Saving Seafood

Lobster industry still waiting for precise rules from feds to protect right whales

June 1, 2021 — Maine’s lobster fishermen are anxiously waiting to learn exactly what they will have to change to meet new federal requirements to protect the endangered right whale. On Thursday, the federal agency NOAA Fisheries released their final biological opinion about the threat to right whales, saying there have to be major changes by New England fishermen so whales won’t get tangled in fishing gear and die.

Fishermen have been worrying about and waiting for federal guidelines for more than two years. They had some of their fears confirmed by the latest report from NOAA, but still are waiting to get the needed details.

The big target to protect whales is called risk reduction, primarily by cutting the number of vertical ropes in the water that connect traps to buoy.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA Fisheries, said those ropes pose a big risk of tangling right whales, so they have to be reduced 60 percent right away. How that should happen is one of the details fishermen are waiting to learn, but previous documents from NMFS suggested a primary method should be requiring longer trawls, meaning putting many more traps on each line, in addition to using sections of weaker rope that can break away if snagged by a whale.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said Maine is being unfairly penalized for whale deaths actually happening in Canada and those from whales being hit by ships at sea. She said that while lobstermen will have to follow the rules, the industry will continue to pressure NMFS to improve its data and create more fair regulations.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

NOAA Fisheries Releases Final “Batched” Biological Opinion & North Atlantic Right Whale Conservation Framework

May 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries released its Endangered Species Act (ESA) section 7 Biological Opinion on the authorization of eight federal fisheries management plans under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, two interstate fishery management plans under the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, and the implementation of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2. We also released the North Atlantic Right Whale Conservation Framework for Federal Fisheries in the Greater Atlantic Region (Conservation Framework). NOAA Fisheries has evaluated the effects of the authorization of the fisheries, as modified by the Conservation Framework, on endangered and threatened species.

The 10 fisheries included in the Opinion are: (1) American Lobster, (2) Atlantic Bluefish, (3) Atlantic Deep-Sea Red Crab, (4) Mackerel/Squid/Butterfish, (5) Monkfish, (6) Northeast Multispecies, (7) Northeast Skate Complex, (8) Spiny Dogfish, (9) Summer Flounder/Scup/Black Sea Bass, and (10) Jonah Crab fisheries.

We released a draft Opinion on January 15, 2021 to the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils and shared it with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. We accepted feedback from the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils/Commission and other interested parties through February 19, 2021. This feedback was considered in developing the final Opinion.

In developing the Opinion, NOAA Fisheries identified that, to meet the mandates of the ESA, mortality and serious injury of North Atlantic right whales due to federal fisheries managed by the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office needs to be further reduced. Therefore, NOAA Fisheries developed and is committed to implementing a Conservation Framework to further reduce mortality and serious injury of North Atlantic right whales resulting from entanglements by the federal fisheries. The reduction in entanglements is also expected to reduce sublethal effects that may affect the health and reproductive output of right whales. This Conservation Framework outlines NOAA Fisheries’ commitment to implement measures that are necessary for the recovery of right whales, while providing a phased approach and flexibility to the fishing industry.

Through the ESA section 7 consultation, we have evaluated the effects of these fisheries, as modified by the Conservation Framework, on endangered and threatened species. The Opinion concludes that impacts from the authorization of the fisheries, as modified by the Conservation Framework, are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any ESA-listed species in the action area, including sea turtles, listed marine mammals, and listed fish. We also determined that the fisheries, as modified, are not likely to result in the destruction or adverse modification of any designated critical habitat.

NOAA Fisheries, through the Greater Atlantic Region’s Sustainable Fisheries and Protected Resources Divisions, is committed to implementing the Conservation Framework and other measures identified in the consultation to ensure that impacts to NOAA Fisheries’ trust resources are minimized. For more information and to read the Biological Opinion and  Conservation Framework please visit our website.

