April 26, 2023 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Supplemental materials for ASMFC’s 2023 Spring Meeting are now available below and athttps://www.asmfc.org/home/
April 26, 2023 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Supplemental materials for ASMFC’s 2023 Spring Meeting are now available below and athttps://www.asmfc.org/home/
April 26, 2023 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council has initiated a management action to consider allowing scallop fishery access into the habitat management area (HMA) on the Northern Edge of Georges Bank.
During its April 18-20, 2023 meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, the Council first approved a goal and objectives for this action and then initiated a habitat-scallop framework to develop a range of alternatives that will continue to address habitat protection while balancing controlled harvest of the valuable scallop resource within the HMA.
The Closed Area II Habitat Management Area covers a large part of what is commonly referred to as the Northern Edge of Georges Bank (see map below). It has the same boundaries as the Council’s Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) in Closed Area II and is designated in regulation as the Habitat Closure Area.
April 20, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council is asking NOAA Fisheries to take emergency action under the Secretary of Commerce’s authority to address a critical Gulf of Maine haddock situation that is expected to result in significant fishery impacts during the 2023 groundfish fishing year. The new fishing year begins on May 1, less than two weeks after the Council gathered in Mystic, CT for its April 18-20, 2023 meeting.
The crux of the problem is this. Fishermen have been encountering Gulf of Maine haddock at very high catch rates. The proposed 2023 annual catch limit (ACL), however, is extremely low. The Council recently learned of one industry member who, in a single trip, harvested an amount of Gulf of Maine haddock equivalent to what will become his entire allocation for 2023. Several fishermen expressed concern that an early shutdown of the fishery was highly likely and would have wide-ranging impacts. Even without targeting haddock, fishermen need haddock quota to account for bycatch while harvesting other species.
The proposed low catch limit is part of Framework Adjustment 65 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which the Council developed to establish catch limits and management measures for 2023-2025. This action is now under review by NOAA Fisheries
Framework 65 contains an acceptable biological catch (ABC) of 1,936 metric tons (mt) as recommended by Haddock landed in Gloucester, Massachusetts. – NEFMC photo by the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC). The ABC was largely based on results from the 2022 Gulf of Maine Haddock Management Track Stock Assessment, as well as other relevant information.
The 1,936-mt ABC led to an annual catch limit that was then divided into several components or sub-ACLs to cover catches from state waters, the recreational fishery, and other categories. The sub-ACL for the groundfish sector and common pool fisheries settled out at 1,149 mt, representing an 84% reduction from the fishing year 2022 sub-ACL (see slide 49 for 2023 sub-ACL breakdown).
April 20, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council has finalized a framework adjustment to the Atlantic Salmon Fishery Management Plan (FMP) that will make it possible for industry members who obtain a letter of authorization from NOAA Fisheries to possess farm-raised Atlantic salmon in federal waters.
The Council’s original FMP prohibits directed fishing and possession of Atlantic salmon in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). However, the FMP also gives the Council the ability to develop a framework action to authorize salmon aquaculture in federal waters – if it chooses to do so.
The possible need for action arose after a private business, Blue Water Fisheries, proposed a commercialscale marine finfish aquaculture facility in federal waters roughly 7.5 miles east-northeast of Newburyport Harbor, MA. This prompted the Council to initiate Framework Adjustment 1 to the Atlantic Salmon FMP in September 2022 to establish a clear path forward for offshore aquaculture projects in general.
April 19, 2023 — The following was released by Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council continues its efforts to persuade NOAA officials to allow Native Hawaiian fishing to recover costs related to their permitted fishing in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). The Council, concerned that federal ocean policies are overlooking the fishing needs of Indigenous Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, responded to NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) with a letter last Friday challenging NOS’s position that recouping costs of fishing in the NWHI amounted to selling, rather than cultural barter and trade.
NOS’s February 22 letter says, “While NOAA may authorize subsistence fishing in the [Monument Expansion Area] under a Native Hawaiian Practices Fishing Permit only where the fish may be traded, bartered, or exchanged on a small scale within the family or community, such activities must be sustainable and must not serve as a toehold for prohibited commercial fishing.”
The Council on April 14 responded that final MEA action does indeed provide for effective safeguards against commercial fishing because (1) commercial fishing is prohibited; and (2) the applicant for a Native Hawaiian Subsistence Practices Fishing Permit is required to describe fishing trip costs. The review process includes consultation with the Council, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Monument board and the public. The NMFS Regional Administrator makes the final decision to allow or disallow the proposed costs. Barter and trade continues to be available and are not affected by a decision on cost recovery.
In their letter, NOS concluded that the action of a “sale” in a federal fishing permit in the NWHI was unlikely to meet the goals and objectives of the Administration’s proposed national marine sanctuary encompassing the entire NWHI.
