May 25, 2016 — Scientists from NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center will embark from Dutch Harbor May 28 on another busy survey season, off Alaska’s coast, collecting data needed for fisheries managers to determine sustainable fishery harvest levels.
Challenge to California’s shark-fin ban fails in U.S. Supreme Court
May 24, 2016 — California’s ban on the possession and sale of shark fins survived a legal challenge Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Bay Area suppliers and sellers of shark fin soup, a traditional dish in the Chinese American community.
Federal law prohibits shark “finning,” the removal of fins from sharks, but does not forbid possessing or selling shark fins. California lawmakers went a step further with a statute that took effect in July 2013 and had the impact of removing shark fin soup from restaurant menus.
Restaurant owners and shark fin suppliers, joined by Chinese American community organizations, argued that the state was exceeding its authority and was interfering with a commercial fishing market that the federal government had intended to preserve. But a federal appeals court ruled in July 2015 that the federal laws recognize the importance of conservation and allow states such as California to adopt their own protective measures.
NOAA: Dungeness crab in peril from acidification
May 19, 2016 — The Dungeness crab fishery could decline West Coastwide, a new study has found, threatening a fishing industry worth nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year.
Scientists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle found that pH levels likely in West Coast waters by 2100 at current rates of greenhouse-gas pollution would hurt the survivability of crab larvae.
Increasing ocean acidification is predicted to harm a wide range of sea life unable to properly form calcium carbonate shells as the pH drops. Now scientists at the NOAA’s Northwest Fishery Science Center of Seattle also have learned that animals with chitin shells — specifically Dungeness crabs — are affected, because the change in water chemistry affects their metabolism.
Carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, is pumped into the atmosphere primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Levels of atmospheric C02 have been steadily rising since the Industrial Revolution in 1750 and today are higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years — and predicted to go higher.
When carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water it lowers the pH. By simulating the conditions in tanks of seawater at pH levels likely to occur in West Coast waters with rising greenhouse gas pollution, scientists were able to detect both a slower hatch of crab larvae, and poorer survival by the year 2100.
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.”
Alaska salmon prices seem to be rebounding
May 16, 2016 — Alaska’s salmon season has started with optimism, a far cry from the bleak feelings a year ago when the fishery was blown asunder by a perfect storm of depressed currencies, salmon backlogs and global markets awash with farmed fish.
Prices to fishermen fell nearly 41 percent between 2013 and 2015, years which produced the two largest Alaska salmon harvests on record.
But in the past six months, those trends have turned around.
“Based on current market conditions and harvest expectations, it appears probable that prices will begin improving in 2016 and there is an excellent chance total ex-vessel (dockside) value will rebound in 2017,” said the Salmon Market Information Service report just released by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. A salmon industry analysis, data on harvest and a forecast are parts of the report.
CALIFORNIA: Monterey Bay squid season basically a bust
May 13, 2016 — MONTEREY, Calif. — If Monterey had a signature restaurant dish, cioppino and fried calamari would battle it out for the top spot. But the common ingredient in each is squid, those prehistoric looking cephalopods (scientific name loligo) that school in the cool, nutrient-rich waters of Monterey Bay.
In August a worldwide television audience tuned in for “Big Blue Live,” a BBC-PBS production that showcased our marine sanctuary teeming with sea life, from tiny shrimp to giant blue whales.
Then “the boy” arrived.
“Once El Niño showed up things started to look different in the bay,” said Sal Tringali, president of Monterey Fish Company, who oversees a five-boat fleet that provides local restaurants with most of their fresh seafood, including squid.
Not to panic; our shared “Serengeti of the Sea” is still a pristine habitat. But warming waters along the West Coast have changed the waterscape — at least for now. For example, local squid fishermen have turned out their bright boat lights because the season is basically a bust.
Puget Sound salmon fishing effectively closed after stalemate between state and tribal fisheries
May 9, 2016 — For the first time in 30 years, state and tribal fishery managers failed to develop a joint plan for the 2016-17 Puget Sound salmon fishing season, effectively closing all of Puget Sound and some lakes and rivers.
“The door remains open (for more discussions with the tribes),” said Ron Warren, the state Fish and Wildlife salmon policy manager. “The tribes and (state) in different ways offered packages that met the conservation objectives, but we couldn’t reach agreement on them.”
This left many — an estimated 200,000 anglers held Puget Sound salmon licenses during the 2014-15 fishing season — questioning what led to this unprecedented situation.
During a meeting April 27 in Fife — around 60 representatives from state, tribal, NOAA Fisheries and officials from the offices of the governor and attorney general — plans were laid out for additional cuts needed to reach an agreement.
State fishery managers offered an alternative proposal for sport fisheries, with a 50 percent harvest cut on an expected poor Puyallup River return of 353 wild chinook and 3,708 hatchery fish.
California Fishermen Fight to Restore Otter-Free Zone
May 9, 2016 — PASADENA, Calif. — California’s shellfish industry fought the federal government’s termination of a “no-otter zone” along the Southern California coast at a Ninth Circuit hearing on Friday.
Four fishing industry groups sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2013, claiming its decision to end a long-disputed sea otter translocation program would “severely compromise if not destroy” shellfish and other marine fisheries on the southern coast.
Nixing the program would lead more than 300 sea otters to occupy a previously “otter-free zone” within 10 years and prey on the shellfish which fishermen depend on for their livelihood, the plaintiffs claimed in their 2013 complaint.
But environmental groups had long pushed for the government to end the program, claiming it was a disaster from the start and that it bowed to the interests of the oil and fishing industries.
The program relocated 140 sea otters to San Nicholas Island and established an otter-free zone south of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, where fishermen harvest sea urchin, abalone and lobster.
Under the program, fishermen who accidentally killed otters in the zone could not be federally prosecuted, and the government was to use nonlethal means to capture any otters that wandered into the zone.
Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley working on fish screens bill
May 5, 2o16 — Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are pushing to reauthorize a voluntary, cost-share program with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife that pays for installing fish screens and passage devices in four Northwest states.
The Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act was initially passed in 2000 before expiring last year. Over the years, it has funded 127 projects that have reopened more than 1,130 miles of habitat to fish passage in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana.
Wyden and Merkley, the Democratic duo, want to extend FRIMA for $25 million from 2017 to 2024. The program not only protects native fish runs, but helps farmers by maintaining their irrigation canals.
Proposal For Observers Could Further Hurt U.S. Purse Seiner Fleet
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — May 3, 2016 — A new fishery rule that the federal government is moving to implement is expected to deal another financial blow to the US purse seiner fleet, which is already faced with stiff competition from foreign vessels such as the Chinese fleet, who are subsidized by their government, China.
US National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) has proposed a rule which would require Observers to be on board US purse seiners fishing in the western and central Pacific ocean (WCPO).
The proposal was issued last week under authority of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act. It is a three-pronged proposed rule, which includes a move to establish restrictions in 2016 and 2017 on the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) by U.S. purse seine vessels in the WCPO; and to establish limits in 2016 and 2017 on the amount of bigeye tuna that may be captured by U.S. longline vessels in the WCPO.
According to NMFS, this longline vessel big eye tuna proposal would not apply to American Samoa and the other two US Pacific territories, as they have their own federal programs.
NMFS says the proposed action is necessary to satisfy the obligations of the United States under the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (Convention), to which it is a Contracting Party.
NMFS is now seeking public comments on the three-pronged proposed rule-making, and deadline for comment submission is May 12. Details are available online on federal portal: www.regulations.gov.
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