Tag Archives: NOAA
NOAA Fisheries Announces Common Pool Area Closure for Gulf of Maine Cod
Effective at 4:15 pm on July 27, 2023 – Statistical areas 513 and 514 are closed for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31, 2023. This closure applies to all common pool vessels fishing on a groundfish trip with trawl, sink gillnet, or longline/hook gear, including handgear vessels. The closure is required because 90 percent of the Trimester 1 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod has been caught. This area will reopen at the beginning of Trimester 2, at 0001 hours, September 1, 2023. >click to read< 12:58
Lobster industry says regulations to save right whales will push them out of business
Lobsters support about 15,000 jobs and contribute more than a billion dollars to the Maine economy. And yet the industry sees itself in an existential battle, pitted against a rare species fighting its own existential battle. North Atlantic right whales, critically endangered, fewer than 350 individuals remain. And they are dying at a devastating rate. Janet Coit, Assistant Administrator of Fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: If we don’t stabilize and begin the recovery, they will be gone within a couple of decades. They will be extinct. They will be wiped off this Earth. And we want to do everything we can to prevent that from happening. >video< 10:30
Fishermen, activists protest offshore wind farms near Montauk, cite recent whale deaths
The winds of change are blowing. Conservative activists, environmentalists and New Jersey fishermen protested the construction of wind turbines off the East Coast on Monday, highlighting increasing whale deaths in the region that they say are tied to offshore renewable energy. The coalition, organized by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, sent out three boats to South Fork Wind Farm, roughly 20 miles from both Martha’s Vineyard and Montauk, NY, holding signs that read “STOP WINDMILLS SAVE WHALES” while shouting through a bullhorn at machinery operators to halt construction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2017 declared an “unusual mortality event” for humpback whales found dead on beaches from Maine to Florida. The agency has recorded 57 large whale strandings since December 1, 2022 on the Atlantic coast. Twelve occurred in New York; nine were discovered in New Jersey. Photos, >click to read< 09:04
How foreign private equity hooked New England’s fishing industry
The 85-foot trawler, deep green and speckled with rust, was returning from a grueling fishing trip deep into the Atlantic swells. As sunrise broke over New Bedford harbor, the fish were offloaded in plastic crates onto the asphalt dock of Blue Harvest Fisheries, one of the largest fishing companies on the East Coast. About 390 million pounds of seafood move each year through New Bedford’s waterfront, the top-earning commercial fishing port in the nation. Leeman and his crew are barely sharing in the bounty. On deck, Leeman held a one-page “settlement sheet,” the fishing industry’s version of a pay stub. Blue Harvest charges Leeman and his crew for fuel, gear, leasing of fishing rights, and maintenance on the company-owned vessel. Across six trips in the past 14 months, Leeman netted about 14 cents a pound, and the crew, about 7 cents each — a small fraction of the $2.28 per pound that a species like haddock typically fetches at auction. Photos, >click to read< 12:04
Right whale’s decline worse than previously thought, feds say
The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick since the start of the mortality event. That is an increase of 16 whales since the previous estimate released earlier this year. The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, said Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for NOAA. >click to read< 17:51
Energy industry uses whale activists to aid anti-wind farm strategy, experts say
One night in late March, J Timmons Roberts, a professor of environmental studies at Brown University, stepped in to a high school gymnasium in a small seaside town in Rhode Island. He was there to speak at a town hall aimed at allaying concerns about a local offshore windfarm. In the front row, he noticed a woman dressed as a whale, holding a sign that read “Save Me!” The woman in the front row was Mary Chalke, co-founder of the Save Right Whales Coalition (SRWC), a group of organizations across the east coast that oppose offshore wind projects, arguing they pose an existential risk to the endangered North American right whale. That night at the town hall, Roberts also spotted Elizabeth Knight, who founded Green Oceans earlier this year, another anti-wind organization in Rhode Island. Roberts said he felt compassion for Knight. “She thinks a train wreck is coming,” said Roberts. >click to read< 10:17
The Whale Killing Study the Feds are Afraid to Do
