August 2016 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 11. M C F N
U.S. Commerce Department announces 2016 regional fi shery council appointments
The U.S. Commerce Department today
announced the appointment of 19 new and returning members to the eight regional fi shery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries to manage ocean fi sh stocks. One at-large seat on the Mid-Atlantic Council will be announced by the Secretary at a later date. The new and reappointed council members begin their three-year terms on August 11. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Con-
servation and Management Act established the councils to prepare fi shery management plans for their regions. NOAA Fisheries works closely with the councils through this process and then reviews, approves and implements the plans. Council members represent diverse groups, including com- mercial and recreational fi shing industries, environmental organizations and academia. They are vital to fulfi lling the act’s require- ments to end overfi shing, rebuild fi sh stocks and manage them sustainably. “U.S. fi sheries are among the most sus-
tainable in the world, and NOAA Fisheries is grateful for the eff orts these individuals devote to our nation’s fi sheries management and to the resiliency of our oceans. We look forward to working with both new and returning council members,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fi sheries. “Each council faces unique chal- lenges, and their partnership with NOAA Fisheries is integral to the sustainability of the fi sheries in their respective regions, as well as to the communities that rely on those fi sheries.” Each year, the Secretary of Commerce
appoints approximately one-third of the total 72 appointed members to the eight regional councils. The Secretary selects members from nominations submitted by the governors of fi shing states, territories and tribal governments. Council members are appointed to
both obligatory (state-specifi c) and at-large (regional) seats. Council members serve a three-year term and can get reappointed to serve three consecutive terms. Asterisks preceding a member’s name indicate a reap- pointment.
New England Council The New England Council includes
members from Connecticut, Maine, Mas- sachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. The appointees for 2016 will fi ll an obligatory seat for New Hampshire and two at-large seats. Obligatory Seat: Mark H. Godfroy (New Hampshire); At-large Seat: Richard J. Bel- lavance, Jr. (Rhode Island); *Michael P.
Sissenwine (Massachusetts)
Scientists Now Listening for Whales in New York Waters With Real-time Acoustic Buoy
Scientists working for WCS’s (Wildlife Conservation Society) New York Aquar- ium and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) now have an “ear” for the New York region’s biggest “voices and singers”— the whales of New York Bight. On Thursday, June 23rd
, the WCS New York
Aquarium-WHOI team successfully de- ployed a hi-tech acoustic monitoring buoy in New York waters that will enable scientists to eavesdrop on some of the world’s largest animals. The buoy itself is four feet in diameter
and its mast stands six feet above the sea surface. It is connected with patented «stretch hoses» to a weighted frame that sits 125 feet below on the sea fl oor. The frame carries a unique acoustic instrument that records and processes sound from an underwater microphone called a hydrophone. Information from detected sounds is transmitted from the instrument to the buoy through the stretch hoses, and to shore through the Iridium satellite system. The buoy is located between two major shipping lanes entering New York Harbor, 22 miles south of Fire Island›s west end. WHOI engineers developed the buoy, stretch hoses, and the acoustic instrument, and WHOI’s Dr. Mark Baumgartner, a marine ecologist and co-lead of the joint WCS New York Aquarium-WHOI project, developed the software used by the acoustic instrument and led the integration of the instrument into the buoy. “This technology allows us to monitor the presence of several species of baleen whales in near real time, and to use that knowledge to better study and protect these endangered species in the extremely busy waters of the New York Bight,” said Baumgartner. “The acoustic buoy data will help us to bet- ter understand when and where whales are present in New York’s waters, particularly in those places where we have little infor- mation on how whales are aff ected by ship traffi c and ocean noise,” said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of WCS’s Ocean Gi- ants Program and co-lead of the joint WCS New York Aquarium-WHOI project. “When used in conjunction with other surveys and technologies, this buoy will give us a more holistic picture on how whales use this ma- rine habitat, and how to better protect whales in our own backyard.” While similar buoys have been deployed by WHOI off the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine this year, the near real-time technol- ogy is being used for the fi rst time in the
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waters of New York Bight—a region that ranges between Montauk, New York and Cape May, New Jersey—and will help re- searchers better understand the movements of, and threats to, the whales swimming in regional waters. The monitoring of the whales in the New York Bight is supported by The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation. Containing some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, New York Bight is also home to seven species of great whales, in- cluding the humpback whale—known for its acrobatics and long, haunting songs—and the largest animal ever to exist on earth, the blue whale. The highly endangered North Atlantic right whale—one of the world’s rarest whale species—migrates through New York waters, and fi n, sei, minke, and sperm whales have also been seen or heard in the waters of New York Bight. “The presence of some of the world’s largest animals in New York waters is a reminder that we are surrounded by an ocean wilder- ness and something of a delightful surprise for many New Yorkers,” said Jon Forrest Dohlin, Vice President and Director of WCS’s New York Aquarium. “In addition to learning more about whales, the acoustic buoy will help us raise awareness about the diversity of marine wildlife of New York Bight, a critical step towards conserving our region’s natural wealth.” All whale species rely on their acoustic envi- ronment to socialize and navigate, and they
Commercial Fishing News
are vulnerable to human-related impacts such as those associated underwater noise, ship strikes, and fi shing gear entanglements. Data from the buoy and other techniques as part of the project will help the team formulate new strategies for safeguarding the area’s whale populations and coordinate with state and federal agencies to protect whales and their most important habitats. Both WHOI and WCS have a long tradi- tion of research on whale sounds. The late William Edward Schevill of WHOI was a pioneer in the fi eld of whale bio-acoustics, making one of the fi rst recordings of whales (specifi cally beluga whales) in 1949 in Quebec’s Saguenay River. The discovery in the late 1960s that humpback whales sing songs was the result of research by Dr. Roger Payne, a former WCS scientist who turned the sounds of whales into a popular sensa-
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