Saving Seafood

Lawmakers take up threats to North Atlantic right whales

March 11, 2019 — The sound of an air horn echoed through a Congressional subcommittee hearing Thursday, set off by U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., to mimic what critically endangered North Atlantic right whales might experience during seismic testing for oil and gas.

The loud demonstration occurred at a hearing focused on permits that could soon be issued by the U.S. Department of Interior to five companies to explore oil and gas reserves off the mid- and southern Atlantic states. Critics of the move argue that the North Atlantic right whales, many of which visit Cape Cod Bay to feed, could be harmed in the process.

“We must reduce exposure of all whales but particularly females to stressors that can slow or stop reproduction,” said Scott Kraus, an expert witness with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, who appeared during a hearing before the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Feds could restrict Pacific Ocean fishing over endangered orcas, NOAA letter says

March 8, 2019 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is taking a fresh look at whether new fishing restrictions are needed to help prevent the extinction of endangered southern resident killer whales that frequent Puget Sound.

New evidence about the fish the whales depend on and the risk posed to orcas by depleted prey has caused the agency to write a letter of guidance to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, indicating the agency is examining whether new restrictions are needed — particularly on fisheries in the Lower Columbia and Sacramento River and on fall-run chinook salmon in the Klamath River.

NOAA in 2009 concluded fisheries did not jeopardize the survival and recovery of killer whales.

But since then, “a substantial amount of new information is available on SRKW (southern resident killer whale) and their prey,” and has the agency wanting to take another look at fishing, Barry Thom, regional administrator for NOAA’s West Coast region, wrote to Phil Anderson, chairman of the council, on Wednesday.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

A Trump official said seismic air gun tests don’t hurt whales. So a congressman blasted him with an air horn.

March 8, 2019 — A hearing on the threat seismic testing poses to North Atlantic right whales was plodding along Thursday when, seemingly out of nowhere, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) pulled out an air horn and politely asked if he could blast it.

Before that moment at a Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, Cunningham had listened to a Trump administration official testify, over and over, that firing commercial air guns under water every 10 seconds in search of oil and gas deposits over a period of months would have next to no effect on the endangered animals, which use echolocation to communicate, feed, mate and keep track of their babies. It’s why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave five companies permission to conduct tests that could harm the whales last year, said the official, Chris Oliver, an assistant administrator for fisheries.

As committee members engaged in a predictable debate along party lines — Republicans in support of testing and President Trump’s energy agenda, Democrats against it — Cunningham reached for the air horn, put his finger on the button and turned to Oliver.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Rep. Seth Moulton moves to save right whales

March 8, 2019 — The plight of the North Atlantic right whales returned to the spotlight Thursday on Capitol Hill, with a House hearing on potential dangers from planned seismic testing and the reintroduction of protective legislation by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.

Moulton’s bill — SAVE the Right Whale Act of 2019 — would provide government grants to states, nonprofit organizations and fishing and shipping stakeholders “to fund research and efforts that restore the North Atlantic right whale population.”

“We humans have nearly killed every right whale in existence through our direct and indirect actions over the past two centuries,” Moulton testified Thursday at hearing before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources. “Today we are at a crossroads. We can be the generation that saves the right whale or the generation that allows their extinction. Let’s not miss this unique moment. Let’s be the generation that brings the right whale back from the brink.”

Moulton told members of the Water, Oceans and Wildlife subcommittee that whale researchers now peg the North Atlantic right whale population at 422, with only about 100 breeding females.

The bill, co-authored by Rep. John Rutherford of Florida, also would fund government research to track the right whale’s primary source of food — plankton — and hopefully provide answers about “how human actions affect zooplankton, which in turn affects the health and migration patterns of the whales.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Maryland Attorney General Frosh joins 8 other state AGs in seeking halt to underwater seismic testing for oil

March 7, 2019 — Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Wednesday that a coalition of nine states that joined a federal lawsuit to prevent underwater seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean is asking a judge to freeze the practice while the case proceeds.

The states in December joined a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in South Carolina by environmental groups seeking to reverse the authority that the National Marine Fisheries Service gave to five companies to conduct “seismic airgun surveys for oil and gas in coastal water” off the Atlantic Coast.

Now, the attorneys general are also supporting the request to halt that authorization as the case continues.

“The five authorizations allow nearly 850 combined days of around-the-clock activity, amounting to more than five million total seismic airgun blasts,” the original lawsuit states. “The authorized surveys will injure and disturb whales and dolphins hundreds of thousands of times, including critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.”

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

MSC delivers a pinch to Canada’s snow crab fishery

March 6, 2019 — Canada’s snow crab fishery is looking ahead at another year without its Marine Stewardship Council certification, but the real risk may be at the hands of the ecolabel.

Last March, the MSC scrambled to suspend its certification of Eastern Canada’s snow crab fishery after a high rate of right whale entanglements and deaths traced back to the fishery in 2017.

What happened next was a little surprising — the lack of a label didn’t have much effect on prices. Despite a buoyant market, Canada’s fixed-gear fleets as well as federal and provincial managers set about on an international mission to work with their neighbors to the south who have long been fighting the good fight to reduce right whale interactions.

Maine’s lobster fishery has been at the forefront of gear innovations to coexist with right whale migratory and feeding patterns. Ten years ago, the fleet made an expensive conversion to sinking groundline instead of using floating rope between pots on a trawl. But the population of an estimated 411 right whales has been expanding its territory into Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, where regulations haven’t been as robust.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Impending whale protections worry fishermen

March 5, 2019 — With the majority of American lobsters caught in Maine, the state’s lobster fishermen could bear the brunt of changes in federal fishery regulations to save the endangered right whale.

At the March 1 Fisherman’s Forum update on the threat of extinction for the North Atlantic right whale, it became clear regulators believe changes to fishing gear will be announced sometime this year.

Much of the presentation focused on changes to the vertical lines that attach buoys floating on top of the water to the lobster traps down on the ocean floor. The colored buoys identify the owner of the traps and their location, and the line is used to haul the heavy traps out of the water

In 2009, a whale protection regulation required fishermen to eliminate the floating rope they used to connect strings of lobster traps, and replace it with rope that lies on the ocean floor. That process took five years and a rope buyback program to accomplish, according to Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, who was in the audience. Switching out vertical lines cannot be done in one year, she said.

Read the full story at The Camden Herald

Time tension line-cutter could offer lobstermen a whale entanglement solution

March 4, 2019 — A Maine lobsterman and machinist believes he could have the solution to North Atlantic right whale entanglement issues in the state’s lobster fishery.

Ben Brickett of Blue Water Concepts presented – or more accurately re-presented – his idea for a “Time Tension Line-Cutter” at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum on 1 March. The technology, which he invented over a decade ago, provides a solution for whale entanglements that doesn’t compromise rope strength or require any electronics.

“I got started in this in 2003. A good friend of mine who works on an offshore lobster boat came by and was very concerned with having to put weaker lines on his gear,” Brickett said. The friend in question was fishing in deep water, with hauling tensions that can approach 10,000 pounds on large lobster trawls. “They wanted to know if we could put in some kind of timed weak link.”

Currently, the lobster industry in the Northeast U.S. is facing pressure after a number of entanglement-related deaths of North Atlantic right whales – an endangered species with just over 400 individuals left – occurred in 2018. Both NOAA fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council have been investigating methods to prevent potential entanglements by the lobster industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Extended: Voluntary Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

March 4, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) previously established south of Nantucket has been extended to protect an aggregation of 10 right whales sighted in this area on March 1.

This DMA is in effect through March 17, 2019.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less. Whales were spotted in or near shipping lanes so please be especially vigilant when traveling in these areas.

Nantucket DMA coordinates:

41 12 N
40 28 N
070 36 W
069 31 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Cape Cod Bay SMA — in effect through May 15

Mid-Atlantic U.S. SMAs (includes Block Island) — in effect through April 30

Southeast U.S. SMA — in effect through April 15

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. With an unprecedented 20 right whale deaths documented in 2017 and 2018, NOAA is cautioning boaters to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking commercial fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales, remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements, and use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are slightly more than 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

Maine lobster industry facing bait, potential regulation issues in 2019

March 1, 2019 — On the heels of the Maine Department of Marine Resource’s announcement that the lobster industry topped USD 600 million (EUR 527 million) in value in 2018, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association was discussing the multiple outside factors that could make 2019 a difficult year for fishermen.

At the MLA’s annual meeting in Rockport, Maine, on Friday, 1 March, two issues loomed large for fishermen: Potential regulations related to the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and the drastic cuts to herring quotas that will heavily impact the industry’s bait supply. Both issues have the potential to make life difficult for lobstermen as regulations that are coming could reduce the amount of traps or the types of gear they can use, and the reduction in bait supplies could leave fishermen struggling to fill traps with increasingly expensive bait.

“We now know that our 2019 quota is going to be 15,000 metric tons (MT),” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the MLA, said during the meeting. “It translates to almost 77 million pounds of herring that won’t come into the fishery.”

Substantial declines in recruitment and biomass in the latest surveys resulted in the New England Fisheries Management Council to slash the herring quotas from nearly 50,000 MT to just over 15,000 M, a 70 percent reduction in the supply of herring. That’s compounded by previous decreases, leaving the lobster industry with a much lower supply of bait.

Read the full story at Seafood Source