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Northeast

Northeast

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Northwest

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National – NOAA Fisheries’ Funds Fourteen Community-Based Habitat Restoration Projects

In response to a June 30, 2003 Federal Register Notice advertising the availability of funds for all of NOAA’s competitive grant programs, the Community-based Restoration Program received seventy-five applications from non-profit organizations, academia, local and state agencies, and community groups, to conduct fishery habitat restoration projects. Applicants requested over $9.2 million in habitat restoration project funds in response to the announcement, which closed on September 12, 2003. After a competitive selection process, 14 projects were selected for funding for a total of over $1.3M. Funded projects include:

• Alaska
  • Matanuska-susitna Borough Fish Passage/Construction Project Phase II, $96,945
• California
  • Odd Fellows Road Community-based Habitat Restoration Project, $206,277
  • Irving Creek Habitat Protection - Road Decommissioning Project, $46,261
  • Save San Francisco Bay Association Community-based Restoration Projects, $100,000
• Oregon
  • Middle Fork John Day River Community-based Restoration Project, $64,968
  • Tryon Creek Habitat Complexity and Enhancement Project, $125,000
• Washington
  • Tarboo Creek at Center Road Culvert Replacement, $60,000
  • Raging River Preston Reach Leeve Removal, $170,000
• Idaho
  • Lapwai Creek Nature Preserve: Linking Education with Restoration, $75,000
• Massachusetts
  • Bridge Creek Salt Marsh Restoration Project, $117,675
• North Carolina
  • Chaney Creek Watershed Habitat Restoration Project, $137,493
  • Stump Sound Oyster Habitat Restoration, $114,188
• South Carolina
  • Evaluating Success of Intertidal Oyster Restoration, $56,582
• Florida
  • Clam Bayou Restoration Project, $100,000

The NOAA Community-Based Restoration Program (CRP) began in 1996 to encourage local efforts to restore fish habitats. Between 1996 and 2004, the CRP has secured funding for over 800 locally driven restoration projects around the country, and continues to work with existing and new national and regional partnerships to leverage funding available for these activities.

The CRP provides technical expertise through NOAA Fisheries’ regional staff as needed in addition to funds, and brings together community groups, non-profit organizations, business interests, youth conservation corps and service organizations, academia, watershed groups, local government, state and Federal agencies to implement grass-roots habitat restoration projects of local significance to benefit NOAA trust resources. Additional information on the CRP as well as NOAA Restoration Center (RC) partnerships that are currently accepting applications for grass-roots habitat restoration projects is available on the RC web site at: www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration. For questions and further information contact Robin Bruckner 301-713-0174 Robin.Bruckner@noaa.gov.

Northeast – Entangled Right Whale Update

NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Regional Office and Fishery Science Center are continuing to monitor the situation involving the entangled Right whale, Kingfisher. On April 3, contact with the whale was lost as a result of a severed telemetry buoy used to track the whale's progress. The buoy was later found entangled in the propeller of a Cape May based fishing vessel. Continual attempts have been, and will continue to be made to locate the whale on the northeastern coast. Response plans are in place in the event that the whale is re-sighted. Once sighted, the whale will be responded to by one of 15 disentanglement first-response teams along the US/Canadian coast.

All inquiries regarding Kingfisher should be sent to king.fisher@noaa.gov. For the latest on where Kingfisher is, visit the Center for Coastal Studies Web site:
www.coastalstudies.org/rescue/latest.htm.

Northeast – $1000 Awarded to Rhode Island Fisherman in Second Annual Yellowtail Tag Lottery

NOAA Fisheries extended congratulations and a check for $1000 to Raymond Livernois of Charlestown, Rhode Island. Participating in a cooperative research project with NOAA Fisheries to collect data on movement, mortality and growth of yellowtail flounder, Raymond returned pink disk tag #01657 on November 25, 2003. The fish was a female yellowtail, caught in Area 562 on the southeastern part of Georges Bank, approximately 30 miles south of where she was originally tagged on July 17, 2003. For updates on this cooperative research project visit www.cooperative-tagging.org. This website is maintained by NOAA Fisheries in cooperation with commercial fishermen assisting NOAA Fisheries with collecting data necessary for sustainable management of the fishery. For more information, contact Steven.Cadrin@noaa.gov (508) 495-2335.

Northeast – Andrew Cohen Appointed Special Agent-in-Charge of the Northeast Enforcement Division

NOAA Fisheries announced the appointment of Andrew Cohen as Special Agent-in-Charge of the Northeast Enforcement Division.

