We’re always reading up on things taking place in fishery management and ocean conservation. Whether it be a press release, letter or blog post, we’ll look to post a couple items a day here (sometimes more, sometimes less) with a brief synopsis. These articles may not be as focused as the rest of the site, and could cover initiatives or issues that aren’t found on the rest of the site, but we found interesting.

We’ll promote these on our Facebook and Instagram, so be sure to follow us there to receive all the updates.

Past WWRTs:

June 26, 2020: Coral Reef Restoration and Reproduction, Monitoring Recreational Effort and Catch Data, Return of Observers in the Northeast, an Upcoming Virtual Townhall on Bristol Bay / Pebble and the Friday Video of Bluefin Tuna WAYYY Inshore on Bunker Schools

  • The Florida Aquarium has been collecting species of coral from the Florida reefs for years, initially with the intention of preserving biodiversity and the species as the reefs face destruction from natural and human-caused events and pollution. In the process of doing this they began to expand their efforts towards reproduction of these corals in captivity, and have recently experienced some real success, witnessing spawns for several species. While there’s still lots of work to do, this is a really encouraging step towards helping restore and preserve the coral reefs we have left, which are declining at pretty scary rates globally.

  • Charles Witek covered the Red Snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico recently, highlighting how the fishery has been managed and quotas divided amongst states. The main part of this write-up relates to the way that recreational effort and catch data is collected, and how different approaches and protocols to collecting that data can lead to wildly different results and estimates of impact on the fishery. This is an issue up and down the east coast as well, and while MRIP is accepted as the best available science, relying on dockside surveys and mailed questionnaires is not the best way to connect with anglers and understand the full impact that recreational fishing has on certain species. I think that an app would allow for much more comprehensive feedback and a better understanding of the fishing impact recreationally, and this could be something that is set up federally or on a state-by-state level. It’s amazing that we’ve been as successful as we have with certain species without truly reliable data on recreational effort and catch, and the more we can learn about how many trips are actually being taken, the better.

  • Starting next week, the NFMS will resume the observer practices that had been established prior to the COVID pandemic. For the past three months, there have been no observer requirements for commercial boats in the Northeast, and there is pushback from Councils that this move back to requiring observers on boats is coming too soon and puts the crew working the boats at risk of infection. The safety of crew is paramount, but observers are an important piece in effective management, since they monitor for bycatch and other aspects of fisheries that need to be accounted for when regulations and quotas are put in place. I’m hopeful that the guidelines outlined in the ‘reopening plan’ keep people safe and allow for effective monitoring of the fishery activity taking place because the longer we go without that information, the harder it will be to understand the status of important fisheries from one year to the next.

  • UPCOMING EVENT: Save Bristol Bay is continuing to work hard as we get closer to the Army Corps of Engineers’ release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Pebble Mine Project, and are hosting a Virtual Townhall on Tuesday, June 30 from 12-1pm Alaska Time. In this Townhall, Save Bristol Bay will be going over its plan of action for responding to this release and getting everyone prepped to take action when the release happens. Register and join in at the link below to listen in.

  • FRIDAY VIDEO - Some ridiculous aerial footage of bluefin tuna on the outer sand bar of Long Island crashing menhaden from a few weeks ago. Check out @southforksalt on Instagram for more cool footage. Some of the videos posted this spring really show how important healthy menhaden populations are for the predators we all chase. Have a great weekend!

June 25, 2020: Some Near-term Positive News from the Chesapeake (kind of), Some Analysis of the New Cod Study we Covered on Monday and An Overview and Call to Action for Bristol Bay

  • Every summer, dead zones appear in a number of areas, including Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake Bay. In the Bay, this dead zone is a result of a spike in nitrogen from runoff in the rivers that feed into the Bay, causing algae blooms. Once that algae dies, it decomposes on the bottom, using up oxygen in the water. The article points to a positive - that the dead zone is expected to be smaller than it has been in recent history due to lower water levels and therefor less runoff. While this is good in that it will result in less stress on species in the Bay, including striped bass, I worry that, with the rollbacks to environmental protections that we have covered extensively here, the numbers will likely be higher again next year. Additionally, while specific to striped bass, low water levels historically result in low spawning success for striped bass. We’ll have to wait to see what this year’s YOY survey looks like, but it might be another year before we see a solid class of fish entering the coastal stock.

  • Charles Witek covered the study on Atlantic Cod populations that we mentioned in Monday’s coverage, highlighting how managers have historically operated under the belief that there are two distinct populations of Atlantic Cod in New England. The study, which apparently confirms what some data had suggested in the past, shows that there are five separate stocks of Cod, that spawn in different places or at different times of the year. We come back to this again and again, but the more you know about a species, the more effectively you can manage it. Hopefully, after decades of failure, this new data and information will result in more effective management measures that allow a recovery of this important fish.

