Saving Seafood

Rally urges stakeholders to demand better protections for North Atlantic right whales

February 12, 2021 — Oceana hosted a Save the Whales Rally on Tuesday that aimed to support anyone hoping to speak up in favor of better protections for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The federal government is seeking stakeholder comments about ways to reduce the risks that fishing gear in oceans pose to the whales. During the rally, Oceana staff offered background information, advice and tools to provide input on how and why to better protect the species, which is currently in its calving season off the coast of Georgia and northern Florida.

“North Atlantic right whales come down to the offshore waters of Georgia, north Florida and sometimes even South Carolina — many of them every winter — to have their calves and then they travel in the spring back all the way up into the North Atlantic into the Northeastern U.S. and Canadian waters,” said Paulita Bennett-Martin, Oceana’s field representative for Georgia campaigns. “And so they really come down here for the winter as our return visitor to seek warmer water, safe water, to have their calves. It’s a really exciting time of the year for us that love these whales, as we count the calves that are born every year. And unfortunately sometimes we also count the losses as well.”

The upcoming comment period is a chance to help the whales get on a path of recovery, said Gib Brogan, a senior fisheries manager for Oceana.

Read the full story at The Brunswick News

NOAA Taking Input On New Right Whale Rules

February 11, 2021 — The public can weigh in this month on a federal plan aimed at saving critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Researchers estimate that fewer than 375 right whales are still alive. Their leading causes of death are getting hit by ships or tangled in fishing gear, especially long vertical lines such as those used in lobstering. Getting tangled in lines and dragging fishing gear through the ocean exhausts and stresses out the whales, and can cause serious injuries and infections.

So the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed new fishing and lobstering rules to prevent entanglements.

But Gib Brogan with the environmental group Oceana said this week that the plan isn’t good enough.

Read the full story at GPB

CAPITO, FEINSTEIN REINTRODUCE BILL TO PROTECT WHALES, DOLPHINS, SEA TURTLES FROM DRIFT GILLNETS

February 9, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV):

U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), today reintroduced the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act, a bipartisan bill to phase out harmful large mesh drift gillnets used in federal waters off the coast of California – the only place the nets are still used in the United States.

Large mesh drift gillnets, which are between a mile and a mile-and-a-half long and can extend 200 feet below the ocean surface, are left in the ocean overnight to catch swordfish and thresher sharks. However, at least 60 other marine species, including whales, dolphins, sea lions, sea turtles, fish and sharks, can also become entangled in the large mesh net “walls,” injuring or killing them. Most of these animals, referred to as bycatch, are then discarded. The use of large mesh drift gillnets by a single fishery based in California is responsible for 90 percent of the dolphins and porpoises killed along the West Coast and Alaska.

“While the use of driftnets is already prohibited off the coasts of most states, these tools are still injuring or killing a whole host of marine animals off California’s coast,” Senator Capito said. “I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan legislation that will help ensure large mesh driftnets are no longer used in any U.S. waters, protecting our marine wildlife from this harmful practice.”

“Let’s be clear: the Senate unanimously passed our bill and the House passed it shortly thereafter. There is no support to continue using these deadly nets in our waters,” Senator Feinstein said. “Large mesh driftnets indiscriminately kill whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles and other marine animals. It’s time to transition the industry to more efficient, sustainable and profitable methods. Real-time data shows other fishing gear is more successful, profitable and sustainable. Now that we have a new administration, I’m hopeful that Congress will quickly pass our bill and we can begin to phase driftnets out.”

The bill would phase out the use of the nets and help the industry transition to more sustainable methods like deep-set buoy gear that uses a hook-and-buoy system. Deep-set buoy gear attracts swordfish with bait and alerts fishermen immediately when a bite is detected. Testing has shown that as much as 98 percent of animals caught with deep-set buoys are actually swordfish, resulting in far less bycatch than large mesh drift gillnets, which average a 50 percent catch rate of target species.

A seven-year study by the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research found that fishing vessels using the new deep-set buoy gear caught 83 percent more swordfish than those using traditional large mesh drift gillnets. Also, because vessels are alerted as soon as there is a bite, swordfish are transported to markets faster than with large mesh drift gillnets, resulting in higher-quality products that bring a higher price.

New Slow Zone Southeast of Atlantic City to Protect Right Whales

February 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction) to protect right whales.

Today, February 9, 2021, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution acoustic buoy detected the presence of right whales 20nm southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey Slow Zone is in effect through February 24, 2021.

Mariners, please go around this slow zone or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

39 25 N
38 44 N
073 44 W
074 36 W

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

Read the full release here

Mid-Atlantic Council Meeting This Week, February 10-11, 2021

February 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet by webinar this week on Wednesday, February 10 and Thursday, February 11, 2021. Briefing documents are now available on the February 2021 Council Meeting Page.

Agenda

A detailed agenda is available here. Topics to be discussed at this meeting include:

  • North Atlantic Right Whale Issues
  • Aquaculture Updates
  • River Herring and Shad White Papers
  • Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment – Public Hearing Document Approval (Joint with ASMFC Bluefish Board)
  • Offshore Wind Updates
  • SOPP Updates (during Executive Director’s Report)

Webinar Instructions

Join the webinar during the meeting at http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/february2021/. Please note that participants will be required to use the Adobe Connect application. The browser option will not be available. You can download the application for Windows here and for Mac here. We recommend checking your system in advance, as it may take a few minutes to download. More detailed instructions are available on the meeting page. For telephone-only access, dial 800-832-0736 and enter room number 7833942# when prompted.

Questions? Contact Mary Sabo, msabo@mafmc.org, (302) 518-1143.

More ships must slow to protect right whales, NOAA says

February 5, 2021 — A detailed analysis shows that speed limits for ships have reduced risk for collisions with endangered right whales, but there are significant gaps in compliance – particularly off U.S. Southeast ports, where burgeoning cargo traffic is on a long-term upswing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported.

Drafted in June and released on 21 January, the NOAA review used automatic identification system (AIS) data to track total vessel transits through the two types of speed limit zones: Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs), frequented by whales at known times of year where ships over 65 feet in length are mandated to make way at 10 knots or less; and dynamic management areas (DMAs), where NOAA issues temporary advisories to mariners to voluntarily observe the 10-knot limit when whales have been reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

They should be heading north, but whale and her calf are going south. Scientists worried

February 2, 2021 — The coasts off Northeast Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are the only known spots in the ocean where North Atlantic right whales give birth to their calves. After birth, the mother and calf usually swim north to New England.

But a right whale that recently gave birth to a calf is heading in the wrong direction, according to federal marine scientists.

The 12-year-old adult and her baby were first seen off Amelia Island near Jacksonville on Jan. 21. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are concerned because the pair was next spotted last Wednesday, Jan. 27, much farther south near the Lake Worth Inlet just north of West Palm Beach in South Florida.

“In this case, the pair is heading south, into areas they normally don’t go, making it important for people to be on the lookout for them,” said Allison Garret, spokeswoman with NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at The Bradenton Herald

New whale species discovered in the Gulf of Mexico — and it’s endangered

February 1, 2021 — A new species of baleen whale has been identified in the Gulf of Mexico.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a paper earlier this month in Marine Mammal Science explaining that a whale previously thought to be a subspecies of the Bryde’s whale is actually a new species entirely.

Bryde’s whales live in the warm waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and are closely related to the blue and humpback whale.

Patricia Rosel, a research geneticist with NOAA Fisheries who led the study, said genetic data gathered from the newly discovered species in the early 2000s hinted at a divergent evolutionary lineage, but more concrete evidence came after researchers were able to examine the skull of the species that washed up on a Florida beach in 2019.

Read the full story at The Hill

New Slow Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

February 1, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction) to protect right whales.

On January 31, 2021, a New England Aquarium aerial survey team detected the presence of right whales 15nm south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The South of Nantucket, Massachusetts Slow Zone is in effect through February 15, 2021. 

Mariners, please go around this slow zone or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

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

MASSACHUSETTS: Statewide Ban on Lobstering Approved, With Exemption for Vineyard

February 1, 2021 — State fishing regulators overwhelmingly approved a first-of-its-kind seasonal lobstering ban to protect the North Atlantic right whale on Thursday — but exempted Vineyard and south shore waters from the restrictions after local fishermen expressed concerns about the proposal.

The new regulations, which ban commercial lobstering from Feb. 1 through May 15 in all state waters north and east of Cape Cod — but not the Island — were approved in a 6-1 vote with one abstention by the state Marine Advisory Commission during a dramatic hearing Thursday morning. The new rules differ substantially from an initial Department of Marine Fisheries recommendation that would have banned lobstering statewide.

Regulators also rejected a measure that would have barred lobstering vessels over 29 feet from using single pot lines, partially at the urging of Vineyard representative on the commission Dr. Shelley Edmundson, who asked to form a committee on the proposal. Other approved regulations include weaker rope and a recreational ban in all state waters from Nov. 1 through May 15.

The new seasonal commercial ban comes as a flurry of lawsuits and right whale deaths from entanglement have forced federal and state regulators to act fast in an effort to preserve the species and fall in line with the Environmental Protection Act. State regulators hope to use the new conservation measures to obtain an Incidental Take Permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is required for the continued operation of the lobster fishery.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette