As of August 12, 2009 the harvesting of krill in the in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington will be prohibited by federal law.

Yesterday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a final rule in the Federal Register prohibiting the harvesting of krill in these three regions. All types of krill harvesting will be illegal, regardless of fishery and gear type.

“Krill are the foundation for a healthy marine ecosystem,” said Mark Helvey, NOAA’s Fisheries Service Southwest Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries. “Protecting this vital food resource will help protect and maintain marine resources and put federal regulations in line with West-Coast states.”

Harvesting krill within three miles of the coastline of California, Oregon, and Washington has already been prohibited by state law, but the zone situated between three and 200 miles off the coast have lacked krill protection until now.

“This is a great success for protecting the entire California Current ecosystem“, said William Douros, West Coast Regional Director for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “This decision reflects strong teamwork within NOAA and a commitment to addressing the issues raised by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and Sanctuary Advisory Councils.”

The krill protection rule was adopted as Amendment 12 to the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which was developed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Amendment 12 adds all species of krill under a new category: ‘prohibited harvest species’.

New research has revealed that the tapetail, bignose and whalefish are in fact all the same fish.

For decades, three different names have been used for three very different looking underwater creatures: the Tapetail, the Bignose and the Whalefish. A team of seven scientists*, including Smithsonian curator Dr Dave Johnson, has now discovered that these three fishes are in fact part of the same family.

After studying the body structures of the tapetails (Mirapinnidae), bignose fish (Megalomycteridae) and whalefish (Cetomimidae) and taking advantage of modern DNA-analysis, the team realized that the three are actually the larvae, male and female, respectively, of a single fish family – Cetomimidae (also known as Flabby whalefish).

“This is an incredibly significant and exciting finding,” says Johnson. “For decades scientists have wondered why all tapetails were sexually immature, all bignose fishes were males and all whalefishes were females and had no known larval stages. The answer to part of that question was right under our noses all along—the specimens of tapetails and bignose fishes that were used to describe their original families included transitional forms—we just needed to study them more carefully.”

If you wish to find out more, the article “Deep-sea mystery solved: astonishing larval transformations and extreme sexual dimorphism unite three fish families” has been published in the journal Biology Letters by the Royal Society, London.

http://publishing.royalsociety.org/

http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/g06648352k5m1562/

* The seven scientists behind the discovery are:

G.David Johnson, Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA

John R. Paxton, Ichthyology, Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales 2010, Australia

Tracey T. Sutton, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USA

Takashi P. Satoh, Marine Bioscience, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan

Tetsuya Sado, Zoology, Natural History Museum and Institute, Chuo-ku, Chiba 266-8682, Japan

Mutsumi Nishida, Marine Bioscience, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan

Masaki Miya, Zoology, Natural History Museum and Institute, Chuo-ku, Chiba 266-8682, Japan

A federal judge on Wednesday refused to stop Oregon and Washington from trapping and killing California sea lions at Bonneville Dam this spring to keep them from gobbling endangered salmon.

The Humane Society of the United States filed a lawsuit against the plan and asked for a preliminary court injunction to stop it.

Humane Society attorneys argued that culling sea lions won’t significantly benefit threatened salmon and steelhead runs. Shooting the animals would harm Columbia River kayakers and others who have relationships with individual sea lions, they said

But U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected the injunction request. The judge agreed that it appears somewhat arbitrary to crack down on sea lions when fishing kills more salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act. But initial evidence indicates that sea lions do “very serious” harm to endangered and threatened salmon, Mosman ruled.

“It’s a rather remarkable thing to say that (destroying) an individual animal will cause irreparable harm,” Mosman said early in the hearing. He later called the Humane Society’s evidence of damage “far less weighty” than the government’s.

State officials said they could begin trapping sea lions as early as Tuesday, targeting animals that have been seen eating federally protected fish at the dam.

The plan authorizes capturing and killing up to 85 sea lions a year for five years. But the states’ goal is to capture 30 this year, with first priority given to relocating the animals to captive environments such as Sea World and the St. Louis Zoo.

About 20 slots have been found so far, said Guy Norman, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Vancouver office. Only about four weeks remain in the spring chinook’s journey upriver to Bonneville, Norman said.

“Our No. 1 step is to relocate as many sea lions as we can,” he said. “Whether we will get to lethal means this year is unknown.”

Anglers and biologists have grown increasingly frustrated with sea lions that feast on salmon gathering to climb Bonneville’s fish ladders. Last year, crews counted sea lions eating more than 4 percent of the salmon run, although biologists suspect they probably ate more.

Sea lion numbers have surged from about 1,000 animals in the 1930s to about 238,000 now along the West Coast. Fishery managers say it doesn’t make sense to let sea lions eat salmon while the Northwest restricts fishing and spends billions to try to help the fish recover.

Humane Society officials said the killing of sea lions at Bonneville Dam would be the first government-led killing since at least 1994, when Congress beefed up protection of marine mammals.

Other sea lions probably will take the place of the captured sea lions, they argued. Getting rid of 30 sea lions would save about 2,100 endangered or threatened fish, far fewer than fishing takes.

A decisive hearing on the lawsuit will be held as early as mid-May — when sea lion trapping probably will be finished for the year.

Sharon Young, a Humane Society field director, said the government should back off in the meantime. “We’re hoping they will not start shooting while the court is still hearing arguments.”

I have recieved permission to use this news article from Scott Learn at scottlearn@news.oregonian.com

For reasons unknown, massive groups of Humboldt Squid have left their native waters in South America and can now be found all the way up to Alaskan waters. The Humboldt Squid is most commonly found between Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of the South American and the U.S. state of California. Recent findings do however suggest that the species is spreading north into the waters of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and even Alaska.

The Humboldt Squid can reach a size of 2 meters (7 feet) and weigh 45 kg (100 pounds). Due to its impressive size, it is known under names such as Jumbo Squid and Jumbo Flying Squid. In Spanish speaking parts of South America, it is called Diablo Rojo which means Red Devil. The creature is equipped with 10 arms and a really sharp beak. It is known for its aggressiveness, but research suggests that these animals are only aggressive during feeding time. During feeding frenzies, they have no problem retorting to cannibalism. When not feeding, they seem to be fairly docile.

If you want to learn more about this aggressive predatory squid and its newfound wanderlust, KQED has devoted the Season 2 Web Premiere of the program QUEST to the Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus gigas). QUEST is a TV, radio, web, and education series that explores science, environment and nature in Northern California. You can find the episode here: http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/03/26/quest-season-2-web-premiere-the-fierce-humboldt-squid/