April 11, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center has released preliminary shrimp landings data for December 2022 for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic.
Approximately 6.7 million pounds of shrimp were landed in the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic in December 2022, according to NOAA. For the total year, 119.7 million pounds of warmwater shrimp were landed in the U.S., down from its updated figure of 128 million pounds in 2021, a decline of 6.5 percent.
April 10, 2023 — Jennifer Quan will take the lead as regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast fisheries program April 23, according to an agency announcement.
Quan, born and raised in the Pacific Northwest region, began her NOAA career as a supervisory fish biologist leading the South Puget Sound Branch of the Oregon/Washington Coastal Office. She is now an advisor to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Quan is succeeding regional director Barry Thom, who left the National Marine Fisheries Service West Coast administrator position in 2020 to lead the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Scott Rumsey, who has been acting regional director since Thom’s departure, will resume his role as deputy regional administrator, according to the NOAA statement.
“I feel fortunate and excited to have Jennifer join the NOAA Fisheries leadership team at this time,” said Janet Coit, the assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “She is a capable, experienced leader who has demonstrated throughout her career that she understands fisheries and complex environmental issues and knows how to work with others to address the many natural resource challenges on the West Coast.”
April 8, 2023 — From the first time television chef Julia Child hoisted a whole, ugly monkfish in front of her audience, early successes in marketing “the poor man’s lobster” showed how creative culinary and marketing campaigns could boost underutilized U.S. fisheries.
Now, a newly formed collaborative program aims to again boost U.S. domestic demand for monkfish – a stock at high population levels, and accessible close to home for Atlantic fishermen. Extending from Maine to New Jersey, it’s a regional push to “expand the audience and the markets that monkfish can fill,” said Tara McClintock, a fisheries specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Marine Extension Service in New York.
April 6, 2023 — The New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA), in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, recently submitted comments on NOAA Fisheries’ National Seafood Strategy, asking the administration remain cognizant of the many challenges the fishing industry faces in the coming decade.
NOAA Fisheries released its draft National Seafood Strategy in February 2023, outlining how the federal government plans to support the domestic seafood sector in the coming years. The strategy, which NOAA said is “based on sound science,” addresses factors affecting the seafood industry, including the financial viability of fisheries and the resilience of coastal communities – like New Bedford, Massachusetts – that depend on them.
April 6, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries is pleased to announce Ms. Jennifer Quan as the new Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. She will assume her new duties on April 23, 2023. Ms. Quan is currently an advisor to Chair Senator Maria Cantwell and other members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. She began her NOAA career as a supervisory fish biologist in the West Coast Region leading the South Puget Sound Branch of the Oregon/Washington Coastal Office. She succeeds Barry Thom, who left the agency in 2020 to lead the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. She also follows Acting Regional Administrator Dr. Scott Rumsey, who will resume his role as Deputy Regional Administrator.
“I feel fortunate and excited to have Jennifer join the NOAA Fisheries leadership team at this time,” said NOAA Fisheries’ Assistant Administrator Janet Coit. “She is a capable, experienced leader who has demonstrated throughout her career that she understands fisheries and complex environmental issues and knows how to work with others to address the many natural resource challenges on the West Coast.”
In her new role, Ms. Quan will direct NOAA Fisheries’ science-based stewardship of marine species and habitat within the coasts and watersheds of Washington, Oregon, California, and Idaho. The region is one of the largest in the agency, covering 317,690 square miles of the eastern Pacific Ocean and more than 7,000 miles of tidal coastline. It also includes the ecological functions within the states’ vast rivers and estuaries.
As the Regional Administrator, Ms. Quan will lead more than 300 dedicated employees working to build sustainable fisheries, recover endangered and threatened species, maintain healthy ecosystems, and protect human health. The region works closely with the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Pacific States Commission as well as state and federal partners, tribes, the fishing and seafood industries, and other stakeholders. They manage and conserve federal commercial and recreational fisheries, marine mammals, endangered and threatened species, habitat, and much more. Later this spring, Ms. Quan will be meeting with a wide variety of partners and stakeholders across the region to listen and get feedback on shared priorities. Ms. Quan has extensive experience in natural resource management on the U.S. West Coast and benefits from diverse perspectives gained during her time with state and federal governments. Her career spans a broad spectrum of West Coast fisheries issues including:
With her many years of natural resource management experience in the Pacific Northwest and the relationships she’s built during the course of her career, I am confident that Jennifer Quan will step into the West Coast Regional Administrator role with ease,” said NOAA Fisheries’ Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs Sam Rauch.
For the last 2 years, Ms. Quan worked as an advisor to the Chair, Senator Maria Cantwell on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. There she worked with the Chair to develop and pass legislation on NOAA’s ocean, climate, weather and atmospheric research and services. Notably, she worked on NOAA’s climate resilience provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, during her tenure, she assisted in leading passage of 13 bills into law including the historic reauthorization of the Coral Reef Conservation Act.
Prior to working for the U.S. Senate, she worked for the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. She supervised the south Puget Sound Branch of the Oregon/Washington Coastal Office, with significant achievements in improving branch morale and innovating nearshore Endangered Species Act consultations. Before coming to NOAA, she spent 10 years at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. As Lands Division Manager she acquired more than 114,000 acres of habitat for fish and wildlife protection and led the passage of the state “Discover Pass” legislation. It created an access pass to state recreation lands that created revenue of more than $25 million a year and secured funding for maintenance of conservation and recreation lands.
Ms. Quan values continuous improvement and collaborative solutions born from hard work and thrives working in the interface of science and policy. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she is steeped in the world of salmon and other fish. She is adept at navigating the challenges that come with balancing their accompanying and inseparable intrinsic, tribal, recreational, and commercial values. She considers herself a modern conservationist and manager and believes that strategic innovations will be necessary to solve current day and future sustainability challenges.
Ms. Quan is a fellow of the National Conservation Leadership Institute. She holds a Master’s degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Washington and Bachelors of Science from Evergreen State College.
Ms. Quan will be splitting her time among the West Coast Region offices, including Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and Long Beach. She is a wife and mother of three who considers her family her anchor and greatest accomplishment. In her spare time, you may find her playing “zen” golf, trying out a new recipe, throwing a ball for her dog, and skiing if the snow is good.
April 6, 2023 — New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm may “adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, but its construction, operation and eventual dismantling will not seriously harm or kill them, a federal scientific agency said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report Tuesday evaluating an analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the Ocean Wind I project to be built off the southern New Jersey coast.
NOAA’s final biological opinion examined BOEM’s research, and took into account “the best scientific and commercial data available.”
NOAA determined the project by Danish wind power company Orsted “is likely to adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of any species” of endangered whales, sea turtles and other animals. Nor is it likely to “destroy or adversely modify any designated critical habitat.”
April 5, 2023 — The Stimson Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington, D.C., U.S.A.-based think-tank, is calling on NOAA to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) beyond the current proposal offered by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
SIMP was created six years ago to block the import of select seafood products that had been mislabeled or harvested through illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The program currently targets 11 species groups, but NOAA Fisheries announced a plan in January 2023 to expand the program and more than double the number of species it targets.
April 5, 2023 — A just released “first of its kind” report that federal regulators and the fishing industry spent three years working on is making the rounds, exploring the impacts of offshore wind on fisheries and commercial fishermen, and identifying the questions that remain unanswered.
They just released their results in a nearly 400-page “Synthesis of Science” report — a collaborative effort between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the lead regulator of offshore wind; NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center; and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a membership-based coalition of the fishing industry.
“I would say this [report] is the first of its kind,” said Fiona Hogan, one of the principal investigators and the research director for RODA. “It was kind of amazing … that we were able to get state and federal employees, academics, even from over in Europe … and the fishing industry directly working together to write this document.”
April 3, 2023 — A joint study by two federal government scientific agencies and the commercial fishing industry documents numerous impacts that offshore wind power projects have on fish and marine mammals, including noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and heat transfer that could alter the marine environment.
It comes as the offshore wind industry is poised to grow rapidly on the U.S. East Coast, where it is facing growing opposition from those who blame it for killing whales — something numerous scientific agencies say is not true.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance issued their report Wednesday after a 2 1/2-year-long study of the impacts existing offshore wind projects have on fish and marine mammals.
The goal was to solidify existing knowledge of the impacts and call for further research in many areas.
April 2, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
A final peer-reviewed report synthesizing the current state of science on the interactions between fisheries and offshore wind is now available online. The report was developed through a partnership of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). It also summarizes the results of a first-of-its-kind symposium that helped gather information for the report.
“We are pleased to have been a part of this project, and look forward to working with our partners on its next iteration, a series of workshops focused on fisheries and floating offshore wind energy,” said Andy Lipsky, who oversees the wind energy team at the science center. Lipsky is also a co-author on the recently issued report.
The Synthesis of the Science: Fisheries and Offshore Wind project enhanced understanding of existing science and data gaps related to offshore wind interactions with fish and fisheries. It included a workshop in 2020 as well as the report.
“This collaboration was a great success and truly helped us as we developed a joint survey mitigation strategy with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,” said Lipsky. “It also helps us define and begin developing the new kinds of monitoring required to continue our long-term data streams on ocean life as well as needed research on how offshore wind energy changes marine habitats and fisheries.”
The symposium brought together fishermen, fishing industry representatives, NOAA Fisheries, BOEM, and RODA experts, wind energy developers, federal fishery management councils, states, and other expert scientists from the United States and Europe. More than 550 people participated. View workshop summaries and videos of panel discussions.
Following the workshop, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and fishery experts collaborated on the report which covers five broad topic areas:
The report is intended to enhance understanding of existing science and data gaps related to offshore wind interactions with fish and fisheries.
RODA, NOAA Fisheries, and BOEM are collaborating on science, research, monitoring, and process of offshore wind energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The next collaborative project is focused on fisheries and floating offshore wind energy. It will summarize current knowledge, research, and monitoring associated with floating wind technology and include workshops focused on floating technology and to obtain a fishing industry review of existing efforts to map fishermen’s data.
This effort complements the broader interagency Floating Offshore Wind Shot, by helping to advance understanding of this emerging technology in the context of fisheries. We will continue to work with stakeholders as stewards of the nation’s ocean resources, their habitats, and the communities that rely on them.