  • The Marine Fish Conservation Network provided an update on Pebble Mine and Bristol Bay, highlighting the importance of the resource, the risk behind the Pebble Mine, and what the next steps in the process are. We’ve covered this in detail, but this is a good overview and provides the two things we need everyone to do now to try and stop Pebble Mine from moving forward. Take a read and add your voice, if you haven’t already.

June 22, 2020: An Update on Bluefish, The Unfortunate Demise of Atlantic Salmon and the Ongoing Effort to Save Cod

  • Charles Witek used his latest entry in One Angler’s Voyage to cover the joint meeting last week between the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, at which the bluefish management plan was discussed at-length. As we have talked about here, bluefish present a unique opportunity in fishery management approaches, since it is a primarily catch & release fishery. As a result, it would make sense to manage the species around abundance, rather than harvest, to match the fishery. While this concept was shut down, there were some encouraging points here, namely the fact that there is still an option on the table to manage by catch, rather than landings (catch being caught, landings meaning kept), which does at least acknowledge the catch & release aspect of the fishery. Bluefish need to be rebuilt, under Magnuson Stevens, so there will be a management plan built around that implemented in the coming meetings. That said, the way these fish are managed could sent really positive precedent for other fisheries moving forward. The next meeting is in August, so reaching out to your reps in advance of that is going to be important, we’ll keep you posted.

  • This writeup chronicles the demise of Atlantic Salmon in the United States, and the perilous state of the few fish remaining in our nation’s waters. It’s a well-written article that goes through the steps that led to their being an estimated 100 wild fish left in US waters. Despite that fact, the salmon are still not adequately protected, and have not been declared endangered in the only state they still remain (Maine). Many of the poor decisions have been made with the interest of fishing in mind despite being damaging to salmon. This is something that applies to other species as well, and is always important to remember when discussions on management take place. It is also discouraging to hear the way that some organizations and regulatory bodies that should be committed to saving these fish have seemed to look the other way. I have never had the opportunity to fish for Atlantics, but I am hopeful that I do get that chance. It would be really incredible to be able to do so in the US, or at least in North America.

  • A writeup from the Conservation Law Foundation on a report and letter that it is submitting to the New England Fishery Management Council about the management of Atlantic Cod highlights again the trouble this species is in. The CLF is calling on the NEFMC to take Emergency Action to protect cod before it is too late (and it might be for some, as the report shows that Gulf of Maine cod have a 0-1% chance of rebuilding without fishing). An interesting piece of this is the report that the Atlantic Cod Stock is made up of five distinct populations, opposed to just two, which is how they have been managed historically. I have seen a few more cod show up close to Block Island over the past few years than I had in the past, so maybe there’s a resurgence in some of those populations. It’s an incredibly important species, so hopefully the Council takes real action here and gets the stock back under control.

June 19, 2020: The Potential of Sustainable Seafood, the Current Status of Global Fisheries, an Opinion Piece on Cod and Yet Another EPA Rollback

  • Seafood has been, and will continue to be, an important resource in feeding the earth’s population, and this article from Forbes covers Oceana and other groups’ overview of that fact, pointing to how many people sustainably managed seafood can feed on a daily basis. The article dives into a few different perspectives on how important sustainable seafood is and what it can help us accomplish globally. While it’s always described as sustainable, I think it’s especially important to remember what sustainable means and how strong, effective regulation and enforcement is required to maintain sustainable fishing practices on specific species around the world. As the pressure to feed more and more people rises, it will be important to start expanding collective palates to new species to reduce pressure on the established food species as to not deplete them. Aquaculture is also mentioned here, and as we’ve covered before, that will be an important tool, but one that needs to be approached and implemented very carefully.

  • The UN recently released its 2020 edition of its biennial “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture,” which reports on how commercial fishing has expanded and also the status of fished stocks globally. While fish landings have increased over the past few years, approximately 32% of stocks are now being fished at biologically unsustainable levels, with that situation not improving globally. It points out that that there is ‘“growing evidence” that effective fisheries management results in robust or rebuilding fish stocks, while failure to implement such measures threatens their contribution to food security and livelihoods.’ While this seems like common sense, there is continued pushback on many management efforts. They did highlight that two thirds of stocks of tuna globally are now fished at sustainable levels, representing an increase of 10% in the past two years. This is testament to efforts globally to manage the fisheries sustainably, and hopefully there are more success stories coming.

  • I found this guest column by Gib Chase in the Gloucester Daily Times about the demise of cod to be pretty powerful. It highlights how the management of the species, which at one point was ‘the symbol of Massachusetts prosperity and economics,’ has fallen to groups it was never intended to and resulted in a failure to maintain or rebuild the population. This statement here is universal when it comes to fishery management: ‘There are no public benefits derived from a failed commercial fishery, whether regionally or globally. The arguments of job loss, expenses and other excuses are not acceptable.’ We hear frequently on other species as well how stricter regulations will result in a loss of jobs and economic benefit, but the alternative to many of those regulations is a depleted stock that results in little effort or trips taken, and a massive to full loss of the jobs and economy based on that species.

