Saving Seafood

News for the Pacific Region

Native American tribe wins U.S. waiver to resume hunting Pacific gray whales

June 14, 2024 — After a decades-long struggle, a Native American tribe won the right to resume its hunting traditions off Washington state’s coast when federal regulators granted a waiver on Thursday allowing the Makah people to hunt up to 25 gray whales over a decade.

As part of its 1855 treaty with the U.S. government, the Makah Tribe secured the right to continue hunting whales, a tradition it describes as at the heart of their spiritual beliefs and practices. But the practice was stymied by 20th-century conservation measures.
In 2002, a federal court ruled that the tribe must secure a waiver of a moratorium on whale hunting under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

CALIFORNIA: Port of Hueneme makes historic announcement during World Ocean Day celebration

June 12, 2024 — Holly Lohuis has made it her mission to tell students the importance of protecting the ocean for future generations.

Part of that conservation conversation includes protecting endangered whales.

The Port of Hueneme and Oxnard Harbor District vowed to make all operations at the Port Of Hueneme zero emissions within the next 6 years— a change that will not only help save marine life and preserve ecosystems, but will also improve public health.

“We want clean air for our community. We want the workers working at the docks to breathe clean air. We want them to have quiet equipment to ensure the best public safety for the workforce on the waterfront,” said Port of Hueneme CEO and Port Director Kristin Decas.

Read the full article at KEYT

PNW coast suffers from low oxygen, study finds. It’s becoming the norm

June 12, 2024 — About half of the water near the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest coast experienced low-oxygen conditions in 2021, according to a new study.

And those hypoxic conditions, which are expected to become common with global warming, threaten the food web, the study found.

The study from Oregon State University, published in Nature Scientific Reports, used data from 2021 to map out oxygen levels across the bottom 32 feet of the Pacific Northwest continental shelf.

The research illuminates how the planet’s warming has fundamentally changed the ocean’s annual cycles and ecosystems, endangering culturally and economically valuable species like the Dungeness crab, which was worth an annual average of $45 million from 2014 and 2019.

Read the full article at The Seattle Times

OREGON: Oregon U.S. lawmakers seek federal help for West Coast seafood industry

June 11, 2024 — Last year, Oregon’s seafood industry got a much-needed boost from the federal government. But it continues to struggle and still needs help.

That’s the message from five Democratic members of Congress from Oregon, who’ve written to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to request aid for West Coast seafood fishermen, processors and distributors. U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Val Hoyle and Andrea Salinas asked USDA Administrator Bruce Summers to again include Oregon seafood in its commodity purchases. Summers oversees the agency’s Agricultural Marketing Service, which buys U.S. products for nationwide food assistance programs.

Read the full article at the Oregon Capital Insider

OREGON: Oregon legislators urge USDA to make more West Coast seafood purchases

June 11, 2024 — Agroup of U.S. senators and representatives from Oregon are urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase government purchases of seafood originating from the West Coast.

The USDA made USD 52 million (EUR 48 million) in seafood purchases from the U.S. West Coast in 2022 at the legislators’ urging but, previous to that, had not requested Pacific Coast seafood in its commodity-purchasing programs, according to a letter sent to USDA Administrator Bruce Summers from U.S. senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and U.S. representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Salinas

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: Pelicans are starving: Scientists might know why

June 3, 2024 — There’s a broken link in the food chain of California’s brown pelicans, adding a sad chapter to one of conservation’s most striking success stories.

Emaciated birds are turning up in California’s ponds, reservoirs, backyards and even San Francisco’s Oracle Park during a baseball game—far from their wild ocean home.

Wildlife centers are inundated with the gangly, prehistoric-looking seabirds, nursing them back to health with fluids, fish and medications, but the cost is a staggering $1,500 per bird. Injuries can easily double the cost.

“They’re feathered skeletons,” said Rebecca Duerr, director of research and  at International Bird Rescue, which is treating 200 pelicans at its Fairfield center and 70 pelicans in Los Angeles. “Hunched over and folded up.”

Read the full article at The Mercury News

Hoping to protect turtles, feds announce limited fishing restrictions off West Coast

June 2, 2024 — In an effort to protect endangered loggerhead sea turtles, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced on Thursday that fishing with large-mesh drift gillnets will be prohibited in federal waters off the coast of Southern California from the beginning of June until the end of August.

The announcement was made after officials determined that El Niño weather conditions are happening in Southern California.

El Niño causes a variety of weather effects across the United States — including warmer water in the Pacific and in turn less phytoplankton for fish to eat, disrupting the food chain of sea creatures that eat those fish.

Large-mesh drift gillnets are sometimes miles-long nets used to catch fish like swordfish. They can inadvertently catch other sea creatures like whales, dolphins, sharks and turtles.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

OREGON: Oregon officials warn about paralytic shellfish poisoning from mussels

May 30, 2024 — An outbreak of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) has sickened at least 20 people in the U.S. state of Oregon, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).

The people who have reported as sick were recreationally harvesting mussels on 25 May or 26 May at either Short Beach near Oceanside, at Hug Point, or at Seaside in Clatsop County. Some have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

SLO County Judge Rules Against Local Fishermen

May 26, 2024 — A San Luis Obispo County judge last week rejected a request from Morro Bay and Port San Luis fishermen for a preliminary injunction to stop wind energy companies from surveying the ocean floor.

Signed into law in Oct. 2023, Senate Bill 286 requires the statewide strategy for wind energy to include best practices for addressing impacts to commercial and recreational fisheries. Local fishermen argue wind companies have failed to follow best practices because they have not put protocols in place to protect the fishing industry.

San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen found the requirements in Senate Bill 286 vague. Specifically, when the protocols and protections need to be in place: before or after work is completed.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

CALIFORNIA: Dungeness crab fisherman expand testing of pop-up traps amid CA’s continuous early season closures

May 26, 2024 — For Brand Little and the crew of the Pale Horse, fishing for Dungeness crab is an increasingly tight business. Like the rest of the fleet, he’s watched the crabbing season shrink, with early closures meant to protect migrating whales from becoming entangled in trap lines. But this season, he’s still pushing his traps into the sea, weeks after last month’s official closing.

It’s part of an experimental program that’s now expanded to more than two dozen boats. All using special pop-up trap systems, designed to avoid entanglements.

“It’s a lot more work. Takes maybe three to four times as long as traditional gear. It’s not easy, but what we’ve been going through isn’t easy either. I mean, we’ve had 80% of our opportunity taken away,” Little said.

While it’s lying on the ocean floor, the boat is able to locate the individual trap, and then trigger the release using a remote device. The buoy shoots to the surface, carrying the line with it. The crew retrieves the line and pulls up the trap, limiting the time a whale could come in contact with it.

Little was one of two beta testers.

Read the full article at ABC 7