Tag Archives: NOAA
Zero means zero. ‘We’ve been innocent:’ Federal spending bill could provide lifeline for Maine lobstermen
Tuesday, Maine’s congressional delegation moved to block plans for even stricter federal regulations on Maine lobstermen designed to protect the right whale. If approved, the measure would give the U.S. lobster fishery six years before any further action is taken to prevent fishing gear from entangling whales. Lobstermen say there’s no need for new regulations on them, claiming there’s no evidence whales are getting snared in their gear, but environmentalists say this puts right whales on a path to extinction. “Zero means zero. I mean, we’ve had zero entanglements in the last 20 years,” Knight said. “There’s never been a death attributed to Maine lobster gear. We’ve been innocent right along.” Video, photos, >click to read< 09:20
Wind industry group says turbine restrictions for whales could threaten commercial viability of projects
An organization that represents and lobbies for the wind industry has warned that a recommendation from federal scientists to limit turbines in offshore lease areas to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale could threaten the commercial viability, efficiency and utilities contracts for some projects. In a letter first published by The Light last month, NOAA scientist Sean Hayes proposed establishing a “conservation buffer” zone or turbine-free area overlapping with wind development planned in Southern New England. But the American Clean Power Association (ACP), which represents the wind industry, said such a buffer would cause the removal of a “significant number” of turbines from several projects. >click to read< 07:29
Alaska crab fishery collapse seen as warning about Bering Sea transformation
Less than five years ago, prospects appeared bright for Bering Sea crab fishers. Stocks were abundant and healthy, federal biologists said, and prices were near all-time highs. Now two dominant crab harvests have been canceled for lack of fish. For the first time, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in October canceled the 2022-2023 harvest of Bering Sea snow crab, and it also announced the second consecutive year of closure for another important harvest, that of Bristol Bay red king crab. What has happened between then and now? A sustained marine heat wave that prevented ice formation in the Bering Sea for two winters, thus vastly altering ocean conditions and fish health. “We lost billions of snow crab in a matter of months,”,,, >click to read< 18:54
Offshore Wind Farms in New England Create Headaches for Both Man and Beast
“I don’t think ever in history has there been such a massive alteration of the ecosystem in such a short amount of time,” says the executive director of New Jersey-based Clean Ocean Action, Cindy Zipf. “We’re looking at 3,500 turbines as tall as the Chrysler Building, 2.2 million acres of ocean, and 10,000 miles of cable just in the Northeast in just the next seven years.” At the center of the conflict is the North Atlantic right whale and other endangered marine mammals that the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association National Marine Fisheries Service are charged with protecting. Fewer than 350 right whales are left in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the fisheries service. >click to read< 08:14
Jerry Leeman: So, let’s plug in what we know.
So, let’s run a logical thought, based on what our governments assumption on fish stocks is, with what we know. NOAA says there is nothing wrong with the biomass of white hake, but they cannot find adolescent hake. Well ask any lobstermen along the shorelines, they are seeing abundance of juvenile hake and cod in their traps. Imagine Lobstermen and inshore fishermen across a vast area all saying the same thing? NOAA says there’s nothing wrong with the biomass of haddock but same thing, they can’t find small fish. Well, what do we know?!! >click to continue reading< 08:33
Lobster more than a Maine event
The headline said that Whole Foods would no longer be selling Maine lobster in its stores. My first reaction was to wonder what the lowly, although expensive crustacean had done to warrant such action from Whole Foods usually described as an upscale grocery chain that is owned by Amazon and as such is a part of the Jeff Bezos’ empire. To add insult to injury the California based Monterey Bay Aquarium through its environment focused seafood watch went and “red listed” Maine lobsters. I guess that means shipments of Maine lobsters will be stopped at the California border. I wonder if that includes the border with Mexico where just about anything gets through? Obviously, the Maine lobstering industry is up in arms over all this. >click to read< By Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr 12:56
