Saving Seafood

Crabbing industry loses fight to prevent fishing in critical Alaskan ecosystem

January 27, 2023 — Fishing in designated areas off the Alaskan coast will continue despite pleas from harvesters and conservation groups to close the crucial habitat known for its red king crabs and allow for minimal disruption during the offseason.

The emergency action would have potentially shut down designated zones in Bristol Bay until at least early summer, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the petition failed to reach criteria to determine that an emergency closure would benefit the sea life population.

Several species of crabs, including the red king, have seen stunning declines over the last decade that has prompted NOAA and other stakeholders to take the extraordinary steps of limiting season fishing in an effort to try to protect crucial populations.

“We are concerned about the diminished sophistication and understanding of marine habitats, which inevitably results in collapses and that are generally only made visible with the disappearance of commercially valuable species,” Marissa Wilson, executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, stated in prepared comments to NOAA.

Read the full story at Fox 7 Austin

U.S. refuses calls for immediate protection of North Atlantic right whales

January 26, 2023 — The U.S. government has denied two petitions to immediately protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales during the species’ calving season, raising concerns that this population of whales will continue to decline without intervention. There are currently about 340 of these whales left, making them one of the most threatened cetaceans in the world.

The two petitions — one filed by a consortium of NGOs, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), and the other by the NGO Oceana — asked the U.S. government to provide emergency protection for North Atlantic whales (Eubalaena glacialis). They called for three measures aimed to reduce vessel collision, a leading cause of death for these animals. The proposed rules included establishing speed limits for ships in designated coastal zones between North Carolina and Florida during the calving season; requiring speed reductions outside of these zones when a single whale or a mother-and-calf pair is spotted; and making such rules applicable for vessels 35 feet (about 11 meters) in length and longer.

There are already some seasonal speed zones on the southeast U.S. coast, but experts say they’re not big enough to encompass the species’ entire range, especially as climate change alters the whales’ movements. Additionally, vessels don’t need to slow down outside these zones unless in the presence of three individual whales, and the current rules only apply to vessels larger than 65 feet, or about 20 meters. However, as experts point out, smaller vessels have been responsible for right whale deaths, as seen in a collision between a 54-foot (16.5-m) sportfishing yacht and a calf and mother off St. Augustine, Florida, in February 2021. The calf’s dead body washed onto the beach the next day, and the mother, known to researchers as Infinity, hasn’t been seen again.

Read the full article at Mongabay

Recreational red snapper catch to be restricted by new federal regulations

January 26, 2023 — New federal regulations from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration will slash the amount of red snapper that recreation anglers in Mississippi can reel in unless changes are made, according to state leaders.

While the quota cuts won’t impact the commercial side, the changes on the recreational side are still a concern for the many fishermen who travel to the gulf each year and anglers who live there.

“We have a group of family and friends that fish regularly together,” said Michael Pierce.

Pierce lives and plays around Bay St Louis.

The coastal city, like so many others along the Mississippi sound, is a haven for anglers across the state.

“It’s great for like the kids. Something they can enjoy, because it is so easy to go out, catch your snapper,” said Pierce.

Red snapper is one of the most sought-after fish in the south.

NOAA regulates fishing in federal waters. Five gulf states, including Mississippi, receive a federal allocation.

Read the full article at WDAM

CONSTANCE GEE: ‘Strategy’ to protect right whales from offshore wind development is recipe for extinction

January 25, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a draft of their strategy to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) from the hazards of offshore wind development this past fall.

The report is a heartbreaking portrayal of the plight of the 336 remaining right whales. Approximately 230 animals have died over the past decade. Autopsies and photo documentation conclude that fishing gear entanglement and vessel strikes have caused the deaths. “Stressors” of industrialized ocean noise and dwindling food sources have contributed to reduced health and compromised body condition in 42% of the remaining population.

“Human-caused mortality is so high,” BOEM scientists state, “that no adult NARW has been confirmed to have died from natural causes in several decades; for a species that might live a century, most animals have a low probability of surviving past 40.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

14 whale deaths along US East Coast remain a mystery

January 24, 2023 — Local officials and environmentalists are trying to find out what is behind the mysterious death of 14 whales along the US east coast since 1 December.

Some are blaming the deaths on the development of an offshore wind farm in the area.

Officials, however, say they have found no evidence to suggest wind farms are to blame.

Since 2016, they have been tracking the “unusual mortality” of humpback whales along the eastern shores.