  • Another EPA rollback coming yesterday, when the EPA announced that it will not regulate or limit a toxic chemical compound linked to infant brain damage in drinking water. This is the 66th environmental regulation that the Trump Administration has rolled back or revoked, eight of which have taken place since late April during the pandemic. While the EPA is saying that there is not enough of the compound to require the drinking water regulations, the Natural Resources Defense Council called the decision ‘illegal, unscientific and unconscionable.’

June 17, 2020: How Last Month’s Executive Order on Aquaculture Could Impact Fisheries, A Positive New Bill For the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and More in the Endless Stream of Nonsense from Pebble

  • As we covered last month, Trump issued an Executive Order in May on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, which covered a number of seafood and fishery related topics, included offshore aquaculture. Aquaculture is, without a doubt, part of the long-term seafood landscape, and will be used to help feed the human population, hopefully in a sustainable way that helps wild fish populations and minimizes damage to the surrounding environment. Witek’s article begins by diving into whether the President had the power to implement what he attempts to in the Executive Order, but then gets into the real issue here, which is what the impacts of the Order could be if they are implemented. Specifically, Trump put ambitious timeframes around reviews and approvals for offshore aquaculture operations and projects, which could have serious ramifications for native, wild species living in those areas and for other surrounding wildlife and ecosystem as well. Again, aquaculture is going to be a piece of the puzzle, but the way it fits into the bigger picture safely and effectively has yet to be determined. As a result, putting strict timeframes around something like the review and approval of projects could lead to disaster.

  • The Senate today approved a major land conservation bill that guarantees the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund receives $900 million annually and sets aside an additional $9.5 billion over the next five years to tackle a longstanding maintenance backlog in the national parks. I haven’t read the bill, but from initial coverage, this is a positive step forward to help strengthen our national parks and the wildlife they protect and towards providing permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

  • As we get closer to the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision on Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Pebble has publicly launched a dividend program that allows year-round residents in Bristol Bay to receive a portion (3%) of the profits from the mine. This screams desperation in my eyes, as a last-minute attempt to buy support from the local constituents who oppose the mine and understand the significant impact it could have on the salmon populations that fuel not only the wildlife, but the local economy. There’s a quote in this article from Tom Collier, the Pebble CEO, that says that Pebble will provide jobs, economic activity, local tax revenue and infrastructure. That quote, without context, is true. The context, however, is that it creates jobs that will likely be manned by non-residents and that put the most important piece of the local economy - salmon - at serious and real risk. If there was an accident at the mine, it could destroy essentially all the jobs, economic activity and local tax revenue associated with the impacted rivers. As far as infrastructure, I’m not entirely sure what use that infrastructure is going to have outside of being used for the mine specifically. PLEASE visit www.savebristolbay.org and see how you can add your voice to this fight.

June 16, 2020: A Couple Stories on the Slow (and Failing) Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, a Piece Highlighting the Importance and Forecasting Ability of the Maryland Striped Bass Juvenile Abundance Index and a Webinar on June 17 about Pebble Mine

  • Here’s a sad overview of the status of the Chesapeake Bay and how ongoing restorations efforts have failed to recover populations of key species or even slow the decline of others. it covers things ranging from flesh eating bacteria, to striped bass, to crabs and to sturgeon, and points to specific figures highlighting where these species stand today and how far they have fallen / need to go to be recovered. The Chesapeake is a national treasure, and an ecosystem that is essential for a number of species to spawn and survive. Unfortunately, the same characteristics that make it such an important ecosystem make it especially susceptible to pollution, as rivers from hundreds of miles away flow into the Bay, bringing with them any pollutants they picked up along their journey. Winegrad highlights where these failures have stemmed from and where change needs to happen. It’s a critical habitat and a critical area to pay attention to and speak up for moving forward. Hopefully more voices can start making a difference and protect the Bay and the species that rely on it.

  • Last week Charles Witek dove into recruitment of striped bass. In doing so, he highlights how using the Maryland Juvenile Abundance Index (a way to track the number of striped bass born each year) could help managers predict how many striped bass will be around in a few years, and to manage accordingly. To quickly summarize, the majority of striped bass on the coast are born in the Chesapeake (see previous article for what’s happening there), so every year in MD and VA, surveys are done to get an index of young-of-the year striped bass. He runs through how declines and low numbers in that index historically lead to low populations of stripers in the ocean years later, pointing to specific year classes (both strong and weak) and resulting abundance and crashes to show how effective that index is at predicting how the fishery will look when those fish recruit into the coastal stock. Unfortunately, we have had a lot of down years recently, with a few average years and one strong one (2015), which doesn’t bode well for a ton of fish down the road. The other issue we have now is that we just implemented a slot limit of 28-35”, which puts more harvest pressure on specific year classes. Coincidentally, that 2015 class is about to enter that slot, which will focus a TON of harvest pressure on the most abundant (and therefor easiest to find) class on the coast. Hopefully harvest pressure isn’t what many of us are afraid of, but there’s a chance that class of fish is effectively wiped out before it reaches 36” and is no longer a ‘keeper’ sized fish, leaving us with years of no large bass to catch afterwards. This is an important aspect of striped bass and how they should be managed, so it’s worth a read.

