Saving Seafood

Better data needed to guide regulatory decisions aimed at protecting right whales

March 3, 2021 — Federal regulators, in response to a court order, are again proposing stringent new rules on lobster fishing in an effort to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The decline in whale numbers in recent years is troubling. However, it is also problematic that more precise data on the causes of whale deaths remains lacking.

We, along with fishermen, conservationists, our governor and congressional delegation, want the right whale population to grow and thrive. But without evidence that lobster fishing gear is a significant threat to the whales, it is hard to accept potentially expensive, burdensome and dangerous changes in lobster fishing gear that may have little impact on the whales.

In the new draft biological opinion, the document that will be the basis for National Marine Fisheries Service regulations for the management of numerous ocean fisheries to limit harm to right whales, the agency clearly acknowledges the gaps in data.

Regarding collisions with ships, the agency says it is currently undergoing a separate review of measures, including mandated speed reductions and closed areas, to reduce what are called “vessel strikes.” Twice in the document it says: “This review is expected to be released soon.”

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Whale rule proposals bring fear and anxiety

March 1, 2021 — A broad and sweeping federal proposal to save right whales from extinction could wipe out tens of thousands of jobs tied to the lobster fishery within a decade, according to state officials and fishermen’s advocates.

Not only that, the proposal won’t even save the whales, they say.

Under a judge’s order, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, on December 31, 2020, proposed new rules to protect right whales from fishing gear. Two weeks later, NOAA published a draft opinion, also ordered by the judge, on the impact of the rules. Known as a biological opinion, it outlines a 10-year plan to reduce 98 percent of the lobster fishery’s risk to whales.

Gov. Janet Mills called the biological opinion “devastating” in a February 18 letter to NOAA. “If this comes to pass, it is not only fishermen and their crew who will be impacted, [but] gear suppliers, trap builders, rope manufacturers—all these businesses face a deeply uncertain future,” Mills wrote.

Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Kelliher offered a blunter assessment during a virtual Lobster Advisory Council meeting on February 17.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

After years of inaction, federal regulators are on the cusp of imposing new rules to protect right whales

March 1, 2021 — Nearly two years ago, federal regulators declared that North Atlantic right whales were facing an existential crisis. They convened a wide-ranging team of experts — state officials, scientists, fishermen, and conservation groups — in what they said was an effort to save the species from extinction.

Since then, 14 whales have been found dead and another 14 have been so seriously injured — either from entanglements in fishing gear or vessel strikes — that they’re considered “swimming while dead.” As the estimated right whale population plunged by a quarter, a federal judge ruled last spring that the US government was violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to adequately protect them.

Now, after the Trump administration slow-walked regulations to protect right whales that could harm the powerful lobster industry, the National Marine Fisheries Service is finally on the cusp of issuing the controversial new protections, which are drawing opposition from both the fishing industry and environmentalists.

“Developing these proposed modifications was challenging for everyone involved,” wrote Chris Oliver, the agency’s assistant administrator for fisheries, in a letter that accompanied the release of the draft regulations in late December.

The proposed rules — likely to take effect this summer — are estimated to cost the lobster industry as much as $61 million over six years, or about 10 percent of its annual revenues in recent years.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Feds Taking Final Comments About Plan to Save Right Whales

March 1, 2021 — The federal government is taking the last of the comments about a proposal to try to save an endangered species of whale.

The North Atlantic right whale numbers only about 360. The National Marine Fisheries Service is taking comments about its proposal to reduce risk to right whales until March 1.

The government’s proposal to help the whales includes changes to the U.S. lobster fishing industry, which is one of the most lucrative marine industries in the Northeast. The whales are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Extended Slow Zones to Protect Right Whales

March 1, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces the extension of three voluntary right whale Slow Zones (1) south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, (2) east of Boston, Massachusetts and (3) southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

On February 26, 2021, the New England Aquarium’s survey team observed the presence of right whales south of Nantucket. The Nantucket Slow Zone is in effect through March 13, 2021.

On February 27, 2021, Rutgers University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution slocum gliders detected the presence of right whales east of Boston, MA and southeast of Atlantic City, NJ. These Slow Zones are in effect through March 14, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through them at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

Southeast of Atlantic City, in effect through March 14, 2021

39 25 N
38 44 N
073 44 W
074 36 W

East of Boston, in effect through March 14, 2021

42 40 N
42 00 N
069 57 W
070 52 W

South of Nantucket, in effect through March 13, 2021

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

Protecting right whales: Advocates, fishermen say proposal needs more work

March 1, 2021 — A fatal collision that killed a baby whale and injured his mother in waters south of Brunswick is the latest impetus for advocates of whales to respond by the March 1 deadline for public comments on proposed federal rules intended to protect right whales.

