MCA Member Newsletter | April 2015

Dear MCA Member As the first quarter of 2015 comes to a close Id like to thank you for your
support of the Marine Conservation Alliance. I also hope that 2015 is off
to as good of a start for you as it is for those of us here in the MCA office.
This year promises to be an exciting one on the MCA front as we embark on
several projects and tackle a handful of pressing and complicated issues.
In early March, we wrapped up our annual Board meeting where we made
decisions on priorities and finances for the year. This year we will embark
on a larger list of projects than weve taken on during my past three years
as director. Fortunately we are able to buffer the cost of these projects due
to careful financial steps that were taken over the past couple of years. The
Board voted to increase project funds for the year by utilizing some of our
financial reserves and drawing from savings, and by increasing dues just
slightly from last year.

Merrick Burden
Executive Director

Some of the major issues that the MCA Board voted to tackle this year
include:

IN THIS ISSUE
Marine National
Monuments

Bering Sea Canyons

Pacific Halibut Research

Interactive Map on
Sustainable Fisheries
Management

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Marine National Monuments

Bering Sea Canyons
Pacific Halibut Research
Interactive Map on Sustainable Fisheries Management

In addition, the Board voted to establish other priorities that may involve
some of our efforts depending on how they unfold over the next few
months. These include: the EFH 5 year review; ecosystem-based fishery
management; Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization; and continuing work on
revisions to National Standard 1 Guidelines. Ill elaborate some more on our
priorities for the year below.
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that any discussion concerning new conservation

measures in the North Pacific occurs in a transparent,
public process. At the present time we are working
on the details of that strategy, the fine points of
which will come into focus over the next couple
of weeks. If you have questions about how this is
unfolding I invite you to send me an email or call our
office.

Bering Sea Canyons

The expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine

National Monument in September 2014. Image courtesy
NOAA.

Marine National Monuments

Over the past couple of years there has been
heightened attention on the establishment of
conservation areas in the North Pacific. Last fall a
National Marine Sanctuary Proposal for the Aleutian
Islands region got everyones attention. Thankfully
this proposal was rejected by NOAA.
In addition, over the past year or so, there have been
discussions about the possible use of the Antiquities
Act to establish marine national monuments off the
coast of Alaska for purposes of conservation. The
last time this tool was used was to expand the Pacific
Remote Islands Marine National Monument in waters
of the Western Pacific. What is concerning about the
use of this authority is that it does not come with
any public process requirement, nor does it include
much in the way of guiding principles in terms of
when it should or should not be used. When the Act
is used for its original purpose (to protect relatively
small areas of historical significance) it is one thing.
The possibility of using that same authority to close
massive areas off the coast of Alaska to fishing
without transparency or public process requirements
is quite another.
This coming year we will be working to ensure
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In mid-March staff at the AFSC presented some

additional findings from last summers camera drop
survey they conducted to look for corals along the
Bering Sea shelf-edge/slope area. You may recall a
couple of us here at MCA worked hard to make sure
AFSC had the funding to conduct the survey. We
did so because we feel that conservation decisions
should be supported by sound scientific information.
Prior to the survey being conducted, discussions
about Bering Sea canyons and nearby areas of
the continental slope were being informed by a
patchwork of studies some biased and without
much in the way of adequate sample size. The
preliminary findings from this camera drop survey
effort have painted a fairly different image than the
prior studies would have led us to believe, meaning
our efforts at ensuring the research survey took place
paid off. The preliminary findings to date tell us a few
things, including: coral density is low, sponge density
is low, sea pen density is high in a couple of areas,
there is limited evidence of fishing gear effects, and
others. The AFSC will be presenting their final report

The original coral model versus the refined coral model

after the summer camera drop survey. Image courtesy
Chris Rooper/NOAA.

on this research to the Council in June and we expect

policy decisions to occur sometime toward the end
of this year or early next. Until then, MCA is working
to make sure the best available scientific information
is used and that it is used in a rational manner that
works for the fishing industry.

