Saving Seafood

Sharks have been a major disruption for fishermen off the Outer Banks this year

June 24, 2017 — Sharks are chomping the catch of the day.

Fishing off the Outer Banks has been great this year, especially with big hauls of tuna. But boat captains are losing up to 20 fish a day to the opportunistic predators.

Able to smell, hear or sense the struggling fish from miles away, sharks come like a pack of wolves. In some cases, anglers are reeling in nothing but the head.

“You can’t even get a fish to the boat,” said Jack Graham, first mate on the Fintastic, a charter boat based at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. “You get a bite and look back and there’s just a big cloud of blood.”

Sharks are taking the catch along with thousands of dollars in fishing gear, he said.

Captains could bring in their boats with the tuna limit by midmorning if not for sharks gobbling the catch, said Carey Foster, mate on the Smoker, also docked at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.

“The last couple of weeks, they’ve been horrible,” he said.

State fishing summaries include reports of sharks preying almost exclusively on tuna catches.

“This is the highest bite rate I’ve seen in 27 years,” said Brian Melott, a port agent for the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. “These bites ain’t small either.”

Melott surveys anglers and collects catch measurements and other data as part of an ongoing fisheries census.

The two primary species attacking are dusky and sandbar sharks, Graham said. Dusky sharks grow up to 14 feet long and are known for their powerful jaws. Sandbar sharks can reach about 8 feet.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Cape Cod Warned of Shark Boom

June 26, 2017 — A great white shark population boom is underway off Cape Cod, with as many as 150 expected in local waters this summer — and first responders are training to keep an eye out for the massive predators and deal with their traumatic bites.

“They have multiplied in numbers exponentially since I became chief,” said Orleans fire Chief Anthony Pike, who has led Orleans Fire and Rescue for the past three years. “Great white sharks comprise about 30 percent of my daily work right now, and I never, ever thought that would be a thing.”

Massachusetts Marine Fisheries scientist Gregory Skomal and others began studying the regional population of white sharks in 2014, when they counted 68 great whites. Last summer, that number was 147.

Skomal says 40 percent of the 141 sharks his research team tracked in 2015 returned to Cape waters in 2016. According to the Atlantic Shark Conservancy, there have already been eight confirmed great white sightings this month. Great whites typically patrol to the cool ocean waters off Chatham and other Cape towns between July and October, and Skomal — who has been with Marine Fisheries for 30 years — said the number of shark sightings has jumped over the past decade.

“For my first 20 years we never talked about sharks,” Skomal said.

Great whites travel to the Cape to prey on the area’s large population of gray seals. The last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts was in 1937, and if one of the animals does bite a human, Skomal said it’s most likely a case of “mistaken identity.”

“You know, biting the person thinking that it might be a normal prey item like a seal. Typically, the shark won’t eat the person,” Skomal said. “As a result, though, white sharks have very big jaws and sharp teeth, and cause traumatic injuries, and those kinds of traumatic injuries could lead to fatality.”

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

Handling and Release of Prohibited Atlantic Sharks

June 21, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries has released a new video to help anglers identify dusky and other prohibited shark species. Focused on safe handling and release of sharks and current fishing regulations, the video accompanies a suite of educational materials. We have updated our Recreational Shark Identification and Regulations Placard, added a new Prohibited Shark Identification Placard, and updated our handling and release brochure. All of these materials are available for download.

New Regulations

Beginning January 1, 2018, recreational fishermen, including charter/headboat fishermen that fish for, retain, posses, or land sharks in federal waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean must have a valid “shark endorsement” added to their HMS permit. Atlantic tunas General category and Swordfish General Commercial permit holders must also have a shark endorsement for registered tournaments. The video is required viewing for permit holders requesting the shark endorsement, and will be followed by a brief, educational quiz.

We Need You

Help us ensure the recovery of dusky and long-term sustainability of all Atlantic sharks. Please share this video and related materials to spread the word and educate fellow recreational fishermen. For further information, contact Cliff Hutt (Cliff.Hutt@noaa.gov) or Karyl Brewster-Geisz (Karyl.Brewster-Geisz@noaa.gov) or visit our website.

Sharks should be happy about new Google Earth survey of seal populations

June 14, 2017 — Gray seals are booming. They’ve flocked to coastal Massachusetts, where hunters once killed the animals wholesale — a dead seal’s nose could fetch a $5 reward in the 1960s.

Twenty years ago, there were about 2,000 seals near Cape Cod and Nantucket. A new estimate, published Wednesday in the journal Bioscience, suggests there are now as many as 50,000.

‘‘We should be celebrating the recovery of gray seals as a conservation success,’’ said David Johnston, an author of the study and marine biologist at Duke University .

Where seals go, sharks often follow. Great white sightings in Cape Cod increased from 80 in 2014 to 147 in 2016. Johnston said the shark spike may be linked to the seals. ‘‘One of our tagged animals was killed by a white shark,’’ he said.

Maine and Massachusetts once placed bounties on seals because fishermen feared they would gobble up valuable fish such as cod. (There is little evidence that seals actually compete with fishermen, Johnston said.) The century-long bounty hunt claimed up to 135,000 animals.

The seals bounced back after 1972’s Marine Mammal Protection Act outlawed the killings. ‘‘I’m a firm believer if you just stop doing bad things to wildlife they will recover,’’ Johnston said. The seals’ recovery raised a question infrequently asked in conservation: What happens after success?

‘‘We haven’t done a great job of preparing people,’’ he said, ‘‘that they would be back again.’’

Part of that means quantifying the success. In 2011, a National Marine Fisheries Service aerial survey estimated 15,000 seals swam in southeastern Massachusetts waters.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

White sharks rebound in California

June 10, 2017 — Most of the millions of beachgoers who flock to southern California’s coast never notice the baby sharks swimming laps just offshore, but that’s starting to change.

The sharks aren’t on the prowl for sunblock-glazed snacks: the Southern California Bight – the coastal waters from Santa Barbara to the U.S.-Mexico border – is a white shark nursery.

It’s where the young predators hide out, stay warm, and learn to hunt, before joining adults in deeper seas.

Though their species has long been declining, baby white sharks are making a surprising comeback in the Bight.

Their return tells a bigger environmental success story: federal and state regulations stretching back 40 years have curtailed pollution and repaired the marine food web that includes white sharks (formerly called great white sharks). “You can’t have an ecosystem that’s badly damaged and have predators,” Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University-Long Beach, says.

The Bight’s baby white sharks declined for a number of reasons, Lowe says: poor water quality, their decimation as gillnetting bycatch, and the near-extirpation of the prey that adult sharks rely on.

Likewise, no single environmental law saved them. Instead, a suite of regulations enacted from the 1970s to the mid 1990s helped restore southern California’s coastal ecosystem enough for its white shark nursery to eventually start recovering.

Read the full story at Business Insider

New protections for threatened dusky sharks taking effect

June 7, 2017 — New protections for a species of threatened East Coast shark go into effect this week.

Dusky sharks range from Maine to Florida and are down to about 20 percent of their 1970s population off the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.

The sharks are in decline in part because of years of harvesting them for their meat, oil and fins. It’s already illegal to fish for them off the U.S., but they sometimes get caught as bycatch.

The federal government is rolling out new protections for the shark this week, starting on June 5. One measure requires longline fishing vessels that target fish such as tuna and swordfish to take new precautions when they accidentally catch a dusky shark and release it.

 The environmental group Oceana is suing the federal government for better protection of the sharks. The group contends the new rules to protect dusky sharks don’t go far enough.

Read the Associated Press story at The Gloucester Times 

Shark Landings Update Through May 19, 2017

May 26, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

The following are preliminary landings estimates in metric tons (mt) and pounds (lb) dressed weight (dw) for the Atlantic shark commercial fisheries; 1 mt is equal to 2,204.6 pounds.  These preliminary estimates are based on dealer reports and other information received from January 1 through May 19, 2017.  The estimates include landings by state-only permitted vessels, federally permitted vessels, and the 2017 shark research fishery participants.  We provide percentages of landings instead of estimated landings where needed to continue ensuring participant confidentiality.  The fishing seasons for all shark management groups opened on January 1, 2017, except for the aggregated LCS, blacktip shark, and hammerhead shark management groups in the western Gulf of Mexico sub-region which opened on February 1, 2017.  

Gulf of Mexico Region

  • Includes any landings south and west 25° 20.4′ N. long.
  • As of 5/19/2017, the retention limit for directed permit holders is 45 large coastal sharks other than sandbar sharks per vessel per trip in the eastern Gulf of Mexico sub-region and no retention of large coastal sharks in the western Gulf of Mexico sub-region1.
  • The retention limit for directed permit holders can change throughout the season.

Sub-Region

Shark Management Group

2017 Quota

 

Estimated Landings Through 5/19/2017

% of 2017 Quota

2016 Landings Through same reporting period

Eastern

Gulf of Mexico (East of 88° W. lat. only)

Blacktip

36.0 mt dw

(79,359 lb dw)

11.1 mt dw

(24,411 lb dw)

31%

15.5 mt dw

(34,117 lb dw)

Aggregated Large Coastal (quota linked to Hammerhead)

85.5 mt dw

(188,593 lb dw)

24.7 mt dw

(54,515 lb dw)

29%

39.9 mt dw

(88,031 lb dw)

Hammerhead

(quota linked to Agg. LCS)

13.4 mt dw

(29,421 lb dw)

<4 mt dw

(<8,818 lb dw)

<30%

6.3 mt dw

(13,884 lb dw)

Western

Gulf of Mexico (West of 88° W. lat. only)

Blacktip

331.6 mt dw

(730,425 lb dw)

207.2 mt dw

(456,815 lb dw)

63%

Closed1

165.7 mt dw

(365,268 lb dw)

Aggregated Large Coastal

(quota linked to Hammerhead)

72.0 mt dw

(158,724 lb dw)

65.2 mt dw

(143,818 lb dw)

91%

Closed1

66.1 mt dw

(145,624 lb dw)

Hammerhead

(quota linked to Agg. LCS)

11.9 mt dw

(26,301 lb dw)

2.5 mt dw

(5.541 lb dw) 2

24%

Closed1

16.8 mt dw

(37,063 lb dw)

N/A

Non-Blacknose Small Coastal

112.6 mt dw

(248,215 lb dw)

21.4 mt dw

(47,155 lb dw)

19%

13.2 mt dw

(29,040 lb dw)

N/A

Smoothhound

504.6 mt dw

(1,112,441 lb dw)

0 mt dw 

(0 lb dw)

0%

0 mt dw

(0 lb dw)

1 Fishery closed at 11:30 p.m. local time on May 2, 2017 (82 FR 20447).

 2 The landings decrease from the previous month is due to removal of duplicate records.  

Atlantic Region

  • Includes any landings north of 25° 20.4′ N. lat.
  • As of 5/19/2017, the retention limit for directed permit holders is 3 large coastal sharks other than sandbar sharks per vessel per trip, and the retention limit for all permit holders is 8 blacknose sharks per vessel per trip1.
  • The retention limit for directed permit holders can change throughout the season.  

Shark Management Group

2017 Quota

Estimated Landings

Through 5/19/2017

% of 2017 Quota

2016 Landings through same reporting perio

Aggregated Large Coastal

(quota linked to Hammerhead)

168.9 mt dw

(372,552 lb dw)

49.3 mt dw

(108,671 lb dw)

29%

34.7 mt dw

(76,518 lb dw)

Hammerhead

(quota linked to Agg. Large Coastal)

27.1 mt dw

(59,736  lb dw)

4.3 mt dw

(9,427 lb dw)

16%

8.3 mt dw

(18,282 lb dw)

Non-Blacknose Small Coastal

(quota linked to Blacknose south of 34° N. lat. only)

264.1 mt dw

(582,333 lb dw)

47.0 mt dw

(103,674 lb dw)

18%

31.4 mt dw

(69,281 lb dw)

Blacknose 1

(South of 34° N. lat. only)

17.2 mt dw

(37,921 lb dw)

4.4 mt dw

(9,743 lb dw)

26%

9.3 mt dw

(20,527 lb dw)

Smoothhound

1,802.6 mt dw

(3,971,587 lb dw)

56.8 mt dw (125,318 lb dw)

3%

70.5 mt dw

(155,352 lb dw)

1 NMFS implemented a retention limit of 8 blacknose shark per vessel per trip on January 13, 2017 (81 FR 90241; December 12, 2016).  NMFS implemented a change in the retention limit of large coastal sharks other than sandbar for all directed permit holders on April 13, 2017 (82 FR 17765, April 13, 2017).

