Saving Seafood

One New and One Extended Vessel Speed Restriction Zone to Protect Right Whales Through March 18

March 5, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces one new and one extended voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area or DMA) south and southeast of Nantucket.

On March 3, 2020, the NOAA aerial survey team observed two separate aggregations of right whales, one 31 nautical miles south of Nantucket and the second 47 nautical miles southeast of Nantucket.

The DMAs are in effect immediately, through March 18, 2020.

These DMAs both cover areas in shipping lanes. Mariners are requested to route around both areas or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

New! Southeast of Nantucket effective through March 18

41 02 N
40 15 N
068 58 W
070 01 W

South of Nantucket DMA effective through March 18

41 11 N
40 22 N
069 32 W
070 37 W

Read the full release here

Entangled right whale found near death off Nantucket

March 2, 2020 — A North Atlantic right whale is near death after becoming entangled in fishing gear, a serious blow to the endangered species.

“The potential loss of a mother is particularly devastating,” researchers at the New England Aquarium said in a statement Friday.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spotted Dragon, a 19-year-old whale who has given birth three times, while conducting an aerial survey about 45 miles south of Nantucket Monday.

Dragon was excessively thin, unusually gray, and had a buoy stuck in the right side of her mouth when researchers found her in a group of about 15 whales.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Canadian Fisheries Regulators Take New Steps Aimed At Protecting Right Whales

February 28, 2020 — Canadian fisheries regulators are taking new steps aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales from entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes. These steps include temporary closures of certain lobster and crab fishing areas.

Most of the right whales found dead over the past four years have been found off Canada — likely because climate-driven shifts in their prey’s abundance have led them to new feeding grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where managers were initially unprepared for their arrival.

Bernadette Jordan, Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced new protective measures in Ottawa Thursday.

“What we’ve learned throughout this time is that these marine mammals are unpredictable and no longer aggregate or feed in the same areas they once did,” Jordan says. “It’s why each season our measures change and evolve to be more effective than they were the year before.”

Read the full story at Maine Public

New tech helps scientists detect right whales off Maine’s coast

February 24, 2020 — New acoustic monitors off Maine’s coast have detected the presence of North Atlantic right whales this winter. Scientists are trying to gather new data on the endangered animals’ whereabouts.

In mid-December, scientists put a set of underwater drones in the Atlantic Ocean. One of them is charting a zigzag course to and from Maine’s coast, starting Down East and working its way southwest. It’s currently heading eastward off Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

During its cruise, the glider’s electronic ears have heard dozens of calls from finback and humpback whales and, on seven occasions, the call of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

“We usually figure about a 10 kilometer of five-mile radius is on average where we can hear them,” said Genevieve Davis, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Davis is a coordinator for the project, which also includes researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales Extended Through March 6

February 21, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces an extension to the voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area or DMA) south of Nantucket.

On February 20, an aggregation of right whales was observed 31 nautical miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

South of Nantucket DMA effective through March 6

41 11 N
40 22 N
069 32 W
070 37 W

Active Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs)

A mandatory speed restriction of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) is in effect in the Mid-Atlantic November 1 – April 30 and in Cape Cod Bay January 1 – May 15.

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating 

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. NOAA is cautioning boaters and fishermen to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking all fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales and remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements. Commercial fishermen should also use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are only about 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

North Atlantic right whales are NOAA Fisheries’ newest Species in the Spotlight. This initiative is a concerted, agency-wide effort to spotlight and save marine species that are among the most at risk of extinction in the near future. 

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

Read the full release here

Listening for Right Whales in the Gulf of Maine

February 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Two passive acoustic data collection efforts are underway in the Gulf of Maine to gather information on North Atlantic right whales. One will deploy fixed archival-acoustic recorders mounted on the ocean bottom for a specific period of time. The other will use autonomous underwater vehicles called gliders, equipped to record acoustic information and report it back in near real-time.