The Feds have admitted that offshore wind development can cause the death of whales and other marine mammals, but they refuse actually to assess that threat for any wind facilities. So I here outline what such a study should look like. This sort of study is what they are afraid to do because it would give numbers to the deaths that are likely to occur, species by species. First off, here is the Feds’ own description of some of the known deadly threats. In this case, the offshore wind activity is driving the monster piles that support the turbine towers, but there are others. >click to read< 10:02
NOAA’s Sanctuary Expansion Proposal: ‘The nail in the coffin’ of American Samoa’s tuna industry
A regional fishery council warned that the Biden administration’s plan to block off the U.S territorial waters in the Pacific would be the end of American Samoa’s tuna canning industry and quash the culture which the federal government claims to protect. While commercial fishing is currently allowed within 50 to 200 miles of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Agency’ssanctuary expansion proposal would completely cover the U.S exclusive economic zone, prohibiting commercial fishing by U.S fishermen in U.S waters. “For more than 30 years, American Samoa-based purse seiners and Honolulu-based longliners operated in the waters of the Pacific Remote Islands Area until the establishment of the PRIMNM in 2006,” the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council said. “This new action will force U.S purse seiners to fish farther away from Pago Pago Harbor and transport their catch to Mexico and Ecuador instead of the StarKist Samoa cannery, which serves as the backbone of American Samoa’s economy,” the council added.>click to read< 15:45
NOAA wants to expand ‘ropeless’ fishing gear pilot to include some Maine lobstermen
Last winter as part of a pilot project, some Massachusetts lobstermen were allowed to fish in areas that are seasonally closed to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. But they had to use so-called “on-demand” or “ropeless” fishing gear and work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to share their feedback. Now NOAA wants to expand the program to include lobster and other fixed-gear fishermen throughout New England. Federal officials have proposed issuing permits to more than 200 people, with priority given to those who fish closed areas during the winter. More than 100 people in Maine fish those closed areas. And fishermen aren’t thrilled with the idea of opening access to only some of them, said Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association — unless there’s enough on-demand gear to go around to everyone. >click to read< 10:00
Rep. Carter introduces bill to prevent NOAA from implementing speed rule
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-1, is defending a bill he introduced Friday that would prohibit a federal agency from requiring more vessels to adhere to a low speed when approaching the East Coast during certain months of the year. House Bill 4323 calls for prohibiting the issuance of an interim or final rule that amends, updates, modifies or replaces the North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Strike Reduction Rule until mitigation protocols are fully developed and deployed. If passed, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the parent agency of NOAA, would be required to develop and deploy technology to monitor Atlantic waters for right whales. >click to read< 07:53
This fishing gear can help save whales. What will it take for fishermen to use it?
Fishing boats would normally still be unloading Dungeness crabs at San Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf in May. This year, the docks were quiet, except for one berth. “We’re the only boat right now,” says Brand Little, standing next to a large tank of bright red crabs on the deck of his boat, the Pale Horse. State regulators closed the Dungeness season two months early this year, due to the arrival of humpback whales in the area. On both the East and West Coasts, crab and lobster fishermen are seeing their fishing seasons shrink over concerns that whales are getting entangled in the long ropes attached to their gear, accidents that often end up injuring or killing the animals. Photos, >click to read< 08:08
Fishermen To Replace NOAA With NEFSA Due to Reliance on Inaccurate Data to Set Catch Quota
NOAA which has the task of managing and safeguarding the nation’s marine resources, sets catch quotas to ensure sustainable fishing practices annually. However, it has been discovered from an investigation that the agency uses heavily outdated and incomplete information to estimate its fish and marine life population, and subsequently set fish catch quotas’ sets quotas for particular species based on data it collects from its research vessels. NOAA’s research vessel for the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic is the Henry B. Bigelow, homeported in Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. A group called the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association (NEFSA), a new coalition of lobstermen, fishermen, and fishing-adjacent businesses was formed as a replacement due to the reported drawbacks of NOAA. >click to read< 10:5
Offshore Wind Electrical Substations; The Secret, Silent Killers by Jim Lovgren
The marine mammal strandings that are taking place almost everyday along the US east coast are the most visible consequence of the Biden administration’s reckless disregard of all environmental safeguards that had been carefully crafted since the environmental movement started in the 1960’s. Embarrassingly, the cowards at the National Marine Fishery Service have stood by and watched as research vessels have been performing geologic surveys with high powered Sonar, and Seismic devises before they had their incidental take permits issued. They have also authorized over 100,000 level B takes of marine mammals, and that’s just for a few projects, as they fully expect the offshore wind factories to cause the extinction of the critically endangered Northern Right Whale. Just ask Sean Hayes, from the NMFS protected species department, whose observations were ignored by BOEM, hence an ESA violation. >click to read< 11:34
NOAA says revised analysis could allow Southeast king salmon troll fishing, despite ruling
The National Marine Fisheries Service hasn’t ruled out the possibility of opening the summer troll season for king salmon in Southeast Alaska, despite a federal judge’s recent ruling to the contrary. The service’s Alaska regional administrator, Jon Kurland, told a roomful of trollers during a June 7 meeting in Sitka that the agency was working hard to correct the problems identified in the federal lawsuit. The Wild Fish Conservancy in Washington state sued to stop the Southeast Alaska troll season, seeking to protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales’ food sources. >click to read< 12:57
Why are the whales dying? Sea mammal deaths hit record in New York and New Jersey
As whales wash up along East Coast shores at alarming rates, researchers dissect decomposing carcasses, logging whether ship strikes or fishing gear factored into each demise, while some beachgoers wonder if their favorite coastline will be next. At least 14 humpbacks and minke whales have been found dead thus far in 2023 in waters off New York and New Jersey — up from 9 in the entirety of last year. The most recent deaths were two humpbacks, whose corpses were spotted May 31, in Raritan Bay off Keansburg, New Jersey, and Wainscott on Long Island. >click to read< 11:52
Massive Offshore Wind Project Gets Underway with Permission to ‘Take’ Endangered Whales
A large offshore wind farm development project is underway off the Massachusetts coast nearly two years after the project’s developer received 20 “take” permits in June 2021 for the endangered right whale from environmental bureaucrats and regulators. Vineyard Wind began offshore construction of the 62- wind turbine project Thursday, according to WBUR. During this summer’s construction of the offshore wind farm some 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, the company is permitted to incidentally kill up to 20 endangered right whales, according to the Federal Register entry for the project. >click to read< 12:41
Canadian and American lobster industry confronts ‘ropeless’ traps after whale entanglements
Injuries to endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ensnared in fishing gear have fueled a prominent campaign by environmental groups to pressure the industry to adopt on-demand equipment that only suspends ropes in the water briefly before traps are pulled from the water. To address the problem, the U.S. and Canadian governments have imposed new regulation on lobster and crab fisheries in recent years, including the use of weak links in rope that break if a whale swims through, color-coded rope for tracing, adding more traps per buoy line, and zone closures during whale migration. Washington and Ottawa are now promoting ropeless fishing as a possible long-term solution. But lobstermen, particularly in Maine where 80% of U.S. lobster is caught, are not enthusiastic. >click to read< 08:49
The Truth About Offshore Wind: Busting Oil Money Myths and Misinformation
The various organizations, news outlets, and elected representatives that have been promoting misinformation about offshore wind have two things in common: 1) conservative politics and 2) ties to the oil industry. Seemingly locally run nonprofits have been leading public anti-offshore wind campaigns, purportedly out of concern about the dangers offshore wind farms present to whales and local economies. Yet many of these same organizations have proven ties to major conservative lobbyist groups funded by “Big Oil.” Meanwhile, both local and congressional conservative politicians have jumped on these misinformation campaigns, especially in the Northeast, where the first offshore wind farms are set to be constructed this year. This is despite several state and national polls showing that Americans overwhelmingly support the construction of offshore wind farms. >click to read< 08:04
Courts threaten to sink federal fishery monitoring
NOAA suffered a major blow in February when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana threw out a rule that would have required charter boats in the Gulf of Mexico to be equipped with electronic monitors to report fish catches. Fishermen complained that the devices would cost them as much as $3,000 per boat. And the agency may be poised for an even bigger setback from the Supreme Court. Justices last month said they would take up a case that could decide whether NOAA has the legal authority to force New England herring fishermen to hire third-party contractors to monitor their fishing at a cost of up to $700 per day. >click to read< 13:55
Contrary to mainstream belief, wind turbines are neither effective nor, in many cases, good for the environment
Claims of wind power being pro-environment often do not consider the damaging effects these projects can have on wildlife and ecosystems, thus hiding the “true cost” of such initiatives. Wind power projects can threaten birds that fly within their vicinity and trigger a decline in their population; it can harm marine life due to noise pollution and affect the growth of plants in the region where it is located. Driven by subsidies granted by the federal government, the growth of wind projects has triggered concerns about the cumulative impacts they have on the environment. There have been growing protests against wind power projects across the world. In the United States, people have opposed setting up wind turbines in Lake Erie due to concerns about the environmental impact of the project. In New Jersey, protestors have asked to pause the development of an offshore wind farm which they claim has led to dolphins and whales washing ashore. >click to read< 12:38
Officials Reveal Suspected Cause Of Death For 2 Whales Floating Off New York Coast
Two humpback whales that were seen floating dead off the coasts of New York and New Jersey earlier this week had evidence of experiencing blunt force trauma, officials said One was a 47-foot male floating off eastern Long Island, and the other was a 28-foot female in Raritan Bay between New York and New Jersey. Though the two whales were both first spotted on Wednesday, their “different levels of decomposition” indicate that their deaths were unrelated, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Facebook post on Friday. NOAA also announced the suspected cause of death for each whale. >click to read< 08:21
Dear Ed Markey. I called your office this morning regarding our fishermen
First let me tell you who I am. I was a commercial fisherman and in seafood supply for over sixty years. I helped Pat Fiero run for state representative, and also was former Governor Mike Dukakis chairman for Cape Ann. I have severed on many fisheries boards and presently serve on the GF Commission. You helped me get the SKG money out of NOAA’s hands by voting in favor of Senator Sullivan bill to go back to advisory panel as was in 1954. I have supported you in the past and will continue. We need help now. I am going to list our problems and would like you to come to Fisheries Meeting here in Gloucester. We meet every third Thursday of the month at City Hall. >click to read< 21:11
P.E.I. bait company puts seal meat plans on ice, fearing U.S. fallout
Bait Masters Inc. started producing bait sausages in its $1.4-million facility in Nine Mile Creek in April 2021, using a mix of fish, fish oil and other organic matter inside a biodegradable casing. In March, the company did a test run of sausages using a seal-mackerel mix and the results were promising. However, as word spread that the bait would contain seal byproducts, that triggered some red flags in the fishing industry because of U.S. rules around the seal harvest, laid out in the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. Prevost received an email that was being circulated to people in the lobster industry, warning of the implications if seal were to be used in trap bait. Photos, >click to read< 07:29
Wind Farm Protesters March in Ocean City
Opposition to the wind farm has been mounting following more than 30 whale deaths along the East Coast that critics have blamed on sonar mapping of the seabed that is needed for construction of the project. However, government agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection say the recent deaths of whales, dolphins and other marine creatures in New Jersey and other coastal states have nothing to do with the wind farm work. They say evidence shows that most of the whales were struck and killed by shipping traffic. Opponents reject those claims, though. During Saturday’s protest, speakers pointed the finger at the wind farm for the whale deaths and warned of other possible dire impacts that the project could have on the Jersey Shore’s environment, the tourism industry and commercial fishing operations. Photos, Video, >click to read< 07:55
Nils Stolpe: It’s not the fault of the wind industry??? Sophistry is the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.