Over the past six years, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tallied 178 dead humpback whales from Florida to Maine.

NOAA performed necropsies on about half the whales and found that of those, 40% of the deaths were caused by human interaction, either being caught in fishing gear or struck by vessels.

Sperm whales, an endangered species, have also been found dead along the eastern coasts.

The most recent death of a humpback whale, which washed ashore in Maryland on 16 January, prompted a press conference by NOAA officials and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), as it came amid mounting concerns a local wind farm development was to blame.

Read the full article at BBC News

NEW JERSEY: Here’s what federal scientists say is likely killing whales off the NJ coast

January 19, 2023 — Seven whale deaths along the coasts of New Jersey and New York in as many weeks have marine scientists seeking answers and federal authorities making assurances that offshore wind development is not to blame.

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, held a phone conference with journalists across the country to address what the agency called an ongoing “unusual mortality event” among humpback whales.

Since early December, four dead humpback whales and one sperm whale have washed ashore New Jersey beaches. Another two whales washed up dead on Long Island beaches.

Read the full article at the Asbury Park Press.

Funding Opportunity Open for Chesapeake Bay Fisheries Research

January 12, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Up to $1.5 million in grant funds are available to support research into how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species change their behavior to deal with changing habitat and climate. Applications are due April 17, 2023.

This grant program funds research on topics that resource managers want and need to know more about. The results of this research help inform science-based management decisions that are part of protecting and restoring important habitat.

Climate change is already affecting the Chesapeake Bay—and the wildlife that lives there. We need to better understand how Chesapeake Bay fish species will be affected as climate change affects the habitats they need. Resource managers can then include that science in their decision-making process. Projects funded through this grant will help us gain that knowledge.

Funded projects will also develop ways to evaluate how successful nearshore habitat restoration supports fish species and communities in the face of climate change.

Scientists who have not been funded through this program will receive preference for funding. Projects that would employ and educate undergraduate or graduate students from groups underrepresented in marine science careers, including minorities, will also receive preference.

We invite potential applicants to learn more about the application process by joining us online for a webinar on January 20, 2023, at 10 a.m. EST.

This opportunity is managed by the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, a division within the Office of Habitat Conservation in NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA reports entangled adult right whale, dead whale calf

January 12, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries reported it has spotted a “heavily entangled” North Atlantic right whale 20 miles off the coast of Rodanthe, North Carolina – just days after a right whale calf was documented dead near Morehead City, North Carolina.

The entangled whale, NOAA Fisheries said, had several wraps of line around its mouth and tail, with additional line trailing behind it. According to NOAA Fisheries biologists, the images indicate that the entanglement constitutes a “serious injury,” meaning the whale is likely to die from the entanglement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA’s red grouper reallocations affirmed by federal judge

January 9, 2023 — NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s implementation of Amendment 53 will move forward after a federal judge upheld the U.S. agency’s management plan for reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read the decision here

The Gulf Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance and allied fishermen had sued NMFS to stop the implementation of Amendment 53, part of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s reef fish management plan. The plan, announced by NOAA on Monday, 2 May, 2022, will reduce the commercial allocation of red grouper caught in the Gulf of Mexico to 59.3 percent, down from 76 percent, while increasing the recreational fishing sector’s allocation from 24 percent to 40.7 percent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishermen facing climate change: crab crashes and wind power threats

January 9, 2023 — Five thousand miles apart on their own oceans, New England trawlers and Alaska crabbers say they are up against twin threats from climate change: warming waters changing the marine environment, and hasty, risk-filled decisions in response from U.S. policy makers.

“I’m not sure which is going to get me first, climate change or the solution to it,” said Chris Brown, a Point Judith, R.I., captain, president of the Seafood Harvesters of America and a 2022 National Fisherman Highliner.

Brown expressed a general consensus among panelists during a Jan. 5 online webinar hosted by Fishery Friendly Climate Action, an initiative campaign that is organizing fishermen and industry groups to “advocate for robust climate solutions that work for U.S. fisheries and not at their expense,” as coordinator Sarah Schumann says.

“These issues are moving so fast,” said Schumann. “We as an industry have to improve our game.”

A series of winter webinars organized by Schumann aims to bring in fishermen from all U.S. regions to work together on climate issues. The collapse of Alaska’s Bering Sea snow and king crab fisheries –  a potential $500 million loss to the industry and dependent communities –  has snapped the issue into sharp focus.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman