Saving Seafood

MSC delivers a pinch to Canada’s snow crab fishery

March 6, 2019 — Canada’s snow crab fishery is looking ahead at another year without its Marine Stewardship Council certification, but the real risk may be at the hands of the ecolabel.

Last March, the MSC scrambled to suspend its certification of Eastern Canada’s snow crab fishery after a high rate of right whale entanglements and deaths traced back to the fishery in 2017.

What happened next was a little surprising — the lack of a label didn’t have much effect on prices. Despite a buoyant market, Canada’s fixed-gear fleets as well as federal and provincial managers set about on an international mission to work with their neighbors to the south who have long been fighting the good fight to reduce right whale interactions.

Maine’s lobster fishery has been at the forefront of gear innovations to coexist with right whale migratory and feeding patterns. Ten years ago, the fleet made an expensive conversion to sinking groundline instead of using floating rope between pots on a trawl. But the population of an estimated 411 right whales has been expanding its territory into Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, where regulations haven’t been as robust.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Extended: Voluntary Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

March 4, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) previously established south of Nantucket has been extended to protect an aggregation of 10 right whales sighted in this area on March 1.

This DMA is in effect through March 17, 2019.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less. Whales were spotted in or near shipping lanes so please be especially vigilant when traveling in these areas.

Nantucket DMA coordinates:

41 12 N
40 28 N
070 36 W
069 31 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Cape Cod Bay SMA — in effect through May 15

Mid-Atlantic U.S. SMAs (includes Block Island) — in effect through April 30

Southeast U.S. SMA — in effect through April 15

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. With an unprecedented 20 right whale deaths documented in 2017 and 2018, NOAA is cautioning boaters to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking commercial fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales, remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements, and use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are slightly more than 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

Whale-saving efforts target oil and gas companies

February 21, 2019 — In an effort to protect endangered whales, conservation groups today filed a motion to stop oil and gas companies from conducting seismic airgun exploration from Delaware to Florida.

“In my expert opinion, the introduction of seismic airgun surveys off the U.S. East Coast represents an existential threat to the North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species that is already in a dangerous state of decline,” Scott Kraus, vice-president and senior science adviser for the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, said in an expert declaration filed with the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is poised to issue permits to five oil and gas exploration companies, and seismic surveys could begin as early as March 30, according to the motion.

The plaintiffs want to halt “seismic airgun blasting” in the Atlantic until the merits of their claims are resolved in court, according to the motion.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Extended: Voluntary Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

February 19, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) previously established south of Nantucket has been extended to protect an aggregation of 19 right whales sighted in this area on February 17.

This DMA is in effect through March 5, 2019.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Nantucket DMA coordinates:

41 12 N
40 28 N
070 36 W
069 31 W

Active Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Cape Cod Bay SMA — in effect through May 15

Mid-Atlantic U.S. SMAs (includes Block Island) — in effect through April 30

Southeast U.S. SMA — in effect through April 15

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. With an unprecedented 20 right whale deaths documented in 2017 and 2018, NOAA is cautioning boaters to give these endangered whales plenty of room as they migrate south. We are also asking commercial fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales, remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements, and use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are slightly more than 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

More Info

Recent right whale sightings

Find out more about our right whale conservation efforts and the researchers behind those efforts.

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS

Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.

Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law.

Questions? Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, at 978-281-9103

Read the full release here

Mini baby boom births hope for right whales

February 14, 2019 — It appears that there has been some North Atlantic right whale whoopee going on, but whale researchers on Wednesday cautioned against viewing the recent sightings of six right whale calves as a sure sign of resurgence for the beleaguered species.

Whale researchers on Tuesday confirmed the sighting of the sixth right whale calf off the coast of Florida, elevating the 2018-2019 calving season above each of the past two years, but still well below the 20-year average of 17 calves per calving season.

“It’s definitely not enough to take the view that things have turned around for right whales,” said Philip Hamilton, a research scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.

Right whales migrate along the Atlantic coast each year, arriving in New England waters to feed in the late winter and early spring, congregating on Stellwagen Bank and off Cape Cod. They migrate south in the fall to give birth off Florida and Georgia.

Going into this calving season, whale researchers estimated there are only 411 North Atlantic right whales remaining in the oceans, down from about 500 in 2010.

The imperiled state of the North Atlantic right whale stock has thrust fisheries regulators, such as NOAA Fisheries, conservationists and fishing stakeholders into action to try to reverse the dire trend of a shrinking right whale population.

So, producing any right whale calves during the 2019 calving season— which runs roughly from Dec. 1 until late March —remains something of a cause for celebration. It represents a significant improvement over 2018, when none were born, and a (to date) modest increase over 2017, when five calves were born.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

There’s a whale baby boom off Florida’s east coast; 5th North Atlantic right whale calf spotted

February 12, 2019 — There’s a whale baby boom taking place off Central Florida’s east coast for the “rarest” of the world’s large whales.