Read the full release here

California closing Dungeness season June 1 as humpback whales migrate

May 25, 2021 — California crabbers must pull their gear by noon June 1, with a decision by state officials to end the season, anticipating movement of humpback whales from their breeding grounds back to coastal waters.

The closure will shorten the season by four weeks in the central management zone and six weeks in the northern management zone. But the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program – developed after court challenges from environmental groups seeking to prevent gear entanglements – is working, state officials say.

The agency made its preliminary determination a week before the announcement, said Ben Platt, president of the California Coastal Crab Association.

“What’s extremely frustrating is that the Whale Working Group voted 10-2 to keep the state open with a 30 fathom depth restriction. The only whales spotted were outside of this depth,” said Platt. “This was already the management in the northern half of the state for the past two week period.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

8 Things You Might Not Know About Threatened & Endangered Species in the Pacific

May 24, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

It’s Endangered Species Day! This is a time to celebrate the threatened and endangered species in the Pacific Islands region and renew our dedication to protecting and conserving them! With that in mind, we’re bringing you some interesting—and perhaps surprising—facts about our protected species. We’re and sharing how you can help make sure they’re around for future generations to enjoy.

Here’s why we think the threatened and endangered species in the Pacific Islands region are some of the most interesting animals on the planet!

1. False killer whales like to share!

These closely bonded animals not only share their prey with one another, but they’ve also been known to approach human snorkelers and divers with offerings from their fresh catch.

False killer whales are the least abundant species of toothed whale in Hawai‘i. And of the three populations that live here, the main Hawaiian Islands insular population is listed as endangered with fewer than 200 individuals remaining. While encounters are rare, we encourage you to report sightings at the NOAA Marine Wildlife Hotline: (888) 256-9840.

Check out the 2020 field update from our partners at Cascadia Research Collective

2. Male hawksbill sea turtles spend their lives at sea and are rarely observed or tagged.

The hawksbill population of Hawaiʻi may be the most endangered turtle population in the world. There are fewer than 200 known adult female hawksbill sea turtles (honuʻea) in Hawaiʻi, but scientists don’t know how many males are out there. They suspect the number may be small because only around 20 percent of Hawaiʻi hawksbills that strand (are dead or injured) on the beach are male. What’s more, incubation temperature determines a hatchling’s sex: high temperatures produce females, suggesting fewer males will be born as global temperatures increase. Report all honu‘ea sightings to RespectWildlife@noaa.gov.

Learn to distinguish honu‘ea from the more common honu (green sea turtle) by their narrow heads and pointed beaks

Read the full release here

Whale activist attempts to intervene in right whale case

May 24, 2021 — With federal officials set to unveil new rules on the lobster fisheries at the end of the month, a well-known animal rights activist made a late attempt to try and stop the industry from being allowed to use vertical buoy ropes.

Richard “Max” Strahan tried to intervene at the beginning of the month in the federal right whale court case that holds the future of the lobster industry in its hands, but the activist’s attempt was rejected by a judge less than a week later.

Strahan filed his motion on May 8 and claimed that the only way the industry would stop using the ropes is by a court-ordered injunction. Without such an injunction, right whales would inevitably go extinct, he claimed.

He sought to prosecute the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency responsible for the regulations, and other lobster industry groups “for their acting in concert over the course of decades to repeatedly and deliberately engage in conduct prohibited by” the Endangered Species Act, he wrote.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

The PNW is a leader on forage fish management — but it needs better data

May 18, 2021 — Endangered species like salmon and orca get lots of attention in Washington. We painstakingly track their numbers, and each new baby, individual death or a population crash has the potential to spur international reactions. But some species they rely on rarely achieve recognition.

These small, silvery creatures — herring, anchovies, euchalon and more — shuttle energy through the food web between primary producers, like microscopic plants and algae, and bigger aquatic predators.

“They’re small fish that most people don’t typically see but that really make the marine food web go round for larger organisms … that pay attention to where those things are and where they’re not,” says Dr. Jen Zamon, a research fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center who works on forage fish. “And if they’re moving around, that’s going to change the distribution of everything else that’s feeding upon them.”

“Pretty much anything in the water that has a mouth big enough to fit a forage fish in it eats forage fish,” says Phil Dionne, a research scientist with the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife who specializes in forage fish.

Read the full story at Crosscut

Feds raise protections for North Atlantic right whales, but sea turtles may suffer

May 17, 2021 — North Atlantic right whales have gained protections and sea turtles are more imperiled under a new federal calendar for harbor dredging that came to light May 14 in a federal lawsuit that seeks to protect sea turtles.

The entire calendar for dredging at some seaports along the East Coast has been modified in an effort to increase protections for North American right whales, according to a federal report with the new calendar. This species has been reduced to a population of some 360 animals.

The change allows harbors to be dredged in warmer months in North Carolina and continuing south through Georgia and Florida, to the islands of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dredging is routine maintenance and typically involves vacuuming up debris that has filled a shipping channel and impedes ships as they use a port. The process has a history of harming certain sea life.

Read the full story at The Saporta Report

Ship speed limit sought to protect endangered whales in Gulf

May 12, 2021 — A speed limit for ships in part of the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle is needed to protect the few remaining endangered whales there, environmental groups said Tuesday.

The groups asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service to set a 10-knot (11.5 mph, 18.5 kph) speed limit in an area covering about 11,500 square miles (30,000 square kilometers) off Florida and Alabama.

Shipping interests did not immediately answer requests for comment on the petition, which also asks NOAA Fisheries to make all shipping detour around the whales’ core habitat at night.

The federal agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation, spokeswoman Allison Garrett said.

“One of the rarest, most endangered whales on the planet is in our backyard, and we have a responsibility to save it,” said Michael Jasny, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups.

Read the full story at The Star Tribune

NMFS reports right whales increasing use of New England offshore wind areas

May 7, 2021 — Endangered northern right whales that have been arriving earlier in spring and staying longer around Cape Cod have also expanded their presence south and west of Nantucket Shoals, into areas planned for large-scale development of offshore wind power, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Scientists from the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducting surveillance flights spotted 57 fight whales March 30 off southeast New England, in and around wind energy areas that have been leased to developers by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

NMFS officials said those whales included three mother-calf pairs – results from what experts have called the most successful calving season in years for the highly endangered species, with 17 young reported and nine mother-calf pairs sighted in Northeast waters in recent weeks. The entire population was last estimated to number around 366 animals.

Right whales typically appear in Cape Cod Bay during the spring, but in recent years they have been showing up sooner and lingering longer, according to a summary released April 15 by NMFS.

A small portion of the whale population, mostly pregnant females, migrates to waters off Georgia and northern Florida for the winter calving season, according to marine mammal researcher Tim Cole who leads the NEFSC whale survey team.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Massachusetts waters remain closed to lobstermen

May 6, 2021 — The state Division of Marine Fisheries is reminding lobstermen and other trap fishermen that state waters north and east of Cape Cod remain closed to all commercial harvesting because of the continued presence of North Atlantic right whales.

DMF and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies continue to fly aerial survey flights to gauge the scale of right whale presence in state waters as the imperiled stock continues its northward feeding migration.

The agency said its most recent flight, on April 28, 2021, observed 86 right whales in the waters of northern Cape Cod Bay, southern Massachusetts Bay, and Stellwagen Bank, a fishing ground located about 15 miles southeast of Gloucester to about six miles north of Provincetown.

“Additional surveillance flights are anticipated to occur over the next several days,” DMF stated. “DMF will reevaluate the status of this closure based on the presence or absence of whales. Should observational data demonstrate right whales have migrated out of Massachusetts waters, DMF may lift the trap gear closure prior to May 15.”

Also, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Slocum underwater glider on Sunday acoustically detected the presence of North Atlantic right whales north of Cape Cod and NOAA Fisheries on Monday instituted a voluntary right whale slow zone north of Cape Cod until May 17.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times