Saving Seafood

New Crab Pot Could Help Reduce Whale Entanglements

December 2, 2019 — Oregon’s Dungeness crab season is coming up, but there’s a problem looming over this fishery.

The ropes and buoys that allow crabbers to collect their crab pots from the seafloor can injure and even kill whales when they swim into them.

Last year, 46 whale entanglements were reported off the West Coast, and crab gear was responsible for about a third of them.

According to Derek Orner, a bycatch reduction program coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, this a growing problem in the spiny lobster and Dungeness crab fisheries.

“Were seeing increases in whale entanglements with a number of species that are listed under the National Marine Mammal Protection Act, in particular with humpback whales, gray whales, and blue whales,” he said.

His agency recently announced grants for several ropeless fishing gear projects, including a new kind of crab pot developed by Coastal Monitoring Associates of California.

Bart Chadwick, the company’s president, said when crabbers drop their pots in the ocean, the ropes and buoys can remain in the water column for days.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

ALASKA: Payments For 2016 Pink Salmon Fishery Disaster Delayed

November 21, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fishermen who were expecting payments from the 2016 Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fishery disaster relief in December will have to wait until March to receive their checks, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Many Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission permit holder applicants misreported their crew percentages or did not list any crew at all, said Karla Bush, the Fish and Game federal fisheries coordinator.

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission will delay payments until after the crew member application deadline on Jan. 31.

“I know participants were expecting checks to come six to eight weeks after the Oct. 31 deadline. That’s now going to be pushed back,” Bush said.

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is an interstate agency that helps resource agencies and the fishing industry manage fisheries resources. Member states include Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

After crew members send in their applications, Fish and Game will match crew members to the permit holders they work for. Payments will be sent to permit holders and crew at the same time, Bush said.

Payments to crew will be deducted from the permit holder’s total disaster payment based on the crew shares provided in the permit holder’s application.

The amount each permit holder received was calculated by averaging the value of pink salmon caught in even years from 2006 to 2014, minus the value of fish caught in 2016.

However, fishermen were concerned that the payment calculation did not take into account the unique circumstances in the fishing industry.

For example, some fishermen switched from a lower volume gear type to a higher volume gear type. Others had a partial catch history instead of a full or no catch history, causing their payments to be substantially less than others who fished alongside them, according to a letter written by Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak.

To address such issues and review calculations, an appeal process was put in place. Friday was the deadline to appeal.

These payments are part of the $53.8 million approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in July to restore losses caused by a poor 2016 salmon season in the Gulf of Alaska. The areas receiving funds are Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Chignik, Lower Cook Inlet, South Alaska Peninsula, Southeast Alaska and Yakutat.

Fishery permit holders and crew will receive $31 million, fish processors will receive $17.7, municipalities will receive $2.4 million and $3.63 million will go to research.

The payments to municipalities will be based on losses of fish taxes, Bush said.

Calculations for municipality payments are not yet available because NOAA is working the office of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on the approval process.

Municipalities will use the funds for specific projects related to the pink salmon fishery such as projects that support the pink salmon fishing fleet.

“The people at NOAA grants are trying to work with the office of OMB in the White House to see at what level the projects need to be approved,” Bush said. “OMB wants to approve the list of projects that each municipality will put forward themselves. We know that that will cause some additional delays, so we hope those will be approved by Pacific States or NOAA grants and not have to be forwarded all the way to the highest level.”

Fish and Game is also waiting on fishery tax information from the Alaska Department of Revenue as a basis to calculate the payments, Bush said.

The tax information is vital before calculating the payment amount, because the Department of Revenue does a “split between the cities and boroughs and so I would expect the city of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough would be getting a share of those moneys,” Bush said.

To expedite future fisheries disaster funding, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, sponsored legislation that would reform NOAA’s Fishery Resource Disaster Relief program of the National Marine Fisheries Service to expedite relief for fishermen during fishery disasters.

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

Latest regulations safeguard 140,000 square miles off the West Coast

November 19, 2019 — Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued final regulations to protect the seafloor habitat off the West Coast from bottom trawling.

The regulations cover 140,000 square miles and includes corals, sponges, rocky reefs and other important areas for marine life and ocean ecosystems. These safeguards for the living seafloor are in response to a vote by the Pacific Fishery Management Council in April 2018, which followed years of scientific input and advocacy by Oceana, which has an office in Monterey County.