The infant and his mother, named Infinity, were struck Feb. 12, off St. Augustine Inlet, Fl. The captain of a 54-foot sport fishing vessel reported that he’d driven over a whale. The boat began taking on water and the captain grounded the boat to prevent her from sinking, according to a report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. No human injuries were reported.

The 22-foot-long carcass of the infant whale washed ashore at Anastasia State Park. The mother, known in scientific circles as Catalog #3230, was spotted off the coast of South Georgia on Feb. 16, with “two new cuts on her left side suggestive of a vessel strike,” according to a report from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

This incident helped fuel an attendance of more than 300 at last week’s virtual public hearing on the proposed revision of a federal regulation regarding the protection of whales from commercial fishing gear. Attention to the plight of right whales is increasing as their numbers dwindle. Fewer than 350 of the mammals are thought to exist, according to a report issued Wednesday by the New England Aquarium, which has studied right whales for 40 years.

Read the full story at The Saporta Report

Little time left to save the North Atlantic right whale

February 26, 2021 — After years of petitioning the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect North Atlantic right whales, conservation groups recently filed an emergency lawsuit asking the US government to expand protections for the highly endangered species.

Right whales were once hunted to near extinction, but when hunting was banned in 1935, the population of right whales began to slowly bounce back. Today, the population is again in free fall. Ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are killing more right whales each year than are being born. Less than 400 of these giant marine mammals remain, making them a critically endangered species.

The National Marine Fisheries Service currently has a rule in place that requires vessels over 65 feet long to slow down in certain areas at certain times of the year to prevent right whales from getting run over and killed by ships. In 2012, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand the scope of that rule so that it applies in more areas and to smaller vessels.

“The agency has never responded to our petition, despite a host of evidence indicating that the rule, while it’s effective in the places and times that it applies, is not effective enough,” says Kristen Monsell, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Read the full story at The World

Maine’s congressional delegation asks Biden to protect lobstermen from proposed rules to save right whales

February 26, 2021 — Maine’s congressional delegation has asked President Biden to protect the lobster industry as federal agencies weigh a series of proposed rules that they say “would be a death knell” for the state’s most valuable fishery.

The four delegation members called on Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to “protect the livelihood and safety of the fishing community.”

“Maine’s lobstermen are seeking your assurance that they can continue to provide for their families, that their communities will survive, and that their children will be able to continue Maine’s long-standing lobstering heritage. We urge you to recognize the impact these proposed conservation measures will have on our lobstermen, fishermen, and the entire seafood industry in the state of Maine,” Sen. Angus King, Sen. Susan Collins, Rep. Chellie Pingree and Rep. Jared Golden wrote in the letter, which was sent Wednesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released a series of proposed amendments to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan in an effort to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Gov. Mills: Future of lobster industry is threatened

February 25, 2021 — A draft federal biological opinion on the impact of fisheries on endangered North Atlantic right whales would “necessitate the complete reinvention of the Maine lobster fishery,” Governor Janet Mills wrote in a forceful Feb. 19 letter to NOAA Fisheries, citing “grave concern” and “inequities.”

The draft biological opinion includes a conservation framework that calls for a 98 percent reduction in risk to whales from U.S. federal fixed gear fisheries, including lobster fishing, over the next decade.

“The survival of Maine’s iconic lobster fishery, and in fact, our heritage, through the future of Maine’s independent lobstermen and women, depend on your willingness to act,” Mills wrote to Michael Pentony, NOAA Fisheries regional administrator. The letter was included with the state Department of Marine Resources’ comments on the draft opinion.

In his comment letter, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher wrote that his agency is “deeply concerned” that while several human causes of whale mortality are cited, “the draft Bi-Op places the overwhelming majority of the burden to reduce mortality/serious injury on U.S. fisheries, and specifically the U.S. trap/pot fishery.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Study finds human-caused North Atlantic right whale deaths are being undercounted

February 25, 2021 — A study co-authored by scientists at the New England Aquarium has found that known deaths of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales represent a fraction of the true death toll. This comes as the death of a calf and recent sightings of entangled right whales off the southeastern United States raise alarm.

The study, published this month in Conservation Science and Practice, analyzed cryptic mortality of right . Cryptic mortality refers to deaths resulting from human activities that do not result in an observed carcass. The study’s authors combined data on whale encounters, , serious injuries, and necropsies from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Identification Database curated by the New England Aquarium with the serious injury and mortality database held by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The scientists concluded that known deaths of the critically  accounted for only 36% of all estimated death from 1990 to 2017.

“Our work has shown that 83% of identified right whales have been entangled one or more times in , and an increasing number of these events result in severe injuries or complex entanglements that the whales initially survive. But we know their health becomes compromised and they eventually succumb and sink upon death,” said Amy Knowlton, senior scientist with the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.

Read the full story at PHYS.org