Saving Seafood

Off Alaska coast, research crew peers down, down, down to map deep and remote ocean

August 15, 2023 — For the team aboard the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska, exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands is a chance to surface new knowledge about life in some of the world’s deepest and most remote waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel is on a five-month mission aboard a reconfigured former Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps. The ship, with a 48-member crew, is outfitted with technology and tools to peer deep into the ocean to gather data to share with onshore researchers in real time. The hope is that this data will then be used to drive future research.

“It’s so exciting to go down there and see that it’s actually teeming with life,” said expedition coordinator Shannon Hoy. “You would never know that unless we were able to go down there and explore.”

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Biden-Harris Administration makes $240 million available for habitat restoration and coastal resilience through Investing in America agenda

August 15, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries is announcing the availability of up to $240 million in funding for transformational habitat restoration and coastal resilience projects as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Through this funding opportunity, NOAA will support habitat restoration approaches that enhance the resilience of coastal and Great Lakes communities — including tribes and underserved communities — against climate hazards. This announcement comes one day ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in U.S. history.

“The projects selected by NOAA for this exciting funding opportunity will have a transformative impact in coastal and tribal communities nationwide,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “In turn, they will help sustain our nation’s fisheries, make significant strides in the recovery of threatened and endangered species, improve water quality and protect communities and ecosystems from the impacts of harmful climate change.” 

NOAA will seek proposals for projects to restore marine, estuarine, coastal or Great Lakes ecosystems. Degraded habitat is one of the largest obstacles to rebuilding sustainable fisheries and recovering threatened and endangered species. Restoring coastal wetlands and removing outdated dams can improve coastal resilience — helping communities recover from and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather and climate change. This funding opportunity is aligned with actions outlined in the Biden-Harris Administration’s Ocean Climate Action Plan and principles of the America the Beautiful initiative.

“Our habitat restoration efforts rebuild productive and sustainable fisheries, thereby promoting ecosystem and community resilience,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “These funding opportunities facilitate the recovery and conservation of threatened and endangered species, reconnect rivers to their historic floodplains, build living shorelines that protect coasts from erosion and sea level rise and reduce damage from flooding and storms.”

NOAA is committed to the goals of advancing equity and support for underserved communities and tribes through our work, including our efforts under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Through this competition, NOAA Fisheries will prioritize projects that demonstrate a broad base of stakeholder and community support and encourage applications from tribes or underserved communities. NOAA encourages projects developed with inclusive practices that incorporate meaningful strategies to engage a diverse range of community groups, including tribes and underserved communities.

NOAA’s Community-based Restoration Program provides technical and financial assistance to partners across the country to develop high-quality habitat restoration projects that support our nation’s fisheries. Since its start in 1996, the Program has helped implement more than 2,200 coastal habitat restoration projects — restoring more than 94,000 acres of habitat for fish and opening more than 4,400 stream miles for fish passage.

NOAA’s habitat restoration experts also provide technical assistance and oversight to design and implement high-impact projects, and work closely in the field with our tribal, state, local and non-profit partners. 

Applications are due by November 17, 2023. For more information, visit the Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grants website. 

SMAST’s Kevin Stokesbury: On scallops, community collaboration, and a lifelong love of the ocean

August 14, 2023 — Growing up on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Kevin Stokesbury spent as much time as possible swimming, searching for sand shrimp, and soaking up the sun with his siblings.

Now as dean of the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at UMass Dartmouth, he’s finding practical applications for his passion with the sea. Stokesbury has played an integral role in revitalizing the scallop industry in New Bedford, inventing a drop camera in 1999 that snapped photos of scallops living on the seafloor, giving scientists and fishermen much more precise estimates of scallop numbers than previously available. The location map and information accompanying the photographs have proved vital.

Stokesbury’s invention has greatly boosted the local economy. Before the drop camera, scallop boats brought in an annual harvest valued around $89 million. In 2021, it was $670 million, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commercial landings report.

Stokesbury has dedicated his career to fisheries sciences, specifically fisheries oceanography. His work involves studying sea scallops and looking at technological innovations to examine stock assessments and resources on the seafloor. He also researches groundfish and recently has been delving into the impacts of offshore wind turbines on fisheries and the environment.

As an undergraduate at Nova Scotia’s Acadia University, he studied marine biology before transitioning to marine ecology as a master’s student. In addition to his studies, Stokesbury ran his own diving company and worked with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Then, he relocated to the University of Laval to pursue a PhD in marine ecology.

In 2008, he was awarded the Friend of the Fishing Industry Award, which was read into the congressional record later that year. In 2013, he received the David H. Wallace Award from the National Shellfish Association, and in 2018 he was named The Standard-Times Southcoast Man of the Year. More recently, Stokesbury has been appointed to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee for “Assessment and Advancement of Science in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Environmental Studies Program,” and he is the president-elect of the National Shellfisheries Association.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Mayor Mitchell pushing NOAA to open new center in New Bedford

August 14, 2023 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is re-upping a pitch for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to open a site in the Whaling City.

The mayor recently co-signed a letter with more than 50 others, including business owners and local and state officials, to urge NOAA to consolidate its Northeast facilities in New Bedford.

In the letter addressed to NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, the mayor and others want the agency to consider opening sites in New Bedford “when facilities owned or operated in the Northeast by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service are scheduled to be rebuilt or re-leased.”