Bottom trawling is described as the most damaging fishing method to seafloor habitats off the West Coast. Weighted nets are dragged to catch fish living near the seafloor and in doing so flatten, topple and crush delicate corals and sponges that provide habitat for these fish and other marine creatures.

The new regulations protect unique and important ocean areas off Washington, Oregon and California. Also included is the protection of deep-sea habitats beyond 3,500 meters depth (nearly 2 miles) below the ocean’s surface from all commercial bottom-contact fishing gear. In addition, the regulations increase fishing opportunities by allowing select re-openings in some historic fishing grounds where bottom trawling has been prohibited in recent years to recover overfished rockfish populations.

Read the full story at the Santa Cruz Sentinel

NOAA Wants More Cameras On Fishing Vessels And Fewer Biologists

November 19, 2019 — John Hankins owns the boat “Courageous,” which he sails out of Warrenton on the northern Oregon coast. He had a smile after returning from 25 days fishing for albacore.

“I’m full,” he said. “Both tanks!”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration didn’t assign a fisheries observer to his boat this trip. But he said, it happens fairly regularly.

“They’re usually not a problem for us. They’re measuring fish, they’re getting stats on the fish,” Hankins said.

Fisheries observers are biologists tasked with monitoring commercial fisheries to collect data for conservation and stock management. They also make sure boats are in compliance with certain rules, such as having required safety equipment on board.

“We had one on the boat one time that was a real pain, because they didn’t like us talking negatively about whales,” Hankins said. “And he got all bent out of shape for it. Other than that, we never have a problem with the observers.”

But, he said, most of the time, the observer is just another person on board, with a job to do.

Read the full story at OPB

OREGON: Officials delay the Dungeness crab season, crabs aren’t big

November 15, 2019 — Traditional Christmas feasts featuring Dungeness crab may not be in the cards this year as officials have delayed the commercial crabbing season due to the small size of the crustaceans.

The Mail Tribune reports that the season had been set to start Dec. 1 for Oregon’s most lucrative commercial fishery, but now crabbing has been postponed until at least Dec. 16.

It’s the sixth straight year the season has been delayed to allow the Dungeness crabs a chance to fatten up to meet industry standards.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Microplastics in vast majority of Oregon shellfish, study finds

November 13, 2019 — A Portland State University study found tiny pieces of plastic in the vast majority of razor clams and oysters sampled along the Oregon coast and noted that the primary source of contamination was from fibers used in synthetic textiles.

Those microscopic fibers can be shed by yoga pants, fleeces and other active wear made of synthetic textiles during a wash — up to 700,000 per load of laundry, according to the study, which was reported on Tuesday in The Oregonian/OregonLive. These fibers are in the wastewater from laundry machines that eventually winds up in the ocean, although some of the tiny plastic fibers could also come from derelict fishing gear, the newspaper said.

The shellfish in question were plucked from 15 sites, from Clatsop in the north to Gold Beach near the California border, in both the spring and summer of 2017. Of the roughly 300 shellfish analyzed, all but two contained at least some microplastics, Elise Granek, a PSU professor of environmental science and management, said.

The study was published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KOMO

Sen. Cantwell Language to Expand Tribal Eligibility, Include Charter Fishermen in Fisheries Disaster Process Passes Committee

November 13, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

Provisions introduced by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, to reform the federal fisheries disaster process passed the committee today. Cantwell’s provisions would expand and protect Tribal eligibility for fisheries disaster assistance and require charter fishermen to be included in economic relief.

“This legislation will help improve the federal fisheries disaster management program that impacted fishermen in coastal communities so that they will get financial relief faster,” Cantwell said. “As we all know, fisheries issues impact lots of different aspects of our community. But certainly the commercial and recreational fishermen deserve to be compensated as well, and with communities on our Pacific Coast that are very dependent on charter activities, I want to make sure, in the case of a disaster, that they too can apply and receive funding.”

In a September hearing, Cantwell highlighted the failures of the current disaster process by discussing the 2016 Coho salmon fishery disaster, which impacted fisheries throughout Washington state.

