Conservation & Environment

May 7, 2014 — The U.S. Coast Guard has operated in the Arctic for more than a century, but as the maritime agency plans for an increased presence in the region, its taking stock of what its environmental impact will be in the Arctic in the years to come.

Mike Dombkowski is on the team drafting the Coast Guard’s new environmental assessment for Alaska’s District 17, which was released Tuesday. The document looks at what increased training and patrols in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas will mean for arctic ecosystems.

“What you might call day-to-day Coast Guard operations, doing patrols, search and rescue, aides to navigation, the other types of missions that we perform, here’s what we see ourselves doing and here’s what we think the environmental impact of those things are.”

The assessment looks at the Coast Guard’s plans for a broader arctic presence from mid-March through mid-November. Beyond summer training exercises in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas—exercises the service has already conducted for several years running—the increased arctic operations call for establishing safety zones around vessels exploring for oil, enforcing laws protecting endangered species and marine mammals, and “poaching prevention” of fish stocks and mineral deposits. The plan also calls for routine patrols of arctic waters with the nation’s two active icebreakers.

Read the full story and listen to the audio from Alaksa Public Media

May 6, 2014 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week released two reports pointing to continued improvements in US fish stocks.

Taken together, they send a clear message: that fisheries nationally are turning the corner as sustainable and more innovative management approaches take hold. Congress should take note.

The first report, the so-called Status of Stocks report to Congress  revealed that seven stocks were removed from the overfishing list last year and four from the overfished list. Two more stocks were declared “rebuilt,” bringing the total number of rebuilt stocks to 34 since 2000. Twenty-eight species are still on the report’s overfishing list, reminding us that there is still work to be done. But after decades of mismanagement that depleted fisheries and hurt coastal communities, the positive momentum of recent years is unmistakable.

The second report released concurrently by the agency, Fisheries Economics of the US 2012, underscored the critical role that healthy fisheries play in our nation’s economy. According to the report, U.S. commercial and recreational saltwater fishing generated more than $199 billion in sales in 2012, a gain of 7% over the previous year. It also found that the economic impact of fishing jobs increased 3% from 2011 to 2012. Such year-on-year growth is to be welcomed.

Read the full story from the Environmental Defense Fund

May 7, 2014 — From fish migrations to stronger storms overwhelming aging infrastructure, global warming is already affecting life in Maine and other New England states in alarming ways, says a new federal report aimed at pressuring policymakers to take action on climate change.

Nationwide, the warming climate is producing deeper droughts in some areas and more frequent deluges in others. The report, released Tuesday, says that more severe heat waves, coastal flooding, massive wildfires and other trends underscore the need for local, state and federal action.

“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” says the report’s introduction.

At more than 800 pages and involving hundreds of scientists, the National Climate Assessment report is largely a synthesis of earlier research. The White House called it “the most comprehensive scientific assessment ever generated of climate change and its impacts across every region of America.”

By the end of the century, temperatures could be up to 5 degrees higher, even if the nation acts aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It could be up to 10 degrees hotter if emissions are high, according to The Washington Post.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald 

 

May 6, 2014 — Hundreds of skinny, dehydrated sea lion pups have been stranded up and down the California coast over the past few months.

For a second year in a row, rehabilitation centers are filling up with the young, sick pinnipeds, many born in rookeries on the Channel Islands last June.

But while numbers are high, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday that they still fall far short of last year’s rescues.

“We’re about double of what would be considered normal,” said Justin Viezbicke, stranding coordinator for NOAA Fisheries west coast region.

By the end of April, 650 California sea lions had been admitted into rehab facilities in 2014. This time last year, strandings totaled 1,300, he said.

Many of the stranded pups are emaciated and dehydrated. Those are the same symptoms seen last year, said Sarah Wilkin, coordinator of the agency’s marine mammal health and stranding response program.

In 2013, rescue centers from San Diego to Santa Barbara were pushed to their limits after hundreds of emaciated pups started showing up in January.

Read the full story at the Ventura County Star

May 6, 2014 — The following was released by SeaWeb Seafood Champions:

Since 2006, SeaWeb's Seafood Champion Awards have recognized individuals and companies whose outstanding commitment to sustainability has led to positive change in the seafood industry.

