Saving Seafood

Remote and Vast, Our New Marine Monuments Are Difficult to Protect

November 23, 2016 — Unable to constantly patrol the waters, fishery enforcement agencies need new methods and technologies for monitoring [marine monument] areas.

Just west of the Hawaiian Islands sits one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. In August, President Obama tripled the size of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which now stretches across 582,578 square miles of ocean, an area nearly four times the size of California. The monument is home to colorful coral reefs teeming with marine life and encompasses rocky outcrops where some 5.5 million birds, including the Laysan Duck and Short-tailed Albatross, breed every year.

More than 5,000 miles east of the warm Pacific waters of Hawaii, in the frigid northern Atlantic Ocean, sits the 4,913-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which Obama designated in September. There, 130 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, underwater ravines deeper than the Grand Canyon contain cold-water coral reefs, among the world’s most delicate ecosystems, and the water’s surface serves as the winter home of Maine’s Atlantic Puffins.

The monuments are major victories for environmentalists—with a swipe of his pen, the President banned all commercial fishing within the monuments’ boundaries and outlawed all gas and oil exploration. Protecting marine life in both oceans will ultimately support fisheries and provide refuge for wildlife adapting to a changing climate.

But it’s one thing to designate a monument, and it’s quite another to actually enforce the promised protections. The two new monuments are vast and remote, and authorities already struggle to detect illegal activity in marine protected areas that are smaller and closer to land. In 1997 and 2004, nets and other commercial fishing gear were uncovered in the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of North Carolina. Even worse, evidence of fishing with explosives, bleach, and even cyanide has been found in the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.

That the new monuments are so large and located in such distant waters presents an even bigger challenge for the federal agencies responsible for their monitoring. Ideally, crewed vessels would police the areas, says Lisa Symons, resource protection coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. A physical presence would deter illegal fishing or mining and allow authorities to arrest or capture violating vessels. But this is almost impossible considering the locations of the new monuments—offshore and hundreds of miles from cities, towns, or villages.

Read the full story at Audubon

New Program Gives Vet Foothold in Fisheries

November 22, 2016 — Barney Boyer’s first few months as a NOAA Fisheries intern have been busy. He has assisted with tracking the return of salmon and forage fish to the Elwha River estuary, surveyed Puget Sound ocean conditions, and begun studying the invasion of non-native fish in the Snohomish River.

Boyer is the first military veteran to take an internship with NOAA Fisheries through a new partnership between Washington’s The next link/button will exit from NWFSC web site Department of Veterans Affairs and The next link/button will exit from NWFSC web site Veterans Conservation Corps, NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region, the The next link/button will exit from NWFSC web site NOAA Restoration Center and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC). Boyer is based at the NWFSC’s Mukilteo Research Station, near Everett, where he is assisting with several research projects, including one that may include him as co-author of a peer-reviewed paper.

“It’s really turned out to be an amazing experience so far,” Boyer said. “Every day here is an interesting experience, and I’m learning all the time.”

Casey Rice, director of the Mukilteo Research Station until his unexpected passing earlier this year, was a key advocate of hosting veterans at Mukilteo.

“Casey wanted this to happen and his colleagues have assumed the task of moving it forward,” said John Floberg of the NOAA Restoration Center, who helped coordinate the program. “It’s Casey’s legacy that veterans are now contributing to research at Mukilteo.”

Read the full story at the Fishing Wire

New England 2017 scallop plan likely to mean landings of 47.5m pounds

November 22, 2016 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has approved an Atlantic sea scallop fishery management plan for 2017, which maintains landings at a comparable level to 2016, it said.

The framework establishes specifications for the 2017 fishing year, and sets default specifications for 2018.

All told, estimated landings for 2017 are put at 47.5 million pounds, NEFMC said. So far this fishing year — March to October — the fishery has caught around 33m pounds, Dvora Hart, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Undercurrent News.

She estimated that by the end of the fishing year, on Feb. 28, fishers will have caught a total of around 40m pounds for 2016. Hence, the NEFMC’s projection suggests an increase of 18.7%.

