Saving Seafood

A new formula for whale preservation

February 17, 2016 — WOODS HOLE — From 750 feet above Northeast ocean waters, right whale researchers can easily pick out “Ruffian” for his many scars or “Baldy” for her lack of rough skin patches. Other right whales, though, may take hours to identify.

A new “face recognition” algorithm for right whales, however, announced recently by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, could lead to development of time- and money-saving software and eventually to greater preservation of a species whose global population is 520, right whale experts say.

The new algorithm, created in an international competition sponsored by NOAA Fisheries and the Natick software developer MathWorks, can identify right whale “faces,” or tissue patterns on the top of their heads, with 87 percent accuracy, according to Christin Khan, a NOAA Fisheries biologist and right whale aerial surveyor. Khan, who works in Woods Hole, pursued the idea of facial recognition software for the right whales, and researched how to get the algorithm built, through an online competition that began in August and ended in January.

The winning team, out of 364 entries, was from the software company deepsense.io, with offices in the United States and Poland.

The new algorithm is a first step to developing software for day-to-day use, Khan said. The algorithm, in its initial form, is for aerial photos only, not for photos taken from a boat, Khan said. But the potential is great and part of the growing use of technology to protect whales, several right whale experts said.

“Right now we’re living in the golden age of whale research in terms of technology,” Dave Wiley, research coordinator for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, said. “The things we’re doing now I couldn’t even have imagined 20 years ago. This Cape Cod area is probably at the forefront of all this stuff.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Whale habitat change concerns fishermen

February 2, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — NOAA Fisheries announced last week that it was expanding the critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. The designated area is much larger than the one it replaces, and now includes all of the Gulf of Maine on the U.S. side of the national boundary with Canada.

The designation also was applied to an expanded area of the whales’ southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat within the range of the species consists of areas that contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of the species.

The final rule, which was first proposed in February 2015 and received 261 general comments over a 60-day comment period, does not include any new restrictions or management measures for commercial fishing operations. It does not create preserves or refuges.

However, federal agencies conducting, funding or permitting activities in these areas are required to work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or reduce impacts on critical habitat.

The announcement has sparked long-standing disagreements between environmental and animal organizations and commercial fisheries.

Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelle called the decision “a lifeline” for right whales in a blog post published Friday. “The HSUS and its allies have been fighting for an expansion of protected habitat since 2009, and it’s a victory for us over commercial fishermen and shipping interests that have irresponsibly downplayed their role in driving down the numbers of these mammoth creatures,” he wrote.

Read the full story at Mount Desert Islander

 

Feds protecting South Carolina waters for endangered whales

January 26, 2016 — A stretch of the southern Atlantic coast needed by endangered right whales to survive will receive more federal oversight under a decision that’s expected to put greater government scrutiny on efforts to locate and drill for oil and gas off the South Carolina seashore.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday declared the entire South Carolina and Georgia coasts as “critical habitat’’ for North Atlantic right whales, rare sea mammals that migrate from New England to southern waters. Parts of north Florida, New England and southern North Carolina also fall under the designation for the first time.

Tuesday’s decision doesn’t necessarily preclude oil and gas drilling in South Carolina or other states and it won’t add new regulations that would impede shipping or commercial fishing, federal officials said.

But it “would definitely make it harder’’ for oil and gas exploration to occur, said David Gouveia, a marine mammal coordinator for NOAA’s fisheries division. The critical habitat designation allows the government to more carefully review the proposals to search or drill for fossil fuels that might be buried in the sea floor, federal officials said. If concerns arise, the government could recommend changes.

Not only will the agency look at the direct impact of oil and gas development on right whales, but it also would examine how that could affect habitat important to the species’ survival, Gouveia said during a conference call with reporters. The government unveiled the proposal about a year ago and finalized the rule Tuesday.

Fishing for a solution for endangered right whales

December 29, 2015 — Sometimes technology solves a problem, sometimes it makes it worse.

When researchers at the New England Aquarium and the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown examined ropes recovered from whales entangled in fishing gear from 1994 to 2010, they found that entanglements for North Atlantic right whales, the world’s most endangered great whale species, accelerated dramatically from 1993 to 2010, in both frequency and in the severity of the entrapment.

The culprit, scientists believe, is a new type of rope known as Polysteel, that rope manufacturers began making and marketing to fishermen and others in the marine trades as being 40 percent stronger and more durable than other synthetic ropes. Plus, the lobster industry also shifted from wood to wire traps that allowed them to use heavier gear and for the pots to stay in the water through the winter, increasing the likelihood of interaction with whales.

Even though fishermen already employ weak links designed to break and separate the line from the buoy when a whale pulls on it, researchers found the lines themselves were still doing a lot of damage.

“It was a huge change,” said Amy Knowlton, the lead author of the study and a research scientist with the New England Aquarium working to reduce the risk of whale entanglement and death from fishing gear and lines. Scientists put the number of North Atlantic right whales that can be lost due to human causes at less than one per year, if the population is going to increase and avoid extinction. The National Marine Fisheries Service has calculated that 3.25 right whales per year either died or were severely injured between 2007 and 2011 by being caught up in fishing gear and lines. The agency estimates that 83 percent of the right whale population shows scarring from fishing gear.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Activists and fishermen team up to address record whale entanglement

December 10, 2015 — Past efforts have pitted the wildlife experts and fishermen against each other and offered little additional protection for whales. This year, the two camps are trying something different: cooperation.

Fishermen have long been at odds with wildlife experts who claim lobster and crab traps are killing whales. And unusually warm waters off the coast of California this year have already caused 60 whales to become entangled in offshore fishing gear.

In response to a 400 percent increase in whale entanglements this year, whale advocates and fishermen teaming up to find solutions that protect both whales and area fishermen whose livelihoods depend on traps in the sea.

Prevention strategies over the last twenty years haven’t done much to help whales and only served to bankrupt the fisherman, says Geoff Shester, California campaign director for Oceana. This time around, wildlife advocates and fishermen are trying a new strategy: cooperation.

“We’ve got pots in the water, we’ve got ropes in the water and we’ve got whales in the water,” crabber Jim Anderson told the Associated Press. “What can we do to make this a safe place for everybody?”

Read the full story at The Christian Science Monitor

Study measures drag from fishing gear entanglements on North Atlantic right whales

December 9, 2015 — Entanglement in fishing gear is the leading cause of death for North Atlantic right whales—one of the most endangered of all the large whale species. Their migratory routes take them through some of the busiest commercial fishing areas along the East Coast of the United States and into Canada.

Entangled whales can tow fishing gear for tens to hundreds of miles over months or even years, before either being freed, shedding the gear on their own, or succumbing to their injuries.

In a paper published online Dec. 9, 2015, in Marine Mammal Science, a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has for the first time quantified the amount of drag on entangled whales that is created by towing fishing gear, such as rope, buoys, and lobster and crab traps. The study provides important data for teams evaluating the risks and benefits of whale disentanglements.

“We know that entanglement can change a whale’s diving and swimming behavior and depletes their energy,” said Julie van der Hoop, lead author of the paper and a PhD Candidate in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, “but the big thing we have never really known is what it must be like for animals to tow the gear. Is it like wearing an empty backpack or is that backpack overloaded with heavy books? Does removing part of the gear improve chances of survival? These are some of the questions that we were looking to answer with this research.”

Read the full story from Phys.org