Freshwater Fishing News

Power plants and other industrial facilities throughout the New York will be required to use the Best Technology Available (BTA) to protect aquatic wildlife when seeking cooling water intake permits under a new policy finalized by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

A BTA determination is required in each State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit for industrial facilities operating a cooling water intake system.

“Billions of fish are killed each year when they are caught up in the intake of cooling water for industrial processes,” Commissioner Joe Martens said. “The policy we are implementing today will reduce fish kills by 90 percent while allowing flexibility for the industry to reach our goal of protecting aquatic wildlife.”

Throughout New York State, more than 16 billion gallons of water are permitted to be withdrawn each day for the purposes of industrial cooling. As a result, more than 17 billion fish of all life stages (eggs, larvae, juveniles and adults) are entrained or impinged annually. The policy outlines mitigation measures that facilities must implement in order to minimize impacts to fish and other aquatic organisms from the intake of billions of gallons of the state’s surface waters. Implementation of this policy through the permitting process is anticipated to significantly reduce these losses of the state’s aquatic resource.

The policy identifies closed-cycle cooling or its equivalent as the performance goal for BTA to minimize these impacts. Many existing facilities use once-through cooling where water is drawn into the facility, passed through the cooling system, and then discharged back into the waterbody. Fish and other organisms are killed or injured in the process.

Closed-cycle cooling systems, such as cooling towers, use significantly less water and recirculate the water they use, reducing millions of gallons of water that is actually withdrawn from the water body. This, in turn, greatly reduces the impingement and entrainment of organisms – by more than 90 percent.

However, closed-cycle cooling is not always an available technology for existing facilities as issues of space availability and compatibility of new technology with the facility’s original design frequently make it infeasible to implement.

The performance goal of the policy allows facilities to propose an alternative mitigative technology, or operational measure, such as flow reduction, to achieve reductions in impact equivalent to what could be realized with cooling towers. This provides flexibility to the industry in designing a mitigative system while ensuring that aquatic impacts are reduced to the greatest extent possible.

A draft of the policy was released for public notice and comment in March 2010. Following public review, meetings were held with various stakeholders to discuss comments and questions on the draft policy. The revised, final policy is available on the DEC public website, along with a Response to Comments and final SEQR Negative Declaration.

source: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

NOAA Fisheries and the National Fish Habitat Board have announced the release of a report entitled: “Through a Fish’s Eye: The Status of Fish Habitats in the United States 2010.”

The report follows a nationwide assessment of human effects on fish habitat in the rivers and estuaries of the United States, developed by the public/private partnership of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan.

The report summarizes threats to rivers, estuaries, and other aquatic habitats, as well as identifying major sources of these threats, including pollution; urban development; agriculture; barriers to migration; and climate change. Some of the successful, ongoing efforts to address these threats to habitat are also featured within its pages.

This report also provides information concerning the challenges and opportunities facing fish and those engaged in fish habitat protection and restoration efforts. It also illustrates the need for strategic use of limited resources though partnerships—such as the Fish Habitat Partnerships established under the National Fish Habitat Action Plan—to identify the most effective use of funds and help the nation as a whole make progress in fish habitat conservation.

Through a Fish’s Eye can be accessed at:

http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/pdf/fishhabitatreport.pdf

During 2011 and 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be conducting the 12th National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.

American hunters, anglers and other wildlife enthusiasts will be asked to participate in interviews. The survey, which has been conducted every five years since 1955, will involve 53,000 households.

The survey is funded by the Multistate Conservation Grant Program authorized by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs Improvement Act of 2000. The survey provides the only comprehensive statistical database available on participation and expenditures for hunting, fishing and wildlife-watching in all 50 states.

The information is collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, primarily through telephone interviews to be conducted April to June and September to October in 2011, and January to March in 2012.

Respondents will be asked about their participation and expenditures in several categories of wildlife-associated recreation. The results will be available in a national report and in 50 individual state reports.

The survey hopes to include 19,000 anglers and hunters and 10,000 wildlife watchers (wildlife photographers, feeders, and observers). The reports, when completed, will be published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

For more information, visit www.fws.gov

A nearly 17,000-acre area encompassing freshwater marshes, uplands and river on the shores of Lake Superior in Wisconsin has became the 28th member of NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System. Federal, state and local officials officially welcomed the site into the system at a ceremony in Superior, Wis.

“As the first reserve in the upper Great Lakes, the Lake Superior Reserve adds significant value to the National Estuarine Research Reserve System and broadens the opportunities to study, understand and manage America’s coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems,” said Larry Robinson, Ph.D., assistant secretary of commerce for conservation and management, who represented NOAA at the ceremony.

Official designation of the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve culminated a six-year process that began with site selection and continued with development of an environmental impact statement and a comprehensive reserve management plan. This multiyear process was done in partnership with scientists, agency land managers, public officials and citizens representing local, regional and tribal interests.

Research conducted at the reserve will focus on improving the health of local freshwater estuaries and can assist other Great Lakes communities in addressing similar challenges. The reserve’s educational programs also will allow individuals to experience freshwater estuaries and their unique resources, making it a community asset and a destination for students and visitors. The reserve will attract scientists and students from across the nation, including up to two national graduate research fellows funded annually by NOAA.

The Lake Superior site was proposed by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle in May 2008 after a two-year site selection process. The reserve will be managed by the University of Wisconsin Extension. It is the second to be established in the Great Lakes and the first in the upper Great Lakes. Old Woman Creek Reserve was established in 1980 on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio.

The University of Wisconsin-Extension has been working closely with the University of Wisconsin-Superior on establishing and developing the Lake Superior Reserve. These two entities will work in partnership to provide long-term facilities, staffing, and programming for the reserve.

“The upper Great Lakes region has a number of features that will help in understanding the unique nature of freshwater estuaries,” said Patrick Robinson, Lake Superior Reserve Acting Manager. “The research and monitoring programs here will help us understand the potential impacts of climate change on these important ecosystems and will provide critical, scientifically sound information to help communities and coastal managers deal with those impacts.”

“The Wisconsin reserve will fill a significant gap in the Great Lakes biogeographic region and enhance our ability to conserve, study and manage these important freshwater estuary resources,” said Laurie McGilvray, chief of NOAA’s Estuarine Reserves Division. “It offers local communities an incredible resource to help them monitor their estuary, provide educational programs and advance the state of knowledge around this important natural resource.”

NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System comprises 28 estuarine locations in 22 states and Puerto Rico that are protected for research, education, outreach and stewardship. Estuarine research reserves are managed by state agencies or universities in partnership with NOAA, which provides funding and national program guidance and support.

source: NOAA press release

NOAA’s Fisheries Service has announced $12.6 million in grants through the Protected Species Cooperative Conservation Grant Program to assist 19 states and territories with conservation projects designed to recover marine mammals, sea turtles, fish, coral and other species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Several proposals selected during the fiscal year 2010 grant cycle will help sturgeon populations including:

Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife ($1,019,486): To determine habitat requirements and migratory pathways to provide managers with essential information to recover Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon in Delaware, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Maine Department of Marine Resources ($315,330): To determine spatial distribution, key habitat, and movement patterns of shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon among Maine rivers and nearby states to inform management and recovery actions.

Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks ($297,714): To identify feeding habitat for and movement of juvenile and sub-adult Gulf sturgeon in the state’s Pascagoula River estuary.

New York Department of Environmental Conservation ($1,325,437): To collaborate with Maine, Connecticut and New Jersey partners in determining Atlantic sturgeon habitat use and movement throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight and evaluating spatial strategies to minimize Atlantic sturgeon bycatch.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources ($1,800,800): To determine shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon movements and habitat use with North Carolina partners to inform regional conservation efforts.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ($576,668): To collaborate with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in tracking coast-wide status and trends of green sturgeon and managing human caused impacts to the species.

source: NOAA press release