Saving Seafood

US and Canadian negotiators reach tentative deal over Pacific salmon

September 7, 2018 — Diplomats are reviewing a Pacific salmon treaty deal. Negotiators from Canada and the United States reached the tentative deal over Pacific salmon almost two weeks ago.

“The proposed amendments to the treaty – and there are a number of them – have been transmitted to the capitals: Ottawa and Washington D.C. for review and consideration by the national governments,” said John Field, executive secretary of the Pacific Salmon Commission in Vancouver, British Columbia.

That was on August 24. But the 10-year annex of the Pacific Salmon Treaty isn’t official until it’s signed by both countries.

The treaty has governed salmon catches, research and enhancement in Alaska, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia since 1985. It’s renegotiated every 10 years.

No details have been released on this latest agreement which would last until 2029.

But Field said he’s confident it’ll be approved before the current deal expires at the end of this year.

“The salmon treaty has a long history with these two countries,” Field said by phone on Thursday. “It’s in their mutual interest to have the treaty to enter into force and I’m confident that both countries are doing everything they can to have them enter into force on time.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Here’s how smartphones are being used to track lost fishing gear

September 5, 2018 — Cell phones are being used by fishermen to bounty hunt for lost fishing gear for pay.

California fishermen created the retrieval project last year along with the Nature Conservancy to get ropes, buoys, pots and anchors out of the water after the dungeness fishery so they wouldn’t entangle whales, and Washington and Oregon quickly followed suit.

“They are using their cell phones and its GPS to take a picture of what the gear looked like, tell when they found it, and any identifying markings on the buoy – the vessel, the ID number, and also the latitude and longitude of exactly where they found it,” said Nat Nichols, area manager for groundfish and shellfish at the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game office in Kodiak. He added that gear loss rates in different fisheries can be “anywhere from 3 to 23 percent.”

Under a special permit, the West Coast bounty hunters head out two weeks after the dungeness crab fishery closes to search for derelict gear.

“Dungies tend to be in shallower water and that means there is more wave energy and the gear can get lost or rolled up on the beach. A lot of it has a tendency to move around because it’s in the tidal surge,” Nichols said.

The fishermen get paid $65 for every pot they pull up. The gear then goes back to the original owners who pay $100 per pot for its return.

Saving whales was the prime motivator for pot retrievals on the West Coast. In Alaska’s crab and pot cod fisheries, it’s ghost fishing and gear conflicts.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

NMFS, ENGOs Agree to Deadlines for Humpback Whale Habitat Designations off West Coast

August 29, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation reached a settlement with the National Marine Fisheries Service last week to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean. the Center said the whales face threats from fisheries, ship strikes and oil spills.

The agreement, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to follow the Endangered Species Act’s requirement to designate critical habitat by June 28, 2019, and finalize those boundaries a year later. Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered, and a third as threatened, in September 2016.

“Today’s victory means Pacific humpback whales will be safer in their ocean home,” Center Attorney Catherine Kilduff said in a press release. “While delaying these protections, the Trump administration proposed opening the Pacific up to offshore oil drilling and let fishing gear tangle up dozens of humpbacks. This agreement ensures the whales will finally get the protections they need.”

One population of endangered humpback whales that feeds off California’s coast numbers around 400 individuals, meaning any death or injury from entanglement could hurt their recovery the Center said in the statement. Several whales were tangled in fishing lines from fixed gear fisheries in recent years, but many were also the victims of ship strikes.

Ship strikes and oil spills are the other major threats to West Coast humpback whales, according to the Center’s statement. A study found that an estimated 22 humpbacks off California, Oregon and Washington die each year after being hit by ships. That number could increase if additional offshore oil and gas drilling were allowed, as proposed by the Trump administration earlier this year. Additionally, potential oil spills increase the risk to whales and other marine life.

The three plaintiffs filed the suit in March.

The potential critical habitat areas will raise public awareness about what areas are essential for conservation, and provides substantive protections for the habitat from adverse modification by federal government activities, Kilduff said in an email. The habitat protections also will help safeguard ocean areas essential for migrating and feeding. Evidence shows that endangered or threatened species that have protected critical habitat are twice as likely to show signs of recovery as those without it, according to the three groups.

NMFS identified humpback whale populations that needed critical habitat designations in 2016. Those included the three that are, at times, in U.S. waters: the threatened Mexico population that feeds off the U.S. West Coast and Alaska and the endangered Central America population that feeds almost exclusively off California and Oregon. The agency revised the listing status of the humpback whale from a global population to 14 distinct population segments (DPS). However, NMFS also found that critical habitat for these three populations were not determinable when it identified the 14 humpback DPS.

According to the settlement, NMFS must pay $10,000 in attorney fees to the Center and the two other plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, the seafood industry remains concerned, awaiting the details. Fishermen and processors also are concerned about the Center’s lawsuit against the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, filed late last year, regarding whale entanglements.

Kilduff said this settlement will have no effect on the lawsuit against the state.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

Sea lion bill comes up for a vote in the Senate tomorrow

August 2, 2018 –Tomorrow, the Senate Commerce Committee will vote on the bipartisan “Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act.” The bill, introduced by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell and Idaho Senator Jim Risch would give state and tribal fishery managers more flexibility to deal with predatory sea lions in the Columbia River system that are threatening both salmon and steelhead populations listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The executive session will begin at 6:45 am PT.

Sea lion populations have increased significantly along the West Coast over the past 40 years; today, there are roughly 300,000. These sea lions have entered into habitat where they had never been before, including areas around the Bonneville Dam and Willamette Falls. A recent study showed that winter steelhead populations near Willamette are likely to go extinct if the sea lion population is not addressed immediately.

Read the full story at KXLY

Trump administration backs Obama in national monument clash

July 27, 2018 –A dispute over acts of Congress in 1906 and 1937 has put the Trump administration in court — and into the unusual position of supporting a proclamation by former President Barack Obama.

Contrary to President Donald Trump’s numerous efforts to shred Obama’s legacy, U.S. Justice Department lawyers are in Obama’s corner as they defend his expansion of a national monument in Oregon.

That puts the Trump administration in direct opposition with timber interests that Trump vowed to defend in a May 2016 campaign speech in Eugene, 110 miles (180 kilometers) south of Portland.

However, that opposition may be temporary in a case full of ironic twists that centers on a unique habitat where three mountain ranges converge. It is home to more than 200 bird species, the imperiled Oregon spotted frog, deer, elk and many kinds of fish, including the endangered Lost River sucker.

A federal judge is being asked to consider limits of power among all three government branches. For the Trump administration, the case is about protecting the power of the president of the United States, even if it was Obama who exercised his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 that allows a president to declare a national monument.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Sioux City Journal

SEATTLE TIMES: Congress must choose threatened salmon over sea lions

July 20, 2018 — State, federal and local governments have spent too much time and money restoring fish runs in the Columbia River Basin to let those efforts go to waste.

The U.S. House recognized this reality last month by passing legislation to make it easier to kill sea lions that feast on threatened salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Now, the Senate must step up and push the bill through to the finish line.

Northwest senators must be unified in their support for this common-sense measure, which aims to safeguard the billions of dollars invested in preserving fish that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Regional spending to protect and restore salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin easily tops $500 million every two years, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. That estimate doesn’t include the additional millions spent annually by federal wildlife officials, the state of Oregon, local governments and tribes.

But a few hundred hungry sea lions that have made their way upstream are putting those investments in jeopardy. Federal researchers estimated that a quarter of last year’s spring Chinook inexplicably disappeared on their way from the mouth of the Columbia River to Bonneville Dam, with sea lion predation most likely to blame.

Read the full opinion piece at the Seattle Times

Orca population hits 30-year low in Puget Sound

July 11, 2018 — The Southern Resident orca pods are in a tough spot — literally.

Their primary food source is dying off; the Trans Mountain Pipeline is expanding, which will increase the number of tankers trucking through the orcas’ habitat by seven times, among other exposure risks like noise and spills.

And now comes the latest spot of bad news: For the last three years not one calf has been born to the shrinking pods of the black-and-white killer whales in the Pacific Northwest, resulting in a 30-year low in orca population.

The annual census of Puget Sound’s resident orcas found that just 75 killer whales, across the three Southern Resident pods (J, K, and L), are still swimming through the Pacific Northwest waters. The J pod has 23 members, while K has 18, and L has 34.

In addition to finding no new births of Southern Residents, the census reported two missing and presumed dead members, 23-year-old Crewser (also known as L-92), and a 2-year-old calf named Sonic (J-52).

Read the full story at KOMO News

Killer bill: House approves lethal removal of Columbia River sea lions

June 29, 2018 –A bill that would allow officials and local tribes to lethally remove sea lions from specific areas of the Columbia River passed its first hurdle on Tuesday, June 26, with a 288-116 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is part of an effort to improve salmon survival rates in parts of Oregon and Washington.

The Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act, or H.R. 2083, amends Section 120 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to give the Secretary of Commerce the ability to authorize state and local tribes to manage sea lions. Tribes would be able to apply for permits to kill sea lions preying on salmon runs.

“The passage of my bipartisan bill signals a return to a healthy, balanced Columbia River ecosystem by reining in the unnatural, overcrowded sea lion population that is indiscriminately decimating our fish runs,” said bill author Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.). She sponsored the legislation with Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.).

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that sea lions consumed between about 4 and 6 percent of the salmon and steelhead runs below Bonneville Dam in recent years.

“For the salmon and steelhead fighting to make it upstream, [the]vote in the U.S. House significantly improves their chances of survival,” Beutler said. “We’re not anti-sea lion. We’re just for protecting a Pacific Northwest treasure: salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other native fish species iconic to our region,” Beutler added.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act already allows state agencies to kill up to 96 “individually identifiable” sea lions seen eating endangered salmon. The amendment would allow state agencies and specific tribes in the region the authorization to grant permits allowing hunters to kill up to 100 sea lions per year after completing natural resources management training.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

House votes to curb salmon eaters: Bill would allow problem sea lions to be euthanized; Senate still must act

June 28, 2018 — A bill to expand the authority of Northwest fisheries agencies to help struggling native species in the lower Columbia and Willamette rivers by killing sea lions there passed the U.S. House on Tuesday.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Jamie Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., was approved by a 288-116 vote following years of inaction.

“For the salmon and steelhead fighting to make it upstream, today’s vote in the U.S. House significantly improves their chances of survival,” Herrera Beutler said.

“We are not anti-sea lion. We’re just for protecting a Pacific Northwest treasure: salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other native fish species iconic to our region,” she said in a news release.

Schrader said salmon are central to the culture, identity and economy of the region.

“It is one of the reasons why we’ve, as a region, put so much time, energy and resources into protecting and recovering these iconic fish.”

Read the full story at The Spokesman-Review

But Sea Lions Seem So Cute…

June 26, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources: 

We’re seeing another busy week unfold for us at Nat. Resources this week, as the Rules Committee officially announced that a vote for H.R. 2083, the Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act, is set for tomorrow. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), the bipartisan bill provides states and tribes the necessary tools to humanely manage sea lions that have migrated outside their historic range and pose an imminent threat to fish species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

But Sea Lions Seem So Cute…

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sea lions pose a significant threat to ESA-listed salmon and steelhead, and while the world took notice of last year’s viral sea lion attack, tribal, subsistence and commercial fisheries have long felt the effects of the hearty appetite of non-native sea lions across the Columbia River watershed. Endangered salmon have become the victims of conflicting federal laws that make it illegal to responsibly manage the obvious predator: sea lions.

Broad Member & Stakeholder Bipartisan Support

The bill enjoys a strong bipartisan backing, with U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) as an original cosponsor, and a significant list of local and regional groups voicing support, including the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the Columbia Intertribal Fish Commission, the Coastal Conservation Associations of Washington and Oregon, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, and more than 100 local and recreational fishing businesses.

Learn more about the House Committee on Natural Resources here.