Regulators see hard years ahead for the scallop fishery, New Bedford’s cash cow
Scientists report that young scallops off the eastern seaboard have been struggling to grow to maturity for nearly a decade now, constraining one of the nation’s most lucrative fisheries to its lowest biomass in more than 20 years. In a presentation before the New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday, the council’s scallop analyst Jonathon Peros projected that the latest regulations adopted by the council will cap next year’s scallop harvest at 25 million pounds, a steep drop from a record harvest of 61 million pounds recorded just four years earlier. >click to read< 09:45
Fisheries minister pushes for joint Canada-U.S. management of depleted Atlantic mackerel stock
“We don’t support the fact that we had closures because the stock was in critical condition and the United States were fishing essentially that same stock,” Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray told a parliamentary committee Friday. Murray’s remarks are a more public stance on what has been a quiet effort by Canada to persuade the United States to jointly manage a species both countries say is in trouble. Murray said she expressed her concerns in a virtual meeting earlier on Dec. 2 with her U.S. counterpart, Richard Spinrad, who leads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. “He wants to invoke the precautionary principle, which in my view, wasn’t happening adequately. We agreed that we share our approach to this and in two months there will be meetings between NOAA and DFO to discuss our assessments and build a better approach to rebuilding mackerel.” >click to read< 10:03
BOEM and NOAA announce joint strategy for fisheries surveys
BOEM and NOAA Fisheries are announcing a joint strategy to address potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on NOAA Fisheries’ scientific surveys. The Federal Survey Mitigation Strategy underscores the agencies’ shared commitment to the Biden-Harris Administration’s clean energy goals of responsibly advancing offshore wind energy production while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use. “This joint strategy will help ensure the quality of NOAA’s fisheries surveys and data are maintained while the nation develops offshore wind energy,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries,,, >click to read< 08:57
Busted! – Coast Guard, NOAA seize illegally caught fish near Homer, Alaska
A Coast Guard law enforcement boarding team seized illegally caught fish near Homer, Alaska, Wednesday. The Naushon crew seized the catch and escorted the vessel to Homer where a NOAA OLE representative took possession of the catch upon arrival at the pier. A Coast Guard Cutter Naushon boarding team discovered halibut aboard a commercial IFQ halibut vessel that was not documented in the vessel’s logbook. Additionally, the halibut was filleted to where the size and number of fish could not be determined. >click to continue< 15:49
New incentive program for Mississippi shrimpers
There’s a new incentive program for Mississippi shrimpers! “The goal of it is to have shrimpers remove marine debris, any single-used plastics, old fishing gear that they come across as they do their regular shrimping throughout the year. So, we’re incentivizing them to remove that and bring it and dispose of it properly at any of the harbors down here.” Shrimpers can sign up through Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United or Mississippi State University Extension Center. Video, >click to read< 09:17
All for one and one for all – With Jerry Leeman
Well, if NOAA goes through with these cuts this coming year to groundfish stocks I’m afraid there won’t be a fishing season next year. They have created choke species thru faulty assessments. I don’t know why I say assessments because they really haven’t done enough to make any logical cuts to any stock. To my family and friends who are lobstermen. You will watch the bait prices double overnight once the last groundfish boat is done. No more bait will be landed thru the groundfish efforts. That’s right no redfish racks, no hard bait and no skates. This will happen. I’ll do my best to argue everyone’s circumstances and the errors of their data and sampling methods using on the job experience offshore for 14 years at sea in the last 21 years. The entire groundfish fleet Captains are united in this argument that the data is corrupt and wrong in many ways. All offshore fishermen spend more time trying to avoid fish due to the made-up choke species brought to us by bad science and lack of know how. >click to continue reading<, 15:03
So, let’s talk about why the assessment surveys by NOAA research vessel data is corrupt.
