Saving Seafood

10 Things You Should Know About North Atlantic Right Whales

October 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

1. The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species.

Sadly, North Atlantic right whales got their name from being the “right” whales to hunt because they floated when they were killed. Their population has never recovered to pre-whaling numbers. These whales have been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1970 and have been experiencing a steady population decline for nearly a decade.

2. Survival of this species depends on no more than one whale death per year. In the past 3 years, at least 30 right whales have died.

The birth rate for right whales has been very low the past few years. Only 12 births have been observed in the three calving seasons since 2017. This is less than one-third the previous average annual birth rate for right whales. And deaths have been exceeding births, resulting in a further decline in the population.

3. Entanglement in fishing gear is still is a big issue for right whales.

More than 85 percent of right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at least once, and the majority (60 percent) have been entangled multiple times. Right whales mostly get caught in the lines that attach fishing gear, like lobster and crab pots or gillnets, to buoys on the surface. These lines can cut into a whale’s body, cause serious injuries, and result in infections and mortality. Even if gear is shed or disentangled, the time spent entangled can severely stress a whale, which weakens it, prevents it from feeding, and saps the energy it needs to swim and feed. Right now, we are focused on addressing the risk of entanglement in vertical lines that connect traps and pots to the surface. This is among the leading threats to right whale survival.

Read the full release here

Report to Congress 2017-2018: Recovering Threatened and Endangered Species

October 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries announced the availability of the latest comprehensive report on Recovering Threatened and Endangered Species FY 2017-2018. The Endangered Species Act provides a critical safety net. We are beginning to see the success of our efforts, with a number of species recently found to be recovered, but more work needs to be done.

All of our species listed under the ESA are valuable and vulnerable. We are seeing results from the Species in the Spotlight initiative, which was initiated by the agency in 2015.

In this year’s report, we added the North Atlantic Right Whale to the Species in the Spotlight. The species is extremely endangered and fisheries gear entanglements and vessel strikes are among the leading causes of mortalities in both the U.S. and Canada. We are recognizing our Species in the Spotlight Partners for their incredible conservation efforts.

Find out the 10 Things You Should Know About North Atlantic Right Whales.

New Maine Proposal to Protect Whales, Spare Lobster Fishing

October 17, 2019 — Maine fishery regulators are unveiling a new right whale protection plan they feel will satisfy federal requirements while also preserving the state’s lobster fishery.

A federal team has called for a reduction of the vertical lobster trap lines in the Gulf of Maine to reduce risk to the whales, which number about 400. Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher says his department’s new proposal would remove 25 percent of the lines beyond an exemption line for inshore fishermen.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Maine lobstermen to NOAA: Whale rules need more work

October 16, 2019 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has volleyed back at NOAA Fisheries, saying it will continue pursuing “critical points” from its analysis of data used by the federal fishery regulator to determine causes of injuries or deaths to North Atlantic right whales.

The MLA’s statement also makes clear the lobster stakeholder remains committed to the take reduction team process, as well as developing a management response within the Maine fishery. This, despite withdrawing its support on Aug. 30 of the risk allocation agreement approved in April by the Large Whale Take Reduction Team.

“MLA’s goal has been and will continue to be a right whale recovery plan built on the best available science that effectively addresses all known risks to right whales from U.S. commercial fisheries and all other human causes,” the MLA stated. “Going forward, MLA will continue to insist on a science-based process informed by best available data to ensure rigorous accountability for risk to endangered whales from across the spectrum of human interactions with them.”

The statement, which follows NOAA Fisheries’ response to the initial MLA data analysis, said the lobster group will continue to push for NOAA Fisheries and other elements of the take reduction team process to address “the outsized role of Canadian fisheries in recent right whales’ serious injury and mortality.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Endangered right whales inch closer to extinction

October 7, 2019 — North Atlantic right whales, or at least a few members of the population, are regular visitors to the Southeast coast. While the bus-sized marine mammals spend much of their time on feeding grounds near New England and the Canadian Maritimes, some female whales come to the area that stretches from Florida to the Cape Fear area during calving season.

Those births are vitally important to a species with only 400 individuals. Scientists monitor the 80 or 90 potential mothers, and many of the other whales, to better understand and protect them. Many of them have names, not just numbers.

