Saving Seafood

BILL MCWEENY: Innovation can save whales and lobstermen

June 21, 2021 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) claims that NOAA’s rulemaking efforts to address entanglement threats are an overreach because right whales no longer come to the Gulf of Maine, and over many decades, only one right whale has been found in Maine lobster gear.

I feel it is important to correct MLA on several counts, as it is unfortunately presenting only a small part of this complex story. First, since 1980, right whale scientists have photographed right whales throughout their range and have documented at least 1,617 entanglements involving 87 percent of the population based on the presence of entanglement scars or attached fishing gear. The research suggests that right whales are being entangled in all types of United States and Canadian east coast fishing gear with often 60 or more entanglement events per year.

Also, while some right whales have shifted their distribution, they still occur in waters that Maine lobstermen fish in every month of the year with some sightings in Maine state waters. Acoustic data backs up past official and opportunistic sightings confirming that right whales are no strangers to Maine fishing grounds. A recent deployment of acoustic buoys recorded calls from right whales off Casco Bay, Monhegan Island, Milbridge, Great Duck Island, Lubec, the Schoodic ridges, all around Mount Desert Rock and many calls from Outer Falls.

MLA states on its website that only one right whale has ever been entangled in Maine gear, and that was in 2002. It is mistaken. It is true that there was a right whale entangled in Maine lobster gear in 2002 and it was disentangled and is probably alive today because of that. But the MLA fails to acknowledge two other cases.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Regulators are using underwater drones to enforce lobster trap rules

June 14, 2021 — The enforcement of lobster trap rules far offshore is getting increased attention from state and federal regulators, who are turning to new technology to inspect gear for compliance with requirements that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from deadly entanglements.

Michael Henry, a top fisheries enforcement officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration here in the Northeast, said physically inspecting bulky gear out in federal waters dozens of miles off Maine can be a daunting and time-consuming task.

“It’s been a challenge for us for a long time to be able to effectively haul lobster gear offshore — just the environmental challenges, the safety challenges,” he said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Lobstermen And Conservationists To Closely Watch Right Whale Court Case

June 11, 2021 — There are just over 360 right whales left in the world, and the fight is on to save them. Conservationists and fishermen will be closely watching a federal court case closely over the next 12 days.

“Arguably, the existence of the Massachusetts lobster fishery is at stake today,” said Eve Zuckoff, a reporter at GBH’s Cape Cod bureau who joined Henry Santoro on Morning Edition today to talk about the right whale court case.

The case is being pushed by activist Max Strahan, who wants a judge to ban Massachusetts from authorizing fisheries that use vertical ropes that can entangle and kill North Atlantic right whales.

Zuckoff explained that today’s case builds on a judge’s order from last year that gave the state 90 days to get a key federal permit that would increase federal oversight of the lobster industry.

Read the full story at WGBH

New buoy line changes benefit whales

June 11, 2021 — Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission unanimously approved a proposed plan for new buoy line marking rules for lobster and crab fishermen. The buoy line markings proposal was first introduced to the commission in January, which took recommendations from a public hearing in May.

According to Bob Glenn, a member of the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), these markings are important for the protection of the North Atlantic right whales in Massachusetts waters. In 2020, DMF provided comments to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) saying Massachusetts should have its fisheries, specifically lobster and crab fisheries, listed separately, based on its “very conservative” management program to protect the whales. The list is usually published in September or October, which is why the buoy line markings proposal is being pushed for this year. However, the NMFS was not willing to provide a separate designation, because the gear Massachusetts fishermen use was not different enough from other states in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

The Center for Coastal Studies spotted 89 right whales in March in the Cape Cod Bay area. The whales had migrated elsewhere by May 13, allowing fisheries to open a little earlier than usual. Daniel McKiernan, director of the DMF, said these whales are routinely photographed via aerial surveys within a range from Plymouth to Provincetown. McKiernan said in the past 12 years, there have been only two nonlethal, off-season entanglement cases in Massachusetts. According to a risk reduction model DMF received from NMFS called a decision support tool, the estimates say DMF’s efforts since 2015 have helped reduce marine life mortality by 85 to 95 percent.

Read the full story at MV Times

NOAA’s whale framework draws fire from fishermen, conservationists

June 9, 2021 — A framework released by the National Marine Fisheries Service last month that calls for reducing risks to the endangered North Atlantic right whale in federal fisheries has been criticized both by conservationists and lobstermen, though for different reasons.

The framework was included in the service’s long-awaited biological opinion and requires the reduction of risks to the whales by a cumulative 98 percent in the next 10 years.

The exact measures to ensure this reduction have yet to be determined and are expected later this year, but conservationists have heavily criticized the 10-year timeline, which they argue is much too slow and not in line with rules under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

“A lot of the conservation community feel that the timeline that NOAA has laid out in the bi-op may not hold up legally,” said Zack Klyver, the director of science at Blue Planet Strategies.

Klyver and other conservationists said that under the act, the federal government is supposed to institute a plan that will get potential deaths down to almost zero annually within six months, but the fisheries service’s plan only gets there after several years.

“What they’ve suggested is they start much higher and over a 10-year period bring it down to zero,” he said.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Federal plan to save whales could mean big changes for lobster industry

June 7, 2021 — Federal officials recently released plans to all but eliminate risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, but Maine lobster industry leaders fear the plan will only shift the risk of the extinction from the whales to the lobstermen.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its final biological opinion May 27 – a requirement under the federal Endangered Species Act. This document becomes the basis of rule-making surrounding the specific species, in this case, the North Atlantic right whale.

Officials found that, provided they meet the reduction targets in the implementation framework, none of the 10 fisheries included in the document, among them the lobster fishery, were “likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the North Atlantic right whales.”

Patrice McCarron, director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, fears the industry can’t sustain that level of change.

“If you look at the changes we’ve made over the last 25 years, there’s not a lot left to give,” she said.

By the final phase, “I don’t see how we would even have a fishery. There’s not a lot of obvious ways we could do this and still have our fleet intact,” she said. “It’s really hugely concerning.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Entanglements in fishing gear stunting growth of right whales, study finds

June 4, 2021 — Entanglements in fishing gear, which have been among the leading causes of death of North Atlantic right whales, are likely also stunting their growth and causing the critically endangered species to reproduce less often, a new study found.

The research raises questions about the findings of a major report on the species released last month by the federal government and could have a significant impact on how it regulates the lobster industry, which has been the primary source of entanglements. The population of right whales has plummeted over the past decade by a quarter, with scientists estimating that fewer than 370 remain.

The long-term study, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, estimated that a calf born in recent years was likely, when mature, to be about 3 feet shorter in length than those born in the 1980s. Entanglements have become more of a problem for whales in recent decades, as ropes have increasingly used synthetic materials and become stronger.

“Stunting of growth is a classic sign that a species is in trouble,” said Michael Moore, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a coauthor of the study. “Smaller mothers are less capable of being successful breeders, because they have a smaller fuel tank and less lactation. That’s the biggest concern.”

He and other authors said the findings call into question a long-awaited report released last month by the National Marine Fisheries Service that found the lobster industry isn’t jeopardizing the survival of right whales. A federal judge last year ordered the agency to produce the report, known as a biological opinion, after rulingthat it had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to reduce entanglements.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Money and focus on endangered whales

June 3, 2021 — Money and focus on endangered whales

A move to earmark more money for Massachusetts Environmental Police to conduct more patrols to monitor the endangered right whales in state waters is the right step but must be part of a comprehensive plan to save this species.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, filed an amendment to the $47 billion state budget to add just $250,000 for more of these patrols, which many people say could sharpen the lookout for whales and spot lost or abandoned fishing gear, which often entangles and kills right whales.

Although some advocates for North Atlantic right whales, which scientists say number about 360, urge a ban on lobstering and fishing in state waters, that extreme measure is impractical and would doom a vital Massachusetts industry.

Fisheries officials do impose temporary closures of some areas when whales are migrating, one of many measures meant to protect the species. The most recent example was earlier this year, when the state’s lobster fishery was closed for more than a month following whale sightings.

Statehouse reporter Christian Wade reported last week that fishing groups support more funding for marine patrols, because more surveillance could help reduce collisions with non-fishing vessels and likely pinpoint more “ghost nets” which have been broken off or abandoned by fishing boats.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Sets Framework to Reduce Right Whale Entanglements

June 1, 2021 — As North Atlantic Right whale populations continue to dwindle, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has put out a new biological opinion that will require fixed gear and trap pot fisheries in the Northeast to reduce whale entanglements by 87 per cent over the next decade.

Issued by NOAA Fisheries on May 27, the nearly 600-page opinion includes a phased, four-step conservation framework to cut down on serious injury and mortality for the species throughout federal waters along the Atlantic coastline, although it does not detail the specific conservation measures necessary to achieve the reduction.

The opinion follows a federal U.S. District Court ruling that NOAA had violated the Endangered Species Act by not adequately regulating the lobster industry, instituting a Take Reduction Plan that allowed for approximately three times as many right whale deaths per year as was sustainable.

Current conservation measures proposed by NOAA’s right whale take reduction team include new rules on the Jonah crab and Northeast region lobster industry that focus on gear markings, vertical line and rope reduction, seasonal fishery restrictions or closures and weaker rope for pots. The rules represent the first phase of the conservation framework, and will reduce right whale serious injury and mortality by an estimated 60 per cent.

But the new biological opinion and conservation framework claims that is not nearly enough to save the species from extinction.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

‘Troubling’ impact on lobster fishery seen in federal study of right whale population

June 1, 2021 — The federal government on Thursday released a new report saying the lobster fishery poses a risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale population.

The assessment, conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, is expected to have a severe impact on the fishery. The long-term ramifications “remain troubling,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement.

The assessment calls for the fishery to reduce the potential for serious injury and death to right whales by 60% over the coming decade. Based on periodic evaluations during that time, the risk reduction target could be increased to 87% in 2030.

“The lobster fishery as we know it will not exist if this is fully implemented,” the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said in a statement. Maine is home to the nation’s largest lobster fishery, and brought in a catch of over $400 million last year despite the pandemic.

Read the full story at MaineBiz