“Real time monitoring provides the opportunity for direct conservation action through alerting vessels to the presence of endangered whales and to slow down to avoid striking the whales, while archival monitoring helps build a long-term 24/7 picture of their presence,” said Sofie Van Parijs, who leads the Passive Acoustic Research Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

“These new efforts will support routine passive acoustic monitoring of North Atlantic right whales and other baleen whale species throughout priority areas, and improve our understanding of changes in their movement patterns,” she said.

Right whales have changed their historic migration patterns in recent years, and tracking them is a difficult task.

Like most whales, this species does not spend much time on the ocean surface where they can be seen by researchers during aerial or ship-based surveys. Sound is the whale’s primary means of communicating, so if they are present in an area, they are probably making sounds. Underwater microphones can detect those sounds and even report back to researchers in near real-time.

Passive acoustic monitoring – detecting and recording sounds, in this case underwater – offers scientists another tool for learning about whale behavior and migration patterns. Advanced underwater microphones or hydrophones and autonomous underwater vehicles can detect and record those sounds. Computer programs help differentiate species and indicate time, direction and location.

These instruments can remain in the water continuously for months at a time. Along with visual sightings made from ships and aircraft, the sound recordings are revealing information about where and when whales of various species are present.

Read the full release here

Maine Lobstermen Dismayed By Fed’s Push For More Gear Changes To Protect Endangered Whale

February 14, 2020 — Maine’s top fisheries regulator is telling his federal counterparts the state’s lobster fleet deserves more credit for its efforts to reduce the risk of fishing gear entanglements with the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher revealed this week that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told him that Maine’s proposed gear changes, including a reduced number of  vertical ropes in offshore waters, are insufficient.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Keliher tells NOAA that it is overlooking other whale protection measures that the state has taken in the past and is proposing for the future. “It needs to be taken into consideration: it’s not part of any calculations they have on the books right now,” he says.

Keliher met last night with the state Lobster Advisory Council, which includes fishermen from each of the state’s seven lobster management zones.

He says Maine should get credit for replacing floating rope lines that pose a big hazard for the whales with safer, sinking lines, and for Maine’s proposal to require inshore boats to weave weak, breakaway links into their lines.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Maine counters NMFS rejection of right whale plan

February 14, 2020 — Maine officials said that the National Marine Fisheries Service’s rejection of its submitted right whale plan didn’t take enough of the state’s efforts into account.

The NMFS rejected the state’s plan via letter earlier this week. According to NMFS, the state’s plan only reduces risk to right whales by roughly 52 percent, short of the 60 percent that the Take Reduction Team was aiming for.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine says its plan to protect whales from lobster gear is better than feds think

February 13, 2020 — Maine believes its right whale protection plan isn’t getting enough credit for reducing risk to the critically endangered species.

The state Department of Marine Resources believes that its right whale plan, with its range of lobster fishing restrictions meant to avoid gear entanglements, clocks in right around the 60 percent risk reduction target sought by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Federal regulators – who  determined that the state plan reduced risk by just 52 percent – failed to give Maine credit for all its proposed protection measures, as well as those enacted since the last federal right whale review in 2014, Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher said Wednesday.

Keliher spelled out his concerns with the federal evaluation of Maine’s plan during a meeting with members of the Lobster Advisory Council Wednesday evening and in a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service that he sent earlier in the day asking for additional risk reduction credit.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine’s plan to protect whales falls short, regulators say, raising prospect of federal rules

February 12, 2020 — Maine’s plan to protect right whales does not go far enough to reduce the risk of entanglement in lobstering gear, according to federal regulators.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has concluded that Maine’s plan to use a combination of weak rope and a 25 percent reduction in the number of buoy lines in state waters achieves, at best, a 52 percent risk reduction, while federal regulators are demanding a 60 percent reduction.

“Because your proposal does not meet the 60 percent risk reduction target, we will be obligated to consider additional measures through our federal rulemaking,” said Michael Pentony, regional administrator of NMFS’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald