Saving Seafood

Bay State Wind Announces Plans For Grants to Protect New England Fisheries, Whales

April 12, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Bay State Wind, an offshore wind developer, announced on Tuesday that they plan on providing more than $2 million in grants for research and programs to protect New England’s fisheries and whale populations.

The grants would be spread out amongst different organizations. The developer plans to offer $1 million for a Bay State Wind Marine Science Grant Program for directed fisheries resources research on the Bay State Wind lease area. Woods Hole Oceanography Institute, which has been working on a ropeless fishing concept to protect whales, would receive a $500,000 multi-year grant to use for the development of advanced whale detection systems. The New England Aquarium Right Whale Research Project and the Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts would each receive $250,000 to prevent gear entanglement of the North Atlantic Right Whale. Bay State Wind also plans on offering grants to Whale Alert Project, Center for Coastal Studies and the National Ocean Science Bowl/ Blue Lobster Bowl.

“These grants demonstrate Bay State Wind’s commitment to environmental responsibility,” Bay State Wind environmental manager and whale biologist Laura Morse said in a press release. “We are taking steps to strengthen the population of the North Atlantic Right Whale, which is weakened by boat strikes and fishing gear entanglements. In addition, Bay State Wind will address two of the main threats to marine life – rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification – with the clean energy that is wind farms will produce.”

Bay State Wind is currently in the running to supply offshore wind power to Massachusetts, a hot topic for the Massachusetts fishing industry. Just this week a group of fishing industry officials set a letter to Governor Charlie Baker suggesting changes to “make offshore wind more palatable.” The group suggested that the state’s first offshore windfarm be “modest in size and scope” so that the impacts on commercial fishing can be studied.

Bay State Wind, which is a joint venture between Ørsted, the offshore wind global leader, and Eversource, a New England transmission builder, released a statement reaffirming their commitment to the fishing industry in Massachusetts: “We are the only project that has hired a marine biologist to ensure that we protect marine species and do not interfere with migration patterns, and we will continue to work closely with the fighting industry in the South Coast to minimize disruption and to preserve fish stocks for future generations.”

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished with permission.

 

Massachusetts: Hoping for a state contract, Bay State Wind offers more than $2 million in environmental research grants

April 11, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In what could be the final weeks before Massachusetts awards its first offshore wind contract, Bay State Wind has announced more than $2 million in grants it would provide for fisheries research and whale protection, contingent upon Bay State Wind winning a contract.

The grants include:

• $1 million for a marine science grant program to be administered by Bay State Wind. It would fund research in the Bay State Wind lease area designed to address specific questions and concerns raised by the fishing industry.

• $500,000 to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for a multi-year grant to develop advanced whale detection systems.

• $250,000 each to the New England Aquarium right whale research project and the Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts to prevent gear entanglement of the North Atlantic right whale.

The deadline for the state and electric companies to announce one or more winners of offshore wind contracts is April 23, but the decision could be delayed, State House News Service reported last week.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Right whale extinction threat is being overstated, lobstermen fear

April 9, 2018 — The math of protecting right whales from extinction is scary stuff: The stakes are high, scientific opinion varies and some rescue plans could make it impossible for lobstermen to earn a living.

Getting that math right matters when the futures of right whales and Maine’s lobster industry are so closely intertwined. Right whale numbers have dwindled to about 450 because of deadly ship strikes, fishing gear entanglements and low birth rates, while Maine’s lobster industry is the backbone of the state’s coastal economy, raking in about $434 million from landings in 2017 and generating another $1 billion for Maine in post-dock revenues.

“This will be the largest challenge for this industry,” said Commissioner Pat Keliher of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Those who fish for lobster in Maine and manage the fishery claim that their side of the whale story, and peer-reviewed species projections, are being lost in the extinction din.

Regulators claim they already have a right whale management plan in place and that it’s working. Despite the industry’s size, and the up to 3 million lobster traps in the water, no scientist or whale advocate has ever linked a whale death back to Maine’s lobster fishery, Keliher said. Dead whales have washed ashore in Maine, but they can swim for miles before they die, and carcasses can drift, too. No dead whale has ever been found in marked Maine ropes, officials say.

“None of the mortalities have any relationship back to the Maine fishery,” Keliher said Thursday at a Lobster Advisory Council session on right whale strategy.

Read the full story at the Sun Journal

 

Research Ramps Up as Right Whales Return to New England

April 9, 2018 — PROVINCETOWN, Mass. –Research is underway in the waters off Cape Cod as critically endangered North Atlantic right whales return to the region in large numbers.

Teams from NOAA’s Northeastern Fisheries Science Center are tracking the animals on the water and in the air via aerial and marine survey efforts.