The NEFMC, meanwhile, told Undercurrent that “many factors go into these calculations, but once all of the adjustments and deductions are made, the council’s projections indicate that landings in the end will be very similar — not exactly the same, but in the same general ballpark”.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Governor Bentley Announces $63 Million for Gulf Restoration Projects in Alabama

November 16, 2016 — MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Governor Robert Bentley on Tuesday announced the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has approved more than $63 million for six Alabama projects that address high-priority conservation needs, including the acquisition and restoration of significant coastal habitats in key focal areas, and the continuation of fisheries monitoring.

“One of Alabama’s greatest natural treasures is its gulf coast, and it’s vital that we continue to provide the necessary funds to ensure our coastline is restored from the devastation caused by the 2010 oil spill,” Governor Bentley said. “This $63 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will support long-term recovery efforts and provide for future efforts to return wildlife populations to their normal levels. I appreciate the efforts of our local, state and federal partners who are working so hard on the continuing resurgence of the Alabama Gulf Coast.”

In 2013, a U.S. District Court approved two plea agreements resolving certain criminal charges against BP and Transocean related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The funds announced Tuesday are the fourth installment from NFWF’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (GEBF). A total of $356 million will be paid into the Gulf Fund over a five-year period for conservation projects in the State of Alabama.

The number of awards from the GEBF in the state of Alabama now stands at 19, with a total value of more than $115 million. All projects were selected for funding following extensive consultation with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read the full story from WLTZ

The Bycatch That Gives You a Haddock

November 4, 2016 — Starting in October, the federal government began a pilot project to test electronic monitoring on midwater herring trawlers fishing in “groundfish closed” areas off the coast of New England, two of which are in the rich spawning grounds on the continental shelf known as Georges Bank. The yearlong project will help regulators decide whether cameras can replace people as observers to regulate herring trawlers’ catch of haddock.

But before the study is finished, the New England Fishery Management Council will be working to loosen the rules on how much haddock herring trawlers can catch.

Since 2011, government observers have been required on any trips trawlers make to those areas, as part of a program to limit incidental catch, often called “bycatch,” of untargeted fish species. In the case of herring fishing, the biggest bycatch concern on Georges Bank has been haddock, a species on the rebound after the groundfish collapses of the mid-1990s.

But the monitoring program has been expensive. A recent amendment to all Northeast fisheries plans required the industry to assist in funding its overseers, increasing pressure to bring down costs.

Federal regulators believe electronic monitoring could be the answer.

“This year we’ll get really good (human) observer coverage — 440 sea days — so we’re going to compare what the observer sees and what the camera sees,” said Daniel Luers, a monitoring expert at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries office of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “The contractors will watch all the videos, and then NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) will watch to confirm that what the contractors have seen correlates with the observers.”

What they’re looking for are “discard” events, where fishermen dump unwanted fish back into the sea — rather than reporting the bycatch and facing fishing closures.

Read the full story at Eco RI News

New Jersey anglers throw back three times more fish than they keep

November 4, 2016 — According to a fisheries report, in 2015 New Jersey anglers kept 4 ½ million fish, but they threw back 14.8 million, or roughly three times the amount they brought home.

The three to one catch and release rate is the about the same rate as in 2014. But, the same report found there was a substantial drop off in the number of fish anglers caught.

In 2014 anglers put 6.2 million fish in their coolers while releasing 19.9 million.

The numbers were provided in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Fisheries of the United States report, released last week.

The report didn’t provide analysis, but the reason for the dip could be related to the fact that fewer fishermen fished in 2015. Nearly 625,000 anglers fished in 2014, compared to almost 540,000 last year. The result was about 600,000 less fishing trips.

In total 23 marine coastal states, plus Puerto Rico were in the survey and combined to keep 151 million fish last year while releasing 200 million.

Of all the coastal states only Maine and Massachusetts anglers kept more fish than they threw back.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fish catch most valuable in U.S.

November 4, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – Citing 2015 landings worth $322 million, for the 16th year in a row the city held the top-value title nationwide for its fishing catch, according to NOAA Fisheries. The top ranking was thanks largely to scallops, SouthCoastToday.com reported Oct. 28.

New Bedford’s catch was 124 million pounds, good for 11th in the country.

“We’re reaping the benefits of good, cooperative science, and solid relationships between the regulators, the fishermen and the scientists,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director for the city’s Harbor Development Commission.

