Saving Seafood

Officials: No right whale deaths in Canada

July 10, 2018 — Canadian fisheries and ocean transportation officials said Friday that so far this year no North Atlantic right whale deaths have been reported in theirwaters, but the critically endangered animals are expected to remain in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for a least another two months.

Last year 12 right whale deaths were documented, largely attributed to gear entanglement and ship strikes, along with five documented live whales entangled in rope. In total, 17 right whales in both Canadian and U.S. waters were documented as having died last year, representing about 4 percent of the total North Atlantic right whale population of about 450.

Canadian officials have been under pressure to prevent deaths this year. Many of the migratory whales tend to head toward Canadian waters after leaving Cape Cod Bay in the middle of May.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NOAA Creates Protected Zone for Endangered Whales

July 6, 2018 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will implement a protected zone off the coast of Massachusetts until the middle of the month to try to help endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The protected area is located south of Nantucket and is designed to protect right whales. The whales are among the most endangered marine mammals, and they have suffered from high mortality and low reproduction in recent years.

There are as few as 360 right whales remaining.

Their critical habitat is around Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Maine, and just off of New Hampshire’s coastline, according to NOAA Fisheries. They can be found from Nova Scotia to the Southeast Atlantic coast, where pregnant females travel to give birth and nurse their young.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NHPR

Whale Deaths Increasing Up and Down East Coast

July 3, 2018 — Determining the cause of whale deaths is slow and difficult. A vessel strike likely killed the juvenile humpback whale that washed ashore in Jamestown in June 2017, but the determination is not conclusive, according to federal Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program.

It’s common not to know what killed a whale because decomposition, especially of internal organs, happens quickly. Large sea mammals like right whales are too large to bring to a labratory and often have to be towed to shore — trailed by sharks — to perform a thorough examination. A full necropsy may take days to complete and require large equipment such as a backhoe to move a carcass that can weigh up to 150 tons. Scientists must contend with odors, layers of blubber, and offshore conditions.

“If you don’t have the machinery it can take days and days, you may never finish,” said Michael Moore, a veterinarian and whale biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in an interview with NBC News.

What is known is that whale deaths have spiked in the Atlantic. Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is monitoring an unusual increase in whale deaths, called unusual mortality events (UME), for three species of whales: minke, humpback, and the North Atlantic right whale.

North Atlantic right whales are highly endangered, with an estimated population of 450 and declining since 2010. If the current trend continues, the species could be extinct in 20 to 25 years, according to researchers.

Vessel collisions and entanglements with fishing gear are the leading causes of whale deaths. Fishing gear snares some 83 percent of North Atlantic right whales at least once in their lives.

The right whale UME began in June 2017 and, so far, 12 of the 19 deaths occurred in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. Four washed ashore in Massachusetts.

Read the full story at ecoRI

Rescue Efforts Continue For Whale Trapped In Fishing Net

July 3, 2018 — A rescue effort is underway in New Jersey’s Raritan Bay as the Coast Guard and state police try to free a humpback whale entangled in fishing lines.

The whale is believed to be the same one spotted a year ago and hasn’t been able to shed the line since then. “It’s in the whale’s mouth… wrapped around the top of the head, across the blow hole,” photographer Artie Raslich told CBS2’s Meg Baker.

The Coast Guard has made several attempts to free the whale to no avail.

Monday afternoon state police escorted a disentanglement officer out to find and help the whale off the shores of Keyport, New Jersey.

The Coast Guard is warning boaters in the area to keep a close eye out for the whale and to stay 100 yards away for their safety and for the safety of the giant mammal.

“I think terrible need to be aware of what we are leaving out there being responsible terrible animal out there suffering.” Keyport resident Christina Greenberg said.

Read the full story at WLNY

MASSACHUSETTS: Local lobsterman to test ropeless buoy equipment

July 2, 2018 — Sonar technology used in Australia for southern rock lobster commercial fishing will be tested in July, possibly in Cape Cod Bay, as a method to better protect imperiled North Atlantic right whales from rope entanglements.

“Getting these and other systems into the hands of the fishermen and incorporating their ideas and feedback into their development is the key,” said Patrick Ramage, marine conservation program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has its operations center in Yarmouth Port.

IFAW will pay $30,000 to provide the equipment, a trainer and onboard support for what is expected to be a test by one member of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association of the acoustic release equipment manufactured by Desert Star Systems, a company based in Marina, California, and founded by Marco Flagg.

The equipment replaces the typical surface buoy and vertical rope that lobstermen attach to their traps on the seafloor to identify the trap locations. Instead, the new equipment has a bottom-anchored mesh bag full of rope and floats that can open and pop up to the surface with an acoustic command from a boat. The equipment dates from the mid-1990s when a lobster fisherman in Australia wanted to prevent trap losses from gear entanglement with ships.

The equipment was tested earlier this year by five commercial snow crab fishermen in Canadian waters, Flagg said.

“The Massachusetts test is on the small side but I’m happy it’s happening,” Flagg said of what is the first pilot of the product in United States waters. Each release mechanism costs about $1,500 to $1,700 and lasts for 10 years, he said.

A Sandwich-based lobsterman is expected to pilot the equipment, according to the lobstermen’s association president Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Grant Awarded to Protect Local Waters, Sea Creatures

June 29, 2018 — The Baker-Polito Administration today awarded $542,354 in grants to 16 projects across the state for the restoration and improvement of aquatic habitat, rivers and watersheds, and protection of endangered marine animals, including at-risk sea turtles and the rarest large whale, the North Atlantic right whale.

The grants, funded by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, were announced by Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton during an event at the Waquoit Bay Estuary Watershed.

“The Massachusetts Environmental Trust continues to have a meaningful impact on the Commonwealth’s environmental resources and natural habitat,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “Funding projects that aim to preserve and protect marine wildlife and environmental resources is consistent with our Administration’s commitment to working closely with local partners around the Commonwealth to improve natural habitats and promote environmental stewardship.”

Since it was founded in 1988 as part of the Boston Harbor cleanup, the Massachusetts Environmental Trust has awarded more than $20 million in grants to organizations statewide that provide a wide array of environmental services, from supporting water projects in communities to protecting coastal habitats. Funding for this program comes from the sale of the state’s three environmentally-themed specialty license plates: the Right Whale Tail, the Leaping Brook Trout, and the Blackstone Valley Mill.

“The grants being awarded by the Baker-Polito Administration will help to protect marine animals and restore critical aquatic ecosystems,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton. “This funding has been made possible because over 40,000 drivers in Massachusetts choose to purchase one of the three environmental license plates, and I applaud our state’s residents for their continued commitment to the well-being of the Commonwealth’s environment.”

Read the full story at WBSM

Right whales: The fight for survival

June 28, 2018 — Will $5 million in research funds every year for 10 years save the right whale from extinction? A group of lawmakers hopes so.

Companion bills in the U.S. Senate and House, filed by five senators and four representatives, including the Cape’s Bill Keating, have put forward The SAVE Right Whales Act of 2018 (aka Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, Act of 2018).

It would establish a grant program to fund collaborative projects between states, nongovernmental organization, and members of the fishing and shipping industries to reduce the impacts of human activities on North Atlantic right whales.

“There are fewer than 450 North Atlantic right whales remaining in the world, and their population is rapidly declining,” said Scott Kraus, vice president and chief scientist of Marine Mammal Conservation at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.

“The biggest threat to their survival is entanglement in fishing gear. Eighty-five percent of right whales have been entangled once, and 60 percent have been entangled twice. This proposed bill is a great start toward finding solutions that protect both whales and the fishing industry. It calls for science-led conservation efforts with all stakeholders working cooperatively. Researchers, fishermen and government officials coming together is the only way that sustainable change will happen,” he said.

The northern reaches of Cape Cod Bay are familiar territory for right whales; they typically are the first whales seen returning to the area after the new year. In 2018 the first group, of about 15, was spotted in mid-January by Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Environmental group plans lawsuit calling for ban on lines used by lobstermen

June 27, 2018 — Another environmental group is threatening a lawsuit to stop Maine lobstermen from using vertical fishing lines that it says pose a danger to right whales.

Whale Safe USA has served the Maine Department of Marine Resources with a written notice of its intent to sue that agency, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and individual Maine lobstermen for violating an Endangered Species Act prohibition on killing and injuring endangered species such as the right whale.

The paperwork serves as a 60-day notice of civil action.

Led by Massachusetts advocate Max Strahan, who has called himself the “Prince of Whales,” the group wants to stop Maine from issuing licenses to fishermen who use lobster pot gear that can entangle right whales, especially the ropes that connect lobster pots that sit on the ocean floor to the buoys that float on the surface.

“The MDMR in its current and past incarnations has been responsible for the killing and injuring of many endangered whales and sea turtles since before the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973,” Strahan said in a prepared statement. “It knows it (is) killing endangered whales and sea turtles but it simply will not stop.”

Some scientists who study right whales say the species, whose numbers have dropped to about 450 animals, could be doomed to extinction by 2040 if society doesn’t take significant steps to protect them.

Seventeen right whales were found dead in the summer and fall of 2017 in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Cape Cod, many because of ship strikes or entanglements.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

SAVE Act gets boost

June 22, 2018 — A statewide association of commercial lobstermen has thrown its weight behind a $50 million federal bill to protect North Atlantic right whales with targeted research that emphasizes collaboration.

The group intends to work with the International Fund for Animal Welfare to develop a pilot program to test buoyless gear this summer, according to Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Beth Casoni.

“Massachusetts lobstermen are currently the leaders in the world for the conservation of right whales, and the association proudly supports the SAVE Right Whale Act of 2018,” Casoni wrote in an email.

Filed in Congress on June 7, the legislation would allocate $5 million annually in grants through 2028 for conservation programs, and the development of new technology or other methods to reduce harm to right whales from fishing gear entanglements and ship collisions. Grants could promote cooperation with foreign governments, affected local communities, small businesses, others in the private sector or nongovernment groups.

A grant program that is specific for right whale conservation and research will allow “the continued collaborative research needed for safe, realistic and viable outcomes for all that depend on the stocks’ success,” Casoni said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Canada temporarily shuts fishing areas to help right whales

June 20, 2018 — The Canadian government says it is taking steps to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from encounters with fishing vessels and gear.

The whales are one of the world’s rarest marine mammals, and they have struggled with high mortality in recent years, especially in Canadian waters. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it’s enacting temporary fisheries closures in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and off Quebec.

The Canadian agency says the closures go into effect Tuesday afternoon and will stay in place until further notice. The agency says the closures are due to the presence of right whales in the area.

U.S. and Canadian officials have debated the proper course for protecting right whales in recent months. U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, says Canadian protections “have got to work parallel” to U.S. efforts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com