Pacific Halibut Research

One of the biggest scientific gaps in halibut science
is the lack of a clear understanding of what is
happening with the small, young age classes of
halibut. The current assessment focuses on fish
that are within the exploitable size category (sizes
caught by halibut longline gear) and makes some
estimates about smaller size classes based on what
has recruited to the directed halibut fishery over the
past couple of years. The chief halibut assessment
scientist has described this as driving forward by
looking in the rearview mirror. A better handle on
what is happening with small, juvenile halibut allows
us to make better forecasts about the future status
of the stock, and enables managers to make more
informed policy decisions about directed halibut
fisheries and fisheries that take halibut as bycatch.
In other words, a better handle on small halibut
populations is in everyones interest.
Over the past year we have been working on a
halibut research project intended to develop a sound
index of small halibut. This has been an elusive
issue for decades, but improvements in computingpower and enhanced data collection convinced us
that it was time to try again. We have contracted Dr.
David Sampson at Oregon State University to answer
some initial research questions. In particular, we
asked him to look at the NOAA trawl survey (which
catches small halibut) and to identify reasons why
halibut year classes that were apparent in that trawl
survey never materialized in the directed fishery
or IPHC survey. Were they ever there to begin
with? While formulating these research questions,
we have been talking with staff at the AFSC about
their efforts at helping with halibut science. They
are currently working on a complimentary set of
research questions which looks at halibut bycatch
in groundfish fisheries and its utility as a possible

NMFS crew deck sorting juvenile Pacific halibut during

an Aleutian Island trawl survey. Image courtesy IPHC.
index of small halibut. In looking at preliminary
data, it appears that merging the AFSC research and
the OSU research could potentially result in a solid
index of small halibut abundance. If successful, this
could ultimately improve sustainable management
of the resource and allow for more informed policy
discussions of how best to manage it. Needless to say
Im feeling rather optimistic that we will be able to
make such a contribution. Your financial support has
been invaluable in taking these steps and making the
progress that has been made to date.

Interactive Map on Sustainable Fisheries

Management
For much of the past decade we have heard calls to
abandon single species fishery management for a
more holistic approach. Yet when pressed, nobody
can really tell you what that means. At the end of
the day we believe the discussion continues to be
one about sustainability and how to utilize new and
better scientific information in order to attain that
end.
Early last year we began educating ourselves in
the way of ecosystem-based fishery management,
which I see as a process of pulling together new
and better scientific information in a way that
advances sustainability goals. From research we
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A first look at the potential landing page of the new interactive map/tool - to be released later this summer or fall.
had commissioned last year, we identified 7 steps to
using ecosystem principles in order to help ensure
sustainable fisheries goals are met. Since then we
have asked ourselves whether the North Pacific
Fishery Management Council has been utilizing
these 7 steps and whether we could show realworld examples of how good fishery management
incorporates these principles to ensure sustainability.
What we found was that the North Pacific Council
(and other councils around the U.S. for that matter)
do successfully integrate each of these 7 steps into
fisheries management. In places where each of these
steps has been incorporated, we see large-scale
successes on the socioeconomic and conservation
front. We think this is an important story to tell.
This year we will be producing an interactive web-

Merrick Burden, Executive Director

merrickbmca@gmail.com
4005 20th Ave W, Suite 115
Seattle, WA 98199
(206) 535-8357 (office)
(206) 260-3639 (fax)

Be sure to visit the newly updated MCA website!

www.marineconservationalliance.org
And follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/MarineConservationAlliance

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based tool which shows the 7 steps to sustainability

with examples from the North Pacific. Our target
audience for this tool is policy-makers and advocates,
but we can see this tool being adapted in ways which
serve market audiences, and even being adapted by
other regions which may desire to tell a similar story.
We expect this tool to be produced by late summer/
early fall.
Finally, Id like to thank you for your support of the
Marine Conservation Alliance. I hope you find our
goals for this year to be as exciting as I do. Attaining
them would not be possible without your support.
Please feel free to stop by our offices, to email, or to
call if you have any questions.