oceana – Fishermens News

21Aug

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Oceana Sues NOAA Fisheries Over Bottom Trawling

International ocean advocacy group Oceana has filed a lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries, claiming that it has failed to meet federal requirements for protecting the ocean floor environment. Oceana, represented by environmental litigation nonprofit Earthjustice, filed its lawsuit Aug. 16 in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenging the fishery service’s approval of amendments to five fishery management plans for fisheries in the North Pacific. The amendments revise plan descriptions of essential fish habitat, which include all types of aquatic habitat where fish breed, spawn, feed or grow to maturity. The lawsuit asks the court to remand the amendments and the environmental assessment supporting those amendments for completion of new amendments that comply with existing federal ...

California Judge Denies Wind Farming Ocean Survey Injunction Request

22May

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California Judge Denies Wind Farming Ocean Survey Injunction Request

California’s San Luis Obispo Superior Court on May 15 denied a request from commercial fishing entities for injunction relief in approving permits for ocean site surveys for offshore wind development. The litigation to stop approval of permits for site surveys was filed Feb. 29 by the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization (MBCFO) and Port San Luis Commercial Fishermen’s Association (PSLCFA). Defendants included the California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, three offshore wind development firms and the environmental consulting company CSA Ocean Sciences. The three companies who hold leases to potentially develop floating wind turbines in the Morro Bay wind energy area offshore of Cambria and San Simoen are Atlas Wind, Golden State Wind and Even Keel Wind....

Chefs Urge Greater Transparency, Traceability in Seafood Industry

31Jan

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Chefs Urge Greater Transparency, Traceability in Seafood Industry

Pressure from the marine environmental community for greater transparency and traceability in the seafood industry is increasing, with a letter to President Joe Biden urging the federal government to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP). The current program, requiring catch documentation and traceability for some seafood species at risk of illegal fishing, applies to 13 species and species groups, covering less than half of all U.S. seafood imports. The letter, signed by more than 100 chefs nationwide, urges Biden to expand SIMP to include all species of seafood, requiring importers to report additional catch data, and to include labor conditions in reporting requirements. This program would prevent a “bait and switch” in seafood supply chains, they said, as wel...

Report: Ocean Biodiversity in California Threatened by Set Gillnet Fishery

19Apr

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Report: Ocean Biodiversity in California Threatened by Set Gillnet Fishery

A report released April 17 by two environmental entities contends that the set gillnet fishery targeting halibut and white seabass off Southern California is threatening the health and diversity of the ocean ecosystem. The gillnets are injuring and killing myriad ocean animals, including rare and vulnerable species, while the fishery remains largely unmonitored, according to Oceana and the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN). Their analysis concludes that the fishery throws overboard 64% of animals caught, which ranks its untargeted catch as among the highest bycatch of any fishery in the country. Caitlynn Birch, a Pacific marine scientist with Oceana, said the set gillnet fishery is clearly a risk to the health and resilience of California’s oceans. As climate change continues t...

Swordfish Caught With Harpoons, Deep-Set Buoy Gear Make Aquarium’s ‘Green List’

5Oct

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Swordfish Caught With Harpoons, Deep-Set Buoy Gear Make Aquarium’s ‘Green List’

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program has added West Coast swordfish caught with harpoons and deep-set buy gear to its new “green list” of well managed seafood. Aquarium officials in Monterey, California, put out the “green list” of recommendations for businesses and consumers based on ways seafood is caught that cause little harm to habitats or other wildlife. The environmental entity Oceana applauded use of the harpoons and deep-set buoy gear over the huge mesh drift gillnets used in recent decades, saying that those mile-long nets deployed at dusk and left to hang 200 feet below the ocean’s surface for up to 12 hours entangle large open ocean travelers like whales, dolphins, sharks and sea turtles, with more than half of what is caught thrown overboard, often dead or...

1Jun

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Gulf of Alaska Expedition Finds Abundant Life on Surface, Sea Floor

Researchers engaged in a Gulf of Alaska expedition in late May for ocean conservation organization Oceana say they found every marine site filled with life, from the surface to the seafloor Their initial report on the eight-day expedition exploring 23 sites in search of deep-sea corals and other seafloor habitat areas notes finding striking coral gardens in an area south of Kodiak Island in the open Gulf of Alaska, in an area still open to bottom trawling. Large groves of sea whips, a soft coral, were found in an area closed to bottom trawling to protect king crab. Sea whip groves provide vertical structure in soft sediments on the seafloor and are used by fish and invertebrates to hide from predators. The same area also had other organisms like sea pens, another form of coral th...

Oceana Expedition Documents Seafloor Habitats

25May

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Oceana Expedition Documents Seafloor Habitats

An expedition from the nonprofit ocean conservation organization Oceana this spring used remotely-operated vehicles and other tools for eight days to document the seafloor and ocean life in several locations and depths around Kodiak Island. Their goal was to observe, photograph and record seafloor habitats and associated marine life, to protect important seafloor areas in the Gulf of Alaska from bottom trawling, where huge nets are dragged for miles along the seafloor The expedition was related to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Essential Fish Habitat review process, which is currently underway. Under the review, conservation measures for ocean habitat in Alaska are considered once every five years. Oceana is campaigning to establish new protections for Gulf of ...

4May

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Oceana Analysis: More Fishing Vessels Should Use Public Tracking Devices

An analysis of federal requirements for transparency of fishing vessels conducted by the conservation entity Oceana concludes that the United States’ requirements for such transparency fall short of that of other countries and the European Union. The Oceana report notes that public vessel tracking, enabled by an automatic identification system, which was originally developed to increase maritime safety, reduce vessel collisions and enhance awareness of vessel locations at sea, but it has also become an invaluable tool for monitoring fishing vessel activity at sea. These devices broadcast a vessel’s location, speed, direction and other identifying information, providing details that, when analyzed, can demonstrate when a vessel is fishing and infer what type of fishing it is engag...