Saving Seafood

7 Gray Whales Found Dead In Alaska Over Holiday Weekend, Pushing Toll To 22

July 15, 2019 — Seven gray whales were found dead on Alaska’s shores over the holiday weekend, sending this year’s toll in the state to 22.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a necropsy to help determine the cause of death was performed on one of the four animals that turned up around Kodiak Island. Two others were discovered in Egegik and another at Takli Island. The whales were all found between July 5 and 7.

NOAA Fisheries Alaska region spokesperson Julie Speegle told HuffPost on Friday that while the investigation of the deaths remains in its early stages, starvation triggered by melting sea ice may be a cause.

“As many of these whales have been skinny, scientists theorize there may have been a disruption in the gray whale food source due to a lack of sea ice in the Arctic last summer,” Speegle said. “Gray whales fatten up during the summer by feeding on marine life in the Arctic, mostly amphipods off the ocean floor. But when sea ice melts and retreats (as it did last summer), there is a disruption in the food web that results in fewer amphipods for gray whales to eat.”

Though Speegle did not say whether climate change could be to blame for the deaths, she noted that Arctic sea ice dropped to its sixth lowest extent on record last summer, “which may have caused a disruption in the food supply for gray whales.”

Read the full story at The Huffington Post

Maine lawmakers ask Trump to intervene against lobster trap rules

July 12, 2019 — All four members of Maine’s US congressional delegation are asking president Donald Trump to personally intervene against the implementation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of new lobster trap rules that they say could impose unnecessary economic hardships on harvesters in the state.

The rules, which are intended to preserve endangered North Atlantic right whales, are expected to go into effect in two years, forcing a 50% reduction in lobster trap lines. However, the members of Congress suggest in a three-page letter sent to the White House on Wednesday that “there is no credible evidence indicating the rules would have real impacts on the agencies’ stated goals”.

“Your administration has made a point of targeting regulations that you believe are ill-conceived or overly burdensome,” says the letter, signed by Democratic representatives Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree and senators Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent. “By applying the same logic to Maine’s lobster industry and intervening in the implementation of NOAA’s regulations on Maine lobstermen, you can prevent unfair harm to an iconic Maine industry and save many good American jobs.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MAINE: Mills comes out against ‘foolish’ federal regulations to protect right whales

July 12, 2019 — Gov. Janet Mills is directing the Maine Department of Marine Resources to come up with an alternative to a federal plan to protect the endangered right whale from the state lobster industry, saying she won’t allow “foolish” regulations to make life harder for the state’s fishermen.

“I stand with you,” Mills wrote in an open letter to the lobster industry Thursday. “I will do everything I can as your governor to protect your rights and your livelihoods, and defend Maine’s lobster industry in the face of absurd federal overreach.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has ordered Maine to craft a detailed plan to reduce the lobster industry’s threat to right whales by 60 percent by September. Federal regulators say entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes are driving the whale’s decline, with just over 400 of them left.

But state regulators, and now Mills, say Maine isn’t to blame for the decline.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Canada Announces New Protections for Rare Right Whales

July 11, 2019 — The Canadian government is announcing new protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales following a string of deaths and entanglements involving the marine mammals.

Six of the whales have died in Canadian waters in the last several weeks, and necropsies show three of them appear to be due to vessel strikes. The Canadian government said three more whales have been found entangled in rope, and it’s unclear whether they will survive.

Cape Cod Bay is home to most of the species during part of the year.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Why are so many whales washing up on West Coast beaches?

July 9, 2019 — The past year and a half has been harrowing for the world’s largest mammals, as an unusual number of gray whales have stranded on West Coast beaches this year, following excessive whale entanglements in 2018.

Gray whales have been washing ashore with alarming regularity, particularly in the San Francisco area and the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors, but also at some beaches in San Diego.

On March 29, San Diego lifeguards found a 30-foot-long dead whale off the shore near Mission Beach, just a day after another whale carcass was towed away from the coast off Torrey Pines.

As of June 27, a total of 171 whales have stranded on West Coast beaches off North America, with 85 of those turning up on the U.S. coastline and 37 beaching in California alone. Since most whales that die either sink or float out to sea, the beached whales represent just about 10 percent of total mortalities.

Gray whale deaths hit a peak in May, and continued through June. With whale carcasses drifting on shore, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on May 31 declared an “unusual mortality event,” which triggers heightened investigation and response to the strandings.

Read the full story at The San Diego Union-Tribune

Immediate Action Needed to Save North Atlantic Right Whales

July 5, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, with only about 400 whales remaining. The situation has become even more alarming with the recent discovery of six North Atlantic right whale deaths and one entanglement in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. Four deaths were mature females. With fewer than 95 breeding females left, protecting every individual is a top priority. Right whales cannot withstand continued losses of mature females—we have reached a critical point.

Vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are the two greatest threats to these whales, and to make matters more complex, their habitat overlaps with commercially important areas. As right whales live and travel more than 1,000 miles from their feeding grounds off the Canadian Maritimes and New England to the warm coastal waters off South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida, it is the responsibility of the governments of the United States and Canada as well as the fishing and shipping industries in both countries to ensure that these whales have a safe place to live, feed, and reproduce for their survival.

The United States has endeavored for many years to reduce the risks to North Atlantic right whales from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships, and we continually refine our management measures to support recovery of this critically endangered population. In 2008, we adopted ship strike reduction measures that include seasonal speed restrictions near shipping lanes when right whales might be present. Since 1997, we have worked with stakeholders on the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan to reduce the impacts of commercial fishing gear on right whales. We are currently expediting measures to reduce an additional 60 percent of serious injuries and lethal entanglement risks as recommended by our Take Reduction Team in April 2019.

Read the full release here

Scientists Sound Alarm After 6 Rare Whale Deaths in a Month

July 5, 2019 — A half-dozen North Atlantic right whales have died in the past month, leading scientists, government officials and conservationists to call for a swift response to protect the endangered species.

There are only a little more than 400 of the right whales left. All six of the dead whales have been found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Canada, and at least three appear to have died after they were hit by ships.

The deaths have led scientists to sound the alarm about a potentially catastrophic loss to the population. The deaths are especially troubling because they include females, said Philip Hamilton, research scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.

“If we’re going to have deaths, they just can’t be female,” Hamilton said, adding the population is down to only about 100 reproductive females. “We need a different system.”

Right whales have suffered high mortality and poor reproduction in recent years, particularly in 2017. The whales appear to be traveling in different areas of the ocean than usual because of food availability, said Nick Record, senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Six Right Whale Deaths In One Month: ‘Panicking Seems Appropriate’

July 3, 2019 — Five North Atlantic right whales have been found dead in the past week, and six in the last month. With just over 400 remaining and calving rates low, that’s a death toll the critically endangered population can’t afford.

“Panicking seems appropriate, yes,” said Peter Corkeron, who leads the large whale research program at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The whales’ death toll is similar to that of the summer of 2017, when there was one death in early June, and then, later in the month, five deaths in the span of a week, all in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. That summer went on to become catastrophic for the whales, with a total of 12 documented fatalities in Canadian waters and another six in U.S. waters.

There are notable differences, as well, though. In 2017, some whales were hit by ships, but many of the deaths were due to whales getting tangled in fishing gear. This year, ship strikes seem to be the primary problem.

Large numbers of North Atlantic right whales have been sighted in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence in recent summers. Corkeron says that may be because of a subtle shift in where the animals are spending their time. Right whales have only started showing up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in significant numbers in the past few years, a change in their migration patterns that researchers attribute to climate change.

Read the full story at WGBH

Japan Resumes Commercial Whaling. But Is There an Appetite for It?

June 1, 2019 — Japan resumed commercial whale hunting on Monday after a hiatus of more than 30 years, defying calls from conservation groups to protect animals once hunted to the brink of extinction.

Now whalers, who have long depended on government subsidies for their survival, face the much tougher challenge of defying basic economic reality: The market for their product is declining while labor costs across the nation are on the rise.

Japanese production of whale meat peaked in 1962, and the taste is generally preferred by an older generation. The government also hopes to start reducing the $46 million in annual subsidies it pays to whale hunters within three years. The value of previous catches, obtained under the auspices of scientific research in the Antarctic, totaled only about a half to a third of that.

“Will whaling succeed commercially?” said Masayuki Komatsu, a former government official who oversaw Japan’s international negotiations on the subject and now works at a think tank in Tokyo. “No way.”

Read the full story at The New York Times

Watching Whales Sensibly for Ten Years June 26, 2019

June 27, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As humpback whales make their way back to New England and Mid-Atlantic waters from their winter breeding grounds, whale watch companies’ seasons are swinging into high gear along the Atlantic coast. Marine wildlife viewing tours are one of the highest revenue-producing tourism industries in the northeast, with more than one million whale watchers in New England alone.

This year we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Whale SENSE, a program that promotes responsible whale watching practices and ocean conservation. The goal of Whale SENSE is to allow people to experience these majestic creatures in their natural habitat, while respecting their space and not interfering with their natural behaviors.

Whale SENSE began in 2009 with three Cape Cod, Massachusetts companies. NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary developed the program, in which whale watch companies agree to annual training of all naturalists and captains, an annual evaluation of the company’s behavior around whales, and completion of an annual stewardship project.

Participants in the program use a Whale SENSE logo on their promotional materials, and are listed on the Whale SENSE website. By choosing a Whale SENSE company, passengers know that they are making a responsible choice that benefits the whales and the marine environment as a whole.

Read the full release here