Saving Seafood

Data from Tagged Fish to Help Scientists Enhance Restoration Efforts

September 5, 2024 — NOAA scientists are collaborating with some unique partners to learn more about how several Chesapeake Bay species use natural and restored areas near Poplar Island, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The partners? Nearly 400 fish!

We have caught, tagged, and released fish to help us learn how they use restored marshes at Poplar Island compared with how they use natural habitat nearby in Back Creek.

Our “partner” fish carry transmitter tags, which are about the size and shape of a pill capsule. Our team carefully implants the tags into the fish. After being caught and measured, we transfer the fish into a bin with water from the same location where they were caught. Our trained specialist creates a small incision, inserts the tag, and then stitches the incision closed. Only fish that are longer than 8¼ inches are eligible to carry a tag. Then the fish is returned to the same location where it was caught.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Shrimpers demand action on turtle conservation standards

September 3, 2024 — The Port Arthur Area Shrimpers’ Association (“PAASA”) and the Southern Shrimp Alliance jointly requested that the U.S. Department of State (“State Department”) re-visit and suspend the certifications granted to Peru and Guatemala under Section 609 of Public Law 101-162.

Based on a law enacted in 1989, the Section 609 program is intended to ensure that shrimp harvested in a manner that harms endangered sea turtles is not imported into the United States. Under the program, the State Department, working with officials from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) Fisheries, certifies countries and/or individual fisheries as being in compliance with Section 609’s requirements and therefore eligible to supply the U.S. market with shrimp.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

New Ocean Acidification Maps of US Waters

August 29, 2024 — Researchers from NOAA have produced a new online dashboard on the National Marine Ecosystem Status website that shows how ocean acidification is impacting eleven different marine ecosystems in the US.

These graphs, charts, and mapped products, which were also described in a recent paper for Nature Scientific Data, provide a resource to fisheries and natural resource managers and deliver simple snapshots of ecosystem status with respect to ocean acidification.

“The dashboard provides a regional context for anyone who wants to know how ocean acidification is progressing in US coastal ecosystems,” said Dr. Jon Sharp, who led the work at the University of Washington Cooperative Institute for Climate Ocean and Ecosystem Studies and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

Read the full article at ECO

New protections for the Rice’s Whale in the Gulf of Mexico delayed until December

August 29, 2024 — The Gulf of Mexico is haunted by a ghost. The animal is as big as a school bus, but glides unseen through the ocean’s twilight zone, its low moans echoing in the dim water. A creature so elusive, researchers can spend days searching without ever glimpsing one.

This is the Rice’s whale, one of the Gulf of Mexico’s largest and most mysterious animals. Found nowhere else on Earth, it is the only baleen whale that lives in the Gulf year-round.

Previously thought to be a sub-species of the Bryde’s whale, the Rice’s whale was only declared a unique species in 2021. Yet experts fear it could disappear before people ever get to know it. NOAA Fisheries researchers estimate that fewer than 100 Rice’s whales remain in the Gulf, with recent counts putting that number as low as 50.

“Our scientists have not been seeing many calves when they do surveys for Rice’s whales, which is obviously problematic,” NOAA Fisheries Southeast Large Whale Recovery Coordinator Clay George said.

NOAA Fisheries was to publish a new critical habitat designation for the species this week under a settlement agreement with environmental organizations to better protect the endangered whale. But the parties have agreed to extend the deadline to no later than Dec. 2

Read the full article at WUFT

Feds say finishing Vineyard Wind won’t seriously harm whales — but sea turtle deaths expected

August 28, 2024 — The federal government expects no endangered whales, including North Atlantic right whales, to be killed or seriously injured by the installation of Vineyard Wind’s remaining turbines, but the same is not true for sea turtles.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries, has issued a new biological opinion on ways the continued turbine installation could affect threatened and endangered species.

The opinion won’t be published for several days, but in a summary provided to CAI, Greater Atlantic regional spokeswoman Andrea Gomez said the agency anticipates that an average of one sea turtle per year will be struck and killed by a boat associated with Vineyard Wind.

Read the full article at CAI

NOAA study links massive Bering Sea snow crab loss to climate change

August 23, 2024 — Scientists had previously linked the crash of the Bering Sea snow crab population in recent years to warming ocean waters. But a new study released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deepens the connection between human-caused climate change and the die-off.

Snow crabs are well suited for Arctic conditions. But Mike Litzow — the lead author of the report, which was published in the journal “Nature Climate Change” — said the southeastern Bering Sea is changing to more sub-Arctic conditions through a process called borealization. St. Matthew Island to the south, nothing north of 60 degrees’ latitude is included in the southeastern Bering Sea. It’s a process that’s also happening in terrestrial ecosystems in Alaska.