No Regional Quotas

Shark Management Group

2017 Quota

Estimated Landings

Through 5/19/2017

% of 2017 Quota

2016 Landings through same reporting period

Shark Research Fishery

(Aggregated LCS)

50.0 mt dw

(110,230 lb dw)

5.1 mt dw

(11,305 lb dw)

10%

3.7 mt dw

(8,219lb dw)

Shark Research Fishery

(Sandbar only)

90.7 mt dw

(199,943 lb dw)

23.4 mt dw

(51,530 lb dw)

26%

21.5 mt dw

(47,479 lb dw)

Blue

273.0 mt dw

(601,856 lb dw)

< 2.3 mt dw

(< 5,000 lb dw)

<1%

0 mt dw

(0 lb dw)

Porbeagle

1.7 mt dw

(3,748 lb dw)

0 mt dw

(0 lb dw)

0%

0 mt dw

(0 lb dw)

Pelagic Sharks Other Than Porbeagle or Blue

488.0 mt dw

(1,075,856 lb dw)

53.0 mt dw

(116,923 lb dw)

11%

33.6 mt dw

(74,029 lb dw)

Aggregated Large Coastal (LCS)

Hammerhead

Non-Blacknose Small Coastal

Pelagic Sharks other than Porbeagle or Blue

Smoothhound

– Blacktip (Atlantic region only*)

– Bull

-Lemon

– Nurse

– Silky   

– Tiger

– Spinner

                                       

 

– Great Hammerhead

– Smooth Hammerhead

– Scalloped Hammerhead

– Atlantic sharpnose

– Bonnethead

– Finetooth

– Common thresher

– Shortfin mako

– Oceanic whitetip

 

– Smooth dogfish**

– Florida smoothhound

– Gulf smoothhound

*Blacktip shark is part of its own management group in the Gulf of Mexico Region

** Smooth dogfish is the only smoothhound species in the Atlantic Region 

NMFS will announce closures of management groups when landings reach or are projected to reach 80 percent of the quota.  Management groups that are quota linked close when landings of either of the linked management groups reach or are projected to reach 80 percent of the quota.

This notice is a courtesy to the HMS fishery participants to help keep you informed about the fishery.  For further information on this landings update, contact Karyl Brewster-Geisz or Guý DuBeck at 301-427-8503.  The information will also be posted on the HMS website at:  http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/news/news_list/index.html.

MASSACHUSETTS: Great White Shark Numbers Increasing On Cape Cod

May 26, 2017 — We’re getting close to that time of year, when the great white sharks make their annual visit to the waters of Cape Cod. Cape Cod is the only known aggregating site for white sharks in the North Atlantic.

According to the latest study by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the number of great white sharks vacationing there appears to be rising. That’s a public safety issue for towns, according to the state’s top shark expert.

Guest

Gregory Skomal, program manager and senior marine fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. His research group tweets @a_whiteshark.

Interview Highlights

On their survey of the numbers of great white sharks

“We are right in the middle of a 5-year population study … what I can tell you … is how many individuals we’ve tabulated year for the last couple of years. In 2016 for example, we identified 147 individual white sharks along the Eastern shoreline of Cape Cod. The year prior to that, it was 141 and the year prior to that in 2014, it was about 80. So we’re seeing that subtle increase from year to year. And as tempted as I am to say that it’s actually an increase in the population size, it’s more likely a shift in the distribution of sharks in response to the growing seal population.”

On how the seals are attracting sharks

“Most people don’t realize the interesting history of the seal populations on the Northeastern coast of the U.S. They had been all but drive to extinction a couple of hundred years ago. And now, with protection that was put in place in the early 1970s, we’ve seen the slow growth in the population that has now resulted in literally tens of thousands of seals along our coastline. And that has drawn the attention of one of their predators, the white shark.”

Read and listen to the full story at WBUR

Sustainable Shark Alliance, Southeastern Fisheries Association Applaud Florida Law Cracking Down on Illegal Shark Finning

May 25, 2017 — The following was released today by the Sustainable Shark Alliance and the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) and the Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) applaud the State of Florida, Governor Rick Scott, and the Florida Legislature for passing a new law strengthening prohibitions against the illegal act of shark finning. The bill was passed unanimously by both chambers of the Florida Legislature and signed into law yesterday by Gov. Scott. It will take effect beginning in October.

The legislation raises existing fines and penalties for shark finning, which has been illegal under federal law for decades, and codifies a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rule prohibiting this practice. Anyone caught removing shark fins before the shark has been landed at the dock will be subject to escalating punitive measures, such as fines and suspended permits, that culminate in a loss of all Florida fishing license privileges for a third offense.

“The SSA is grateful to Florida’s lawmakers for taking an approach that both protects sharks and allows law-abiding fishing families to continue to earn a living,” said Shaun Gehan, an attorney for the SSA. “This is the right way to eliminate shark finning and promote shark conservation. While some have proposed measures that would totally eliminate the sustainable harvest of sharks, Florida is showing why U.S. shark fisheries continue to be the gold standard around the globe.”

As originally introduced, the bill would have completely eliminated the sale and trade of shark fins in Florida. But after industry and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission presented facts about how Florida’s commercial fishermen responsibly land and harvest sharks, the bill was altered to specifically target those engaged in illegal shark finning. It was introduced in the Florida Senate by Sen. Travis Hutson, where it passed 39-0, and in the Florida House by Reps. Joe Gruters and Alex Miller, where it passed 115-0.

“This bill started out bad but ended up good, because lawmakers listened to their constituents and listened to the science,” said SFA Executive Director Bob Jones. “Our commercial fishermen catch the whole shark in a process that is rigorous and transparent. We despise anyone that would take any kind of animal and cut part of it off and just throw the rest away. That’s immoral and that’s wrong.”

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation.

About the Southeastern Fisheries Association

The Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) is a Florida-based nonprofit trade association founded by a core group of fish dealers in 1952. The SFA defends, protects, and enhances the commercial fishing industry in the Southeastern United States while maintaining healthy and sustainable stocks of fish.

Shark Fin Soup Could Become Extinct Across the United States

May 23, 2017 — The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act by U.S. Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton would extend a similar prohibition to all 50 states. In the upper house, Sen. Cory Booker’s Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act would prohibit the import, export, sale and trade of shark fins. The fishing industry is fighting the legislation, while animal rights advocates say the practice of finning, in which sharks are often maimed and left for dead, needs to stop.

Shark finning is illegal in domestic waters, but sharks are sometimes caught outside the United States and their fins imported. Advocates for the business argue that federal regulations already require all domestic fishing to be ecologically sustainable and that so few sharks fins traded in the United States — the Sustainable Shark Alliance says the country is responsible for about 3 percent of global shark fin trade — that the law is unnecessary.

“We believe in sustainable harvesting [of] every aquatic species and using the whole animal whenever possible,” says Robert Vannase, executive director of Saving Seafood, a public outreach group funded by the commercial fishing industry. “There is demand for shark fins, and we think it makes much more sense for that demand to be fulfilled by well-regulated, sustainable fishing rather than to have the U.S. check out of the market entirely.”

Industry advocates emphasize that when sharks are caught or imported, the whole fish is used. Banning shark fins would contradict this ethos of sustainable fishing, they say. “Why would you throw them in the trash,” says Greg DiDomenico, executive director of New Jersey’s Garden State Seafood Association and a vocal critic of the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act. He adds that such a ban could put some small-scale fishing concerns out of business. “This is a razor-thin margin business,” DiDomenico says. “It will remove another choice for American working fishermen.”

“It’s punishing people who are playing by the rules,” adds Shaun Gehan, an attorney for the pro-fishing-industry Sustainable Shark Alliance.

Read the full story at L.A. Weekly