — A group of scientists is coming together to share information related to harmful algal blooms in Alaska.

Under the umbrella of the Alaska Ocean Observation System, part of the national ocean observation system network, a partnership of state agencies, Alaska Native organizations and the University of Alaska has launched the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network. The intent is to stitch together a statewide approach to researching, monitoring, responding to and spreading information about harmful algal blooms in the state.

Algal blooms are natural processes in the ocean and occur when the population of algae in a certain area increases dramatically. However, they can turn toxic when certain types of algae proliferate and produce chemicals that can be harmful to other plants, animals and people, or consume all the oxygen in the water as they decay. The events, called harmful algal blooms, occur all over the planet, in both freshwater and the ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve been seeing more and more of these bloom events happening,” said Ginny Eckert, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Juneau and co-chair of the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network’s executive committee. “It’s always a question: Are we seeing more because we’re paying attention more? But … the more information we can get out to people, (the better).”

Harmful algal blooms can have devastating consequences. In 2014, nearly 500,000 Ohio residents had to go without clean drinking water because of harmful algal blooms near a water treatment plant in Lake Erie. A harmful algal bloom in a lake that flowed into the ocean near Monterey Bay, California in 2007 is thought to have killed 11 sea otters with infections of microcystin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every year in Alaska, a number of alerts go out to shellfish gatherers to be careful because some of the clams, oysters and mussels may have high levels of a toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, a fatal condition in humans.

Read the full at the Peninsula Clarion

 

King Mackerel Trip Limit Increases for Commercial Hook-And-Line Vessels off Florida

February 5, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

WHAT/WHEN:

  • On February 5, 2018, the daily vessel trip limit increased from 50 to 75 fish for commercial hook-and-line vessels fishing for Atlantic migratory group king mackerel in federal waters off Florida between the Flagler/Volusia and Miami-Dade/Monroe County lines.
  • The 75-fish daily vessel trip limit will remain in effect through February 28, 2018, unless the Southern zone’s quota is reached and the fishery is closed before the end of the fishing year.
  • On March 1, 2018, the new fishing year begins and a commercial trip limit of 50 fish will again be in effect for this area.

This bulletin provides only a summary of the existing regulations. Full regulations can be found in the Federal Register or  https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=4a1c3805e95097423c9a607a31c4c9f8&rgn=div5&view=text&node=50:12.0.1.1.2&idno=50#se50.12.622_1384.

Access this and other Fishery Bulletins from NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office by clicking here.

 

Scott Pruitt pushes back on finding that would restrict pesticides’ use to protect fish

February 5, 2018 — For months, chemical companies have waged a campaign to reverse findings by federal fisheries scientists that could curb the use of pesticides based on the threat they pose to endangered species. They scored a major victory this week, when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he would press another federal agency to revisit a recent opinion triggering such restrictions.

The struggle over an arcane provision of the Endangered Species Act, in which the EPA must affirm that the pesticides it oversees do not put species’ survival in jeopardy, has become the latest front in the battle over a broad-spectrum insecticide known as chlorpyrifos. Pruitt denied a petition to ban its agricultural use after questioning EPA scientists’ conclusions that exposure impedes brain development in infants and fetuses.

Speaking to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture on Wednesday, Pruitt said he plans to inform the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Fisheries Service “that there needs to be a consultation because we have usage data, frankly, that wasn’t considered.”

NOAA Fisheries issued a Biological Opinion on Dec. 29, which was publicly released Jan. 9 by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, finding that the current use of chlorpyrifos and malathion “is likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of 38 species of salmon and other fish in the Pacific Northwest and destroy or harm the designated critical habitat of 37 of those species. It found another pesticide, diazinon, could jeopardize the continued existence of 25 listed fish species and could harm critical habitat for 18 of them.

In allowing chlorpyrifos to stay on the market — the product is already prohibited for household products — Pruitt cited concerns raised by the Department of Agriculture, pesticide industry groups and an EPA scientific review panel about studies the agency used to conclude that the pesticide poses a serious enough neurological risk to ban its use on dozens of crops. One study, by researchers at Columbia University, found a connection between higher exposure levels to chlorpyrifos and learning and memory problems among farmworkers and children.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

 

Hope, but no calves, spotted as right whales return to Georgia waters

February 5, 2018 — They call her Halo — the right whale was born to another documented calving female, Loligo, in 2005, and was last seen in 2016. That was until staff with the Sea to Shore Alliance spotted her Wednesday near Little St. Simons Island. She, and her companion, are the first right whales seen off the coast of Georgia this calving season, which typically is from November to April.

“There was an adult female spotted that has had calved before — or has had a calf before — and so we’re hoping that she’s pregnant and we’ll have a calf in the upcoming days or weeks,” said Clay George, who heads up the state Department of Natural Resources’ right whale efforts. “There was another whale seen with her that was large and appeared to be an adult or a juvenile, but it was not a calf that was born this year. So, we are hoping that perhaps it was also an adult female and may be pregnant also.”

There has also been action in the Gulf of Mexico this year.

“My understanding, from talking to colleagues that work for the state of Florida, that at least two of the sightings (in the gulf) have been confirmed to be a right whale, and the photos suggest that it may have been the same individual whale was seen in both locations, and if so, it appears to be a 1-year-old whale that was born last year,” George said. “So, those three whales are the only whales that have been seen south of Cape Hatteras, N.C.”

There is more than a little amount of worry among whale researchers and experts that the world could be watching the extinction of right whales, considering births are not keeping up with deaths — especially with human-influenced mortality from whales becoming entangled in heavy fishing gear used for lobsters and snow crabs further north.

Read the full story at the Brunswick News

 

Request for Comments: Proposed Rule to Increase Catch Levels in Federal Waters and Prohibit Recreational Harvest of Spiny Lobster in the South Atlantic Using Traps

February 2, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

KEY MESSAGE:

NOAA Fisheries requests your comments on the proposed rule for Regulatory Amendment 4 to the Fishery Management Plan for Spiny Lobster in the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic (Regulatory Amendment 4). Regulatory Amendment 4 would increase the catch limit for spiny lobster based on updated landings information and revised scientific recommendations; and prohibit the use of traps for recreational harvest of spiny lobster in federal waters off North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Comments are due by March 4, 2018

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED CHANGES: 

  • The proposed rule would increase the catch limit for spiny lobster from 7.3 million pounds to 9.6 million pounds.
  • Currently, recreational harvest of spiny lobster using traps is prohibited in federal waters off Florida, but is allowed in federal waters off North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The proposed rule would make the prohibition consistent throughout the federal waters off all four states in the South Atlantic region.

HOW TO COMMENT ON THE PROPOSED RULE: 

The comment period is open from February 2, 2018, through March 4, 2018. You may submit comments by electronic submission or by postal mail. Comments sent by any other method (such as e-mail), to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NOAA Fisheries.

FORMAL FEDERAL REGISTER NAME/NUMBER:
83 FR 4890, published February 2, 2018

Electronic Submissions:Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal.

  1. Go to https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=NOAA-NMFS-2017-0125.
  2. Click the “Comment Now!” icon, complete the required fields.
  3. Enter or attach your comments.

Mail: Submit written comments to Nikhil Mehta, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

Why increase the catch limits for spiny lobster?

  • Current catch limits for spiny lobster are based on landings from fishing years 2000/2001 through 2009/2010. This time period included years where landings were historically low.
  • The Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils’ Scientific and Statistical Committees recommended specifying catch limits for spiny lobster using a longer time series of spiny lobster landings (fishing years1991/1992 through 2015/2016).
  • The longer time period isbetter suited to capture the dynamics of the fishery that are influenced by factors beyond spiny lobster biology and harvest, such as environmental conditions.
  • The proposed increase in catch limits is based on the best scientific information available.

Why would recreational harvest of spiny lobster using traps be prohibited in federal waters off North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia?

  • Use of traps to catch spiny lobster by recreational fishermen off Florida is prohibited.
  • To date, the public has expressed little interest in using traps for the recreational harvest of spiny lobster off North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. This may be due to a daily bag or possession limit for spiny lobster from federal waters other than Florida, of two per person for commercial and recreational fishing, year-round.
  • The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is concerned that recreational use of trap gear may become more popular and result in potential negative impacts on essential fish habitat and result in an increase in the use of vertical lines that may interact with protected species (entanglement issues).
  • Trap gear also has the potential to “ghost” fish (trap continues to fish after it is lost).
  • Because spiny lobsters are larger in size in federal waters off Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina than off Florida, current trap configuration may not be efficient in capturing spiny lobster. Recreational traps used off Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina may require larger entrances which could result in greater bycatch of fish, crabs, and other invertebrates.
  • The proposed rule would make the trap prohibition for recreational fishermen consistent throughout the federal waters off all four states in the South Atlantic region.
  • Consistent regulations regarding this prohibition would aid law enforcement and avoid confusion among the fishers.