So, let’s talk about why the assessment surveys by NOAA research vessel data is corrupt. The research vessel only makes computer generated tows randomly prints the tow log for the assessments to take place. The research vessel goes to those designated sights and makes 20-minute tows then on to the next tow. The fall survey lasted 66 days from start to finish. They were supposed to make 377 tows at 20 minutes a piece the vessel started in Virginia and tow logs were to be made all the way to the Gulf of Maine. Only 308 tows were made in this 66-day assessment. 308 tows were accomplished of the 377 supposed to be towed so only 82% of the survey was completed. If you look at the tow areas, only 30 tows were made in the Gulf of Maine. >click to read<, By Jerry Leeman
Wind Projects Off New England Put Endangered Right Whales at Risk, Warns NOAA Scientist
Planned wind projects off the New England coast threaten to harm the region’s dwindling population of endangered right whales, according to a US government marine scientist. The warning from a top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request, underscores the potential legal and environmental perils of offshore wind development along the coast. President Joe Biden has a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind within the decade. Both initial construction of wind projects and decades of expected operation threaten to imperil right whales in southern New England waters, Sean Hayes, chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s National Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said in a May 13 letter to Interior Department officials. >click to read< 11:26
Forcing fishermen to pay for the privilege of being monitored
Imagine you live somewhere in small-town America where residents routinely exceed the posted speed limits. To address this problem, the town council votes to require a police officer to ride along with each member of the community every time they venture out in an automobile. You might think something like that could never happen. Yet that is precisely the position into which the Department of Commerce has placed the nation’s deep-sea fishermen. For more than 30 years, the Magnuson-Stevens Act has authorized the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to require commercial fishing boats to carry observers with them to monitor their adherence to federal fishing regulations. When NOAA ran out of the money it needed to keep this program going to the extent it deemed necessary in the U.S. Atlantic Coast herring fisheries, the agency decided without congressional authorization to shift the responsibility of paying for these third-party observers to the fishermen themselves. >click to read< 14:54
Jerry Leeman – Why it is wrong to assume anything
I’ll use this photo to prove a point. NOAA uses a computer to pick where their assessments on fish stocks will take place. Here lies the problem. It’s in random spots, and they never make the same tow again at the same time of the year because they use a computer model that knows nothing of fishing. NOAA is taking the assumption that fish live everywhere. That’s pretty funny because if you knew anything about fishing at all, fish species don’t hang on every piece of bottom all day and night. They just don’t. Not only do fish have tails, but they also swim up into the water columns and travel with the feed and breeding cycles and changes of the seasons. >click to read the rest< by Jerry Leeman.16:16
Jerry Leeman: Fishing is my life. Somewhere, people forgot to listen to the generations before us.
I’ve spent all my life on the ocean. My family and friends are fishermen and lobstermen. I grew up on an island in Maine and almost everyone was in some form of fishery, whether it be groundfishing, gill netting, seining and lobstering. We even had shrimping till that was mis managed away. I grew up watching these men and women harvesting the ocean. Rules were put into place to harvest the ocean responsibly and sustainably for future generations. Most people in this nation know little to as of why our fish stocks became depleted. Other nations like Russia and other European super trawlers were allowed to pillage our waters along the New England coast. They were eventually banned, but the destruction had been done. We’ve spent years restricting ourselves fishing, going out of our way bending backwards to rebuild our fish stocks. >click to read< By Jerry Leeman 11:19
Court decision offers new hope for Maine lobstermen fighting new regulations
A small sign of hope for Maine Lobstermen as a federal judge in D.C. District Court has ruled that new lobster fishing restrictions designed to protect North Atlantic Right Whales will be delayed until 2024 to give the government time to draft more effective regulations. “We need to have time to get this done right,” said Maine Lobstering Union Executive Director Virginia Olsen. Judge Boasberg had previously ruled that fishing restrictions issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA didn’t go far enough to protect the whales. His new ruling sends the current biological opinion, which is the document containing the rules and the science behind them, back to NOAA. >click to read< 10:43
Did climate change really kill billions of snow crabs in Alaska? Here’s what experts say
Some fishers and crab experts have put forward a different idea: They’ve suggested that fishing, particularly the unintentional capture of crabs in fishing gear known as trawls, also contributed to the loss of the snow crab, or at the very least, impeded the species’ recovery from low population levels. The snow crab fishing season closure has amplified a chorus of concerns around Alaska’s trawling industry — mainly from within the fishery sector itself — and the knowledge gaps around its potential impact on fisheries. >click to read< 08:29
Lobster industry leaders vow to continue fight to protect Maine’s iconic fishery
Maine lobster industry officials told business leaders Thursday that they will continue to fight what they see as unfair and unnecessary federal rules meant to protect endangered right whales. “We are well over a $2 billion industry to the state primarily operating in communities without other job prospects,” Patrice McCarron, head of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said. “It cannot be overstated.” Lobsterman Curt Brown, who is also a marine biologist, said the industry has been taking steps to protect the whales since the 1990s, including replacing floating ropes, using weak links so ropes break more easily and removing 30,000 miles of rope from the Gulf of Maine. >click to read< 07:34
What’s wrong with the management?!! By Jerry Leeman
So, I’m using this piece of artwork, because I’m not driving 3 states away to pull up all my tracks. This is only a piece of artwork depicting a small percentage of the ground I’ve covered in the Gulf of Maine and George’s Bank. We all talk about the best science, while the best science is done when you have the best observations. That is the whole basis of science is study thru observations. How come a man like me who has over 14 years documented at sea in 21 years not have a voice in the management of our nation’s fishery? No one has ever asked me what I am seeing. They just hand me a piece of paper every time there’s a rule change. Then I figure out how I’m going to manage what little abundance they allot me. Please click to read the rest. >click to read< 15:07
Jerry Leeman – A supply line disruption
Allow me to explain what is about to happen. We are fishing on false assumptions that there are no white hake. If you are a fisherman, I’m sure you can tell that is untrue. Regardless of the price of fuel rising and this hake quota brought to us by NOAA and NMFS. It’s become a supply line disruption. The infrastructure needs a steady supply of fish to keep steady markets open. Here lies the problem. Fishermen are going out of their way to avoid a specie that live in the same habitat as other species. So, for the sake of the hake restriction, they are avoiding those areas. So that means the supply line is cut for the other species. Which means cutting houses and fish markets are paying for folks to sit idle. No supply no product no income. So, they have to lay off folks. Please read the rest. >click to read< By Jerry Leeman 08:40
Did climate change really kill billions of snow crabs in Alaska?
In October 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the lucrative snow crab fishery in the Bering Sea would close for the first time, following a population decline of 80% between 2018 and 2022. While fisheries managers and biologists say climate change is to blame for the species’ retreat, some fishers and crab experts suggest that trawling bycatch and other fishing activity may have played a role in the snow crab’s decline. The fishery’s closure has amplified a chorus of concerns about Alaska’s trawling industry and the knowledge gaps around its potential impact on fisheries. The disappearance of billions snow crabs from the Bering Sea has captivated the world’s attention since Alaska shut down the fishery for the first time in October 2022. But where exactly did these snow crabs go? And what caused them to vanish so quickly? >click to read< 08:02
Dungeness crab die-off underway along US West Coast
An important species of crab found primarily along the West Coast is fighting off a combination of stressors that experts at the North Atlantic and Atmospheric Administration say has fishermen finding piles of dead shellfish, and the impacts are affecting the economy. Dungeness crabs are typically found along water beds, and their harvest can be worth a quarter-billion dollars annually. NOAA Fisheries believes the combination of a lack of oxygen, harmful algal blooms, water temperatures and ocean acidification are playing a role in the animal’s disappearance. >click to read< 16:12
Maine Lobstermen’s Association Assails Inadequate and Inequitable Vessel Speed Rule
