In honor of National Oceans Month, check out this one-of-a-kind ocean conservation rap, written and performed by 2010 CLF Ocean Conservation intern Anthony Mathieu.

Hands Across the Sands 2010, Salisbury Beach, MA. (Photo credit: William Scofield)

With the arrival of summer, many New Englanders’ thoughts turn to the ocean. Whether you enjoy surfing the waves at Hampton beach, sailing the Narragansett Bay, camping on Cape Cod’s National Seashore, picnicking with your family at Revere Beach or simply enjoying the ocean’s bounty in the form of a Maine lobster roll, our ocean gives us so much to be thankful for.

But the ocean means so much more to New Englanders then a day at the beach, it plays a critical role in growing our economy and supporting jobs and businesses.  In fact, healthy oceans bring tens of billions of dollars to our economy every year and support thousands of jobs and businesses in our region—fishermen, surf-shop owners, shipping companies and dock workers, bed and breakfast owners, restaurants and ice-cream shacks all depend on a healthy ocean.

Yet while we enjoy some sun at the beach after a long winter, New England’s ocean is at risk.

34 years ago oil companies drilled several test wells off New England’s coast and were preparing to launch full scale drilling operations when CLF, along with our allies in the fishing and tourism industry, stepped in to protect our coast. Despite the small amount of oil estimated to lie beneath our waters, the oil companies haven’t forgotten about that day, and now they, and their allies in Congress, are making a big push to re-open our coast to new drilling—and they’re closer than ever before.

Last month, less than a year after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster unleashed our nation’s worst environmental disaster, the US House of Representatives passed legislation that would expand drilling in New England and across the country. Thankfully that legislation was defeated in the Senate, but we know the oil companies and their allies will be back.

While most of New England’s congressional delegation—Republicans and Democrats alike—joined together to protect our coast, a few sided with the oil industry.  Congressmen Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta of New Hampshire and Senators Brown of Massachusetts and Ayotte of New Hampshire all voted with big oil to expand drilling off our coast, while limiting environmental review.

New England’s ocean is far too valuable to drill, and it is important that all of us from local business owners, to fishermen, to the casual beachgoer, send that message to our representatives in Congress.

That is why I hope you can join CLF and our allies in supporting a wonderful event called Hands Across the Sands.  On Saturday, June 25^th people from around the world will meet at their local beach to join hands and issue a simple call to governments around the world—Stop offshore drilling and promote the development of clean renewable energy.

So join us (and bring your kids, friends, neighbors, and anyone else you can think of ) at a Hands Across the Sands event near you. Then stick around afterwards and enjoy a day at the beach with the people you love. Click here to find an event near you.

There will be hundreds of events around the world, but if there is no event scheduled near you, it is very easy to organize your own event (and a great way to meet new people who share your love of the ocean). Click here to learn how, or call Winston Vaughan at (617) 850-1750 and he’ll walk you through it.

Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) released the Interim Report for Fishing Year 2010 on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2010-January 2011), which examines gross revenues, fishing effort, average vessel performance, distribution of revenues, and employment for the first nine months of the 2007 through 2010 fishing years. As expected under the new sector management system, which went into effect last May, the report shows an increase in gross revenues in 2010 compared to previous years. However, since the report does not take into account expenses such as vessel operating costs or the costs associated with joining a sector, the effect of sectors on net revenues in the fishery still remains to be seen.

Haddock, one of the species managed as part of the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery (Photo credit: NOAA)

Still, NOAA’s statement on the release of the report expressed optimism.  “The report provides welcome news about Northeast groundfish revenues,” said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries. “For example, the higher revenues occurred without exceeding this year’s groundfish catch quotas. And while many fishermen are doing better, we also know that some fishermen and businesses are not doing as well.”

The report noted that many trends observed in 2010 were continuations of trends that had been apparent since 2007 or even earlier, including declining landings, a declining number of active vessels, and increasing concentration of groundfish revenue among the top-earning vessels. Some other trends observed this year are new, and these trends are of a more positive nature, including increases in gross revenues, increases in prices of both groundfish and non-groundfish species, and increased economic performance in terms of revenue per unit effort.

As mentioned above, data from the final three months of the fishing year and data on the costs associated with the new system have yet to be incorporated into NEFSC’s analysis, so a final assessment of the first year of sectors is not currently possible. The interim report will be updated in August 2011 to take into account this additional information.

To read more about the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery and the sector system, please visit Talking Fish, a new blog created by CLF and other like-minded organizations and individuals to foster informed and productive discussion about New England’s fisheries and coastal communities.

Original photo: William Hyler

If you read CLF Scoop or follow fishery management news through other means, you know that since last May, the New England fishing industry has undergone its most significant changes in 30 years. The introduction of the new “sector” management system and new rules for harvesting groundfish like cod, haddock and flounder have been highly controversial in this region and beyond, and never before has a dialogue been more needed to help ensure that New England’s fishermen and the resources they rely upon continue to thrive. While we blog about these issues on the Scoop from time to time, we felt it was important to create a space dedicated to carrying out this dialogue—a forum where science and data meet ideas and experience in an informed, respectful and lively conversation. Today, we invite you to join that conversation at www.talkingfish.org.

At Talking Fish, we will present a wide range of news and views from scientists, researchers, economists, academics, environmental advocates, fishermen, resource managers, foodies and journalists. Our hope is to build a community with a shared goal of a prosperous and sustainable fishing industry and an abundant, diverse fish population for generations to come. We’ll continue to keep our Scoop readers up to date on fisheries management in New England, but we hope that those of you who are interested in delving into these issues further will become frequent readers of www.talkingfish.org as well.

Join us as we Talk Fish by:

• Going to www.talkingfish.org to read, comment, or subscribe to Talking Fish via e-mail or RSS
• Liking us on Facebook
• Following us on Twitter
• Dropping us a line at editor@talkingfish.org

Portland Head Light, marking the southwest entrance to Portland Harbor (Photo Credit: Maine Department of Conservation)

The success of the new sectors approach to groundfish management, in which fishermen fish in community-based cooperatives (“sectors”) allocated a share of the annual catch limit in the fishery, is becoming more and more recognized as politicians such as Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree are speaking out in favor of the new system. Today, Congresswoman Pingree issued a press release declaring that the new sector regulations are working and noting that under the sector system, revenue for Maine fishermen is up over the previous year. The press release, which can be read in full here, also notes that Congresswoman Pingree spoke with Eric Schwaab, the top federal fisheries regulator, to reinforce her support for the current system and ask him to keep the regulations in place. A recent article in the Portland Press Herald also offered evidence of sectors’ success with quotes from a Maine sector fisherman saying that the new program has allowed fishermen to earn more money and reduce bycatch. The article also noted that Maine Senator Olympia Snowe recently asked federal regulators to continue with the sector system. CLF has long been on the record in support of Amendment 16 and the sector management plan it created, and it’s certainly encouraging to hear our local leaders and fishermen agree that sectors are helping to rebuild New England’s groundfish stocks and sustain its coastal communities.

Jordan Basin (circled in red) is about 60 miles south of Bar Harbor in the Gulf of Maine

A Boston Globe article last week reported exciting information about North Atlantic right whales, the most endangered large whale in the North Atlantic and one of the planet’s rarest animals, with an estimated 440 individuals left in the total population. Historically, right whales were targeted by whalers because of various characteristics that made them commercially attractive and easy to kill, and today they face continuing threats from entanglement in fishing nets and collisions with ships. While there are many mysteries surrounding this ocean giant, in recent years, scientists discovered that many right whales spend early winter (November to January) in Jordan Basin, which is approximately 60 miles south of Bar Harbor in the Gulf of Maine and is one of New England’s special ocean places.

A breaching North Atlantic right whale

Scientists were able to conduct further observations of right whale behavior in Jordan Basin this past winter, and they saw indications that the whales were conducting mating rituals. Additional evidence, such as visually observing mating behavior and measuring hormone levels, is necessary in order to draw any definitive conclusions about the whales mating, but scientists sound optimistic that these recent discoveries are helping to fill in the blanks of what we don’t know about right whale behavior.

These discoveries carry additional importance because they can be used to create measures to protect the threatened right whale. Since whales are often harmed in net entanglements or ship strikes, knowledge of where they congregate allows the creation of well-tailored regulations that define shipping routes outside of right whale hotspots and reduce vessel speeds in seasonal right whale waters (this was discussed in a Boston Globe editorial that ran earlier this week). This is a key example of how marine spatial planning can help protect threatened ocean species, such as the North Atlantic right whale, and preserve our ocean legacy.

Stellwagen Bank, outlined in red, is located only 25 nautical miles from Boston and three nautical miles from Gloucester and Provincetown.

Located at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, only 25 nautical miles from Boston and three nautical miles from Gloucester and Provincetown, lies Stellwagen Bank, an underwater plateau that is home to a wide variety of marine life and is one of New England’s special ocean places. Stellwagen has been known for its highly productive fishing grounds since the early 1600s, and it is one of the few remaining hotspots of the Atlantic wolffish, a bottom-dwelling fish with a distinctive mouth full of sharp and wayward teeth that is facing extinction in the United States. However, because of its heavily-trafficked location and desirable biological abundance, Stellwagen has been faced with a multitude of human-induced pressures, leaving its ecosystems at risk. Species such as the wolffish, along with commercial species such as cod, are threatened when modern fishing gear is dragged along the bottom of the ocean, leveling the seafloor and destroying habitat features like biogenic depressions, burrows, nooks or small caves that allow fish to hide to catch prey, avoid predators, and protect their eggs.

In 1992 Stellwagen Bank was designated as a National Marine Sanctuary, which  meant that some harmful activities (including sand and gravel mining, drilling for oil and natural gas, and discharging pollutants) were prohibited – but all fishing activities were allowed to continue. In 1998, however, an amendment to the groundfish fishery management plan established a closed area in the Gulf of Maine (the Western Gulf of Maine Closure, or WGOMC) that overlaps Stellwagen and prohibits the use of particularly destructive bottom-tending fishing gear within its boundaries. (Recreational fishing and less-destructive commercial fishing are still allowed within the closure.) The idea behind this closure is that if gear that destroys the sea bottom is kept out, ocean wildlife and features on the seafloor will have the chance to rebuild and a rebuilt thriving benthic habitat will mean healthier fish stocks.

A pair of Atlantic wolffish

If the WGOMC has this desired effect, it will be important not only for the marine life within its boundaries, but also as an indication that this strategy should be replicated in other areas in need of protecting and rebuilding ocean communities and associated managed species. A recent NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries report compares protected areas within the WGOMC with areas of initially similar habitat type outside the WGOMC for the period 1998-2005 to see if the closure was indeed having a positive effect. What do the results say? Overall, the study’s findings indicate that the fish and wildlife inside the WGOMC closure area are recovering from impacts of destructive fishing gear. However, the report cautions that the seafloor community is changing over time and may not attain a stable state (in theories of ecology, ecosystems change over time until they reach a final, stable phase). Still, the WGOMC is recognized as an important area for conserving biodiversity, and the report concludes that the use of closures remains a valuable tool for maintaining ocean habitat. While this certainly indicates that further study of the WGOMC is needed and that recovery is not complete, it also supports the case for protecting vulnerable underwater habitats in order to allow our healthy ocean ecosystems to grow and thrive.

With all the work we do heading up the front lines of environmental advocacy, it’s pretty common to see CLF in the news. But to see us in a book that made it onto lists of 2010′s best nonfiction books was (for me, at least) pretty exciting. This book is Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, by Paul Greenberg, and it details the evolution of four species of fish and the people who love (and catch and eat) them: salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna. Working in the field of ocean conservation, I was naturally pretty jazzed about the opportunity to read and review a book about, well, four fish. But even if you’re not naturally drawn to the ocean and its inhabitants, this book may still be for you!

That’s because more than being just an inventory of changes in global fish stocks or a history of fisheries, Four Fish is an exploration of the relationship between man and the wild and between man and his food. Greenberg’s premise is that we are at a “crucial point” in our relationship with the ocean. For so many fisheries, including the ones about which Greenberg writes here, long gone are days of effortless plenty. At the same time, technology is allowing us to catch the fish that are left with ever-increasing precision, and advances in aquaculture are allowing us to actually farm fish. But does this alter the fundamental wildness of the resource? For example, does state-of-the-art gear that lets fishermen see and target schools of fish beneath the surface turn fishing from a fair fight into one where the fish are inevitably the losers? And are farmed salmon, genetically different from wild salmon and raised away from natural systems, still really salmon? Of course, it’s impossible to deny aquaculture’s potential for improving human welfare by providing a relatively inexpensive source of protein to those whose access to fish would otherwise be limited. But (and this is my question as much as it is Greenberg’s) does this mean we are obliged to rely on aquaculture not just to fight real hunger but to satisfy consumer preferences for fresh fish, year-round, nation-wide? Is there some measure of restraint that we as consumers can reasonably be expected to have?

Philosophical questions aside, where does CLF come into all of this? As the catalysts for change, of course. We pop up in the chapter on cod, where Greenberg notes that despite depleted New England fish stocks, no action was taken until CLF sued the federal government for failing to protect the ailing stocks, leading to a management plan for groundfish fishing. Greenberg notes this case as the turning point after which the federal government jumped in and tried to meet its responsibilities to protect stocks, calling consequent fishing closures “something completely new in the history of man and fish.” Perhaps my favorite scene in the book is when Greenberg goes meta and meets up with Mark Kurlansky (the author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, another great read and a fan favorite over here at the Ocean program) for a cod taste test. The wild cod wins, although Kurlansky finds it a bit flavorless, but he concludes that that’s how a cod should be – and the texture of the farmed fish is all wrong, probably because it hasn’t developed the muscles that a wild cod gets from living “a cod’s life.”

Above all, Greenberg is pragmatic, ending his book with both priorities for sustaining wild fish as well as principles to guide us as we go forward with domesticating “the last wild food.” In my opinion, it’s this ability to understand the world from dueling perspectives, and to accept each as valid, that makes this book a truly great read. Whether fishing for wild salmon or discovering the secrets of breeding farmed fish, whether proclaiming his love for fishing or promoting conservation and restraint, Greenberg is thought-provoking in an informative but modest way, and I know I for one will be thinking about the issues he raises for a long time to come.

Editor’s Note: The Conservation Law Foundation was misidentified in the book as the Conservation Wildlife Fund.

Yesterday, an exciting and inspiring delegation of emerging leaders from the international environmental community paid a visit to CLF’s Boston office. The delegation was sponsored by the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional exchange program that seeks to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other nations through short-term visits such as this one. The group was in the U.S. to learn how environmental law is implemented and enforced here, and they chose CLF specifically as the group to advise them. WorldBoston, a local nonprofit organization, organized the Boston portion of the delegation’s visit to the U.S.

The fifteen delegation participants came from the world over – Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Haiti, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Serbia, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam and the West Bank. While all do work related to the environment, the list of their careers was as diverse as the list of their nationalities! Scientists, professors, elected officials, government employees, NGO officers and other professions gathered around the conference table to hear CLF attorneys speak about their work advocating for environmental policies and taking violators of those policies to court.

Massachusetts Advocacy Center director Peter Shelley kicked off the meeting, welcoming the guests and providing them with an introduction to CLF’s mission, program areas, and organizational structure. He then transitioned into a discussion of CLF’s legal work, explaining that in the U.S., we have important legal tools available that allow organizations such as CLF to bring lawsuits against polluters and even the government, and that allow them to recoup the costs of their legal fees if they win. Attorneys Shanna Cleveland, Seth Kaplan, and Cynthia Liebman also discussed their work at CLF and their experiences with the U.S. legal system. Delegates expressed keen interest in the strategies discussed and shared thoughts on the contrasts between the legal system in the U.S. and in their own nations. Everyone expressed agreement that government is not always as transparent as it claims to be (although another benefit of the U.S. legal system that was discussed is our tremendous access to data through environmental review procedures and Freedom of Information Act requests).

The event was a great success, and the morning flew by amid the discussion. CLF was honored to host such a motivated and interesting group of people, and we hope that the delegation enjoyed learning from us as much as we enjoyed learning from them.