Saving Seafood

Environmental group sues after Trump administration scraps effort to protect West Coast sea animals

July 14, 2017 — An environmental group has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s withdrawal of proposed limits on the number of endangered whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be killed or injured by sword-fishing nets on the West Coast.

Oceana Inc., which lodged the case late Wednesday in Los Angeles, alleges that the government violated required procedures for rescinding the proposed caps that had been recommended in 2015 by the federal Pacific Fishery Management Council.

Named as defendants in the U.S. District Court case are Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“The withdrawal of this important protection for whales, sea turtles, and other species is plainly illegal,” said Mariel Combs, Oceana’s attorney. “The law requires the fisheries service to respect the fishery management council’s expertise in managing fisheries.”

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

TWO IMPORTANT WEST COAST GROUNDFISH STOCKS REBUILT

June 20, 2017 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

Two important West Coast groundfish stocks that were formerly overfished have now been rebuilt.

Bocaccio and darkblotched rockfish, which are managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, were under strict rebuilding plans that have constrained West Coast fisheries for more than a decade. Bocaccio was declared overfished in 1999, and darkblotched rockfish in 2000; both were rebuilt well before their original target dates.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils that manage ocean fisheries in the United States. Altogether, the Pacific Council manages more than 100 species of groundfish.

Managing groundfish fisheries under rebuilding plans has been an immense challenge for the Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries). These plans required sharp reductions in commercial and recreational fisheries targeting groundfish, which included widespread fishing closures through the establishment of Rockfish Conservation Areas off the West Coast and other measures. Since 2003, managing overfished species through area closures such as the Rockfish Conservation Areas has helped to reduce fishing impacts and rebuild overfished groundfish species.

In addition, the groundfish fleet has had to limit fishing for other more abundant species to avoid unintentional catch of the overfished stocks.

“The rebuilding strategies used to achieve this conservation success, coupled with favorable environmental conditions for groundfish productivity, have paid huge dividends in rebuilding our overfished groundfish stocks and resurrecting West Coast groundfish fisheries,” said Council Chair Herb Pollard.

The successful rebuilding of these species reflects the support and sacrifice of West Coast ports and fishermen who recognized the difficult actions and fishing cutbacks necessary to restore the stocks. The rebuilding of bocaccio and darkblotched rockfish will lead to increased harvest opportunities beginning in 2019.

“By working together, we’ve brought bocaccio and darkblotched rockfish back to where they will again be part of a sustainable West Coast groundfish fishery that creates renewed opportunity for the fishing fleet, as well as more options for seafood consumers,” said Barry Thom, Regional Administrator of NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region.

Between 1999 and 2017, ten West Coast groundfish stocks were declared overfished, as surveys documented their declining numbers. Pacific whiting, for example, was declared overfished in 2002. The Council, working with NOAA Fisheries and the fishing industry, reduced commercial harvests. Combined with strong reproduction and recruitment, the fishing cutbacks led to the rapid rebuilding of Pacific whiting by 2004. The Council and NOAA Fisheries developed rebuilding plans for the other nine overfished stocks—bocaccio, darkblotched rockfish, lingcod, canary rockfish, cowcod, Pacific ocean perch, widow rockfish, petrale sole, and yelloweye rockfish.

Lingcod was declared rebuilt in 2005, and widow rockfish in 2012. Both petrale sole and canary rockfish were declared rebuilt in 2015. Rebuilding plans remain in place for three remaining overfished species: cowcod, Pacific ocean perch, and yelloweye rockfish. New assessments for Pacific ocean perch and yelloweye rockfish will be reviewed this summer and may be adopted in September. Cowcod is expected to be rebuilt by 2019.

“The Council is a transparent, science-based, inclusive approach to fisheries management,” said Council Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “Our progress in rebuilding overfished stocks shows the effectiveness of this approach. West Coast fisheries are a model of sustainable resource management, and they will continue to provide healthy seafood, jobs, and support for coastal communities, as well as access to this resource for all Americans.”

Process

The bocaccio and darkblotched rockfish assessments were developed by scientists at NOAA Fisheries and were reviewed by the Council’s scientific advisory bodies.  NOAA Fisheries confirmed the stocks’ status as rebuilt on June 16.

Council Role  

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 for the purpose of managing fisheries 3‐200 nautical miles offshore of the United States of America coastline.  The Pacific Council recommends management measures for fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.

No fishery disaster relief funds in Congress’ $1T spending bill

May 2, 2017 — Lawmakers on Monday unveiled a huge $1 trillion-plus spending bill that would fund most government operations through September but would deny President Donald Trump money for a border wall and rejects his proposed cuts to popular domestic programs.

