ALFA Staff
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
ALFA Staff
Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update
Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update

2016 EM Cooperative Research Participants - Pre-register NOW

If your vessel is currently on the 2016 Opt-In list to participate in the EM cooperative research program:

Vessels participating in this program in 2016 need to register in advance of the next EM fishing period. In each fishing period, 30% of the vessels that are pre-registered will be selected and required to carry an EM system. 

If you plan on fishing in the next EM fishing period, July to October of this year, please pre-register by replying to Liz Chilton no later than May 31, 2016. Once we have completed the selection process and if your vessel was selected to carry an EM system, we will contact you to connect you with the EM system provider. 

Thanks for your continued cooperation and participation in this cooperative research program. 

* An email was sent with almost the exact same wording to those vessel owners registered. That email was the Observer Program's initial attempt to communicate with the 2016 EM participants using Constant Contact. They plan to continue using this service for future communications to the fleet about the electronic monitoring program. Please contact Liz Chilton at 206-526-4197 with questions about that email service. 

Sustainable Seafood Boom Brings Hope to an Overfished Planat

The following article comes from the Huffington Post: 

Sustainable Seafood Boom Brings Hope To An Overfished Planet

Think your choices have little impact on our ailing planet? Think again.

A new report about the surge of the global sustainable seafood market this month reveals how consumer and corporate decisions could significantly move the needle when it comes to tackling the world’s environmental woes.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development report found more than 23 metric million tons of seafood certified as sustainable — worth $11.5 billion — was sold worldwide last year.

Full article, with pictures, is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sustainable-seafood-market-growth_us_573c340de4b0646cbeeb858a

 

Web-based business tools designed specifically for commercial fishermen

Dana Morse (ME Sea Grant), Sunny Rice (AK Sea Grant) and Curtis Mahnken from University of Minnesota will provide a tour of two new web-based business tools designed specifically for commercial fishermen on Friday, April 22 @ 3:00pm ET.  

You can Join the webinar at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/marine

Sign in as a “guest” (no password needed).

Let Erik know if you have questions: 

Erik Chapman, PhD                                                                                                 Extension Faculty/Specialist, Fisheries                                                                       University of New Hampshire                                                                                         NH Sea Grant/Cooperative Extension                                                                         164B Morse Hall                                                                                                   Durham, NH 03824                                                                                               Tel: 603-862-1935

 

 

ALFA attended the International Whale Depredation Workshop in Chile

International Whale Depredation Workshop                                                                       COLTO (Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators)                                                                     Jeff Farvour (ALFA) and Jan Straley (UAS) represented SEASWAP                                       15-18 March 2016, Punta Arenas, Chile

SEASWAP was invited to participate in a whale depredation workshop and to present our understanding of depredation in Alaskan waters at an international whale depredation workshop in Punta Arenas, Chile hosted by COLTO http://colto.wpdeployment.com in mid-March. The workshop was attended by about 40 people. Attendees included vessel owners, two fisherman (Jeff and John Bennett, a vessel captain from NZ), fisheries managers, whale biologist (Jan Straley, Paul Tixier) and other scientists, government representatives, processors, buyers and fishing gear manufacturers from Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Falkland Islands, South Africa, France, UK, Japan, Norway, Uruguay and USA.

“COLTO was founded in 2003 by legal industry members to eliminate IUU (illegal, unregulated and unreported) fishing for toothfish, and improve sustainability of toothfish stocks.  At that time, estimates of IUU catches had been double the legal catches of toothfish – mainly being illegally taken from within national waters (Exclusive Economic Zones – EEZs).  Through the combined efforts of CCAMLR https://www.ccamlr.org/en., Flag States, Port States, conservation NGOs and industry, those levels of IUU fishing inside national EEZs have been virtually zero since 2005.”

Aims of the COLTO Working Group (WG) on Depredation and the COLTO Depredation Workshop were:

“Investigate Sperm whale (SW) and Killer whale (KW) depredation on Toothfish longline fisheries, including assessment of the socio-economic and conservation impacts of depredation; the impacts on depredated Toothfish in a fisheries management context; and the development of mitigation solutions. The WG also aims to develop management strategies to prevent depredation from starting, and subsequently spreading, in fishing areas where it has not yet been reported.”

The workshop, which was sponsored by COLTO, AOBAC (Association of Operators of Magellan Sea Bass), Kendall Seafoods and WWF, lasted three days with 25 presentations in 9 sessions and 5 facilitated open discussions.  SEASWAP presented 7 presentations.  NOAA was represented by Megan Peterson (a contractor for NOAA on a post doc) and she gave three presentations.

The group was very welcoming and extremely appreciative of our ability to participate. Immediately apparent was that, although there were some obvious operational differences between the COLTO toothfish longline fisheries and Alaska’s sablefish longline fleet, it is clear that whale depredation in the COLTO fisheries is very similar to what we are experiencing in Alaska. In some cases, depredation in toothfish fisheries was even more dynamic because of significant mixing of sperm and killer whale activity within certain sub areas. The COLTO toothfish fishery occurs in the southern oceans between 60° S up to 45° S in some areas and is fished with demersal longlines in depths of 300 to over 1000 fathoms on about 39 CP longliners, 155-175 ft in length. Longline sets are soaked for up to 2 days and fishing trips can last up to 3 months.

During the workshop, it was pointed out that like sablefish, toothfish are a natural part of a SWs diet.  Giant squid and sharks are common depredators of toothfish, and occasionally pinnipeds, as well. SWs observed in toothfish fishing areas by some vessels may be immature (need to check with Dirk). Presenters on the overall SO problem with catch removals by whales also stressed the desire to understand if whales are migrating or not, historical sightings- are more whales showing up to fishing grounds for opportunistic depredation, if toothfish are also natural prey for KWs, does skipper behavior affect depredation avoidance,  (see workshop findings).  These were concepts discussed by multiple attendees.

COLTO WG members presented various deterrent and avoidance measures undertaken by COLTO members including: gear switch to pots, which proved unsuccessful, also concerns with lost pots, dropping gear back down and waiting until whales move on, moving to other fishing grounds, faster hauling speed, Mustads OrcaSaver which may have some undocumented effectiveness amongst one workshop participant.

(V 2.0 of OrcaSaver is now available through Mustad); and “Cachaloteras”  (gear modification devices) which are being used by some toothfish vessels as an effective but labor intensive method that reduces SWs depredation but not KWs.

Jeff presented the salient historical events and structure of Alaska’s sablefish fishery, sperm whale depredation trends in the Gulf of Alaska and next steps for SEASWAP.

Jan gave presentations which involved the history of SEASWAP, cultural transmission of depredation in the Gulf of Alaska, use of acoustics in depredation and movements and associations of sperm whales.  Also she gave a presentation on real time monitoring and the communication avoidance network.

We heard from the industry biologists and vessel skippers (toothfish vessels that were also engaged in research), about toothfish surveys and whale identification, tagging and biological sampling.

WG members were especially eager to learn of SEASWAPs collaborative structure and how to cultivate a strong collaborative working environment with progressive outcomes. Of particular interest to the WG was SEASWAPs acoustic research, playback devices, camera work, and towed array. Our communication network, bubblers, pods and exploring efficacy of jammers generated discussion as well. Essentially they were interested in what worked and has not worked for SEASWAP.  It was interesting to learn that none of these methods of research (except some minor camera work) have been explored by COLTO members,  however, much enthusiasm was expressed in further research. Of particular interest were the assumptions made on whale behavior vs. what was learned after tagging and camera work by both SEASWAP and COLTO members: killer whales diver much deeper and stay down much longer than previously thought, sperm whales will navigate narrow relatively shallow areas in transit to other areas, sperm whales do not always opt for fish from longlines even within “dinner bell” range, elephant seals dive much deeper than previously thought, not all killer whales depredate when around a vessel.

Immediately after the workshop convened, we started an email thread with interested COLTO members and SEASWAP discussing our GoPro work and other questionsregarding hydrophones. After sharing (thanks to Lauren Wild) specs of our cameras, housings and lights the discussion immediately turned to refinements such as finding timers that work with our light housings and methods to improve orientation of the cameras to achieve a higher success of useful footage. The Falkland fishing industry representatives were especially engaged on this concept and other aspects of tracking sperm whales behavior around their vessel.

The COLTO WG is very motivated to address depredation as it was COLTOs next priority after eliminating illegal toothfish fishing. Immediate benefits for SEASWAP to collaborate with COLTO (SEASWAP International or IWAP-International Whale Avoidance Project, or WAPI ??) as we can only gain from sharing in our efforts. Short term projects might include: setting up a network (website) for sharing camera and whale behavioral knowledge and ID, securing funding for a joint post doc position for Paul Tixier; Midterm: efficacy of deterrents/avoidance, SW and KW tagging and sampling; Long term: identifying successful measures for deterrent/avoidance suited to a variety of fishing operations, vessel sizes and spatial conditions. We should also consider collaborating with gear manufacturers Mustad (focused mostly on OrcaSaver) andFiskevegn (Catcheloteras, Catch Protection Devices, quieter gear, tornado trolling). Both companies were in attendance and presented their companies perspective on devices for mitigating whale depredation (although efficacy untested).  Mustad is very interested in testing their new device with robust study design.  They do not want to sell a deterrent that is ineffective. Mustad supports Research and Development of their products.

We will provide PDFs of our presentations and files with film footage from workshop participants.  COLTO will have findings/minutes available soon.

Overall, it was a great opportunity that opened robust dialogue between two longline fisheries on opposite ends of the hemisphere to collaborate on whale depredation solutions.

Victory on GMO fish

Costco joins a host of retailers refusing to sell GMO salmon:

 "Costco said Friday it does not intend to sell genetically modified salmon at this time, joining a list of retailers who say they will not sell genetically modified salmon, despite the approval Thursday by the Federal Food and Drug Administration of the sale of such fish."

You can read the article here.

ALFA thanks Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski for her effective leadership on this issue.

 

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