Saving Seafood

North Atlantic right whale ‘moms,’ including Cape regular Harmonia, arrive off Florida

December 13, 2019 — The North Atlantic right whale migration southward is underway.

Since the first right whale report of the season — Harmonia, a right whale commonly seen in Cape Cod Bay — was spotted by fishermen Nov. 23 off Mayport, Fla., biologists have confirmed seeing four more potential right whale “moms.”

Only 409 North Atlantic right whales remain. Right whales travel along the Atlantic coast annually, spending time in warmer Georgia and Florida waters to calve and nurse. They spend late winter and early spring in and and around Cape Cod Bay to feed and socialize before heading northward to Canadian waters for the summer months.

The winter tracking of right whales that may be pregnant — typically off Georgia and Florida — is part of a U.S. and Canadian government effort to stop any further drop in their population, which is considered nearing possible extinction.

Deaths, mainly from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing rope, have outpaced births of these bus-sized creatures recently. Biologists have recorded 30 right whale deaths over the last three years and only 12 births.

“We’re going backwards here,” said Barb Zoodsma, right whale biologist for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries’ Southeast region.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

GEORGIA: More right whales spotted off area coast

December 4, 2019 — North Atlantic right whale migration is underway, just in time for Whale Week in Savannah.

Since the first right whale of the season was spotted by fishermen Nov. 23 off Mayport, Fla., biologists have confirmed that sighting plus sightings of four more potential right whale moms.

Only about 400 North Atlantic right whales remain. Deaths, mainly from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, have outpaced births of these bus-sized creatures recently. Biologists have recorded 30 right whale deaths over the last three years and only 12 births.

“We’re going backwards here,” said Barb Zoodsma, right whale biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

That first known arrival from the feeding grounds off new England and Canada to the Georgia/Florida calving grounds was a 19-year-old female nicknamed Harmonia. Records indicate she last gave birth in 2016.

Other whales spotted include “Naevus,” who was seen off Ossabaw Island. “Harmony,” “Arpeggio,” and “Slalom” were spotted off South Carolina.

Read the full story at the Savannah Morning News

Scientists review divisive whale risk reduction model

November 26, 2019 — A panel of scientists gathered in Woods Hole, Mass., last week to evaluate a controversial “decision support tool” used by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service to design proposed rules aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales and other large marine mammals from entanglement with fishing gear.

Last spring, the NOAA Fisheries Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (TRT) recommended that the fisheries service adopt new rules that would, among other requirements, force Maine lobstermen to remove from the water 50 percent of the vertical lines used to connect traps on the bottom to marker buoys on the surface. The team includes fishermen, scientists, representatives of conservation organizations and fishery management officials from the federal government and from every state from Maine to Florida.

When the fisheries service made its decision last spring on how best to reduce the risk to whales, it relied on a “Decision Support Tool” based on a poll of TRT members rather than extensive data collected over the years as to where the whales are found and how much interaction there has been between them and Maine lobster gear.

Data collected by NOAA show that since the beginning of 2017 70 percent of right whale deaths attributable to human-related causes (21) have occurred in Canadian waters while just 30 percent (nine) have occurred in U.S. waters. Not all of those deaths were clearly attributable to entanglement with fishing gear.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Senate right whale protection bill advances

November 22, 2019 — The U.S. Senate last week moved a step closer to providing substantial financial assistance to efforts aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Scientists warn that, with a population of only about 400 animals, the giant mammals face a real threat of extinction. The whales have experienced a high rate of mortality in the past few years resulting mostly from ship strikes and entanglement with fishing gear. The population also has had a low rate of reproduction.

Last Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed the “SAVE Right Whales Act” (the Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales Act of 2019) and referred it to the full Senate for action.

The bill is identical to legislation now awaiting action in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The legislative activity comes at a time when right whale conservation is front and center with federal and Maine fisheries regulators and in the federal courts.

The NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed a set of rules that would, among other things, require Maine lobstermen to reduce the number of vertical buoy lines they use by 50 percent.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is in the process of developing its own proposal to submit to NMFS this month.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Why Atlantic Canada’s lucrative seafood industry is concerned about Elizabeth Warren

November 21, 2019 — Canada is defending measures it has taken to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, as political pressure — and blame — mounts from the United States in the wake of a rash of whale deaths in Canadian waters in 2019.

“We’re very confident that our measures are world-class in nature and stand up extremely well to those in the United States,” said Adam Burns, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ director of resource management.

Burns was responding to the latest salvo from Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, who are threatening a ban of some Atlantic Canadian seafood products.

The senators blame a Canadian “roll back” of whale protection measures in 2019. Canada had 12 right whale deaths in its waters in 2017, then none in 2018.

Read the full story at CBC News

Tracking New Bedford scallops from ocean to plate, with blockchain

November 21, 2019 — Are the fancy scallops on the menu really from the North Atlantic?

Reports of mislabeled fish have left some diners wondering if their snapper is really snapper. But with the help of digital data, one New Bedford seafood company has no trouble proving the provenance of its scallops.

Captain Dan Eilertsen’s Nordic Inc. is working with a Fall River fish processor, tech juggernaut IBM and a California restaurant company to use blockchain technology to track scallops from ocean to table.

Just scan a QR code on your restaurant menu and see exactly where the scallops were caught, when, and by whom.

“This is going to be a good way of sustaining our fishing industry and showing people that you can trust where your food comes from,” said Eilertsen, a longtime fisherman and owner of six scallop boats.

One if his vessels, the Venture, is equipped with IBM Food Trust, which creates a permanent, shared record of data about where food comes from and where it’s been. At every step along the way, people enter data into the blockchain.

On board the vessel, scallops get shucked, washed, bagged and weighed. A printer spits out a label with a QR code that goes right on the bag.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

US Senators call on Canada to increase right whale protection, Maine lobstermen reject DMR plan

November 20, 2019 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) has voted not to support a Maine Department of Marine Resources whale plan intended to reduce risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale species.

The vote not to support the plan came just before two Democratic senators from Massachusetts – Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren – sent a letter to NOAA Fisheries asking the organization to examine whether Canada’s Atlantic Fisheries marine mammal conservation standards are “doing enough to protect” the right whale. If not, the letter calls on NOAA to use its authority under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to prohibit imports and fishery products from Canadian fisheries impacting the whales.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Scientists meeting in Portland say right whales on the way to extinction

November 18, 2019 — The future continues to grow ever darker for the highly endangered right whale, a species that has been in decline every year since 2010 and is at the heart of regulatory protection efforts threatening to upend Maine’s valuable lobster fishery.

The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimates only 409 whales survived 2018, down from about 428 in 2017 and 457 in 2016. With seven births and 10 documented deaths in 2019 factored in, that tally is now probably about 406. Three of those are about to succumb to injuries.

“We are in yet another year of decline for the right whales,” said Mark Baumgartner, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and chairman of the consortium, which kicked off its annual right whale meeting Thursday in Portland. “This is extremely concerning.”

The meeting attracted hundreds of scientists, policymakers, animal rights advocates and several dozen curious fishermen. Topics ranged from new developments in how to safely tag a right whale to a review of right whale deaths in 2019 to the impact of whale-related fishery closures in Canada.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

U.S. senators call for review of Canadian protections of endangered right whales

November 18, 2019 — Two U.S. senators from Massachusetts, including presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, are calling for an investigation of Canada’s regulatory measures to protect the North Atlantic right whale.

Democrat senators Edward Markey and Warren sent a letter this week to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration arguing Canadian rules for protecting the endangered whales are less strict than those in the United States.

Their request notes New England lobster fishermen are currently responding to a federal plan that reduces the amount of rope in the water and requires lines that break more easily.

Read the full story at CTV

Group Discusses Potential Gear Restrictions At North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium

November 15, 2019 — An international group of scientists, conservationists, fisheries managers and others are gathered in Portland this week for the annual meeting of what’s called the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

Federal regulators told the group that they are looking at a wide slate of measures to protect the endangered whales from entanglement in fishing gear. Some measures include reductions in the amount of lobster-trap rope allowed in the water and in the strength of that rope. The feds say they are also considering having a part of Cape Cod Bay that is now closed February to April closed to endlines but open to ropeless gear in the future.

Read the full story at Maine Public