On Friday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported on its Facebook page that during the current North Atlantic right whale birthing season, a fifth calf has been spotted off Florida — this time near Sebastian Inlet State Park with a first-time mother.

“Volunteers with Sebastian Inlet State Park sighted a mother-calf pair February 5, 2019, just off the beach,” the FWC posted on its Flickr account. “Photographs taken by Park Ranger, Ed Perry, confirm the mother is Catalog #4180. Right whale #4180 is at least eight years old and this is her first known calf. The pair was observed resting and nursing at the surface.”

So, why do five right whale calves constitute a baby boom?

Read the full story at the Orlando Sentinel

Lobster industry willing to be ‘right-sized’ for right whales?

February 11, 2019 — Last week, there was much ado in the lobster industry, particularly in Maine where fishermen, regulators and legislators are discussing the possibility of loosening some of the permitting constraints to accelerate the pace of issuing new licenses in a classic old guard vs. new guard tableau.

On a more macro level, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said its American lobster management board is considering new measures to reduce the amount of vertical fishing lines in the water as a further protection for right whales.

The goal, they said, is to remove as much as 40 percent of the existing lines and gear through a combination of gear changes, trap limits, area closures and other actions to make the waters safer for the highly imperiled right whales that probably are starting their migration north as we speak.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Regulators to consider reducing lobstermen’s lines to protect right whales

February 8, 2019 — Regulators will consider removing up to 40 percent of the lines that link seabed lobster traps to buoys on the surface, taking the step in the hopes of protecting the endangered North Atlantic right whale and avoiding federal restrictions on the lobster fishery.

Fishermen who serve on the American Lobster Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission say the action is required to prevent the federal government from declaring the lobster fishery a threat to North Atlantic right whales, whose population has dwindled to 411 because of changes in habitat, low calving rates, ship strikes and entanglement in fishing lines. If the federal government places a “jeopardy” finding on the species, it would likely trigger far more burdensome restrictions on Maine’s $1.4 billion a year lobster industry, board members said.

Better that fishery participants decide what concessions they can live with than leave it up to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

ASMFC American Lobster Board Initiates Draft Addendum XXVIII

February 7, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board initiated Draft Addendum XXVIII to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster. The Draft Addendum considers reducing the number of vertical lines in the water in response to concerns about the North Atlantic right whale population and the potential impacts of whale conservation measures on the conduct of the lobster fishery.

“With this proposed action, the Board is entering uncertain waters,” stated Maine Commissioner Pat Keliher. “However, as the lead management authority for American lobster, we have a responsibility to ensure the viability of the lobster fishery. Through the active engagement of the states and the lobster industry in our management process, we believe the Board is best suited to navigate the growing challenges facing the lobster fishery.”

A key focus of the Board meeting was the intersection of lobster management and the conservation of protected resources. While the Commission is primarily a forum for the Atlantic coast states to cooperatively manage fish and shellfish species, the Board noted several factors associated with North Atlantic right whale conservation which could substantially impact the economic and cultural future of the lobster fishing industry. These include future recommendations of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team and the anticipated Biological Opinion being developed under the Endangered Species Act. Given the high economic value of the lobster fishery and its social significance to coastal communities, the Board agreed it is important to ensure the implementation of measures to conserve North Atlantic right whales takes place in a way that maintains the sustainability and culture of the lobster fishery.

Draft Addendum XXVIII will propose options to reduce vertical lines from zero to 40%, to be achieved by trap limits, gear configuration changes, seasonal closures, and/or the acceleration of currently planned trap reductions. The Board noted reductions will consider ongoing state and federal management actions, including trap reductions and trap caps, which have already reduced vertical lines. By initiating this action, states can continue to cooperatively participate in the management of this species during ongoing discussions on the conservation of North Atlantic right whales. In addition, those who are most familiar with the intricacies of the lobster fishery, including industry, can provide input on future regulations.

Read a PDF copy of the release here

New drive to reduce lobster fishing gear to help rare whale

February 7, 2019 — Interstate fishing managers are starting the process of trying to reduce the amount of lobster fishing gear off the East Coast in an attempt to help save a declining species of rare whale.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announced on Wednesday that it would consider options designed to reduce vertical lobster fishing lines in the water by as much as 40 percent. The lines pose a threat to the North Atlantic right whale, which is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

The commission said it would try to reduce the amount of gear with a combination of trap limits, seasonal closures, changes to gear configuration and other methods. The rules are under development and it will take months before they come up for public hearings.

The commission said in a statement that the drive to reduce lines in the water is “in response to concerns about the North Atlantic right whale population and the potential impacts of whale conservation measures on the conduct of the lobster fishery.” But some lobster fishermen said they need more details about the effort before they will get on board.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle