Saving Seafood

NOAA analysis finds right whale strikes and entanglements must be cut to save species

October 25, 2023 — A NOAA Fisheries analysis found that North Atlantic right whales will go extinct unless vessel strikes and gear entanglements are “considerably reduced.”

The comprehensive population viability analysis was conducted by the NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic Right Whale Implementation Teams and considered three threats to the species: Entanglements in fishing gear, vessel strikes, and changes in prey abundance and availability. Looking at each factor individually, the analysis showed that reducing entanglements was the most effective way to help the right whale population recover. Reducing vessel strikes also had the most positive impact.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

After long, steep decline, the North Atlantic right whale population appears to stabilize

October 23, 2023 — There are about 356 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, according to data released Monday from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. That’s actually a bit of good news for the critically endangered species, signaling that the population may be starting to stabilize.

“After years of the population trajectory in being in steep decline, that decline is leveling out,” said Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. Hamilton said he wouldn’t quite frame the population numbers as “optimistic,” though: “I guess I could say it eases the weight on my heart a little bit, but we have a long ways to go.”

Right whales still face significant threats. The leading causes of death and injury to right whales are entanglements in fishing gear and getting hit by boats; climate change and noise pollution are added stressors.

So far this year, researchers from the New England Aquarium have counted 32 injuries to right whales after they were hit by boats or entangled in fishing gear. There have also been two detected deaths of right whales in 2023: a 20-year-old male struck and killed by a boat and an orphaned newborn calf.

“Not only are human activities leading to the deaths of whales, but they’re also leading to these injuries that aren’t outright killing the whale, but they’re stunting their growth. They’re delaying reproduction in females,” said Heather Pettis, a research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. She said the whale population can only recover if their birth rates go up, while their death rates go down.

Read the full article at wbur

Decline of rare right whale appears to be slowing, but scientists say big threats remain

October 23, 2023 — The decline of one of the rarest whales in the world appears to be slowing, but scientists warn the giant mammals still face existential threats from warming oceans, ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear.

The population of North Atlantic right whales, which live off the U.S. East Coast, fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020 and was down to only about 364 whales as of 2021. Now the whales are at around 356 in total, according to a group of scientists, industry members and government officials who study them.

This suggests the population is potentially levelling off, as equal numbers of whales could be entering the population as are being killed, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said Monday. However, getting an accurate count of the aquatic creatures involves certain ranges of error, which put estimates for 2021 and 2022 at roughly around the same number.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Speeding ships and whales: NOAA sees progress, advocates not so much

October 23, 2o23 — A new analysis by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows more vessel operators are abiding by ship speed limits the agency sets to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from ship strikes along the U.S. East Coast.

A few hours before the agency’s study came out, the environmental group Oceana issued an update in its own series of analyses tracking ship speeds. Its conclusion: far too many vessels are still breaking the recommended 10-knot limit when right whales are known to be in waters near U.S. ports.

Both reports rely on data from Automatic Identification System transmitters carried by most commercial vessels, which record their tracks at sea. AIS is chiefly a safety system – allowing vessel operators to broadcast their real-time positions and see where other ships and boats are in relation to them.

AIS data also allows observers to calculate real-time and past vessel tracks and speeds. NOAA and Oceana used the same data, but different methodologies to draw somewhat divergent conclusions.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA has imposed USD 1.1 million in fines over right whale speed limits since 2021

October 16, 2023 — NOAA is stepping up enforcement of vessel speed limits when endangered North Atlantic right whales are on the move, using satellite technology and even highway patrol-style speed radar to nab violators.

In the period between 2021 and 2022, NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) brought 19 complaints against vessel operators for exceeding a 10-knot speed limit that the agency declares in “seasonal management areas” from November to July as the right whales move off the U.S. East Coast. The agency levied USD 218,500 (EUR 207,000) in penalties on those operators.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

More whales are dying. Conspiracies are leading to threats against the rescue teams

October 4, 2023 — For the past seven years, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has been monitoring a spike in whale strandings along the entire East Coast.

The agency has declared the ongoing situation an “unusual mortality event,” or UME, for humpback whales. More than 200 humpback strandings have been reported since 2016 along the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Department says it has conducted partial or full necropsy examinations on about half the whales, with 40 per cent of those examinations showing evidence of human interaction, such as entanglement or ship strikes.

But theories about offshore wind energy projects contributing to the deaths have risen alongside the strandings, despite the NOAA rejecting those claims.

Read the full article at Calgary Herald

Environmental groups demand emergency rules to protect rare whales from ship collisions

October 3, 2023 — A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the federal government to enact emergency rules to protect a vanishing species of whale from lethal collisions with large ships.

The groups filed their petition with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Sept. 28 in an effort to protect the North Atlantic right whale. The whale, which can weigh more than five school buses, numbers less than 340 and has been in steep decline in recent years.

Ship collisions are among the most dire threats to the survival of the whale, according to NOAA. The groups cited a proposed rule from the agency designed to prevent such ship strikes by making more vessels slow down for whales. NOAA has yet to release a final updated speed rule despite proposing new rules more than a year ago, the environmental groups said.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Nantucket group files appeal in lawsuit against wind turbine farm off Martha’s Vineyard; alleges right whales in danger

September 27, 2023 — A group opposing an offshore wind farm being built south of Martha’s Vineyard has appealed a ruling that dismissed its lawsuit to halt the project, arguing that a “gravely flawed environmental review” failed to consider the dangers the turbines pose to the vulnerable North Atlantic Right Whale population.

Nantucket Residents Against Turbines filed its appeal last week in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, after US District Court Judge Indira Talwani in May dismissed its lawsuit, records show.

The defendants are the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service, US Interior Secretary Debra Haaland, US Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo, and wind farm developer Vineyard Wind 1 LLC, according to court records and the group’s lawyer, Thomas Stavola Jr.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Can $82 million stop the first modern-day extinction of a great whale?

September 25, 2023 — The U.S. government has issued an $82 million grant to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales — “the largest climate and conservation investment in history,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. The whale is fast approaching extinction, with just 70 females of reproductive age amid its dwindling numbers.

The funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will be used to ensure that the NOAA can implement technology to help ships detect and avoid the whales, alongside existing conservation measures.

Read the full article at SEMAFOR

South Atlantic council opens door to ‘ropeless’ fish trap gear

September 18, 2023 — Developing on-demand or ‘ropeless’ fish trap gear could allow more fishermen to keep working in the black sea bass fishery from the Carolinas to Florida, even with seasonal closures to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from gear entanglement.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has begun moving toward making pop-up fish pot gear allowable at all times, after three years of testing under an experimental fishery permit from the council.

In 2017 the fishery was tasked with two seasonal closures from December to March and November to April to protect migrating right whales. Adapting the pot fishery to use on-demand gear – without vertical lines, and buoys that can be summoned by signal from fishermen to pop up for retrieval ­– underwent testing under the council’s EFP.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman