Saving Seafood

Lobstermen Banned from Most MA Waters Until Late Spring to Protect Endangered Whales

January 29, 2021 — The state’s Marine Fisheries Commission approved the latest suite of protections for North Atlantic right whales on Thursday, including a three-and-a-half month trap gear closure throughout a large swath of state waters and mandated use of weaker buoy lines.

Already, from Feb. 1 to April 30, no trap pot gear or vertical lines are allowed in an area of over 3,000 square miles around Cape Cod Bay. The new rules from the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission extend and expand the closure up to the New Hampshire border until May 15.

The commission exempted state waters south and southwest of the Cape. Whale survey records showed North Atlantic right whales are rarely seen in that area around Nantucket Sound during the proposed closure period.

The commission, made up mostly of commercial fishermen, voted overwhelmingly in support of the new restrictions because the state’s lobster industry is currently under threat from a federal judge, who could close the fishery outright for failing to protect the whales under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at CAI

Massachusetts passes new right whale protections

January 29, 2021 — The state’s Marine Fisheries Commission passed regulations Thursday that it hopes will dramatically reduce the risk to highly endangered right whales from lobster pot and gillnet buoy lines.

The state plan is intended to dovetail with a federal plan from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reduce the risk of entanglement in fishing lines by 60%. The administration released its plan for public comment last month.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries estimated that the new measures will make gear entanglements in state waters 76% less likely for whales.

“Massachusetts stepped up to the plate today and did something significant for North Atlantic right whales,” said Gib Brogan, a senior campaign manager for the marine conservation organization Oceana. “By reducing the risk of entanglement in fishing gear, which is a leading cause of death for this species, Massachusetts set its lobster industry apart today and showed itself as a leader in ocean conservation and responsible lobster fishing.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fish panel bans inshore lobstering during whale migration

January 28, 2021 — The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission on Thursday approved additional protections for the endangered North Atlantic right whales, including a three-and-a-half month trap gear closure throughout state waters and mandated use of weaker buoy lines.

Meeting via webinar, the MFAC overwhelmingly approved five of the six recommendations presented by the state Division of Marine Fisheries, setting the stage for a hectic start to the state’s 2021 lobster fishing season.

“We think this is surgical and appropriate,” DMF Director Dan McKiernan told commission members. “We believe this is the most responsible way to manage this fishery.”

As the state faces challenges on two fronts — the federal take reduction team initiative to stem whale entanglements and deaths and ongoing federal litigation that names Massachusetts as a defendant in a lawsuit filed under the Endangered Species Act — the commission approved:

* A Feb. 1 to May 15 closure to commercial trap gear in all state waters — including off Cape Ann — to help mitigate whale entanglements, injuries and deaths during the period when the right whales are most prevalent in state waters. The closure is roughly two weeks longer than DMF’s initial recommendation, but the measure gives DMF the power to lift all or part of the closure between May 1 and 15 “based on the presence and absence of right whales.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

New Slow Zone East of Boston to Protect Right Whales

January 27, 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 25, 2021, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Stellwagen Bank Slocum buoy acoustically detected the presence of right whales 35nm East of Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Slow Zone is in effect through February 9, 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:

42 47 N
42 07 N
069 51 W
070 46 W

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

Read the full release here

Report: Speed compliance to save rare whales could be better

January 25, 2021 — Compliance with speed rules designed to protect rare whales has increased in recent years but could still be higher, according to a report from the federal government.

The slow speed zones are implemented to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number about 360 and are vulnerable to collisions with ships. The National Marine Fisheries Service implemented seasonal, mandatory vessel speed rules in some areas along the East Coast in 2008 to try to help the whales.

A report released by the service this week states that the level of mariner compliance with the speed rule increased to 81% in 2018-19. That was the highest level on record.

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

Decision due next week on seasonal lobstering ban

January 25, 2021 — In China, 2021 is down as the Year of the Ox. In the cold waters off the coast of New England, it is shaping up as the Year of the Whale. The North Atlantic right whale.

Federal regulators, through the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction team, and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries have proposed a series of overlapping new protections for the imperiled species that will have a significant impact on the region’s lobster industry.

In Massachusetts, lobstermen will find out next week whether the state will implement DMF’s recommendations for state waters that include a new seasonal closure on all lobstering from February to May — the time period of the annual migration and feeding along the Massachusetts coast by the whales whose numbers are estimated to have dropped below 400.

The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission is set to meet Thursday morning via zoom. DMF Director Dan McKiernan will present the agency’s recommendations — which also include the utilization of weaker, break-away vertical buoy lines to help mitigate gear entanglements — and the commission will vote.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Massachusetts launches ropeless gear study

January 22, 2021 — A year-long feasibility study to assess using ropeless trap gear in the New England lobster fishery has been launched by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

Funded in part by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in partnership with NOAA, the “accelerated timeline” project “will interview dozens of fishermen, technologists, policy experts, and scientists to fully evaluate the challenges and opportunities of the new gear type,” the state agency said in a Jan. 21 statement.

Ropeless gear – sometimes known as pop-up gear, or as Massachusetts officials call it, on-call gear – are designs that seek to replace the traditional floating buoy line gear used in lobster, crab and fish trap fisheries.

There’s high interest in these alternatives as a potential solution to prevent marine mammal entanglements in gear – especially the highly endangered northern right whale, with an East Coast population now estimated to be less than 400 animals.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA report sides with right whale activists

January 22, 2021 — A federal report released Thursday largely agreed with the concerns expressed by animal rights activists and conservation groups that voluntary speed limits intended to protect highly endangered North Atlantic right whales were not working, and that even mandatory restricted speed zones needed to be expanded.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s vessel speed rule assessment recommended that the vessel strike rule that was implemented in 2008 be strengthened. They want increased enforcement of speed limits, expansion of mandatory no speed zones and a rethinking of areas that have only voluntary speed restrictions that are routinely violated and where an increase in vessel collisions with whales have been seen.

NOAA also wanted to consider mandatory speed restrictions or some other protections for an area just south of Nantucket where right whales have been found year-round in recent years.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Feds Outline Proposed Gear Rules In Online Meeting With Lobstermen

January 21, 2021 — Federal regulators last night detailed proposed new rules for Maine lobstermen and other commercial fishermen whose gear and trap rope poses a risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Officials at the Greater Atlantic Fisheries Office are proposing to reduce the risk of damaging and deadly entanglements by more than 60 percent. Possible measures include a use of weakened ropes that whales can break through, seasonal area closures and changes in the minimum number of traps required per line.

Several industry stakeholders participating in the online meeting criticized estimates of costs to the industry, and that federal analysis doesn’t account for all the Maine-based boats that harvest in one potential closure area about 20 miles off the state’s coast.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Number of critically endangered North Atlantic right whale calves grows to 11 after 2 spotted off Florida coast

January 21, 2021 — Recent sightings of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale is giving conservationists new hope on the survival of the species.

Two more calves have been spotted off the coast of Amelia Island in Florida, increasing the total number of calves seen this season to 11, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The calves have been born to a 13-year-old whale named “Bocce” and a 20-year-old whale identified as “#3130.”

The news is welcome for conservationists, as only 22 births have occurred in the previous four calving seasons combined, and the first calf of the season washed up dead on a barrier island off North Carolina in November, according to NOAA.

Read the full story at ABC News