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2015 Seafood Champion Awards, to be presented at the 11th SeaWeb Seafood Summit, Feb. 9 – 11, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Louisiana.

We welcome nominations on behalf of individuals or organizations from across the seafood industry, including (but not limited to) fishing, aquaculture, seafood supply and distribution, retail, restaurant and food service sectors, as well as other stakeholders, such as conservation and social organizations, academia and the media.

Award Categories:
An award will be presented for each of the following four categories. You will be required to select one of these categories when completing the Nomination Form. A separate form will be required if submitting for more than one category.

Seafood Champion Award for Leadership
An individual or entity that displays leadership by organizing and convening seafood stakeholders to improve the sustainability of seafood or ocean health.

Seafood Champion Award for Innovation
An individual or entity that identifies and applies creative new solutions to address: ecological challenges; existing market needs; barriers to sustainability.

Seafood Champion Award for Vision
An individual or entity that establishes a clear and compelling vision of the future that inspires positive change for sustainable seafood in fields such as: technology; policy; products or market; conservation tools.

Seafood Champion Award for Advocacy
An individual or entity who positively influences public policy, uses the media to raise the profile sustainable seafood, or influences public discourse and engages key stakeholders by publicly championing advances in sustainable seafood.

Nomination Deadlines:

– Nomination Forms must be submitted no later than: midnight, July 1, 2014.
– Finalists will be announced: September 2, 2014 at the Seafood Expo Asia in Hong Kong
– Winners will be announced: February 10, 2015 at the Seafood Summit in New Orleans, LA
– Complete and submit your NOMINATION FORM HERE >>

For more information including nomination guidelines, selection process and a list of past Award recipients, please visit: www.seafoodchampions.org

Questions? Please contact us at: nominations@seafoodchampions.org

 

May 6, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA:

Today the White House released the 3rd National Climate Assessment. The report finds that climate change is not a distant threat, but it is affecting the American people already. These findings underscore the need for urgent action to combat the threats from climate change, protect American citizens and communities today, and build a healthy, sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

NOAA (including Fisheries) had major roles in all aspects of this report from overall leadership to developing technical reports to expert scientists crafting the final assessment chapters. Fisheries had variety of roles including leading the team that did the technical report on climate impacts on US ocean ecosystems (ST) to expert scientists participating in various stages of the assessment. This is the first climate assessment report that will have specific chapters dedicated to current and projected climate impacts on U.S. oceans and coasts. The chapter on oceans highlights the growing evidence of current and expected future impacts on physical, chemical, and biological ocean components (e.g., fish stock distributions) and some social/economic impacts.

View the assessment at GlobalChange.gov

May 5, 2014 — When a pair of fishermen landed a massive hammerhead shark on a Fort Lauderdale-area beach last month, dragging it ashore by its tail as a cheering crowd aimed cellphones at the exhausted fish, the spectacle reignited a debate over the ethics of a sport that is finding new and bigger audiences with extreme angling videos on YouTube.

The shark, protected by state and federal laws due to sharply declining numbers, measured more than 13 feet. Once hooked, regulations say it should have been quickly released.

But when it comes to a fish so tough it will fight to the death, the definition of quick can be tricky.

Ryan Bolash, the 21-year-old creator of the Infinity Fishing Team channel on YouTube and the angler who grabbed the fish’s tail as his girlfriend recorded the action, says he acted as quickly as possible to cut the long and potentially harmful wire leader dangling from the hook in the shark’s mouth.

“The best thing to do is get them out of the water and back in, in under two minutes,” he said. “It takes a lot of experience to do that.”
However, University of Miami assistant professor Neil Hammerschlag says the stress caused by that kind of fight could be killing hammerheads.

“Over 45 minutes is really stressing the shark out. And that’s just moderate fishing,” he said. “People, in their defense, say the shark swam away. But that doesn’t mean anything because we found the shark can die later, after the release.”

State officials would not comment on the legality of last month’s hammerhead catch off Anglin’s Fishing Pier in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. But Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesperson Amanda Nalley said state wildlife officers generally try to take an educational approach when they learn of similar incidents.

“These are apex predators. They are important to the system. We wouldn’t have protected them if we didn’t think they were important, and we definitely want people to do the best they can to release them in an expeditious manner,” she said.

Read the full story from the Miami Herald

May 1, 2014 — The reason is sea star wasting syndrome, an outbreak that has resulted in the demise of hundreds of thousands of starfish along the Pacific coastline ranging from Sitka, Alaska, to Mexico’s Coronado Islands.

Jayson Smith scours Crystal Cove’s rocky shoreline for sea stars, or starfish – and the search is getting harder every week.

In October, there were 191 sea stars at this reef, just south of the historic cottages that line the state park’s cliffs. Smith, a marine biologist from Cal Poly Pomona, has been monitoring this site since his graduate student days back in 1996.

In March, there were 11. Saturday, Smith only finds one.

The reason is sea star wasting syndrome, an outbreak that has resulted in the demise of hundreds of thousands of starfish along the Pacific coastline ranging from Sitka, Alaska, to Mexico’s Coronado Islands.

So far, scientists have been unable to pinpoint a cause for the massive die-off, which is the most extensive sea star wasting event on record, extending farther geographically and hitting more species of sea stars than any other occurrence.

The disease started showing up last summer in Washington state, where sea stars began developing lesions, or white marks on their bodies. Once infected, sea stars lose their rigidity, start to discard their limbs and literally pull themselves apart in the course of a few hours. Piles of white ooze often mark the areas a sea star once inhabited.

Read the full story at the Orange County Register 

 

EASTHAM, Mass., — May 4, 2014 — In the state's four largest herring runs, including the Monument River on the Cape Cod Canal in Bourne, the numbers of fish have been increasing each year over the past three or four years to the point where the state is considering how they might allow some harvesting of river herring at those runs while still enforcing a harvest moratorium elsewhere that has been in effect since 2006. Additionally, herring sizes are up slightly as is the number of older fish, meaning the stock is healthier and living longer.

Bill Allan leaned against a chain-link fence and peered into the rushing water below.

He held a length of string connected to a thermometer that was obscured by the clouds of champagne bubbles from water spilling out of Bridge Pond, sliding over a thick wooden gate and collapsing into the stream below.

Off in a corner, huddled away from the force of the water shooting downstream, and the big bass that had accidentally slipped over the spillway and into the run, was a bluish gray ball of alewives gathering up energy for that last push into the pond where they could spawn.

Allan is one of 26 volunteer herring counters who each take a 10-minute shift for the 12 hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day at Cole Brook. Its recently restored herring run, including two new concrete culverts, was installed last year and is the newest addition to a network of 14 Cape streams and rivers overseen by the Association to Preserve Cape Cod.

Following protocol, Allan only counted the fish that made it up over the final gate and into Bridge Pond. Observer numbers would eventually get entered into a formula that computed an estimate of how many alewives reached the pond every day, along with environmental data like water temperature.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times 

 

 

May 5, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA announces the selection of two sites in NOAA’s North Atlantic Region as the next Habitat Focus Areas under NOAA’s Habitat Blueprint. The Penobscot River watershed in Maine and the Choptank River complex in Maryland and Delaware are areas where the agency will focus its resources to support habitat conservation and restoration.

“Many NOAA offices already are actively engaged with federal, state and local partners to protect and restore habitat in both of these areas,” said John Bullard, regional administrator, NOAA Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, which covers the Great Lakes and federal coastal areas from Maine to North Carolina. “However with the designation, we’ll gain efficiencies and be able to direct our collective internal resources to further achieve benefits for communities and natural resources.”

The North Atlantic includes a variety of habitats such as salt marshes, rivers, seagrass beds, and shellfish reefs. Both selected areas have experienced habitat degradation and face challenges from pollution, development, overfishing, invasive species, and barriers to fish passage. This has reduced the resilience of fish and other wildlife communities, degraded water quality and habitat health, and impacted public use and tourism.

Read the full press release from NOAA Fisheries