U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Archives - Page 10 of 11

California temporarily curbing water to spare vanishing fish

January 15, 2016 — SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Saying current water conditions pose particular peril for the state’s tiny, disappearing Delta smelt, federal officials moved Thursday to temporarily reduce water deliveries for farmers and millions of other Californians.

Especially muddy water from winter storms is among the factors that risk sweeping some of the world’s few remaining Delta smelt off course and into giant water pumps that draw water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river deltas, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said.

The pumps are part of federal and state water projects that provide water for up to 25 million Californians. Wildlife experts believe the pumps are one of the main threats to native fish, including the once-plentiful Delta smelt, now nearly extinct, and endangered runs of native salmon.

The federal wildlife service’s determination on Thursday means federal authorities will reduce water flows temporarily starting Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Chatham, state officials contest federal right to control fishery

December 9, 2015 — CHATHAM — The state, town and federal governments are fighting over ownership of the ocean within the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

Unless something changes dramatically in the next few months, a court will have to decide who can manage fisheries in the area, according to Chatham officials and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed ownership and management of the 3,000 acres of water and ocean bottom west of North and South Monomoy islands in its final draft of a new plan meant to guide management of the wildlife refuge for the next decade or more. The comment period on the draft expired Monday and the state attorney general’s office, the state Department of Fish and Game, and the town of Chatham all filed comments, along with an additional two dozen or more letters and emails submitted as of early Monday, according to Elizabeth Herland, Fish and Wildlife project director.

In the comments, the town and attorney general disputed the service’s claim that it was granted ownership and control over the disputed area in a 1944 court decision that established the refuge through a land taking. In her comments, Healey called the assertion erroneous and threatened legal action unless the federal agency revises its stance.

The town is also contemplating legal action, said Jeffrey Dykens, chairman of the selectmen.

“We would like to avoid litigation but we are keeping all our options open,” Dykens said.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

Dive fishermen and sea otters face complex competition

December 3, 2015 — What many Americans consider to be a cute, back-floating mammal is a pest, even a thief, to some Southeast Alaskan fishermen.

Humans and sea otters enjoy consuming the same bottom-dwelling seafood: Dungeness crabs, clams, sea cucumbers and urchins. Competition between dive fishermen and sea otters for those resources has intensified as the otter population grows.

Wadley has been a commercial sea cucumber diver for 27 years. She dove for abalone until the dive fishery closed in 1996.

“We had an abalone fishery here until the otters ate us out of it,” she said. “And then I switched about the time that the abalone fishery was dying, the sea cucumbers started up.”

A paper published by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2014 says the sea otter population is growing by 12 to 14 percent a year. And more otters mean an expansion of their range.

Many sea cucumber, clam and urchin dive fishing areas have been closed to commercial fishing because of sea otters, Wadley said.

They eat immense amounts of seafood and seem to have the leading edge on humans.

It wasn’t easy starting out as a female fisherman, Wadley said. She was inexperienced — green but eager. A diver with a good reputation eventually agreed to take her out for abalone.

“I ended up getting more poundage than the rest of the divers put together,” she said.

Now Wadley owns her own 45-foot boat named “Vulcan.” She has a sea cucumber quota and manages her own personal dive fishing operation. Wadley and one other person take her boat out for seven-hour fishery openings.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Concerns over anchovy numbers prompt plan for new stock assessment

November 16, 2015 — SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Amid concerns that the anchovy population along the West Coast might have “collapsed” due to environmental factors, regulators committed Monday to update a 20-year-old stock assessment for the fish, but not to enact stricter harvest rules as some groups had hoped.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a 19-member policy making group consisting of fishery representatives from Western states, laid out a plan to assess the anchovy stock by next fall, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hasn’t done since 1995.

At the council meeting, federal scientists reported that while surveys have found very low numbers of anchovy adults and eggs, they’ve also detected high numbers of young anchovy. It is unclear, though, what that means for the population’s sustainability.

