Saving Seafood

Ropeless Fishing Shows Promise, But There’s a Catch: Financial, Safety, Technology Challenges

February 12, 2021 — The lobster industry could be getting a new sound.

On a cold January morning, a lobster trap sitting on a table at a manufacturing facility in Wareham is rhythmically beeping. Two final beeps have a special meaning.

“So that’s the release confirmation,” explained Rob Morris, who sells acoustic release systems for the underwater technology company EdgeTech.

With this technology, lobstermen can send the acoustic signal from a phone app to a trap on the ocean floor. The signal triggers an airbag, with a line attached, to launch up to the surface, allowing the traps to be hauled in. These “ropeless” systems do away with the high number of vertical lines that run from buoys on the surface down to traps on the ocean floor.

Looking at this table, Morris sees the future of the fishery – and many conservationists share that hope. Ropeless fishing eliminates vertical lines in the water column that are blamed for around half of all reported North Atlantic right whale deaths.

But experts say the transition to ropeless is moving too slowly. By the time working gear can get into the boats of thousands of lobstermen across New England, it may be too late to save critically endangered right whales.

It’s being held up by technical, regulatory, and financial factors.

Read the full story at WGBH

Rally urges stakeholders to demand better protections for North Atlantic right whales

February 12, 2021 — Oceana hosted a Save the Whales Rally on Tuesday that aimed to support anyone hoping to speak up in favor of better protections for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The federal government is seeking stakeholder comments about ways to reduce the risks that fishing gear in oceans pose to the whales. During the rally, Oceana staff offered background information, advice and tools to provide input on how and why to better protect the species, which is currently in its calving season off the coast of Georgia and northern Florida.

“North Atlantic right whales come down to the offshore waters of Georgia, north Florida and sometimes even South Carolina — many of them every winter — to have their calves and then they travel in the spring back all the way up into the North Atlantic into the Northeastern U.S. and Canadian waters,” said Paulita Bennett-Martin, Oceana’s field representative for Georgia campaigns. “And so they really come down here for the winter as our return visitor to seek warmer water, safe water, to have their calves. It’s a really exciting time of the year for us that love these whales, as we count the calves that are born every year. And unfortunately sometimes we also count the losses as well.”

The upcoming comment period is a chance to help the whales get on a path of recovery, said Gib Brogan, a senior fisheries manager for Oceana.

Read the full story at The Brunswick News

NOAA Taking Input On New Right Whale Rules

February 11, 2021 — The public can weigh in this month on a federal plan aimed at saving critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Researchers estimate that fewer than 375 right whales are still alive. Their leading causes of death are getting hit by ships or tangled in fishing gear, especially long vertical lines such as those used in lobstering. Getting tangled in lines and dragging fishing gear through the ocean exhausts and stresses out the whales, and can cause serious injuries and infections.

So the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed new fishing and lobstering rules to prevent entanglements.

But Gib Brogan with the environmental group Oceana said this week that the plan isn’t good enough.

Read the full story at GPB

New Slow Zone Southeast of Atlantic City to Protect Right Whales

February 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction) to protect right whales.

Today, February 9, 2021, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution acoustic buoy detected the presence of right whales 20nm southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey Slow Zone is in effect through February 24, 2021.

Mariners, please go around this slow zone or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

39 25 N
38 44 N
073 44 W
074 36 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

Mid-Atlantic Council Meeting This Week, February 10-11, 2021

February 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet by webinar this week on Wednesday, February 10 and Thursday, February 11, 2021. Briefing documents are now available on the February 2021 Council Meeting Page.

Agenda

A detailed agenda is available here. Topics to be discussed at this meeting include:

  • North Atlantic Right Whale Issues
  • Aquaculture Updates
  • River Herring and Shad White Papers
  • Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment – Public Hearing Document Approval (Joint with ASMFC Bluefish Board)
  • Offshore Wind Updates
  • SOPP Updates (during Executive Director’s Report)

Webinar Instructions

Join the webinar during the meeting at http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/february2021/. Please note that participants will be required to use the Adobe Connect application. The browser option will not be available. You can download the application for Windows here and for Mac here. We recommend checking your system in advance, as it may take a few minutes to download. More detailed instructions are available on the meeting page. For telephone-only access, dial 800-832-0736 and enter room number 7833942# when prompted.