The Council disagrees because its MEA action does align with the goals and objectives of the Administration’s proposed sanctuary as follows:
President Obama’s Proclamation 9478 specifically allows for noncommercial fishing and Native Hawaiian fishing practices in the MEA. Obviously, the President intended that sustainable fishing occur in the MEA and any attempt to reduce that opportunity by not allowing recovery of fishing costs clashes with this intent.
Limited cost recovery is necessary for Native Hawaiian participation in regulated fishing practices under Proclamation 9478, considering the community’s socio-economic challenges, which include high rates of poverty, unemployment and negative health conditions. Disallowing cost recovery by sale would further disenfranchise the community, hindering its ability to participate in Native Hawaiian subsistence and traditional fishing practices.
Mayor Derek Kawakami of Kaua‘i at a public meeting the Council held in November 2022 said, “I don’t know too many fishermen who can afford to go there and fish. However, there are rich people who can reach that area which would leave a bitter taste in local mouths.”
Final action by the Council included a request to NOAA/NOS to support disadvantaged communities in Hawai‘i by exploring statutory options such as those provided within the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
For more information, visit https://tinyurl.com/CouncilMEAFishingRegs and
www.wpcouncil.org/western-pacific-community-development-program.
April 19, 2023 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Spring Meeting will be May 1-3, 2023 at The Westin Crystal City, located at 1800 Richmond Highway, Arlington, VA. The room block is now closed; if you need assistance reserving a room, please contact Cindy Robertson atcrobertson@asmfc.org. This will be a hybrid meeting to allow for remote participation by Commissioners and interested stakeholders in all meetings.
April 19, 2023 — The new Coalition for Fisheries Transparency has published a framework to create a common language advocates can use to enhance sustainability and transparency efforts across global seafood supply chains.
The framework, called the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, includes ten principles for the coalition to use when promoting seafood traceability and transparency. Members and leaders of the coalition include several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Global Fishing Watch, Citizens Institute for Environmental Studies (Korea), WWF, Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana, Regional Partnership for Coastal and Marine Conservation (West Africa), and Seafood Legacy (Japan).
April 11, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a three-day meeting from Tuesday, April 18 through Thursday, April 20, 2023. This will be an in-person meeting coupled with a webinar option for individuals who cannot or prefer not to attend in person.
COVID PROTOCOLS: The Council continues to follow all public safety measures related to COVID-19 and intends to do so for this meeting. Please participate remotely if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or do not feel well. Updates will be posted on the meeting webpage as needed.
START TIME: 9:00 a.m. each day. The first day will begin with a closed session in which Council members will discuss the ongoing search for a new executive director. The webinar will end shortly after the Council adjourns each day.
Here are a few items of special note.
OFFSHORE WIND INFORMATION SHARING: Fisheries liaisons from multiple wind developers will be sharing information with Council meeting attendees on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Clipper Room at the Hilton Mystic. This event is focused on the Massachusetts/Rhode Island and New York Bight wind development areas. All are welcome to attend.
EMERGENCY ACTION: The Council will discuss Gulf of Maine haddock under the Groundfish Committee report on Wednesday morning and potentially consider requesting emergency action.
PUBLIC COMMENT OPPORTUNITIES: The Council wants to hear from you. Here’s how you can let the Council know what you think.
WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live. There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.
CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone without joining the webinar, dial +1 (415) 655-0052. The access code is 155-027-577. Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply. Remember, you will not be able to speak if you do not first join the webinar as described above. This phone number provides a “listen-only” option without the webinar component.
AGENDA: All meeting materials and the agenda are available on the Council’s website atNEFMC April 18-20, 2023 meeting webpage. Additional documents will be posted as they become available.
THREE MEETING OUTLOOK: A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available HERE.
COUNCIL MEETING QUESTIONS: Anyone with questions prior to or during the Council meeting should contact Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.
April 7, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council is looking for members of the mobile gear, gillnet, trap/pot, and recreational fishing communities, as well as other members of the public, to serve on its On-Demand Fishing Gear Conflict Working Group. The application deadline is Monday, April 24, 2023.
The working group’s goal is to identify strategies for reducing gear interactions between on-demand gear, which is often referred to as ropeless gear, and fisheries that use other gear types, such as the groundfish, monkfish, and scallop mobile gear fisheries and the recreational party/charter rod-and-reel fishery.
In addition, the working group will identify strategies for reducing gear interactions that may result from future measures adopted for sink gillnet fisheries and trap/pot fisheries. These would be measures other than those already implemented for the Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fisheries to protect North Atlantic right whales, humpback whales, fin whales, and other protected resources.
April 6, 2023 — The following was released by Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:
Last week, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s completed its 194th meeting in the Mariana Islands. In Guam, the meeting began with a cultural blessing ceremony led by Para I Prubechu’n I Taotao’ta. The members called on ancestral spirits to guide the meeting participants as they discussed international and national issues affecting local communities, saying the ocean is our wealth and connects everyone.
The Honorable Governor of Guam Lou Leon Guerrero opened the meeting expressing concern for increasing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the region.
