May 1, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Seafood Coalition opposes proposed changes to Gulf of Mexico red snapper
May 1, 2015 — The Seafood Coalition* has joined with other fishing groups and the National Restaurant Association in opposition to proposed changes that would exempt red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico from management under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Coalition members wrote in a letter (attached) to Senators Rubio and Booker and Congressmen Bishop and Grijalva (respectively Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard and the House Natural Resources Committee) “we as members of the Seafood Coalition realize that our future in the fisheries is dependent on an open and equitable management process focused on sustainability that will allow all of our citizens, both those who fish and those who don’t, reasonable access to fishery resources that are managed for everyone. This level of management is provided by the M-SFCMA and is responsible for the constant improvement in the health of our fish stocks. We oppose this or any other departure from the Act that will hold management of any fishery captive to political pressure brought by special interests and that could grant rights to particular species like red snapper to exclusive user groups.”
Nils Stolpe
Seafood Coalition
*The Seafood Coalition is composed of organizations and companies that represent or participate in commercial fishing and seafood processing as well as organizations that include many of the major suppliers of seafood directly to the American consumer. The Coalition was formed in 2001 to provide a strong, coordinated voice for the seafood industry in promoting science-based marine resource conservation and management in the U.S. and in international arenas. TheCoalition is a forum for affected commercial fishing and fish processing interests and seafood suppliers to develop and support policies that improve federal marine resource conservation and management practices. In addition, the Coalition’s goal is to foster sustainable development and to strengthen fishing communities along with enhancing the supply of healthy and nutritious seafood for consumers.
Read the letter from the Seafood Coalition
2015 red snapper season set for Gulf of Mexico
April 30, 2015 —
Gulf of Mexico red snapper anglers will get a 10-day season in 2015, while charter captains will have 44 days to pursue the popular fish. The recreational season will open June 1.
The 2015 season will mark the first time the two segments of the recreational fishery have been allowed open dates that are distinct from one another. The so-called sector separation, which was approved three weeks ago by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, is unpopular with recreational-fishing advocacy groups because it shortens the amount of time private-boat anglers may fish red snapper.
“It’s another example of the inequity of this management system,” said Chris Macaluso of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The idea of having separate seasons for a sector of fishery that the Magnuson Act specifically says should be counted as one just further illustrates that the system is not working.”
Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune
Deep cuts in New England cod quota start Friday
April 30, 2015 — Time is almost up for New England fishermen before deep quota cuts limit their ability to fish for cod.
The New England Fishery Management Council voted last year to reduce the total allowable Gulf of Maine cod catch limit from 1,550 to 386 metric tons starting on Friday.
Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald
Decision reached on closures
April 30, 2015 — Eastern Maine lobstermen and scallopers were relieved to hear that the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) voted last week not to designate a habitat management area in Machias Bay and to close a smaller area off Hancock County than previously had been proposed.
The vote was on Amendment 2 to its Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat document aimed at rebuilding groundfish stocks in federal waters. Maine fishing industry representatives had been concerned that scallop dragging and lobster fishing would be impacted by rules in the amendment.
Read the full story from the Mount Desert Islander
Commercial Fishermen Throughout the US Oppose Gulf States Red Snapper Takeover
April 28, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance:
Commercial fishermen throughout the United States have stood up and opposed the plan by the Gulf of Mexico state managers to take over red snapper management and eliminate the commercial quota system.
“It’s incredible the response we’ve gotten,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance based in Galveston, TX. “From Alaska to Maine, California to South Carolina, our brother and sister commercial fishermen have united around this issue and see it for what it is – a precedent-setting backdoor means by the recreational lobby to reallocate this fishery, undermine federal laws, and take fish away from seafood consumers.”
Forty two commercial fishing organizations, representing thousands of commercial fishermen and tens of millions of pounds of commercially important seafood, signed onto a letter drafted by the Shareholders’ Alliance which states “The implications of such a takeover are far-reaching and set a dangerous precedent for our region and others – over 97% of the more than 300,000 million Americans get their access to fish and shellfish by purchasing it in restaurants, grocery stores, and fish markets that we supply. We cannot support this plan in the Gulf because we would not support it at home.”
“This isn’t just a Gulf issue, it has national implications,” said John Pappalardo, CEO of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance based in Chatham, MA. “We stand with the Gulf fishermen and oppose this dangerous plan that will destroy small American ‘mom and pop’ businesses.”
According to an announcement, representatives from the five Gulf States met in a closed-door off-the-books meeting in New Orleans where they developed a plan to take over management of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and eliminate the commercial individual fishing quota (IFQ) system. The management responsibility, currently held by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service, would be turned over to a yet-to-be-developed group called the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority, and would consist of 5 individuals, one from each Gulf State, that propose to operate outside of U.S. federal fisheries laws and sustainability policies. Each Gulf State would be responsible for management of their own waters out to 200 nautical miles, and would be in charge of creating the science and data to use for their management. Funding for this program would be siphoned from existing federal programs.
