Saving Seafood

Conservation & Environment

Ted Danson Discusses Saving the Oceans on New ichannel Celeb Show

Along with a thriving career that has garnered two Emmys, three Golden Globes, and decades of longevity, Ted Danson feels equally passionate about his other life’s work: saving the world’s oceans. The star discusses his commitment to this cause on the new exclusive ichannel series Celebrity Soapbox. The program profiles famous people and the charitable or social causes they adopt, support and represent.

Danson says that one of the catalysts of his oceanic interest was an epiphanic moment when he had to explain to his daughter why she couldn’t swim at the beach. The water was deemed unsafe, because of pollution.

He helped found the American Oceans Campaign in 1987, originally established to challenge offshore drilling in coastal California. In 2002, American Oceans Campaign merged with Oceana, the largest conservation organization in the world. Danson sits on the board of directors of Oceana, often serving as spokesperson. In 2007, he addressed the World Trade Organization in Geneva concerning the issues of subsidizing and over-fishing.

One key factor identified by Oceana that precipitates over-fishing is governmental subsidies for the industry. These subsidies enable large commercial fisheries to afford bigger boats and fleets that trawl giant expanses of the ocean floor, causing considerable damage to the ecosystem.

Read the complete story at Channel Canada.

Fishing captain, crew charged with taking illegal lobsters

A city fishing captain and his two crewmen face criminal charges of forcibly removing eggs from female lobsters and trying to sell the "scrubbed" crustaceans at a local fish house, according to court documents.

Massachusetts Environmental Police boarded the 74-foot dragger Sea Explorer during a routine inspection at Northern Wind Inc. on April 7. They found an illegal catch consisting of 169 scrubbed lobsters, eight egg-bearing lobsters, one V-notch lobster and five mutilated, V-notch lobsters, according to court documents.

State and federal lobster regulations prohibit fishermen from landing or mutilating lobsters that are V-notched — marked with a man-made incision on the tail of a mature female lobster, signifying that it should be thrown back in the ocean for conservation purposes. Regulations also prohibit fishermen from removing eggs from a female lobster.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

BLOG: NOAA Moves Forward With Catch Shares

When Congress reauthorized the nation’s main fishing law in 2006, it directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to end overfishing by 2010. That’s a tough goal, but one promising tool is a type of management called catch shares. Earlier this week, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco put her weight behind this approach.

With catch shares, individual fishers own rights to catch fish. They can trade or sell these rights, which makes fishing more efficient and provides a market-based incentive not to overfish. The system has been shown to lower the chance of a fish stock collapsing.

Speaking to a top committee of fishery management councils—the regional bodies that set fishing policies—in Boston on Tuesday, Lubchenco made her case:

Recent scientific analyses show us that fisheries managed with catch share programs perform better than fisheries managed with traditional tools. Even in the first years after implementation, catch share fisheries are stable, and even increase their productivity. The scientific evidence is compelling that catch shares can also help restore the health of ecosystems and get fisheries on a path to profitability and sustainability. These results, … these scientific analyses, … are why moving forward to implement more catch share programs is a high priority for me. I see catch shares as the best way for many fisheries to both meet the Magnuson mandates and have healthy, profitable fisheries that are sustainable.

Read the complete blog at Science Insider.

Fishermen’s group calls for Magnuson clarification

Ending a three-day meeting and soul searching, the Commercial Fishermen of America announced plans to petition Congress to clarify the intent of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the defining law for commercial fishing.

Jim Ruhle, president of the national association, said, "We heard strong voices from local fishermen that are right in line with CFA’s strategic plan and dovetails with President Obama’s goals of securing jobs and local economies."

In a written release, the board said the CFA "will ask Congress to clarify several aspects of the Magnuson-Stevens Act that have led to a lack of management flexibility, resulting in a loss of jobs in fishing communities."

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Obama brass angle for answers on Columbia and Snake River

Four top Obama administration officials will travel to Portland on Tuesday, to hear fish stories and angle for answers.

The delegation will meet with states and Indian tribes embroiled in the long-running legal battle over how to preserve and restore decimated salmon runs of the Columbia and Snake River system.

Yet, it appears the administration brass are courting controversy by conferring with only some of the players in litigation over whether the federal government has shirked its duty to salmon.

The Portland meeting comes after a May 15th letter in which Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski asked the administration for an on-scene meeting to offer ideas on how salmon wars can be resolved "without further intervention by the courts."

Read the complete story at Seattle PI.

OPINION By Dr. Jim Balsiger: Fishermen deliver management ideas

As fishermen prepare their boats for sea, there’s so much to do each day: plan the fishing trip, monitor weather forecasts, keep up on various regulations, check markets, track finances and tend to the needs of the crew.

With all this and more on their minds, fishermen might not have time to keep up with what’s going on in fisheries management in their own region, let alone the nation and world.

Yet, as I talk to fishermen in New England and other parts of the country, I hear many who are looking for new management ideas or sharing what’s worked for them with others.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Imagine a world without seafood for supper. It’s nearer than you think.