The bill also does not include millions in disaster relief funds for nine West Coast fisheries that fishermen and a group of 17 West Coast senators and members of Congress had hoped congressional leaders would include.

“We’re definitely not holding out hope for any sort of last minute tack-on for the deal, but there is always the opportunity for Congress to appropriate separately,” Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Noah Oppenheim told the Times-Standard on Monday. “Although, the chances of that happening are slim to none.”

Then-Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker declared a fisheries disasters for nine West Coast fisheries in January, including for the 2015-16 crab season in California and the 2016 salmon season for the Yurok Tribe. California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) was one of 17 members of Congress who drafted a bipartisan letter to congressional party leaders in early April urging that they include the disaster funds in the new spending bill. Huffman was traveling to Washington, D.C., on Monday and did not return requests for comment by the Times-Standard deadline.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Eureka Times-Standard

West Coast Trawlers Receive Permits to Target Rebuilt Rockfish Stocks

March 6, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — West Coast groundfish trawlers are fishing for rockfish again — finally.

Rockfish was once targeted by trawlers and a popular item sold in stores and restaurants, but some species were listed as overfished in the early 2000s. Measures to rebuild the stocks to healthy levels led to constraints on both targeted and non-targeted species. Recent stock assessments show rockfish are abundant and healthy.

That situation helped support the National Marine Fisheries Service approving an exempted fishing permit for trawlers in the catch shares program. The exempted fishing permit, or EFP, could result in significant harvest increases for rockfish species in Oregon and Washington waters, according to the EFP applicants.

The EFP was developed as a workaround to a regulatory backlog at NMFS and will allow fishermen to target a burgeoning biomass of pelagic rockfish: widow, yellowtail and other rockfish species. The overall allocation for canary rockfish, one of the primary constraints to increased landings of widow and yellowtail, increased by more than 1,000 percent, but NMFS was unable to lift certain restrictive gear rules in time for the 2017 season.

Four groups — the Environmental Defense Fund, West Coast Seafood Processors Association, Oregon Trawl Commission and Pacific Seafood — worked together to craft the EFP that was recently approved. Trawlers received their permits to start fishing Friday.

“We look forward to the agency’s approval of the final gear regulations package – it’s overdue. But in the meantime, this EFP gets us on the water with effective gear and the chance to target some very abundant stocks,” Warrenton, Ore.-based groundfish trawler Paul Kujala said in a press release.

The EFP, for which more than 30 vessels signed up to participate, lifts a requirement implemented in 2005 that mandated West Coast trawlers use a “selective flatfish trawl.” Selective flatfish trawls allow rockfish to escape by swimming upward as they are swept toward the cod-end, while flatfish stay low and are caught.

“Like a lot of these older regulations, the selective gear requirement made sense before we had observers and 100 percent accountability, when managers had to maximize rockfish avoidance,” OTC Director Brad Pettinger said in the release. “Now that rockfish species are largely rebuilt, these antiquated gear restrictions would have impeded fishermen’s ability to actively target the over 60 million pounds of rockfish that is available to them this year.”

Originally the EFP included California waters, but concerns over Klamath River salmon bycatch caused NMFS to scale it back. The southern portion of the EFP may be approved later in the year.

“We felt the bycatch avoidance measures we built into the EFP were sophisticated and sufficient to minimize bycatch to very low levels, but historically poor abundance of Klamath Chinook has them taking an extremely conservative approach,” EDF Pacific Region Director Shems Jud said. “So we’ll keep working on that, to ensure the agency that California trawlers can avoid Chinook while accessing these prolific groundfish stocks.”

The EFP process started in September 2016,, when it became apparent trawlers would not be able to use less restrictive gear at the start of 2017. The applicants also garnered the support of 13 West Coast Congressmen, led by Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., in urging NMFS to move the EFP along quickly.

The original goal was for implementation by the first week of January 2017 so processors could hire, train and prepare for an influx of rockfish in time for Lent. A number of delays led to NMFS issuing the permits almost two months later than originally planned.

Applicants and state and federal fishery managers plan to continue discussions at the March Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting next week in Vancouver, Wash.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

JANE LUBCHENCO & BRAD PETTINGER: With America’s fisheries rebounding, we can’t turn back

November 28, 2016 — The following is excerpted from an opinion piece written by Jane Lubchenco and Brad Pettinger. It was originally published Saturday in The Oregonian:

In the last 20 years, one of the country’s most valuable natural resources has transformed from a national disaster to a great American recovery story. But unless you’re a fishery scientist or a fisherman who suffered through the near collapse of a fishery, you’ve probably never heard the story.

We lived it.

We’ve been working along the West Coast for 40 years and can attest to the catastrophic collapse of a once massive groundfish fishery. We know fixing it was hard and messy. But we also know that troubled fisheries in the United States and around the world should look to our success and others for lasting solutions.

In the early 2000s, the fishery was in terrible shape. A number of rockfish species were becoming significantly overfished. As long-lived species, their recovery was expected to take decades. Level of discards of “bycatch” — accidental catch that occurs when fishing for target species – was high. This led to the fishery being declared a ‘federal disaster.’ Fish, fishermen and the communities that relied on them were suffering, and it was clear that if the system hadn’t yet hit rock bottom, it soon would.

Fortunately, potential economic extinction is a strong motivator. Fishermen teamed with scientists, conservationists and government managers. In 2011, we adopted a new approach that would bring science, accountability and long-term sustainability to a system that badly needed them.

Where previous management approaches placed numerous and strict limits on when, where and how boats could fish, the new approach established and managed secure fishing privileges for the fishery. Scientists used sound data to determine the amount of each species that could be caught each year while still allowing the species to recover. That total annual catch limit was divided among members of the fishery.

In five short years, the conservation turnaround has been remarkable and faster than anticipated. Species have rebuilt, bycatch discarding decreased by 75 percent and fishery managers have increased the amount of fish that can be sustainably caught. In fact, the fishery was recently certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council and received a slew of top ratings from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch.

Read the full opinion piece at The Oregonian

D.B. PLESCHNER: Sardines not collapsing, may be in recovery

April 25, 2016 — On April 10, the Pacific Fishery Management Council closed the West Coast sardine fishery for a second straight year. The council followed its ultra-conservative harvest control policy and relied on a stock assessment that does not account for recent sardine recruitment.

But in fact, there are multiple lines of evidence that young sardines are now abundant in the ocean.

In addition to field surveys, fishermen in both California and the Pacific Northwest have been observing sardines — both small and large — since the summer of 2015. And California fishermen also provided samples of the small fish to federal and state fishery managers. During the council meeting, the industry advisory subpanel — comprised of fishermen and processors — voiced concern with the inability of acoustic surveys — on which stock assessments are largely based — to estimate accurately the number of fish in the sea. These surveys routinely miss the mass of sardines in the nearshore, where the bulk of the fishery occurs in California, and in the upper water column in the Pacific Northwest, where Oregon and Washington fishermen catch sardines. The recruitment we’re seeing now seems much like the recruitment event following the 2003 El Niño. The years 1999-2002 were characterized by strong La Niña conditions, similar to the years 2010-2013. And what happened after the early 2000s? By 2007 the West Coast sardine population hit its highest peak in recent memory.

So by all appearances the sardine population is likely on the upswing — not still tanking as many environmentalists and media reports are claiming.

Read the full opinion piece at the Monterey Herald

West Coast fisheries are at risk as climate change disturbs the ocean’s chemistry

April 20, 2016 — The West Coast’s abundant fisheries are at risk as the region’s waters become more acidic, a group of scientists warn.

Researchers from the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel released a report this month that projects dire changes to ocean chemistry and marine life, and recommends ways to avert it, including restoring kelp forests and eelgrass beds and combating marine pollution.

The panel convened in 2013 to study how global carbon emissions are lowering pH and reducing oxygen levels in the ocean off the West Coast.

“Although ocean acidification is a global phenomenon, emerging research indicates that the U.S.-Canadian West Coast will face some of the earliest, most severe changes in ocean carbon chemistry,” the report says.

Because of the way the Pacific Ocean circulates, the West Coast is exposed to more acidic water than other areas of the globe. Oyster production in the Pacific Northwest has already declined, as changes in ocean chemistry tamper with shell formation, and scientists warn that popular game fish and other species are also at risk.

Read the full story from the Los Angeles Times

Federal regulators: Don’t even think about fishing for these forage species

April 7, 2016 — No one’s fishing in large numbers for lanternfish, bristlemouth, pelagic squid or a handful of other forage-fish species targeted for protection in California by federal regulators this week.

And no one will be fishing for them anytime soon, under the new rule, which has been the subject of debate among fishers and environmentalists for more than five years. It aims to proactively protect the Pacific Ocean ecosystem by banning commercial fishing of round and thread herring, Pacific saury and sand lance, and certain smelts across the West Coast that are preferred meals of predators commonly fished here.

“The fishery management council wasn’t interested in being surprised by a potential new fishery,” said Yvonne deReynier, a NOAA spokeswoman. “Because of this rule, now people can’t just decide they want to go fishing without checking in and getting permission from fishery management. This is a big-picture concern of our council. The council wants to ensure there are going to be enough prey for mid- and higher-level trophic species that feed on these.”

Before the rule was finalized Monday, new forage-fish commercial fisheries could start relatively easily. Now they can’t begin without extensive study, regulation and permission by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to ensure they’re not overfished or otherwise harmed.

Read the full story at The Long Beach Press-Telegram

Feds make West Coast ban on new forage fisheries official

April 5, 2016 — SEATTLE — Federal officials finalized rules Monday for a West Coast ban on catching forage fish, the small fish that larger species, seabirds and marine mammals depend on for food.

The ban on new commercial fisheries will protect little schooling fish that play a critical role in the marine food web but that are not actively fished or managed, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. It marks the first action under a new approach to fisheries management that considers how one species affects others in the ecosystem.

The ban does not affect existing fisheries for forage fish, such as sardines and anchovies. It covers species including Pacific sand lance, silversides and certain varieties of herring, smelt and squid. The restrictions apply to federal waters from 3 to 200 miles off Washington, Oregon and California, and do not affect fishing authorized by tribes.

Fishermen generally do not target forage fish in federal waters, and no West Coast fishing boats are known to be considering efforts do so.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Oregonian

West Coast Catch Share Program Failure Keeps Vessel Off Fishing Grounds for 2016 Season

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [SeafoodNews] By Susan Chambers – March 21, 2016 — Criticism that the West Coast catch shares program is underperforming came to the forefront recently at the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Sacramento.

West Coast trawlers have been operating in fear of a “disaster tow” or “lightning strike” of a choke species since the beginning of the individual quota program in 2011. And for the F/V Seeker, a disaster tow of 47,000 pounds of canary rockfish – a species at the time listed as overfished — in November 2015 will prevent it from fishing for all of 2016.

The Seeker’s misfortune is an extreme example of the program’s failure, particularly for those fishing in the non-whiting sector.

Jeff Lackey, who manages the vessel, testified to the PFMC the vessel is in a bind and already has made plans to fish in Alaska for most of 2016 and return to fishing off the West Coast in 2017. The Seeker fishes in both the non-whiting shoreside sector and in the whiting mothership sector.

The Seeker is a victim of several features of the current regulatory system in the West Coast individual quota program.

First, current vessel limits prohibit the Seeker from acquiring enough quota to solve its deficit.

Second, canary rockfish was listed as overfished for more than a decade but an assessment accepted by the council in 2015 shows canary rockfish has been rebuilt.

And third, the PFMC’s management process operates on a two-year cycle, with no way to change annual catch limits (ACLs) mid-cycle.

“[The F/V Seeker] is not the only one,” Pete Leipzig, director of the Fishermen’s Marketing Association, told the Council. Other trawlers have come up against vessel limits for other species that have prevented them from fishing for some time, but none have been confronted with the extremity of the Seeker’s situation.

The vessel limits were designed to prevent consolidation of the fleet. Bycatch of choke species have prevented many vessels from capturing target fish. Fear of a disaster tow — one so extreme that a quota pound deficit cannot be covered in the existing fishing year — has limited trading of quota as fishermen hoard these species to cover their fishing operations for the year.

The biennial management cycle only complicates matters. Several years ago, the PFMC instituted two-year management cycles to streamline the management and regulations process, with stock assessments being conducted in off-year cycles. For instance, the council and the National Marine Fisheries Service set annual catch limits for 2015 and 2016 at the same time. Stock assessments are done and presented to the council for acceptance in odd years.

The council accepted the canary rockfish assessment in 2015. ACLs could double for the species were it not for the two-year management cycle.

There is no mechanism to allow the council or NMFS to increase the 2016 annual catch limits for canary in 2016. If higher ACLs would have been allowed this year, the Seeker’s deficit could have been covered and it would be fishing this year.

The Seeker is a member of the Newport, OR based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. The organization proposed a solution to the Seeker’s problem: use an alternative compliance option that was eliminated during the development of the catch shares program. It would have been available for overly restrictive events, such as the Seeker’s, but still hold fishermen accountable. The council opted not to move forward with examining that option at this time.

This is the new reality of the West Coast individual quota program: rebuilding species will be encountered more frequently and fishermen could be held to conservative annual catch limits for a year or more if they experience an infrequent disaster tow and have insufficient quota to cover their deficit.

“As the regulations are currently written, any vessel that experiences the same situation would likely have to sit out of the shoreside trawl program for several years … This seems overly punitive and raises equity concerns,” Heather Mann, executive director of the MTC, wrote in a public comment letter to the council.

Although the Council took no action to try to remedy the situation in March, the issue is sure to come up again as the Council begins the five-year program review in June.

Between 2011 and 2015, the non-whiting shoreside quota program has harvested only between 20 and 35 percent of its annual quota. The industry has identified several dozen changes it would like to see implemented in an effort to make the program work.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.