lobstering and living on the coast are part of my family and the area’s culture. as a teen, my father would take his skiff out every summer morning to check his traps, bringing his bounty to a nearby cove for sale. the money he made from selling his captured crustaceans funded his first car. when i was little, my father, brother, and i would take our boat out fishing and check the few lobster pots we kept in and around the cove. 

family friends continue to lobster today, utilizing the state’s miles of shoreline as their outdoor office and primary source of income. the quintessential maine fisherman, the ubiquitous term used for both fish and lobster harvesters, respects the water and understands the gulf’s deep-rooted value to the region. however, the ever-increasing impacts of climate change are stressing the gulf of maine’s ecosystem, creating life-altering ramifications for sea and land inhabitants alike. 

reaching the boiling point

today, the gulf of maine is undergoing what oceanographers term a marine heatwave. caused by warm water currents confined by cold water ice cap melt, marine heatwaves are calculated when the water temperature rises above the 90th percentile (of average temperatures) for more than five days. in 2018, during the height of the lobster season, the gulf of maine spent over 180 days in a marine heatwave. the gulf of maine institute published evidence that “sea surface temperatures in the gulf of maine are warming 99% faster than any other global water on the planet” and surging up to 4°c warmer annually. 

to avoid these heat waves, lobsters are slowly migrating north in the gulf of maine in search of colder habitable water. because of this, maine is currently experiencing a lobster boom. last year, the state of maine recorded an all-time high of 100 million pounds harvested, creating a street value of over $725 million, according to a february 2022 state of maine fisheries press release.

the maine lobster’s uncertain future

while record harvests are great news for the fishermen and the local economy, two concerns can’t be ignored. as the catch numbers increase, more consumers are exposed to the toxins the lobsters’ filter and carry in their bodies. according to the national climate assessment, “harmful algal blooms, which can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans,  have become more frequent and longer lasting in the gulf of maine.” fishermen face potential harvesting restrictions because of the toxins, which will lead to reduced sales and reduced incomes. a harbinger of what is to come may be just a few years away. in the 2019-2020 lobster season, a common algae drastically increased its population during a marine heatwave in the southern section of the gulf of maine. when the algae bloom died, it fell to the ocean floor, drastically reducing the water’s oxygen levels. the local lobster population was decimated. 

i fear for my maine coastal community and what the future holds as marine heat waves increase in frequency and alter the viability of local lobster populations. while harvests may be plentiful now, the northern migration of lobsters to find colder temperatures means the fishermen either move with them or risk losing out. after investing in a boat, traps, buoys, and fuel, they may run the risk of no lobsters or harvesting ones exposed to toxins. maine may be at the beginning of the end of its deepest tradition. there is only so much this beautiful yet fragile ecosystem can take and only so much a local economy and its people can endure.

this story was featured in our series, slipping through our fingers: the future of water.

this past september, in slack-calm waters, captain steven melz and his deckhand performed an experiment. fathom by fathom, five different styles of crab traps dropped beneath the surf, delivering lunch to dungeness crabs waiting on the ocean floor. despite a century of unchanged crab trapping techniques, melz hopes to find alternative gear that can sustain the future of the beleaguered bay area dungeness crab fishery, and solve its biggest — and perhaps surprising — problem: whales.

whales are a big problem for crab fishers, or depending on who you’re asking, crab fishing is a big problem for whales, which can become entangled in the ropes attached to crab fishing traps. 

after whale entanglements in the ropes attached to crab fishing gear spiked, a 2017 lawsuit resulted in new whale-safe restrictions on california crab fisheries. although crab fishing season historically opens in november, for the last several years, lingering whale populations in the area have delayed the start of the season until after the valuable holiday market. experts and fishers predict these truncated seasons will become the new normal.

“i would love it to be the way that it was,” said melz, a commercial crab fisher who began crab fishing on his late father’s boat over 30 years ago. “but that’s not going to happen.”

in dedicated working groups, state regulators, game wardens, ecologists, and fishers collaborate to innovate viable whale-safe gear. as numerous other strategies to make conventional gear safer have been implemented, finding a mutually-agreeable alternative crab fishing gear has become a central sticking point. with their livelihoods at stake, some fishers have taken innovation into their own hands.

a tangled history
 

“crab pots,” the conventional gear for trapping crabs, hold bait inside four-sided closed woven cages. crabs enter through tunnels in the netting, while escape rings allow for smaller crabs that don’t meet regulated size requirements to exit. crab pots rest on the ocean floor and are attached to floating buoys that mark their location through a vertical line of rope, which whales can become entangled in.

depending on their permit, fishers set out hundreds of pots a day, which often remain in the water for multiple days. but the longer that ropes remain in the water, the higher the chance of entanglement with a whale, which can result in injuries or death. the whales, snagging their fins and bus-sized bodies on the ropes, can drag gear for thousands of miles, embedding the ropes into their flesh and creating challenges around identifying the origin of the fishing gear.

entanglements happen as whales migrate down to their winter breeding grounds in mexico, and pass through the bay area’s dungeness crab fishing zones. as climate change warms ocean waters, this migratory timing has shifted, overlapping with crab fishing season along the west coast.

prior to 2013, the national oceanic and atmospheric association (noaa) reports an average of 10 whales per year confirmed to be entangled in fishing gear along the u.s. west coast.

but in 2015, a warm water event known to ecologists as “the blob” resulted in a drastic increase of whales in the bay area during crab season. the number of entanglements almost doubled from the previous year. by the end of the season, 50 whales, primarily humpbacks, had been recorded to be entangled along the west coast. 

in 2017, the center for biological diversity, an environmental activism nonprofit organization, sued the california department of fish and wildlife (cdfw), stating that these entanglements were violations of the endangered species act, which protects humpback and blue whales. 

“it’s really clear that lawsuits by private citizens and environmental groups are absolutely crucial to making sure that laws work,” said patrick sullivan, media director for the center for biological diversity. “we just see it as part of the democratic process.”

in response to the lawsuit, fishers in both the recreational and commercial sector say they feel disproportionately targeted as the “low-hanging fruit” compared to other industries, such as cargo ships that collide with whales. data shows that these are a leading cause of whale deaths and have a high fatality rate. but on the west coast, these events are difficult to document as many whales sink before they are found; experts say as few as one in 10 whale strikes are recorded. 

after negotiations and an intervention by the pacific coast federation of fishermen’s associations, which represented crab fisherfolk, the lawsuit reached a settlement, and cdfw developed programs to regulate crab fisheries, based on a yearly risk-to-whales assessment.

“they want a program where they can shorten seasons, pull gear in, reduce the number of [ropes in the water],” said ryan bartling, a senior environmental scientist on the whale safe fisheries project. as part of the settlement, the dungeness crab fishing gear working group was formed to brainstorm whale-safe gear alternatives with input from all stakeholders.

1,000 cuts: the impact of regulations

“[the crab fishery] is a shell of its former self because of the regulations,” said captain larry collins, who is president of the san francisco fisherman’s association and member of the dungeness crab fishing gear working group. “we call it death by 1,000 cuts.”

as part of risk assessments formulated by the group, noaa scientists now conduct an aerial survey of whale populations before the start of each crab fishing season. if too many whales are detected, the season remains closed until the next survey. if entanglements are detected, the season closes early.

fishers face many challenges from both the delayed season starts and early closures. for several years, crab fishers have missed the lucrative thanksgiving market for crab, which is a traditional holiday food in the bay area. fishers also say that starting as late as january means more dangerous weather, competition from northern fleets and large wholesale companies, and that the unpredictable timing adds high costs to retain crews.

“we call it death by 1,000 cuts.”

“i like whales,” said collins. “but now whales are costing me $50,000 to $70,000 a year.”

whale populations are increasing and have continued to remain in high numbers through the start of dungeness crab fishing season in november. “the season is not going to look like it once was, just based on the data we’re seeing,” said bartling. “there’s still going to be a crab fishery, it’s just going to look a little bit different.”

pop-up gear: can technology provide a solution?

as part of the working groups, stakeholders modify existing gear to be more whale-safe, and review proposals for alternative gear that could allow fishing during season closures with lowered whale entanglement risk.

one of these proposals is a new gear technology in development, known as pop-up gear or by the misnomer, “ropeless” gear. pop-up gear reduces the amount of time ropes spend in the water by storing the buoy and rope on the ocean floor with the crab pot, rather than connecting the crab pot to a buoy on the surface through a suspended vertical rope. when triggered by a remote control or a preset timer, the popup gear releases the buoy and rope, which float to the surface to be retrieved by a fisher.

 

fishers remain unconvinced that pop-up gear is viable, citing the difficulties in operating as a fleet around unseen gear, unfeasible costs, and high rates of failure during tests.

without a surface buoy design marking its location, fishers are concerned with overlapping as each boat lays hundreds of crab traps in the same zone, which can lead to tangling, lower catches, and gear failure.

“they think we lose gear now?” said collins, who participates in a lost-gear retrieval program. “you gotta be able to see the buoys [on the surface of the water] so you don’t tangle with everybody and their brother.” 

at over $1,000 a pot, pop-up gear could be over three times more expensive than conventional crab fishing gear. if the buoy fails to pop-up, the gear becomes irretrievable; lost pop-up gear may pose a larger risk to whales and boat engines, as fishers unwittingly lay gear on top of the unseen ropes below, and ropes from multiple sets of gear tangle with each other.

“it’s a huge capital investment,” said captain shane wehr, a commercial dungeness crab fisher with family roots in the san francisco fishing community. “it would probably weed out half of the fishermen, and guys would sell out of the industry completely.”

regulators and scientists see potential in pop-up gear. “i love the idea of ropeless gear,” said dr. elliott l. hazen, a research ecologist at noaa in monterey, california, who sees pop-up gear as a promising technology that requires further testing. “how do you help fishermen avoid each others’ gear? if you can solve that problem, along with the sheer cost of ropeless gear, i think it’s an amazing solution. i really do.”

although a $500,000 grant currently exists for pop-up gear testing, bartling says few fishers have signed up to participate in gear trials. fishers say they are wary of regulations that would force them to reinvest in the expensive pop-up gear if the trials are successful. 

“it’s a fear from decades and decades of having their way of life stripped away,” said captain brand little, a commercial fisherman. “if something gets taken away, its never coming back”

hoops, scoops and loopholes

captain brand “hoop net” little, received his nickname for his advocacy of another, less experimental type of alternative crab fishing gear as a solution to whale entanglements. 

traditionally used in spiny lobster fishing, hoop nets are shaped like volcanoes, with a circular opening at the top of a wider, circular base. unlike crab pots, hoop nets have no other openings. because of their open top which allows for crabs to escape once they have finished eating the bait, hoop nets cannot be left out for longer than two hours.

due to this incentive to check hoop nets every two hours, the window for entanglement is much smaller. as two hours is too brief to leave the hoops unattended, any entangled whale would be quickly found, allowing time for the whale to be reported and potentially helped.

hoop nets were first seized upon by the recreational crab fishery, which is also impacted by whale risk-assessment closures, but has separate regulations. shortly after the delayed season started in november 2021, captain james smith, a former commercial crab fisher turned recreational charter boat captain, noticed that the text of the recreational regulations allowed for hoop net use during the closure.

“everybody was trying to get their hands on hoops as fast as they could,” said smith. despite initial doubts from his peers on the efficacy of hoop nets, smith was able to tweak his hoop net process to consistently make his catch limit of 10 crabs per net, per day. once the word got out, charter boat businesses were able to salvage their crab fishing season by using hoop nets.

on the commercial side, little, a participant in the dungeness crab fishing gear working group, then noticed that recreational fishers began fishing for crab with hoop nets, despite the whale-risk-related closures. “and we’re all just sitting here waiting,” said little. “why can’t i try these?” 

but while they recognize the success of hoop nets for the recreational fisheries, some commercial fishers say hoop nets are a non-option for commercial fleets. “the guys that run my boats say, ‘f*ck hoops. f*ck ‘em from here and back,” said wehr. 

compared to crab pots, hoop nets catch less crab and require more work. due to the two hour window for operating each hoop net, fishers are concerned of the potential of retrieving gear during storms, which can form quickly on the water. although the costs and set-up of hoop nets and crab pots are similar, many fishers feel reinvesting in new gear is too costly in both price and labor.

“all i can do is go out, use my boat, and try to come up with my ideas,” said melz, who participated in pop-up gear trials, and decided to test hoop nets against crab pots for himself. he tested five variations of gear; three versions of a hoop net, and two versions of a crab pot. 

the winner? a crab pot without a top, like a hoop net, but with the other design features of crab pots that add efficiency.

“i lovingly call them scoops,” said melz, nicknaming the modified crab pot. with an open top, his scoops require the same short use-times that make hoop nets safer for whales. but unlike hoop nets, scoops are modified crab pots and would require fishers to simply modify their existing inventory.
 

 

the process for securing hoop net or scoop use commercially would require little and melz to go through the lengthy process of applying for an experimental fishing permit, which would give a limited number of fishers an opportunity to fish with experimental gear.

little said industry competition, alongside the fear of traditional crab pots being banned if hoop nets are successful enough, could put a “huge target” on his back.

“there’s $10 bills on the bottom of the ocean. there’s millions of them and it’s a race to pick them up the fastest,” said little.  “and now you’re sending 50 guys out there to get a head start? it’s not going to be popular.”

some fishers say it’s time to revisit a reduced-gear solution they initially rejected and test the efficacy of the other numerous whale-safe improvements they’ve made to their conventional gear by setting only a portion of their gear out in the water. but due to the initial pushback, regulators are no longer considering this option.

moving forward, together

crab fishing season was slated to open this past weekend. but with over 100 whales detected off the coast, commercial fishermen have been benched for a fourth year in a row; only recreational fishermen using hoop nets were permitted to begin their season.

“we’re stewards of the resource,” said captain richard powers, president of the golden gate fishermen’s association, which represents northern california charter boat fleets. “we’re doing everything in our power to be sustainable. we want this to remain exactly what it’s been: part of our heritage.”

even though a solution won’t come in time for this year’s season, the commercial fleet, charter boat captains, regulators, and scientists say they are committed to collaboration and share the same goals.

“we’re working to solve this, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we want a viable fishery,” said commissioner eric sklar of the california department of fish and game commission. he said that the stakes are clear: if whale entanglements continue to remain unsolved, it may mean the end of the dungeness crab fisheries.

“there is not one fisherman who wants [entanglements] to happen,” said captain dick ogg, a commercial fisher who assisted during noaa sponsored disentanglement first responder courses, and participated during the aerial surveys of whale populations during entanglement risk assessments. “this is where we make our living. why would we do something detrimental to the environment?”

after the working groups and regulations fulfill the conditions of the settlement, the california department of fish and wildlife says the fishery could file for an incidental take permit, which grants an industry with a permitted amount of yearly “take”. take is defined as an unintentional, but expected, disruption or harm to a species of animal protected by the endangered species act.

while incidental take permits have been called a “necessary evil,” many are in agreement that this would represent a last-ditch solution.

“fishermen are the ones who are gonna want to protect [whales],” said melz, who took the level 1 disentanglement responder training. “because if they fail, we’ll fail.”