KENNEBUNK, Maine – (November 1, 2022), In official comments submitted this week, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) called on the federal government to apply the law fairly as it develops new rules that would protect North Atlantic right whales from vessel strikes – which are known to have killed multiple endangered whales in U.S. waters in recent years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has proposed expanding the current mandatory seasonal speed restrictions of 10 knots or less in designated areas of the ocean and require most vessels measuring 35 to 65 feet in length to comply. Though MLA supports the proposed measures in the speed rule, it objects to NOAA’s continuing pattern of over-regulating U.S. commercial fisheries and under-regulating other sectors, leaving endangered whales inadequately protected from deadly human interactions. >click to read<07:53
Fishermen and politicians pledge to battle for Maine’s lobster industry in Stonington
More than 200 lobstermen and supporters amassed in the state’s most valuable fishing port Sunday to say they will continue to fight any attempts to put new regulations on the industry. Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, one of more than 20 speakers at the rally, said regulators need to get better data on whale migration patterns in the Gulf of Maine. Julie Eaton of Deer Isle, who fishes out of Stonington, said fishermen have repeatedly sacrificed for years, changing their gear to accommodate new regulations. >click to read< 08:31
‘90% reduction decimates this whole town’: Lobsterman’s rally held in Stonington – “If you’re not here fighting for this, there might not be another day,” said Richard Larrabee Jr. “A 90% reduction decimates this whole town, our children ‘s futures. If my son wants to go fishing, he doesn’t have that option.” Video, >click to read<
NH to join Maine in challenging North Atlantic right whale fishing regulations
Gov. Chris Sununu announced New Hampshire would join the state of Maine in federal court to appeal a Biden administration regulation to protect the endangered north Atlantic right whales that he said would cripple the region’s lobster industry. A U.S. District Court judge last month upheld a National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) regulation environmental groups sought in response to the whale population, estimated to be around 340 animals in the Atlantic waters of the U.S. and Canada. “This ruling, if upheld, would devastate New England’s lobster industry with restrictive regulations brought on by the federal government,” Sununu said in a statement. >click to read< 08:52
The fight to protect right whale, lobsters roils Maine politics
In a state where few things matter more than lobster, it’s no surprise that Mainers are getting a hefty portion of crustacean politics as part of the campaigning for the 2022 midterm elections. What is surprising, however, is the high level of anger and frustration pointed squarely at Washington regulators, with many arguing that NOAA’s new rules are unfair and will hit the prized lobster industry far too hard. Rule backers say they’ll help protect a dwindling population of whales that’s at grave risk from fishing gear. “The men and women who make up Maine’s iconic lobster fishery are facing a terrible crisis, a crisis not of their making, a crisis that is due to this administration’s onerous regulations,” photos, >click to read< 12:11
Why Did 11 Billion Alaskan Snow Crabs Suddenly Disappear?
Earlier this month, Alaska announced that it had canceled the entire snow crab harvest for the year. The news heralded a catastrophic population collapse for the animals, in which nine out of ten died out between 2018 to 2021. It’s a terrible development for those who make a living harvesting the crabs in a region of the world that’s warming unusually fast because of its proximity to the North Pole. (Alaska officials also canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest for a second year in a row.) This isn’t a small industry; Alaska’s crab fishing is worth more than $200 million a year. The sudden shutdown has left the state, well, shell-shocked. >click to read< 12:04
Alaskans question fishery management as snow crabs disappear
The state, which has long dominated U.S. seafood production, is reeling after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game last week canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea for the first time in history Oct. 12. The department said the population of the popular snow crabs had dropped by nearly 90 percent from 2018 to 2021, plunging from 8 billion to 1 billion. In both cases, NOAA Fisheries said the declines were likely the result of climate change,,, Crabbers, however, said they had been led astray by inaccurate data and poor management decisions. “It’s going to be really devastating to kind of make ends meet and go forward here with our business,” said Gabriel Prout, 32, who runs a family fishing vessel business in Kodiak, Alaska. Last year, PEER filed a complaint under the Information Quality Act, alleging that NOAA Fisheries had paved the way for a collapse “by engaging in sampling bias and data falsification” that inflated population estimates and led to years of overfishing. >click to read< 16:59
