Tag Archives: PEER
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
President Biden’s flurry of actions to protect the environment reignites a controversy about the Atlantic’s only marine monument
Last June, as part of a concerted campaign to dismantle the environmental policies of the Obama administration, Donald Trump met with fishermen in Maine and signed a proclamation that allowed commercial fishing in nearly 5,000 square miles of federally protected waters southeast of Cape Cod. In all, Biden ordered federal agencies to begin reviewing and restoring more than 100 environmental regulations that were dismantled or weakened by the Trump administration. While many of Biden’s orders could have a significant impact on New England, the review of the (Northeast Canyons and Seamounts) marine monument, a Connecticut-sized area that lies about 130 miles southeast of Provincetown, has stirred immediate controversy. >click to read< 11:44
‘Forever chemicals’ found in Chesapeake seafood and Maryland drinking water
More testing has found so-called “forever chemicals” in a striped bass, blue crab and oyster from the Chesapeake Bay,,, Eleven different PFAS compounds were also detected in tap water sampled from three homes in Montgomery County,,, PFAS are a group of more than 8,000 chemical compounds used in nonstick cookware, flame retardants, water-repellant and stain-resistant clothing and furniture, as well as in fire-fighting foams used at airports and military bases. They do not break down in the environment. They also spread easily through water and can build up in animals or organisms that ingest them, including people. >click to read< 18:04
Northern Right Whales Are on the Brink, and Trump Could Be Their Last Hope
The task of responding will fall to an unlikely champion, President Trump, whose recent appeals for support from Maine lobstermen could clash with the task of saving the right whale. Peter Corkeron, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium who spent nearly a decade chronicling the gruesome deaths of right whales as the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s research program for large whales, said he feared the listing would have little impact. “Lobstermen certainly recognize the dire circumstance that the right whale species is in right now,” Patrice McCarron, “We’re in this awkward situation where right whales are not doing great, and it’s certainly not the fault of the commercial fisheries.”PEER also filed a complaint last year with the inspector general of the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, arguing that federal officials intent on reopening fishing areas have been ignoring their own scientists on climate change as well as other threats to whales. >click to read< 11:37
Federal Fishing Expansion Could Endanger Right Whales
Trump regulators opened about 3,100 square miles of ocean to fishing for scallops and fish that live near the bottom of the ocean such as halibut and flounder that had been closed for more than two decades, including a section of Georges Bank off Cape Cod, Mass., and part of the ocean near southern New England.,, A scallop fishing industry group, Fisheries Survival Fund, said no scallop vessel has ever had an interaction with a right whale. >click to read< 11:29
Assaults on Fisheries Observers More than Double in Two Years with No Reported Enforcement
Attacks against independent monitors of U.S. fishing fleets more than doubled between 2013 and 2015. That’s according to official figures posted today by the Association for Professional Observers (APO) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Last year, despite a record number of such assaults, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) took no enforcement action in any case and more than half remain in “open” status – many for months. Approximately 700 observers monitor fleets in 47 different fisheries in U.S. waters, logging some 77,000 days at sea each year. Many are female and face particular challenges from all-male fishing crews on long voyages. Read the rest here 22:22
PEER Aleutian Sanctuary Ocean Grab Stalls Out
On Friday, the NOAA announced that the Aleutians won’t advance in the process to become a national marine sanctuary — mostly due to a lack of local support. Adak, King Cove, Akutan, and the Aleutians East Borough all came out against the nomination. Environmentalists (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) and research groups had been seeking permanent limits on oil and gas leasing and commercial fishing in federal waters around the Chain. Read the rest here 22:50
Canada’s Science Library Closures Mirror Bush’s Playbook
Reporting by The Tyee, prompted by tips from U.S. readers, found that a similar scenario unfolded in the United States during the administration of George W Bush Jr. Familiar claims To ostensibly save $2-million dollars a year (a drop in the bucket for the EPA’s $8-billion budget) the Bush administration closed five regional libraries serving 15 states and reduced access to libraries serving another 15 states in 2006. Read more@thetyee 10:18
