Saving Seafood

Pacific Heat Wave Known As ‘The Blob’ Appears To Be In Retreat

March 16, 2018 — Ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest seem to be returning to normal after a three-year spike in water temperature.

It’s promising long-term news for fishermen who are looking ahead in the short term to yet another year of low salmon returns.

A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outlined the latest ocean observations for the organization that sets salmon catch limits off the West Coast. The Pacific Fishery Management Council will set those limits in early April.

The extended marine heatwave of the past few years has been nicknamed “the Blob.”

“The high pressure system over the North Pacific basically got stalled out and stuck there. And so the ocean warmed up about 6 degrees Fahrenheit,” NOAA’s Toby Garfield said.

Then a strong El Niño came through that reinforced these conditions.

“There have been a number of these events, these marine heat waves, that have occurred in the North Pacific. But the one we had in ’13, ’14, ’15 was the by far the largest in the record going back 45 years,” Garfield said.

And the effect on sea life was serious. Whales, sea lions and seabirds starved because the warm water didn’t support tiny nutrition-rich plankton called copepods at the base of the food chain.

Within the past year, the El Niño effect has dissipated, and other longer-term climate cycles are shifting back toward a more average level.

Read the full story at OPB

 

Zero Dollars for Marine Mammals?

February 27, 2018 — The future of marine mammals is at risk in U.S. waters. President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 would eliminate the Marine Mammal Commission. With an annual operating budget of $3.4 million, which comes to just over one penny per American per year, the Marine Mammal Commission has for 45 years been assiduously developing science and policy to protect seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, dugongs and walruses. Through the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Congress charged the commission with providing independent oversight of marine mammal conservation policies and programs being carried out by federal regulatory agencies. Obviously, with a proposed budget of zero dollars, it would be impossible to execute the federally mandated objectives of fostering sustainable fisheries (through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act [MSA]) and protecting endangered species (through the Endangered Species Act [ESA]).

Marine mammals are more than just lovable creatures. They are important components of productive marine and coastal ecosystems that overall generate $97 billion of the gross domestic product. Whales function as ecosystem engineers by cycling vital nutrients between deeper and surface waters in the oceans. Without this nutrient cycling, oceans would produce less plankton and phytoplankton, which would eventually mean less fish. Also, through complex food-web interactions, marine mammals help to regulate fish populations. For example, marine-mammal–eating killer whales (often called “transient” killer whales) will eat seals, a common predator of pelagic fish—enabling fish populations to stay high. This kind of interaction is called a trophic cascade and is very common in marine ecosystems.

Serving as an independent oversight body, the commission has the critical task of assessing the scientific validity and effectiveness of research conducted to meet the federal mandates of the MMPA, ESA and MSA. If we as a country can’t even protect the charismatic species, I worry for all the less adorable parts of nature. So we need to draw a line in the sand. In this era of “fake news,” maintaining this entity to guard against encroachments to science-based policymaking on is more valuable than ever.

Read the full story at the Scientific American

 

California sea lion population rebounds

January 24, 2018 — California sea lions are doing just fine. Thanks for asking.

More than fine, actually.

Sea lions have fully rebounded with an estimated population of more than 250,000 in 2014, according to a recent study by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1975, the population was estimated at less than 90,000.

The study reconstructed the population’s triumphs and trials over the past 40 years.

“The population has basically come into balance with its environment,” co-author Sharon Melin, a research biologist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said in a statement. “The marine environment is always changing, and their population is at a point where it responds very quickly to changes in the environment.”

NOAA’s declaration that California sea lions have fully rebounded does not mean a “delisting” as it would if the sea lion was listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“Although there is no provision in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (which protects sea lions) to delist a species, there is a provision that allows states to ask NOAA Fisheries to take over management of species that have reached carrying capacity (in the law it is called Optimum Sustainable Population or OSP) and potentially do more to control their numbers,” wrote NOAA spokesperson Michael Milstein when announcing the report’s findings.

The goal now, Melin said, is to keep the population balanced between 183,000 and 275,000 individuals.

The rebound is a victory for the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. But as in other instances of animal populations beating the odds — wolves, for example — it’s a success story that comes with challenges.

As the California sea lion population has grown, the animals have expanded their range, bringing them into conflict with humans and endangered fish.

Where you sit’

In Astoria, male California sea lions have taken over an entire stretch of docks at the Port of Astoria’s East Mooring Basin. Port employees have attempted numerous deterrent tactics over the years, everything from fluttering wind dancers to a fake killer whale. Nothing has really worked.

Upward of 1,000 pinnipeds were recorded in a single daily count at the mooring basin in 2015. While fewer sea lions returned this spring, plenty showed up in the fall and many have stuck around through the winter instead of leaving like they have in the past, said Janice Burk, marina manager.

The port plans to install more low railing fabricated by students from Knappa along the docks in the spring. It has proved to be the one deterrent that seems to work. Sometimes.

Read the full story from the Columbia Basin Bulletin at the Chinook Observer

 

ALASKA: Underwater camera keeps an eye on Atka mackerel

July 27, 2017 — Counting Atka mackerel became really important, according to National Marine Fisheries Service Biologist Suzanne McDermott, when Steller sea lions were declared endangered in 1997.

“We learned that Atka mackerel are their main food item,” McDermott said. “That’s when we really started looking at them in relation to Steller sea lions.”

McDermott knows the mammals face competition for their food — commercial fishermen. In 2016, Alaska fishermen caught and kept 55,000 metric tons of Atka mackerel and discarded another 532 tons as bycatch.

This summer, McDermott and her colleague David Bryan traversed the Aleutian Chain to answer a big question: are there enough fish to support both endangered Steller sea lions and commercial fishermen?

Read and listen to the full story at Alaska Public Media

More California sea lions are dying because of poisonous algae blooms

April 20, 2017 — During an average year, rescue workers at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach may encounter one pregnant sea lion suffering from domoic acid poisoning — a potentially deadly illness that occurs when the animals eat fish that have been feeding on toxic algae.

In the last two weeks however, the center has recorded 14 sea lion deaths due to domoic acid poisoning.

“Other rescue facilities are also seeing the same animals,” center spokeswoman Krysta Higuchi said. They’re “all over the place.”

In 2007, the last time the problem was this severe in Southern California, 79 sea lions died from domoic acid poisoning despite efforts by the center to rescue them, Higuchi said.

State officials have issued warnings against eating mussels, clams or whole scallops harvested recreationally in Santa Barbara County.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Tougher sea lion control law introduced in Congress

April 12, 2017 — The Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act, introduced April 8 by U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR), aims to “clear up inefficiencies and red tape to allow more effective management of alarming predation levels by California sea lions on Columbia River spring Chinook and other species.”

If approved by Congress and the president, the legislation will authorize states and tribes to remove a limited number of predatory sea lions. It allows active management of the growing Columbia River sea lion population and removes a requirement that individual sea lions be identified as preying on salmon before they can be removed.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) five-year review, sea lion management actions are needed in the Lower Columbia. The service stated, “…predation by pinnipeds [sea lions and seals] on listed stocks of Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead, as well as eulachon, has increased at an unprecedented rate. So while there are management efforts to reduce pinniped predation in the vicinity of Bonneville Dam, this management effort is insufficient to reduce the severity of the threat, especially pinniped predation in the Columbia River estuary (river miles 1 to 145) and at Willamette Falls.”

A limited removal program has been in effect since 2011 but the NMFS review concluded that the current program doesn’t do enough to protect endangered salmon. Last year, approximately 190 sea lions killed over 9,500 adult spring Chinook within sight of Bonneville Dam. This represents a 5.8 percent loss of the 2016 spring Chinook run a quarter mile of Bonneville Dam alone. NOAA Fisheries Service also estimates that up to 45 percent of the 2014 spring Chinook run was potentially lost to sea lions in the 145 river miles between the estuary and Bonneville Dam.

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

Mixing new technology and people power for an accurate count of endangered Steller sea lions

October 4, 2016 — Fall at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center means researchers are sifting through all the data they collected over the summer months in the field. For the Steller sea lion team that means reviewing hundreds of thousands of photos.

Every summer AFSC’s Marine Mammal Lab scientists conduct Steller sea lion surveys along the Aleutian Island chain, an area of concern for the endangered Steller sea lion. Sea lions in the central and western Aleutian Islands have continued to decline.

During the surveys, scientists take expansive photographs from the air and ground, capturing rugged coastlines filled with thousands of sea lions. They also look for permanently marked animals to learn how certain individuals are faring over the course of their lives.

