Saving Seafood

Comparing Killer Whale Cuisine

September 20, 2024 — Scientists studied two populations of fish-eating killer whales: the Southern Residents and the southern Alaska residents. They wanted to know if these two populations of fish-eating killer whales eat different things and how their diets change throughout the year. This information will improve our conservation efforts.

The Alaska resident killer whale population appears healthy and has been growing. But Southern Resident killer whales are endangered and are one of NOAA Fisheries’ Species in the Spotlight. Decades of research have identified four major threats to their survival:

  • Vessel traffic noise and disturbance
  • Health issues linked to contaminants
  • Issues related to inbreeding
  • Limited prey availability.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

James Binniker Named New Director of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement

September 20, 2024 — Mr. James Binniker has been selected as the new director of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement. In this new role, Mr. Binniker will lead the agency’s work to enforce laws that conserve and protect our nation’s protected marine resources, places, and habitats, as well as to advance actions to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and promote sustainable fisheries management. Mr. Binniker will assume his new role on September 23.

As the newly appointed head of the Office of Law Enforcement, Mr. Binniker brings a strong combination of skills and experience. The office is responsible for enforcing more than 40 federal statutes over more than 3 million nautical miles of open ocean, 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline, 16 National Marine Sanctuaries, and Marine National Monuments.

“The breadth of ocean and coast NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement must cover and the number of laws they must enforce are immense; so it’s crucial that leadership continue to set priorities and pursue those enthusiastically as we strive to fulfill our sustainability and stewardship missions,” said Janet Coit, NOAA’s Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “With James’ extensive enforcement background and incredible level of experience with marine issues nationally and internationally, he will hit the ground running—especially in our ongoing fight against illegal unregulated and unreported fishing globally.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

DOJ argues federal law allows NOAA to charge fishermen for monitors

September 19, 2024 — Out-of-pocket payments made by fishermen to federal monitors who accompany them at sea is comparable to the costs fishermen incur when they purchase new gear or equipment to comply with any other other regulations, government lawyers argue in a legal brief filed Wednesday in federal appeals court.

The brief in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Gina Raimondo, is the government’s latest volley in what has become a landmark case pitting NOAA Fisheries against a group of New Jersey herring fishermen after the Supreme Court in June rolled back a long-standing legal doctrine that gave deference to agencies like NOAA in disputes over a regulation’s interpretation.

The filing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit argues that all NOAA Fisheries regulations require industry compliance and that sometimes compliance “imposes economic costs on vessels.”

Read the full article at E&E News

US senators blame new financial management software for delayed fishery disaster funding

September 19, 2024 — A group of U.S. senators claim that a newly implemented financial management software has caused delays in the allocation of fishery disaster funds, and they want answers.

The USD 341 million (EUR 306 million) Business Application Solution was built to modernize the U.S. Department of Commerce’s financial operations, but federal lawmakers claim the software has resulted in system failures and delays, including to NOAA’s fishery disaster program.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Collaboration on St. Croix Fish Passage Projects May Create Largest Alewife Run in North America

September 19, 2024 — An 1874 map hanging in the Calais, Maine, library depicts the St. Croix, or Skutik, River flowing past the town. A spot on the river called Salmon Falls marks the location of a tribal fishing village. In 1881, the Milltown Dam was built across the river near the same site. The village—and the sea-run fish that sustained members of the Passamaquoddy People for thousands of years—disappeared. The Passamaquoddy now compose the tribal communities Sipayik and Indian Township in Maine and Skutik in New Brunswick.

This year, a major cross-border collaboration championed by the Passamaquoddy People resulted in the dismantling of the Milltown Dam, the lowermost dam on the river. It had persisted for more than 140 years. Following removal of the Milltown Dam, hundreds of thousands of alewives, a keystone species in river and ocean ecosystems, surged upriver during their annual spring migration. With further fish passage restoration, the Skutik could host North America’s largest run of alewives.

Now, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and the Maine Department of Marine Resources are focused on the next major barriers to fish passage on the river: the Woodland and Grand Falls dams. Existing 1960s-era fishways on both dams are inadequate. With $35.6 million from NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the partners will develop state-of-the-art fishways to carry six species of migratory fish over the dams.

