EDFish

Solutions That Work for the Environment and Economy are More Important Than Ever

We recently released a new video highlighting the results of our Gulf of Mexico Longline Gear Conversion Program, in which we helped nearly 50 boats convert to more environmentally friendly fishing gear in West Florida.

We launched the Longline Gear Conversion Program last year in response to regulations that shut down longline fishing, after the government found that the gear was “interacting” with too many sea turtles. The ban on this widely-used type of gear was devastating for many communities in West Florida.

Environmental Defense Fund believed there was a better way to keep fishermen on the water and sea turtles safe. Our program paid up to 50% of the costs for fishermen to covert to gear that was better for sea turtles and kept fishermen on the water. Many fishermen told us they wouldn’t have been able to make the gear change without our help.

This type of win-win solution is what EDF does best.

The 2010 BP oil disaster demonstrates that initiatives like this one, which help fishing communities and the environment, are more important than ever.

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How Alaska’s Crab Fishery Went from Deadliest Catch to Safest Catch

Reprinted with permission from SeaFoodNews.com (July 23, 2010)

A new study by the Anchorage-based National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) details 504 fishing-industry deaths from 2000 through 2009. Shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Mexico was by far the most deadly fishery with 55 lives lost. That compares to a death toll of 12 Bering Sea crabbers during the same time. In fact, the Bering Sea crab fisheries can claim the lowest loss of life for all of Alaska’s major fisheries.

Since 2005, when the crab fishery began operating under a slower paced catch share system, one life has been lost in the Bering Sea; there have been no vessel sinkings.

Prior to catch shares, hundreds of boats would race to load up with Bering Sea crab in wild winter fisheries lasting mere days or weeks. Now, each vessel has a set amount of crabs to catch during extended seasons.

The improved safety is ‘black and white,’ said veteran crabber Bill Prout of Kodiak. ‘It’s so much better. We can wait for good weather. It’s really paying off in saved lives.’

Third generation crabber Lance Farr of Seattle said sleep deprivation is no longer an issue in the famous crab fisheries. ‘The catch share program has done what it was intended to do,’ Farr said. ‘It’s made it safer.’

Longtime crab skipper Kale Garcia agreed. ‘I know we’ll have to keep all the drama for Hollywood, but the reality is the Bering Sea crabbers have gone from the deadliest catch to the safest catch.’

The Bering Sea crab fleet is also more organized, having established an association, called the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, an alliance that represents all crab fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and they have a website at www.alaskaberingseacrabbers.org

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Seattle Times Reports on Study, “Most Fishing Deaths Among Gulf Shrimp Crews”

Gulf shrimper Buddy Guindoin points out in today’s Seattle Times article – Most fishing deaths among Gulf shrimp crews, study says – that traditional fishing regulations create a “nightmare” derby fishing atmosphere with short fishing seasons. This often puts fishermen in an unsafe race to fish and can encourage them to go out in bad weather.

The system of having all fishermen try to sell fish at the exact same time also drives down their profitability, making it harder for them to maintain their vessels and afford for health insurance. Quotas or catch share management caps harvest levels for the season, so fishermen can take their time to fish when they want, and can work shorter hours and rest between trips.

A study of fisheries in the US and Canada found after shifting to catch shares that the fishery safety index increased by 250 percent, measured by vessels lost, search/rescue missions, fatality rate, lives lost, and safety violations.

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BP Oil Disaster Hasn’t Touched the Southeast Atlantic – Yet, Writes EDF’s Chief Scientist, Doug Rader

The evolution of the Gulf Loop Current from a strong downstream delivery phase on May 7 to a cutoff eddy phase on June 11, temporarily detaining oil pollution. Credit: NWS.

Today in the Charlotte Observer newspaper,  EDF’s Chief Ocean Scientist Doug Rader explained why the Southeast isn’t yet tripping over tar balls in an op-ed titled, “BP oil spill not in our backyard – yet.”

For the most part, Southeasterners can thank an eddy named Franklin, which has kept oil out of the currents heading toward the Florida Keys. Instead, Franklin is pushing it westward. But Franklin won’t last forever, and the normal loop current  is already starting to reestablish itself. Once this happens, the oil again will spread east around the tip of Florida.

“Unless this week’s efforts to fully cap the well are successful, the already profound toll – environmental, human and economic – could multiply, both in the Gulf and in the broader world we share,” Rader cautions.

Read other blog posts by Doug Rader on the BP oil disaster.

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An Interview with Amanda Leland, National Policy Director of Environmental Defense Fund’s Oceans Program

Amanda Leland, EDF’s National Policy Director for the Oceans Program, is a passionate environmental and policy specialist working to protect and offer innovative solutions to the nation’s oceans and fisheries. Learn more about her experience and background in our series of interviews with EDF’s passionate and talented Oceans staff.

 

Amanda Leland, EDF Oceans Program - National Policy Director

Amanda Leland, EDF Oceans Program - National Policy Director

Where did you grow up?

 

Near Plymouth, Massachusetts. My ancestors actually came here on the Mayflower.

Who introduced you to fishing?

My great-grandfather was a lobster fisherman in Manomet, Massachusetts. He passed his love of fishing on to my grandfather who always took me out on the water to fish for striped bass and bluefish.  He taught me how to captain his 24’ boat when I was 8 years old. I loved the ocean. If I wasn’t on his boat, I was at the beach.

When did you become interested in environmental issues?

I’ve always been interested in the environment. For example, my 7th grade science fair project was about how much trash could be recycled. I became an EDF member when I was thirteen, and I paid my annual dues with my birthday money.

At one point you were studying to be a marine biologist, is that correct?

Yes, I got my Master’s in Marine Biology at the University of Maine. Before that, I did a year-long marine biology program when I was a junior in college. Our time was split between Boston, the Puget Sound and Jamaica. We were in the water a lot and I had my first scuba-diving experience in Friday Harbor, Washington. I’ve now logged 500 dives!

Also when I was in graduate school, I was researching how to bring back Maine’s sea urchin population. Sea urchins were once Maine’s 2nd most valuable fishery but overfishing changed that. I worked with a team of fishermen to hand collect and move 54,000 sea urchins to our study sites. In the process we all got so many splinters from the urchin spines, we started carrying tweezers. Still, we all enjoyed the work. A fisherman once said to me, “You got me to work 15 hours today and I didn’t even notice it.”

What made you decide to work on policy versus being in the field as a biologist?

Several sea urchin fishermen I met told me, “If I don’t catch the last sea urchin someone else will.” There’s such finality in that statement. I decided I wanted to try to improve management so that fishermen aren’t forced to choose between conserving the resource and feeding their kids. We have to reward fishermen for restoring fisheries.

What do you do at Environmental Defense Fund?

I lead a team focused on improving fisheries management at the federal level. We work with Congress and the Administration to move conservation policy forward. We were very happy to see NOAA announce a policy to help more fisheries move to catch shares, an innovative way to manage fisheries that will help bring back depleted fish populations and make fishermen once again profitable.

The way we’re fishing now is not sustainable and the way we are managing fishing is not working. Something has got to give. With catch shares, we can have vibrant fishing communities and healthy fisheries at the same time.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I have bottle-fed walruses. When I was in high school and college, I worked at the Indianapolis Zoo as a marine mammal zookeeper. I took care of the polar bears, baby walruses and sea lions. I sorted through hundreds of pounds of fish every morning to get their food ready.

Another thing people don’t know about me is that I once ate 5 pounds of lobster in one sitting on a dare. I love seafood.

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An Interview with Rod Fujita, EDF Senior Scientist and Director of Ocean Innovations

In continuing with our spotlight on EDF’s passionate and talented Oceans staff, we invite you to learn a little more about Dr. Rod Fujita, EDF Senior Scientist and Director of Oceans Innovations as well as Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

Rod Fujita, EDF Senior Scientist & Director of Oceans Innovations

Rod Fujita, EDF Senior Scientist & Director of Oceans Innovations

Where did you go to college?

I studied biology and math at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. I later got a Ph.D. in marine ecology from Boston University’s Marine Program, at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Tell me about your experience in the field doing hands-on research.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the field, including the kelp forests of California, the salt marshes and estuaries of New England, the rocky shores of Oregon, and coral reefs around the world.  A highlight was back in the late 1980s when I camped out at an isolated lighthouse about five miles off of Key Largo in the Florida Keys to study Carysfort Reef.

I had a power generator to operate my equipment and would stay out there for a few weeks at a time periodically over the course of a year. I dove and snorkeled in the reef several times a day, eventually spending hundreds of hours underwater to study what caused different types of algae to grow in the coral reef.

You were one of the first advocates to propose that mass coral bleaching is a result of climate change, is that correct?

In the late-1980s several scientists began to notice a strange pattern of coral bleaching. My colleague Dr. Tom Goreau and I looked at global temperature patterns and noticed a high correlation between hot spots in the ocean (just one or two degrees Celsius warmer than surrounding waters) and bleaching.  We also noticed a correlation between unusually hot years and unusually severe bleaching, so we made the case that bleaching was indeed global and could be related to climate change.  When my EDF colleague Mark Epstein and I presented the findings at a meeting of scientists in Berkeley, we were criticized by just about everyone there. It wasn’t until many years later that we were vindicated.

What are some other highlights of your 20 year career at EDF and as a founding member of the organization’s oceans program?

I was able to contribute to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and raise awareness among the general public as well as among the negotiators of the Framework Convention on Climate Change about the impacts of climate change on coral reefs, mangroves, and other ocean ecosystems.

EDF’s Doug Rader and I were two of the first environmentalists to advocate for marine protected areas, way back in the late 1980s. I helped establish the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and marine protected areas in the Channel Islands and off the coast of California as well. 

Another highlight was the excitement of learning about a solution to overfishing from EDF economists Zach Willey and Dan Dudek when I first started at EDF in 1988: catch shares.  It’s great to see catch shares catch on, especially after having to endure heavy criticism and opposition for years.

How did you come to support catch share management for fisheries?

When Doug Hopkins, Doug Rader, and I founded EDF’s oceans program in 1990, we identified overfishing as the number one threat to marine biodiversity. The traditional way of managing fisheries has too often failed either ecosystems, fishermen, or both and needs major surgery, not minor fixes. In the ‘90s, we started reviewing various proposals for fixing the system.  Zach and Dan persuaded us to study catch shares, which many economists had been advocating for a long time and which several countries had already adopted.  After an exhaustive review of the scientific literature, we concluded that catch shares could transform the way fisheries are managed and greatly improve their conservation and economic performance.

Catch shares work because they align stewardship with economic incentives and require fishermen to be accountable for their catch. Fishermen are rewarded when the fish populations rebound by being able to catch more fish.  In conventional fisheries management, fishermen are given the incentive to race to catch as much fish as fast as possible and are forced to throw tons of wasted, dead fish overboard.

You’ve been appointed to many advisory panels and committees over the course of your career. Can you name a few?

I served on the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee, three committees for the Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast Advisory Committee on Individual Transferable Quotas for fish harvest privileges. I’ve had the opportunity to testify in Congress several times and was a consultant to the EPA Science Advisory Board for the Alaskan Oil Spill Bioremediation Project.

What are people surprised to learn about you?

That I play guitar and bass in a rock band.  People are also surprised to learn that I once hosted Barbara Streisand – a huge EDF supporter – on a tour of the award-winning EDF/American Museum of Natural History exhibition on climate change that I helped design.

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