Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: Crab fishermen test pop-up fishing gear to reduce whale entanglements

April 17, 2024 — The commercial Dungeness crab fishing industry was closed early in central and southern California on April 8 because of entanglement risks from returning Humpback whales to state waters where they forage.

Traditionally, the Dungeness crab fishing season runs from November through June using vertical line fishing gear that spans from the surface to the seafloor.

Whales can get trapped in these vertical lines, including whales that are protected as endangered.

After whale entanglements spiked from 2015 to 2018, the Dungeness crab season has faced delay or closure since 2019.

Season closures are affecting the fishing business, but now during this closure, a handful of commercial fishermen such as Brand Little, are testing a whale-safe kind of fishing gear, called “pop-up” or “ropeless” fishing gear, hoping the state will authorize this alternative for use next season, so fishermen can still work.

Commercial fisherman Brand Little described how the first test of the spring season went with about 20 fishermen.

“They said it went remarkably well. Everything popped up, everything came back, they caught crabs and they’re like, this is so much better than putting the gear in the gear shed and quit making money. We still have a couple months left in our statutory season, so this isn’t as great as the way we normally do it, but this is better than nothing,” Little said.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

Where Will the Whales Be? Ask the Climate Model.

December 5, 2023 — The opening of California’s commercial crab season, which normally starts in November, is delayed once again to protect humpback whales foraging for krill and anchovies along the coast.

This region of the Pacific has been under the grip of a marine heat wave since May. “The Blob,” as this mass of warm water has become known, is squeezing cooler water preferred by whales and their prey close to shore, where fishermen set their traps.

This crowding can lead to literal tangles between whales and fishing equipment, endangering the animals’ lives and requiring grueling rescue missions.

In a new study, scientists say they can now use global temperature models, commonly used in climate science, to predict up to a year in advance when hot ocean temperatures raise the risk of whale entanglements. This lead time could allow state regulators, fishermen, and other businesses that depend on the fishery — as well as Californians hoping for a Dungeness crab holiday meal — to plan ahead for potential fishing restrictions.

“It really just helps give a lot more information and reduce some of that uncertainty about the future,” said Steph Brodie, lead author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Dr. Brodie is currently a research scientist at Australia’s national science agency, but conducted this research while working at the University of California Santa Cruz and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at the New York Times

New Jersey congressman wants GAO to investigate offshore wind

February 21, 2023 — A coastal New Jersey congressman introduced a bill Friday for the Government Accountability Office to investigate how federal agencies conduct environmental reviews of offshore wind energy projects.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, filed bill H.R. 1056 calling for “an immediate, comprehensive investigation into the environmental approval process for offshore wind projects” by the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management and National Marine Fisheries Service, amid continuing demands from wind power opponents in his district to suspend work on the projects after a string of recent whale strandings.

“Nine dead whales have washed up on our beaches since early December, and we still have no meaningful answers from (New Jersey) Governor (Phil) Murphy or the Biden Administration on the broader impact of these projects on the marine environment as they rush to build the largest offshore wind farm in the nation,” Smith said in a prepared statement.

“As part of a full-court press for answers, my legislation will investigate the level of transparency from federal agencies that greenlighted this aggressive offshore wind development and determine how much scrutiny was implemented in reviewing the environmental and maritime safety of this project, especially given its unprecedented size and scale,” said Smith.

Offshore wind critics contend ongoing work to survey wind turbine sites could have contributed to the repeated strandings of humpback whales since December. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration strongly dispute the claim, saying there is no evidence that the projects are adding to an “unusual mortality event” of  humpback strandings the agency has tracked since 2016.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

14 whale deaths along US East Coast remain a mystery

January 24, 2023 — Local officials and environmentalists are trying to find out what is behind the mysterious death of 14 whales along the US east coast since 1 December.

Some are blaming the deaths on the development of an offshore wind farm in the area.

Officials, however, say they have found no evidence to suggest wind farms are to blame.

Since 2016, they have been tracking the “unusual mortality” of humpback whales along the eastern shores.

Over the past six years, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tallied 178 dead humpback whales from Florida to Maine.

NOAA performed necropsies on about half the whales and found that of those, 40% of the deaths were caused by human interaction, either being caught in fishing gear or struck by vessels.

Sperm whales, an endangered species, have also been found dead along the eastern coasts.

The most recent death of a humpback whale, which washed ashore in Maryland on 16 January, prompted a press conference by NOAA officials and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), as it came amid mounting concerns a local wind farm development was to blame.

Read the full article at BBC News

Whales Hitting Boats – Conservation and Conflict

August 11, 2022 — We live in a time of high human activity and urbanization, particularly along our coasts. Human and wildlife conflict is a complex issue that has intensified within the last century. Humans are learning to coexist with wildlife species, especially those whose populations are starting to increase or recover due to aggressive and successful conservation measures. The intersection of humans and wildlife manifest in day-to-day activities that sometimes require an “all hands-on deck” approach to address and manage. Recent interactions between boats and whales have demonstrated the need for immediate and coordinated action.

Spatial Overlaps

A recent interaction between a humpback whale and a boat occurred off Plymouth, Massachusetts in late July 2022. In a viral video, a humpback whale breached and landed on the bow of a small recreational fishing vessel.  This video is a stark reminder of how interactions between humans and animals in the wild can go wrong. This incident resulted from a rather unique situation. Large schools of menhaden were aggregating close to shore where commercial and recreational fishermen were targeting striped bass, which feed on these schooling fish. Three juvenile humpback whales discovered this dense patch of menhaden and began feeding in the area, very close to shore and the recreational fishing vessels. Overlap of the recreational vessels and whales raised concern for public safety and safety of the whales.

Read the full release here

Fishing-gear entanglements of whales increased in Alaska, NOAA report says

June 30, 2022 — Alaska was the only U.S. coastal region to have an increase in the confirmed cases of large whales entangled in fishing gear in 2020, a contrast to a national trend of declining cases over the past six to eight years, according to a report issued Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Of the 53 cases of large whales entangled in fishing gear nationally in 2020, 11 occurred in Alaska, according to the report, from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. The previous year, there were 75 confirmed cases of whale entanglements nationwide, with nine of them occurring in Alaska, according to a separate report for 2019 also released Tuesday by the fisheries service.

The vast majority of confirmed Alaska whale entanglements — and the vast majority of entanglements nationally — involved humpback whales. In 2020, 10 of the Alaska cases involved live whales, and eight of those involved humpback whales. All but one of the confirmed Alaska entanglements of live large whales in 2020 occurred in waters of Southeast Alaska, according to the report.

Humpback whales are relatively plentiful among the large whale species, the report for 2020 notes. “Humpback whales are found in all the world’s oceans and several populations have rebounded in recent years, so the frequency of entanglements seen in this species could be due to many factors, such as the increasing number of whales, a high degree of overlap in distribution of whales, growing coastal communities, and fishing effort, or a combination of these or additional factors,” it said.

Read the full story at KTOO

Dungeness crab fishery along California coast closed due to whale entanglements

April 8, 2022 — All commercial Dungeness crab fishery along California’s coast will be closed this month after humpback whales were found entangled in fishing gear, wildlife authorities said.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Wednesday that fishery zones from the Sonoma-Mendocino county life north to the Oregon state line will close at noon on April 20. The closure comes after the department had already announced that commercial crab traps would have to be removed from fishery zones from the Sonoma-Mendocino county line down south to the U.S.-Mexico border by Friday.

“We received reports of additional humpback whale entanglements and moved quickly to close the fishery to protect migrating humpback whales that are just starting to return to California waters,” said Director Bonham.

Read the full story at KRON4

 

California orders an April 8 end to Dungeness crab season in Bay Area, Central Coast

March 28, 2022 — The commercial Dungeness crab-fishing season started late for the Bay Area and Central Coast regions. And it’s ending early.

On Friday afternoon, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife ruled that the season must close April 8 to protect migrating humpback whales. Two whales have recently become entangled in crab-fishing gear, one off the San Mateo County coast and one in Monterey Bay.

Until then, the state is asking all fishermen and mariners to keep an eye out for entangled whales and report them to the U.S. Coast Guard so that a “disentanglement response team” can be sent out to remove the gear.

“The past few seasons have been difficult for fishing families, communities and businesses, but it is imperative that we strike the right balance between protecting humpback whales and providing fishing opportunity,” Charlton H. Bonham, CDFW director, said in a statement about his decision.

Read the full story at the Mercury News

CALIFORNIA: Crab fishing closures recommended after whale entanglements

March 23, 2022 — Two humpback whales were tangled in fishing gear off central California in recent days and state wildlife officials are recommending commercial Dungeness crab fishing be suspended to reduce the risk of more entanglements as the whales migrate north.

One humpback was caught in commercial crab nets off Moss Beach, just north of Half Moon Bay, on March 17. Two days later, a second whale was spotted trailing a set of crabbing lines in Monterey Bay, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.

Wildlife officials on Monday recommended commercial Dungeness crab fishing from Monterey Bay, south of San Francisco, to the Mexican border stop on April 8. The closures wouldn’t affect recreational Dungeness crab fishing.

Read the full story at the Sacramento Bee

CALIFORNIA: Monterey Bay to open for commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fishing

December 10, 2021 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced Thursday that commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fishing in Monterey Bay will open Friday.

Fishing Zone 4 from Pigeon Point to Lopez Point will open for recreational Dungeness crab trap fishing under a Fleet Advisory beginning at 9 a.m. on Dec. 10.

The commercial fishery will open in Zone 4 under a Fleet Advisory and Depth Constraint at 12;01 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2021, with a pre-soak period to begin at 8:01 a.m. on Dec. 13.

Read the full story at KRON4