Punctuation, for example, was a 38-year-old female named for the comma- and dash-shaped scars on her head. She’s given birth off the Southeast coast eight times since 1986 and was last seen here in February 2018. Wolverine was born off the coast of Florida in 2010 and was easily identifiable because of a unique belly pattern.

Read the full story at the Star News

Federal Regulators Take Heat From Both Sides Of The Right Whale-Gear Debate

October 4, 2019 — Federal fisheries regulators are taking heat from both sides of the debate over protections for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The latest salvo comes from a conservation group representing public employees, which says the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) ignored its own scientists when it reopened groundfishing areas that had been closed for decades.

Earlier this year, NMFS reopened 3000 square miles of ocean south of Nantucket to groundfishing, allowing the use of gillnets and rope. The agency said that based on previous regulatory reviews and some more recent scientific articles, it could not find sufficient evidence to conclude that fishing gear alone causes a decline in the health of large whales — and that further review was not necessary.

Conservationists say the agency cherry-picked the evidence.

Read the full story at Maine Public

NOAA answers lobstermen’s critique of whale rules science

October 4, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries released a more detailed response Wednesday to criticisms of the science it used to develop new protections for North Atlantic right whales, refuting or clarifying several points while admitting data collection remains “an ongoing challenge.”

The response was attached to a letter from NOAA assistant administrator Chris Oliver to Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. In August, the lobster trade group withdrew its support for the right whale protection plan approved in April by the federal Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team.

In its Aug. 30 letter to NOAA Fisheries, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said it based its defection on its own analysis of the science NOAA utilized in developing the right whale protection plan that points to the lobster industry as a chief cause of whale entanglements.

The MLA said its review concluded that lobster lines and gear are among the least prevalent causes of serious whale injuries or death.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Feds Eye Lobstermen’s Concerns About Plan to Save Whales

October 3, 2019 — The federal government says it’s considering the concerns of a lobster fishermen’s group about a plan to try to save an endangered species of whale.

The plan concerns the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers only about 400. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association pulled its support from the plan this summer because of concerns it placed too much onus on lobstermen, who would be called to remove miles of trap rope from the water.

The lobstermen’s group’s concerns included that right whales are also subject to entanglement in fishing gear in Canadian waters. Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, released a letter Wednesday that said the U.S. is working with Canada to reduce that problem.

Read the full story at NECN

MAINE: Ocean temps full of ‘surprises’ – and not the good kind

October 2, 2019 — Maine fishermen face plenty of challenges including proposed whale protection rules, depredation of the state’s softshell clam stock by invasive green crabs, restrictions on seaweed harvesting and rising operating expenses.

It isn’t only the cost of running a fishing operation that’s rising, though.

Two new, recently published studies report that marine ecosystems around the world are experiencing unusually high ocean temperatures more frequently than researchers previously expected. These warming events, including marine heat waves, are disrupting marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Andrew Pershing, chief scientific officer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, led the study “Challenges to natural and human communities from surprising ocean temperatures,” published in early August. Working with him on the project were researchers from several Maine-based institutions as well as scientists from laboratories in California and Colorado.

Pershing previously identified the Gulf of Maine as one of the most rapidly warming ecosystems in the global ocean. This time around, Pershing and his colleagues examined 65 large marine ecosystems between 1854 and 2018 to identify the frequency of “surprising” ocean temperatures, which they defined as an annual mean temperature substantially above the mean for the previous three decades.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Why Whales Are Worrying Lobstermen in Maine

October 1, 2019 — Along the rocky coast of Maine, lobstermen are worried new federal requirements to clear fishing lines from the path of endangered whales will damage their iconic New England industry.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agency is trying to save North Atlantic right whales that are dying at an alarming rate in U.S. and Canadian waters, often after getting tangled in fishing gear or hit by ships. The still-forming federal regulations will cover other parts of New England, but Maine, where lobstermen dangle more than 800,000 lines from buoys to ocean-floor traps in their busiest months, has the most at stake.

Meeting an aggressive federal target for reducing whale hazards could mean pulling half those lines from the water. The state’s lobster industry and political leaders say this is untenable for the armada of mostly small lobster boats fishing the Gulf of Maine. It also misses the target, they say, since most dead whales have recently turned up in Canada, and none in Maine.

“We’re not unwilling to adapt, we just want to adapt in a way that will actually benefit the species,” said Chris Welch, a 31-year-old lobsterman from Kennebunk, Maine, regarding the whales. “We don’t want to go extinct, either.”

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal