Saving Seafood

Long-Term Conservation Efforts Pay Off for Rockfish Along the West Coast

December 2, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Upcoming changes in fishery management regulations mark a milestone in the ongoing efforts to conserve and sustainably manage West Coast groundfish populations. The changes are outlined in an amendment to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. They reflect more than two decades of conservation work and will benefit both commercial and recreational fisheries.

Effective January 1, 2024, Amendment 32 opens fishing areas that have been closed since the early 2000s to protect several species of overfished rockfish. With the successful rebuilding of nearly all these species, reopening these areas will provide fishermen with greater access to healthy groundfish stocks.

However, some conservation challenges persist. Certain areas will remain closed to continue protecting more vulnerable fish species, as well as protect critical groundfish habitats like rocky reefs, corals, and sponges.

“This milestone is a testament to the success of long-term conservation efforts, and reflects a shared commitment to responsibly steward our marine resources,” says Jen Quan, NOAA Fisheries West Coast Regional Administrator. “It marks a significant step toward a sustainable future for West Coast groundfish fisheries and the communities that rely on them.”

This action impacts groundfish closures that span about 1,000 nautical miles from Oregon’s northern border to Mexico.

Action Highlights

  • Reopens part of the Non-Trawl Rockfish Conservation Area off California and Oregon, granting access to approximately 2,400 square miles of historically important fishing grounds that have been closed since 2002
  • Removes Cowcod Conservation Area restrictions for non-trawl groundfish fisheries areas off southern California, opening roughly 4,600 square miles of historical fishing grounds to non-trawl groundfish commercial and recreational fisheries, previously closed since 2001
  • Creates new closures to protect rebuilding yelloweye rockfish, groundfish essential fish habitat, and other sensitive areas, including abundant coral and sponges

Ocean Ecology and Rockfish

Groundfish play a vital role in West Coast marine ecosystems, serving as both predators and prey within marine food webs. Reproductive success in rockfish varies greatly from year to year and depends on highly variable ocean conditions. They have evolved to have long lifespans so that fish have several chances to reproduce. In some extreme cases, they may reach ages of 100 years or greater. With their slow growth rate, only a portion of the rockfish population are large enough to harvest at any given time. Their conservation is essential for maintaining ecological balance in these underwater environments.

The combination of overfishing in the 1980s and poor recruitment rates in the early 1990s led to the decline of many West Coast groundfish populations. In the early 2000s, large areas along the West Coast were set aside to promote the recovery of various species. The conservation areas allow fish stocks inside their boundaries to rebuild, and act as nurseries for rockfish along the entire West Coast.

“Rockfish young typically have a fairly broad dispersal,” says John Field, Supervisory Research Fish Biologist at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center. “Rockfish that were protected in conservation areas contributed substantially to the increase in recruitment, abundance, and productivity outside of those closed areas. In addition, a lot of these trends in recruitment are environmentally driven, and shifts in ocean circulation and source waters are thought to be key drivers of recent increased productivity for many rockfish stocks.”

When cool waters from the Gulf of Alaska move south, bringing nutrients and lipid-rich northern plankton with them, rockfish recruitment rates trend upwards. In 1999 and the early 2000s, this helped fuel the rebuilding of stocks, with the support of the conservation areas. Conversely, when warm southern water comes northward, as in El Niño years, recruitment drops significantly, slowing recovery rates. The El Niño Southern Oscillation occurs roughly every 2 to 7 years.

More frequent groundfish surveys over the entire coastline have also improved the availability of data to support rockfish stock assessments over the past two decades. These surveys include assessments of environmental conditions as well as capturing and measuring individual fish. “By looking at the temperature and oxygen conditions in the water column, and shifting ocean conditions, we can paint a much more accurate picture of rockfish population health and how these populations respond to environmental variability,” says Field. Onboard observers who count the number and species of fish caught in commercial and recreational fisheries have also added to the accuracy of the stock assessments.

Commercial and Recreational Fisheries

These regulatory changes are expected to provide a significant boost to both commercial and recreational fisheries along the West Coast. The commercial groundfish fishery contributes more than $158 million annually to the economy, supporting coastal communities through processing plants, support service businesses, markets, and restaurants. The recreational groundfish fishery generates approximately $161 million annually, further benefiting local coastal economies through tourism, bait and tackle sales, and other related commerce.

“This action is important for hundreds of fishermen on the West Coast, as it will provide much-needed access and opportunity to fish for abundant groundfish stocks,” says Harrison Ibach, commercial fisherman in Eureka, California. “After decades of closure, it should be noted that gaining access into the Rockfish Conservation Area with specific hook and line gears is a milestone in sustainable fisheries management.”

NOAA Fisheries, along with the Pacific Fishery Management Council and state and tribal co-managers, manage the groundfish fisheries off of the West Coast. Through a public process involving stakeholders, the Council develops rules governing groundfish fisheries. NOAA Fisheries implements those rules about when and where commercial and recreational fisheries can fish, and how many groundfish they can catch, to make sure enough fish remain in the ocean to support current and future fishing.

NOAA Fisheries Proposes 2024-2027 Atlantic Deep-Sea Red Crab Quotas

December 2, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is proposing specifications for the 2024 Atlantic deep-sea red crab fishery, including an annual catch limit and a total allowable landings limit. We are also proposing projected quotas for 2025-2027.

The New England Fishery Management Council recommended a status quo quota of 2,000 metric tons for fishing years 2024-2027.

Read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register today and the bulletin. The comment period is open through January 2, 2024. Submit your comments through the e-rulemaking portal.

NOAA extends marine mammal exemptions for seafood imports

November 30, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries has delayed implementing rules designed to bring seafood imports into compliance with U.S. marine mammal bycatch once again, extending the exemption for another two years.

NOAA Fisheries issued a final rule in 2016 that would require U.S. trade partners to secure a “comparability finding” showing that their wild-caught commercial fishing operations align with U.S. conservation standards for marine mammals. Nations that do not have a comparability finding would be banned from exporting those seafood products to the U.S.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Large Whale Entanglement Response a Success Thanks to Metlakatla Indian Community Team

November 30, 2023 — The following was released as NOAA Fisheries:

The call came in to NOAA’s Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network 24-hour hotline the morning of July 19. A whale-watching company near Ketchikan had spotted a humpback whale entangled in line and dragging unmarked buoys. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement in Ketchikan responded,  verified the whale’s location in Blank Inlet on the south side of Gravina Island, and monitored the entangled whale. The NOAA Large Whale Entanglement Response Program at the Alaska Regional Office in Juneau reached out to the Metlakatla Indian Community Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW).

“When we receive a report of an entangled whale, we immediately start thinking about the trained and authorized responders who are closest to the location,” said NOAA Alaska Large Whale Entanglement Response Coordinator Sadie Wright.

In this case, the Metlakatla Indian Community had done a lot to be prepared to safely respond to entangled whales. Metlakatla’s DFW had seen a need years ago to have responders in their community trained to use specialized equipment to disentangle whales. “They emphasize personal safety, and work hard to help whales while keeping their team and their community safe,” Wright said.

The Metlakatla team had participated in NOAA Large Whale Entanglement Response program trainings in the past and had recently participated in a refresher training. Wright said, “We knew they were a terrific team who had the right skills and right equipment.”

The group of trained and authorized large whale entanglement responders at the Metlakatla DFW was perfectly positioned to assist the entangled humpback whale in Blank Inlet.

Dustin Winter, DFW Director, coordinated his team, including Kevyn McKeehan, Spencer Guthrie, and Gabe Nathen, for the entanglement response. They met NOAA’s Law Enforcement team at the whale’s location. They were able to gather underwater video that showed the whale was caught through the mouth by a thick line, and dragging unmarked buoys behind it.