The annual catch reports, released by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, showed New Bedford’s catch dipped by about 11 percent last year, falling to 124 million pounds in 2015 from 140 million in 2014. The 2013 catch totaled 130 million pounds.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News 

American Samoa Attorney: Feds Continue To Ignore Local Concerns About Fisheries

November 4, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Local attorney Marie Alailima says the federal agencies involved in fisheries “continue to ignore” the call from local traditional chiefs, government leaders and residents of American Samoa for meaningful discussions in issues impacting the territory’s resources.

Alailima made the observation in her Oct. 27 comment letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opposing the way NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) sought public comments, with only one local public hearing held on a proposed regulation for aquaculture program in American Samoa.

She joins Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele and Shipyard Service Authority chief executive Moefa’auo Bill Emmesly — both have lodged strong objections in the way NMFS sought public comments and have called for a delay in making any final decision on the NMFS proposal.

In her letter, released yesterday through the federal portal [www.regulations.gov], the local attorney says “no further action” should be taken on NMFS and Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to analyze the potential environmental impact of a proposed Pacific Islands Region (PIR) aquaculture management program and alternatives.

The PEIS is intended to support offshore aquaculture development, including appropriate management unit species for aquaculture, reasonably foreseeable types of offshore aquaculture operations, and permitting and reporting requirements for persons conducting aquaculture activities in Federal waters.

She cited various reasons, why no action should be taken and included the fact that notice of Sept. 8’s public meeting in American Samoa was made electronically, but such medium of notification, including in the case at hand — the sending of notice by electronic emails to a “select few” — “erroneously presumes notice through email, the federal register online, through announcement of public hearings on NOAA agency websites is a means readily accessible by the majority of the American Samoa population.”

Alailima argues, “It also erroneously presumes that the subject matter or import of such public meetings can be readily understood from such online notice by a population [that] for the most part lacks access to computers and is still transitioning into fully embracing American culture, its language, its federal procedures, legal institutions and concepts.”

Greater responsibility for providing the American Samoa population with meaningful notice and opportunity to comment must be considered by NMFS and other NOAA agencies, inclusive of all further steps involving the present proposed action, she said.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Information Demanded on U.S. Fishery Council

November 3, 2016 — WASHINGTON — A nonprofit backed by Koch brothers money sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday for information on how it selects members of the New England Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing off the coasts of five states.

“There is danger for politicization in how members are actually chosen,” the Cause of Action Institute says in its federal complaint against the NOAA, a branch of the Department of Commerce.

The Cause of Action Institute describes itself in the lawsuit as “a nonprofit strategic oversight group committed to ensuring that government decision-making is open, honest, and fair.” It generally opposes government regulation, particularly in the energy industry.

The Los Angeles Times described it last year as “a small group of lawyers funded by the Koch network.” Its then-director Daniel Epstein formerly worked as an attorney for the Charles Koch Foundation, and by 2013 most of Cause of Action’s funding came from the Donors Trust, “a nonprofit group through which the Kochs and their allies distribute tens of millions of dollars without needing to disclose the source of the funds,” the Times reported in its Feb. 7, 2015 article.

In its July 13 FOIA request, Cause of Action sought information on how the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA select members in the New England Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“The records at issue in this case, which include records of communication between high-ranking agency officials, will permit the public to understand how the most recent round of membership selection for the NEFMC was handled, and whether that process was at all tinged by political considerations or other untoward government action,” the complaint states.

Cause of Action claims that NOAA has never disclosed information about how it selects members of the eight regional regulatory councils operating under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and that the membership might not accurately represent the fishing industry.

The complaint cites environmental studies professor Thomas A. Okey of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, who suggested in a 2003 paper that representation in the industry is “generally skewed towards the larger corporate interests that support larger sized vessels, whereas the small-scale vessel fleets that are the traditional core of coastal communities (and more likely to have conservation interests) are often less represented.”

Cause of Action says the secretary of commerce and National Marine Fisheries Service-supervised councils wield “significant independent power.”

“They propose Fishery Management Plans, amendments, and framework adjustments; they conduct hearings; and they determine annual catch limits. The FMCs even have the ability to constrain the Secretary of Commerce,” the complaint states, abbreviating Fishery Management Council.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service