Saving Seafood

Spring 2019 Pacific Islands Fishery Newsletter

June 19, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council at its 177th Meeting held on April 12, 2019, recommended revised fleet-wide sea turtle interaction limits along with new individual trip-based interaction limits. A recent draft biological opinion (BiOp) developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) provided managers with basis for new limits for loggerhead and leatherback turtle interactions, potentially allowing the fishery to be reopened this year. The fishery closed on March 19, 2019 due to interactions with 17 loggerhead turtles, all of which were released alive.

Every vessel for every trip of the Hawai‘i-based shallowset longline fishery for swordfish has a federal observer who ensures accurate monitoring of interactions with protected species. The North Pacific loggerhead population is growing annually at 2.4 percent, but a court settlement in May 2018 reduced the fishery’s allowable interaction with the species from 34 to 17. The cap of 17 may be modified when NMFS finalizes the new BiOp for the fishery and issues new regulations based on the Council’s recommendations.

In June 2018, the Council recommended annual limits of North Pacific loggerhead and leatherback turtle interactions consistent with what was set forth in the upcoming BiOp. The draft BiOp released on March 28, 2019 (originally promised in October 2018), requires NMFS to set an annual limit of 36 loggerhead turtles and 16 leatherback turtles for this fishery. The Council recommended these limits to be implemented under regulations for the Council’s Pacific Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) and further recommended that the existing turtle interactions occurring from Jan. 1 to March 19, 2019, apply toward the new limits, essentially allowing the fishery to re-open.

Read the full newsletter here

Record Number of Leatherback Turtles Tagged in North Carolina

June 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Despite challenging weather conditions, NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues captured and tagged a record 13 leatherback turtles May 14-22 off Beaufort, North Carolina, continuing a project begun in 2017 to assess the abundance, movements, behavior, and health status of these turtles. It is the second year this team has tagged leatherbacks off North Carolina, where the turtles aggregate in coastal waters during their northward spring migration.

Turtle researchers Heather Haas and Eric Matzen from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Woods Hole Laboratory joined NOAA Fisheries Southeast staffers, including team leader Chris Sasso, Larisa  Avens, Annie Gorgone, Blake Price, Jamie Clark and Joanne McNeil during the nine-day field operation.  A team of veterinarians led by Dr. Craig Harms from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine assessed health status, while Samir Patel and colleagues from the Coonamessett Farm Foundation (CFF) brought several types of suction cup tags for testing. These tags record high-resolution video as well as environmental and movement information.

Research was coordinated with Dr. Matthew Godfrey of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, who assisted in the field work. Haas and Matzen brought the Woods Hole Laboratory’s research vessel Selkie and an inflatable Takacat raft to provide field support.

Read the full release here

Scallop Research Set-Aside Program Supports 13 Projects for 2019-2020; Resource Surveys Once Again Top the List

May 8, 2019 — The following was published by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program will support 13 projects during the 2019-2020 award cycle that address resource surveys, dredge efficiency, bycatch reduction, fishery impacts on loggerhead turtles, potential offshore wind development impacts on larval and juvenile scallop transport, and more. The projects focus on scallop research priorities identified by the New England Fishery Management Council, which ranked resource surveys as the highest priority.

The awards were announced today by the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Collectively, these awards are expected to generate more than $14 million. This includes an estimated $2.8 million to fund the research and $11.4 million to compensate industry partners who harvest set-aside quota. No federal money is involved, making this a true industry-funded program.

• The New England Council approved research priorities in June 2018 for the 2019-2020 RSA projects.
• The Council will develop a new list of priorities at its June 2019 meeting for 2020-2021 projects.

The Council established the Scallop RSA Program to address research questions that support the management of the scallop resource. Each year during the specification-setting process, the Council “sets aside” 1.25 million pounds of scallops to carry out RSA projects. The work is conducted collaboratively between fishermen and scientists. Research results directly contribute to stock assessments and help the Council better manage the fishery overall.

While the Council sets the annual research priorities, NOAA Fisheries manages the RSA competition and administers the program.

Learn More on the NEFSC RSA Webpage and View the Award Announcement

More information is available in the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s announcement.

Read the original announcement from NOAA Fisheries here.

