Saving Seafood

Bipartisan group of US congressmen support bill to save right whales

March 18, 2019 — A bipartisan group of congressmen has unveiled a bill that seeks to save the critically North Atlantic right whale.

H.R. 1568, or the Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered (SAVE) Right Whales Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton earlier this month, would provide up to USD 5 million (EUR 4.4 million) in grants annually for the next 10 years to develop technology that would reduce the mortality rates for the species.

Some of the grant money would be used to research and develop new commercial fishing gear. Currently, entanglements with fishing gear causes 85 percent of the deaths and 83 percent of whales in existence have scars or other injuries associated with gear encounters, according to statistics from environmental groups.

Right whales have been listed on the Endangered Species Act for nearly 50 years. Conservationists estimate the current population at less than 420, and fear the population will only continue to dwindle as birth rates drop.

“We humans have nearly killed every right whale in existence through our direct and indirect actions over the past two centuries,” said Moulton (D-Massachusetts) in a statement. “Now we have a choice: We can be the generation that brings them back or the generation that allows their extinction. Let’s not miss this unique moment.”

Moulton filed similar legislation in August of last year, but Congress did not take it up before the session ended in January.

Co-sponsors of this year’s bill include three Democrats – U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Bill Keating of Massachusetts, and David Cicilline of Rhode Island – and three Republicans – U.S. Reps. John Rutherford, Bill Posey, and Brian Mast, all from Florida.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Lawmakers take up threats to North Atlantic right whales

March 11, 2019 — The sound of an air horn echoed through a Congressional subcommittee hearing Thursday, set off by U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., to mimic what critically endangered North Atlantic right whales might experience during seismic testing for oil and gas.

The loud demonstration occurred at a hearing focused on permits that could soon be issued by the U.S. Department of Interior to five companies to explore oil and gas reserves off the mid- and southern Atlantic states. Critics of the move argue that the North Atlantic right whales, many of which visit Cape Cod Bay to feed, could be harmed in the process.

“We must reduce exposure of all whales but particularly females to stressors that can slow or stop reproduction,” said Scott Kraus, an expert witness with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, who appeared during a hearing before the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

A Trump official said seismic air gun tests don’t hurt whales. So a congressman blasted him with an air horn.

March 8, 2019 — A hearing on the threat seismic testing poses to North Atlantic right whales was plodding along Thursday when, seemingly out of nowhere, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) pulled out an air horn and politely asked if he could blast it.

Before that moment at a Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, Cunningham had listened to a Trump administration official testify, over and over, that firing commercial air guns under water every 10 seconds in search of oil and gas deposits over a period of months would have next to no effect on the endangered animals, which use echolocation to communicate, feed, mate and keep track of their babies. It’s why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave five companies permission to conduct tests that could harm the whales last year, said the official, Chris Oliver, an assistant administrator for fisheries.

As committee members engaged in a predictable debate along party lines — Republicans in support of testing and President Trump’s energy agenda, Democrats against it — Cunningham reached for the air horn, put his finger on the button and turned to Oliver.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Rep. Seth Moulton moves to save right whales

March 8, 2019 — The plight of the North Atlantic right whales returned to the spotlight Thursday on Capitol Hill, with a House hearing on potential dangers from planned seismic testing and the reintroduction of protective legislation by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.

Moulton’s bill — SAVE the Right Whale Act of 2019 — would provide government grants to states, nonprofit organizations and fishing and shipping stakeholders “to fund research and efforts that restore the North Atlantic right whale population.”

“We humans have nearly killed every right whale in existence through our direct and indirect actions over the past two centuries,” Moulton testified Thursday at hearing before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources. “Today we are at a crossroads. We can be the generation that saves the right whale or the generation that allows their extinction. Let’s not miss this unique moment. Let’s be the generation that brings the right whale back from the brink.”

Moulton told members of the Water, Oceans and Wildlife subcommittee that whale researchers now peg the North Atlantic right whale population at 422, with only about 100 breeding females.

The bill, co-authored by Rep. John Rutherford of Florida, also would fund government research to track the right whale’s primary source of food — plankton — and hopefully provide answers about “how human actions affect zooplankton, which in turn affects the health and migration patterns of the whales.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Maryland Attorney General Frosh joins 8 other state AGs in seeking halt to underwater seismic testing for oil

March 7, 2019 — Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Wednesday that a coalition of nine states that joined a federal lawsuit to prevent underwater seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean is asking a judge to freeze the practice while the case proceeds.

The states in December joined a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in South Carolina by environmental groups seeking to reverse the authority that the National Marine Fisheries Service gave to five companies to conduct “seismic airgun surveys for oil and gas in coastal water” off the Atlantic Coast.

Now, the attorneys general are also supporting the request to halt that authorization as the case continues.

“The five authorizations allow nearly 850 combined days of around-the-clock activity, amounting to more than five million total seismic airgun blasts,” the original lawsuit states. “The authorized surveys will injure and disturb whales and dolphins hundreds of thousands of times, including critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.”

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Extended: Voluntary Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

February 6, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) established south of Nantucket on January 15 has been extended to protect an aggregation of 11 right whales sighted in this area on February 4.

This DMA is in effect through February 20, 2019.

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

Nantucket DMA coordinates:

41 12 N
40 28 N
070 36 W
069 31 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Cape Cod Bay SMA — in effect through May 15, 2019

Mid-Atlantic U.S. SMAs — in effect through April 30, 2019

Southeast U.S. SMA — in effect through April 15, 2019

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. With an unprecedented 20 right whale deaths documented in 2017 and 2018, NOAA is cautioning boaters to give these endangered whales plenty of room as they migrate south. We are also asking commercial fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales, remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements, and 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 slightly more than 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

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.

