April 26, 2021 — Pacific Ocean humpback whales gained more protection this week as the National Marine Fisheries Service designated more than 115,000 square nautical miles as critical habitat.
The final rule covers three threatened or endangered populations of humpbacks: the Western North Pacific distinct population segment (endangered), the Central America DPS (endangered), and the Mexico DPS (threatened).
April 19, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), is issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to conduct components of the At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) Training Program for the NEFSC.
NMFS is required to collect biological and compliance data aboard U.S. domestic fishing vessels, data which cannot be obtained at the dock or on research vessels. Specifically, NMFS observer data is essential to reliably estimating catch and bycatch, and in helping to implement programs to reduce bycatch. A sharp increase to the coverage rate (up to 100%) for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery in Fishing Year 2022 and observer attrition during the 2020 fishing year have resulted in the need for approximately 140 new at-sea monitors.
The Awardee shall provide and retain the necessary qualified personnel, materials, equipment, services, and facilities to conduct components of the ASM training for NEFSC. The Awardee shall conduct approximately 4-6 trainings per year. The training will be conducted as a collaborative effort between NMFS and the Awardee; where some components of the training will be conducted by the Awardee and some training components will be conducted by NMFS.
Applicants seeking to apply to the RFP must submit, as a single file, an electronic proposal by email no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on May 19, 2021. Please see the RFP for complete proposal details, qualifying requirements, and submission instructions. The RFP is available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/RFPs/AtSeaMonitorTrainingRFP_April2021.pdf.
For more information, please contact Deke Tompkins at dtompkins@asmfc.org or 313.303.2623.
April 15, 2021 — In a surprising turn, the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee rejected a Southwest Fisheries Science Center catch-only sardine biomass projection when the Council met this week.
NMFS field surveys were cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and no real directed fishery in the U.S. has been conducted on sardines since 2015. The catch-only projection was supposed to be the basis for the fishery’s management measures for the season from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.
April 9, 2021 — Fishing communities across the east coast of the United States submitted a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) again asking for a “transparent and balanced” nationwide planning process for offshore wind development.
“Ahead of the Record of Decision for the Vineyard Wind I project, which would be the first commercial-scale offshore wind energy project in U.S. federal waters, the signers request that BOEM adopt reasonable and consistently requested fisheries mitigation measures for the project if it is approved,” the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) wrote in a release.
April 9, 2021 — NMFS and the Northeast fishing fleet will shift to fully electronic catch reporting this fall for most commercial and for-hire fishing vessels, says the agency’s Greater Atlantic regional office.
It’s the end of the traditional paper logbooks distributed by the agency, where officials say the new system via digital devices “will increase reporting efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness of the fisheries data we use to manage fish stocks in our region.”
In an April 5 announcement promoting the system, NMFS quotes “early adopters” who have been using the electronic reports.
Ryan Kelly, owner/operator of the Seaquestor II out of Barnegat Light, N.J., has been reporting electronically for several years using his iPhone and the NMFS iOS Fish Online app.
April 8, 2021 — In June 2019, Maine’s Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill requiring the state Public Utilities Commission to approve the contract for an offshore wind pilot project in Maine. This project will operate an 11-MW turbine off of Monhegan Island.
Though touted as research to explore clean energy alternatives, this project is an experiment. And during this experiment, power generated will be sold for profit, likely to out of state consumers. Information from this research will not just benefit scientists, but also big-money energy investors who want to develop wind farms throughout the Gulf of Maine.
“When you a look at a chart of where all the preferred wind farm leases are on the East Coast and compare that to the chart NMFS has made showing the most heavily fished areas, almost every lease is based directly on or adjacent to the best grounds,” said fisherman Glen Libby.
There is a lot more at stake here than may meet the eye. Drilling the ocean meters down, placing cables and topping with an artificial cover for miles will at the very least disrupt and at the very worst destroy countless marine life habitats, ecosystems and breeding grounds, which will influence the food chain from there on up, not to mention the unknown long-term effects chemicals coating the underground cables may have on the environment and consumers.
Electromagnetic fields and noise from offshore wind turbines can interrupt the natural cycles of robust native species as well as endangered and protected marine species — including right whales, for which lobstermen have changed fishing practices and gear to avoid doing any potential harm.
April 8, 2021 — On April 6th, 1,665 members of fishing communities in every U.S. coastal state submitted a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) requesting a transparent and balanced national planning process for offshore wind development.
Offshore wind development poses direct conflicts with fishing and the current permitting process provides no meaningful opportunity to include the needs of sustainable seafood harvesting and production in strategies to mitigate climate change. Recent interagency announcements to fast-track offshore wind energy production have provided no commitments to address this transgression of the federal government’s public trust duties.
On the eve of the expected Record of Decision for the Vineyard Wind I project, which would be the first commercial-scale offshore wind energy project in U.S. federal waters, the signers request that BOEM adopt reasonable and consistently requested fisheries mitigation measures for the project if it is approved.
April 7, 2021 — Fisheries in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Southeast have experienced success, despite pandemic pressures that began in 2020.
Red snapper are now more plentiful in the Gulf of Mexico, but prices are staying strong as a result of high consumer demand and a let-up in COVID-19 restrictions that slowed sales to restaurants early in 2020.
April 5, 2021 — Pacific cod stocks have begun to rebound in the Gulf of Alaska, but the TAC for 2021 remains low at 17,321 metric tons. Last year managers curtailed the fishery in federally managed waters after stock assessments put the biomass near the bottom of the threshold for conducting the fishery.
Though the recruitment of younger cod and the uncaught fish from last year have added to the abundance in most recent assessments, full recovery of the stock could take years. The warm-water blob of 2014 has been blamed for the crash.
The warming waters began in 2013 and precipitated a 79 percent decline in the stocks. Prevalent theories suggest that warmer waters raise the metabolic rates for the young cod. At the same time the forage species for young cod appeared to have higher concentrations of protein and lower concentrations of fat. More recent studies determined that the eggs of cod survive in a narrow range of temperature (3 to 6 degrees C, or 37.4 to 42.8 degrees F).
Stocks also continue to decline in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands harvest areas. The 2021 TAC for the Bering Sea has been set at 111,380 metric tons with a TAC of 13,796 metric tons for the Aleutian Islands.
The 2020 TACs for the respective areas had been set at 141,799 metric tons and 14,214 metric tons.
April 5, 2021 — Recreational and commercial fishermen will have new gear and harvest limits starting in May at artificial reef sites off the coast of North Carolina.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service announced Friday Regulatory Amendment 34 to the South Atlantic region’s snapper-grouper fishery management plan will go into effect Monday, May 3.
The amendment creates 30 special management zones around artificial reefs off of the state’s coast, including off the coast of Carteret County, as well as four off of South Carolina.