Saving Seafood

NOAA to trollers: A revised environmental analysis could allow king fishing by August

June 13, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service hasn’t ruled out the possibility of opening the summer troll season for king salmon in Southeast Alaska, despite a federal judge’s recent ruling to the contrary.

During a meeting held Wednesday (6-8-23) in Sitka, NOAA Fisheries Alaska regional administrator, Jon Kurland, told a roomful of trollers that the agency was working hard to correct the problems identified in a federal lawsuit brought by a conservation group in Washington state. If successful, Southeast trollers might be able to harvest king salmon this summer – if not on the traditional date of July 1, then possibly in August.

To get a feel for the impact of the Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit on Southeast trollers, try sitting in a room filled with them: Grizzled oldsters, seasoned men and women hardened by life on the ocean, well-known fisheries advocates,  young families, and a baby or two.

John Kurland is the regional administrator for fisheries in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which – among other agencies – oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service.

That’s a lengthy title, but Kurland said that he is a neighbor, and he gets it.

“So first off, I know that there’s been just a huge amount of concern about the implications of this suit and the potential for the troll fishery not to be able to open,” Kurland told the room. “I live in Juneau, I have a sense of how important this fishery is for Southeast Alaska for a lot of small businesses, a lot of families, a lot of communities. It’s a big deal.”

Read the full article at Raven Radio

Feds want tougher rules to protect whales, frustrating boaters

June 10, 2023 — Proposed federal regulations would restrict more boaters over more water to try and protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Environmental advocates and boating industry representatives clashed over the draft rule in a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new rule would expand the category of boats that must comply with speed restrictions off the East Coast to reduce right whale strikes and deaths, and it would approximately double the total protected area in the North Atlantic. Scientists say the rule is critical to avoiding extinction, but boating industry stakeholders say the restrictions will cost them millions.

Read the full article at wbur

Inflation Reduction Act: A Historic Investment in America’s Climate Resilience

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

Climate change impacts every aspect of our mission—from managing fisheries and aquaculture, to conserving protected resources and vital habitats. Fisheries support more than 1.7 million jobs and $244 billion in economic activity in the United States every year. Preparing for changing oceans will help sustain valuable marine resources, fisheries, and coastal communities.

On June 6, 2023, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced historic funding for NOAA under the Inflation Reduction Act, highlighting plans to implement $3.3 billion in investments focused on ensuring America’s communities and economy are ready for and resilient to climate change. Through the IRA, and building on investments made under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, NOAA will continue its efforts to build a climate-ready nation. We will advance research, observations, modeling, predictions, and information dissemination and service delivery to address climate risks including wildfires, floods, drought, and extreme heat. NOAA will also invest in facilities, hurricane hunter aircraft, supercomputing capacity, and permitting efficiencies. IRA funding will empower NOAA to address the growing demand for climate information, services, and products.

NOAA Fisheries will receive an unprecedented investment in strengthening the agency’s core mission to provide science-based management and conservation of the nation’s marine resources as we confront climate change. Changing climate and oceans have significant impacts on valuable marine life and ecosystems. IRA funding will provide critical support for these resources, which will help strengthen the resilience of coastal communities that depend on them. We will be able to provide capacity on the ground for resource managers and stakeholders to assess and reduce climate impacts, increase resilience, and help adapt to changing conditions. Our IRA funds will also support facilities modernization, Arctic research, permitting efficiency, and habitat restoration.

The infusion of IRA funds allows NOAA Fisheries to advance several critical areas focused on tackling the impacts of climate. One of four new NOAA initiatives, Climate-Ready Fisheries will support the nation’s $370 billion fishing industry and the states, communities, and tribes that depend on it. In the face of rapidly changing oceans, NOAA Fisheries will use this historic investment to propel our entire stock assessment enterprise for fish and protected species forward. It will help build our capabilities to incorporate climate and ecosystem environmental data, providing real-time advice and long-range projections that inform and support management decisions for affected sectors and communities. We will invest in advanced technologies, data systems, and infrastructure to pilot projects that expand and modernize stock assessments to account for climate change. We will invest in cooperative partnerships with the fishing industry, academia, and state partners.

We will also invest in our critical partnerships with the regional fishery management councils. Action is needed to implement dynamic fishery management measures that are more timely in response to climate impacts and increase fishing community resiliency to fishery changes caused by anticipated climate impacts. The combination of programs funded by IRA will both improve our overall science and survey enterprise to better address ecosystem changes associated with climate change and make headway on scientific and management priorities.