Pacific Reef Survey Finds Sea Turtle Populations on the Rise

April 25, 2019 — Sea turtle populations in Pacific coral reefs are increasing, according to a study that reveals the positive results of environmental protection efforts around the world and gives researchers information to protect these turtles from the effects of global changes.

Researchers from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center recorded numbers of threatened and endangered sea turtles for 13 years at 53 sites across four regions of the U.S. islands in the Pacific as part of a larger study of other marine life, according to a research article released Wednesday by PLOS ONE.

The sites were located between islands, atolls and reefs in American Samoa, the Hawaiian Archipelago, the Mariana Archipelago and the Pacific Remote Island Area complex. Each site was observed every two or three years in April, using a boat towing two scuba divers 49 feet underwater who recorded the species and numbers of turtles within sight.

Researchers observed two species specifically, the green and the hawksbill turtles. Green sea turtles greatly outnumbered hawksbill across the survey area, providing further evidence of the need to protect the endangered hawksbill.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

New Turtle Limits Recommend to Re-Open Swordfish Fishery

April 16, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Federal fishery managers on Friday concluded its nearly year-long effort to provide relief to the Hawai’i-based shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish. The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council at its 177th Meeting held on April 12, 2019, recommended revised fleet-wide sea turtle interaction limits along with new individual trip-based interaction limits. A recent draft Biological Opinion (BiOp) developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) provided managers with a basis for a new limit for loggerhead and leatherback turtle interactions, potentially allowing the fishery to be re-opened this year. The fishery closed this year on March 19 due to interactions with 17 loggerhead turtles, all of which were released alive.

Every vessel for every trip of the Hawai’i-based shallow-set longline fishery has a federal observer that ensures accurate monitoring of interactions with protected species. The North Pacific loggerhead population is growing annually at 2.4 percent, but a court settlement in May 2018 reduced the fishery’s allowable interaction with the species from 34 to 17. The cap of 17 may be modified when NMFS finalizes the new BiOp for the fishery and issues new regulations based on the Council’s recommendations.

In June 2018, the Council recommended annual limits of North Pacific loggerhead and leatherback turtle interactions consistent with what was set forth in the upcoming BiOp. The draft BiOp released on March 28, 2019, requires NMFS to set an annual limit of 36 loggerhead turtles and 16 leatherback turtles for this fishery. The Council recommended these limits to be implemented under regulations for the Council’s Pacific Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) and further recommended that the existing turtle interactions occurring from January 1 to March 19, 2019, apply toward the new limits, essentially allowing the fishery to re-open.

The Council maintained its June 2018 recommendation to implement an individual trip limit of five loggerhead turtles, and additionally recommended a trip limit of two leatherback turtles. If a vessel reaches either of the limits during a fishing trip, the vessel must return to port but would be allowed to target swordfish again on the next trip. The Council’s recommendation was in contrast to annual vessel-based limits of six loggerhead turtles and two leatherback turtles that NMFS is proposing in the draft BiOp, which would prohibit vessels from targeting swordfish for the remainder of the year if they reached their individual limit. The Council found that this measure would create undue economic hardship to the fishery while providing little additional turtle conservation benefit.

Roger Dang, whose family has fished with longline vessels out of Hawai’i for more than 30 years, criticized the vessel limit proposed in draft BiOp. “This is not the solution,” he said. A vessel limit of two leatherback interactions would deter vessels from entering the shallow-set fishery to target swordfish and thus diminish the fleet’s ability to provide swordfish for the US domestic market, he explained. “Ecuador in the last year, from 2017 to 2018, increased its production by almost 100 percent, Costa Rica 80 percent, and they’re both bigger fisheries than the Hawai’i product,” Dang added. “The majority of the swordfish product in the US right now is the South American product.”

“The Council’s recommendation today, although highly restrictive on the fleet, will allow Hawai’i vessels to continue supplying fresh, highly monitored swordfish while supporting industry-led solutions to addressing rare sea turtle interactions in the fishery,” said Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawai’i Longline Association.

Dean Sensui, the Council’s Hawai’i vice chair, added “The actions taken by the Council today ensures that Hawai’i’s fishermen continue to provide fresh sustainable seafood to the community and at the same time adds additional protection for sea turtles in the Western Pacific.”

