Saving Seafood

Lobstermen To Get A Look At New Plan To Save Right Whales

November 4, 2019 — Maine’s lobstermen are getting a look at new rules that will affect their fishery and are designed to protect endangered right whales.

A federal team has called for a reduction of the vertical lobster trap lines in the Gulf of Maine to reduce risk to the whales. Maine fishery officials say their latest proposal to meet the requirements would remove 25 percent of the lines, not including an exemption for lobstermen who fish inshore waters.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is holding three meetings this week to discuss the proposal. The first is scheduled for Monday in Ellsworth, and it’ll be followed by meetings Tuesday in Waldoboro and Wednesday in South Portland.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

Federal judge requires fishing areas off Nantucket closed to protect right whales

October 29, 2019 — In a ruling that could create greater protections for North Atlantic right whales, a federal judge ruled Monday that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws when it made the controversial decision last year to reopen long-closed fishing grounds off Nantucket.

The ruling, which was a major victory for conservation groups, requires the agency to renew the ban on gillnet fishing in about 3,000 square miles of water south and east of Nantucket. Gillnets, walls of netting that rise vertically in the ocean to catch many fish at a time, present a major risk to right whales, whose numbers have plummeted by about 20 percent since 2010. Scientists say there are fewer than 400 left, and the main threat to their survival has been entanglements in fishing gear.

Boasberg’s ruling, however, does not apply to the scallop industry, which has been allowed to fish in the area. The lawsuit did not contest the right of scallopers to use their dredging equipment in the area, as they have not been found to harm the marine mammals.

“It reaffirms that the scallop industry is not at issue with regards to right whale conservation,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington, D.C., which represents the scallop industry.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

The New England Aquarium Wants To Monitor Whales From Space

October 28, 2019 — The New England Aquarium and Cambridge-based engineering company Draper have some big news: They’re working on technology that will allow them to monitor whales with satellites in space.

Leaving the planet to watch whales might sound a little silly, but the ability to do it could represent a giant leap forward in our ability to protect these animals and our oceans.

“Counting whales from space is really important to providing the scientific justification for [identifying] places in the ocean that are special and need protection,” says Kelly Kryc, director of conservation policy and leadership at the New England Aquarium. She adds that if we know where the whales are, and where they’re likely to go, we can try to limit human activity like fishing, shipping and energy exploration in those places.

Currently, when scientists look for whales and other large marine animals, they almost always do so from boats or planes. But these methods are weather-dependent, costly, sometimes dangerous, “and you can only go out infrequently, so you don’t get a very good sense of what’s happening at a high resolution in both time and space,” Kyrc says. If we could watch them from space, we could do a better job tracking them over longer periods of time, she adds.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

ALASKA: Petersburg assembly to ask for hearing on humpback whale critical habitat

October 25, 2019 — Petersburg’s borough assembly Monday voted to seek a hearing in the Southeast Alaska community for proposed habitat protection for some of the humpback whales that frequent the region.

The National Marine Fisheries Service published a federal register notice Oct. 9 for a proposed rule to designate critical habitat for some populations of humpback whales. Those include whales listed as threatened that winter in Mexico and spend part of their year in Southeast Alaska.

Assembly member Bob Lynn thought the rule could have wide impacts starting with crabbers and gillnetters.

“I really do believe we need to have a meeting in Petersburg, let them describe what effects that has on our population,” Lynn said. “I’m very adamant we need to do that because it’s not very specific. But it also affects power lines, it affects a lot of our businesses here in town in addition, like our fishery processors and a few other folks too.”

The mayor and assembly were in agreement on this topic. Assembly member Jeff Meucci also wanted to request a hearing here.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Federal government wants your opinion on whale-watching rules to protect orcas

October 24, 2019 — The federal government is asking the public to weigh in on current and potentially new regulations for whale watching near endangered southern resident orcas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has opened a so-called scoping period for 60 days to take public comment on whether existing federal regulations adequately protect killer whales from the impacts of vessels and noise in the inland waters of Washington state, and if not, what action the agency should take.

Southern resident orcas are an endangered species and have declined to only 73 animals. They are threatened by a combination of inadequate food, pollution, and vessel noise and disturbance that makes it harder for them to hunt salmon.

NOAA’s existing rules have been eclipsed by more strict regulations imposed both by the state of Washington and interim rules in Canada that sunset after this season. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife also is launching a process under the direction of the Legislature to enact further restrictions on whale watching.