Questions? Contact Mary Sabo, msabo@mafmc.org, (302) 518-1143.

More ships must slow to protect right whales, NOAA says

February 5, 2021 — A detailed analysis shows that speed limits for ships have reduced risk for collisions with endangered right whales, but there are significant gaps in compliance – particularly off U.S. Southeast ports, where burgeoning cargo traffic is on a long-term upswing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported.

Drafted in June and released on 21 January, the NOAA review used automatic identification system (AIS) data to track total vessel transits through the two types of speed limit zones: Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs), frequented by whales at known times of year where ships over 65 feet in length are mandated to make way at 10 knots or less; and dynamic management areas (DMAs), where NOAA issues temporary advisories to mariners to voluntarily observe the 10-knot limit when whales have been reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

They should be heading north, but whale and her calf are going south. Scientists worried

February 2, 2021 — The coasts off Northeast Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are the only known spots in the ocean where North Atlantic right whales give birth to their calves. After birth, the mother and calf usually swim north to New England.

But a right whale that recently gave birth to a calf is heading in the wrong direction, according to federal marine scientists.

The 12-year-old adult and her baby were first seen off Amelia Island near Jacksonville on Jan. 21. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are concerned because the pair was next spotted last Wednesday, Jan. 27, much farther south near the Lake Worth Inlet just north of West Palm Beach in South Florida.

“In this case, the pair is heading south, into areas they normally don’t go, making it important for people to be on the lookout for them,” said Allison Garret, spokeswoman with NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at The Bradenton Herald

New Slow Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

February 1, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction) to protect right whales.

On January 31, 2021, a New England Aquarium aerial survey team detected the presence of right whales 15nm south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The South of Nantucket, Massachusetts Slow Zone is in effect through February 15, 2021. 

Mariners, please go around this slow zone or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Statewide Ban on Lobstering Approved, With Exemption for Vineyard

February 1, 2021 — State fishing regulators overwhelmingly approved a first-of-its-kind seasonal lobstering ban to protect the North Atlantic right whale on Thursday — but exempted Vineyard and south shore waters from the restrictions after local fishermen expressed concerns about the proposal.

The new regulations, which ban commercial lobstering from Feb. 1 through May 15 in all state waters north and east of Cape Cod — but not the Island — were approved in a 6-1 vote with one abstention by the state Marine Advisory Commission during a dramatic hearing Thursday morning. The new rules differ substantially from an initial Department of Marine Fisheries recommendation that would have banned lobstering statewide.

Regulators also rejected a measure that would have barred lobstering vessels over 29 feet from using single pot lines, partially at the urging of Vineyard representative on the commission Dr. Shelley Edmundson, who asked to form a committee on the proposal. Other approved regulations include weaker rope and a recreational ban in all state waters from Nov. 1 through May 15.

The new seasonal commercial ban comes as a flurry of lawsuits and right whale deaths from entanglement have forced federal and state regulators to act fast in an effort to preserve the species and fall in line with the Environmental Protection Act. State regulators hope to use the new conservation measures to obtain an Incidental Take Permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is required for the continued operation of the lobster fishery.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Lobstermen Banned from Most MA Waters Until Late Spring to Protect Endangered Whales

January 29, 2021 — The state’s Marine Fisheries Commission approved the latest suite of protections for North Atlantic right whales on Thursday, including a three-and-a-half month trap gear closure throughout a large swath of state waters and mandated use of weaker buoy lines.

Already, from Feb. 1 to April 30, no trap pot gear or vertical lines are allowed in an area of over 3,000 square miles around Cape Cod Bay. The new rules from the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission extend and expand the closure up to the New Hampshire border until May 15.

The commission exempted state waters south and southwest of the Cape. Whale survey records showed North Atlantic right whales are rarely seen in that area around Nantucket Sound during the proposed closure period.

The commission, made up mostly of commercial fishermen, voted overwhelmingly in support of the new restrictions because the state’s lobster industry is currently under threat from a federal judge, who could close the fishery outright for failing to protect the whales under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at CAI