NOAA Fisheries prioritized specific fisheries and species for IRA funding, including North Atlantic right whales, red snapper, and Pacific salmon. This prioritization was based factors including:

  • Urgency and emerging needs
  • Impact on the species and the coastal communities that depend on them
  • Areas where the agency can make investments to significantly advance climate resilience

We are eager to get to work and excited about what we hope to accomplish, but it will take time. We look forward to coordinating with our partners on these important efforts. Our next steps are to work on the implementation plans for each issue area and begin executing these plans between now and 2026. This funding will help the agency—and by extension the people and marine life that depend on us—develop and strengthen tools to confront the challenges associated with climate change.

Opinion: NOAA’s catch quotas rely on inaccurate data

June 9, 2023 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is convinced that fish stocks in New England are declining, and they’re regulating fishermen into oblivion as a result. 

There’s no evidence that they’re right. In fact, NOAA doesn’t have any reliable evidence at all. The agency has not completed a full survey of New England fish stocks in four years. The government’s recent attempts to jump start the process are floundering. 

I’m leading a new coalition of lobstermen, fishermen, and fishing-adjacent businesses called the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association (NEFSA). We launched this advocacy group, which is open to all industry stakeholders and friends of fishing and the marine environment, because federal regulators are grossly mismanaging our fisheries and pose a lethal threat to fishermen and the oceans. NOAA’s ham-handed effort to gauge the health of the biomass in New England is one such example. 

As National Fisherman readers probably know, NOAA sets quotas for particular species based on data it collects from its research vessels. NOAA’s research vessel for the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic is the Henry B. Bigelow, homeported in Newport, R.I. The ship is currently conducting the northeast spring bottom trawl survey. 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

AQUAA Act reintroduced in US Senate

June 8, 2023 — U.S. lawmakers are making yet another attempt to pass the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act, a bill that would establish national standards for offshore aquaculture and streamline development.

First introduced in 2018, the legislation has gone through multiple iterations as lawmakers push for a comprehensive framework that encourages aquaculture operations in federal waters. The bill would make NOAA the lead federal agency on marine aquaculture, create a more uniform permitting system for offshore aquaculture in federal waters, and build a grant program to incentivize aquaculture innovation.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Enforcement Uncovers Multiple Illegal Seafood Export Operations

June 7, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On May 23, 2023, Jiu Fa Chen, was sentenced to 5 years probation and a $100,000 fine for falsely labeling and exporting foreign-bought spiny lobsters as “Products of the U.S.A.” Chen’s company, AIFA Seafood Incorporated, was sentenced to 5 years probation and a $250,000 fine. It is now subject to rigorous compliance measures for all future business activities. In addition, Elite Sky International Incorporated, was recently sentenced to a $250,000 fine and similar compliance measures. It was running the same illegal labeling scheme as AIFA Seafood.

“These individuals and companies intentionally misrepresented their lobster to be something that it’s not—a product of the United States,” said Manny Antonaras, Assistant Director of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division. “Fishermen and seafood producers who play by the rules deserve to be competitive in global markets. We work hard to help create an even playing field where domestic fishermen can market their American-caught products proudly around the world.”

AIFA Seafood’s illegal activity was first detected through compliance checks performed under the Seafood Import Monitoring Program. An additional anonymous letter detailed elaborate schemes to illegally import spiny lobster to the United States. They would then be illegally exported to China under the false “Product of the U.S.A.” label.

Through a joint undercover operation, we identified that AIFA Seafood had imported lobster from Haiti to its facilities in Florida. The imported lobster were repackaged into boxes labeled “Live Florida Spiny Lobster Product of USA” and illegally exported to China. In total, 5,900 pounds of lobster were illegally exported under this scheme with an estimated retail market value of over $206,500. The investigation uncovered a similar scheme by Elite Sky International to falsely label, and export more than 63,000 pounds of foreign lobster imports as products of the U.S.A. They also shipped more than 5,600 pounds of shark fins falsely labeled as “Frozen Fish.”

When seafood companies deliberately mislabel and misrepresent U.S. seafood exports, they disadvantage honest fishermen. The reporting and records requirements of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program are critical to protecting law-abiding fishermen and seafood producers’ competitiveness in global markets.

These cases were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. They were made possible through close collaboration between:

  • NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement
  • NOAA’s Office of International Affairs, Trade, and Commerce
  • U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  • Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

To report suspected seafood violations, contact NOAA’s Law Enforcement Hotline at (800) 853-1964.

2023-2024 Monkfish Research Set-Aside Project Recommendations

June 7, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The selected projects will investigate monkfish research priorities developed by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils. NOAA Fisheries expects the awards to generate approximately $300,000 to fund the research projects.

In the Monkfish RSA program, researchers compete for funding through a federal grant competition managed by NOAA Fisheries. No federal funds support the research. Instead, the program awards RSA days at sea that are “set-aside” annually for use in compensation fishing to fund the program.

For more information about these awards and the Monkfish RSA Program, please contact Ryan Silva.