The Hawai’i shallow-set longline fishery operates in waters North of Hawai’i and catches swordfish that is sold both in Hawai’i and the US Mainland. It produces approximately half of the US domestic swordfish.

For the agenda and background materials on the meeting, go to www.wpcouncil.org or contact the Council at info.wpcouncil@noaa.gov or (808) 522-8220.

The Council was established by Congress in 1976 and has authority over fisheries seaward of state waters of Hawai’i, Guam, American Samoa, the CNMI and the Pacific remote islands. Recommendations that are regulatory in nature are transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce for approval and then implemented by NMFS and enforced by NMFS and the US Coast Guard.

Managers, Fishermen Grapple with Federal Pace, Definitions Leading to Fishery Closures

April 5, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

At 9:40 a.m. yesterday, minutes after Kitty M. Simonds completed the executive director’s report to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, the Hawai’i-based fishery was closed due to the fishery’s interaction with a 17th loggerhead turtle this year. The Hawai’i-based shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish has a federal observer on every vessel for every trip. The North Pacific loggerhead population is growing annually at 2.4 percent, but a court settlement in May 2018 reduced the fishery’s allowable interaction with the species from 34 to 17. The interaction cap of 17 cannot be modified until the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) completes a new biological opinion (BiOp) for the fishery.

The Council, which is mandated by Congress to develop management measures for offshore US fisheries in the Pacific islands region, has been waiting for NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) to deliver the new BiOp so the Council can move forward with proposed new loggerhead limits and other turtle interaction mitigation measures for the fishery. The shutdown reinforced Simonds’ core message, that the “pace with which NMFS PIRO responds to federal and legal procedures has left all of the region’s major fisheries at risk.”

Upon hearing the news of the shutdown, Roger Dang, whose family has fished with longline vessels out of Hawai’i for more than 30 years, immediately sent a message to the Council. Council member Michael Goto read the statement to the Council.

Read the full release here

Hawaii longliners counting on new biological opinion to save swordfish season

April 4, 2019 — It doesn’t matter that all of the 17 loggerhead turtles that were accidentally caught in the first three months of the year by shallow-set swordfish longliners off the coasts of the US’ Hawaiian islands were released and swam away alive, or that the loggerhead population in the area has actually been growing at a steady rate of 2.4% annually.

Thanks to the terms of a court settlement reached nearly a year ago by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) with three nongovernmental organizations, that number of interactions with an endangered species forced the longliners to shut down immediately for the season on March 19, leaving much of what they say is a healthy fishing stock untouched.

Now the harvesters are counting on a regular meeting by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), scheduled for April 12, in Honolulu, to help get them back on the water as soon as possible.

That’s when an advisory panel is expected to review NMFS’ new draft biological opinion (BiOps) for handling both loggerhead and leatherneck turtles in the fishery and advise the council, which that same day could pass along its own recommendations to NMFS.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Western Pacific Council Makes Recommendations to Keep US Pacific Island Fisheries Viable

October 26, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council concluded its two-day meeting in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) this week with recommendations regarding pelagic, international and American Samoa fisheries.

Council discussion centered around keeping healthy, sustainable U.S. Pacific Island fisheries viable amid an accumulation of U.S. regulations and international negotiations.

Billfish Conservation Act and Bigeye Tuna

The Council expressed dismay over the recent amendment to the Billfish Conservation Act of 2012, which bans the interstate commerce of billfish (excluding swordfish) landed by U.S. fishermen in Hawaii and the US Pacific Islands. The billfish stocks caught by Hawaii and U.S. Pacific Island fisheries are healthy, unlike the billfish in the Atlantic, the Western Pacific Council said in a press release.

The bill to amend the Act was introduced and promoted by Congressional delegates and sports fishing organizations from Florida. Recent guidelines from the National Marine Fisheries Service say the billfish landed in the US Territories and Hawaii are also prohibited from being sold in foreign markets. The Council directed staff to develop a list of questions and issues associated with amendment compliance and send them to NMFS for a response.

The Hawaii deep-set longline fishery catches billfish incidentally when targeting bigeye tuna. The amount of bigeye in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) the fishery may retain annually is developed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), an international regional fishery management organization to which the U.S. is a party.

