Saving Seafood

Long Island a Possible ‘Breeding Ground’ For Great White Sharks, Experts Say

June 13, 2016 — Ever since the blood-curdling screams of an ill-fated skinny dipper, who met her famous demise in the opening scene of “Jaws,” generations of beach-goers have approached the water with bone-chilling trepidation.

Now, a leading shark research team has said it suspects Long Island might be a breeding ground for great whites and has launched a tagging expedition to be able to determine potential birthing sites.

But the news isn’t reason to panic: Experts agree that swimmers have a greater danger of being killed by a faulty toaster oven — or driving on the Long Island Expressway, for that matter — than being devoured by a shark.

According to OCEARCH Chief Operating Officer Fernanda Ubatuba — OCEARCH is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shark research — if you look at a global shark tracker, five mature female great white sharks have been tagged in the past three to four years, and it seems that “there is certain activity in that region.”

Great white sharks, she said, travel from Florida to Canada, “and you can see their activity sometimes overlaps around Long Island.”

OCEARCH has launched a Kickstarter campaign to tag and research great white sharks in the North Atlantic; that research might help to investigate sample sites and ultimately determine definite breeding sites around Long Island, Ubatuba said.

The team will tag juvenile great whites in New York waters, the campaign site says.

Technology utilized by OCEARCH aims to allow people to see, in real time, “breeding and mating sites for the first time in history. It’s amazing,” she said.

Read the full story at Patch

‘Shark Infestation’ Affecting Fishers?

June 7, 2016 — Sharks are eating onaga and other fish faster than fishermen can reel them in, compromising the quality and amount of fish that can be harvested in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, according to the territory’s acting governor, Victor Hocog.

He asked the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council on Monday to work with CNMI on regulations affecting his people.

“The greatest predator is the sharks … not the human,” Hocog said in a news release that Wespac issued Monday.

He delivered the opening remarks on the council’s first day of meetings in CNMI and Guam this week.

“If you put 12 hooks down to catch onaga, ehu, whatever it is, you are very lucky when you pick up three out of the 12 on the hook because of the shark infestation around our islands,” Hocog said.

CNMI is on the verge of developing infrastructure for its expanding tourism industry and the hotels would need high-grade fish, according to the release. The quality of the fish is seriously compromised when sharks remove the head or body of the fish, the release said.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat 

Closure of the Commercial Fisheries for Blacknose Sharks and Non-Blacknose Small Coastal Sharks South of 34˚N Latitude on May 29, 2016

May 26, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

NOAA Fisheries has announced it will close the commercial fisheries for both blacknose sharks and non-blacknose small coastal sharks (SCS) south of 34˚00’ N. latitude effective 11:30 p.m. local time May 29, 2016. In accordance with the Coastal Sharks Interstate FMP, states are required to prohibit the commercial landing, harvest and possession of these shark species in state waters until NOAA Fisheries reopens the fisheries.

Commercial shark dealer reports received, as of May 23, 2016, indicate that landings for commercial Atlantic blacknose sharks are projected to exceed 80% of the available quota by May 27, 2016. Specifically, dealer reports indicate that 9.3 metric tons (mt) dressed weight (dw) or 59% of the available Atlantic blacknose shark quota had been landed and 31.5 mt dw or 12% of the available Atlantic non-blacknose small coastal shark (SCS) quota had been landed (Appendix 1). The blacknose shark and non-blacknose SCS fisheries south of 34˚00’ N. latitude are quota-linked under current regulations, meaning if landings of either fishery are projected to exceed 80% of the available commercial quota then the both fisheries will close.

All other shark species or management groups that are currently open in the Atlantic region will remain open, including the commercial Atlantic non-blacknose SCS management group north of 34°00′ N. latitude.

The Federal Register closure notification can be found at:  https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/05/27/2016-12631/atlantic-highly-migratory-species-commercial-blacknose-sharks-and-non-blacknose-small-coastal-sharks

Please contact Ashton Harp, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or aharp@asmfc.org if you have questions.

Challenge to California’s shark-fin ban fails in U.S. Supreme Court

May 24, 2016 — California’s ban on the possession and sale of shark fins survived a legal challenge Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Bay Area suppliers and sellers of shark fin soup, a traditional dish in the Chinese American community.

Federal law prohibits shark “finning,” the removal of fins from sharks, but does not forbid possessing or selling shark fins. California lawmakers went a step further with a statute that took effect in July 2013 and had the impact of removing shark fin soup from restaurant menus.

Restaurant owners and shark fin suppliers, joined by Chinese American community organizations, argued that the state was exceeding its authority and was interfering with a commercial fishing market that the federal government had intended to preserve. But a federal appeals court ruled in July 2015 that the federal laws recognize the importance of conservation and allow states such as California to adopt their own protective measures.