Because of a lack of comprehensive information, the anchovy stock has been subject to speculation. Like sardines, anchovy numbers often fluctuate. Conservationists, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Monterey Bay whale watching tour companies still worry that the current fishing quotas could be too high and affecting other animals, such as whales, birds and sea lions.

“This is a victory because we’ve been asking for an assessment for three years now,” said Geoff Shester, the California program manager for the conservation group Oceana. “That said, the council ignored the warning signs and impacts on wildlife, and they’re still basing their regulations on a 20-year-old population estimate.”

Read the full story at Santa Cruz Sentinel

Big Trouble Looms For California Salmon — And For Fishermen

November 6, 2015 — The West Coast’s historic drought has strained many Californians – from farmers who’ve watched their lands dry up, to rural residents forced to drink and cook with bottled water. Now, thanks to a blazing hot summer and unusually warm water, things are looking pretty bad for salmon, too – and for the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on them.

Preliminary counts of juvenile winter-run Chinook are at extreme low levels. These are salmon that are born during the summer in California’s Sacramento River and begin to swim downstream in the fall.

Unusually warm water in recent months has caused high mortality for the young salmon, which are very temperature sensitive in their early life stages. Most years, about 25 percent of the eggs laid and fertilized by spawning winter-run fish survive. This summer and fall, the survival rate may be as low as 5 percent, according to Jim Smith, project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Red Bluff office.

“That’s not good,” Smith tells The Salt.

Worse, it’s the second year in a row this has happened. Most Chinook salmon live on a three-year life cycle, which means one more year like the last two could essentially wipe out the winter run. To protect them, fishing for Chinook in the ocean may be restricted in the years ahead, when winter-run fish born in 2014 and 2015 have become big enough to bite a baited hook. The hope is that the few young fish that survived the recent warm-water die-offs will make it through adulthood and eventually return to the river to spawn.

Read the full story at New York Now

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Sets 2016 Specifications for Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay Origin

November 5, 2015 — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fl. – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the harvest specifications for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Under the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, the Board set a harvest limit of 500,000 Delaware Bay male horseshoe crabs and zero female horseshoe crabs for the 2016 season. Based on the allocation mechanism established in Addendum VII, the following quotas were set for the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, which harvest horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin:

	Delaware Bay Origin Horseshoe Crab Quota (no. of crabs)	Total Quota
State	Male Only	Male Only
Delaware	162,136	162,136
New Jersey	162,136	162,136
Maryland	141,112	255,980
Virginia*	34,615	81,331

*Virginia harvest refers to harvest east of the COLREGS line only

The Board chose a harvest management program based on the Technical Committee and ARM Subcommittee recommendation. The ARM Framework, established through Addendum VII, incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest levels for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Previously the horseshoe crab abundance estimate was based on data from the Benthic Trawl Survey conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute, however, due to the Benthic Trawl Survey not having been conducted in recent years, a composite index of the Delaware 30ft Trawl Survey, New Jersey Delaware Bay Trawl Survey, and New Jersey Ocean Trawl Survey was used instead. Funding has been secured for the Benthic Trawl Survey to be conducted in 2016.

The Horseshoe Crab Technical Committee, Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee, and the ARM Subcommittee also recommended the ARM Framework be reviewed and updated in 2016. The Board agreed with this recommendation, with specific interest in re-considering the thresholds to allow the harvest of female horseshoe crabs, as well as the recent listing of red knot as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ARM subcommittee will develop specific recommendations to the Board on changes to the ARM Framework in 2016.

For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, FMP Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or krootes-murdy@asmfc.org.

ASMFC Presents Willard Cole Prestigious Captain David H. Hart Award

November 4, 2015 — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fl. – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission presented Willard “Bill” Cole, formerly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Captain David H. Hart Award, its highest annual award, at the Commission’s 74^th Annual Meeting in St. Augustine, FL.

