Issue: November 2022

The Hawaii Longline Association’s (HLA) swordfish, bigeye and yellowfin tuna fishery has achieved certification for sustainable fishing practices, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced in mid-September. The certification follows a rigorous 16-month review carried out by third-party assessment group Control Union UK Limited. The fishery is the first from Hawaii to enter the MSC program. The MSC Fisheries Standard is a globally recognized standard used to assess if a fishery is well-managed, and reflects the most up-to-date understanding of internationally accepted fisheries science and management. The Fisheries Standard has three core principles that every certified fishery must meet including: 1) sustainable fish stocks, 2) minimizing environmental impact, and 3) effective fish...

A new analysis from the San Antonio, Texas research firm Frost & Sullivan says innovation in aquaculture technologies and smart farming methodologies are revolutionizing the sector and generating billions of dollars in revenue streams. The company predicts that the market will garner $415.82 billion in revenue by 2030, up from $284.63 billion in 2021, an uptick at a compound annual growth rate of 4.3%. According to Frost and Sullivan research analyst Akheela Dhiman, the aquaculture industry has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, after facing the most intense impact in the first half of 2020. Dhiman said that with reopening of hotels, restaurants and cafes since and recovery in global household demand have revived the aquaculture industry. To take advantage of the expandi...

A new study on the gigantic garbage patch floating in the North Pacific Ocean points to a major source of that trash: the fishing industry.   To date, the trash pile, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, has accumulated some 80,000 tons of plastic waste and that estimate continues to climb, according to an article in Popular Science, which sites the study by six researchers from the Netherlands. Most of that litter in the ocean is delivered by way of rivers that carry waste and human pollution from land to sea, but the origin of floating debris in offshore areas is not fully understood. An analysis of the garbage by the nonprofit project Ocean Cleanup found that 75-86% of the floating plastics come from offshore fishing and aquaculture activities, with the U.S., Japan, China...

A new report delivered to Oregon legislators by the Oregon Coordinating Council on Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia says that impacts of ocean acidification and hypoxia are now predictable every summer. That steady increase in acidification is approaching or meeting levels problematic not only for oysters, but for crab, mussels, urchins, salmon rockfish and other species, according to the report from the Oregon Coordinating Council on Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH Council). The diverse stakeholder group provides science-based recommendations to legislators in Oregon. Since it was created by legislators in 2017, the OAH Council has worked to understand, mitigate and adapt to changing ocean conditions and associated negative impacts. Over the last two years, the OAH Council invest...

A NOAA Fisheries analysis, released Sept. 2, of the summer survey of Bering Sea crab stocks has concluded that in the wake of consecutive years of record warm temperatures, numbers of mature male and female snow crab are still down, but there’s a significant increase in immature snow crab abundance. “Depending on how many of these young crabs actually survive to adulthood, this could be one bright spot for the fishing industry in a few years,” said Mike Litzow, survey lead and director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Laboratory. “We are providing these early results to stock assessment scientists and resource managers to inform science and management discussions that will occur over the next few months to identify fishery management measures for the 2023 fishing year,” ...

A new study released Sept. 12 concludes that the rules for atolls and coral reefs in international law of the sea, already subject to interpretation due to their shifting nature, will be under greater stress as sea levels rise and ocean acidification disrupts reef integrity. These reef islands, found across the Indo-Pacific, are already growing and shrinking due to complex biological and physical processes yet to be fully understood. Now climate change is leading to new uncertainties for legal maritime zones and small island states, according to the University of Sydney study, which was published in Environmental Research Letters. Thomas Fellowes, a postdoctoral research associate at the university and the lead author of the paper, called the situation “a perfect storm that is bringing...

Six tribal entities have been awarded $17.4 million by the U.S. Department of Commerce for salmon fisheries that from 2014 to 2019 have been determined to be disasters. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo made the announcement in early September. She said it is her hope that the disaster declaration will help affected tribes recover and increase their ability to combat such challenges in the future. In order to allocate funds across the eligible disasters, NOAA Fisheries used data on commercial revenue loss. The agency also took into consideration traditional uses that cannot be accounted for in revenue losses alone, such as cultural and subsistence uses. The funds went to the: 2019 Fraser River & Skagit River Salmon Fisheries (the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Tulali...

A new study released by the University of British Columbia is projecting what impact global temperature increases and ranges of fishing activity will have on biomass, or the amount of fish by weight in a given area. The simulations, for a period from 1950 to 2100, suggest that climate change has reduced fish stocks in 103 of 226 marine regions studied, including Canada, from their historical levels. These stocks will struggle to rebuild their numbers under projected global warming levels in the 21st century, the researchers concluded. According to lead study author William Cheung, a professor at Canada’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, more conservation-oriented fisheries management is essential to rebuild exploited fish stocks under climate change. But that alone is not enough, ...

NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region strategic plan for 2022-2027 focuses on the most impactful ways the agency can refine its internal processes to leverage its people and apply financial resources to deliver better results, according to regional administrator Jon Kurland. The document, which aligns with the U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans for the same years, calls for open communications with staff, partners and stakeholders, and a transparent, priority-based approach to allocate and reallocate staff and discretionary budget over time. The 10-page document, online at https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2022-09/akro-strategic-plan-2022.pdf, was released in early September. Its vision is that by 2027 the Alaska region will lead the nation in ...