  • More bad news from the Chesapeake, as Coronavirus lockdowns shut down many efforts to help restoration and conservation efforts in the region. The article highlights how efforts to help American Shad spawn above dams were prevented (including the unintentional introduction of invasive snakeheads above dams), skyrocketing crab prices are causing supply chain issues, water quality monitoring has been suspended and decades-long surveys have been missed. This all falls in-line with another issue we’ve covered here, and that is the lack of fishing effort and catch data being collected for MRIP and other surveys. I am hopeful that things get back up and running this summer and we can get at least a partial picture of what’s happening in the Bay and across coastal fisheries this season so managers have an idea of the status of the species they manage.

  • Event Alert: Tomorrow (June 17) at 1pm ET, Join ConservAmerica, Chris Wood from Trout Unlimited Tom Sadler from Marine Fish Conservation Network, McKie Campbell from Blue Water Strategies and former Deputy Commissioner of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and Brent Fewell from ConservAmerica for a webinar on the future of Alaska's Pebble Mine. Should be a good conversation and worth listening in to.

June 15, 2020: MA Closes the Cape Cod Canal to Commercial Striper Fishing, the National Marine Monument is Reopened to Commercial Fishing, Inadequacy of Pebble Mine’s EIS and the War Against Climate Science

  • This news is relatively old now, but it’s very positive. At the beginning of the month, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries announced that it was closing the Cape Cod Canal to commercial striped bass fishing in 2020. This is a big announcement for multiple reasons. First, it reduces mortality in the Canal, which has, as we have written about, makes thousands of large, breeder fish unnaturally accessible to anglers for much of the season since, as expected, those commercial fishing in the Canal are there to harvest fish. Second, it allows for more effective enforcement of the slot limit that was imposed for the first time this year. For clarity, in MA, commercial anglers can keep striped bass 34” or larger, whereas recreational anglers can keep striped bass between 28” and 35”. Given that difference, if commercial fishing were allowed, it would be next to impossible for officers to determine if a fish was legal without stopping every single angler who kept a fish, and for anyone who has fished in the Canal, you know that’s not an option. I still believe, given its man-made nature, that the Canal should be 100% catch-and-release, but this is a step in the right direction and one that could protect a LOT of breeder-sized striped bass this summer.

  • Charles Witek weighed in last week on the Trump Administration reopening the National Marine Monument off Cape Cod to commercial fishing. This was formed in 2016 by the Obama Administration, and protected this unique ocean area from any commercial fishing and was the first National Marine Monument of its type. It is located 100+ miles offshore and includes deep sea corals that are found nowhere else and take thousands of years to grow and is home to many marine mammals, including the critically endangered Northern Right Whale. Since it is so far offshore, this area was fished by very few commercial boats given what it takes to access the area, and since it has been closed, there has been little to no impact on the commercial fleet. With that in mind, there really isn’t much reason to reopen it, and there are a few comments from representatives in Maine who note that this doesn’t do much to help the New England fishing fleet at a time when local commercial anglers need as much help as they can get. This order by Trump is going to be sued and contested by a number of organizations, and hopefully their efforts are successful. It’s impossible to know what the true impact of this area is on the fish and other species much more locally, but it’s hard to believe that the level of marine life that is found there does not help support the ecosystems much closer to home that we do fish and rely on.

  • Another article highlighting how the process around the Pebble Mine in Alaska is not being done adequately and the Environmental Impact Statement of the project does not adequately outline or account for the potential damage that the Mine could do to the critical salmon habitat in the region. The decision comes this fall, and we need to keep pressure up to stop this ill-advised project from putting some of the largest remaining salmon runs on earth in danger. Check out Save Bristol Bay for updates on how you can help.

  • This article from the New York Times highlights the general approach this administration has taken on the environment and science. It includes references, examples and stories about how scientists who have studied and done research on climate change have been instructed to remove reference to how human activity has led to climate change and, in some cases, references to climate change at all. It’s indicative of what we’ve seen with the EPA rollbacks and the dissolution of environmental protections of our air, water and wildlife. Hopefully the efforts we continue to reference and point to that are being made to protect and stop some of these rollbacks continue to be successful and prevent further destruction of our natural resources.