Throughout his nearly 40-year career as a state, university, and federal fishery manager and scientist, Bill Cole worked to protect, restore, and conserve fisheries resources and their habitats along the Atlantic coast. Bill graduated from North Carolina State University in 1966, and moved to Lake City, Florida, where he began his career with the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. Shortly after, he joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), where he stayed for the remainder of his career. At USFWS, Bill served in different capacities and numerous offices from North Carolina, to New York, DC, Texas and even New Mexico. In each place he left an indelible mark; serving on review teams for the first Everglades study, developing the Navigable Waters Handbook; protecting riverine, wetland, and coastal habitats in Long Island Sound, the Hudson River and St. Lawrence Seaway; and establishing what ultimately would become the USFWS South Atlantic Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. While with the South Atlantic Office, he worked closely with the State of North Carolina to restore anadromous fishery resources throughout the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, once the site of the largest commercial American shad and river herring fisheries on the entire East Coast.

With his customary vision, Bill understood early on that management of fishery resources in North Carolina required participation in regional fishery management institutions as well. As such, he became involved with both the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Commission, as the Southeast Regional Director’s designee for both institutions. He served in that capacity continuously for 19 years. Bill served on numerous committees and management boards for both groups, and prior to his retirement served as Chair of the Commission’s South Atlantic State-Federal Fisheries Management Board.

Along with several colleagues, Bill conceived the Cooperative Winter Tagging Cruise off North Carolina and Virginia. The Cruise was designed to tag striped bass in a mixed stock of migratory fish wintering off the North Carolina Outer Banks and southern Virginia as a part of the Commission’s Atlantic migratory striped bass management program. The Cruise began in 1988 and has been conducted annually with few interruptions. It is one of the longest time series of any such coastal tagging program, as well as one of the most effective federal, state, and academic partnerships. Bill served as Chief Scientist on all but two of the cruises during an 18 year period, and annually coordinated scheduling, equipment acquisition, and recruitment of all Scientific Party members. Through the years, tagging of additional ASMFC- and Council-managed species was added to the Cruise protocol. To date, the Cruise has tagged 252 Atlantic sturgeon and over 47,000 striped bass, with a tag return rate approaching 20 percent.

Bill is a charter member of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program Operations Committee, and has been an ardent supporter of the Program since its inception, providing staff to serve as the initial Program Coordinator, and working tirelessly with federal and state partners to move the program forward.

Finally, during his last year with USFWS, Bill was detailed to the National Marine Fisheries Service, where he served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, Dr. William Hogarth. Bill was a key element in the planning of several national-level meetings that brought together fisheries professionals from Regional Fishery Management Councils and Interstate Fisheries Management Commissions to consider the future directions of fisheries management.

Bill has characterized himself as a “biopolitician,” but his contribution to the management of U.S. East Coast fisheries goes well beyond his many notable accomplishments. Bill has been a true friend and mentor to many in our fisheries management family and we are deeply indebted to him. Since Bill was unable to attend the Hart Award ceremony, Dr. Wilson Laney, a longtime colleague and friend, accepted the award on Bill’s behalf.

The Commission instituted the Award in 1991 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding efforts to improve Atlantic coast marine fisheries. The Hart Award is named for one of the Commission’s longest serving members, who dedicated himself to the advancement and protection of marine fishery resources.

Long-gone Sturgeon Returning To North Carolina Waters

October 26, 2015 — It’s been nearly 70 years since a species of fish called the Lake Sturgeon has been found in North Carolina waters. Experts say it’s a fish with a long history.

“The lake sturgeon is a very ancient breed of fish,” says Stephen Jackson, a hatchery manager with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in eastern North Carolina. “They were around during the dinosaurs and actually predate many of the dinosaurs that we’re very familiar with.”

The Lake Sturgeon is now poised for a comeback in North Carolina. It’s home will be the French Broad River in the western part of the state, where wildlife officials on Monday are making the second of two releases over the past week. The project is placing a total of 7,200 young Lake Sturgeon, about 7 inches long, into the river north of Asheville. The release is part of a broader effort to restore the species in several states.

Read the full story at WFAE

American Eel Population Remains Stable, Does not Need ESA Protection: Conservation efforts should continue for long-term species health

October 7, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

“The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is encouraged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to not list American eel under the Endangered Species Act,” states Commission Chair Dr. Louis B. Daniel, III. “The Commission, its member states, and federal partners have invested significant resources over the past several years to conduct the first coastwide benchmark stock assessment for American eel. The assessment findings, which were fully endorsed by an independent panel of fisheries scientists, have formed the basis of our current management for American eel. This management program seeks to reduce mortality and increase conservation of American eel stocks across all life stages. However, given the current depleted status of the resource, there is still considerable work to be done to rebuild American eel. The Commission will continue to closely monitor American eel fisheries and the status of the resource, and make adjustments to the management program as necessary, to ensure stock rebuilding.”

See below for more information on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s finding.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the American eel is stable and does not need protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Nonetheless, for the species’ long-term stability, the agency recommends continuing efforts to maintain healthy habitats, monitor harvest levels, and improve river passage for migrating eels.

The life of the American eel begins and ends in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. Millions of adult American eels leave waters from as far north as Greenland and south to Venezuela to reproduce in the Sargasso Sea. Hundreds of millions of American eel larvae return from the sea to freshwater, estuarine and marine waters. Their random mating behavior makes eels panmictic, meaning the species is composed of one population worldwide. They are a culturally and biologically important part of the aquatic ecosystems in the Western Hemisphere. American eels have been harvested for thousands of years by Native American cultures, and were an important part of the diet of early colonial settlers.

Today’s decision, also known as a 12-month finding, follows an in-depth status review on a 2010 petition to list the eel as threatened under the ESA. The review was largely based on a biological species report peer-reviewed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Fisheries, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Eel Technical Committee and academia. After examining the best scientific and commercial information available regarding past, present and future stressors facing the species, the Service determined the eel’s single population is overall stable and not in danger of extinction (endangered) or likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future (threatened).

While American eels still face local mortality from harvest and hydroelectric facilities, this is not threatening the overall species. Harvest quotas and mechanisms restoring eel passage around dams and other obstructions have also reduced these effects. Dam removals, culvert replacements, night-time hydroelectric facility shutdowns, and updated passage structures have restored habitat access in many areas. The Service is working with partners across the range on conservation efforts to ensure long-term stability for the American eel and other migratory fish species. The agency’s Northeast fisheries program alone has removed or improved more than 200 barriers to fish passage since 2009, opening more than 1,200 miles and 12,000 acres of rivers for aquatic wildlife including the American eel. The Service has also secured $10.4 million in Hurricane Sandy resilience funding to restore fish passage through removal of 13 dams in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

American eels remain widely distributed throughout much of their historical range, despite habitat loss and reduced numbers over the past century. New information reiterates their flexibility and adaptability by indicating that some eels complete their life cycle in estuarine and marine waters, contrary to former research that suggested eels required freshwater for growing to adulthood.

This is the second time the Service has evaluated the American eel for listing under the ESA and found listing not warranted. The first decision came in 2007 after an extensive status review. This 12-month finding will be published in the Federal Register on October 8, 2015. The finding and supporting documents can be found at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/americaneel/.

More information is available on the American eel website.

Fishermen get a $2,100-per-pound win as feds say American eels aren’t a threatened species

October 7, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — American eels will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday, a victory for fishermen who catch the increasingly valuable species.

The wildlife service rejected a petition from the California-based Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy & Reliability to list the eels — prized in Asian cuisine — as threatened.

The petitioners argued that the eels have lost more than 80 percent of their habitat and that the stock is jeopardized by commercial fishing. But the wildlife service issued a report Wednesday saying that “there have been large declines in abundance from historical times,” but the species “currently appears to be stable.”

Fishermen and fishing advocacy groups campaigned against additional protections for eels. Listing them under the Endangered Species Act would have severely limited the ability to harvest them as a commercial species, and they can be of high economic value because of their use in sushi.

Maine baby eels were worth more than $2,100 per pound in 2015, up from less than $100 per pound in 2009. The baby eels, called elvers, are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity and use them as food.

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