By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews
Oregon Fish and Wildlife commissioners are expected Friday to indefinitely extend regulations aimed at reducing whale entanglements with commercial crabbing gear.
Commissioners, meeting in Salem, are on track to adopt staff recommendations that have been in effect for the past three years. Their vote to adopt the proposed rules indefinitely is needed because expiration dates attached to the rules means they would otherwise end in December.
If adopted, the rules would reduce the number of crab pots by 20 percent, ban commercial crabbing at depths of more than 240 feet on May 1, and restrict the amount of surface gear that any particular crabbing operation can deploy.
“The goal is to reduce the overlap of crabbing gear with endangered or threatened species,” said Troy Buell, state fisheries management program leader. “By limiting the total number of lines in the water, we think that whale entanglements can also be reduced.”
The proposed regulations apply to the three species now listed as threatened or endangered by the federal government — humpback whales, blue whales and leather-backed sea turtles.
There are about 320 crabbers working in what is Oregon’s most valuable commercial fishery, bringing in crab whose dock value can total $50 million to $90 million a year.
Some environmental groups are opposing the regulations, calling them ineffective if the goal is to further reduce whale entanglements.
Their counter-proposals include cutting pot limits by 40 percent, instituting depth restrictions of 168 fathoms and beginning risk reductions on April 15, “when whales are at peak entanglement risk.”
“We were really disappointed to see the department propose these without any changes to the rules that have been in place for the past three years,” said Francine Kershaw, a marine mammal scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We know that humpback whale entanglements have not declined during that period and that the measures now in place have not been effective.”
She held out hope that the seven ODFW commissioners will overrule the staff’s recommendation and instead institute another temporary rule period. That, Kershaw added, would give the department additional time to take new research into account about entanglements where and when entanglements are most likely to occur.
“It’s the state’s responsibility to demonstrate that entanglements are down in a meaningful way,” she said. “What we are seeing right now is a mismatch between the proposed measures and actual federal requirements.”
Buell responded that the actual number of humpback whale entanglements is so low – anywhere from none to two a year over the past decade — that meaningful data can’t be derived from those incidents.
“So what we are focused on is risk and exposure,” he said. “But we have way too many unknowns at this point to say exactly how we are affecting actual entanglements.”
He added that giving the new rules an indefinite status means changes can still be considered going forward if data shows that further tweaks are needed.
“We’ll make different recommendations,” Buell said, “based on how this plays out.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com