Read the full story at the The Seattle Times

Maine pushes own whale protection plan

October 24, 2019 — Maine’s fishery regulators, on behalf of the state’s vital lobster industry, appear to be willing to meet the right whale take reduction team halfway on the removal of lobster buoy lines — but only in federal waters.

The state’s Department of Marine Resources last week released its own draft plan as a counterweight to the take reduction team proposal to remove 50 percent of all vertical lobster lines from wherever Maine lobstermen set and haul — in Maine state waters and the federal waters three miles beyond.

The DMR proposal calls for removing 25 percent of vertical buoy lines set in federal waters by Maine commercial lobstermen.

It said it would eliminate the lines by mandating lobstermen engage in a fishing practice called “trawling up” in which more traps — in ascending numbers as they move further offshore — are attached to each vertical line.

DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said his agency’s plan protects the whales “by reducing risk where it occurs” and protects the state’s elemental lobster industry in the state waters where most permitted lobstermen ply their trade.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Humpback whale population on the rise after near miss with extinction

October 22, 2019 — Intense pressure from the whaling industry in the 20th century saw the western South Atlantic population of humpbacks diminish to only 450 whales. It is estimated that 25,000 whales were caught over approximately 12 years in the early 1900s.

Protections were put in place in the 1960s as scientists noticed worldwide that populations were declining. In the mid-1980s, the International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on all commercial whaling, offering further safeguards for the struggling population.

A new study co-authored by Grant Adams, John Best and André Punt from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences shows the western South Atlantic humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) population has grown to 25,000. Researchers believe this new estimate is now close to pre-whaling numbers.

The findings were published Oct. 16 in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Read the full story at Science Daily

Tension thaws over whale plan between lobstermen, feds

October 21, 2019 — A group representing Maine’s lobstermen says it’s now willing to work with the federal government on a plan to protect right whales after withdrawing its support for the plan this summer.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is one of the key stakeholders in an effort to better protect the North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 400 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. A federal plan that’s being developed to help save the whales would remove miles of lobster trap rope from the waters off Maine.

The lobstermen’s association issued a public statement on Oct. 11 saying it appreciates that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service has offered a “constructive response” to its concerns about whale protection.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Will new gray whale migration season prove as deadly as the last one?

October 18, 2019 — Gray whales had a rough go last season as they made their annual migration — skinny, emaciated, even dead whales showing up along the West Coast prompting concern over the health of the species.

With the new season’s first gray whales being spotted in recent weeks off the South Bay, Long Beach and Orange County, whale researchers and enthusiasts are hopeful for a healthier season, one that would indicate the whales found enough food to forage in Alaska as they make their trek to the warm waters of Baja, Mexico.

A young gray whale was spotted last week by Harbor Breeze Cruises, which followed it from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Long Beach. Another was seen off the PV Peninsula earlier in the month, and another around Torrance Beach.

Orange County’s first gray whale sighting was reported Tuesday, Oct. 15, first by a diver near the Newport Pier and then by a Dana Wharf boat captain.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

10 Things You Should Know About North Atlantic Right Whales

October 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

1. The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species.

Sadly, North Atlantic right whales got their name from being the “right” whales to hunt because they floated when they were killed. Their population has never recovered to pre-whaling numbers. These whales have been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1970 and have been experiencing a steady population decline for nearly a decade.

2. Survival of this species depends on no more than one whale death per year. In the past 3 years, at least 30 right whales have died.

The birth rate for right whales has been very low the past few years. Only 12 births have been observed in the three calving seasons since 2017. This is less than one-third the previous average annual birth rate for right whales. And deaths have been exceeding births, resulting in a further decline in the population.

3. Entanglement in fishing gear is still is a big issue for right whales.

More than 85 percent of right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at least once, and the majority (60 percent) have been entangled multiple times. Right whales mostly get caught in the lines that attach fishing gear, like lobster and crab pots or gillnets, to buoys on the surface. These lines can cut into a whale’s body, cause serious injuries, and result in infections and mortality. Even if gear is shed or disentangled, the time spent entangled can severely stress a whale, which weakens it, prevents it from feeding, and saps the energy it needs to swim and feed. Right now, we are focused on addressing the risk of entanglement in vertical lines that connect traps and pots to the surface. This is among the leading threats to right whale survival.

Read the full release here