Saving Seafood

Whale Advocates Plan to Put Forward Ballot Question in Mass. to Ban Vertical Buoy Lines

December 5, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A whale conservationist with a radical style says he intends to move forward with a “whale safety” initiative petition for 2020 in Massachusetts to ban vertical buoy ropes used in commercial fishing, among other efforts to protect whales and sea turtles.

“We have to have a paradigm shift,” Richard Maximus Strahan, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, said of his advocacy efforts to stop the death and injury of whales and sea turtles from entanglement in rope used in commercial lobstering, crabbing and gillnetting.

On Oct. 11, Strahan withdrew his lawsuit in federal court in Boston that sought more federal and state enforcement against the use by commercial fishermen of vertical buoy ropes. Vertical buoy ropes are seen by scientists and conservation groups as a source of entanglement and often injury and death of marine animals. In withdrawing the lawsuit, Strahan said that the 2018 fishing season is over and that the court and defendants hindered his lawsuit by actions such as ignoring motions for discovery.

For next year, Strahan says he and Whale Safe USA, a political group of about 200, intend to try a variety of tactics, such as the Whale Safe Fishing Act 2020 initiative petition in Massachusetts. He says he also intends to sue individual or small groups of fishermen and block the issuance of commercial fishing licenses in Massachusetts. He proposes a boycott of purchases of lobster, and he wants to identify “green” commercial fishermen who have environmental goals, such as whale and turtle protection and reduction of plastic in the ocean.

Strahan said he would no longer be filing lawsuits in federal court in Boston.

“We are going to go outside the whale biz,” said Strahan, who describes himself as an indigent and a graduate student in the Oct. 11 document.

Generally, Strahan said he views federal and state marine fisheries regulatory agencies as siding with commercial fishing interests rather than marine animal conservation interests. He also said a handful of nonprofit groups in the region, such as the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, are colluding with those regulatory agencies to the detriment of the animals.

“We have been over this with him several times before,” Center for Coastal Studies CEO and President Richard Delaney said in an emailed response.

Strahan’s reputation stems from the 1990s, when right whale entanglement protections lagged and he filed a lawsuit that forced major, costly changes to the fishing industry in Massachusetts. Those changes include trap gear and gillnet bans in Cape Cod Bay while North Atlantic right whales are present, starting early in the year and ending in May, and gear modifications such as breakaway features for gillnets and weak links for trap gear buoy lines.

Strahan returned to the courtroom in February following what scientists and conservationists considered a devastating loss of 17 right whales in 2017 in Canadian and U.S. waters. Particularly since 2010 the right whale population has been in decline, with decreasing numbers of newborns each year as well as a heavy death toll among adult females.

In the civil case first filed in February, Strahan sued the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the assistant administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Other defendants in the lawsuit were the secretary of the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, commission members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. No person was named specifically in the lawsuit other than Strahan, who represented himself.

Strahan sought to have a judge confirm that federal officials were shirking their duties under the Endangered Species Act by authorizing and failing to enforce certain regulations for commercial fishing; that NOAA had shirked its duties by handing over whale and turtle protections to the National Marine Fisheries Service without evaluating the possible harm to the animals; and that all defendants were violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing for the taking of whales and turtles, either by licensing commercial fishing or actually doing the fishing.

In May, a federal judge declined to issue a restraining order Strahan had sought to temporarily stop commercial lobster pot fishing in Massachusetts coastal waters to protect the right whales. In that ruling, the judge said that, unlike the 1996 federal court ruling, Strahan failed to show that he would likely win in the broader case due to the few rope entanglements that had been recently documented and due to the list of regulations now in place, such as annual lobster gear bans from Feb. 1 through April 30.

The Center for Coastal Studies provides airplane survey data on right whale locations to the state Division of Marine Fisheries, which is then used to make decisions about when to lift the trap gear bans in May, among other uses. The center’s data was cited in the federal lawsuit in an affidavit of Daniel McKiernan, who is deputy director of the state Divison of Marine Fisheries.

The federal lawsuit officially closed Oct. 18.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

California seeks plan to protect whales and Dungeness crab fishery

December 3, 2018 — Crabs are a big deal in California as one of our oldest and most valuable fisheries. They are often a treasured part of holiday feasts and they supply jobs to coastal communities. Whales are a big deal, literally, as the most majestic, largest animals swimming off our shore. What the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has done in the past several years with our partners to prevent whale entanglements in fishing gear is a big deal, too.

California’s ocean waters are home to one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, hosting a diverse assemblage of migrating birds, marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish and invertebrate species. Protecting the ocean is a high priority for Californians.

That is why our department is taking actions to protect the whales and our prized crab fishery. The department is working to create a conservation plan that will analyze the effects of crab fishing on whales, identify steps to minimize the risk of whale entanglements in the crab fishing gear, secure funding to implement the plan, and submit it to the federal government for needed approval.

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

Concern Grows for Future of Right Whales

November 30, 2018 — A group of 17 North Atlantic right whales was spotted by an aerial survey team 21 miles south of Nantucket early this week, prompting a renewed call for voluntary speed restrictions among mariners and also renewed concern for the future of the critically endangered mammals.

In response to the whale sighting early Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has instituted a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone, also known as a DMA, or dynamic management area, that encompasses Nantucket and extends to the southeastern coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Chappaquiddick. Boaters are asked to limit their speed to 10 knots or less when sailing through the area, which spans latitudinally from 40 degrees, 28 minutes north to 41 degrees, 22 minutes north, and longitudinally from 70 degrees, 39 minutes west to 69 degrees, 29 minutes west. Overall, the rectangular area encompasses approximately 360 square nautical miles.

With only about 400 whales remaining, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. The whales are known to appear around Cape Cod and the Islands around this time of year, fattening up on zooplankton before heading south to breed. Two weeks ago, NOAA reported a sighting of four right whales in a similar location off Nantucket’s south shore. But 17 is an entirely different story.

“That’s a lot of whales,” said Jennifer Goebel, a spokesman for NOAA, speaking to the Gazette Tuesday. “Usually when we set up these dynamic management areas we can do it on anything over three, sometimes four, maybe five. This was 17, so that tells you.”

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette

Trump Said to Advance Seismic Surveys for Oil in Atlantic

November 30, 2018 — The Trump administration is taking a major step toward allowing a first-in-a-generation seismic search for oil and gas under Atlantic waters, despite protests that the geological tests involve loud air gun blasts that will harm whales, dolphins and other animals.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is set to issue “incidental harassment authorizations” allowing seismic surveys proposed by five companies that permits them to disturb marine mammals that are otherwise protected by federal law, according to three people familiar with the activity who asked not to be named before a formal announcement.

The firms, including TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. Asa and Schlumberger Ltd. subsidiary WesternGeco Ltd., still must win individual permits from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management before they can conduct the work, but those are widely expected under President Donald Trump, who has made “energy dominance” a signature goal.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

 

Food chain disruption eyed in Hawaii whale sighting decline

November 29, 2018 — Research into the decline of humpback whale sightings in Hawaii points to a food chain disruption likely caused by warmer ocean temperatures in the whales’ feeding grounds in Alaska, federal officials have said.

U.S. and international researchers, wildlife managers and federal officials were meeting in Honolulu on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the decline in sightings of humpbacks that traditionally migrate each autumn from Alaska, where they feed during the summer months, to Hawaii, where they mate and give birth during the winter.

Data presented at the meetings shows a strong correlation between warming oceans and the missing whales, said Christine Gabriele, a federal wildlife biologist who monitors humpbacks at Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska.

Three factors have warmed the ocean in Alaska since 2014, the same year scientists noticed a decline in sightings in Hawaii.

There was a change in an ocean current known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a warm El Nino period in 2016, and a massive “blob” of warm water in the region.

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a current that switches between cool and warm periods over the course of many years, switched to warm in 2014.

Data shows that “it was more favorable for the whales when we were in a cold period, and then less favorable when the (Pacific Decadal Oscillation) switches to warm,” Gabriele said.

Read the full story at The Hawaii Tribune Herald

NOAA extends protective zone to try to help right whales

November 29, 2018 — The federal government is extending a protective zone off Massachusetts to try to keep a large group of endangered whales safe from collisions with boats.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s applying the voluntary vessel speed restriction zone in an area 21 nautical miles south of Nantucket. A group of 17 right whales was seen in the area on Monday.

NOAA says the speed restriction zone will be in effect until Dec. 11. Mariners are asked to avoid the area or go through it at 10 knots or less.

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

How a new simulator helps scientists study whale entanglements

November 23, 2018 — More than 80 percent of North Atlantic right whales become entangled in fishing lines at least once in their lives, making it a leading cause of death for the critically endangered whale species. Now, with the help of new entanglement simulation technology, scientists at the New England Aquarium are working to change that.

Tim Werner, a senior scientist at the aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, is one of several aquarium researchers who collaborated with scientists from Duke University to develop a graphic model that gives them an opportunity to study entanglements and potential solutions in a practical and humane setting, aquarium officials said in a press release.

“This gives us a tool we can use right away to say, ‘If you have an idea, let’s evaluate it,’ and we can evaluate it over the course of several days rather than over the course of several years,” Werner said in a telephone interview.

The goal for developing the model was to reverse-engineer entanglements in order to figure out ways to modify fishing gear so that it poses less of a risk to helpless marine animals going forward.

“If you can re-create the way the rope wraps around the animal in the model, you can figure out how to change the gear to reduce the risk of entanglement,” Werner said, according to the release.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

NOAA research zeroes in on saving right whales

November 23, 2018 — Why is the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population growing far more slowly than those of southern right whales, a sister species also recovering from near extinction by commercial whaling?

NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues looked more closely at the question and have concluded that preserving the lives of adult females in the population is by far the most effective way to promote population growth and recovery.

North Atlantic right whales are frequently seen in the waters off the Cape, and most deaths are attributed to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships, says NOAA.

Eighty-three percent of all individual North Atlantic right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at least once in their lives, and 59 percent have been entangled two or more times, the research found.

The energy demands from the drag associated with entanglement can reduce the likelihood that a female can successfully reproduce.

Years between births also increases for females, given the recovery period needed from the physical costs of entanglements, which can last from months to years.

Read the full story at Wicked Local Harwich

 

Ropeless fishing options floated

November 15, 2018 — Whales and fishing gear increasingly occupy the same areas of ocean in the Gulf of Maine, and whales being injured or killed by entanglement with gear continues to be a top concern of scientists and regulators.

While most Maine lobstermen say they have never even seen a right whale close to the Maine coast, statistics collected by NOAA explain why right whales are exposed to a high risk of entanglement off the Maine coast.

Based on data collected by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, there are some 2.9 million lobster traps in the water within 50 miles of the Maine coast. Even with an average of fewer than five whales per month passing through Maine waters, the density of gear makes the risk of entanglement very high.

Last week, scientists and other interested parties met for a day-long meeting on one idea they hope will reduce entanglements: ropeless fishing. The Ropeless Consortium meeting was held Nov. 6, the day before the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium (NARWC) at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The meeting was closed to the press, but an agenda and overview of the meeting was available online.

“It was very cool to see how advanced the technology is and the many companies and groups working on development around the world,” said Zack Klyver, lead naturalist for Bar Harbor Whale Watch, who attended the meeting. “The conservation community were excited about the idea that this could be a long-term 100 percent fix to all whale entanglement.”

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Industry, agencies working to avoid whale entanglements

November 14, 2018 — LONG BEACH, Calif. — Whale entanglements off the West Coast and potential solutions to the escalating problem are the focus of a new report including the presentations and observations of fishermen, biologists and fisheries managers who gathered at an August workshop.

In recent years, growing populations of humpback and gray whales, changing ocean conditions and prey locations, and later crab season openings have led to more whales getting entangled in fishing gear, such as the ropes and floats that mark the location of crab pots. In 2017 there were 31 confirmed entanglements off the West Coast, including two humpbacks and a gray whale off the Washington coast, according to a press release from NOAA Fisheries. While NOAA concedes these entanglements are still proportionally rare, they sometimes lead to the deaths of entangled whales, so both fishermen and fisheries managers are seeking solutions.

To understand how and where rope and other gear entangles whales and to find ways to address the problem, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) and NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region convened a two-day workshop in Long Beach, California, in August. This “forensic workshop” was also supported by The Marine Mammal Commission, Oregon Sea Grant, and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The report from the workshop is now available at tinyurl.com/whale-entanglement-report.

The report provides the notes and presentations from the 31 California, Oregon, and Washington experts who attended. Participating were Dungeness crab fishermen; gear specialists; marine mammal biologists and disentanglement specialists; conservation groups; and federal, tribal and state agency representatives.

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer