Saving Seafood

The muddy waters of US ocean protection

August 18, 2020 — At the beginning of June, President Trump issued an executive order to open the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument to commercial fishing, chipping away at one of former President Obama’s last acts in office: the closure, in supposed perpetuity, of 5,000 square miles of ocean off the coast of Massachusetts.

The monument, straddling the edge of the continental shelf, is the only marine reserve on the Eastern Seaboard. The canyons and seamounts shelter 54 species of deep-sea corals and provide habitat to lobster, tuna, deep-diving beaked whales, and the now-critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

“This would be the only place along the entire Eastern Seaboard that has no vertical lines for entangling marine mammals,” said Auster.

The Antiquities Act affords the president unilateral power to protect the ocean. Unlike conservation through restrictive management or multi-use sanctuaries, a national monument protects everything it encompasses.

It does not require a process of approval by stakeholders, which for sanctuaries can drag out for many years—time that is precious for ecosystems on the brink of collapse. That’s precisely why the Councils, while they haven’t taken a stance against the use of the Antiquities Act in the ocean, have lobbied to remove fishing restrictions from the marine national monuments, which together constitute more than 99 percent of all the highly protected marine habitat in the U.S. If there are going to be national monuments in the ocean, they argue, the fisheries within them should be managed with the same multi-stakeholder consensus that applies throughout the rest of federal waters.

“The ban on commercial fishing within Marine National Monument waters is a regulatory burden on domestic fisheries, requiring many of the affected American fishermen to travel outside U.S. waters with increased operational expenses and higher safety-at-sea risks,” wrote Regional Fishery Management Council representatives in a May letter to the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur L. Ross Jr.

Though few boats fish in the northeast canyons, and none fish on the seamounts, control over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts is a matter of principle, and precedent, for the New England Fishery Management Council. Shortly after Trump’s executive order in June, the Council created a deep-sea coral amendment that imposed fishery closures and gear restrictions on a substantial portion of the monument.

Read the full story at the Environmental Health News

Groups File Petition for Additional Speed Limits Along Atlantic Coast to Protect Right Whales

August 13, 2020 — Earlier this month a number of conservation groups came together to file a petition seeking additional speed limits along the Atlantic Coast to protect North Atlantic right whales. The letter, submitted to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver on August 6, begs the National Marine Fisheries Service to take action to prevent and mitigate the continuing threat of vessel strikes.

The call for action comes shortly after the death of a calf this past June. As SeafoodNews reported, the deceased North Atlantic right whale was spotted off the coast of Elberon, New Jersey, on June 25. The whale was ultimately identified as a male calf of whale #3560. A necropsy conducted by NOAA revealed evidence of at least a pair of vessel collisions.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Make ship speed limits mandatory to protect right whales, advocates say

August 11, 2020 — Vessel speed limits must be mandatory offshore when endangered northern right whales are present, because ship strikes are a leading cause of deaths in the whale population now down to only around 400 animals, ocean conservation groups say in an appeal to the U.S. government.

“The unprecedented number of recent deaths and serious injuries warrants the agency acting quickly to ensure that this endangered species receives the protections necessary to reduce the risk of vessel strikes and ensure its continued existence throughout its range,” the groups state in a petition submitted Aug 6 to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Chris Oliver, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“The time has come for NMFS to follow through on the promises it made in 2008 to expand the ship speed rule based on the best available scientific data to address the urgent crisis the right whale faces,” according to the groups Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund.

“While the species faces a plethora of threats, collisions with marine vessels remains one of the two primary threats inhibiting the species’ recovery and threatening its continued existence,” according to the groups. “Since 2017, just over half of the known or suspected causes of mortality for the species have been attributed to vessel strikes, closely followed by incidental entanglements in fishing gear.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Right whales pose more problems for Maine lobster industry

August 10, 2020 — Last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, violated federal environmental protection laws several years ago when a “biological opinion” it issued failed to give adequate consideration to the risk the lobster fishery posed to endangered right whales. 

On Monday, the Maine lobster industry was back in federal court in Washington, D.C., as the judge began the hearing testimony on what remedies he should impose to bring the fisheries service, and the lobster fishery, into compliance with those laws. 

At risk for Maine fishermen is the continued use of lobster traps marked by vertical buoy lines. 

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Help Endangered Whales: Slow Down in Slow Zones

August 6, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries announces a new “Right Whale Slow Zones” campaign asking all vessel operators to slow down or avoid areas where right whales have been detected to reduce the risk of vessel strikes to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. This effort is complementary to other NOAA vessel strike reduction efforts. It brings together sighting and acoustic detection information to inform mariners of right whale presence and encourages vessels of all sizes to slow down in areas where right whales have been detected.

We would like to thank our North Atlantic right whale Northeast U.S. Implementation Team, our partners and advisers on right whale recovery activities from Maine through Virginia, who identified this opportunity to enhance vessel strike reduction efforts using acoustic information.

Working together we can make a difference for right whales. Read more about our new campaign in our web story.

Read the full release here

The lobster industry has lost a crucial certification for sustainability

August 4, 2020 — In significant news for the lobster industry, the Marine Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of lobster as sustainable, citing concerns about the lucrative industry’s effect on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The suspension, effective Aug. 30, applies to all lobster in the Gulf of Maine, according to the council, a London-based nonprofit that sets international standards for sustainable fishing.

“The suspension comes following an expedited audit and thorough review … during which it was determined that the fishery no longer meets the MSC fisheries standard,” said Jackie Marks, a spokeswoman for the council.

The suspension was linked to a federal district court ruling in April that found that the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect right whales from becoming entangled in millions of lobster lines.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

MSC suspends Maine lobster fishery certification

August 4, 2020 — The Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association (MCLSA) has announced that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the Maine lobster fishery has been suspended due to a recent decision on a federal court case.

The case, the Center for Biological Diversity v. Ross, found that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to include an “incidental take statement” for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale. As a result, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found that the U.S. lobster fishery is in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New Online Tool Launched to Track Ship Speeds in Areas Frequented by Right Whales

July 22, 2020 — Oceana has released a new online tool that allows anyone to track ship speeds in speed zones designed to protect North Atlantic Right Whales along the east coast of the U.S. and Canada.

Using Global Fishing Watch data, which is a component of the new tool called Ship Speed Watch, Oceana Canada tracked ship speeds in the Cabot Strait from April 28 to June 15, 2020.

During the 49-day period, Transport Canada asked vessels longer than 13 meters to slow down to 10 knots.

Only a few complied, with 67 percent of the ships (464 out of 697) traveling faster than the 10-knot limit, and some traveling 20 knots or faster.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

North Atlantic right whales listed as ‘critically endangered’ — one step below extinction

July 16, 2020 — North Atlantic right whales are now listed as “critically endangered,” with approximately only 400 remaining, data from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium states. Given this striking plummet in population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) relisted the species as “critically endangered” from its previous “endangered.”

The Smithsonian Magazine reports that the majority of right whale deaths over the past three years have been a result of encountering boats and fishing endeavors along the coastal U.S. and Canada. Right whales reportedly swim with their mouths open to eat, and are often fatally entangled in nets and lines cast for lobsters and fish.

“We are running out of time to save these magnificent yet very vulnerable animals,” said Vikki N. Spruill, the New England Aquarium’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “Whaling nearly killed right whales in the early 1900s. Science tells us that we need to take immediate and urgent steps to prevent that from happening now.”

The right whales have been suffering population declines since 2017, when there was a total of 17 confirmed dead whales between U.S. and Canadian waters. While numbers in 2018 and 2019 were not that large, an additional 13 deaths were recorded cumulatively, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries data.

Read the full story at The Hill

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Updates Classification of the North Atlantic Right Whales from Endangered to Critically Endangered

July 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently changed its Red List Category for North Atlantic right whales from Endangered to Critically Endangered. The criteria used to evaluate this change are outlined in the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, Section V. Within the United States, North Atlantic right whales are already in the highest risk category possible under both the Marine Mammal Protection Act (Strategic and Depleted) and Endangered Species Act (Endangered).

In 2019, NOAA Fisheries also added North Atlantic right whales to our Species in the Spotlight initiative, which focuses resources on the most imperiled endangered species under NOAA Fisheries’ jurisdiction. While IUCN Red List categories have no direct relationship to categorizations under the MMPA or ESA, NOAA Fisheries shares the IUCN’s concern for North Atlantic right whales. We continue to use our authority under the MMPA and ESA to protect and recover the species.

Read the full release here