Read the full article at WPRI

NOAA testing ultraviolet lights as solution to seabird bycatch

August 12, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries believes new ultraviolet-phased lighting technology could help keep seabirds away from fishing vessels, and the agency is embarking on a several-year research effort to see if it lives up to its promise.

Tempted by the bait used to lure in fish, seabirds have long been attracted to commercial fishing operations. Unfortunately, it typically isn’t the free meal that it appears to be, with the birds becoming hooked or entangled in the gear. NOAA Fisheries has been successful in reducing seabird interactions with some gear, but those measures do not deter the animals from approaching and colliding with the vessels.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA unveils National Seafood Strategy

August 12, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries has issued the United States’ first National Seafood Strategy, a document intended to guide the federal government’s approach to supporting the seafood sector over the next five years.

“The strategy underscores NOAA’s strong commitment to seafood sector resilience and aligns with the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals for economic recovery, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience,” the agency said in its announcement. “The strategy also responds to the unprecedented challenges facing the U.S. seafood industry, including climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, new technologies, and other ocean uses, significant labor shortages, and aging infrastructure.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford said to be best place for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

August 10, 2023 — Is there a better place to site the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast operations than New Bedford?

Mayor Jon Mitchell doesn’t think so.

And he’s joined in that opinion by a “very broad coalition of business and civic leadership.”

Mitchell sent a letter co-signed by more than 50 business and civic leaders to NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad this month making a pitch to consolidate its Northeast facilities in New Bedford.

A similar letter was sent to NOAA in 2016, but recent developments warranted another entreaty.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

NOAA Fisheries Releases National Seafood Strategy

August 10, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries has released its first-ever National Seafood Strategy (PDF, 8 pages) after several rounds of stakeholder input and a public comment period earlier this year. The strategy underscores NOAA’s strong commitment to seafood sector resilience and aligns with the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals for economic recovery, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience. Further, the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health points to the need for increased seafood consumption in the United States, which this strategy aims to address.

The strategy also responds to the unprecedented challenges facing the U.S. seafood industry, including climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, new technologies and other ocean uses, significant labor shortages, and aging infrastructure.

Our Vision for Resilience

The National Seafood Strategy outlines NOAA Fisheries’ direction for supporting a thriving domestic U.S. seafood economy. It describes our approach to enhancing the resilience of the seafood sector in the face of climate change and other stressors.

Our vision is to ensure that:

  • U.S. seafood continues to be produced sustainably
  • The U.S. seafood sector contributes to the nation’s climate-ready food production and to meeting critical domestic nutritional needs
  • U.S. seafood production increases to support jobs, the economy, and the competitiveness of the U.S. seafood sector
  • Supply chains and infrastructure are modernized with more value-added activity in the United States
  • Opportunities are expanded for a diverse and growing seafood workforce

We plan to achieve our vision by focusing on four goals:

  1. Maintain or increase sustainable U.S. wild capture production
  2. Increase sustainable U.S. aquaculture production
  3. Foster access to domestic and global markets for the U.S. seafood industry
  4. Strengthen the entire U.S. seafood sector

Public Input was Critical

Public comments and stakeholder input were integral to finalizing the strategy and helping guide the direction of our work to support the seafood sector. We received more than 150 separate comments, about a quarter of which were from organizations, including fishing, aquaculture, and seafood associations, non-profits, NGOs, aquariums, and state agencies. In addition, five regional fishery management councils provided comment letters. Many of the comments were used to strengthen and improve the strategy, particularly to clarify phrases or context, such as adding descriptions of other agency strategies and policies. One significant change from the draft is the addition of an Equity and Environmental Justice objective under Goal 4.

The National Seafood Strategy will reinforce NOAA Fisheries’ critical science and management support to the seafood sector. Stakeholders recognize that the science conducted by the agency to support management of wild capture fisheries and seafood farming is essential for the well-being of the U.S. seafood sector. The industry needs NOAA Fisheries and other federal agencies to provide more support for and attention to adaptation to climate change, changing markets, and new ocean uses; new domestic sources of seafood supply (wild capture and aquaculture); fair trade; workforce development; and recapitalizing and modernizing seafood infrastructure.

Some comments were beyond the scope of this strategy or more relevant to implementation actions for specific programs or regions. These types of comments will be considered as we develop the implementation plan, which is being developed by an internal working group comprising staff from headquarters, regional offices, and science centers.

OREGON: Significant marine heatwave brewing off Oregon coast

August 8, 2023 — Oceans around the world are hotter than ever before in the record-keeping era – and those high temps have now reached the Pacific Northwest.

Colin McCarthy, an atmospheric scientist and extreme weather influencer tweeted that “[o]ne of the most intense marine heatwaves on Earth has developed off the West Coast of the US, with water temperatures peaking nearly 5°C (9°F) above normal.”

The marine heatwave off the coasts of Oregon and Washington has reached “extreme” levels, an event that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ranks a Category 4 on a scale of 5.

Average ocean temperatures around the world reached 70 degrees in spring of 2023, the highest ever recorded.

In July, the Associated Press reported that sea surface temperatures rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at a spot off Florida’s southern tip.

Warming oceans cause stronger storms, rising sea levels and the loss of coral reefs and other marine life, according to according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information as reported by the AP.

Read the full article at Oregon Live