“this latest capture is disturbing,” said mark fritts, a u.s. fish and wildlife services ecologist based in lacrosse, wisconsin. “we’ve never seen that many fish caught at the same time in this region.”

in the upper mississippi and illinois rivers, asian carp reproduce rapidly, have no natural competitors and out-compete native fish for food supply and space, which devastates native fish populations – in some streams, they make up 75% of fish biomass. asian carp, which can weigh between 60 and 110 pounds, are also notorious for jumping up to three meters out of the water when spooked by boat motors or loud sounds – creating a public safety risk and threatening a $7-billion sport-fishing market.

despite prevention measures, like government-contracted asian carp fisherman and dam barriers, asian carp have been slowly spreading upstream to the upper mississippi river and the great lakes. prior to this, fritts believed that most of the population in the upper mississippi river was confined below the quad-city region in illinois and iowa. now, he’s not so sure.

james lamer, a large river ecologist with the illinois natural history survey, said heavy flooding in the mississippi river basin last spring may have caused the fish to spawn upstream.

or, it could’ve been sheer luck.

according to lamer’s research, asian carp play favorites. from 2013 to 2016, lamer and his team in illinois tagged and tracked asian carp migration through the illinois and mississippi rivers’ channels in search for some sort of pattern. they found that carp species and hybrids are more or less mobile based on different water temperatures, flow and volume, which makes their spread a little bit more predictable.

“the water temperatures are still really low, and that’s when they can aggregate,” lamer said. “lacrosse might have got lucky and just got a lot of fish in that one haul just because the carp tend to congregate during those cold-water temperatures in certain areas.”

from his research, lamer knows that april weather brings favorable conditions to asian carp in illinois’ contained backchannels, which is a crucial time for government-contracted fishermen and researchers to extract invasive carp from the streams.

but due to the spread of coronavirus throughout the united states, lamer said they might not be able to get out on the water and curb their spread.

“the only thing that we can do in the meantime is analyze data and try to figure out what we have going on with the data we have,” he said.

but lamer isn’t too concerned – his research gives some hope to midwestern waterways. asian carp are finicky about their environment. their preference for deep waters could keep them out of uninfected areas if the water levels continue at their current low levels, like they have been for the last couple of weeks.

“long story short, i think any damage of not fishing for the one to two months off the water due to coronavirus can be mitigated when fishermen return to the water,” he said.

even if water conditions are perfect, history shows the mississippi’s unpredictable environment can be a natural barrier to carp mobility. for example, lamer’s tagged carp had an abundant year in 2016, but had barely any sign of reproduction the next two years. lamer and his team think it’s because changing water flow pushed unhatched carp eggs out of the upper mississippi’s uninfected waters.

lamer is keeping a positive attitude, but the “ifs” are adding up. in the worst-case scenario, asian carp spread to uninfected waters and decimate native fish populations and the fishing economy.

the midwestern waterways’ fate is up to mother nature.

“asian carp have very variable recruitment and reproduction, and so if we had the water conditions are stable for them like they were in 2016, then it could be problematic if we’re not out there removing fish,” lamer said. “if conditions aren’t conducive to spawning or movement and all of the gates stay in the water because we don’t get major flooding, it may not be as problematic.”

“it’s kind of a gamble – we’re hoping for the latter,” he added.

fritts is less concerned, too. last year mississippi’s flooding set back his team’s research, and he said every year has its own challenges.

“my rocket is set on launch as soon as they give me permission to get back out there. but we’ll just do what we can. these forces are bigger than us and we’ll just do our best,” he said.

only one side event during the week-long meeting at the fao headquarters in rome was dedicated to fishing, and the fishing industry rarely, if ever, came up during main events. according to people who work on fisheries and aquaculture for the fao, this is indicative of a larger problem.

“fisheries in general, by and large, do not gain as much attention or recognition or publicity as terrestrial agriculture,” said omar elhassan, an aquaculture biosecurity consultant for the fao.

fisheries and aquaculture provide the primary source of animal protein for 17% of the world’s population, according to the fao. and in low-income, food-deficit countries and small-island developing countries, nearly 25% of people rely on fish for their primary source of animal protein. when it comes to nutrition, fish matter, both globally and locally.

the same is true for employment, as it is estimated that more than 260 million people around the world work in the fishing industry. this number doesn’t necessarily account for those who aren’t employed as fishers but rely on sustenance fishing to feed their families. aquaculture and fisheries assure the livelihoods of 10% to 12% of the world’s population, or about 770 million to 925 million people.

if you picture huge industrial fishing boats – or the tv show “deadliest catch” — when you hear the word “fisherman,” you’re not alone. industrial-scale fishing tends to dominate how the western world understands fishing, but it doesn’t reflect the reality for most of the world’s fishers. small-scale fisheries employ 90% of the world’s capture fishers. adjust your mental image to include open-air fish markets, small fishing boats, and “the old man and the sea,” and now you’re closer to the truth. oh, and half the people in your mental image should be women.

empowering female fishers

women make up half the workforce of the seafood industry (including both fisheries and aquaculture). because the fishing activities are often equated with capture fishing and most capture fishers are men, the number of women involved in the fish supply chain has typically been vastly underreported.

“we see some women are fishing, but they are certainly marginalized often because they don’t often get on the boat, and that might also depend on some traditional beliefs – for example, that women are bad luck having on the boat,” said nicole franz, a fishery planning analyst for the fao.

women do the majority of the post-harvest work in many small-scale fisheries worldwide, whether they are cleaning and selling the fish or repairing fish nets and boats. but carrying these responsibilities doesn’t mean women always have access to necessary resources or to the markets, and they rarely reap the full benefits of their work.

“(women) don’t necessarily get the fair distribution of benefits within the value chain. if they’re not organized, that’s even worse. we see examples when you have a women’s organization that can act as a trade group together then obviously they can demand higher prices and they’re in a better position to access the market,” franz said.

the fisheries department at fao works closely with women’s groups, especially in africa and asia, to help support the rights and empowerment of women fishers. franz cites the recent establishment of a national women fishers’ organization in tanzania as an example.

technology as an intervention in fisheries

technology can make a critical difference in the fish supply chain, especially in terms of productivity and nutrition. in africa and southeast asia, it’s common to dry small fish by placing them directly on the beach. access to something as simple as a drying rack can completely change how much a small-scale fishing community can gain from their harvest.

“a small innovation like putting this fish on a rack rather than on the floor could make a big difference in terms of the product quality and hence the price, the nutritional qualities, and the overall volume that is produced by these women,” franz said.

some traditional fish-smoking processes can cause respiratory illnesses among women and children who are exposed to the smoke. the fao is working on providing access to better ovens that allow women to work without health risks. usually, a country or an organization will make a request to the fao for better technology, and the fao will provide training on how to build, operate, and maintain the technology. this helps to avoid dividing the market, which is what would happen if some women were directly given the technology and others were not.

“you need to very carefully assess the situation beforehand and discuss with the women themselves a solution on how maybe as a group they can come up with a system where they take turns in accessing this oven or how they divide the benefits of the products that are coming from the use of this improved technology,” franz said.

indigenous fishers and rights to the resource

small-scale fisheries also are critically important to indigenous communities, from the arctic circle to the coasts of south america. as with women, it’s difficult to track how many fishers are indigenous, but this is an area that the fisheries department of fao is beginning to dedicate more attention to because of how important fishing is to indigenous peoples around the world.

one of the main issues facing indigenous fishers is the recognition of access rights. customary or informal access rights are often disregarded when governments develop regulations and create fishing quotas. in the united states, the fish wars were a notable series of conflicts between the washington state government and native american tribes in the 1960s and 1970s. the state government tried to enforce fishing laws that were in conflict with hundred-year-old treaties held by the tribes, and the u.s. government eventually sided with the tribes.

tribal governments and organizations can help people organize and assert their rights, and franz has noticed an uptick in organizing among young indigenous people, especially.

“it’s an expression of this growing awareness and interest to get organized, to get the voice into processes, and to see how the particular issues that indigenous peoples depending on small-scale fisheries are also facing on top of what already is often a challenge for small-scale fishers,” franz said.

climate change threatens livelihoods

you may be wondering why any of this matters, since climate change is acidifying and warming our oceans, killing our fish, and driving people away from their coastal and island homes. but climate change only makes the need for fisheries-focused work even greater, because the people who rely on fish for income or food will be hit hardest. the role of the fao, then, is to figure out how to increase the resilience of coastal fishing communities.

“we have colleagues (who) work on climate change impacts on fisheries because obviously, in particular, coastal communities are very, very exposed, and the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change are considerably higher in coastal areas,” franz said. “they’re looking at the impact both on the resource, in terms of, for example, how stocks are shifting patterns based on the change of temperature in the sea, but also the impacts of increased climate vulnerability on coastal communities.”

multibillion-dollar fisheries in the united states are threatened by ocean acidification, which impedes the structural development of corals, lobsters, and other marine organisms. one state that is particularly threatened is alaska, the home of the nation’s largest crab fishery. alaskans tend to rely more on subsistence harvests than many other americans, so communities that rely on subsistence crab harvests are especially threatened by the changing ocean. thousands of miles away in the caribbean, ocean acidification is harming the coral reefs that are critical to the economies of florida, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands. coral reefs bring in tourism, produce fish to be harvested, and reduce coastal flooding and erosion.

women and indigenous fishers are especially vulnerable to climate change because their more limited rights and mobility make it harder for them to migrate when their current homes no longer yield enough fish. increasing their economic mobility and power in the market can make women and indigenous fishers more resilient to climate change.

the social costs of conservation

destructive fishing practices and overfishing can transform ecosystems and reduce fisheries, sometimes to the point of no return. when there are few regulations over access to a fishery, resources become depleted and communities are devastated.

“what we see often is that there are no regulations for access, and that’s part of an issue in terms of environmental sustainability, because we see growing populations, increased pressure on coastal areas,” franz said. “on the other hand, for many of these communities, fishing is the only way to make a living, to get food.”

the presence of industrial fishing companies puts pressure on the already tenuous balance of access and protection. common resource management models include coastal zones that are reserved for small-scale fishers, quota systems assigned to a community or an individual, and co-management systems that allow governments to directly collaborate with small-scale and industrial fishers. but monitoring and enforcement is always a challenge for a government, which is a benefit of co-management.

“it’s about handing over, in many ways, the responsibility for the stewardship directly to the communities by generating a system in which they really recognize and value those management measures because they have co-designed them,” franz said.

conflicts between conservation efforts and fishing communities are also a growing issue, especially since national or state governments may create marine protected areas without consulting small-scale fishing communities that will be affected. conservation has social costs, and just access to resources is sometimes overlooked in pursuit of environmental protections.

“in fao, what we’re using is the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries, which tries to look at the environmental, the human, and the institutional dimensions together to make sure that these tradeoffs and tensions are identified from the beginning, and that whenever management measures are decided or the use of an area is decided, this is kept in mind,” franz said.

when negative impacts on the community are unavoidable, it’s important to look out for them in other ways.

“you make sure that either there’s a compensation mechanism or there’s some kind of a safeguarding function to ensure that you’re not having these unintended impacts afterwards that you haven’t even thought about,” franz said.

wild-caught vs farm-raised: the aquaculture debate

not all fish are harvested from the wild, which is a good thing since climate change and overfishing are shrinking fisheries worldwide. aquaculture is responsible for about half of global fish production.

here’s another mental image you may need to adjust: for the most part, aquaculture is not done in factories by large corporations but in backyard ponds by individuals and families. most aquaculture is small-scale, and 90% of the world’s aquaculture takes place in china and southeast asia, according to fao aquaculture biosecurity consultant omar elhassan. and again, about half of the people involved are women.

elhassan believes aquaculture is the future of global fish production, and he notes that aquaculture has been the fastest growing sector of food production since the 1980s. but cultural opinions about it differ greatly from place to place.

“all the fishing zones are essentially at capacity,” elhassan said. “the only thing that’s going to boost food fish production is (aquaculture), but also it really depends on the cultural mindset towards aquaculture.”

in asia and europe, aquaculture tends to be widely accepted, but in the united states, wild-caught fish is believed to have superior freshness and nutrition. 

“in the u.s., (fish) is one of the largest trade deficits. all of the fish in the u.s. is essentially just imported from other countries, and it’s a mix of aquaculture and wild-caught,” elhassan said. but false or misleading labeling leads americans to believe all of the fish they’re eating came from an ocean or a lake.

in elhassan’s opinion, there’s nothing inferior about fish, shrimp, or other animals that come from aquaculture versus from the wild. in terms of nutrition, health, and safety, the american distaste for aquaculture has little factual backing.

protecting aquaculturists’ livelihoods through biosecurity

the main risk faced by aquaculturists is aquatic animal diseases, which can rapidly infect an entire population of animals because it is hard to pinpoint the original source of infection and stop the spread of disease in a pond. biosecurity is a set of measures that people involved in aquaculture undertake to fortify an aquaculture production facility against aquatic animal diseases, and it’s what elhassan focuses on at fao.

“if you’re a small-scale farmer and you lose your entire stock, that can be quite devastating for livelihoods,” elhassan said. it’s like a corn farmer who loses his entire crop to a flood or a sheep herder who loses his herd to an animal attack.

“let’s say i’m a small scale aquaculturist and i lost all of my shrimp stock because of a disease, and let’s say that i’m not even in the worst case; i lost my whole stock but i still had some money or i could still take a loan. there’s still persisting problems of having this disease in my pond. now i have to take all the water out, i have to disinfect the water – can’t just throw it into the environment – and i’m going to have to dry my pond and my soil and sediment and disinfect the things for like at least three months before you would be even allowed to try to produce again,” elhassan said.

the role of the fao is to work with governments that request aquaculture biosecurity assistance to try to protect small-scale aquaculturists from losing their livelihoods in this way.

“what really drives a lot of the work, at least for us in the aquaculture branch, is trying to connect different stakeholders such as national, international, government, academia, and small-scale to recognize aquaculture as a truly profitable enterprise,” elhassan said.

getting fisheries to the global stage – or not

fisheries and aquaculture are profitable, important industries that employ and feed millions of people – especially women and indigenous peoples – around the world. in recognition of this, the fao is working to ensure that the needs of fishers, aquaculturists, and the people who rely on their harvests are addressed by the un. but most public-facing policy conversations in the international community still focus on terrestrial agriculture. despite the love that many cultures share for the ocean, it seems unlikely that fish will ever hold our attention like cows have.

but on the other hand, elhassan and franz measure success through the local impacts of their efforts, not through the global perception of their work. their focus is the small-scale fisher, not the large-scale policymaker. and maybe that’s for the best – maybe the most impactful work is done when policies for fisheries and aquaculture remain on the smallest scale.

this extraordinary undersea world has drawn researchers and conservationists from around the world, who live alongside a population of 25,000, many of whom are recent immigrants from mainland ecuador. the population of galápagos has risen steadily since a few decades before the creation of the marine reserve in 1998, as the archipelago’s economy has grown from agriculture and trade based, to hospitality and tourism based.

the magnificent sea and land animals, from sea turtles and sea lions to giant tortoises and darwin’s finches are a draw to tourists globally. over 200,000 travelers visit the archipelago each year to explore its lava formations and take photos with its fearless animal population. this economic change has partially influenced the galápagos national park directorate (gnpd), which oversees human activity in the reserve, to focus more of its efforts on conserving the wildlife of the area. part of those efforts were an increase on fishing regulations and a reduction to the amount of artisanal fishing allowed in certain parts of the reserve.

galápagean fishermen, many of whom have been fishing all their lives, have been caught in the crosshairs of these regulations, and are working with the gnpd, the charles darwin research station (the island’s scientific authority) and the tourism sector to maintain their right to fish. this conflict has gone on since the reserve was established in ’98, but due to increased efforts by scientists and national park rangers, the relationship between the groups has steadily improved over time, and a more co-managerial approach has been established.

regardless, some fishermen still feel snubbed by the changing economy, and have seen the galápagos they grew up in change completely. as the population continues to grow, and more and more visitors arrive, it is unclear what role these fishermen will have in the galápagos in the future.

the new law will phase out the large-scale driftnets used to catch swordfish, institute a buyout program, and incentivize the use of more sustainable fishing methods, conservation group oceana reports. the california driftnet fishery, which harvests swordfish on a majority of the state’s coast, is the only u.s. fishery still utilizing the harmful nets, according to national geographic.

the new law will effectively reform this fishery, and in doing so reforms the state’s swordfish industry. the new regulations are a crucial development in sustainable fishing, in light of a 2016 report by the turtle island restoration network finding that swordfish accounted for less than half of the animals caught in the fishery’s driftnets over the past decade. this means that a majority of animals caught were bycatch, non-target species including whales, dolphins, sharks, seals, and turtles. most animals caught in driftnets do not survive, and bycatch is usually thrown overboard dead or dying.

the reason that driftnets kill so indiscriminately is that their outdated design does not ensnare only targeted species. often the length of the golden gate bridge, these nets hang in the ocean like an invisible wall, entangling anything that swims too close.

“these driftnets are over a mile long, 100 feet deep, and designed to kill everything in their path,” paul nicklen, co-founder of conservation group sealegacy, stated on their website. the lack of nuance with which driftnets kill makes the california swordfish industry one of the most unsustainable and environmentally damaging, according to nicklen.

a new fishing method called deep-set buoy gear has proven to out-perform driftnets while minimizing bycatch, meaning there is no excuse to continue the use of driftnets, oceana reports.

the negative impact that the swordfish industry has on the marine ecosystem was brought to the attention of the public in april by a video of behind-the-scenes footage of the industry created by nicklen’s team at sealegacy. the group’s subsequent petition to stop the use of driftnets collected over 115,000 signatures, giving the momentum needed to encourage state politicians to prioritize the creation of new legislation regulating the industry.

the newly enacted law is an important step in demanding sustainable practices from the fishing industry and bringing california up to environmental standard. the united nations instituted a ban on driftnet usage in the high seas in 1992, and the remainder of the west coast of america is also protected from fishing with driftnets by laws in oregon and washington.

in a press release, oceana’s deputy vice president susan murray applauded the progress made by the new legislation: “this is literally an enormous net benefit for endangered whales, sea turtles and other marine life, as well as to responsible fishermen, coastal communities and seafood consumers. there is no longer room in our oceans for any fishery that throws away more than it keeps.”

grand junction, colo. – the temperature is hovering around 90 degrees as dale ryden and i float down the colorado river near grand junction. the turbid water looks inviting, a blessed reprieve from the heat, but if either of us jumped in, we’d be electrocuted.

“it can actually probably be lethal to people if you get in there,” said ryden, a fish biologist with the u.s. fish and wildlife service.

ryden’s co-workers cruise by in gray and blue inflatable rafts, their bows fitted with a rig that suspends metal spheres the size of disco balls from electric cables. when the balls are lowered into the river, a generator at the back of each raft sends current through the balls into the water. what lies beneath the surface – ryden likened it to ovaltine – is a mystery the biologists intend to explore.

“to get at the animal we’re studying, we have to actually find ways to capture them and take them out of their natural habitat,” ryden said. “and so, one of the ways we can do that is electrofishing.”

fish that venture near the electrified rafts are momentarily stunned and pulled from the water with nets. today’s mission is to remove non-native fish – such as smallmouth bass that feed on the fry of the four endangered species found in the river. the bass will be collected, measured, weighed, stored in bags and eventually sent to a landfill.

any of the four endangered species – bonytail, razorback sucker, colorado pikeminnow and humpback chub – we encounter will be treated with care and released back into the river.

ryden has a tough, and some would say impossible, job. every day, he tries to find ways to help fish that evolved to live only in this river system – one of the most engineered ecosystems in the world – survive.

ancient species

fish in the colorado river are a product of harsh conditions.

over millions of years, the rushing, sediment-laden water sculpted their bodies with characteristic ridges and bumps, making them well-equipped to handle its highs and lows. but human interference in the rivers they call home has pushed a few to the edge of extinction.

“they’ve survived three explosions of the yellowstone supervolcano,” ryden said. “they were here when mastodons and woolly mammoths went extinct.”

however, the era of big dam building in the west fundamentally altered their river home over the past 100 years or so, ryden said. dams and diversions have made life close to impossible for these fish. then people started adding toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and a range of invasive fish for sportsmen to catch.

“call it the death by a thousand cuts,” ryden said. “so they could survive any one of those problems probably fairly well. when you start throwing them all on top of them, then it becomes a lot more problematic.”

about an hour into our trip, there’s a flurry of activity on one of the rafts. technician andrew disch dips his net and pulls out the river’s historic top predator – the colorado pikeminnow. it has been listed as endangered for more than 50 years.

the fish is impressive, measuring about 3 feet long. but it pales compared to the pikeminnows that once hunted the river, ryden said.

“back in the day, these guys used to get 6 feet long and a hundred pounds.”

the pikeminnow gulps down prey with a mouth so huge you could put your whole hand inside without touching the sides – something ryden has tested personally. the torpedo-bodied fish is pale green on top with a white belly and pinkish tail.

u.s. fish and wildlife service biologist travis francis scanned a microchip biologists inserted in the pikeminnow years ago.

“we haven’t we haven’t seen this fish since 2004,” he said, adding that biologists make dozens of passes over this section of river each summer. they’ve documented some pikeminnow migrating several hundred river miles from the san juan river, down through lake powell and up to grand junction. early settlers nicknamed the pikeminnow “the white salmon” for such behavior.

ryden estimated 400 pikeminnow exist in the upper reaches of the colorado river, and close to 800 in stretches of the green river, a tributary of the colorado. he likens the pikeminnow to a lioness on the serengeti: each is at the apex of its food chain. now imagine you built a series of concrete walls around the lion, boxing her in, making it difficult to hunt. that’s what dams on the colorado river have done to the pikeminnow, ryden said.

after the fish was measured and scanned, ryden gently picked it up and walked into the river.

“come here, baby,” he whispered.

with both hands he lowers the minnow into the water. it disappears into the murk.

during this day on the river, ryden repeatedly referred to the endangered species as “our fish.” he takes ownership of their protection. they’re something different and more special than the non-native fish that surround them.

“i’ve earned a lot of respect for them,” he said. “i think if you put that many issues in front of people that we had to adapt to in a very short amount of time, i think as a species we would have a very hard time existing in some of the world-changing conditions that these fish have.”

defining success in recovery

since 1988, recovery programs for endangered colorado river fish have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, funded by a mix of hydropower revenues and money from agencies within the department of the interior. ryden said the effort is beginning to pay off.

two species – the humpback chub and the razorback sucker – are on their way to being downgraded from endangered to threatened.

but deciding whether an endangered species is “recovered” is a subject for debate. some environmental groups have questioned the fish and wildlife service’s decision to downlist the two species. in the case of the razorback sucker, they contend, most of its population growth is the result of an intense breeding and stocking program, not reproduction in the wild. going forward, it’s unclear how much government intervention will be necessary to keep the sucker from going extinct.

in its proposal to downlist the razorback, the upper colorado endangered fish recovery program recommends that fish and wildlife revise the program’s goals, and that its current goals for “recovery,” written in 2002, are inadequate and dated.

the program, a partnership of local, state and federal agencies, water and power interests, and environmental groups, is set to expire in 2023. director tom chart said the partners are rethinking what recovery of means, and how best to achieve it. current goals for the program don’t fully address the need for more coordinated management of flows from the colorado river system’s reservoirs, removal of non-native fish and stocking of endangered species past 2023, he said.

“the colorado river is one of the most altered ecosystems in the world,” chart said in an email. “the (fish and wildlife) service should revise recovery goals for this species in these contexts and based on the experiences and information gathered.”

‘some people even kiss them’

although the endangered species act of 1973 requires the government to save these fish, it can be tough convincing the public that they’re valuable and the effort isn’t in vain. a razorback sucker, ryden noted, doesn’t have the charisma of other wildlife.

“basically we’ve made the judgment through the endangered species act that it (the endangered animal) is there for a reason and it has a right to exist,” he said. “and it doesn’t have to be a polar bear or an eagle.”

in our last few miles on the river, the biologists net a razorback sucker – the second of the day – and head toward the river bank to scan it. the grayish-green fish is notable for its pronounced hump, which looks like the keel of an overturned boat.

that’s when the morton family from houston – mom kate and kids simon and claire – floated by on a raft. ryden, seeing an opportunity to educate the public on the value of the razorback sucker, called them over. he pulled the sucker from the livewell of the raft and presented it to the mortons.

“go ahead, give it a pet,” ryden suggested.

simon gently rubbed his fingers along the fish’s scales. claire tentatively placed an index finger on the razorback’s head.

“isn’t that special?” her mother asked. “wow, that is an awesome fish.”

when ryden first started working on the colorado river, razorbacks nearly had been wiped out. he didn’t see one during his first four years on the job. one day, a crew brought one into the hatchery for breeding. he remembers the biologists crowding around it, marveling at the novelty of seeing a wild razorback.

“some people even kiss them if you’re really brave,” ryden told simon. “just right on the cheek.”

ryden leaned in, nearly touching his lips to the fish, and made a kiss sound.

now, after years of stocking tens of thousands into some reaches of the river, ryden says razorback suckers are plentiful enough that you can find one on any summer day and give it a kiss.

this story is part of a project covering the colorado river, produced by kunc and supported through a walton family foundation grant. kunc is solely responsible for its editorial content.

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this story is part of elemental: covering sustainability, a multimedia collaboration between cronkite news, arizona pbs, kjzz, kpcc, rocky mountain pbs and pbs socal.

republished with permission. see the original piece at cronkite news. for more stories from cronkite news, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org. 

every august since 2005, hundreds of fishermen, boaters and spectators descend on the tiny village of bath, illinois – population 333 – for a weekend of costume contests, live music and carp-catching. what began as a way to eradicate invasive asian carp from the illinois river has become a much-anticipated yearly reunion for fishing enthusiasts and carp-haters from around the country and the world.

in 2017, the race to net the most asian carp in four separate heats resulted in a catch of more than 2,700 of the fish. teams sped after deep wakes produced by lead pontoon boats, which in turn caused carp to jump out of the water and into the nets of the sportsmen.

bath stretches along a seven-mile branch of the illinois river. small houses back up against the river, the yards barely sitting above water level. in spring, the basements of these houses fill with water, the river overflows its banks, covering the grassy yards. 

long-time residents of the community and the sportsmen say they’ve seen the climate of their area shift, with more flooding and less snow than they grew up with. 

we asked them for their thoughts on climate change. (note: expletive at 0:30.)