June 26, 2024 — Destin’s Jim Green was one of eight people recently appointed to NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee.
The 21-member committee advises the secretary of commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on all marine life matters the Department of Commerce is responsible for, according to the NOAA website.
The appointment is effective now and will expire in three years.
June 26, 2024 — The recovery of Pacific bluefin tuna has achieved a major milestone—the species exceeded international targets a decade ahead of schedule. The rebuilding of Pacific bluefin tuna reflects a fisheries management success. International organizations cooperated across the Pacific to reverse decades of overfishing for the prized species.
The International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-Like Species in the North Pacific Ocean (ISC), including NOAA Fisheries researchers, provided scientific expertise to inform conservation measures. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) adopted these measures.
Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries
June 25, 2024 — The federal government is sending nearly $12 million to Alaska to address salmon fishery disasters on the Kuskokwim River and in Upper Cook Inlet, United States Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced on June 21.
The aid money is for disasters declared for the 2022 chum salmon failure on the Kuskokwim River and the 2021-2022 sockeye salmon failure that affected Upper Cook Inlet setnet fishers. Aid for the Kuskokwim River disaster totaled $331,920, while aid for the Upper Cook Inlet sockeye disaster totaled nearly $11.5 million, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is a branch of the Commerce Department.
Alaska is not the only state affected by poor salmon returns. Along with the June 21 announcement of aid for those affected by the Alaska salmon disasters, the Commerce Department announced $403,978 in aid for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s 2021 Puget Sound fall chum and coho salmon fisheries in Washington state.
“Each year we see how climate change continues to have severe impacts on the fisheries and ecosystems that are vital to our economy, and the Commerce Department is working to mitigate these impacts,” Raimondo said in a statement issued by NOAA. “This funding will assist with the recovery of salmon fisheries in communities across Alaska and Puget Sound by bolstering fisheries restoration efforts, minimizing the risk of future disasters and helping build back stronger.”
June 24, 2024 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:
The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) is pleased to announce that Community Offshore Wind is the latest company to join the Center as a member of its Industry Advisory Board (IAB). The company is the first offshore wind developer to join SCEMFIS.
Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture of RWE and National Grid Ventures, holds the largest offshore wind lease area in the New York Bight, the area between New York and New Jersey. As it works to bring clean energy from offshore wind to homes and businesses across the region, the project is focused on engaging with local communities, promoting dialogue and cooperation with the region’s fishing industry, and working to balance the needs of existing ocean users and the emerging offshore wind power sector.
“Community Offshore Wind is committed to successful coexistence with commercial and recreational fisheries,” said Deirdre Boelke, Fisheries Manager for Community Offshore Wind. “We support SCEMFIS’ approach of science and industry working together for sustainable fisheries, and believe that the growth of offshore wind in the US is an opportunity for the fishing industry, researchers, and developers to identify innovative solutions to build resilient fisheries facing impacts of climate change and other challenges.”
As a member of the Center, Community Offshore Wind will work with representatives of the fishing industry on the IAB to approve and fund needed research on finfish and shellfish. In addition to focusing on how these fish stocks are impacted by a changing climate, the company is also advocating for research on how to improve resiliency in key East Coast fisheries, and other steps to mitigate any potential impacts of offshore wind development.
In the time since Community Offshore Wind joined SCEMFIS, the Center has already begun funding research to help ensure the future viability of surfclam fisheries in the Northeast, with a total of $28,000 allocated to surfclam and shellfish enhancement research.
“We welcome the expertise that Community Offshore Wind will bring as the first offshore wind developer to join our organization,” said Tom Dameron, the Government Relations and Fisheries Science Liaison of Surfside Seafood Products and a SCEMFIS IAB member. “They have taken the first step towards working with us to conduct important research that supports sustainable fisheries and ecosystems, and we hope that other wind developers will follow their lead and similarly engage with the fishing industry.”
By joining SCEMFIS, Community Offshore Wind will benefit from the research and expertise of the universities participating in the Center. This includes leading marine scientists and researchers, as well as a talented pool of students and interns with backgrounds in marine biology, fluid dynamics, socioeconomics, and computer science. It allows for direct collaboration with fishing industry representatives, and direct input on developing and funding research projects, while lowering overhead research costs. Community Offshore Wind will also have access to the peer-reviewed research the Center regularly produces.
For its part, Community Offshore Wind brings to the Center deep expertise in cooperative fisheries research, fisheries management, and the regulatory process, making the Center the ideal collaborative forum for the offshore wind and fishing industries to work together.
Community Offshore Wind is also collaborating proactively with local commercial and recreational fishermen to protect ocean ecosystems, and has developed initiatives to mitigate potential impacts to the fishing industry since its launch. The developer continues to work with the Rotary Club of Huntington and Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program to restore oyster reefs on Long Island; donated over 90,000 meals of local, sustainable seafood to food banks throughout New Jersey and New York; and is developing project design elements to support coexistence with fisheries.
They are also the first offshore wind developer to sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a partnership that will transform environmental monitoring for offshore wind projects and increase transparency between researchers and developers.
June 24, 2024 — Opportunistic sightings of endangered North Atlantic right whales in unexpected places or times of year are always interesting. It raises the questions of who, what, when, where and why? We—the Northeast Large Whale Aerial Survey team—received a report of at least five right whales near Hudson Canyon on Memorial Day weekend. We knew we wanted to fly a survey in that area to get some answers.
Hudson Canyon, the largest known ocean canyon off the U.S. East Coast, is nearly 100 miles east of New Jersey. It’s currently under consideration for a national marine sanctuary designation because of its rich biodiversity. However, right whale usage of this canyon and the rest of the mid-Atlantic is poorly understood, making our survey of this area even more important.
June 22, 2024 — Scientists placed specially designed moorings, equipped with sonar, on the seafloor to acoustically monitor pollock abundance and movements between U.S. and Russian waters. They found that a substantial amount of pollock travel between the two exclusive economic zones (EEZs) seasonally.
The study was conducted from summer 2019 to summer 2020. During this time, pollock moved southeast over the maritime boundary in winter as the sea ice formed. They were largely absent in late spring when ocean temperatures were near freezing and the sea ice was still present. They subsequently migrated northwest in late spring and early summer as waters warmed. The extent of the movement between EEZs) appears to be partially driven by water temperature.
When the moorings were deployed in summer 2019 the area was unusually warm. Following the winter migration into U.S. waters, conditions were cooler in summer 2020. Over the year of observations, 2.3 times more pollock moved into the U.S. EEZ in fall and winter then exited during the subsequent spring and summer. Scientists believe the cooler conditions in 2020 led to fewer pollock moving into Russian waters than had the previous year.
“There are some important implications for pollock management,” said Robert Levine, physical scientist and lead author on a new paper published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science. “Our research suggests that in years when water temperatures are warmer than average, the proportion of fish moving across the boundary will be greater.”
Scientists suspect that continued warming in the eastern Bering Sea will increase the proportion of the pollock stock found in Russian waters. Currently, pollock support the top U.S. commercial fishery, which harvests more than 1 million metric tons annually.
June 21, 2024 — In March 2024, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced new grant recipients awarded through their Sea Turtles Program. This is a partnership between NFWF, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and NOAA. It is one of the longest running programs at NFWF, with investments dating back more than three decades. It supports conservation capacity and threat reduction across regional networks. The Foundation has invested more than $3.4 million in awards through the program in just the past 5 years.
This year, the program awarded grants to organizations in the United States and its territories who provide stranding response and/or rehabilitate sick or injured sea turtles. Sea turtles face numerous threats, including:
These funds will be used to help our stranding network partners improve their ability to respond to and rehabilitate stranded and injured sea turtles.
June 20, 2024 — NOAA scientists are predicting the Gulf of Mexico’s fish-killing dead zone will be larger than average this summer.
The dead zone is a hypoxic area roughly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut with low oxygen levels that can kill off tens of thousands of fish. Caused by excess nutrient pollution from human activity along the Mississippi-Atchafalaya watershed, the dead zone affects fish every summer.
June 20, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries is now accepting public comments on its updated ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) roadmap.
NOAA first established an EBFM roadmap in 2016 to provide guidance on the agency’s policy shift toward implementing ecosystem-level planning for the country’s fisheries. The management style involves setting quotas while also considering how an individual species fits into the wider ecosystem, rather than the status of an individual stock.
June 19, 2024 — Four species of sea turtles—Kemp’s ridley, loggerhead, green, and leatherback—are seasonal residents of New England. They arrive in May and June, feeding in our coastal waters through the summer and early fall. When temperatures drop in mid-fall, these reptiles need to migrate south into warmer waters for the winter. However, sometimes their migration is affected by geographic barriers: The hook shape of Cape Cod can trap them within Cape Cod Bay for weeks to months. This puts turtles at risk of being exposed to waters that are too cold for them.
Since they are cold-blooded, sea turtles’ body temperatures mirror those of surrounding waters. When turtles have a low body temperature, they stop feeding; their body systems slow down; their immune systems become suppressed. This is all part of a condition called cold stunning. When cold-stunned turtles wash up on local beaches, they need immediate rescue or they will not survive. Luckily,the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network collects sick, injured, and cold-stunned turtles from beaches and brings them to rehabilitation facilities for medical care.
In Massachusetts, Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary rescues cold-stunned sea turtles off Cape Cod beaches. They bring live turtles to two Massachusetts rehabilitation facilities: the New England Aquarium and the National Marine Life Center. There, turtles are slowly warmed up, given medical care, reintroduced to swimming and feeding, and stabilized. It can take weeks to months for these debilitated turtles to be healthy enough to be released again into the ocean.