Saving Seafood

Sturgeon ruling may impact federally funded projects

Merrimack River made ‘critical habitat’ for Atlantic sturgeon

September 1, 2017 — They are large, bony fish whose ancestors began swimming the Earth during the Triassic period, some 245 million years ago.

The federal government says the Atlantic sturgeon is now an endangered species in some places and is threatened in others, and that states up and down the Eastern Seaboard must take necessary measures to ensure their survival.

A ruling handed down on Aug. 16 by the Department of Commerce through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, designates the Gulf of Maine as a critical habitat for the fish, which includes approximately 152 miles of water in the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, the Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Piscataqua rivers of Maine, and the Cocheco and Salmon Falls rivers of New Hampshire.

But what sort of impact will the efforts to replenish the Atlantic sturgeon population have on Merrimack Valley cities like Haverhill and Lawrence?

Allison Ferreira, spokeswoman for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, said Friday that the ruling mandates that when a federal agency constructs or develops a project near the river or there is a project that is receiving some amount of federal money, such as a highway or bridge project where there could be significant water runoff, that agency must contact NOAA to ensure proper measures are taken so as not to upset the fish’s natural habitat.

Read the full story at the Haverhill Gazette

ALASKA: Stakeholders voice preferred changes to federal fisheries act

August 31, 2017 — SOLDOTNA, Alaska — Sportfishing groups and advocates want to see the federal government separate the management of sport and commercial fishing in the upcoming renewal of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

The act, originally passed in 1976 and co-sponsored by the late Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, establishes the management system for federal and state fisheries in marine waters.

Under the law, the state has authority over waters from the mean high tide line out to three nautical miles offshore, and federal government has authority over waters from 3–200 nautical miles offshore, known as the Exclusive Economic Zone.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, oversees the fisheries in federal waters.

Last reauthorized in 2006, the act is up for renewal and potential amendment. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who chairs the Senate Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard subcommittee, chaired a field hearing for the act at Kenai Peninsula College on Wednesday, hearing from more than a dozen witnesses on three panels and discussing potential changes to the act.

The hearing on the Kenai Peninsula was the first of the field hearings on the reauthorization.

Panelists with interests in the sportfishing industry repeatedly emphasized that commercial fishing and recreational fishing are two distinct activities and asked for recreational fishing to be considered in management decisions.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Sens. Cantwell, Murray, WA Democratic Reps. Urge Immediate Action from Feds to Protect Native Salmon from Fish Farm Fiasco

Members: Agencies must also immediately halt permitting of new and expanding net pens

August 31, 2017 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the office of Senator Maria Cantwell:

Today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Patty Murray (D-WA), joined by Reps. Adam Smith (WA-09), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Denny Heck (WA-10), and Suzan DelBene (WA-01), wrote an urgent letter to the heads of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to press the two agencies to take quick and decisive action to address the impacts of hundreds of thousands of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Washington state waters.

Citing the importance of wild salmon fisheries to Tribes, fishermen, and ecosystems in the state, the members of Congress are calling on NOAA and the Army Corps to direct federal resources to mitigate the risks of this incident, including the capture of the escaped farmed salmon. The letter also calls on the Army Corps to work to stop all permitting for new net pens or expansions to existing pens, as well as prioritize requests to update or maintain existing pens.

“Pacific salmon are central to our economy, our culture, and our environment in the Pacific Northwest, and are a critical part of marine and estuarine ecosystems in Washington state,” the members wrote. “The released Atlantic salmon pose a threat to wild Pacific salmon, including multiple endangered and threatened stocks in the region. Tribes, fishermen, and state agencies are working to respond to the escapement but the scale of the release calls for immediate and direct federal response…”

The farmed salmon escaped from a damaged facility owned by Cooke Aquaculture on August 19th and 20th. Since the breach, farmed Atlantic salmon have been found as far afield as Canadian waters on the West side of Vancouver Island, as well as the Skagit and Nooksack Rivers. The released Atlantic salmon pose a threat to wild Pacific salmon, including multiple endangered and threatened stocks in the region. Farmed salmon tend to be larger and could outcompete wild salmon for critical resources such as prey and preferred habitat, which is important for spawning.

Tribes and federal and state agencies have worked tirelessly towards restoration of wild salmon populations in Puget Sound. At a time when stocks of many types of wild Pacific salmon are at historic lows, the escape of thousands of farmed salmon could be a devastating setback.

The members also asked the agency heads to conduct a review of the integrity and operation of all currently operating net pen structures to address concerns of further accidents at existing facilities.

Text of the letter can be found below.

Dear Acting Administrator Friedman and Mr. Lamont,

We write to request the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) immediately act to minimize the impact of the Atlantic salmon net pen failure near Cypress Island in Skagit County, Washington. The released Atlantic salmon pose a threat to wild Pacific salmon, including multiple endangered and threatened stocks in the region. Tribes, along with federal and state agencies have worked tirelessly to restore wild salmon in Puget Sound and the escapement of thousands of farmed salmon could be a devastating setback.

Pacific salmon are central to our economy, our culture, and our environment in the Pacific Northwest, and are a critical part of marine and estuarine ecosystems in Washington state. Pacific salmon support treaty rights for Tribes throughout the region, commercial and recreational fishers, as well as predators like the endangered Southern resident orcas. On August 19th, potentially hundreds of thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon were released into the Puget Sound ecosystem due to the structural failure of a net pen. While the fish farm facility was permitted under Washington state law, the escapement may negatively impact resources under the jurisdiction of NOAA, the Army Corps, and other federal agencies. Most concerning is the threat farmed Atlantic salmon pose to the wild Pacific salmon populations stocks in Puget Sound. Farmed salmon tend to be larger and could outcompete wild salmon for critical resources such as prey and preferred habitat, which is important for spawning.

Tribes, fishermen, and state agencies are working to respond to the escapement but the scale of the release calls for immediate and direct federal response including mitigation, scientific support, and funding to improve response and capture of the released Atlantic salmon. Further, as other net pens remain in our waters, we request the Army Corps halt all permitting for new net pens or expansions to existing net pens, while prioritizing permit requests to upgrade and maintain existing net pens. In addition, we ask NOAA and the Army Corps to review the integrity and operation of all existing net pen structures to determine any additional threats to wild salmon in the area and prevent any further escapement of farmed salmon into our waters.

We appreciate your ongoing work to restore Pacific salmon in Puget Sound and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Sincerely,

Aquaculture can feed the world, new report claims

August 31, 2017 — A new study by University of California, Santa Barbara marine scientists led by Professor Rebecca Gentry, along with researchers from the Nature Conservancy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), shows considerable potential for aquaculture to develop around the globe.

Fish farming is now the fastest-growing food sector in the world, and is frequently cited as having the potential to address future global food security issues. In their study, the researchers estimated that 15 billion metric tons (MT) of finfish could be grown globally per year, which is 100 times more than current world seafood consumption.

The results of their study, “Mapping the global potential for marine aquaculture,” published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution on 14 August, demonstrates the oceans’ vast potential to support aquaculture, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and report co-author Peter Kareiva said.

“We need to find more protein for our growing population, and we have pretty much tapped out wild fish as protein sources,” he said. “This study shows that farming fish in the ocean could play a huge role in feeding people without degrading our ocean or overfishing wild species.”

Both fish and bivalve aquaculture have potential for expansion in what the researchers termed “hot spots” – particularly in warm, tropical regions.

Indonesia, for example, was found to have one of the highest production potentials for fish and bivalves. Developing just one percent of Indonesia’s suitable ocean area could produce more than 24 million MT of fish per year. If this was used entirely for domestic consumption, it would increase seafood consumption per capita six-fold.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Commercial Harvest of Atlantic Group Cobia (Georgia to New York) Will Close in Federal Waters on September 5, 2017

August 31, 2017 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

WHAT/WHEN:

  • Commercial harvest of Atlantic group cobia (Georgia to New York) will close in federal waters at 12:01 a.m. (local time) September 5, 2017.  Commercial harvest will reopen in federal waters at 12:01 a.m. (local time) on January 1, 2018.

WHY IS THIS CLOSURE HAPPENING:

  • The 2017 commercial annual catch limit is 50,000 pounds round or gutted weight. NOAA Fisheries projects the 2017 cobia annual catch limit for the commercial sector has been reached based on reported landings to date and landings that are expected to be reported by dealers that do not have a federal dealer permit.
  • This closure is necessary to protect the Atlantic cobia resource by minimizing the amount that commercial landings exceed the commercial annual catch limit.

DURING THE CLOSURE:

  • The operator of a vessel that is landing cobia for sale must have landed and bartered, traded, or sold such cobia prior to 12:01 a.m., local time, September 5, 2017. The prohibition on sale and purchase does not apply to the sale or purchase of cobia that were harvested, landed ashore, and sold prior to 12:01 a.m. (local time) September 5, 2017, and were held in cold storage by a dealer or processor.
  • The possession limit for recreational Atlantic migratory group cobia in federal waters is zero for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year.

NOAA Fisheries closed the recreational sector for Atlantic migratory group cobia in federal waters on January 24, 2017.

NOAA Fisheries Removes the Northern and Southern Windowpane Flounder AMs for all Trawl Vessels

August 31, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Effective tomorrow, September 1, 2017, until February 28, 2018, non-groundfish trawl vessels fishing with a codend mesh size of 5 inches or greater are no longer required to use approved selective trawl gear (haddock separator trawl, rope separator trawl, or Ruhle trawl) in the large southern windowpane flounder Accountability Measure (AM) areas. For more information, read the permit holder bulletin and the emergency rule as filed in the Federal Register. 

Through a previous action, groundfish vessels may also fish in the AM areas without selective gear, effective September 1 2017 through April 30, 2018. While we were able to remove the accountability measures for the groundfish vessels through existing regulatory processes, an emergency rule was required to remove the accountability measures for non-groundfish trawl vessels. This emergency rule is intended to minimize economic harm to the fluke and scup fisheries.

Fishermen Express Concerns About Upcoming Stock Assessments And Fishing Limits

August 30, 2017 — Fishermen who attended a meeting Monday in Point Judith about upcoming groundfish stock assessments are unhappy with the data collection process for those assessments.

Federal regulators use data collected by fishermen and scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries to assess the health of fish species and set limits on how many fish can be taken from the sea. Those limits are intended to protect against overfishing.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the research arm of NOAA Fisheries in the region, talked with commercial and recreational fishermen as a part of a series of port outreach meetings to hear fishermen’s concerns and to figure out how the science center could work to address them.

Patrick Duckworth, a commercial fisherman who attended the meeting, said regulators are using bad scientific methods to collect data and set fishing limits.

Read and listen to the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

Cooperation between fishermen, regulators not just a fluke

August 30, 2017 — NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — The following is excerpted from an article published today by the Providence Journal:

Fisheries management is only as good as the science that it’s based upon. The better the science, the more effective the management.

For the past three years, Point Judith fisherman Chris Roebuck has partnered with federal regulators to get a better handle on fish stocks, taking scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration out to sea on his 78-foot Western-rig stern trawler the Karen Elizabeth to help figure out where groundfish are and in what numbers.

This summer’s trip wrapped up this week when the team of five researchers led by John Manderson, a senior ecosystem field scientist with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and a four-man crew headed by Roebuck returned to port in Galilee with new information on summer flounder, red hake and other species.

Their research is more important than ever as regulators try to respond more nimbly to shifts in fish abundance and distribution caused by the changing climate.

The work depends on the collaboration between Roebuck and Manderson.

“I can’t do this research without him because I don’t know the ecosystem the way he does,” Manderson said. “I can work with him and quantify what he knows.”

Roebuck, 45, has been fishing his whole life. A second-generation fisherman, he was lobstering at 12 and has captained the Karen Elizabeth for the past two decades.

He fishes for squid from September to April and for sea scallops from April to June, trawling ocean waters from Delaware to the Canada border.

Working with the fisheries science center was a no-brainer for Roebuck, who believes that there are more fish in the sea than regulators are currently counting. Better data could end up benefiting him and other fishermen if they’re allowed to catch more.

“In the end, I’m just interested in making the science more accurate,” Roebuck said.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Pelagic survey highlights NOAA’s growing collaborative relationship with industry

August 30, 2017 — Earlier this year, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used the Lisa Marie, a private fishing boat, to collect data for its annual coastal pelagic species survey. The move was part of an effort to increase collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Earlier this summer as officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration completed work on an annual survey of coastal pelagic species (CPS) in the Pacific Ocean, they received some assistance from a new source: the private sector.

Not only were representatives from the West Coast seafood trade industry on board a federal vessel for five days while survey samples were taken, but one fisherman allowed NOAA officials to outfit his boat with equipment to survey more shallow waters near the coastline. The collaborative venture marked a milestone in a public-private dialogue that’s been going on for years.

The CPS survey collects data primarily on Pacific sardines, said Kristen Koch, the acting science and research director of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Service Center in La Jolla, California, but it also includes observations on other CPS fish such as northern anchovy and jack and Pacific mackerels. Typically, officials use the Reuben Lasker, a NOAA vessel, to conduct the survey. However, private sector representatives felt the government was missing out on some key data in their work.

Government leaders welcomed the idea to get more data to fill in the gaps they also sought to fill.

“Data is like gold to us,” said Koch. “If we can collect more of the kind of data we need, it improves the precision of our assessments of these species.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

An Alarming Number of California Whales Are Getting Caught In Fishing Lines

California has seen a record-breaking number of whale entanglements over the last three years. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity is suing the state for failing to protect its endangered species.

August 30, 2017 — Justin Viezbicke once saw a whale struggling to swim up the coast of California without a tail. Though it was a disturbing sight, Viezbicke wasn’t exactly shocked; he’d encountered similar circumstances before. Viezbicke, the California stranding network coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, surmised that this particular whale’s flukes had been severed off by fishing gear. He knew the animal wouldn’t make it far.

In the past, Viezbicke has come across whales that lost blood-flow to their tails due to rope lines tangled tightly around their bodies. Less severe entanglements than the one Viezbicke witnessed can still lead to deadly infections or otherwise interfere with the animal’s ability to feed or forage.

“These entanglements are long, drawn-out processes,” Viezbicke says. “They can last months, sometimes even longer depending on the nature of the entanglement, and the will of the animal.”

The number of whales entangled in fishing lines off the West Coast of the United States has been sharply rising in recent years. In 2016, 71 whales became entangled in fishing gear off the West Coast, breaking the entanglement record for the third consecutive year. “We’re lucky if we get some or all of the gear off of a half dozen to a dozen of the whales every year,” Viezbicke says.

Entanglements are not always fatal, but for some threatened species, even a small number of deaths could be enough to collapse an entire population. (One subpopulation of humpback whales that feeds off the coast of California, for example, now numbers a mere 400.) Twenty-one endangered or threatened whales and one leatherback sea turtle were entangled in Dungeness crab gear in the Pacific Ocean in 2016; typically, Dungeness crab traps consist of a pot used to collect crabs on the seafloor, attached to a line of rope that extends to a buoy on the ocean surface.

Read the full story at Pacific Standard