Cohen has served with NOAA Fisheries for 17 years. For the past five years he served as a Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge in the NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement (OLE) Northeast Division. As such, he has supervised and participated in the investigation of fisheries related violations in a 19 state area.

Cohen has extensive experience in international investigations involving organized crime syndicates smuggling high value commodities such as bluefin tuna, caviar and Patagonian toothfish. During the 1980's he was assigned to an elite unit that orchestrated the largest undercover fisheries sting in history, involving illegal salmon fishing in the North Pacific by Taiwanese pirate fleets, which resulted in a United Nations ban on high seas driftnet fishing. More recently, he helped to implement satellite based Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) in domestic, high seas and foreign fisheries.

"Cohen was selected because of his overall credentials and experience with a degree in Environmental Studies and Natural Resource Management," said Dale Jones, Director of Enforcement for NOAA Fisheries OLE. His service levels in different areas, his familiarity with both civil and criminal cases, as well as with both domestic and international cases through the ranks at OLE will help him manage the Northeast Division well.

Gulf – King Mackerel Commercial Hook-and-Line fishery Closed in Southern Florida West Coast

The commercial hook-and-line fishery for Gulf group king mackerel in the southern Florida west coast subzone is closed, effective 12:01 a.m. April 9, 2004, through June 30, 2004, between the Lee/Collier County and the Collier/Monroe County, Florida boundaries (see reverse). NOAA Fisheries has determined that the commercial quota for the 2003/2004 fishing year of 520,312 pounds of king mackerel for this segment of the commercial fishery has been reached. Along with the previous closures of the western zone (September 24, 2003) and the northern Florida west coast subzone (November 13, 2003), the commercial fishery for Gulf group king mackerel is now closed from the U.S./Mexico border to the Collier/Monroe County, Florida boundary until July 1, 2004. However, the fishery for vessels using run-around gillnets in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the southern Florida west coast subzone remains open, except for weekend and holiday closures. If the quota for this 2003/2004 fishing year is not harvested, the gillnet fishery automatically will close July 1, 2004, through 6:00 a.m. on January 18, 2005, the day after the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday.

Complete details and maps are on-line at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishery/newsbull.004/news004.htm
or contact Mark Godcharles at mark.godcharles@noaa.gov or by phone at (727)570-5305.

Southeast - New Sensors on NOAA Buoy Give Divers, Anglers A Better Look at Gray’s Reef Sanctuary Conditions

A new package of oceanographic sensors will be added to the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) data buoy in early April. The information provided by the sensors will help recreational divers plan their dives to the reef and may even alert anglers to fishing conditions.

The Gray’s Reef data buoy is part of the Marine Observation Network (MON) buoys operated by NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center, an operation within NOAA’s National Weather Service. This operational network delivers real-time information to forecasters and NOAA operational centers to support national and international warning programs, safe and efficient transportation of personnel and goods, environmental monitoring programs, and climate research and predication needs.

The new instruments will measure bottom temperature and water turbidity at the sanctuary. Currently, the buoy provides information every hour on currents at the reef as well as water temperature, wind direction, wave height and wave period near the surface. The information can be found on the Gray’s Reef Web site: http://www.graysreef.noaa.gov. The addition of bottom temperature information will help the many recreational divers who visit the reef plan for conditions.

The scientific community is very interested in the upgrade to the NOAA data buoy. The enhanced data buoy will provide information on the movement of water column masses by temperature as well as data on conductivity (a water quality measurement), depth (tide height), salinity, chlorophyll (a measure of productivity in the water), and dissolved oxygen. The enhanced Marine Observation Network buoy at Gray’s Reef will become a sentinel station for the new regional ocean observing network that has been established in the southeast, adding information on the nearshore component to the observing network’s data flow.

GRNMS is one of the largest near shore live-bottom reefs off the southeastern United States, encompassing approximately 17 square nautical miles. The area earned sanctuary designation in 1981. GRNMS consists of a series of sandstone outcroppings and ledges up to ten feet in height, in a predominantly sandy, flat-bottomed sea floor. The live bottom and ledge habitat support an abundant reef fish and invertebrate community. Loggerhead sea turtles, a threatened species, also use Gray’s Reef year-round for foraging and resting, and the reef is within the winter calving ground for the highly endangered Northern Right Whale.