The right whales congregate in Cape Cod Bay in the late winter and early spring every year to feed, and this year researchers have seen an increase in the number of whales off the shore of the Cape.

“Historically we see the largest number of right whales in April, but this year we’ve already seen 50-60 in March,” said NOAA researcher Lisa Conger.

Read the full story at Cape Cod

 

Salmon survival: ‘We need more lethal removal of sea lions. Hazing is not the answer’

April 6, 2018 — Ted Walsey’s shotgun cracked like thunder, lobbing a cracker shell into the Columbia River and sending the big brown sea lion beneath the surface in search of friendlier waters. But the boat and the noises emanating from it weren’t far behind.

Just as crews from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission have for a number of years, Walsey, Bobby Begay and Reggie Sargeant patrolled the river just below Bonneville Dam on Wednesday afternoon, harassing but not killing sea lions with cracker shotgun shells and so-called seal bombs — both essentially big firecrackers, the former shot from a shotgun, the latter dropped by hand — downstream and away from the fish ladders, where endangered migratory salmon congregate.

For the salmon, it’s the first chokepoint on a long journey to their spawning grounds. For hungry sea lions, it’s like a quick trip to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries division estimates about 45 percent of spring chinook salmon are lost between the mouth of the Columbia and Bonneville Dam, with sea lions being primarily responsible.

Sea lions — as well as whales, dolphins and porpoises — are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. For the last 15 years or so, states and tribes have been able to kill some sea lions, but they have to go through a long and laborious permitting process to do so on an animal-by-animal basis.

Read the full story at TDN

 

Extended Voluntary Right Whale Speed Restriction Zone

April 5, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces that the voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area or DMA) established on March 20 has been extended to protect an aggregation of 8 right whales sighted 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket on March 29. This DMA will continue to be in effect through April 12, 2018.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

VOLUNTARY DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT AREAS (DMAs)

Mariners are requested to avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the following areas where persistent aggregations of right whales have been sighted. Find out more about ship strike reduction efforts.

Southwest of Nantucket, MA DMA — in effect through April 12, 2018

41 28 N
40 47 N
070 45 W
069 46 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

  • Cape Cod Bay SMA in effect through May 15, 2018
  • Block Island SMA in effect through April 30, 2018

New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk SMA in effect through April 30, 2018.

Right Whales in Crisis

The year 2017 was devastating for North Atlantic right whales, which suffered a loss of 17 whales, plus an additional mortality in January 2018–about 4 percent of their population–an alarming number for such a critically endangered species with a population currently estimated at about 450 animals.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

More Info

Recent right whale sightings

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS

Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.

Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards in a violation of federal and state law.

 

NOAA gives foreign fisheries 4 years to detail marine mammal protections

April 4, 2018 — The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a list of marine mammals at risk in 135 countries and given each foreign commercial fishery four years to report what harvesting practices are being employed to preserve the species, Mongabay, an environmental science and conservation news site, reports.

The list is born from a 2016 rule that grew out of a 2008 petition to the Department of Commerce brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network to halt the import of swordfish from countries where fishing methods put other animals in danger, the news service explains.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Lobster fishery reduces floating rope in hopes of protecting North Atlantic right whales

April 4, 2018 — Lobster fishers on P.E.I. are taking new measures this season to help protect the endangered North Atlantic right whales from entanglement.

In January, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced changes to the snow crab fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to protect the right whales, including reducing the amount of rope floating on the surface and mandatory reporting of all lost gear.

Fishermen are also required to report any sightings of the endangered whales.

At least 18 North Atlantic right whales died in Canadian and U.S. waters last year.

Necropsies on seven of the carcasses determined four whales died of blunt force trauma from collisions with ships, while the other three likely died from entanglements in fishing gear.

There are only an estimated 450 to 500 of the whales left in the world.

‘Delicate balance’

This winter, the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association set up a special working group focused on helping to protect the right whale, with members representing all 13 species fished around Prince Edward Island.

“It’s a delicate balance between the fishery and the survival of these species,” said Melanie Giffin, a marine biologist and program planner with PEIFA.

“So our members will do everything they can in terms of reducing rope and to try to help reduce those entanglements for the whales.”

Giffin said most of the measures are being mandated by the federal department of fisheries.

“There’s a reduction in the amount of floating rope on the surface of the water and that’s being done in numerous species,” she said.

‘It’s not specific that it has to be lead rope but the rope needs to be sinking.”

In the snow crab fishery, there will also be colour coding of ropes, with different colours woven into the rope to identify where it’s from, including P.E.I.

