Saving Seafood

Satellite Study Says Tuna Longliners Vastly Misreporting Compliance with Sea Bird Avoidance

February 4, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Seabirds, in particular birds like albatross, are highly vulnerable to longlines, and in some fisheries managed by the US, take of a single bird can shut down the fishery.

The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) lists 15 of 22 albatross species as endangered.

To mitigate bycatch, the RFMO’s in the Indian Ocean, Western Pacific, and the Atlantic have mandated measures to prevent bird interactions with longlines, such as night setting, use of weighted lines to sink faster, and use of streamers to keep birds away during setting.

However, the RFMOs depend on vessel self reporting.  Apparently a large number of vessels are lying about their mitigation measures.

According to a study of satellite data released by Birdlife International, only 15% of tuna longline vessels are using night setting, the single bycatch reduction measure most effective for albatross.

But the industry has been reporting compliance with night setting at levels between 29% and 85%, depending on the fishing area.

The study looked at satellite data for 201 vessels, analyzing their movement, speed, direction of travel and time, to determine when they were night setting.  The results showed only 15% of the vessels were actually using the practice.

The findings offered a stark contrast with reports given by countries to fisheries watchdogs that suggested night-setting was used at a much higher rate by  fleets.

“The results are very disappointing,” said Stephanie Winnard, a biologist with the albatross task force, a specialist unit set up by Birdlife International and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “By this stage you would expect a lot more vessels to be using night setting.”

The aim of the research was to encourage best practice, to which end the results will be shared with the countries whose vessels were studied.

Albatrosses, petrels and other seabirds are “irresistibly drawn” to the trailing, baited longlines, said Winnard. Each year, an estimated 100,000 birds are hooked and drowned by longline and trawl fisheries.

“This level of bycatch in the fishing industry is hugely unsustainable for birds that can take up to 10 years to start breeding,” said Winnard, who added that the findings were “truly powerful” for the way the data shed light into the “opaque world” of global fisheries and their impact on ocean biodiversity.

“No one is going to report they are not sticking to the rules or they are killing seabirds, so we now have this independent way of measuring compliance,” said Winnard. “This information has never before been public. It is usually kept behind closed doors. It will promote transparency and hold countries to account. It is the first time we’ve been able to see what is happening on individual fishing boats.”

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

El Niño fears grow as starving baby birds wash up on California beaches

September 5, 2018 — Scores of starving baby seabirds have been washing up on Northern California beaches this summer, raising fears among scientists that a climatic cycle like the one that wreaked havoc on sea creatures a few years ago may be moving in.

More than 100 undernourished common murre babies have been plucked from beaches from Monterey to Marin County by biologists and volunteers with International Bird Rescue and are being rehabilitated at the organization’s Fairfield center.

J.D. Bergeron, the executive director, said it is unusual at this time of year for the center to have more than a handful of baby murres, a native fish-eating seabird that, with its dark color and white belly, looks like a cute, foot-long penguin.

Normally at this time, he said, the chicks are out at sea being fed by their fathers while the mothers go off to replenish energy reserves after giving birth. But rising ocean temperatures may have made it difficult for the fathers to find the cold-water fish the birds normally eat. Large numbers of beached seabirds have also been found in Alaska this year.

“Obviously there could be some sort of environmental contaminant, but, since the babies are coming in healthy but starving, we think this is a food issue,” Bergeron said. “One of our concerns is that, while this has been all chicks, we will see a followup event with the adults.”

Record high ocean temperatures in Southern California in August created widespread alarm among marine biologists.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

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

 

Fishermen, researchers try to outsmart bait-robbing seabirds to save them

October 24, 2017 — When commercial fishermen spool out long lines in pursuit of sablefish— better known to consumers as black cod — seabirds looking for an easy meal dive to steal the bait off the series of hooks.

Some unlucky birds get hooked and drown as the line sinks to the deep. And when the drowned bird is an endangered species such as the short-tailed albatross, it triggers scrutiny.

“Just one was all it took. Yeah, just one,” said Amanda Gladics, a coastal fisheries specialist with Oregon Sea Grant. “Because they are endangered there is a lot of scrutiny on every single time any of those albatrosses are caught in a fishery.”

Gladics and colleagues from Oregon and Washington went to sea to determine the best tactics to avoid bycatch and published those in the journal Fisheries Research.

The paper recommends either fishing at night or deploying bird-scaring streamers on a line towed from a mast.

Read the full story at KTOO Public Media