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Highlights
Our new website is faster and easier to navigate—and mobile friendly. Watch a short video to learn about some of the new features and the best ways to find everything you need.
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In a new leadership message, Chris Oliver, head of NOAA Fisheries, describes our recent special meeting with Canadian officials to coordinate conservation and management efforts for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. With fewer than 95 breeding female right whales remaining, both countries need to increase efforts to protect every individual.
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Every year, NOAA Fisheries and partners survey shark populations in coastal habitats along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and into the Gulf of Mexico to identify nursery habitats. A new story map displays the shark species found in known or assumed nursery habitats during our 2017 investigations.
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The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission selected five aquaculture pilot projects for funding in FY 2019. As part of our effort to foster responsible aquaculture and seafood security in the United States, NOAA Fisheries provided $575,000 to the Commission to support these projects.
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NOAA Fisheries will issue 7-year regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to govern the incidental take of marine mammals by the U.S. Navy’s Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar training and testing activities in the central and western North Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans from August 2019 to August 2026.
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West Coast
A trained team freed an entangled humpback whale near Tatoosh Island at the tip of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula last week, removing ropes that had hog-tied the whale between its mouth and tail. The whale appeared to be in good condition and was swimming normally after the team removed the ropes.
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By September 16, please submit your comments on a proposed rule for Amendment 28 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. The rule would change bottom trawl fishing closures, re-open historically important fishing grounds, and close deep waters off California to protect deep-sea corals from bottom-contacting gears. Developed in cooperation with states, tribes, industry, and non-governmental organizations, the rule applies an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.
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Pacific Islands
Coral nursery efforts have traditionally focused on rescuing and raising small coral fragments following a ship grounding or a storm. But NOAA and partners, with the help of students at the University of Hawaii, recently developed a new strategy to rescue valuable larger coral colonies that become detached during regular wave action.
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Every year, NOAA Fisheries asks residents and visitors to help us carefully count sea turtles (or “honu”) on the main Hawaiian Islands. If you see a turtle with a white number painted on its shell, please keep a respectful distance (10 feet), take a photo, and report its location to NOAA.
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Southeast
By October 7, please submit your comments on a suite of six proposed amendments developed by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council that would allow the five Gulf states some management authority for private angler red snapper recreational fishing.
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An analysis of 20 years of data shows that the water quality of Florida’s Biscayne Bay, a NOAA Habitat Focus Area, is degrading. Scientists detected an increasing trend in chlorophyll a and nutrient levels, indicating that Biscayne Bay is slowly eutrophying—becoming excessively nutrient rich—likely due to land-based sources.
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Greater Atlantic
Last year, Massachusetts commercial groundfish fisherman Jim Ford participated in a pilot project led by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to test electronic monitoring in the Northeast. Ford enjoys the privacy and the accuracy of the catch monitoring cameras, and he believes electronic monitoring could provide better and more complete data to a fishery that needs it.
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This summer as warm temperatures fuel algal blooms, which in turn decrease dissolved oxygen, the Chesapeake Bay’s iconic striped bass become stressed and squeezed for suitable habitat. Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources released a guide to fishing for striped bass while minimizing their post-release mortality.
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Last month NOAA, the State of Maryland, and Charles County announced the designation of a new national marine sanctuary to protect the remains of more than 100 abandoned steamships and vessels built during World War I. Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary will be the first new national marine sanctuary since 2000.
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Every month the Northeast Fisheries Science Center features a staff member from one of the Center’s five laboratories. In July’s installment, meet Giovanni Gianesin, a field scientist for the Cooperative Research Branch at the Woods Hole Lab in Massachusetts.
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Upcoming Deadlines
August 31: Applications due for open seats on New England Fishery Management Council advisory panels.
September 20: Proposals due for the 2020–2021 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program.
October 31: Proposals due for 2020 Species Recovery Grants to States.
October 31: Proposals due for 2020 Species Recovery Grants to Tribes.
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Upcoming Events
August 15: Last day of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in New Orleans.
August 15: Last day of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Philadelphia.
August 15–21: Public scoping meetings on modifications to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
August 15–September 30: Free tours every weekday at NOAA Fisheries’ Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute in Juneau, Alaska.
August 20–September 24: Six engagement sessions hosted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Cooperative Research Branch in locations from Maine to Virginia.
August 22: Free Atlantic Shark Identification workshop in Bohemia, New York.
September 4–5: Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland, open to the public and broadcast via webinar.
September 4 and 17: Two free Protected Species Safe Handling, Release, and Identification workshops in Rhode Island and Florida.
September 9–10: Two public hearings on the proposed Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Excessive Shares Amendment, hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
September 11–18: Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Boise, Idaho.
September 12: Free Atlantic Shark Identification workshop in Panama City Beach, Florida.
September 16–20: South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
September 24–26: New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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