Advanced technology like hexacopter drones offer easier access to hard to reach locations where Steller sea lions live. Sophisticated maps and data visualizations clearly showcase detailed information and effectively demonstrate patterns and trends, especially to the general public. All of this leads to better insights and more accurate assessments about the health of the endangered population.

Read the full story at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center

RAY HILBORN: Sardine stories

April 14, 2016 — At the end of February, Dr. Geoff Shester, California campaign director for the nonprofit advocacy group Oceana, criticized the Pacific Fishery Management Council for the persistence of low numbers of California sardines. The lack of a population recovery may cause the commercial moratorium to last until 2017.

The author explained this sardine population decline as being 93 percent less than it was in 2007. Shester does not believe this is because of environmental causes like climate change, El Niño or natural fluctuations in forage fish species, however. Instead he blames the management body.

“They warned of a population collapse, and the fishery management body basically turned a blind eye and continued moving forward with business as usual.”

Shester also cited recent sea lion deaths, specifically 3,000 that washed ashore in California in 2015.

See the full story at the National Fisherman. Reproduced with permission. 

West Coast Sardine Populations, Long Sinking, Look Even Worse in Forecast

February 26, 2016 — Sardines off the West Coast have continued on a steep decline, with populations this summer forecast to be down 93 percent from a 2007 peak, according to a draft assessment from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The sardines are a key forage food for sea lions, salmon and many other species, as well as a source of income for commercial fishermen.

In some years, sardines have been worth from $10 million to more than $20 million annually to a West Coast fleet.

Last year, the sardine implosion was so severe that the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to call off the season that was scheduled to start in July for West Coast fleets, including those in Washington state.

This year, as the council meets this spring, it will have more bad news on sardines to review.

The stocks of sardines aged one year or older are forecast to be 64,422 metric tons, about a third lower than the 2015 assessment.

“Pacific sardines are an incredibly important economic and ecological ocean resource,” said Geoff Shester, a fishery scientist with Oceana, a marine conservation group. “Fishermen with lost income will suffer financially, and marine animals like California sea lion pups will face another year of fighting starvation.”

Albert Carter, of Ocean Gold Seafood in southwest Washington, said sardines are a significant part of the company business when populations are strong.

Carter, who serves on a Pacific Fishery Management Council advisory committee, said he has not had a chance to review the new sardine assessment. But he said if populations have continued to decline, he does not expect a 2016 season.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

Remember the Oceans!

November 25, 2015 — On Nov. 30, more than 140 world leaders, including President Obama, will meet in Paris for the beginning of a historic two-week conference on climate change. There’s already been a flurry of voluntary national pledges, increasing confidence that the meeting will likely result in the first global agreement on emissions reductions. What they won’t be discussing, however (due to diplomatic quirks), is the effect of climate change on the world’s largest and most important ecosystem: the oceans.

That’s a shame. As I wrote this summer in Rolling Stone, there’s increasing evidence that the world’s oceans are nearing the point of no return. They’re getting hit with a double whammy—rising temperatures and acidification—that together are forcing fundamental changes to the basis of the planet’s food chain.

So far, the oceans have absorbed about 93 percent of all the additional heat energy trapped by rising greenhouse gas concentrations. That’s already prompted the loss of about 40 percent of the world’s coral reefs, accelerated by a series of worldwide bleaching events in which exceptionally warm water temperatures prompt normally symbiotic algae to become toxic—the most recent of which was just this year. Since coral reefs—the “rainforests of the sea”—support a quarter of all marine life on just 0.1 percent of the ocean area, a mass extinction may already be underway. If we lose the oceans, we lose everything.

Water temperatures this year in the North Pacific have surged to record highs far beyond any previous measurements. That means krill and anchovies have been forced into a narrow corridor of relatively cooler water close to the shore, and predators like whales are feasting on the dregs of an ecosystem. Along the coast of California, there’ve been sightings of rarely present species such as white pelicans, flying fish, Mexican red crabs, and nearly extinct basking sharks. Last year, a subtropical Humboldt squid was caught in southern Alaska—along with a thresher shark that was also far from its natural range. After a startling number of starving baby California sea lions began washing up on shore a couple of years ago, a colony has taken up residence in the Columbia River in Oregon. Marine life is moving north, adapting in real-time to the warming ocean. But for how much longer?

Read the full story at Slate