Saving Seafood

BETH CASONI: Canada needs to do more to protect right whales

August 28, 2018 — For generations, Massachusetts lobstermen have been part of a revered tradition of marine coexistence that has sustained a proud New England fishing industry and protected an ecosystem for marine mammals. Now, that coexistence is threatened and international action is needed.

The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered and faces extinction within our lifetime. For centuries, these enormous and majestic animals have migrated through New England waters, but largely due to unintentional human harm from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, today the right whale population is estimated to be down to as few as 435. And the last year has been especially disastrous, with 17 confirmed right whale mortalities and no new calves sighted in the most recent calving season.

Now is the time for cooperative international intervention to turn this situation around and head off the preventable tragedy of extinction of this species.

For decades, the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has worked in concert with conservation organizations like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the International Fund for Animal Welfare to be good stewards of the ocean and marine mammals. Facing serious concerns about how to make a living and keep businesses going, we work to find middle ground between our industry and the efforts of conservationists to advance the shared aims of all.

Over the years, regulators have imposed restrictions on U.S. Atlantic Coast fisheries in an effort to reduce harm to endangered species including the right whale. The MLA is proud of our history of adopting and complying with these requirements. To name a few: Vessels, aircraft or other approaches must be restricted within 500 yards of a right whale; and, all vessels 65 feet or longer must travel at 10 knots or less in certain locations along the East Coast of the United States at certain times of year to avoid collision with right whales.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Scientists and fishermen team up to help save North Atlantic right whale

August 23, 2018 — Whale researchers and fishermen are out at sea together on a two-week mission, combining efforts to help save the endangered north Atlantic right whale.

These two worlds have usually stayed far apart, but for the first time scientists are onboard a crab boat to do their field work.

It’s been a controversial fishing season in northern New Brunswick.

Whale protection efforts caused many fishing areas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to be closed off, angering fishermen who saw it as an attack on their livelihood — some even taking to protest.

Crab fisherman Martin Noel, captain of the Jean-Denis Martin boat in Shippagan, agreed to take scientists out in the gulf to help them carry out their research this year.

“We don’t want to be called whale killers,” Noel said. “We want to be called fishermen that are implicated in the solution.”

All season, fishermen begged Ottawa to involve them in fisheries management. They felt the federal government was imposing overly strict measures without consultation with industry.

Read the full story at CBC News

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Cause of death sought for fin whale that washed ashore

August 21, 2018 — A 55-foot-long fin whale that was spotted floating in Cape Cod Bay on Sunday has washed ashore on Duxbury Beach, according to a New England Aquarium spokeswoman.

The whale was seen floating about 8 miles off Marshfield in the middle of the bay, said Diana Brown McCloy, a member of the aquarium’s media relations team. It appears to have been dead for about two or three days, she said.

The whale washed ashore Monday morning.

The aquarium’s marine mammal team conducted a necropsy on the whale, and the Yarmouth Port-based International Fund for Animal Welfare sent one person to assist, according to IFAW spokesman Rodger Correa.

There are no apparent traumatic injuries or fishing gear on the whale, which appears to be a less than full-length adult, said Tony LaCasse, the aquarium’s media relations director. After the necropsy, the whale will be buried on a barrier island.

A surrounding section of Duxbury Beach was closed Monday and police asked people to stay away from the area while town officials and marine biologists worked at the scene, according to a post on the Duxbury Police Department’s Facebook page.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

‘Our killer whales aren’t doing well:’ Lawsuit aims to protect struggling orcas

August 20, 2018 — Southern Resident Killer Whales are endangered and in decline.

Thursday a national environmental group filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration. According to the suit, the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to protect the winter habit of the Orcas.

“Our killer whales aren’t doing well,” said Sarah Yhlemann, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity who filed the lawsuit.

For 17 days a grieving mother Orca carried her dead calf more than 1,000 miles through the waters of the Salish Sea. An act of grief that environmentalist claim highlights the need to help the troubled Orcas.

“We know that protecting the whales themselves is absolutely important, but protecting their habit is really important too,” said Yhlemann.

The suit says NOAA has failed to act on a 2014 petition that includes expanding habitat protections to the Orcas’ winter foraging and migration areas off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California.

“Right now their full habitat is not protected for the winter and travel down the coast, they don’t have habit protections,” said Yhlemann.

The lawsuit is asking for what the law requires for endangered species: to protect the entire habit of the Southern Resident killers whales.

The animals were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2005, after the center sued to get the status. The following year, the fisheries service designated the inland waters of Washington state as critical habitat. The designation means federal agencies must ensure that activities they pay for, permit or carry out do not harm the habitat.

Read the full story at KOMO News

NOAA Recognizes Companies for Slowing Down to Save Whales

August 20, 2018 — NOAA has presented awards to 13 global shipping firms for their commitment in helping prevent deadly ship collisions with whales. The companies participated in a Voluntary Speed Reduction initiative by slowing their ships to speeds of 10 knots (about 11.5 mph) or lower while transiting vessel traffic lanes outside the Golden Gate during whale feeding season, from May through mid-November.

The national marine sanctuaries of North-central California – Greater Farallones, Cordell Bank, and Monterey Bay sanctuaries – are prime foraging grounds for several endangered whale species, and through these same waters pass some of the heaviest shipping traffic in the world. In a spirit of “share the road,” the voluntary slowdown initiative is a collaboration between NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the shipping firms, the Bay Area Air Quality Control District, and local NGOs.

The initiative program builds on decades of research by scientists and conservation groups who study the whales’ distribution patterns during their spring-through-fall foraging seasons along with vessel traffic patterns. It is modeled on similar efforts in Southern California and on the East Coast. In addition to providing whale protection benefits such as a reduction in risk of ship strike and a reduction in ocean noise, ships run more efficiently at slower speeds, which results in reduced greenhouse gas and particulate emissions and improves air quality for Bay Area residents.

This spring, five whales that had been killed by ship strike washed up on Bay Area beaches; three of these were endangered blue and fin whales. Several species are still recovering from whaling impacts, which had decimated most populations. But their recovery is not absolutely assured, since new threats have emerged in the meantime, primarily human-related.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Group sues to expand protected orca habitat along West Coast

August 17, 2018 — An environmental group sued President Donald Trump’s administration Thursday to make officials move more quickly to protect the Pacific Northwest’s endangered orcas.

The recent grieving of one whale for her dead calf and scientists’ extraordinary attempts to save another from starvation highlight the urgency of their plight, the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity said as it filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

There are just 75 orcas remaining in the Pacific Northwest population, the lowest number in 34 years. They’re struggling with a dearth of chinook salmon, their preferred prey, as well as toxic contamination and vessel noise.

The lawsuit says the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to act on the center’s 2014 petition to expand habitat protections to the orcas’ foraging and migration areas off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California — even though the agency agreed in 2015 that such a move was necessary.

The center says the protections would help reduce water pollution and restrict vessel traffic that can interfere with the animals.

“Time is running out fast for these magnificent, intelligent orcas,” Catherine Kilduff, an attorney with the organization, said in an emailed statement. “It’s heartbreaking to watch them starving to death and mourning their dead calves. Every day that Trump’s people delay action is a step toward extinction for these whales.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press

Humpback Whale Entangled In Cooke Aquaculture Nets Being Used to Recapture Escaped Salmon

August 16, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Cooke Aquaculture has been told to remove all nets being used to recapture escaped farm salmon after a humpback whale became entangled in one Tuesday morning.

“Earlier this morning, at approximately 11 a.m., a humpback whale became entangled in a gillnet set by Cooke Aquaculture to recapture salmon that recently escaped from the farm in the Hermitage Bay area,” said Jen Rosa-Bian, a communications advisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The company was asked to remove the nets, which were put out to catch a reported 2,500 salmon that escaped the fish farm in late July, because there are several other whales in the area, Rosa-Bian said.

The whale was freed late Tuesday afternoon, according to DFO. The agency said no other information was available at the time.

Laverne Jackman was talking her granddaughter for a walk along the beach line on Tuesday morning in Hardy’s Cove, where she could see a boat putting out the nets.

In the same area where she and her granddaughter had watched whales feeding earlier in the day, according to Jackman, she saw a whale become tangled in one of the nets.

“The whale went into the net, and the next thing we saw was the whale swimming, entangled in the net, dragging the net and the buoys with it,” she said.

“You’d think people would have more sense than to put a net where whales are feeding.”

Cooke Aquaculture had previously told CBC on Tuesday it was working with the proper authorities.

“Unfortunately, reports are that a whale has its tail tangled in a net,” said Joel Richardson, Cooke Aquaculture’s vice-president of public relations.

“We have been in contact with Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and will work with them on solutions. We have also advised the provincial department of FLR [Fisheries and Land Resources].”

DFO says conservation and protection officers are on site and that Whale Release and Strandings, a DFO-authorized group that helps disentangle sea life, is en route.

Whale ‘in distress’

Jackman said the whale looked like it was unable to dive or feed because of the net.

She said her son and daughter-in-law saw the whale still entangled at about 12:30 p.m.

“They could hear sounds that the whale was making, moaning,” said Jackman, who worries the whale will die.

“That’s a very high price to pay for a few bloody salmon.”

Those salmon, who escaped through holes that resulted from a net repair in late July, can be seen in the waters in the bay, she said.

“You can see salmon any time you look out,” Jackman said.

“They’re jumping, and if you go out in boat you can see them going in, through and under the boat. Hermitage harbour is full, and every little cove and bay around here is full.”

DFO says attempts by untrained professionals to release a trapped marine mammal can be dangerous to that animal, even when the intent is to help.

“Marine mammal experts warn against people that are not trained getting involved because it increases the stress on the animals and creates a high risk of injury.”

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

An Ailing Orca Was Given Medication in the Wild for the First Time Ever

August 13, 2018 — A team of experts injected an ailing orca calf with a dose of antibiotics, in a medical intervention that’s never been tried before on a wild killer whale.

A team of biologists from NOAA Fisheries, Vancouver Aquarium, and other institutions have been tracking the three-year-old orca, named J50, or Scarlet, for weeks. They’re not entirely sure what’s wrong with her, but she’s dangerously underweight and often lethargic. Scarlet is a member of the J-Pod, a group of about 76 critically endangered southern resident orcas, or killer whales. Maintaining the life of each pod member, females especially, is crucially important, hence the extraordinary and unprecedented measure to administer medication.

Yesterday, Vancouver’s head veterinarian, Martin Haulena, managed to visually inspect Scarlet from a boat near Washington state’s San Juan Island. With the help of his team, Haulena administered a dose of antibiotics at close range using a dart, as AP reports. It’s the first time that a killer whale has been given medication while living in the wild, the CBC reports.

“Response teams reached J-Pod in Canadian waters and followed them into U.S. waters near San Juan Island. While very skinny and small, J50/Scarlet kept up well with her mother and siblings,” explained NOAA Fisheries in a press release. “Vancouver Aquarium’s veterinarian and the team conducted a visual assessment, obtained a breath sample that will help assess any infection, and administered antibiotics through a dart.”

Other orcas in Scarlet’s pod are not malnourished, so food shortage is not considered the problem.

Read the full story at Gizmodo

Ropeless lobster trap creators aim to save money, whales

August 13, 2018 — Ashored Innovations, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, has joined the parade of companies focused on improving lobster fishing.

But Ashored isn’t looking to build a better lobster trap. Driven by new regulations to eliminate the entanglement threat to the North Atlantic right whale, Ashored is focused on developing a reliable, submersible buoy that goes down with the lobster trawl, is geo-trackable, and retrieved via acoustic release technology.

“We’re not reinventing the lobster trap. It’s the buoys we are redesigning,” CEO Aaron Stevenson told SeafoodSource.

After meetings with lobstermen, Stevenson and his partners realized replacing the current-style lobster trap “was going to be a losing battle against fishermen because the cost to replace them would be astronomical.”

“We initially had that notion, but shifted pretty quick to a smart buoy concept,” he said.

Stevenson said a major concern of fishermen about this new, non-visible technology involved not knowing where another fisherman’s traps and lines were and which direction they were laid. Fishermen didn’t want to lay their traps and lines on top of others – or have others on top of theirs.

Ross Arsenault, Ashored’s COO, said they are working to have “the ability to recognize that someone else’s buoys are there, but not recall them. You will only recall your own by using a proprietary signal or a security code.”

“[While] acoustic release technology has existed for a long while, we’re working to develop a modified one and have a few other release mechanisms as our active retrieval release,” Arsenault said. “But the acoustic element is the standard at the moment and we are experimenting with ways to adapt away from that to perhaps find cost savings for the fishermen.”

Theirs isn’t a one-buoy-fits-all solution. In recognition of the various types and depths of waters that lobstermen fish in, Ashored is developing four prototype buoys.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Vets ready for rare efforts to save ailing endangered orca

August 8, 2018 — Experts are preparing rare emergency efforts to administer antibiotics or feed live salmon to try to save a young emaciated orca that’s part of a critically endangered pod of killer whales.

But veterinarians haven’t spotted the 3½-year-old female killer whale in several days. They are waiting for her to show up again in Washington state waters so they can zip out on a boat to do a health assessment, said Teri Rowles, marine mammal health and stranding coordinator for NOAA Fisheries.

The whale known as J50 is underweight and may have an infection.

“It is very possible that she has succumbed at this point and that we may never see her again,” Rowles told reporters Tuesday. “We are hopeful that there’s still a chance that we will be able to assist her with medical treatment to give her enough time to get nourishment and treat infections, if indeed that is what is causing her decline.”

The orca, which was last seen Friday, is part of an endangered population that has dwindled to just 75 whales. Another female orca from the group that spends time in U.S. Northwest waters attracted global attention as the grieving animal tried to keep her dead baby afloat.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News