Saving Seafood

West Coast fisheries science halted by government shutdown

January 3, 2019 — The federal government shutdown has scientists nationwide locked out of their labs, and many of them study fish. It’s work that is central to fishing seasons along the west coast.

“I love my U.S. federal job at @NOAAFish_NWFSC but it’s immensely frustrating to have #shutdown be such a common disturbance,” tweeted NOAA Stock Assessment Scientist Ian Taylor. “Last time it was short, science got done, and U.S. #pacifichake catch was ~300,000 tons in 2018. Now 2019 assessment needs to happen yet here we go again.”

Taylor works at a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility with a now-closed entrance gate and a sign blaming the closure on the government shutdown. It’s filled with offices of scientists working on research that ranges from toxic algae to whales to analysis that sets fishing seasons, like Taylor’s work.

Read the full story at KING

Call for Nominations to U.S. Advisory Panel on Pacific Whiting Treaty

July 14, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service is soliciting nominations for appointments to the United States Advisory Panel (AP) to the Pacific Hake/Whiting Treaty. The position is for a four year term beginning in 2018.

Nominations must be received by August 11, 2017.

The Pacific Whiting Act implements the 2003 agreement between the U.S. and Canada that provides for the establishment of an Advisory Panel (AP). The AP makes recommendations to the Joint Management Committee on bilateral Pacific whiting management issues.

AP members must be knowledgeable or experienced in the harvesting, processing, marketing, management, conservation, or research of the offshore Pacific whiting resource. Eight individuals represent the United States on the AP, and nominations for one of those positions are being solicited through this notice.

Nomination packages for appointments should include:

1. The name of the applicant or nominee, position they are being nominated for and a description of his/her interest in Pacific whiting; and

2. A statement of background and/or description of how the nominee is knowledgeable or experienced in the harvesting, processing, marketing, management, conservation, or research of the offshore Pacific whiting resource. Letters of support for nominees will also be considered.

Candidates may submit nominations by any of the following methods:

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

Are big ups and downs normal for forage fish?

February 16, 2017 — Forage fish stocks have undergone fluctuation swings for hundreds of years, research shows, with at least three species off the US West Coast repeatedly experiencing steep population increases followed by declines long before commercial fishing began.

The rise and fall of Pacific sardine, northern anchovy, and Pacific hake off California have been so common that the species were in collapsed condition 29 to 40 percent of the time over the 500-year period from CE 1000 to 1500, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters.

Using a long time series of fish scales deposited in low-oxygen, offshore sedimentary environments off Southern California, researchers described such collapses as “an intrinsic property of some forage fish populations that should be expected, just as droughts are expected in an arid climate.”

Even though they are expected, the findings still have implications for the ecosystem, and for fishermen and fishery managers, who have witnessed several booms, followed by crashes every one to two decades on average and lasting a decade or more.

Read the full story at Futurity.com