The project includes:

  • Conducting studies to determine best designs for upstream American eel passage and downstream passage for alewives and eels at both dams
  • Designing and building multiple upstream and downstream fish passage solutions at the Woodland Dam, including a fish ladder and a fish lift
  • Designing multiple upstream and downstream fish passage solutions for the Grand Falls Dam
  • Expanding the ability of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik to participate in restoration through workforce development and job support
  • Helping the local economy by creating jobs and supporting fisheries for alewives and American eels

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Fishermen ask court to spike NOAA onboard observer program

September 18, 2024 — Two New Jersey fishermen who convinced the Supreme Court in June to toss out the Chevron doctrine, which had long buttressed federal regulatory muscle are asking an appeals court to effectively get industry-paid NOAA Fisheries monitors off their boats.

In arguments set for Nov. 4, plaintiffs in Loper Bright Enterprises Inc. v. Gina Raimondo will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to make a final ruling on the industry-funded monitoring program that was adopted by NOAA in 2020 and ceased in April 2023.

“I think we’re all hopeful that the circuit court will get to the right answer,” Ryan Mulvey, an attorney with the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and plaintiffs’ counsel, said in an interview Monday. “This entire case has been about fighting for our fishermen and small family businesses to get rid of what we thought was a really onerous regulation.”

Read the full article at E&E News

2024 Northeast Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise Completed

September 17, 2024 — Our ecosystem monitoring cruises help researchers understand and predict changes in the Northeast shelf ecosystem and its fisheries throughout the year. Our core sampling provides data that help us understand ocean acidification as well as changes in:

  • Distribution and abundance of zooplankton and larval fish
  • Temperature
  • Salinity

Researchers also record observations of seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.

We sampled 111 of 162 planned stations from August 12 to 23 aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. Sailing was delayed from the originally scheduled departure on August 9 so the vessel could replace an essential crew member on short notice. We completed 68.5 percent of our planned research activities. We dropped stations from New Jersey to North Carolina owing to delayed sailing, and focused on stations in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Russian, Chinese fishing vessels barred from US port services

September 13, 2024 — Fishing vessels registered with China, Russia, Mexico and a host of other nations will no longer be able to refuel or resupply at U.S. ports starting next month, federal environmental regulators said this week.

The port denials, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, come after the agency identified more than a dozen nations with vessels that have engaged in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing activities — some of which has affected sharks and endangered marine life.

In a statement Tuesday, NOAA said that its decision to pull port privileges for the designated nations is the result of a two-year consultation process with each country.

“We encourage them to address the issues and improve their fisheries management and enforcement practices,” the agency wrote. Because the nations in question failed to take corrective action, NOAA considers them “negatively certified” and revoked port privileges.

Read the full article at the Courthouse News Service

Why Can’t Killer Whales Find and Capture Food? The Ocean Is too Noisy

September 12, 2024 — New research shows that vessel noise—the rumble and churn of boats and ships—disrupts killer whales’ ability to find and capture food. This can have serious consequences for these whales, especially considering the challenges they already face. The findings were published recently in the scientific journal, Global Change Biology.

How Killer Whales Hunt and Why Noise Matters

Killer whales are sophisticated hunters. They use echolocation, a kind of biological sonar. They emit clicks that bounce off objects, creating echoes that help them “see” with sound. These echoes they receive back are crucial for finding prey, especially fast-moving salmon. The underwater noise made by vessels can be particularly disruptive for animals like killer whales, which rely heavily on sound to accomplish important activities like hunting.

Researchers wanted to know how vessel noise interferes with killer whales’ foraging success. So, they attached special tags to killer whales that recorded their movements and the sounds they made and heard. By comparing these data to noise levels, they could see a clear connection. As the noise from vessels increased, the whales’ foraging success decreased. They spent more time searching for prey, but with less success.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Thanks to humans, Salish Sea waters are too noisy for resident orcas to hunt successfully

September 11, 2024 — The Salish Sea—the inland coastal waters of Washington and British Columbia—is home to two unique populations of fish-eating orcas, the northern resident and the southern resident orcas. Human activity over much of the 20th century, including reducing salmon runs and capturing orcas for entertainment purposes, decimated their numbers. This century, the northern resident population has steadily grown to more than 300 individuals, but the southern resident population has plateaued at around 75. They remain critically endangered.

New research led by the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revealed how underwater noise produced by humans may help explain the southern residents’ plight. In a paper published Sept. 10 in Global Change Biology, the team reports that  pollution—from both large and small vessels—forces northern and southern  orcas to expend more time and energy hunting for fis

Read the full article at PHYS.org