February 22, 2022 — Lawmakers from Massachusetts and New Jersey want to set up a new grant program to help develop technology that assists in saving a rare species of whale from extinction.
The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 340 and faces threats from collisions with large ships and entanglement in fishing gear. They are the subject of numerous new fishing rules designed to improve their chances of survival.
Read the full story from the Associated Press
February 17, 2022 — Josh Trosvig is the captain of the Cerulean, a 58-foot boat currently fishing for cod in the Bering Sea, about 80 miles northeast of Unalaska.
On a sunny day earlier this month, while he was waiting for the tide to change, he said he spotted something that looked like a large tote bobbing on the surface of the water, about 300 feet from his boat.
It turned out to be a group of whales.
But not just any whales.
“I’ve seen a lot of whales — thousands, tens of thousands in my 35 years of fishing out here,” Trosvig said. “But this was unique. I’ve never seen whales feed like that.”
Trosvig didn’t know it at the time, but the whales he was watching were North Pacific right whales. They’re critically endangered. And scientists say Trosvig is likely the first person to take photos and video of the whales feeding in the Bering Sea in the winter.
February 7, 2022 — Each of the 13 calves born so far this winter have been greeted with joy, the news shared along the whales’ migration route from the waters off New England and Canada to the calving grounds off Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
But with an estimated population at 336 and falling, there’s no escaping the math, or the impact of human activities on the world’s most endangered large whale.
An estimated 30 whales die each year, according to federal officials. Vessel traffic, commercial fishing gear and a warming climate all threaten the whales.
An average of 11 calves were born each season over the past decade. It would take four times that many over a number of years to bring the whales back to a sustainable population, said Barb Zoodsma, large whale recovery coordinator for the Southeast for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “We’ve never seen that many calves.”
January 27, 2022 — A conservation group says in a lawsuit that the U.S. government failed to protect endangered whales and other animals by underestimating the potential for an oil spill like a recent crude pipeline leak off California’s coast.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday saying Interior Department agencies and the National Marine Fisheries Service didn’t ensure offshore oil and gas production wouldn’t jeopardize endangered and threatened species in accordance with U.S. law.
The lawsuit says the Service found in a 2017 analysis that oil and gas production wouldn’t likely have an adverse effect on threatened marine life off California’s coast, there was a low likelihood of an offshore oil spill and if one occurred, it would likely involve no more than 8,400 gallons (31,800 liters). The suit asks the court to vacate the analysis and bar new oil activity unless government agencies comply with the law protecting endangered species.
Read the full story from the Associated Press
December 2, 2021 — New research looks at how a climate extreme intensifies tensions between ocean life and people, and what can be done about it. The study was recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.
Researchers show that many strategies are insufficient during prolonged, anomalous warm water events called marine heatwaves. Instead, they recommend combining several approaches, including improved forecast systems, technological innovations, and understanding human behavior.
Over the past few years, marine heatwaves have dramatically affected natural resources along the U.S. West Coast, including economically valuable fisheries. Still, we know very little about how and when management actions can dampen their impacts on marine life and the people who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods.
An ecological pileup of recent unprecedented changes in the ocean off the West Coast led to record numbers of reported entanglements of humpback and other whales. These conditions put California’s Dungeness crab fishery, the region’s most valuable commercial fishery, at odds with the conservation of several at-risk whale species.
Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries
November 26, 2021 — Right now, lobstermen are hauling their gear out of a 967-square mile stretch of ocean, roughly 30 miles offshore, in the Gulf of Maine.
Lobstermen don’t want to vacate the area, especially during the lucrative, deep-water, winter fishing season but federal courts and lawsuits are forcing them to do so.
Last week, the Federal First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a seasonal prohibition by the National Marine Fisheries Service on lobstering with buoys and lines in that area. The closure, running October through January, is an attempt to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from deadly entanglements in lobster gear.
Read the full story at Bangor Daily News
November 22, 2021 — With new regulations turning whale avoidance into a top priority in the Gulf of Maine and off California, front-line fishermen sat Friday for a panel discussion at Pacific Marine Expo on what the future may hold for trap fisheries.
NMFS and the state of California are looking to ropeless gear for lobster and crab fisheries as the long-term solution, but such systems are still in development.
California’s Dungeness crab fishermen are yet again cooling their heels in port, awaiting an updated assessment of humpback whale movements and an all-clear from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to set gear, once the agency judges the danger of entanglements is lowered.
In recent years the usual November crab season opening has been delayed as whales congregate to feed before heading south for their breeding season, said Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
The 2020 season opener was delayed into December — and then complicated when fishermen protested what they considered unfairly low prices for crabs. A price settlement and agreed-on opener didn’t happen until January.
October 4, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) became the latest from the lobster industry to file a federal lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) due to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced on August 31.
The MLU filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, seeking emergency relief related to fishing ground closures that will come into effect due to the recent modifications. Fox Island Lobster Company of Vinalhaven and Frank Thompson, a sixth-generation fisherman, who together with his wife Jean, own and operate Fox Island; and the Damon Family Lobster Company of Stonington are also Plaintiffs on the case.
The Complaint names as Defendants the Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce, and the Assistant Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NMFS.
Read the full story at Seafood News
October 4, 2021 — Non-governmental organization Oceana announced on 4 October it has filed the first-ever Submission on Enforcement Matters against the U.S. government under the recent United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Signed in 2019, the USMCA is a free-trade agreement between the three countries that includes mechanisms such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Under the new agreement, a person or organization can file a “Submission on Enforcement Matters” with the CEC if one of the three countries in the USMCA is not enforcing its environmental laws.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
September 20, 2021 — The latest federal rule, announced on Aug. 31 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is part of a plan to stop endangered North Atlantic right whales from getting caught in fishing gear by 2030.
The agency estimates that the population’s decline has accelerated in recent years, with 368 right whales remaining. NOAA has documented 34 right whale deaths since 2017, with at least nine of those mortalities confirmed to have been caused by entanglements in fishing gear, including gear used by commercial gillnet or lobster and crab fisheries on the East Coast.
NOAA’s new rule requires lobstermen to use gear with state-specific markings that can be traced if a whale gets caught, among other modifications such as weak points in fishing lines that allow entangled whales to break free. The rule will also allow lobstermen to use so-called ropeless gear — a costly and controversial new technology that’s still in the early stages of development — in fishing areas that will be closed in certain seasons.
“The beauty of the lobster industry is that there’s been a place for everybody,” says Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “We’re at risk of putting too many barriers in that are really going to create winners and losers, so it’s scary.”
McCarron says fishermen want to do their part to protect whales, but she says no Maine lobster gear has ever been confirmed to have caused the serious injury or death of a right whale. A NOAA spokesperson counters that its scientists are unable to determine the source of most entanglements and nearly half of mortalities go unobserved.