Saving Seafood

California Fishermen Fight to Restore Otter-Free Zone

May 9, 2016 — PASADENA, Calif. — California’s shellfish industry fought the federal government’s termination of a “no-otter zone” along the Southern California coast at a Ninth Circuit hearing on Friday.

Four fishing industry groups sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2013, claiming its decision to end a long-disputed sea otter translocation program would “severely compromise if not destroy” shellfish and other marine fisheries on the southern coast.

Nixing the program would lead more than 300 sea otters to occupy a previously “otter-free zone” within 10 years and prey on the shellfish which fishermen depend on for their livelihood, the plaintiffs claimed in their 2013 complaint.

But environmental groups had long pushed for the government to end the program, claiming it was a disaster from the start and that it bowed to the interests of the oil and fishing industries.

The program relocated 140 sea otters to San Nicholas Island and established an otter-free zone south of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, where fishermen harvest sea urchin, abalone and lobster.

Under the program, fishermen who accidentally killed otters in the zone could not be federally prosecuted, and the government was to use nonlethal means to capture any otters that wandered into the zone.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

Susquehanna River: Deal reached on fish, eel passage at Conowingo Dam

May 3, 2016 — Exelon Corp. has pledged in a deal announced last Monday to work to enhance spawning fish passage at Conowingo Dam over the next 50 years, seeking to revive the Susquehanna River’s meager stocks of American shad and river herring.

The Chicago-based company and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they had reached agreement to improve at least one of two fish lifts at Conowingo and meanwhile start trucking migratory shad and river herring upriver past it and three other dams in Pennsylvania.

The agreement comes after years of negotiations between the company and wildlife agencies and conservation groups, which were seeking to revive the once-legendary spawning runs of shad and herring. The number of returning fish each spring has been trending downward since the 1980s, and wildlife agencies and conservationists wanted Exelon to make potentially costly upgrades to fish lifts there as a condition of renewing its federal license to operate the hydroelectric facility.

The company’s license to operate Conowingo expired in 2014, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has extended the permit while the parties — including Maryland —attempt to hash out their differences. An even more contentious issue involves what Exelon may have to do about the buildup of nutrient-laden sediment in the dam’s reservoir, which studies have shown could complicated efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s water quality.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley seek to restore funding for NW fish screens

April 29, 2016 — Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced legislation Thursday they said would protect fish populations and habitats while allowing for continued water supplies for irrigation and other uses in the Pacific Northwest.

The Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act (FRIMA) would reauthorize a voluntary, cost-share program the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses to pay for installing fish screens that protect salmon and other fish from entering irrigation channels in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana. The program is also used to help keep irrigation channels free of debris.

“FRIMA is a homegrown and commonsense program with a proven track record in restoring salmon runs and protecting other fish habitats and species in the Pacific Northwest,” Wyden said. “This bill allows continued collaboration among water users, farmers, fishery managers and conservationists so that protected salmon runs and irrigation can sustainably coexist side-by-side.”

Read the full story at KTVZ 

PENNSYLVANIA: Exelon reaches agreement to restore fish in Susquehanna

April 29, 2016 — Efforts to improve American shad and river herring populations in the Susquehanna River have increased thanks to a 50-year agreement announced on Monday by Exelon Generation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Josh Tryninewski, a biologist for the state Fish and Boat Commission who manages the shad restoration effort, said the river’s shad population has been declining since 2001 because of limited access to adequate spawning habitats.

Shad and river herring are returning to their spawning on the Susquehanna at their lowest numbers since the 1980s, according to Exelon’s news release. The population peaked in 2001, when hundreds of thousands of shad and river herring passed Exelon’s Conowingo Dam, but that number has dwindled to 1,500 shad and 1,000 herring per year.

Read the full story from The York Dispatch in Bloomberg

‘Landmark agreement’ reached to restore American shad to Susquehanna

April 26, 2016 — The owners of the Conowingo Dam and the federal government have signed what they call a “landmark agreement” in long-struggling efforts to restore American shad to the Susquehanna River.

The agreement between Exelon Generation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls for up to 100,000 shad and 100,000 river herring to be transported and released to native spawning water above four hydroelectric dams in the Lower Susquehanna, including two in Lancaster County.

The agreement came out of efforts to pressure Exelon to improve the shad’s chances as part of the utility’s quest to obtain a federal license to operate for another 46 years.

Shad was once the iconic fish in the Susquehanna. It was a major food source, an economic driver and a way of life in Lancaster County when they made spawning runs from the Atlantic Ocean.

Read the full story in Lancaster Online

Some Green Sea Turtles Can Now Wave Goodbye To Their Endangered Status

April 20, 2016 — Slow and steady won the race, at least for a few green sea turtles.

U.S. officials announced early this month that breeding populations in Florida and on the Pacific coast of Mexico are off the endangered list.

They will be re-classified as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, which means they are no longer immediately threatened by extinction but still merit protection under the act.

“It’s just like the manatees. Even though the turtles have been downgraded, it won’t affect them as far as enforcement goes,” FWC spokesman Bobby Dube told Florida Keys Keynoter.

Read the full story from the Huffington Post

Feds: Habitat, dams, hatcheries keys to saving Maine salmon

April 4, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The Gulf of Maine’s endangered salmon will need restored habitats, removal of dams, aggressive hatchery programs and other conservations actions if its population is to rebound, according to a federal government plan to save the fading and iconic fish.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a recovery plan for the Gulf of Maine salmon, listed as endangered in 2000, that is intended as a roadmap to sustainability for a fish whose populations have plummeted since the 1800s.

Recovery will take time and patience — the plan estimates 75 years and $350 million, which would have to come from some combination of federal, state and private money. The wildlife service estimates 100,000 adult salmon returned to the Penobscot River each year in the 19th century, and less than 750 of the fish returned to spawn in Maine rivers last year.

Maine’s salmon face numerous threats, and one of the biggest is the continued presence of dams that prevent them from spawning, said Dan Kircheis, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. He said there are 400 dams in the state in areas that affect salmon.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Gloucester Times

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