Where can I find more information on Regulatory Amendment 4? 

  • Contact NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Regional Office

By Mail: Nikhil Mehta

NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Regional Office

Sustainable Fisheries Division

263 13th Avenue South

St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-5505

By FAX: (727) 824-5308

By Phone: (727) 824-5305

Access this and other Fishery Bulletins from NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office by clicking here.

 

Portland Press Herald: Time for Maine to look past lobster boom years

February 2, 2018 — There is an economic principle that’s usually attributed to Herbert Stein, who worked for the Nixon administration and The Wall Street Journal.

Stein’s law: If something can’t keep going forever, it won’t.

Maine’s lobster industry is near the peak of a historic boom, making it the state’s most lucrative fishery. In the last 30 years, lobster landings have increased from 20 million pounds a year to 130 million. No one expects the catch to keep growing forever. The question is not whether it will decline, but when.

Scientists from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the University of Maine and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have applied computer modeling to that question and have proposed an answer. In a report issued last month, they identified 2014 as the peak of the lobster population and predicted a long, slow decline of 40 to 62 percent by 2030, with the catch returning to levels in line with what was seen in the 1990s.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has disputed the study and questioned the value of its computer models. Since no one was able to predict the historic rise in the lobster population, Commissioner Patrick Keliher said, he doubts the ability of scientists to accurately predict their decline.

He’s right, but there is plenty of reason to take this report seriously and use it as a planning tool. There’s a lot we can’t know about the future, but what we know about what’s happening in the present supports the report’s predictions.

Read the full editorial at the Portland Press Herald

 

No agreement yet on conservation cuts in halibut harvest

February 2, 2018 — Commercial fishing for halibut opens on March 24 and runs through Nov. 7, with no decision reached by the International Pacific Halibut Commission at its annual meeting in Portland, Ore., on conservation cuts for 2018.

NOAA Fisheries is considering the implications of the IPHC meeting and now trying to determine what steps to take, and some are hoping the impasse may yet be resolved by an additional IPHC meeting soon.

Bob Alverson, general manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association in Seattle, and one of three U.S. commissioners, is one of those hoping for another meeting soon.  “I think we have an excellent corps of scientists and the inability of the commissioners to come to an agreement is unfortunate,” he said. “I think it is worth one more shot for the commissioners to try to figure it out. I knew it was going to be difficult going in to it.”

Back in 2014 harvest reductions put in place included 33 percent in Area 3A, 30 percent in Area 3B, 42 percent in 4A, 20 percent in 4B and 20 percent in 2C, but Canada did not take such aggressive reductions, Alverson said.  That done, U.S. percentage reductions are less for this year, while Canada needed almost a 42 percent reduction and it was too much to bite off, he said.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

NOAA: GARFO Releases 2017 Year in Review Report

February 2, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

The Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office is proud to announce the release of our third annual Year in Review report.

In 2017, we continued to work toward our goals of sustainable use of living marine resources, conservation of the habitats upon which these resources depend, and the protection of endangered species and marine mammals.

In this report, we highlight some significant advances in conservation, such as finalizing the deep sea coral protection zones in the Mid-Atlantic, multiple successful projects to help fish get beyond barriers in rivers to spawn, and the designation of Atlantic sturgeon critical habitat. We helped save hundreds of sea turtles that had been trapped in the Gulf of Maine when water temperatures dropped, and we made good progress this year developing a system for storing fishery dependent data in a single database, which will greatly streamline the analysis of fish catches.

None of these accomplishments is ours alone. One of the keys to GARFO’s success is the dedication and commitment of our many partners. Indeed, one of the accomplishments of which we are most proud is our continued efforts to improve collaboration with our partner institutions.

We hope you will enjoy reading this short summary of GARFO’s highlights for the fiscal year 2017.

View NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region year in review here.