“That’s to ensure that if there is a whale entangled, we have an idea of where that whale was entangled,” Giffin said.

“If they’re all entangled in the same area, then maybe management measures need to be looked more closely in that area, rather than the Gulf as a whole.”

There is no colour coding for lobster ropes yet, she added.

Read the full story at CBC News

 

Bullard’s right whale challenge angers lobstermen

April 4, 2018 — In January, on his way out the door of NOAA Fisheries and into retirement, former Regional Administrator John K. Bullard didn’t hesitate when asked for the most critical management issue facing the federal fisheries regulator.

Clearly, he said, it is the desperate plight of the North Atlantic right whales.

Bullard may have left behind the daily responsibilities of running the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, but he took his bully pulpit with him.

On Monday, he published an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe challenging the U.S. commercial lobster industry — predominately based in Maine and Massachusetts, where Gloucester and Rockport are the top ports — to take the lead in trying to head off the extinction of the North Atlantic right whales.

“The $669 million lobster industry must assume a leadership role in solving a problem that it bears significant responsibility for creating,” Bullard wrote in his piece. “Entanglements occur in other fixed-gear fisheries, but the number of lobster trawls in the ocean swamps other fisheries.”

While he also carved out a role for scientists, non-governmental organizations and fishery managers in the hunt for solutions, Bullard’s emphasis on the lobster industry did not sit well with local lobstermen, who believed their industry was being singled out.

“Most of what I have to say you probably couldn’t print,” said longtime lobsterman Johnny “Doc” Herrick, who ties up his Dog & I at the Everett R. Jodrey State Fish Pier. “We’ve done everything that they’ve asked us to do.”

“And then some,” said Scott McPhail, the skipper of the Black & Gold lobster boat, which also docks at the state fish pier. “They won’t be happy until we have to drop and haul all our gear out of the water at the end of every day we fish.”

‘Canada needs to get on board’

Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said her membership continues to be concerned that the focus for solving the North Atlantic right whale crisis is zeroed in on the lobster industry.

“We feel like we’re continually in the cross-hairs,” she said.

Casoni and lobstermen cited, as examples of the industry’s cooperation, existing modifications to gear and area closures. They spoke of the lobstermen’s role in joint research projects and of a fishery that prides itself on self-regulation, where cheating often is dealt with in camera among the boats.

They also pointed out that the majority of whale mortalities are the product of ship strikes and that 12 of the 17 North Atlantic right whale deaths in 2017 occurred in Canadian waters.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

As whales fade, movement they spawned tries to keep up hope

April 3, 2018 — Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a biologist who has dedicated her career to saving right whales, is cleaning out a file cabinet from the early 1990s, and the documents inside tell a familiar story — the whales are dying from collisions with ships and entanglements in commercial fishing gear, and the species might not survive.

Fast forward through a quarter-century of crawl-paced progress, and it’s all happening again.

“It’s a little scary to think if we hadn’t been working on this all these years, would they have been relegated to history instead of Cape Cod Bay?” said Asmutis-Silvia, of Plymouth, Massachusetts-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation. “We’re standing on the cliff and going, ‘It matters, they’re still here, they’re still something to fight for’.”

Despite eight decades of conservation efforts, North Atlantic right whales are facing a new crisis. The threat of extinction within a generation looms, and the movement to preserve the whales is trying to come up with new solutions.

The whales are one of the rarest marine mammals in the world, numbering about 450. The 100,000-pound animals have been even closer to the brink of extinction before, and the effort to save them galvanized one of the most visible wildlife conservation movements in U.S. history.

But the population’s falling again because of poor reproduction coupled with high mortality from ship strikes and entanglement. Scientists, environmentalists, whale watch captains and animal lovers of all stripes are rallying to renew interest in saving right whales, but many admit to feeling close to defeated.

Charles “Stormy” Mayo, director of the right whale ecology program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, and other scientists have said the species could be extinct as soon as 2041. Mayo, a ninth generation resident of Cape Cod whose ancestors harpooned whales in the 18th and 19th centuries, now leads expeditions to find the animals and try to learn how to save them.

“There’s a fair amount of sadness, dealing with these creatures. They are on the brink of extinction now, and their future is truly in doubt,” he said. “I don’t think any of us are discouraged, but many of us are fearful. I certainly am.”

The decline of right whales dates back to the whaling era of centuries ago, when they were targeted as the “right” whale to hunt because they were slow and floated when killed. They were harvested for their oil and meat, and might have dwindled to double digits until international protections took hold in 1935.

Preserving the whales became an international cause, championed by environmentalists, scientists and the U.S. government, and their population grew to about 275 in 1990 and 500 around 2010. But then things changed.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News