Indigenous Scientists on St. Paul Island, Alaska Work To Protect Marine Mammals

November 30, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

For Native American Heritage Month, NOAA Fisheries celebrates the Indigenous scientists who help make our work in marine mammal conservation possible. The Tribal Government of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island conducts high-level science and management of their marine resources. They work independently and in partnership with NOAA through a formal co-management agreement authorized by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

St. Paul is a small community of about 400 people located in the Pribilof Islands, 300 miles from mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea. Unangan—which means “The People of the Sea”— live on St. Paul, and neighboring St. George. Russian fur traders captured their ancestors from the Aleutian Islands and relocated them to the Pribilof Islands in the 1700s. They were enslaved there for the commercial fur harvest of laaqudan (the Unangam tunuu word for northern fur seals, pronounced “lah-koo-thawn”). Their deep cultural connection to and subsistence reliance upon laaqudan and other marine mammals, such as qawan (Steller sea lions, “ka-wahn”), has persisted for millennia and remains strong to this day.

 

Coral Reef Fish Predictably Change With Depth, Except When People Are Present

November 29, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

New research, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, supports the long-held understanding that reef-fish communities follow certain patterns along different depths. However, this is only true in reef areas that have historically remained free from human activity. These patterns were altered or lost at islands where humans live and where impacts like fishing and habitat loss are present. The study was led by researchers at Bangor University in the United Kingdom in close collaboration with the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

Recognizing patterns in reef-fish communities is important for coral-reef management. Testing these long-held understandings as conditions change through time is key to evaluating suitable management approaches.

Revisiting Our Understanding of Reef Ecosystems

One of the oldest described ecological patterns is zonation, which is the distribution of organisms across space. In bodies of water, depth zonation explains how organisms are found at specific depths due to different conditions and interactions with other organisms.

Testing whether and how these patterns are universal in nature is important for developing conservation and management strategies. If these patterns hold true in various places with different groups of organisms, we can use them as trusted guidelines in conservation planning. The ability to test the universality of depth zonation in marine organisms was limited in the past by the lack of standardized observations collected across large areas and the necessary analytical tools.

Lead author, Dr. Laura Richardson of Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences, explains, “Science is cumulative, building on past work. Now that we have greater computing capabilities, we should be testing these widely accepted but spatially under-validated theories at scale. Human impacts on the environment have increased to the point where these models may no longer predict current-day ecological distribution patterns. Up until recently, our ability to test these core theories was limited by a lack of spatially comprehensive data. Consistent, rigorous, and long-term monitoring from NOAA’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program made our analyses possible, revealing globally relevant insights into our ‘natural’ world under human pressures, and highlighting the critical role of well-maintained monitoring programs.”

Can electronic tags fill knowledge gaps between offshore wind and fisheries?

November 28, 2023 — The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be assisting a first-of-its-kind study investigating fish behavior in response to offshore wind turbine installation and related construction activities in the Atlantic Ocean.

Using fine-scale positioning technology, the study will be conducted at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) research site, approximately 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Developed and operated by Dominion Energy, CVOW is the second offshore wind farm operating in the United States with two existing turbines and 176 in the works.

Read the full article at Global Seafood Alliance

NOAA experts: Listen early for whales before wind project work

November 28, 2023 — Astudy by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recommends at least 24 hours of acoustic monitoring for detecting endangered North Atlantic right whales before construction work at offshore wind energy construction sites, to reduce danger to the marine mammals from the loud undersea noise of pile driving.

Visual monitoring around work sites – with trained observers on vessels watching for whales – is one protocol with wind power companies and government regulators. Another is passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) which uses sensors to pick up and record whales’ vocalizations underwater.

Federal monitoring requirements now call for 1 hour of acoustic monitoring for whale activity before pile driving for turbine foundations. It is an “intense, impulsive noise that radiates into the surrounding environment as turbines are hammered into the sea floor,” the paper notes.

The study by a team at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, published Nov. 3 in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, calls for pushing out acoustic monitoring at least 24 hours ahead of construction schedules. Wind power turbines are now being erected on the Vineyard Wind and South Fork project sites off southern New England.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Ropeless Buoy Technology Tested in New England

November 25, 2023 — A federal program testing the viability of “fishing on demand” technology – also known as ropeless buoys – is seeing growing interest and success off the waters of Massachusetts.