Read the full story at SFGate

MASSACHUSETTS: The Sharks are Coming

May 19, 2016 — Get ready – the sharks are coming. And local officials are hard at work tracking them.

“It’s a lot of laborious work, but it really kicks off the season for us,” said Dr. Greg Skomal of the Division of Marine Fisheries.

On Wednesday, Skomal and volunteers were busy preparing receivers that track tagged great white sharks when they arrive in Massachusetts waters.

Read and watch the full story at NECN

Considering Pacific marine monument expansion

May 9, 2016 — HONOLULU — A Native Hawaiian proposal that calls for the expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is picking up steam and this week a delegation from the Obama Administration is meeting with stakeholders to discuss the possibility.

The waters around Kauai and Niihau, however, would be exempt from the expansion, according to news release sent to The Garden Island on Thursday.

“As Native Hawaiians, our core identity and survival is tied to the ocean. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is where we believe life originated,” said Kekuewa Kikiloi, Chair, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group. “All resources in nature – from corals to sharks – have cultural significance for Native Hawaiians and are an embodiment of our ancestors. By expanding Papahanaumokuakea we can help protect our cultural ocean-scapes and show future generations that preservation of the environment is preservation of our cultural traditions.”

Read the full story at the Garden Island

CALIFORNIA: Marin group’s bill to phase out gill nets moves forward in Legislature

April 28, 2016 — A West Marin environmental group is sponsoring legislation to end the use of drift gill nets off the state’s coast, saying they inadvertently scoop up and kill other species, including federally-endangered leatherback sea turtles.

Marin’s Turtle Island Restoration Network has sponsored Senate Bill 1114, which would phase out the use of gill nets in favor of another method that better targets what the gill nets seek: swordfish. The change would prevent turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks and pinnipeds from being taken, the group says. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water earlier this month, the first stop during its journey in the Legislature. An appropriations committee is expected to take it up next month before more votes.

“Despite the fact that Pacific leatherback sea turtles are the largest sea turtles on the planet, they are no match for the driftnet fishery,” said Peter Fugazzotto, Turtle Island’s program manager. “This deadly fishery has been operating at too high of a cost to marine wildlife.”

Read the full story at the Marin Independent Journal

Lionfish Removal Effort Ramps Up: Florida Incentivizes Anglers to Help Target Invasive Species

April 22, 2016 — They’re the beauties with the beastly reputation—one so unwelcome that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has launched a new incentive program aimed at their eradication.

We’re talking about lionfish, those ornately designed invasives of aquarium origin that have overrun reefs throughout Florida’s coast. Exploding in numbers, lions compete with native species and upset local ecosystems.

You’d think that all the grouper, sharks, and barracuda would appreciate the additional forage, but lionfish pack a set of poisonous spines that warn would-be diners to back off.

So, that leaves humans to handle the task of eradicating these fish, or at least controlling their numbers. And that’s the idea behind the FWC’s 2016 lionfish removal program highlighted by a Lionfish Removal and Awareness Day on May 16.

Read the full story at Outdoor Life

The Ocean’s Twilight Zone can Feed the World, but at what Cost?

March 25, 2016 — Life in the twilight zone constitutes a huge potential source of fishmeal and Omega 3 fatty acids needed to feed the world population. However, it exists in a kind of “no man’s water”, where there are no rules for fishing. Critical for assessing the resilience of the community and thus develop sustainable management strategies is a lack of understanding of the biological processes in the twilight zone making it impossible to accurately estimate the fishing pressure the stocks can sustain.

There are huge untapped resources of protein in the deep sea, but any potential exploitation should be done with caution, states the research community.

An international research group last year estimated that the so-called twilight zone (200 to 1,000 meters), maintains a community of fish, squid and crustaceans whose biomass far surpasses all the world’s current fisheries.

Furthermore, it is currently estimated that there are more than 1 million undescribed species in the twilight zone. According to the study, the twilight zone contains up to 90 percent of the world’s total fish biomass. There are so many creatures here that if estimates hold, it would be equivalent to 1.3 tons of fish biomass per person on earth, and that excludes squid and krill.

Read the full story at Ocean News and Technology

10,000+ Sharks Invade Palm Beach

February 16, 2016 — In an aerial video of the coast, tens of thousands of blacktip sharks are spotted yards off the beach at Palm Beach Florida. In an annual migration period, blacktip sharks always seem to congregate at Palm Beach.

“It seems the sharks really like Palm Beach,” Stephen Kajiura, a professor of biological sciences at Florida Atlantic University, told the Orlando Sentinel. “This is a particularly compelling migration, because it happens so close to shore in such clear waters, and because it happens in such a popular winter destination for people.”

There isn’t a clear answer on why the sharks always come to Palm Beach, some speculate temperature and currents, while others argue its the abundance of mullet and menhaden.

Read the full story at 100.3FM