“The Coho disaster impacted Tribes, commercial fisherman, charter and recreational fisherman… but not all groups received adequate funding from NOAA,” Cantwell said at the September hearing. “In a shift from previous policy, the administration determined that the charter fishermen should not be included in the economic determination. Thus, I believe Washington did not receive adequate funding for this disaster.”

Throughout her time in the Senate, Cantwell has prioritized working on issues that impact the fishing industry. In 2015, she introduced bipartisan legislation to create a national ocean acidification monitoring strategy to prioritize investments in ocean acidification sensors to areas that need it most. In 2018, she worked with colleagues in the House and Senate to secure $200 million in federal funding to help communities with declared fisheries disasters. She has also fought to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed from harmful mining and opposed drilling off the coasts of Washington and Oregon.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s remarks at today’s hearing is available HERE and audio is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s opening statement at a September Commerce Committee hearing is available HERE, audio is HERE, and a transcript is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell’s Q&A with witnesses at the September hearing is available HERE, audio is HERE, and a transcript is HERE.

Feds Propose PNW Habitat Protections For Orcas And Humpback Whales

November 7, 2019 — Federal wildlife regulators are proposing to designate large swaths of the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, Washington and California as critical habitat for endangered humpback whales and orcas.

One of the habitat designations is specifically for Southern Resident Killer Whales, which spend about half the year in the Salish Sea north of Seattle. They feed on salmon. There are fewer than 80 of these orcas remaining.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is also proposing two critical habitat areas for two distinct groups of humpback whales that breed off the coast of Mexico and Central America. The new habitat designation covers the Pacific Northwest feeding grounds of the whales.

If finalized, the designation would provide an extra level of protection that would require any federally permitted project to consider impacts to the whale habitat.

“That’s anything from an Army Corps of Engineers permit for construction in water to a Navy sonar testing or training activity or NOAA doing a federal approval for a fishery,” said Lynne Barre, recovery coordinator for the NOAA Fisheries Southern Resident Killer Whale program.

Read the full story at OPB

Salmon shortage threatens food chain in Pacific NW

October 28, 2019 — What was once an endless supply in the Pacific Northwest is now endangered. Millions of Chinook salmon are not surviving migration. Now, the shortage is causing officials to make some difficult decisions.

As much as air or water, so much life in the Pacific Northwest depends on salmon. Over 130 species rely on nature’s original food delivery but fewer salmon are surviving the heroic swim from the open ocean to spawning streams hundreds of miles inland.

And that means trouble for two creatures that really, really love the king of fish. Killer whales and us.

In your grandparent’s day, the Columbia Basin seemed to produce a never-ending supply and salmon the size of people. But those big “June hog” Chinooks are extinct now and this year numbers were so low, the fall fishing season was canceled.

Columbia Riverkeeper Brett Vandenheuvel said, “The estimates are about 17 million salmon would return to the Columbia every year. It was the greatest salmon fishery in the world. And now it’s about a million fish return.”

And most of those are hatchery fish with weaker genes and less fat than their wild cousins. So the southern resident killer whales that live on Chinook are starving. There are only 73 of this kind of orca left on the planet and after a grieving orca mom pushed her dead calf around Puget Sound for weeks last summer, it rekindled a decades-old debate: salmon vs. dams.

Read the full story at KOBI

Bill Monroe: Oregon seeking expanded sea lion controls following success of steelhead protections at Willamette Falls, Bonneville Dam

October 28, 2019 — Having fended off the threat of extinction of wild winter steelhead over Willamette Falls, Oregon biologists are now joining counterparts in Washington, Idaho and Native American tribes to expand that success.

Tuesday is the deadline set by the National Marine Fisheries Service for comments on a state and tribal proposal to reduce protections for both California and Steller sea lions in the Columbia river and its tributaries.

Changes in federal rules to streamline the control of sea lions have been approved by congress, but the states and tribes must still apply for authorization.

Current permits only allow the capture and killing of specific California sea lions at either Willamette Falls or Bonneville Dam.

The new proposal calls for the lethal take and euthanization of both California and Steller sea lions from anywhere in the Columbia River between the Interstate 205 bridge upriver to McNary Dam and from any lower Columbia tributaries such as the Willamette, Cowlitz and Lewis rivers. While there are no known sea lions upriver from The Dalles Dam (and only rumors of one between there and Bonneville), the area brings key fishing areas into the fold for six Native American tribes.

Read the full story at The Oregonian