Both projects responded to one of the Councils’ highest monkfish RSA research priorities: Research to develop a standardized catch per unit effort (CPUE) index for the commercial directed monkish gillnet fishery to be used for stock assessment purposes.

Due to the common goal for the projects, and intended application of the research results, NOAA Fisheries and the grant recipients will coordinate closely to help ensure efforts are complementary, and likely to support monkfish stock assessments.

Institution: Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Suffolk County

Principal Investigators and Collaborators: Emerson Hasbrouck and Scott Curatolo-Wagemann, CCE; Patrick J. Sullivan, Ph.D., Cornell University; Suresh A. Sethi, Ph.D., Alaska Pacific University; Bonnie Brady, Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

Title: Addressing Monkfish Management Needs by Developing a Standardized Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) Time Series.

Project summary: This project will collect and analyze fishery dependent and independent data to inform the development and utilization of an integrated statistical estimation procedure that will determine a standardized CPUE time series. This can be used to estimate the relative abundance of the stock for improved monkfish stock assessment and management purposes.

Institution: Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, Inc.

Principal Investigators and Collaborators: Melissa Sanderson and Aubrey Church, CCFA; Steven Cadrin, Ph.D., UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science & Technology.

Title: Incorporating Fishermen’s Knowledge into a Standardized Catch Per Unit Effort Index for the Commercial Monkfish Gillnet Fishery.

Project summary: This project seeks to develop standardized CPUE indices for the commercial directed monkfish gillnet fishery for use in stock assessments. Investigators will work collaboratively with the commercial monkfish fishing industry throughout the region to elicit expertise on monkfish CPUE, obtain fishery dependent data, and develop CPUE standardization for contribution to upcoming monkfish stock assessments.

Reward Available for Information About Death of Juvenile Hawaiian Monk Seal at ʻŌhikilolo

June 7, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to a civil penalty or criminal conviction in the March 2023 death of juvenile Hawaiian monk seal RQ76, or Malama. The monk seal, which is protected under federal law, was found dead at ʻŌhikilolo, between Keaʻau Beach Park and Mākua Valley, on Oʻahu.

“We’re asking for help from anyone who may have seen or heard anything related to the killing of this endangered animal which is not only a violation of federal law but a hateful act against all the people who call Hawaiʻi their home,” said Frank Giaretto, Deputy Special Agent in Charge with NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, Pacific Islands Division.

Anyone with information should contact NOAA’s Enforcement Hotline at (800) 853-1964. To report a dead, injured, or stranded marine mammal, call the Pacific Islands Region Marine Mammal Response Network at (888) 256-9840.

The monk seal was first investigated at the scene by our partners at the Hawai‘i Dept. of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement. Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response recovered RQ76 and transported the seal to a NOAA facility for post-mortem examination. Initial results indicated the seal died of severe blunt-force trauma. Furthermore, after consulting with national experts, the suspected cause of death was determined to most likely be an intentional killing.

The Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered seal species in the world. They are native to the Hawaiian archipelago—found nowhere else in the world—and are protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and Hawai‘i law. The monk seal population has been in decline for six decades, but numbers have been increasing over the past 10 years due in part to NOAA’s and partners’ recovery efforts.

Biden-Harris Administration announces $2.6 billion framework through Investing in America agenda to protect coastal communities and restore marine resources

June 6, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce unveiled a $2.6 billion framework to invest in coastal resilience through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). As part of the President’s Investing in America Agenda this initiative will support communities and people on the frontlines of climate change, dedicating nearly $400 million specifically for Tribal priorities and benefiting coastal and Great Lakes communities nationwide with an emphasis on environmental justice. Additional investments from the IRA will improve weather and climate data and services, support the Biden-Harris Administration’s America the Beautiful conservation initiative, and strengthen NOAA’s fleet of research airplanes and ships that are used to study and collect data about the ocean and atmosphere. 

“Under President Biden’s leadership, we are making the most significant direct investment in climate resilience in the nation’s history,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “As part of our more than $2.6 billion investment in regional coastal resiliency and conservation projects, we will be dedicating $390 million directly to Tribal priorities for habitat restoration and bolstering fish populations, and supplying crucial funding to ensure our coastal communities are better prepared for the effects of climate change.”

The historic $2.6 billion investment in climate resilience and coastal communities will help ensure communities, especially Tribes and vulnerable populations, have the resources and support needed to prepare, adapt and build resilience to weather and climate events as well as strengthen workforce development, marine resources, nature-based solutions, conservation, regional partnerships and Tribal priorities. The IRA funds will complement the investments already outlined in the nearly $3 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding, including the $562 million in Climate-Ready Coasts awards announced in April.

“This massive investment will go a long way in helping NOAA prepare communities for natural disasters and more effectively address the environmental and economic impacts to help millions recover from these events,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary Don Graves. “It’s no mistake that NOAA finds its home in the Commerce Department, where we remain fully committed to its mission.”

The $2.6 billion in climate investments will support coastal communities’ resilience to changing climate conditions through funding and technical assistance for capacity building, transformational projects that help protect communities from storms and flooding, the creation of quality climate-related jobs and improved delivery of climate services to communities and businesses. These programs include:

  • Climate Resilience Regional Challenge ($575 million): NOAA will fund a new competitive grant program that will invest in holistic, collaborative approaches to coastal resilience at regional scales. This will include two funding tracks: Regional Collaborative Building and Strategy Development, and Implementation of Resilience and Adaptation Actions. Details will be available in early summer.
  • Tribal Priorities ($390 million): NOAA will provide funding specifically for tribes to support habitat restoration, fish passage, capacity building, science, fish hatcheries and Pacific salmon. A summary of Tribal comments can be found here.
  • Climate-Ready Fisheries ($349 million): NOAA will support projects to conserve fisheries and protected species in coastal regions around the country. This work will enable NOAA to build dynamic fisheries management systems that incorporate climate and ecosystem environmental data to support management decisions.
  • Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerators ($100 million): NOAA will fund a new competitive business accelerator program to fill a critical unmet market need. These accelerators will support businesses with coastal and ocean-based resilience products and services related to NOAA’s mission as they navigate commercialization pathways. These businesses will help communities prepare for, adapt to and build resilience to changing climate conditions. Details will be available in early summer. NOAA will also advance existing resilience-related funding opportunities, through programs such as the National Oceanographic Partnership Program and Ocean Technology Partnership program.
  • Climate-Ready Workforce ($60 million): NOAA will meet the emerging and existing needs of employers by placing workers in high quality jobs that enhance climate resilience. Funding will also aid training and support services that will help American workers advance their careers and implement climate resilience efforts within public and private sectors. Details on this new competition will be available in early summer. 

The framework for the $2.6 billion also includes additional funding for high-quality project applications received through BIL competitions, non-competitive funding for the Integrated Ocean Observing System, support for marine and Great Lakes sanctuary designations, Technical Assistance to states, localities, tribes, and other partners and funding for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. The second round of BIL Climate-Ready Coasts Notices of Funding Opportunities are expected this summer.

“We are investing in America and empowering communities to understand and take action to address their risks to climate change and ensure they continue to thrive now and in the future,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “We can’t do it alone and look forward to engaging partners, building resilience and supporting conservation with this funding.”

The IRA allocated $3.3 billion to NOAA, including the initiatives described above and $200 million that will support improvements in NOAA’s climate and data services, including: 

  • Creating industry proving grounds to collaboratively research, develop and test tailored climate data products and services for the private sector, including the insurance, reinsurance and health industries.
  • Funding, improving, and expanding existing NOAA programs that advance climate information, services and adaptation capacity and build equitable climate resilience such as the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), the Climate Smart Communities Initiative (CSCI), Climate Adaptation Partnerships/Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CAP/RISA), the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and others.
  • Improving forward-looking projections, data assimilation, numerical weather prediction skill and models in order to improve the prediction of climate and weather extremes on oceans and ecosystems, and delivering climate projections needed to inform decision making.
  • Expediting the assessment and development of next generation Phased Array Radar capabilities to make severe weather warnings more accurate.  

NOAA’s remaining IRA funding will also support critical infrastructure improvements for NOAA facilities that are essential to NOAA’s mission, including:

  • The Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington.
  • The Sandy Hook Lab in New Jersey.
  • Piers in Newport, Rhode Island, and Charleston, South Carolina.
  • Construction of two charting and mapping research vessels, as well as critical mid-life repairs for NOAA Fisheries survey vessels.
  • High-performance computing capacity.
  • Acquisition of a second G550 ‘hurricane hunter’ aircraft.
  • Facilities projects at multiple national marine sanctuaries, including at the Monterey Bay, Stellwagen Bank, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale, Greater Farallones, Mallows Bay and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuaries.

Tracking Climate-Driven Shifts in Fish Populations Across International Boundaries

June 6, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As the ocean warms, marine fish are on the move—beyond their traditional habitats and across international boundaries. Understanding these patterns of movement is essential to predicting change and managing climate-resilient fisheries.

A new collaborative NOAA Fisheries study looks at patterns of movement by multiple fish species across the entire Bering Sea shelf over decades. Alaska Fisheries Science Center scientists collaborated with Russian scientists to combine data from the eastern, western, and northern Bering Sea shelf. An innovative analysis distilled dominant patterns of fish movement over time from these data. The research advances our understanding of how the ecosystem is responding to climate change.

“International collaboration is likely going to become increasingly important for sustainable management of Bering Sea fisheries,“ said study lead Lukas DeFilippo, NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “As fish move into new habitats, we need to take a broader scale approach to monitoring to support sustainable fisheries management .”