The Council endorsed recent WCPFC’s Permanent Advisory Committee to advise the U.S. commissioners (PAC) majority recommendation to obtain a longline bigeye quota of 6,000 metric tons (mt) at the upcoming WCPFC meeting in December in Honolulu. This amount is slightly less than the amount of bigeye caught in the WCPO in 2016 by Hawaii longline vessels, including those vessels operating under agreements with U.S. Participating Territories. The Council said it will communicate this recommendation to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. The Hawaii longline fleet is the sole fishery that utilizes the U.S. quota, which is currently set at 3,554 mt.

South Pacific Albacore

The Council also endorsed the PAC recommendation that the U.S. position generally be in support of adopting a South Pacific albacore target reference point. The reference point is a catch target that supports economically viable operations and healthy stock biomass. The American Samoa longline fishery, which harvests this stock, has been in decline since 2011. The Council asked NMFS to provide economic evaluations of the fleet’s performance at various target reference points in advance of WCPFC15.

Hawaii Longline Fishery

Among other pelagic and international fishery matters, the Council recommended initial action be taken that would require electronic reporting in the Hawaii longline fishery. The Council will ask NMFS to continue to develop electronic reporting in the Hawaii longline fishery and to work with Hawaii longline participants and Council staff to address several implementation issues and report back to the Council at its March 2019 meeting.

The Council intended to take action regarding the management of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles in the Hawaii shallow-set longline fishery, which targets swordfish. However, action was postponed as a draft biological opinion due from NMFS on Oct. 1 has not been completed. The Council will reconvene its Scientific and Statistical Committee Working Group when the draft opinion is available. The Council may convene an interim Council meeting, if needed, to review the draft opinion and consider revisions to its June 2018 recommendations, including a possible specification of individual trip limits for leatherback sea turtle interactions.

American Samoa Fisheries

Regarding American Samoa fisheries, the Council recommended an annual catch limit (ACL) of 106,000 pounds for the American Samoa bottomfish species complex for fishing year 2019. The Council noted the next benchmark assessment, which is scheduled for review in February 2019, will provide new information to set the ACLs for fishing years 2020 to 2022. The Council also directed its staff to work with the Council’s American Samoa Advisory Panel to develop a plan for outreach and education, preferably in cooperation with Territory’s Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, to educate communities on various fisheries and fisheries-related issues.

The Council will reconvene at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 26, at the Hilton at Tumon, Guam.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

NOAA Funds Projects to Reduce Bycatch With Engineering

September 4, 2018 — A group of organizations is getting more than $2 million in grants to use engineering to try to reduce bycatch in fisheries.

Bycatch is the term for when fish and other animals are accidentally caught with gear that was seeking a different species. Bycatch poses problems for rare species of dolphins, turtles, sharks and other animals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is awarding more than $2.3 million to 14 projects as part of its 2018 Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program.

One of the recipients is Duke University, which will test the applicability of sensory-based bycatch reduction technology. Duke’s project seeks to reduce sea turtle bycatch in North Carolina.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Levittown Man Trafficked More Than 3,500 Protected Turtles, Feds Say

July 11, 2018 — Federal prosecutors indicted a Levittown man Tuesday for allegedly trafficking protected diamondback terrapin turtles.

According to William McSwain, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, David Sommers, 62, of Levittown, was charged with smuggling the turtles and submitting false records for a shipment sent to Canada. The indictment included four violations of the Lacey Act for allegedly trafficking more than 3,500 turtles in interstate commerce.

Federal prosecutors said Sommers would capture the diamondback terrapins and their eggs from marshes in coastal New Jersey. The Levittown man would sell them illegally and had sent turtles across the border with Canada in 2014 in a package that he claimed contained a book.

Sommers is accused of violating the Lacey Act, a wildlife trafficking law, while transporting the turtles from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, according to prosecutors.

“Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are a semi-aquatic species of turtle native to brackish waters in eastern and southern United States. They are not found in the wild in Pennsylvania but have a dwindling habitat range in neighboring New Jersey. The terrapins are prized in the reptile pet trade for their unique, diamond-shaped shell markings. The turtles are protected under New Jersey law and by an international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (“CITES”),” prosecutors said in a press release.

Read the full story at Levittown.com