More Info

Recent right whale sightings

Find out more about our right whale conservation efforts and the researchers behind those efforts.

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS

Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.

Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law.

Questions? Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, at 978-281-9103

 

Atlantic Lobster Board Moves Toward Reducing Rope In Effort To Save Right Whales

February 6, 2019 — A consortium of Atlantic states fisheries managers is calling for broad changes to the gear lobstermen use, in an effort to reduce risks posed to the endangered North Atlantic right whale and to ward off potential federal action that could be even more challenging for the industry.

There are roughly 410 right whales left in the world, and they are at risk of potentially fatal entanglements with vertical rope lines lobstermen and other marine harvesters use to position and haul their traps. At a meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council in Virginia, its lobster board voted unanimously to set in motion the process that could lead to major changes in the East Coast’s lobster industry.

“I don’t want NOAA making decisions on what this lobster fishery is going to look like in the future,” says Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources for Maine, home to the country’s dominant lobster fishery, which landed some 110 million pounds of lobster in 2017 worth more than $450 million at the dock.

Keliher says that the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration is developing a “biological opinion” that could include a formal “jeopardy” finding for the right whales, which under the federal Endangered Species Act could lead to severe restrictions on the state’s harvest.

Read and listen to the full story at Maine Public

 

Shutdown Affecting Whale Rescues

January 24, 2019 — Rescuers who respond to distressed whales and other marine animals say the federal government shutdown is making it more difficult to do their work.

A network of rescue groups in the U.S. works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to respond to marine mammals such as whales and seals when the animals are in trouble, such as when they are stranded on land or entangled in fishing gear. But the federal shutdown, which is entering its 33rd day on Wednesday, includes a shuttering of the NOAA operations the rescuers rely upon.

NOAA plays a role in preventing accidental whale deaths by doing things like tracking the animals, operating a hotline for mariners who find distressed whales and providing permits that allow the rescue groups to respond to emergencies. Those functions are disrupted or ground to a halt by the shutdown, and that’s bad news if whales need help, said Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston, which has a rescue operation.

“If it was very prolonged, then it would become problematic to respond to animals that are in the water,” LaCasse said. “And to be able to have a better handle on what is really going on.”

The shutdown is coming at a particularly dangerous time for the endangered North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 411, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a senior biologist with Whale and Dolphin Conservation of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The whales are under tight scrutiny right now because of recent years of high mortality and poor reproduction.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CapeCod.com

2nd North Atlantic right whale calf spotted off Florida

January 17, 2019 — Another North Atlantic right whale calf and its mother have been spotted off Florida, the critically endangered species’ second confirmed newborn of the winter birthing season, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The mother, tentatively identified as #3317, is an important example of the ideal calving rate for a reproductively mature right whale female, said Philip Hamilton, a research scientist with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.

“She actually gave birth three years ago,” Hamilton said about a previous birth, compared to the nine years between documented births for the season’s other right whale mother, #2791, spotted with a calf Dec. 28 off Jacksonville Beach, Florida. “That’s very heartening that at least some right whales are able to reproduce as quickly as they can.”

Right whale #3317 is about 16 years old, and has been spotted by government surveys since 2002 from Florida to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, according to the aquarium’s right whale database. She was spotted in Cape Cod Bay several times in 2016 by researchers for the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

No Dead North Atlantic Right Whales Were Found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence This Year

January 3, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Rules put in place by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to protect marine wildlife seem to have paid off, as no North Atlantic right whales were found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year.

There were 12 whales found dead in the area in 2017.

But those regulations also resulted in financial hits for the fishing and cruise ship industries.

Last March, the DFO announced the closure of certain fishing areas due to the presence of the whales, which are an endangered species.

Those measures forced half of the Gaspé lobster fishermen to shorten their three-week season. Some fishermen found the new rules excessive.

The prefect of the regional municipal county of Rocher-Percé, Nadia Minassian, called the measures “draconian and uncompromising.”

“They did not listen to fishermen in our industry,” she said earlier this year.

The Quebec government then committed to paying for training for factory workers and fishermen so they can qualify for employment insurance.

Up to $500K in fines

The new rules also require boaters to maintain a 100-metre buffer zone from a whale, although that distance can vary. Orcas, for example, require a 200-metre buffer zone.

Under the Fisheries Act, those who break the rules could face penalties of $100,000 to $500,000. Repeat offenders may be subject to higher fines or even imprisonment, according to DFO.

In July, Gaspé fishermen recorded a 25 per cent decline in catches, and continued to criticize Ottawa’s decisions.

Alain Rebaud, a lobster fisherman from Percé, Que., said the area targeted by the DFO’s measures was too large.

“The quadrilaterals were too big, then they closed the fishing, and the day they closed it, there were no more right whales in the quadrilateral,” Renaud said.

The cruise ship industry also suffered cuts as a result of the speed reduction rules imposed by Ottawa.

Nine stopovers were cancelled in the Gaspé region, and the industry wasn’t able to get the financial assistance it requested from Quebec or Ottawa.

Stéphane Ste-Croix, head of Escale Gaspésie, a cruise ship company, said it appears their concerns fell on deaf ears.

Whale camera?

Some fishermen are now hoping a thermal camera that spots whales, currently being developed by the Merinov marine research centre, will solve their problems.

“We could detect right whales on the coasts to try to prevent entanglements,” said Chloé Martineau, a researcher for Merinov, which is funded by the Quebec government.

“We could put this technology on boats to avoid collisions.”

Fishermen say the device could help strike a balance between protecting right whales and preserving their livelihood.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.