Read a letter from a group of commercial fishermen who oppose the gulf states red snapper takeover
ASMFC 2015 Spring Meeting Supplemental Materials Now Available
April 29, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Supplemental meeting materials for the Commission’s Spring Meeting have been posted at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2015-spring-meeting for the following Boards (click on “Supplemental Material” following each relevant board header to access information).
Atlantic Herring Section – FMP Review and State Compliance
American Lobster Management Board – Draft Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan for Public Comment
Atlantic Menhaden Management Board – FMP Review and State Compliance; Public Comment
Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board – Implementation Status of Addendum IV to Amendment 6
Executive Committee – Consideration of Changes to the Appeal Criteria
ISFMP Policy Board – Commissioner Survey Results and ACFHP Update
ACCSP Executive Committee – Recommendation from ACCSP Operations and Advisory Committees
ACCSP Coordinating Council – Recommendation from ACCSP Operations and Advisory Committees
Tautog Management Board – Public Comment
For ease of access, all supplemental meeting materials (with the exception of ACCSP materials) have combined into one PDF –http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/Spring2015/SupplementalCombined.pdf.
As a reminder, Board/Section meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning at 12:45 PM on May 4th, continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be Noon) on May 7th. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board/section deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast, the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible.
To register for the webinar, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4690404819785364481.
Fisheries council fails to agree on scallopers’ wish to enter long-closed areas
April 23, 2015 — It will be at least June before scallopers get a preliminary decision from the New England Fisheries Management Council about opening some long-closed areas of Georges Bank to fishing.
The proposal is one of many contained in a new amendment to regulations that is intended to protect “essential fisheries habitat.”
Thursday the council failed to come to terms about the specifics of the plan in Georges Bank, which centers on an area on the Canadian line called the Northern Edge. On Wednesday the council approved several measures in the Gulf of Maine, delineating protected areas where certain forms of fishing gear will not be permitted.
Georges Bank was another matter. NOAA Fisheries regional administrator John Bullard had signaled his disapproval of preliminary plans on the grounds that they weren’t protective enough of habitat. And when council member John Quinn introduced an amendment to make the plan more acceptable to NOAA fisheries, the meeting collapsed into disarray.
Members complained that they were being asked to vote on something an hour and a half after seeing it for the first time. Many complained that the amendment had not been through any sort of review process to determine its impacts.
New proposals, in fact, were not supposed to be made, since existing ones have been 10 years in the making, and this is supposed to be the final vote on the entire plan.
Ultimately the council voted to ask NOAA staff for an evaluation, and pushed the matter back into the June meeting. It will not end there. Any amendments to the amendments could require another review period. And Bullard might still reject them.
Latest on fishery regulations: protections added in Cox Ledge as council wraps until June
PORTLAND, Maine — April 23, 2015 — Federal regulators are adding new protections to Cox Ledge south of Rhode Island before ending two days of changes to the rules governing New England fishing habitats.
The New England Fishery Management Council approved adding new areas for habitat protection in Cox Ledge. The council will take up more habitat protection changes when it meets from June 16 to 18. Issues the council will consider those days include reconfiguring habitat closures in Georges Bank and protections for spawning groundfish such as cod and haddock.
The council's votes Wednesday and Thursday are also subject to final approval in June.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Republic
Fishing Regulators Approve Some New England Habitat Changes
April 23, 2015 — Federal fishery regulators say they will keep much-debated protections for Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine in place as part of a broad effort to alter the scope of New England's fishing grounds.
The decision to preserve Cashes Ledge came as the New England Fishery Management Council debated changes to habitat protections in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, southern New England waters and other key fishing areas.
The council met Wednesday and Thursday to approve pieces of the long-awaited habitat plan. The changes will impact the way fishermen harvest key food species — including cod, clams and scallops — in federal waters from Maine to Rhode Island.
The preservation of Cashes Ledge represented a victory for environmentalists who ardently opposed opening it to fishing. The ledge is an underwater mountain and offshore ecosystem mostly closed to fishing, and the council voted that its protections will remain.
The council also allowed fishermen new access to some fishing areas, including some in the Great South Channel east of Nantucket. The council did not reach a decision on some pieces of the plan, and will revisit them at a June meeting.
Peter Baker, director of northeast U.S. Oceans for Pew Charitable Trusts, said that with the recent approvals, the council remains "on a course to eliminate thousands of square miles of important fish habitat areas" in favor of commercial fishing concerns. He said the council has ignored conservationists' and scientists' "pleas for long-term sustainability in favor of the short-term interests of some in the fishing industry."
But Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fishermen of Maine, said fishermen of species such as cod and haddock will need access to Georges Bank in part because the council is keeping parts of the Gulf of Maine closed.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News
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