Tag: NOAAFisheries

Alaska Fisheries Suffered $1.8B Loss in 2021-23: AFSC Report
16Oct By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Alaska Fisheries Suffered $1.8B Loss in 2021-23: AFSC Report

NOAA Fisheries economists say Alaska’s fishing industry suffered a $1.8 billion loss in 2022 and 2023, and that the state’s commercial fisheries overall saw a 50% decline in profitability from 2021 through 2023. “The social and economic ramifications of Alaska’s losses have reverberated down the West Coast and across the country,” Robert Foy, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said in a report released Oct. 9. The downturn resulted in the loss of over 38,000 jobs nationwide and a $4.3 billion loss in total domestic dollar value of all goods and services produced. Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington collectively showed a loss of $191 million in state and local tax revenues. The economic impact on fisheries in 2023 prompted the seafood industry to ask NOAA Fi...
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NOAA Recommends Projects to Support Bycatch Reduction Research
16Oct By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Recommends Projects to Support Bycatch Reduction Research

NOAA Fisheries has recommended 13 projects -- including six for the West Coast, Alaska and the Pacific Islands -- to support innovative bycatch reduction research through its Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program. NOAA Fisheries officials said that as of Sept. 30 that the application approval and obligation of funds were not finalized. Each application is currently listed as recommended and not a guarantee of funding. NOAA Fisheries provided detailed information for just some of the recommended projects, but for the West Coast, the recommendations include $245,743 for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and $193,391 for Sub Sea Sonics, a San Diego firm that provides low-cost solutions for underwater equipment recovery. The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission ...
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NOAA Names New Head of Law Enforcement Office
25Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Names New Head of Law Enforcement Office

U.S. Coast Guard veteran James Binniker on Sept. 23 took office as the new director of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, charged with protecting the nation's protected marine resources, places and habitats, and promoting sustainable fisheries management. Prior to joining NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement as assistant director in 2022, Binniker served for 26 years in the Coast Guard. His work ran the gamut of law enforcement, search and rescue, environmental pollution response, and maritime security operations on multiple ships and shore-based commands. In his last assignment as the chief of the Fisheries Enforcement Division in the Office of Maritime Law Enforcement Policy, he oversaw Coast Guard units conducting domestic fisheries enforcement, marine resource protection, and co...
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Fisheries Researchers Cite Errors in Scientific Publications
18Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Fisheries Researchers Cite Errors in Scientific Publications

An article written by six prominent fisheries researchers and published in the October issue of online magazine Marine Policy, contends that scientific publications often influence evolving policies and inform the public, but that they at times contain errors. “The prevalence of papers conveying unjustified messages and with potential to influence public perceptions and policies is concerning,” the six researchers from Argentina, Australia, NOAA Fisheries, Africa and the University of Washington, stated in the article. Their paper focuses on marine examples that have led to exaggeration of negative impacts on ecosystems particularly from fisheries, but that these criticisms and recommendations also apply more generally. Examples are given include papers on high profile topics ...
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NOAA Fisheries Announces Changes in Alaska Survey Portfolio
12Jun By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Fisheries Announces Changes in Alaska Survey Portfolio

The Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) said in early June that it plans to redesign and reprioritize efforts in several of its surveys this year, while advancing ways to more efficiently collect data and accomplish its research mission to support sustainable fisheries management. The new survey combines the current eastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey, the northern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey, and portions of the historical Eastern Bering Sea slope survey. AFSC is also suspending one survey due to shortfalls in cost recovery to the industry in conducting the survey, related to depressed economic value of the harvest. It’s all part of a NOAA Fisheries multi-year effort, announced June 7, to strategically respond to climate-driven changes in the environment, maintain fi...
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NOAA Fisheries Analyzes Data on Incidental Catch of Killer Whales
27Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Fisheries Analyzes Data on Incidental Catch of Killer Whales

NOAA Fisheries says the agency is analyzing data regarding 10 killer whales caught incidentally in nets of Bering Sea and Aleutian Island groundfish trawl fisheries required to carry two NOAA Fisheries observers. In only one incident was the whale was released alive. Regarding others, NOAA Fisheries officials said they are analyzing data to determine the cause of injury or death and determine which stocks these whales belong to through a review of genetic information. The agency said its findings would be made public once all analyses are completed. NOAA Fisheries is also reviewing information regarding a killer whale incidentally caught during the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s longline survey for sablefish and groundfish this past summer. On June 7, a dead orca was ...
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NOAA Fisheries Awards $2.5M For Bycatch Reduction Programs
13Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Fisheries Awards $2.5M For Bycatch Reduction Programs

NOAA Fisheries has awarded $2.5 million to partners nationwide for bycatch reduction research projects through its Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program (BREP), including three each on the West Coast and Pacific Islands and two for research in Alaska. The grants include $179,873 to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in Portland, Ore.; $228,876 to the Pfleger Institute of Environment Research in Oceanside, Calif.; and $199.500 to the Wild Fish Conservancy in Seattle. Other grants include $78,700 to Eric Gilman LLC in Honolulu; $139,659 to the University of California, San Diego; $221,309 to the University of Washington; and $199,870 to the International Pacific Halibut Commission, which is headquartered in Seattle. Six projects in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and Sout...
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Limits Set on Oregon Harvest of End of Commercial Season for Chinook, Coho Salmon
23Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Limits Set on Oregon Harvest of End of Commercial Season for Chinook, Coho Salmon

Federal and state authorities have set limits through Sept. 30 for the commercial troll harvest of two salmon species in Oregon’s commercial salmon troll fishery between the U.S.-Canadian border and Cape Falcon, Ore. The announcement this past week from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said harvesters would be limited to weekly landing and possession per vessel of seven Chinooks and 100 adipose marked coho salmon. The announcement comes in the wake of NOAA Fisheries consulting with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the states of Oregon and Washington, and fishery representatives in a conference call. Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife said the harvest of Chinooks to date in that area had passed 90% of the 13,000 Chinook quota, leaving only 1,251 fish to b...
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NOAA Fisheries Study Looks at Future of Pacific Cod Moving North
27Jun By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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NOAA Fisheries Study Looks at Future of Pacific Cod Moving North

A new study, publicly released June 22 by NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), says the success of reproduction of Pacific cod moving north because of climate change issues remains an unknown. New collaborative research discussed in the study predicts how thermally suitable habitat for Pacific cod spawning in the Bering Sea may shift over the coming century of climate change. The study coupled state-of-the-art climate modeling with information from laboratory experiments relating hatch success to temperature and looked at how changes in spawning habitat might affect Pacific cod productivity. The study projects that suitable spawning habitat will expand and shift over this century, as current spawning hotspots likely become too warm for egg development and ha...
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Sunflower Sea Star Proposed for Listing Under ESA
22Mar By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Sunflower Sea Star Proposed for Listing Under ESA

NOAA Fisheries officials on March 15 proposed listing the sunflower sea star, once common along the Pacific coast of North America, as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), due to its sharp decline and the threat of a lethal pathogen. More than 90% of sunflower sea stars were killed from 2013 to 2017 by Sea Star Wasting Syndrome, in what was considered the largest marine wildlife disease outbreak on record.  Sea stars that contract the syndrome become lethargic, develop lesions, lose their arms and within days disintegrate into gooey masses. Sunflower sea stars are voracious predators who consume a wide variety of benthic species and can influence ecosystem structure by virtue of their predatory habits. They prey on sea urchins, which consume kelp and other marine vegetati...
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