Saving Seafood

West Coast fisheries took steps to protect whales, turtles in 2019

January 6, 2020 — West Coast fisheries cleaned up their act in 2019, with new rules to promote sustainable fishing practices and new alliances to protect ecological and economic interests.

The changes include approval of new gear that reduces unwanted catch, safeguards for delicate bottom habitat, and guidelines for managing whole ocean ecosystems, instead of handling species separately.

Those regulations reflect input from regulators, conservationists and fishermen and represent unprecedented compromises among groups that often have been at odds.

In September, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council approved new “deep set buoy” gear for swordfish, to avoid snaring turtles, marine mammals and other unintended catch. Swordfish have typically been caught using vast drift gillnets set overnight, which often ensnare other fish species, sharks, and marine mammals. The new method allows fishermen to drop hooks into deeper waters where swordfish forage during the day, catching the prized fish without ensnaring other animals.

Then, in November, the body voted to uphold an existing ban on longline fisheries on the open ocean off the West Coast. That fishery had been closed to West Coast fishermen since 1989 because of the high numbers of non-target fish and other animals that were caught.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

November 2019 Council Decision Summary Document

November 26, 2019 — The following was published by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council met November 15-20, 2019 in Costa Mesa, California. The November 2019 Council Meeting Decision Summary Document contains the highlights of significant decisions made at that meeting. Results of agenda items that do not reach a level of highlight significance are typically not described in the Decision Summary Document.

First Bill to Help Save Orcas Passed in Washington State

April 12, 2019 — The first in a series of bills intended to help prevent the extinction of Southern Resident killer whales is headed to the desk of Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee. The measure, which Inslee requested, would protect habitat for the Chinook salmon the whales eat.

Southern Resident killer whales live in the inland coastal waters near Seattle. Suffering from a lack of their main source of food – threatened Chinook salmon – as well as toxic home waters and a cacophony of ship noise that dampens their ability to hunt and communicate, their population has reached a 30-year low of 74 whales.

Inslee convened a task force in March 2018 to guide state action to prevent the whales’ extinction. The task force issued its first-year recommendations this past November. The following month, Inslee proposed over $1 billion in state funding to implement the recommendations and asked the Legislature to introduce bills where necessary to accomplish task force recommendations.

House Bill 1579 is the first of a suite of such bills to pass the Legislature, clearing the state Senate on Wednesday night and now awaiting Inslee’s signature. The bill encourages the catch of non-native fish that eat young Chinook salmon as they swim toward the ocean and compete for habitat in Washington’s rivers and estuaries, and increases catch limits for bass, channel catfish and walleye. Fishermen will now be required to get a license to catch freshwater smelt, which Chinook eat.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Pacific Fishery Management Council Warns That Feinstein ‘Drought Relief’ Bill Would Harm Salmon Runs

May 18, 2016 — SAN FRANCISCO — A new Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) letter warns that a federal drought relief bill contains many provisions harmful to salmon. The Council sent the letter to Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson in response to their request for the Council’s analysis of the bill’s effects on salmon.

Among the key findings of the Council; the bill calls for taking water badly needed by salmon, and it will harm salmon runs and fishing jobs. Specifically, the PFMC letter states:

— The bill would “cause irreparable harm to California salmon and the commercial, recreational, and tribal fishing communities that depend on them.”

— “Maximizing supply” means reducing the water available to salmon.”

Read the full story at WONews