Saving Seafood

Judge: Sanctioned slaughter of fish-eating birds broke law

March 31, 2016 — WASHINGTON — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted improperly when it allowed tens of thousands of migratory aquatic birds to be shot each year to protect farmed and sport fish populations, a federal judge has ruled.

The agency said it lacked resources for a “hard look” at either the long-range environmental effects of or possible alternatives to its decisions about double-crested cormorants, and that just isn’t a good reason, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates wrote.

Letting that stand could gut the National Environmental Protection Act, “since many an agency would frequently so argue,” wrote Bates, a federal judge in Washington.

He ruled Tuesday on a pair of orders that opponents say let people kill up to 160,000 double-crested cormorants each year to protect sport fish in 24 states east of the Mississippi River and farmed fish in 13 of those states.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WFTV

Working Together to Protect Endangered Species

March 14, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

To preserve and protect species that are threatened or endangered, federal agencies are required to work together under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Titled “Interagency Cooperation,” section 7 is an important part of the ESA as it ensures that the actions authorized, funded, or carried out by federal agencies do not jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species. This also applies to the habitat of listed species to make sure that actions do not impact areas where they live and spawn. Under the ESA, species are listed as endangered or threatened according to a process that examines their population status as well as five factors that may affect their continued survival (see section 4 of the ESA for a description of the five ESA factors for listing).

Section 7 requires consultation between the federal “action agency” (the agency authorizing, funding, or undertaking an action) and the appropriate “expert agency.” In the case of marine and several anadromous species, such as sturgeon and Atlantic salmon, NOAA Fisheries is the consulting agency while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts consultations for terrestrial and freshwater species.

Getting Recommedations Early On Is Key

The section 7 team at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) works on a variety of projects including dredging of navigation channels, offshore wind projects, and fisheries management plans. We consult with other federal agencies to ensure that their activities are in compliance with section 7 of the ESA. In some cases, a federal agency (or a state, private party, or consultant) may seek technical assistance in the early planning stages of a project. This is the best time for us to provide information on species life history, best management practices, and measures to reduce the extent of potential effects. The federal action agency can then include our recommendations in their project proposal before initiating the consultation process with us. During the technical assistance phase, a federal agency may determine that there is no effect of the activity on listed species (i.e., there are no listed species present during the activity and no effects to habitat). In this case, there is no need for further ESA section 7 consultation.

In situations where an activity may affect a listed species, the action agency needs to begin the consultation process. First, the action agency makes one of two determinations: the activity is “not likely to adversely affect” listed species or the activity is “likely to adversely affect” listed species. Activities are “not likely to adversely affect” species if all effects are “insignificant” (so small that they cannot be detected) or “discountable” (extremely unlikely to occur). If the action agency makes this determination, we review their analysis, and if we agree with their finding, we respond with a letter of concurrence. This is the “informal” consultation process.

Read the full story online

NORTH CAROLINA: Director of Marine Fisheries resigns abruptly

February 29, 2016 — In a move that surprised commercial and recreational fishermen alike, Dr. Louis Daniel, III resigned as director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries this afternoon.

John Evans, chief deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality sent an e-mail to all NCDEQ personnel that Daniel had stepped down, effective immediately, and that Col. Jim Kelley of the N.C. Marine Patrol would serve as acting director until a replacement for Daniel is selected.

Daniel, who received his B.A. in Biology from Wake Forest University, a M.S. in Marine Science from the College of Charleston, and a Ph.D. in Marine Science from the College of William and Mary, School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, followed Preston Pate as the DMF director on Feb. 1, 2007.

Daniel worked a year with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before joining DMF as a biological supervisor in 1995. Before being appointed director, he served nine years as an executive assistant to director Pate, working extensively with the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (SAFMC). Daniel served as chairman of the SAFMC from 2004 to 2006.

Daniel began as the North Carolina commissioner to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2007 and was elected ASMFC Chair in 2013. He is a recipient of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Distinguished Service Award and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Outstanding Service Award.

Read the full story at North Carolina Sportsman

The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island announces new Executive Director, Amy MacKown

February 25, 2016 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island:

Hailing from Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay region, Amy came to Rhode Island after traveling the National Wildlife Refuges of the Mid-Atlantic and New England conducting salt marsh ecology research with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She then served as a Fisheries Specialist with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management where she worked closely with the commercial fishing industry.  

  Throughout her career Amy has been a supporter of sustainable fisheries—a mentality solidified while participating in a fellowship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where she worked on oil spill restoration initiatives geared at protecting the health of Atlantic fisheries. 

Amy holds a masters in Environmental Policy from the University of Maryland and a graduate certificate in Ecological Economics. In 2015 she was presented the Promoting Our Natural Resources Award by the U.S. Department of the Interior in recognition of her work in the National Wildlife Refuges of New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island is home to nonprofit commercial fishing organizations, and serves as a headquarters for bringing fishermen, scientists, managers, and elected officials together to discuss issues. The Center was founded in 2004 to improve fisheries and understanding of the marine environment through education, collaborative research, and cooperation.

Read the release at the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island

Chinese Taste For Fish Bladder Threatens Tiny Porpoise In Mexico

February 9, 2016 — The international trade in exotic animal parts includes rhino horn, seahorses, and bear gall bladders. But perhaps none is as strange as the swim bladder from a giant Mexican fish called the totoaba.

The totoaba can grow to the size of a football player. It lives only in the Gulf of California in Mexico, along with the world’s smallest and rarest mammal — a type of porpoise called the vaquita.
Now the new and lucrative bladder trade threatens to wipe out both animals.

“People in Asian cultures use the swim bladder in a soup called fish maw,” explains Erin Dean at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It’s also reputed to have some medicinal value — it’s thought to boost fertility.

Dean says no one knows why the demand for it has skyrocketed recently. It could be that when a Chinese fish called a yellow croaker, which once supplied bladders, started dying out, people started turning to the Mexican totoaba to meet the demand for bladders.

Read the full story at New York Now

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