Pacific Coast - Final Rule Implements the New Fishery Management Plan for Highly Migratory Species off the West Coast of the United States

A new final rule implements conservation and management measures for West Coast highly migratory species (HMS) fisheries including permit requirements, logbooks, gear restrictions and observer coverage. The species included in the management unit for this new FMP are tunas (yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, albacore, and northern bluefin), billfish (striped marlin and swordfish), sharks (common thresher, bigeye thresher, pelagic thresher, shortfin mako, blue), and dorado (also known as mahi mahi and dolphinfish). The final rule was published in the Federal Register on April 7, 2004. For a copy of the final rule, go to: http://www.pcouncil.org/fr/fr2004.html

As noted in the March 12 issue of FishNews, NOAA Fisheries has also published a final rule that prohibits shallow longline fishing for swordfish by U.S. fishing vessels operating out of the West Coast in order to protect endangered and threatened sea turtles. This prohibition will become effective April 12, 2004. It applies to U.S. longline fishing vessels based in California, Oregon, or Washington that operate on the high seas east of 150 degrees west longitude, or generally the area between the West Coast and Hawaii. For more information, go to http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/news/shallowsets_prohibition.pdf.

Northwest - Joint Plan Announced to Reunite Killer Whale

NOAA Fisheries and its Canadian counterpart, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), announced a cooperative plan to return the juvenile killer whale, known as L98, to its Southern Resident population. The four-year old whale separated from his family group, and has been living alone in Nootka Sound on the West Coast of British Columbia since the summer of 2001.

The joint plan has two concurrent paths. First, if L98's pod ends up near Nootka Sound this spring as biologists hope it will, the two agencies will attempt to lead the whale to his family pod. Historically, sightings during this time of year are rare and both agencies are asking the public and other government agencies, including the Coast Guard and Navy, to report any killer whale sightings, their location, and the number of animals and direction of travel along the outer coast of Vancouver Island. Reports can be made via e-mail to NOAA Fisheries at LPodAlert@noaa.gov.

Since L98’s pod may not be located near Nootka Sound this spring, the agencies are also planning a capture/relocation approach for this summer/fall when the Southern Resident killer whales are found around the San Juan Islands. See http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/mmammals/whales/L98/index.htm for more details.

Northwest - Puget Sound ESA 4(d) Salmon Harvest Draft EIS Available for Public Comment

NOAA Fisheries has released the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), evaluating impacts of Washington State's and the Puget Sound Treaty Tribes' harvest management plans, for public review and comment. The joint plan encompasses commercial, recreational, ceremonial and subsistence salmon fisheries potentially affecting ESA-listed Puget Sound chinook. To view the draft EIS and the plan, and to get information on how to comment, go to http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/1sustfsh/salmon/SharvEIS.htm.

Alaska – NOAA Fisheries Receives Reports of Marine Mammal Shootings

NOAA’s Law Enforcement Field Office in Petersburg, Alaska, has received complaints of marine mammals having been illegally shot or shot at over the past several months.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972 is a federal law established to protect seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales and all other species of marine mammals. Under the MMPA and its corresponding regulations, it is illegal to harass, shoot, pursue or feed marine mammals in the wild. A violation of the act is considered a "take" and can result in civil penalties of up to $12,000 and criminal fines of up to $20,000 and jail time.

NOAA’s Office for Law Enforcement is asking anyone who has any information about these crimes to contact the field office in Petersburg at (907) 772-2285 or the national hotline at (800) 853-1964. Any person who provides information that results in a conviction may be eligible for a $2,500 reward.

April 6, 2004

Notice - M-S Act Provisions (EFP) Exemption in Closure Areas II and IV
Notice - New England FMC; Public Meeting
Notice - Western Pacific FMC; Public Meeting
Rule - Pacific Cod by Catcher Vessels Using Trawl Gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area.
Rule - Taking of the Cook Inlet Stock of Beluga Whales
Rule - Final 2004 Specs for Atlantic Herring

April 7, 2004

Notice - Marine Mammals; File Nos. 87-1743 and 1066-1750
Notice - Availability of the Draft Guidelines for the CCSP
Notice - Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska; Exempted Fishing Permit
Notice - Takes of Marine Mammals at Vandenburg AFB
Notice - Marine Mammals; File Nos. 808-1735, 1036-1744.
Rule - Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Monkfish Fishery
Rule – West Coast HMS FMP

April 8, 2004

Notice - Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Applications for Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs)
Notice - Endangered Species; File No. 1227.

April 9, 2004

Notice - Endangered and Threatened Species; Take of Anadromous Fish.
Notice - Endangered and Threatened Species; Take of Anadromous Fish.
Notice - Marine Mammals; File No. 1009-1640.