Tag: NOAA

NOAA Report Cites IUU, Forced Labor, Shark Catch Issues
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NOAA Report Cites IUU, Forced Labor, Shark Catch Issues

NOAA’s 2023 Report to Congress on Improving International Fisheries Management identifies seven nations and entities engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), including incidents involving force labor and targeted or incidental shark catches. The report, released Aug. 31, said the U.S. will work with identified parties to address IUU issues and forced labor activities and support effective management of protected species and shark catch. “IUU fishing and other unsustainable fishing practices undermine U.S. and global efforts to sustainably manage fisheries and conserve marine resources,” Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said. “Combating these practices is a top priority of the United States, and we’ll work with each identified nation and ent...
NOAA: Climate Change Will Likely Send West Coast Fish Farther Offshore
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NOAA: Climate Change Will Likely Send West Coast Fish Farther Offshore

Scientists at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center say their research shows that shifting ocean conditions associated with climate change will likely send high-value sablefish into deeper waters off the West Coast. This means vessels may have to travel farther and fish deeper in order to keep catching fish. The new report, which provides a glimpse of what West Coast fisheries will look like with climate change, notes that fishing crews must always balance the value of different commercial species against the distances involved in catching them, but that climate change could alter that equation in new ways. Researchers studied how four species of West Coast groundfish commonly caught together may respond to climate change. They include sablefish, Dover sole, shortspine tho...
$106M in Federal Funds Earmarked for West Coast, Alaska Salmon Recovery
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$106M in Federal Funds Earmarked for West Coast, Alaska Salmon Recovery

Federal funds totaling over $106 million for 16 West Coast and Alaska state and tribal salmon recovery programs is being made available under the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) through the Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The funds, including $34.4 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $7.5 million under the Inflation Reduction Act, are earmarked to support recovery and conservation of Pacific salmon and steelhead in Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The Biden administration’s Aug. 17 announcement includes over $2 billion for fish passage investments nationwide. The programs and projects are specifically to benefit Central California Coast coho salmon, Sacramento River winter run ...
NOAA Fisheries Issues Final Rule Regarding Pacific Cod Harvests in BSAI
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NOAA Fisheries Issues Final Rule Regarding Pacific Cod Harvests in BSAI

NOAA Fisheries has issued a final rule allocating Pacific cod harvest quota to qualifying groundfish License Limitation Program license holders and qualifying processors, in order to, the agency has said, improve management of the fishery, increase its value and minimize bycatch to the extent practicable. The final rule, Amendment 122, for groundfish management in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), establishes the new Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program PCTC). The rule was printed in the Federal Register on Aug. 8 and goes into effect on Sept. 7. Fishing under the PCTC program is scheduled to begin on Jan. 20, 2024. Jon Kurland, NOAA regional administrator for Alaska, noted that PCTC also aims to provide for the sustained participation of fishery-dependent communities,...
New Funding for Fish Passage Projects Totals $260M
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New Funding for Fish Passage Projects Totals $260M

NOAA Fisheries is accepting applications through this fall for a total of $260 million earmarked for new fish passage projects that reopen migratory pathways and restore access to healthy habitat for fish across the coasts. The Biden administration, acknowledging that millions of fish are often blocked by human-made barriers from returning to their spawning habitat, is offering $175 million for restoration projects in coastal and Great Lakes regions, plus $85 million for tribal priority fish passage projects. There is no non-federal matching requirement for the funding opportunities. Applications are due by Oct. 16 for $175 million in funds from the Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal Notice of Funding Opportunity program for coastal areas and the Great Lakes. For the ...
Samoa Governor Urges Respect for Small Fishing Communities
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Samoa Governor Urges Respect for Small Fishing Communities

With climate change stressing the region, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has been advised by a top regional government official of the importance of keeping small fishing communities in mind in its upcoming decisions. “You must be mindful of the decisions you make … so that the interests of small fishing communities are not disregarded,” Samoan Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga told the council in remarks during the opening of the council’s 195th meeting in Pago Pago, American Samoa on June 28. Although the territory itself has a small carbon footprint, climate change puts the region at risk of widespread food and water insecurity, increased health risks, lack of access to social services and even forced displacements in some cases, he said. Mauga’s comments ca...
NOAA Fisheries Gives Update Re: Climate Science Regional Action Plans
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NOAA Fisheries Gives Update Re: Climate Science Regional Action Plans

NOAA Fisheries has announced a second round of Climate Science Regional Action Plans to help decision makers prepare for and respond to rapidly changing ocean conditions. NOAA officials noted on June 29 that in 2022 NOAA Fisheries stock assessments reported significant declines in snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab, which led to fisheries closures in Alaska for those species. NOAA biologists said that those population crashes were likely a result of the 2019 marine heat wave in the North Pacific Ocean, attributed to climate change. The newly released plans build on ongoing efforts first launched by NOAA Fisheries in 2015 to address climate change in an effort with partners to better track, understand, forecast and use information on changing ocean and climate conditions, as ...
Proposed Aquaculture Legislation Prompts Concerns For Health of Wild Fish
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Proposed Aquaculture Legislation Prompts Concerns For Health of Wild Fish

Bipartisan legislation reintroduced in the U.S. Senate to establish national standards for offshore aquaculture is drawing criticism from a group of fishermen, coastal communities and others concerned about potential adverse impact on factory fish farms on wild fish. The Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act, reintroduced on June 7 by Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), would designate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as the lead federal agency for marine aquaculture and direct NOAA to establish a permitting system for offshore aquaculture for farms in federal waters. AQUAA would also direct NOAA to lead a research and development grant program to spur innovation in the aquaculture industry. ...
Indian Tribes File Amicus Brief in Wild Fish Conservancy Lawsuit
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Indian Tribes File Amicus Brief in Wild Fish Conservancy Lawsuit

An amicus brief filed June 16 with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes in Juneau is the latest development in a lawsuit in which Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) in Seattle is seeking to halt the commercial king salmon troll fishery this summer in Southeast Alaska. WFC has said the salmon are needed by endangered Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW) in Puget Sound. Backers of the Southeast Alaska harvesters contend that halting the fishery won’t help the orcas in Puget Sound at all, but would devastate Southeast Alaska’s economy. The tribal amicus brief supports a state of Alaska motion stopping a district courts order from going into effect while the appeal is pending before the Ninth Circuit. The Tlingit & Haida statement released ...
NOAA’s 2022 Status of Stocks Report Show Slight Improvement Over 2021
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NOAA’s 2022 Status of Stocks Report Show Slight Improvement Over 2021

NOAA Fisheries has released its 2022 Status of Stocks report, showing a slight improvement over the previous year in terms of overfishing. According to the latest report, released during a NOAA Fisheries teleconference on April 27, 93% of stocks were not subject to overfishing in 2022 and 81% were not overfished. Those numbers compared with data showing that 92% of stocks were subject to overfishing in 2021 and 80% were not overfished. NOAA officials said positive trends were seen this year with the number of stocks on the overfishing list decreasing by two stocks to 24, and overfished stocks decreased by three to 48. NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said the latest annual report reveals the U.S. remains a global leader in maintaining the sustainable fisheries that drive the blue econo...