Saving Seafood

Scientists eye new tools for whale safety

April 10, 2017 — There are still limitations to the technology, but scientists hope the expanded use of unmanned listening devices and whale call recordings will help better protect whales by using the sounds they make.

“There are a lot of potential applications,” said Brian Sharp, International Fund for Animal Welfare’s manager of marine mammal rescue and research. “We’re just scratching the surface.”

At the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, researchers have analyzed underwater recordings of North Atlantic right whale calls from 2006 through 2014 to try and address a question that has emerged in recent years: Why are the endangered animals not showing up as predictably in their seasonal haunts.

“One of the things that’s really been discussed is how they’re shifting their distribution patterns,” Genevieve Davis, a research analyst at the science center, said at the annual Marine Mammal Commission meeting held at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel.

For the 2006-2014 time period, the scientists ended up with 2,500 days that showed — by recorded sound — the presence of right whales from Iceland to Florida. In looking at the data, they learned that the whales are spending their winters all along the Atlantic coastline rather than in specific areas at specific times of the year. Also, from New England through the mid-Atlantic area, the analysis showed that there are right whales present “pretty much year-round,” Davis said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Researchers: Where are all the right whales?

February 24, 2017 — MELBOURNE, Fla. — Maybe the right whales are all just in the wrong place at the wrong time this year.

Where spotters typically see 20 newborn North Atlantic right whales, this winter only three have been born, the lowest number of newborns since only one was born in 2000.

Three dozen or more adult and baby right whales usually pass through Florida and Georgia waters during the winter calving season, which runs mid-November to mid-April. This year, only seven whales have been documented.

“Not only is it the fewest number of calves, but it’s also the fewest number of individuals seen,” said Phil Hamilton, a research scientist at New England Aquarium, which monitors right whales.

Scientists suspect a warmer North Atlantic, driven in part by climate change, might be disrupting the density of animal plankton that the whales need to feed, increasing the time it takes for females to bulk up for pregnancy and forcing the whales to scatter in search of food.

“A lot of people are doing a lot of head scratching,” Julie Albert, who monitors right whales for the nonprofit Marine Resources Council, said of this winter’s whale migration.

Read the full story from Florida Today at NorthJersey.com

Fishermen Object to New York Wind Farm Lease Sale

December 9th, 2016 — The Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents the majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fleet, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to delay an anticipated lease sale for the development of offshore wind farms off New York.

A 26-mile long block approximately 11 miles off the coast of Long Island is scheduled for sale on December 15, 2016.

The Fund argues that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) did not adequately consider the impact the proposed New York Wind Energy Area would have on the region’s fishermen. The site chosen is in the waters of the New York Bight on vital, documented scallop and squid fishing grounds, which serves as essential fish habitat and grounds for other commercially important species, including black sea bass and summer flounder. It is also an important foraging area for threatened loggerhead sea turtles and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The lawsuit argues that fishermen voiced their concerns but received “virtually no attention or analysis” from government officials. It further states that BOEM failed to identify the proposed wind farm’s environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts, and failed to “consider alternative sites in an open, collaborative, public forum.”

However, BOEM says it has given consideration to comments received on the Environmental Assessment. In response to concerns raised by commercial fishing interests, BOEM has included a lease requirement for the lessee to develop a publicly available Fisheries Communications Plan and work with a Fisheries Liaison to facilitate communication with the fishing industry.

Read the full story at the Maritime Executive 

NOAA Fisheries Asking Boaters to Watch for Right Whales

December 2nd, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries is warning boaters to watch out for the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales.

The whales are now migrating south for the winter and to help protect them, NOAA fisheries has designated several Seasonal Management Areas along the U.S. East Coast.

In the areas, which include Block Island, the Ports of New York/New Jersey and the entrance to Delaware Bay, vessels greater than 65 feet in length must not exceed speeds of 10 knots, through April.

The purpose of the regulation is to reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injuries to the endangered whales that result from collisions with ships.

Read the full story at Capecod.com

Whales, sea turtles, seals: The unintended catch of abandoned fishing gear

September 29, 2016 — There are less than 500 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. And now, one less: This weekend, one of the 45-ton creatures was found dead off the coast of Maine, completely entangled in fishing line — head, flippers and all.

This was not an isolated incident.

In late June, an endangered blue whale wrapped in fishing gear was seen struggling off the coast of Dana Point in Southern California. Rescuers were unable to extricate it before it swam away. And earlier this month, rescuers unsuccessfully tried to free an entangled humpback whale near Newport. Spotters say they believe the humpback eventually found its way free of most of the gear, though they’re unsure if there’s anything still trapped in its mouth.

While any kind of fishing gear can be lost or abandoned at sea, gillnets, crab pots and traps are the most common types that continue to “ghost fish” — entrapping marine animals like whales, seals, sea lions and sea turtles.

Last year, the West Coast saw 61 whale entanglements — a record number that is nonetheless likely to be broken this year. So far in 2016, there have been 60 reports of entanglements as of late September. Why it’s happening is unclear. Researchers say there’s more derelict gear in the water today, and more reported sightings, but population numbers and migratory patterns of whales have also shifted.

What happens when a whale becomes entangled is grim.

“The gear is really, really heavy and when a whale comes in contact with it, it thrashes around to shed the gear,” says Kristen Monsell, attorney, Center for Biological Diversity. Sometimes that works; sometimes it entangles the whale even further.

Read the full story at SCPR

More fishing gear entanglements jeopardize right whale’s recovery

August 31, 2016 — The ability of an endangered whale species to recover is jeopardized by increasing rates of entanglement in fishing gear and a resultant drop in birth rates, according to scientists who study the animal.

The population of North Atlantic right whales has slowly crept up from about 300 in 1992 to about 500 in 2010. But a study that appeared this month in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science said the number of baby right whales born every year has declined by nearly 40 percent since 2010.

Study author Scott Kraus, a scientist with the New England Aquarium in Boston who worked on the study, said the whales’ population suffers even when they survive entanglements in fishing gear. He said data suggest those entanglements have long-term negative physical and reproductive effects on them.

“They are carrying heavy gear around, and they can’t move as fast or they can’t feed as effectively,” Kraus told The Associated Press in an interview. “And it looks like it affects their ability to reproduce because it means they can’t put on enough fat to have a baby.”

Entanglements have surpassed ship strikes as a leading danger to right whales in recent years. Forty-four percent of diagnosed right whale deaths were due to ship strikes and 35 percent were due to entanglements from 1970 to 2009, the study said. From 2010 to 2015, 15 percent of diagnosed deaths were due to ship strikes and 85 percent were due to entanglements, it said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Right Whales Congregate in Cape Cod Bay Earlier than Usual

April 1, 2016 — BARNSTABLE, Mass.  – The Division of Marine Fisheries is urging boaters to use caution and be on the lookout for endangered North Atlantic right whales in Cape Cod Bay.

The whales have congregated in large numbers in the Bay earlier than normal. The endangered whales usually do not arrive in the bay until late April.

An aerial survey by the Center of Coastal Studies in Provincetown on Sunday spotted 85 of the whales, which is almost 20 percent of the entire world population.

“If they are there it is definitely food related,” said Erin Burke, a protected species biologist for the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. “And they are feeding right now.”

The whales are feeding at or just below the surface which puts them at risk of being struck by boats. The Division of Maine Fisheries is asking vessel operators in the bay area to reduce speeds to less than 10 knots and to post lookouts to avoid collisions.

Federal and state law also prohibits boats from approaching within 500 yards of a right whale. Operators that find themselves within 500 feet of a right whale should slowly and cautiously leave the area.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times