The “We’re for ocean wind power, the Hell with the rest of the oceans” claque have been yammering their “it’s not the fault of the wind industry” chant ever since an unprecedented number of whales and dolphins started washing up on New York and New Jersey beaches. Since December of this past year, when each of these incidents (was?) turned into a media event, it has been inevitably accompanied by some government (from Washington or Trenton) official, some (oddly enough, almost assuredly Democratic) legislator, some presumed objective scientist (doing an on-camera or recorded interview) with his or her hand held out for her or his share of what are very likely going to be billions of state, federal or wind industry research dollars, or some so-called environmentalist with the same goal. Just about all of them are insistently proclaiming “there is no proof that sonar testing (or any other testing being done by/for the wind industry) kills whales and/or dolphins.” >click to read< 18:55
Commercial fishermen furious NOAA rejected DeSantis’ fishery disaster request
Are bad policies and poorly written federal statutes to blame? Or does it boil down to politics? That depends on who you ask. But, commercial fishermen across the state are sounding the alarm about the future of the commercial fishing industry and whether seafood that comes fresh from Florida can survive. “This industry is really on the verge of being gone,” Casey Streeter said. “We are out on our own, and there is no one coming to help us,” Streeter said. “And with this denial that we just received, you know, I don’t want to call it a death sentence to our progress and move forward, but I mean, it sets us back in a way that’s going to be pretty hard to overcome, for my particular situation, and the other fishermen in the area. >click to read< 08:50
Feds play shell game with wind / whale impacts
NOAA is taking public comments on a massive proposal to harass large numbers of whales and other marine mammals by building a huge offshore wind complex. There is supposed to be an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed harassment, but it is not there with the proposal. We are told it is elsewhere but after searching we find that it simply does not exist. Like a shell game where the pea has been palmed, there is nothing to be found. First the bureaucratic background. The wind project is Dominion’s 2,600 MW offshore Virginia facility, which if built would be the world’s biggest. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing to issue a five year harassment authorization for the construction of this monster. >click to read< 07:36
Haddock stock decline prompts catch limits
A low New England haddock stock has prompted regulators to cut the fishing quota of one of the region’s most popular fish. A staple in fish and chips and for fish burgers and home cooks, the amount available from the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank for 2023 will be more than 80 percent less than the previous year. Prices are relatively high for shoppers, too, with Hannaford, Shaw’s and local fish dealers asking anywhere from $11.99 to $14.99 per pound this month for wild caught Gulf of Maine haddock. Haddock is “subject to overfishing” in the Gulf of Maine while the Georges Bank stock is not, according to NOAA Fisheries. >click to read< 19:02
Disaster aid has arrived, but Western Alaska’s salmon and crab problems continue
The Alaska congressional delegation announced on Friday that the U.S. Commerce Department released the disaster aid. The money is to go to harvesters, processors and communities affected by designated disasters in salmon and crab fisheries that occurred between 2020 and 2022. For Bering Sea snow crab, signs are that the problems that led to the first-ever harvest closure, which was announced last October, will last for years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service 2022 survey found that despite the emergence of cooler and more normal temperatures, mature male snow crab abundance was the lowest on record and mature female snow crab abundance was the third lowest on record. >click to read< 10:12
Chesapeake Bay blue crab population improves after all-time low in 2022
This year, the number of spawning age female crabs and adult male crabs both increased substantially, but the number of juvenile crabs only increased by about 15%, according to the winter dredge survey, which is completed from December to March by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “We are encouraged by the increases in adult crab abundance, but we need to be vigilant given the ongoing low recruitment numbers,” said Lynn Fegley, acting director for Maryland Department of Natural Resources’s Fishing and Boating Services, in a statement. “We haven’t seen a strong year class since 2019 despite maintaining the spawning stock at a level capable of producing one.” Video, >click to read< 12:56
