Saving Seafood

Cape Cod lobstermen get free gear to protect endangered right whales

March 22, 2021 — Provincetown lobsterman Bill Souza walked back to his truck carrying a swag bag filled with what looked to be fluorescent orange bucatini. They were like the “bamboo finger trap” puzzles he’d seen as a kid, Souza explained, pulling one “noodle” out of the bag.

The weave on the fabric expanded as Souza stuck a finger in one end of the hollow piece of rope known as a South Shore Sleeve. As he tried to pull his finger out, the weave on the fabric tightened, gripping his finger until he pulled hard enough for it to let go.

This was not a child’s toy that the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, the Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts and the state Division of Marine Fisheries were handing out to fishermen gathered Friday at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance building. These sleeves and spools of red 3/8-inch rope were developed and given to fishermen around the state to introduce them to the gear they will be using in the coming fishing season. That change is part of a suite of measures passed by the state Marine Fisheries Commission to comply with a judge’s order to reduce entanglements of endangered right whales in state waters.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Alaska Fisheries Science Center 2020 Year in Review

March 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Alaska Fisheries Science Center was able to accomplish a lot in FY 2020 despite the need to cancel some important field research and fish, crab and marine mammal surveys due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was a year of perseverance, creative thinking, and flexibility.

Our scientists took major steps to adjust the way we do business, protecting staff, communities and research partners while delivering critical science to support resource management and conservation efforts in FY20-21.

Some Highlights:

  • Set up makeshift, home-based labs to conduct critical process studies to provide age and diet information to inform fish and marine mammal stock assessments.
  • Employed innovative technologies to collect and more efficiently analyze data safely (e.g., sea going and aerial drones, artificial intelligence, remote camera and underwater acoustic monitoring systems, and sophisticated camera systems that simultaneously collect color, infrared, and ultraviolet images, etc.)
  • Substantially overhauled standard operating procedures to work with fisheries observer provider companies to deploy Federal fisheries observers on fishing vessels and in seafood processing facilities to collect needed data so fisheries could continue to operate and provide seafood to the nation and the world throughout the pandemic
  • Designed new modeling approaches to estimate fish and crab abundance to account for data limitations due to some cancelled surveys and research activities
  • Provided critical socio-economic analyses of COVID-related impacts on the commercial and recreational fishing industries
  • Increased collaboration with research, co-management and industry partners to monitor and collect data safely for bowhead whales, humpback whales, harbor seals, gray whales, Steller sea lions, northern fur seals, California sea lions, and commercially valuable pollock, red king crab and sablefish
  • Organized and safely supported a major ecosystem survey in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea during the pandemic
  • Completed a successful environmental DNA (eDNA) proof of concept in the inshore waters around Juneau, AK
  • Enlisted the help of state and academic scientists, Alaska Indigenous communities, private companies and others to collect ecosystem information and provide critical context for resource management decisions this year

Read the full release here

Friend of the Sea launches new Whale-Safe Certification and releases Whale Ship Strikes Dossier.

March 19, 2021 — The following was released by Friend of the Sea:

Friend of the Sea, a program of the World Sustainability Organization, has launched a new Whale-Safe certification and released a Whale Ship Strikes Dossier. A whale ship strike is a collision, sometimes lethal, between any type of boat and a whale. Friend of the Sea’s Whale-Safe program aims at motivating shipping operators to reduce the risk of whale ship strikes.The Whale-Safe label is awarded to those shipping operators which implement measures to prevent whale ship-strikes: a combination of thermal cameras, online reporting systems, shift in shipping lanes.

Whales can be difficult to spot for vessel operators because they are not always clearly visible from the surface. Even if the vessel operator can see the whale clearly, there may not be time to take action to avoid the collision. All sizes and types of vessels, from large ships to jet skis, have the potential to get into a collision with a whale.

Experts estimate that at least 20,000 whales are struck and killed by cargo, cruise, and fishing ships. Fatal collision rates in high-risk areas have almost doubled in the past 40 years and whale populations have been reduced by 50 percent.

The increase in global maritime traffic has resulted in a rise in the number of collisions with marine species, especially dolphins and whales. This remarkable increase in maritime shipping over the last 50 years poses a threat around the globe to several populations of large cetaceans, such as dolphins and whales.

The Whale Ship Strikes Dossier identifies 11 high-risk areas for collisions including Sri Lanka, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, and Canary Island, among others.The dossier also indicates 12 species of whale that are among the highest risk populations including the Western North Atlantic Right Whale, and the Blue Whale.

“The Whale-Safe logo will finally help shipping operators engaged at protecting whales to be highlighted face their business and consumers customers.” explains Paolo Bray, Founder and Director of Friend of the Sea.

To download the full Whale Ship Strikes dossier and a video on how to stop whale ship strikes, or to sign the Save the Whales petition, visit https://friendofthesea.org/marine-conservation-projects-and-awareness/save-the-whales-2 

To apply for the Whale-Safe logo please write to info@friendofthesea.org

Alaska Files to Defend Salmon Fisheries in Southeast Alaska

March 17, 2021 — The State of Alaska has moved to intervene in a federal case that threatens state management of Alaska’s salmon fisheries.

