NOAA Fisheries FishNews May 21, 2020

MAY 21, 2020

Seafood Farmers Need You to Eat Seafood, America! Looking for a way to support your local aquaculture farmer? Try this quick steamed mussel recipe. Support our nation’s aquaculture farmers and have dinner on the table in 10 minutes. NOAA Fisheries is proud to support Eat Seafood, America!, a collaborative effort of the Seafood4Health Action Coalition. Join the conversation online by following #EatSeafoodAmerica.

Highlights NOAA Fisheries Announces Projects Recommended for S-K Funding NOAA Fisheries announced recommendations to fund 30 projects for more than $8 million under the 2020 Saltonstall-Kennedy Competitive Grants Program. The list of projects fall into two categories: 1) Promotion, Development and Marketing and Science or 2) Technology that Promotes Sustainable U.S Seafood Production and Harvesting.

Alaska Teamwork Saves Harbor Seal with Teeth Stuck in Grate A series of fortunate events recently led to a happy ending for a harbor seal. It had gotten its canine teeth stuck in the steel grated walkway at the hatchery in Valdez. NOAA Fisheries received a call the morning of May 7 about an entangled seal at the Solomon Gulch Hatchery on Dayville Road. Hatchery personnel discovered the seal upon arriving at work and immediately cleared the area to lessen the animal’s stress.

West Coast Team Frees Severely Entangled Humpback Whale in Monterey Bay A trained response team on Monday freed a humpback whale in Monterey Bay. It had become so severely entangled and weighed down by commercial dungeness crab fishing gear that it could not move.

Pacific Islands Meet Jolene Lau, Communications Specialist Meet Jolene Lau, a Communications Specialist, who handles media and public inquiries for NOAA Fisheries' Pacific Islands Regional Office. Read her guest blog below to learn how Ms. Lau's heritage and upbringing positively influenced her life and career. Her blog post is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month.  Test Your Knowledge on Hawaiian Hawksbill Sea Turtles May 15 marks Endangered Species Day, a time when we celebrate the protection of endangered species and their habitat. Hawai‘i is often called the endangered species “capital” of the nation. We have more than 500 listings on land and in the sea—nearly 20 percent of the nation’s listed species. Across the Hawaiian Islands, NOAA manages 14 threatened and endangered species, including whales, turtles, fishes, and the iconic Hawaiian monk seal.

Southeast Secretary of Commerce Allocates $88 Million for Fishing Communities Affected by Spillway Opening Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the allocation of $88 million in fishery disaster funding to Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where a catastrophic regional fishery disaster occurred due to extreme freshwater flooding in 2019 associated with the unprecedented opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

Greater Atlantic Industry Spoke and We Listened: Communications Effort Focuses on Groundfish Monitoring and Amendment 23 Development NOAA Fisheries collaboratively manages U.S. fisheries with fishery management councils, fisheries commissions, and state partners. The New England Fishery Management Council is developing Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. Through this amendment, the Council is evaluating the current groundfish monitoring program and considering changes to improve the monitoring system.

Upcoming Deadlines May 21 Request for Comments: Intent to Develop a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Red Grouper Management in the Gulf of Mexico. May 21 Final Rule to Replace Historical Captain Permits with Standard Federal Charter/Headboat Permits in the Gulf of Mexico. May 29 Free webinar-- How Do We Increase Consumption in the United States? Is It Time to Revisit the Idea of a National Seafood Council?

Federal Register Actions Visit NOAA Fisheries' Rules & Regulations web page to learn more about recently proposed and finalized regulations in your region.

Corrections or technical questions should be sent to the FishNews Editor at editor.fishnews@noaa.gov. www.fisheries.noaa.gov

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