“[IUU] vessels pose a threat not just to our national security, but also to our local fishing industries and up-and-coming industries,” said Leon Guerrero. “Left unchecked, this kind of fishing and associated labor abuses undermine our economic competitiveness, national security, fisheries sustainability, and the livelihoods and human rights of fishers around the world, and will exacerbate the environmental and socioeconomic effects of climate change.”
The Governor spoke to President Biden’s recent announcement about designating a national marine sanctuary in the Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA), noting it threatens Pacific Islanders’ way of life.
“I echo [CNMI] Governor Palacios that this is a matter that demands our respect and fluid communication. I don’t believe that any of us are against the intentions, but there are impacts hanging on those intentions. Impacts that fail to consider our food security or our fishing traditions. Pacific Islanders eat two to four times more fish than people in other nations, with most of the fish we eat from our own waters and reefs. We also contribute more than 30% of the global market for tuna.”
The proposal would have many unintended socioeconomic consequences and conflicts with the President’s Executive Orders promoting equity and environmental justice (EEJ). Fisheries is the leading economic driver for underserved communities in the Pacific. A new sanctuary in the PRIA to help meet the Biden Administration’s “America the Beautiful” 30×30 conservation goal puts a disproportionate burden on U.S. Pacific Islanders, as 53% of U.S. waters in the western Pacific are already closed to fishing through Marine National Monuments.
“When we started hearing about recognition of EEJ issues in our government, I thought it would provide our region with acknowledgement, but in reality it’s only a paper commitment,” said Council member and University of Guam Professor Judith Guthertz. “Our territories have a long history of unfulfilled commitments. We need to feel our efforts are respected and show that our input counts.”
Diminished U.S. fisheries would severely decrease U.S. influence in the Pacific. In September 2022, the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee found the proposal to expand the current Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument boundaries lacked supporting data and would provide limited conservation benefits. A 2018 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) report also said permanent settlements in the PRIA were unlikely due to the vulnerability of the low-lying areas to storms, lack of freshwater sources and inability to grow crops on the islands.
The Council will request the National Ocean Service (NOS) meet with the Governors of Guam, the CNMI and American Samoa to describe the sanctuary designation process.
Territorial Bigeye Tuna Catch Limits
The framework that establishes bigeye tuna longline catch and allocation limits for the territories requires an annually specified catch limit to transfer catch from any territory to U.S. longline vessels based out of Hawai‘i. The Council approved setting an allocation limit of bigeye tuna from each territory to U.S. longline vessels, without setting a catch limit. This allocation limit would be up to 1,500 metric tons per territory, in effect from 2024 to 2026.
Council members emphasized the importance of fishing agreements between the territories and the Hawai‘i-based fleet. These have often been the sole source of funds for fishery development in the Marine Conservation Plans of the territories. MCPs are developed locally to meet the needs of each territory and approved by the respective Governor and subsequently approved by the Secretary of Commerce.
Council member Manny Dueñas of the Guam Fishermen’s Cooperative Association expressed frustration over the low U.S. catch limit and that territories have to rely on these agreements to fund fishery development. “We are Pacific Islanders, just like the people the U.S. government spend hundreds of millions on through the Tuna Treaty, Economic Assistance Agreement, and the Compact of Free Association,” said Dueñas. “Why can’t we get just a fraction of that to support our fisheries?”
Council member Archie Soliai of American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources noted the disadvantages that U.S. Pacific fisheries and the territories encounter. “Equity! Don’t talk to me about equity. We got no equity. Why are we putting limits on our fisheries when other Pacific Island countries with the same status do not have any limits? This is an unlevel playing field for U.S. fishery stakeholders.”
Fishing Regulations in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
The Council heard from NOS that its December 2022 action allowing for cost recovery including “sale” in a federal fishing permit in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is unlikely to meet the goals and objectives of a proposed national marine sanctuary in the area. Many Council members remarked that sale would allow cultural perpetuation. Council member Dueñas said, “We are being asked to sacrifice our culture for the rest of the world [with the Marine National Monuments] and perpetuating culture is worth more.”
The Council said disallowing sales would continue to disenfranchise the Native Hawaiian community. Council member and American Samoa noncommercial fisherman Will Sword commented, “Cost should not be a factor when trying to feed your own people.” Council member and Hawai‘i charter boat captain McGrew Rice added, “Unless one has the funds and can afford it, it’s the only way anyone can go up there.”
The Council recommended fishermen who obtain a Native Hawaiian Subsistence Fishing Practices Permit be allowed to request cost recovery through the sale of catch associated with their fishing trip to the Monument Expansion Area (MEA). Council members believed that limited cost recovery may be conducted on a small scale within the community, consistent with MEA’s prohibition on commercial fishing. The recommendation allows NMFS’s Regional Administrator to review a permit application that includes a statement of why cost recovery is necessary along with estimated costs. The Regional Administrator can then make a decision after consultation with the Council and monument management partners (NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the State of Hawai‘i). The application would also be available for public review for no less than 30 days.