Saving Seafood

A new formula for whale preservation

February 17, 2016 — WOODS HOLE — From 750 feet above Northeast ocean waters, right whale researchers can easily pick out “Ruffian” for his many scars or “Baldy” for her lack of rough skin patches. Other right whales, though, may take hours to identify.

A new “face recognition” algorithm for right whales, however, announced recently by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, could lead to development of time- and money-saving software and eventually to greater preservation of a species whose global population is 520, right whale experts say.

The new algorithm, created in an international competition sponsored by NOAA Fisheries and the Natick software developer MathWorks, can identify right whale “faces,” or tissue patterns on the top of their heads, with 87 percent accuracy, according to Christin Khan, a NOAA Fisheries biologist and right whale aerial surveyor. Khan, who works in Woods Hole, pursued the idea of facial recognition software for the right whales, and researched how to get the algorithm built, through an online competition that began in August and ended in January.

The winning team, out of 364 entries, was from the software company deepsense.io, with offices in the United States and Poland.

The new algorithm is a first step to developing software for day-to-day use, Khan said. The algorithm, in its initial form, is for aerial photos only, not for photos taken from a boat, Khan said. But the potential is great and part of the growing use of technology to protect whales, several right whale experts said.

“Right now we’re living in the golden age of whale research in terms of technology,” Dave Wiley, research coordinator for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, said. “The things we’re doing now I couldn’t even have imagined 20 years ago. This Cape Cod area is probably at the forefront of all this stuff.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Scientists solve mystery of where puffins go in the winter

February 17, 2016 — PORTLAND (AP) — Researchers say they’ve found an answer to the long-standing question of where Maine’s Atlantic puffins spend the winter: far off New Jersey and New York.

Puffins are the colorful seabirds of the auk family that are graceful in the water and awkward on land and air. The birds spend the spring breeding season and summer in coastal areas before heading out to open ocean waters in the autumn and winter.

The National Audubon Society has described the exact winter locations of Maine’s puffins as “long a mystery” to scientists. But the organization said Tuesday that locators recovered from 19 puffins in recent years show the birds spent a chunk of the winter several states away from Maine.

The area most frequented by puffins in the winter was about 200 miles southeast of Cape Cod, said Stephen Kress, the director of the Audubon Seabird Restoration Program. Kress said the data showed puffins winter over underwater canyons and sea mountains in the Atlantic.

Read the full story at the Associated Press at Portland Press Herald

Expert Says Shark Numbers May Double

February 9, 2016 — WELLFLEET — It might not seem it by looking out the window, but the Cape is closing in on another beach season, and members of a working group tasked with improving public safety given an increasing number of great white sharks visiting our shores each summer, are well aware that it’s time to focus on what is doable in the next few months.

With the possibility that the population of great white sharks in Cape waters could eventually double current estimates the sense of urgency is also on the rise.

For the most part, high tech solutions, like drones, are out, and the focus is on education.“We’re going to change human behavior and keep people close to shore,” Leslie Reynolds, chief ranger for the Cape Cod National Seashore, told the group at a meeting Tuesday at the Wellfleet Council on Aging.

Park personnel are in the initial stages of making an educational video they hope to play on community TV access channels, online on town websites, in their own visitor center, at chamber of commerce information booths and elsewhere.

Her staff is working on a sign that would clearly spell out the shark danger to beachgoers in the off-season when lifeguards are no longer on duty, Reynolds said.

She unveiled a new purple flag with a great white silhouette that would fly every day at lifeguard stands warning visitors that sharks could be in the water.

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries shark researcher Gregory Skomal said the numbers of great whites coming to the Cape each year “continues to go up and it will continue to do so in the near future.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Coast Guard Responds To Disabled RI Fishing Vessel Off of Block Island on Saturday

January 23, 2016 — It’s been a busy and dangerous day for local U.S. Coast Guard crews as they had to respond to a disabled Rhode Island ahead and during winter storm.

Update from US Coast Guard Station Castle Hill:

“Today the crew faced 50 mph winds, up to 14 foot seas and minimal visibility in the blowing snow to ensure the safety of a 50ft fishing vessel off of Block Island. The F/V’s windows had blown out from the waves which was causing water to enter their cabin. They were escorted safely back to Newport. Great job to the crew working in such extreme conditions. Also on scene were a helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod and a 47′ Motor lifeboat from Coast Guard Station Menemsha
(Photo (above) by FN Klingensmith)”

The following information was provided by the United States Coast Guard in a release;

With a major winter storm approaching, Coast Guard crews from Station Menemsha, Massachusetts and Station Castle Hill, Rhode Island, aided a distressed fishing crew about 10 miles east of Block Island, Rhode Island on Saturday.

Read the full story at What’sUpNewp

MASSACHUSETTS: South African scientist, Cape Cod officials talk shark spotting strategies

January 25, 2016 — This past summer, it seemed as though Atlantic great white sharks, once thought to be elusive and rarely seen, were suddenly everywhere.

Popular beaches were closed to swimming as great whites moved north in the waning days of summer away from what is thought of as their stomping ground — the relatively remote and unpopulated Monomoy islands — and into the heart of tourist country.

Earlier this month, beach managers, town officials and Cape Cod National Seashore representatives met for the first time in more than a year to consider ways to protect the millions who will come to Cape beaches this summer. It is the first in a series of similar monthly meetings this winter.

“What it told me is we’re on the right track. Education is big,” Orleans Natural Resources Director Nate Sears said about a presentation by South African shark scientist Alison Kock at the Jan. 12 workshop hosted by the Seashore.

Kock’s visit was paid for by the nonprofit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, the main fundraiser for shark research by Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries scientists Greg Skomal and John Chisholm. Kock is the research manager for Cape Town’s Shark Spotters Program, which employs locals to scan beaches with binoculars from high vantage points and warn beach officials of sharks. Along with the Save Our Seas foundation, the group sponsors shark research and conservation while attempting to keep beachgoers safe.

“I am very impressed by the proactive stance being taken on the Cape,” Kock wrote in an email from South Africa after her visit. Nothing happened in Cape Town until after a series of fatal attacks on swimmers and surfers a decade ago, she said. Kock praised the signs and brochures that have been in place on Cape beaches for two years.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

Fishing boat taking on water off Martha’s Vineyard, crew rescued by Coast Guard

January 18, 2016 — A four-man crew aboard a vessel taking on water, was rescued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and a good Samaritan early Friday morning. According to a USCG release, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England received a call from the crew of the Sasha Lee reporting they were taking on water.

The fishing vessel was located 11 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB) and launched a 47-foot motor life boat crew from Coast Guard Station Menemsha. The 270-foot Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, which is homeported in Boston, was diverted to the scene.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Today

 

Southeastern New England Coast Guard Saves Five Lives in Three Incidents

January 15, 2016 — HYANNIS – The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan teamed up to respond to three separate Southeastern New England maritime emergencies last night.

“Since last night, the command center’s four person watch team utilized our technology and partnerships with local agencies to expertly execute three separate search and rescue cases, saving five lives,” said Captain John Kondratowicz, Commander of Sector Southeastern New England.

At about 4:30 a.m. this morning, the captain aboard the fishing boat Sasha Lee used contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England and relayed they were taking on water 11 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard and had four people aboard.

A 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from Coast Guard Station Menemsha was dispatched and the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, a 270-foot cutter homeported in Boston, also diverted to help.

Once on scene, two Coast Guard station members went aboard the Sasha Lee with a dewatering pump and controled the flooding.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

 

More stranded turtles wash up on Cape

January 6, 2016 — More sea turtles stunned by the weather have washed ashore on Cape Cod this week, following a cold spell that came with several inches of snow in the area.

About 57 turtles — both loggerheads and Kemp’s ridleys — have been found since the start of the year, said Bob Prescott, director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Approximately 25 of those animals were alive and sent to the New England Aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy for treatment.

The recent rescues bring the total number of turtles recovered since the fall to more than 500, the second-highest number per season in history.

Kemp’s ridley and loggerhead turtles are both endangered species that come to the waters of New England to feed in warm weather. As the water cools, they attempt to migrate south, but many become stranded by the hook of the Cape.

The colder it gets, the more hazardous conditions become for the animals.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Coast Guard to review policies after fatality

January 5, 2016 — Coast Guard officials say they are looking into safety policies and procedures after the tow of a Gloucester fishing boat went fatally wrong last month.

“We’re doing a thorough investigation” in conjunction with the National Transportation Safety Board, Coast Guard spokesman Ross Ruddell said Monday, while the Coast Guard was in the process of towing in another boat that had become disabled off Nantucket.

The investigation into the December incident will involve a review of safety policies, including whether to stock rescue vessels with defibrillators, Ruddell said. Currently, Coast Guard helicopters carry the life-saving equipment, but rescue boats are not required to do so.

Gloucester fishing boat captain David “Heavy D” Sutherland, 47, died Dec. 3 when his boat the Orin C went under while being towed by the Coast Guard in heavy seas off Cape Ann.

Two other fishermen, Rick Palmer and Travis Lane, were rescued. Sutherland was unresponsive when pulled onto a Coast Guard motor rescue boat and could not be revived after more than an hour of CPR, according to Coast Guard officials.

The Orin C sank 12 miles off Thatcher Island in Gloucester after first being towed by a good Samaritan vessel called the Foxy Lady. The tow was imperiled by high wind and waves. The Orin C’s surviving crew members told the Boston Globe that the Foxy Lady’s tow line was too short and it was going too fast for the rough weather.

A large wave reportedly crashed over the Orin C’s bow and caused it to flood, according to a Coast Guard statement.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Sea turtle strandings surpass 500, second-highest on record

January 3, 2016 — For the first time since the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary started rescuing endangered cold-stunned sea turtles in 1982, the sanctuary recovered living cold-stunned turtles in January, according to a statement from the sanctuary.

Usually, the season ends by Christmas.

Since November, rescuers with the sanctuary have recovered 520 turtles from Cape Cod Bay beaches, making it the second-highest stranding year on record.

Last year, 1,200 turtles were stranded, according to the release. The vast majority of turtles that strand here are Kemp’s ridleys, which are born on beaches in Mexico and Texas.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times