Saving Seafood

North Carolina Oyster Restoration Project Trains the Next Generation of Marine Scientists

September 9, 2024 — The North Carolina Coastal Federation is taking a new, transformational approach to restoration. They are partnering with the state Division of Marine Fisheries to construct more than 100 acres of oyster reef habitat in the Pamlico Sound. They’re also preparing science students to tackle the country’s conservation and coastal resilience challenges. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Federation $14.9 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for this work.

They are partnering with North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST) and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a Historically Black University. These partnerships are expanding opportunities for underrepresented students.

“With climate change, sea level rise, and all the other things the environment is experiencing, we need to train the next generation of restoration practitioners,” says Dr. Dave Eggleston, Director of CMAST. “We also know that the more diverse the workforce, the better the ideas generated.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

NOAA inches closer toward establishing marine sanctuary along California coast

September 9, 2024 — NOAA has completed another milestone toward achieving U.S. President Joe Biden’s goal of establishing a new national marine sanctuary off the coast of central California, releasing the final Environmental Impact Statement for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.

“Today, our administration is taking a critical step toward designating the first Indigenous-proposed National Marine Sanctuary,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement. “As a senator, I was proud to support efforts to create the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off California’s coast to honor our commitments to Indigenous communities and promote natural spaces. President Biden and I will continue to protect, conserve, and restore lands and waters in communities across our nation.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Biden-Harris Administration invests more than $23 million to remove marine debris

September 6, 2024 —  Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA recommended more than $23 million in funding to support marine debris removal and interception efforts for 13 multi-year projects across 10 coastal U.S. states, three territories and the District of Columbia. This funding is provided by NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

The Climate-Ready Coasts initiative is focused on creating climate solutions by storing carbon; building resilience to coastal hazards such as extreme weather events, pollution and marine debris; restoring coastal habitats; building the capacity of coastal  communities; and supporting community-driven restoration.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is funding critical projects like these that will help remove and address harmful marine debris that can significantly impact water quality, habitats and economic prosperity in coastal communities across the nation,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These investments, made possible thanks to President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help improve coastal communities for decades to come by making sure they have the necessary resources to protect their ecosystems and local economies from the impacts of marine debris, which are exacerbated by climate change.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Biden-Harris Administration invests $101.5 million for ocean observing systems

September 5, 2024 — Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $101.5 million in funding across 12 awards to expand equitable service delivery and support the modernization of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Associations. U.S. IOOS supports ongoing data collection in U.S. ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters and develops infrastructure and tools to make that data accessible. These funds are made possible by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ ambitious climate agenda, we are giving communities, particularly frontline and underserved communities, the tools and information they need to build resilience to devastating weather and climate disasters,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “With this $101.5 million investment, NOAA’s IOOS will be able to improve and deliver critical information and tools to help coastal communities become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Quiet Sound’s Voluntary Ship Slowdown Reduces Underwater Noise Reaching Killer Whales

September 5, 2024 — The arrival of endangered Southern Resident killer whales in Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound in September will trigger a voluntary slowdown for large commercial vessels. Last year, the slowdown reduced by half the underwater noise reaching the whales.

The Voluntary Large Commercial Vessel Slowdown is an initiative of Quiet Sound, a program of Washington Maritime Blue. It’s driven by a leadership committee composed of ports, agencies, tribes, and other groups collaborating to reduce threats from large commercial vessels to killer whales and other marine mammals. You can help by reporting whale sightings. The Whale Report Alert System will relay the sightings to mariners so they know when and where to watch for the marine mammals.

NOAA Fisheries named Quiet Sound a Partner in the Spotlight in 2023 after they successfully launched the first trial slowdown period in the fall of 2022. “The collaboration with our partners and industry is what makes this work,” said Gretchen Hanshew, acting branch chief for the Protected Resources Division in NOAA Fisheries’ Seattle office. “Quiet Sound saw measurable improvements last year, so I am optimistic that we may see even larger noise reductions this year. We know that makes a meaningful difference for the whales by reducing how much energy they have to spend each day to survive.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

NOAA: pile driving can be adverse to marine species

September 5, 2024 — The federal government is now saying that pile driving for the Vineyard Wind project is likely to have an adverse impact on marine life, although it won’t be a detriment to the population of the endangered North Atlantic right whales.

An announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in late ugust reads that the agency concluded the proposed pile driving for the installation of 15 remaining monopiles will “adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence” of whales, sea turtles, or fish listed in the Endangered Species Act.

“It will have no effect on any designated critical habitat,” the announcement reads. “NOAA Fisheries does not anticipate serious injuries to or mortalities of any Endangered Species Act listed whale including the North Atlantic right whale.”

The full biological opinion by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is not publicly available yet. NOAA spokesperson Andrea Gomez told the Times on Tuesday the new opinion will be available on the agency’s library website “any day now.”

Read the full article at MV Times

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