The Wild Fish Conservancy, a conservation organization based in Washington state, claims that Alaska’s management of fisheries under the Pacific Salmon Treaty threatens the survival of several salmon stocks in Washington and Oregon, and the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales that depend on them.

The lawsuit seeks to shut down all salmon fisheries in the federal waters off the coast of Southeast Alaska.

Read the full story at KINY

Slow Zones Extended Protect Right Whales: Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket

March 17, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On March 16, 2021, the New England Aquarium aerial survey team observed two aggregations of right whales. The aggregations were observed south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA and south of Nantucket, Island, MA. Both the Martha’s Vineyard, MA and Nantucket Island, MA Slow Zones are extended through March 31, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

South of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, March 7-31, 2021

41 21 N
40 41 N
070 15 W
071 06 W

South of Nantucket, MA, March 7-31, 2021

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

‘Minke whales for dinner’: Norway’s controversial whale hunt is still on

March 11, 2021 — Norway plans to kill up to 1,278 minke whales this year, according to a recent announcement made by the country’s fisheries ministry. This is the same quota as the previous two years, although whalers only killed 503 common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in 2020, and 429 in 2019.

“Norwegian whaling is about the right to utilize our natural resources,” Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway’s minister of fisheries and seafood, said in a statement in Norwegian. “We manage on the basis of scientific knowledge and in a sustainable manner. In addition, whales are healthy and good food, and Norwegians want minke whales on their dinner plate.”

In 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued a global moratorium on commercial whaling, which went into effect in 1986. But Norway, despite being a member of the IWC, formally objected to this ruling, and has continued to kill whales every year since 1993.

While proponents argue that Norway’s whaling program is sustainable, some scientists, conservationists, and animal welfare advocates disagree, arguing that it is unsustainable, unethical, and runs counter to the country’s conservation goals.

Read the full story at Mongabay

New Slow Zone (Martha’s Vineyard) and Extended Slow Zone (Nantucket) to Protect Right Whales

March 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On March 7, 2021, the New England Aquarium survey team observed two aggregations of right whales. The new aggregation was observed south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA. The resighted whale aggregation was observed south of Nantucket, Island, MA. Both the Martha’s Vineyard, MA and Nantucket Island, MA Slow Zones are in effect through March 22, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

South of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, March 7-22, 2021

41 21 N
40 41 N
070 15 W
071 06 W

South of Nantucket, MA, March 7-22, 2021

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

WASHINGTON: Seattle Harbor Expansion Would Push Out Endangered Whales, Conservation Group Says

March 5, 2021 — The Trump administration rushed through a project to expand Seattle Harbor for ultra-large container ships that would further threaten endangered Southern Resident killer whales, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Only 75 Southern Resident killer whales swim the Salish Sea — a number that has increased since three baby whales were born in the relatively quiet waters of the pandemic. Noise from whale watching boats and ships headed to and from ports across the Pacific will increase when pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Added to that is a new worry: the underwater cacophony of ultra-large container ships that would visit Seattle Harbor, in the heart of the whales’ home waters, and the release of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of toxic material dredged during the harbor project.

The three pods, or family lines, of Southern Residents took a major hit in the late 1960s when aquariums stole 45 Southern Residents from their families, and killed another 14 in the process. Only one of the whales taken during that time survives today: a 53-year-old whale who lives at the Miami Seaquarium. The Seaquarium calls her Lolita, while supporters who want her returned to a protected cove of the Salish Sea call her Tokitae.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

NOAA extends right whale protection zones to mid-March

March 5, 2021 — The federal government is extending three protective zones off the East Coast that are designed to prevent collisions between ships and whales.

The zones are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 360. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said  the protective zones are located south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, east of Boston and southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Mariners are asked to avoid the areas altogether or transit through them at 10 knots or less. The three zones were established in late February. The Nantucket zone has been extended to March 13 and the Boston and Atlantic City zones have been extended to March 14.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

Study: Chinook salmon are key to Northwest orcas all year

March 4, 2021 — For more than a decade, Brad Hanson and other researchers have tailed the Pacific Northwest’s endangered killer whales in a hard-sided inflatable boat, leaning over the edge with a standard pool skimmer to collect clues to their diet: bits of orca poop floating on the water, or fish scales sparkling just below the surface.

Their work established years ago that the whales depend heavily on depleted runs of Chinook, the largest and fattiest of Pacific salmon species, when they forage in the summer in the inland waters between Washington state and British Columbia.

But a new paper from Hanson and others at the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center provides the first real look at what the whales eat the rest of the year, when they cruise the outer Pacific Coast — data that reaffirms the central importance of Chinook to the whales and the importance of recovering Chinook populations to save the beloved mammals.

By analyzing the DNA of orca feces as well as salmon scales and other remains after the whales have devoured the fish, the researchers demonstrated that the while the whales sometimes eat other species, including halibut, lingcod and steelhead, they depend most on Chinook. And they consumed the big salmon from a wide range of sources — from those that spawn in California’s Sacramento River all the way to the Taku River in northern British Columbia.

Read the full story at OPB