According to Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of York: "What politicians should be deciding is how the catch is allocated within different nations. That is politics. What they shouldn’t be deciding is how big the catch should be in the first place. That is science."

In Norway and the US, "they respect the advice of scientists", he adds – the best example being New England, where stocks of ground fish were in serious decline in the mid-1990s, but enlightened management brought them back. "At Georges Bank, they created a closed area of 20,000 square kilometres that was off-limits to mobile fishing gear [such as trawl nets]," Professor Roberts explains. They also cut fishing effort by a draconian 50% – putting many fishermen out of business. In the past 10 years, however, there has been "a spectacular recovery" of key economic species, Roberts says. "The haddock has bounced back, the flounder has bounced back, the scallops have bounced back, so it has been a great success story."

What this demonstrates is that, where there is political will, the tide can be turned on overfishing. In the US, a piece of 1976 legislation called the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act has recently been reauthorised, requiring the industry to end overfishing in all federal waters by 2011. There is no such legislation in Europe. Under the existing Act, fisheries in Alaska and the North Pacific are already well managed – which is why wild Pacific salmon, Pacific cod and pollock from Alaska were prime candidates for certification by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the international NGO that created a standard for sustainable fisheries in the late 1990s and upholds it. Why do these US fisheries tick all the boxes?

Read the complete story at Blueflipper Diving.

Some fish stocks showing improvement

A new report examining the status of the nation’s fisheries shows that four fish stocks were rebuilt to sustainable levels in 2008 — the most since 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service.

The NOAA report, which the agency must file annually with Congress, identifies the rebuilt stocks as Atlantic bluefish, Gulf of Mexico king mackerel and northern and southern stocks of monkfish.

"The fact that we are reporting on the best single-year improvement in the number of stocks rebuilt is a testament to you and NOAA Fisheries’ efforts," NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco told leaders of the country’s eight regional fishery managers, who are meeting this week in Boston.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

Read the 2008 NOAA report to Congress from the Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

Snowe Applauds Committee Approval of Bill to Protect Ocean Mammals

U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today applauded the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s approval of S. 859, the Marine Mammal Assistance Amendments Act of 2009, bipartisan legislation to expand the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program to include funding for aiding entangled marine mammals as well as those that have been stranded.

"Protection of marine mammals and endangered species is integral to preserving our ocean environment, and this bill represents a step forward in our nation’s ability to achieve a balance between sustaining the economic engine of our fisheries and the requisite safeguarding of our protected resources," said Senator Snowe, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.

Established in 2000, the Prescott grant program aims to curb the costs affiliated with responding to events of marine mammal strandings. S. 859 will expand the program to assist in rescue and survival situations in which marine mammal species, including the critically endangered north Atlantic right whale, become entangled in fishing gear.  Senator Snowe said enactment of the measure will be vital to lobstermen in Maine, who have had to adjust to NFMS regulations that limit the interactions of large whales and fishing gear.  Because of these new regulations, lobstermen have estimated that they will have to spend as much as $10,000 to $15,000 annually to replace their fishing gear to reduce the chance of additional entanglements.

Read the complete story at Senator Snowe’s website.

BLOG: Dogfish, the Real reason striped bass numbers are not rebounding as expected

I have come to the conclusion, whether it be wrong or right, that recreational fisherman and commercial fisherman don’t have as much to do with Striper Biomass as I originally thought.

Article 1, About Spiny dogfish Biomass. Check out the numbers, and I think it will shock you.

Threat of Dogfish Sharks Unite Commercial and Recreational Fishermen From Maine to North Carolina

TRENTON, N.J., May 4 /PRNewswire/ — An unprecedented alliance of commercial, recreational and party/charter boat fishermen and associated businesses has formed Fishermen Organized for Rational Dogfish Management (FORDM) to deal with a looming crisis. FORDM has requested assistance from Dr. Jane Lubchenco, newly appointed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head, in dealing with an out-of-balance population of highly predatory spiny dogfish that is depleting other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic fisheries. Scientists estimate their biomass at up to four billion pounds.

The classic Fishes of the Gulf of Maine says of this shark species, "voracious almost beyond belief, the dogfish entirely deserves its bad reputation. Not only does it harry and drive off mackerel, herring, and even fish as large as cod and haddock, but it destroys vast numbers of them… they prey on practically all species of Gulf of Maine fish smaller than themselves." Spiny dogfish can exceed 5 feet in length.

 

Article 2, About the state of the current breeding population of Striped bass in the Chesapeake.

Coordinated effort urged to resolve mystery of sick rockfish

By Karl Blankenship

For months, scientists have debated — with little consensus — what is behind the apparent increase in the number of sick and seemingly malnourished striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay.

An effort to find defensible answers may soon be under way.

After meeting with scientists from government agencies and universities in September, Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-MD, said he planned to meet with the governors of Maryland and Virginia, as well as members of Congress, to push for a coordinated research program to examine the problem.

“I think pfiesteria set a pretty interesting precedent in that you had all these federal, state and local government people and agencies, along with university scientists, and they pulled together a really quick emergency response team to deal with pfiesteria,” Gilchrest said.

 

Read the entire blog at Surf Talk.