Saving Seafood

House Democrats Agree to $100 Million Allocation for Critically Endangered Species

August 31, 2021 — In a memo released by the House Natural Resources Committee, House Democrats will provide $550 million to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the upcoming budget reconciliation package, including $100 million for some of the most critically imperiled species in the United States.

The legislation will include $25 million to conserve and restore four of the most imperiled types of endangered species in the United States: butterflies, eastern freshwater mussels, Southwest desert fish and Hawaiian plants.

“This is the largest investment in the recovery of endangered species in a generation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If we’re going to tackle the extinction crisis and save these incredible species from the brink, this is exactly the type of bold action that’s needed.”

The reconciliation language mirrors Chairman Raúl Grijalva’s Extinction Prevention Act of 2021, which would fund on-the-ground conservation actions to stabilize the four groups of struggling endangered species.

A 2016 study found that Congress only provides approximately 3.5% of the estimated funding the Fish and Wildlife Service’s scientists say is needed to recover species. Roughly 1 in 4 species receives less than $10,000 a year toward recovery, and many of the endangered species that will benefit from this funding receive nothing for recovery in a given year.

Read the full story at Maui News

US lawmakers want information on chemical toxic to salmon

August 20, 2021 — More than a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the heads of NOAA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife on Thursday, 19 August, asking them to investigate the effect a toxic chemical has on salmon species.

Led by U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Katie Porter, both Califiornia Democrats, a total of 14 lawmakers are seeking answers from NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad and FWS Principal Deputy Director Martha Williams about their agencies’ efforts to examine the deleterious effects of 6PPD-quinone on wild salmon mortality.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Feds propose expanded coastal barrier protection

August 13, 2021 — The Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed adding 10,012 coastal acres to a national roster of lands covered by certain federal protections.

While relatively modest, the proposed addition of wetlands and aquatic habitat in parts of Florida and South Carolina marks the Biden administration’s first effort to expand the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System.

The proposed expansion, which requires congressional approval, also follows the Biden administration’s reversal of a Trump administration policy that opened the door to federal funding of sand mining and other projects on the designated coastal barrier lands.

The Coastal Barrier Resources System consists of relatively undeveloped coastal barriers along the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, Great Lakes, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico that are depicted on a set of FWS maps.

Barrier islands protection coastal communities and infrastructure and serve as important habitats for many coastal and marine species.

“The impacts of sea level rise and storm surge due to climate change will greatly increase both the risk associated with developing coastal barriers and the value of these areas for fish and wildlife habitat and as cost-effective buffers to protect mainland communities against coastal storm damage,” FWS has noted.

The Coastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982 prohibits federal funding for activities like flood insurance, road construction and dredging on relatively undeveloped coastal areas.

Development still can occur in areas added to the CBRS provided that private or other nonfederal parties cover the full cost.

Read the full story at E&E News

Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes Now Available

July 20, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On June 17, 2021, NOAA Fisheries along with partners, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, released the Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes.

Prior to pervasive dam construction in the late 18th and early 19th century, diadromous fish were abundant in the Merrimack River watershed including American shad, river herring (alewife and blueback herring), sturgeon (Atlantic and shortnose), American eel, striped bass, Atlantic salmon, and sea lamprey. The present day abundance of diadromous species remains a small percentage of historical levels. Restoration efforts during the past 40 years have improved the habitat and connectivity conditions resulting in a modest increase in diadromous fish abundance.

The purpose of the Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes is to create a framework to balance diadromous fish restoration efforts with other water resource uses and ecosystem services in the Merrimack River watershed.

To read the complete plan visit the website and search for Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes.

Questions?

Ben German, NOAA Fisheries, 978-281-9353

Ben Gahagan, MA Division of Marine Fisheries, 978-282-03038 ext 140

Marion Larson, MA Division of Fish and Game, 857-303-0239

Matt Carpenter, NH Fish and Game Department, 603-271-2612

Laurie Munroe, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 413-588-1005

‘If we’re not up there cleaning up this threat, nobody is’: Team hauls more than 47 tons of marine debris out of Pacific Ocean

April 23, 2021 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that a team of scientists hauled 47.2 tons of marine debris out of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the North Pacific Ocean.

A crew of 12, which completed their expedition over 24 days, included staff from NOAA Fisheries, the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Hawaii Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research.

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area in the U.S., encompassing an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined, according to the national monument’s website.

The monument is in the northern Pacific Ocean and surrounded by what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a huge gyre of floating plastic and other debris that circulates in ocean currents. The islands act like a comb that gather debris on its otherwise pristine beaches.

Read the full story at USA Today

Federal judge rules FDA must reevaluate effects of potential GE salmon escape

November 9, 2020 — AquaBounty Technologies is facing another legal battle over its AquAdvantage salmon, as a California court ruled last week that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) violated core environmental laws in approving genetically engineered salmon for sale and consumption.

On 5 November, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled the FDA ignored serious possible environmental consequences by approving genetically engineered salmon, and was also violating the National Environmental Policy Act. The judge also ruled the FDA approval was in violation of the Endangered Species Act, as the agency did not consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service before taking an action that “may affect” a listed or endangered species.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Lawsuit: Pipeline could push 2 fish species to extinction

October 29, 2020 — Environmental groups have filed a legal challenge against the Mountain Valley Pipeline that says the project could push two endangered species of fish to extinction.

The Roanoke Times reports that the legal challenge was filed Tuesday in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. It involves the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter species of fish.

The route of the 300-mile long pipeline would go from northern West Virginia to southwestern Virginia and connect with an existing pipeline in North Carolina.

The coalition of environmental groups also asked the federal appeals court to review a recent biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency had found that construction of the pipeline is not likely to jeopardize protected fish, bats and mussels.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBS 19

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 21, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service must designate protected critical habitats for green sea turtles by June 30, 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement Thursday.

The agencies will likely consider proposing protections for beaches where green turtles nest in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as offshore oceanic habitat in the Southeast and on the West Coast, according to the agreement. These critical habitats designations don’t prohibit development, but they require that any project that’s permitted by a federal agency must minimize harm to these special areas.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

They were trying to save a species. Instead, scientists created a fish that’s part sturgeon, part paddlefish, all accident

July 22, 2020 — A group of Hungarian aquatic scientists was looking for ways to save the fish responsible for some of the world’s finest caviar from extinction.

Instead, they made a Frankenfish.

But their accidental hybrid, a fish that’s part American paddlefish and part Russian sturgeon, could benefit fish farming and the industry’s carbon footprint. And on their own, the fish are a marvel of biology.

Though they haven’t been formally named yet, fellow fishery researchers have given them the moniker “sturddlefish.”

The “sturddlefish” study appeared this month in the scientific journal Genes.

How it happened

The initial goal of the study was to encourage the critically endangered sturgeon to reproduce asexually. That isn’t quite how it went.

The Russian sturgeon, instead, hybridized with the American paddlefish, the first time the two have ever hybridized successfully in captivity. The paddlefish was originally meant to provide sperm — not its DNA — to help the sturgeon reproduce on its own.
The sturgeon isn’t so genetically different from paddlefish — they belong to the same group, Acipenseriformes. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, sturgeon and paddlefish both provide tasty caviar.

Read the full story at CNN

Roughly 1,400 pounds of shark fins seized in Florida

February 4, 2020 — Inspectors with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Monday they had seized roughly 1,400 pounds of shark fins hidden in boxes in Florida last month.

The agency said the shipment of severed fins arrived on Jan. 24 at Miami Port of Entry in roughly 18 boxes. They were believed to have come from South America and likely bound for Asia.

Officials estimated the total value of the fins to be worth between $700,000 and $1 million. They waited until Monday to share the news outside of law enforcement.

“The goal of this seizure is to protect these species while deterring trackers from using U.S. ports as viable routes in the illegal shark fin trade,” said Christina Meister, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, according to the Miami Herald.

Read the full story at Fox News