Saving Seafood

Scientists examine Gulf of Alaska sea floor to see effects of bottom trawling

June 8, 2022 — A group of researchers is hoping that data collected from the Gulf of Alaska’s sea floor will shed new light on the effects of bottom trawling.

Scientists from the conservation group Oceana, which is based in Juneau, spent eight days aboard a research vessel circumnavigating the Kodiak archipelago late May. Jon Warrenchuck is a senior scientist and fisheries campaign manager with Oceana.

“The Gulf of Alaska is a very special place and a very productive ecosystem,” Warrenchuck said. “Our timing of our survey here in the spring means we saw just an abundance of life, from the phytoplankton to the fish to the birds feeding at the surface.”

The focus of the trip, though, was to document life at the very bottom of the sea to better understand the impacts of commercial trawling, Warrenchuck said.

Read the full story at KTOO

Oceana report calls for SIMP to cover all species, tougher US stance against IUU fishing

February 3, 2022 — A report released by Oceana on Tuesday, 1 February, calls on the U.S. to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), saying that the federal legislation designed to prevent fraudulently labeled products and specimens harvested from illegal fishing practices from entering the country includes too many loopholes.

The 36-page report notes a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission found that of the seafood imported into the U.S. in 2019, USD 2.4 billion (EUR 2.13 billion) worth was fished illegally. Examples of illegal fishing include crews harvesting fish in unpermitted areas, exceeding catch limits, mislabeling products, and using forced labor.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Scientists pen letter to Congress urging SIMP expansion

December 16, 2021 — More than 100 scientists signed a letter sent to Congress on Monday, 13 December, urging lawmakers to ensure that all seafood products imported into the United States are caught using legal means.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is often associated with human trafficking and other human rights abuses, and distant-water fishing forces vessel owners and operators to extend trips to “achieve a sizeable catch,” the university professors, research fellows, and scientists claimed in the two-page letter. In order to get that kind of catch, some operators will use forced labor and harvest fishing stocks beyond allowable limits, they alleged.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Report finds China becoming more secretive about its fishing subsidies

October 29, 2021 — A new study prepared for campaign group Oceana suggests 85 percent of China’s subsidies to its fleet are harming the sustainability of fish stocks.

The report, “China’s Fisheries Subsidies Propel Distant-Water Fleet,” found that while China has reduced its fuel subsidies to the distant-water fleet, it is becoming more secretive about releasing data on direct and indirect subsidies to fishing firms.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Marine wildlife may suffer the consequences of SoCal’s oil spill for years to come

October 8, 2021 — “We’re scared to see what we’re going to find out,” Sarah Glitz, a marine scientist for Oceana, said of the Oct. 2 oil spill off the Southern California coast.

Glitz, like many scientists, has watched in horror as the ecological disaster unfurls along the coastline where about 126,000 gallons of crude oil seeped into the Pacific Ocean and indefinitely closed several Orange County beaches and fisheries.

Veterinarians are in the field tending to the injured animals that wash ashore. But it may be weeks, months, even years before the full extent of the disaster and impact on birds and marine mammals is known, Glitz said.

Already, 15 oiled birds have been recovered, two of which were dead, the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at  UC Davis reported.

Read the full story at SFGATE

 

Oceana filing with USMCA demands US federal action on right whales

October 4, 2021 — Non-governmental organization Oceana announced on 4 October it has filed the first-ever Submission on Enforcement Matters against the U.S. government under the recent United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Signed in 2019, the USMCA is a free-trade agreement between the three countries that includes mechanisms such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Under the new agreement, a person or organization can file a “Submission on Enforcement Matters” with the CEC if one of the three countries in the USMCA is not enforcing its environmental laws.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

THE POST AND COURIER: The feds told us to slow down for right whales; federal vessels should, too

August 20, 2021 — Here’s an instance of the hypocrisy that too often gives the federal government a bad name, and it’s a whale of an example.

On one hand, the federal government has established the vessel speed rule that limits the speed of vessels in certain parts of the Atlantic Ocean to lessen any chance that these ships will strike and harm a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. On the other hand, the federal government has exempted its own fleet.

In other words, Uncle Sam is telling us: Do as I say, not as a I do. It might seem like a small matter, but it would be easy to change. And important to change, too. Because it’s clear more must be done to protect these creatures.

A recent report from the nonprofit conservation group Oceana found that almost 90% of all vessels passing through the ocean between Wilmington, N.C., and Brunswick, Ga., exceeded the 10-knot speed limit. That was the highest percentage along the East Coast. (The area off the Port of New York and New Jersey was next, with almost 80% of vessels there going more than the speed limit.)

While it’s unclear exactly how many of these speeding vessels are federally owned, some certainly were. The fastest one clocked was a U.S. Navy ship going almost 40 knots.

This much is clear: The faster the vessel, the greater the chance of it colliding with a right whale. Such collisions are among the leading causes of injury and death for the species (another being entanglement with fishing gear).

Read the full opinion piece at The Post and Courier

Speeding ships in the Chesapeake Bay endanger rare right whales, environmentalists report

August 9, 2021 — Most ships moving through the Chesapeake Bay don’t slow down as required to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, environmentalists said in a new report.

About 64% of vessels in the area don’t comply with speed rules designed to allow boat drivers to see and veer around the whales susceptible to strikes — sometimes going up to four times the required speed, according to the report released recently by conservation nonprofit Oceana. Cargo ships were the worst offenders.

There are fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales left, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, making them one of the most endangered marine mammals on the planet.

They were named for being the “right whale” to kill during the whaling era, said Whitney Webber, Oceana’s campaign director. They were easy to pursue and their thick layer of blubber — used for oil — kept them afloat after killing, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

US Representative Don Young, industry groups “welcome” bill to reauthorize Magnuson-Stevens Act

July 27, 2021 — In the moments on Monday, 26 July, after U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman officially announced the filing of a bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, statements supporting the legislation started to flow out from the press offices of seafood and fishing interest groups and environmental non-governmental organizations.

Conservation groups lauded H.R. 4690, sponsored by the California Democrat and U.S. Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii). In particular, those organizations appreciated the recognition of climate change as a factor in fishing.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Poll finds public supports right whale protections, as another study shows ships still ignoring them

July 26, 2021 — A new poll performed by The Pew Charitable Trusts has shown the majority of residents on the U.S. East Coast support additional protections for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale, even as a new report by Oceana indicates that voluntary ship speed limits intended to protect the whales from vessel strikes are largely ignored.

The Pew poll found that as many as 88 percent of those polled said that it is important that the federal government protect right whales, and more than half – 53 percent – said it is very important. The poll also indicated the those polled prefer fishermen use gear that doesn’t harm whales, and that they want the government to help pay for the gear.

Read the full story at Seafood Source