But even though the program is experimental, free, and voluntary – and allows fishermen to trap in seasonally closed waters and keep what they catch – many of the state’s lobstermen don’t like it.

The project was started by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2018, in response to federal court rulings and NOAA regulations that seasonally closes thousands of square miles of fishing grounds to protect critically endangered right whales from the risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

Research shows there are fewer than 350 right whales left in the world, a population that has fewer than 70 reproductive females living off the U.S. East Coast and Atlantic Canada. Their biggest threats are entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes. The legal and regulatory action to protect the whales through seasonal fishing and speed restrictions in critical areas stems from lawsuits brought by environmental groups and subsequent court rulings to enforce provisions in the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act.

The seasonal closures prohibit lobster and Jonah crab fishing with traps and vertical lines in high-risk areas, covering almost 13,000 square miles in several restricted blocks off Massachusetts, with additional closures off New Hampshire and Maine. Fishermen who agree to participate in NOAA’s program and test the gear can access those areas under a special permit, using various ropeless buoy technologies being developed by NOAA, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, other non-governmental organizations and several marine technology companies.

“We acknowledge the tremendous impact these closures have on fishing communities and are looking for solutions that would allow fishing without increasing entanglement risk” when vertical line restrictions are in effect, said Henry Milliken, head of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Protected Species Gear Research Program.

“We are just trying to provide opportunities for fishermen who want access to those [restricted] areas. Nobody wants to close down the lobster fishery, especially in Maine and Massachusetts,” said Milliken.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Citizen Science Spotlight: In it for the Long Haul

November 25, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

We have lots of opportunities for members of the public to get involved in our research. We’re sharing the experiences of three longtime citizen scientists working with our programs. We hope you’ll be inspired by their stories to get involved in citizen science in your community, too! From the Cooperative Shark Tagging Program to OceanEYEs, there’s truly a project for everyone.

Mark Sampson

Citizen Science Program

Cooperative Shark Tagging Program

Role

Charter Captain

Mark Sampson is a man who wears many hats: captain, guide, recreational fisherman. But one of his favorites is citizen scientist. Sampson has been a charter captain with Fish Finder Adventures for decades in Ocean City, Maryland, where he works as a fishing guide. He initially heard about the Cooperative Shark Tagging Program from a friend and decided to get involved during the late 1970s. Sampson’s familiarity with local marine life made him a great fit for the program, and he’s been volunteering ever since.

The Cooperative Shark Tagging Program is a collaborative effort between recreational anglers, the commercial fishing industry, and NOAA Fisheries. Founded in 1962, it is one of the oldest citizen science programs in the nation. Volunteers tag sharks caught during recreational or commercial fishing activities and release them. The tags provide shark researchers with information about the sharks’ movements and migration patterns, growth rates, abundance, and more.

“When I first started volunteering, I immediately felt the satisfaction of releasing a shark we caught and putting a tag on it. When you tag a shark, you know the story might not end there after it’s been released, even if you don’t hear anything until years down the road,” Sampson says. In fact, he’s had a number of sharks he’s tagged pop back up years later. Two blue sharks he tagged off Ocean City were eventually recaptured—all the way across the ocean in the Azores archipelago and off the coast of Spain!

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“We also have other biologists contribute to the program and incorporate tagging data from multiple surveys, but our citizen scientists, especially our dedicated volunteers like Mark, are the backbone of our program,” says Cami McCandless, the research fisheries biologist who leads the Cooperative Shark Tagging Program. “A citizen science-based tagging program provides an excellent platform for obtaining shark movement data. Conventional tags last for decades and are quite inexpensive in comparison to high-technology tags that give detailed movement data. Sharks are highly migratory, covering vast distances. Our research team can’t be everywhere all the time, so having volunteers deploying tags each season throughout the North Atlantic vastly expands what we can do on our own.”

Sampson and McCandless encourage anyone with an interest in sharks to get involved with the Cooperative Shark Tagging Program—you don’t need to be a charter captain or even a volunteer tagger to contribute! If you are fishing and you catch a tagged shark, report it to the program by email (sharkrecap@noaa.gov), toll-free call (877-826-2612), or fill out a form online.

“The people with the program are extremely knowledgeable and helpful,” Sampson says. “I’ve been so appreciative of the tagging program for all these years. It’s a great opportunity to communicate back and forth with scientists and help with real research.”

Marcy Dorflinger

Citizen Science Program

California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program

Role

Volunteer Angler

“I’ve been fishing pretty much my whole life,” says Marcy Dorflinger. “I’ve always loved it. When I was little I would go out on the lakes with my dad and my uncles.” Dorflinger now brings her lifetime of fishing expertise to the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program, where she’s been a volunteer angler for 15 years. A neighbor originally introduced the program to Dorflinger, who saw it as a great opportunity to get out on the water more. But after more than a decade with the program, it’s become so much more to her.

The research program is a collaboration between scientists and recreational anglers collecting data to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of California’s network of marine protected areas. These data points also feed into our stock assessments, helping scientists to estimate the health and size of fish populations in the area.

Dorflinger has loved gaining a more intimate understanding of how these offshore protected areas are affecting populations of local groundfish species. “As part of the program, we compare [data from] the marine protected areas with [data from] the reference areas where everyone can fish,” Dorflinger says. “It’s been really interesting to see that the areas are doing their job. There are more fish and bigger fish in those protected areas.”

Erin Johnston, the Interim Statewide Coordinator for the program, says that Dorflinger has been an invaluable member of the team. “There are an endless number of positive things that I could say about Marcy Dorflinger…Her frequent involvement as a volunteer means that Marcy has contributed to this program in a really impactful way,” Johnston says. “Marcy began volunteering with the program in 2008 and has not missed a single year since then. She has volunteered on more than 140 trips and caught almost 4,000 fish in her time as a volunteer angler. She is famous for catching fish even if no one else on board is catching anything. Most importantly, Marcy contributes to this program through more than her fishing ability; she brings her positive energy to every fishing day and is a constant source of joy on long sampling trips. She also comes to our outreach events and supports our undergraduate and graduate staff through her fishing experience, probing questions, and positive feedback. She is an inspiration to women fishers everywhere!”

Steve Leong

Citizen Science Program

OceanEYEs

Role

Stock Assessment Data Program Analyst

Steve Leong’s knack for identifying fish is practically in his blood. Growing up in Sacramento, California, Leong spent countless hours at his grandparents’ fish market. He was fascinated by all the different species represented there—an enduring interest that has propelled him to a long-term involvement in the OceanEYEs project.

“I really love going to Hawai‘i and snorkeling, but I obviously couldn’t go there during the pandemic,” Leong says. In November 2020, he began seeking out opportunities to support public science research programs in his free time. He happened upon OceanEYEs, a virtual citizen science program that improves the data used to manage the Hawaiian “Deep 7” bottomfish species.

The Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center uses underwater stereo camera systems to record images of these culturally and economically valuable species. Then OceanEYEs volunteers annotate these images to identify fish, record data, and help to train machine learning algorithms, expediting the data collection process for professional researchers. “It was sort of like a virtual vacation,” Leong says. “It was a way to see fish you wouldn’t normally see at the surface.”

Leong loves that volunteering with the program puts him at the forefront of emerging fisheries management strategies and technologies. As a retired cancer research and drug development scientist, he has worked with large datasets and understands how much more time-effective it can be to use AI for data analysis. “This has been a way of contributing to the development of AI for the program, which could help with other research projects that will use AI. Using these underwater cameras that can process huge amounts of data takes this research to the next level. It tells me that NOAA is really modernizing,” Leong says.

“Steve Leong has been a valuable asset to the OceanEYEs project since it began 3 years ago,” says Audrey Rollo, lead analyst for the Science Operations Division at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and moderator for OceanEYEs. “Not only has Steve consistently participated in the project throughout the years, but he has shown interest in the research behind the citizen science workflow. I can always count on Steve to provide accurate results and have appreciated his commitment, passion, and enthusiasm to the OceanEYEs project. Mahalo to Steve for his dedicated service!”