Read the full article at KMXT

Judge orders feds to protect endangered whale from oil drilling

August 22, 2024 — Marine species advocates scored a long-awaited legal victory this week, after a judge found the federal government had underestimated the risks of offshore oil and gas development to the critically endangered Rice’s whale and other wildlife.

On Monday, a federal district court in Maryland tossed out NOAA Fisheries’ Trump-era assessment — known as a biological opinion, or BiOp — effective Dec. 20, forcing the federal government to develop a new plan for protecting marine life like Gulf sturgeon and sea turtles.

Read the full article at E&E News

NJIT Biologist Awarded $680,000 Federal Grant to Save North-Atlantic Right Whale

August 22, 2024 — Brooke Flammang, a biologist at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has been awarded nearly $680,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of a growing nationwide effort to save the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis).

NOAA Fisheries recently unveiled a more than $9 million initiative funded by the Inflation Reduction Act to support a coalition of universities, nonprofits and scientific organizations engaged in the recovery of the species, which has seen its numbers dwindle to roughly 360 individuals today due to factors ranging from climate-driven changes to its habitat, to fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes.

As part of the collaborative effort, Flammang’s Fluid Loco Lab at NJIT will spearhead the development of non-invasive tag attachment technology to offer near real-time tracking of the species, inspired by the way certain marine life attaches to whales for their survival. The advances could improve our understanding of changes in the whales’ reproduction, distribution patterns and habitat use that have coincided with rising temperatures in its key ocean habitats in recent decades, such as the Gulf of Maine, which has warmed faster than 99% of the global ocean, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at NJIT

NOAA proposes $45 million for coastal habitat restoration and resilience projects for tribes and underserved communities as part of Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda

August 22, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is recommending more than $45 million in funding to support 27 new Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Grants for Tribes and Underserved Communities. Of this $45 million in funding, more than $20 million is recommended for federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations, and $25 million is recommended for projects that will benefit underserved communities. These funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will advance tribes’ and underserved communities’ coastal habitat restoration and climate resilience priorities. 

“This $45 million investment, part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, will empower tribes and underserved communities on the front lines of the climate crisis to restore ecologically and culturally important coastal ecosystems and boost their resilience to climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

NOAA recommends that $20 million of this funding go to federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations who will play key roles in decision-making about habitat restoration projects, build their capacity to advance habitat restoration and climate resilience efforts and realize community and economic benefits such as jobs and training opportunities. 

This funding supports President Biden’s America the Beautiful Initiative, a locally led and voluntary nation-wide effort to conserve, connect and restore at least 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This funding also advances the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal clean energy, climate and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

‘Building capacity’ is key to climate resilience
Building the capacity of local communities helps achieve a key objective of the National Climate Resilience Framework: To “equip communities with information and resources needed to assess their climate risks and develop the climate resilience solutions most appropriate for them.” 

Capacity building can encompass a number of activities, such as hiring project managers, facilitating community participation, creating foundational plans to guide restoration and developing workforce training. This work prepares communities, including decision makers, to adapt to a changing climate. For instance, several projects funded by these awards will help build capacity for Indigenous communities to maintain and transfer their Indigenous knowledge. Others will support on-the-ground restoration that can help communities address issues such as poor water quality, flooding and lack of access to green space. Some will involve building nature-based infrastructure to protect communities from threats such as erosion and sea level rise. 

“These projects demonstrate the power of community-driven habitat restoration,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “Building the capacity of tribes and underserved communities will help ensure that their needs and priorities are at the center of this work happening in their communities.”  

About NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation

NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation has a long history of conducting habitat restoration by executing large-scale competitive funding opportunities and providing expert technical assistance through the Community-based Restoration Program. The program provides technical and financial assistance to partners across the country to develop high-quality habitat restoration projects that support our nation’s fisheries. Since its start in 1996, the program has helped implement more than 2,200 coastal habitat restoration projects — restoring more than 94,000 acres of habitat for fish and opening more than 4,400 stream miles for fish passage.

More: Visit the NOAA Fisheries website to find a list of recommended projects and to learn more about habitat restoration projects funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Lawsuit claims fishery managers have failed to adequately protect Alaska’s coral gardens

August 21, 2024 — Until about 20 years ago, little was known about the abundance of colorful cold-water corals that line sections of the seafloor around Alaska.

Now an environmental group has gone to court to try to compel better protections for those once-secret gardens.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by Oceana in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, accused federal fishery managers of neglecting to safeguard Gulf of Alaska corals, and the sponges that are often found with them, from damages wreaked by bottom trawling.

Bottom trawling is a practice that harvests fish with nets pulled across the seafloor.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service “ignored important obligations” to protect the Gulf of Alaska’s seafloor, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, the lawsuit said.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon