Management & Regulation

There has been a great deal of controversy over the recent announcements by NOAA Fisheries concerning dogfish.  This year, an action was taken that resulted in an increase of about 20% in the 2010 quota over the 2009 quota, and kept the trip limit at 3,000 pounds/trip.

For more on that action, click on this link.

As the recent actions have been controversial, Saving Seafood asked NOAA Fisheries to explain the current situation.  Their explanation follows: The stock is rebuilt, overfishing is not occurring, and the biomass is about where projections made in 2003 and 2006  [Northeast Regional Stock Assessment Workshop (SARC) 37 and 43] forecast it would be by 2009.

The 2010 quota could have been set higher without allowing overfishing in 2010. However, that was not the only concern. The New England Fisheries Management Council's Joint Spiny Dogfish Committee supported a lower quota than the maximum allowable, one that reflected a constant catch strategy that would  guard against dramatic fluctuation in annual quota in future years.  This is a concern because despite improved recruitment in 2009, the Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) is expected to decline beginning in 2015 when the weak year-classes of 1997-2003 (the weakest on record) start entering the SSB.

At 15 million pounds held constant over the next 5 years, there's an increase in the quota over 2009 but just a 2 percent chance that the stock will be newly overfished in 2015 when the weak year classes begin to enter the spawning stock.

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – August 31, 2010 – According to an order by NOAA issued today, starting tomorrow, those who are fishing under a Category A Day in certain areas will need to count each fishing day as if were two days.  Cmmon pool fishermen affected lose 50% of their fishing rights overnight, with no prior notice.

The text of NOAA's announcement follows:

In order to ensure a stable supply of groundfish throughout the fishing year, NOAA Fisheries Service announces that, effective on September 2, 2010 at 0001 hours, it is implementing a Category A differential DAS counting rate of 2: 1. This requirement applies to NE multispecies common pool vessels fishing under a Category A DAS in the Inshore GOM Differential DAS Area, the Offshore GOM Differential DAS Area, the Inshore GB Differential DAS Area, and the Offshore GB Differential DAS Area.  This rule does not apply to the SNE Differential DAS Area; vessels will only be charged at a 1: 1 rate if fishing there.  This rule also implements a zero possession limit on witch flounder for all common pool vessels.

Read the NOAA letter to permit holders.                          

A panel studying menhaden management in Virginia will meet Sept. 23 in Fredericksburg.

The panel, chaired by state Sens. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, and Richard Stuart, R-Westmoreland, met earlier this summer in Newport News. Members want to know how many menhaden live in the Chesapeake Bay and if the population is overfished. Some suggested funding a study to the tune of $500,000 annually to complete the task.

The Fredericksburg meeting should be interesting because members will hear from Rob Latour and Bill Goldsborough. The two have respected, but opposing, points of view.

Latour is a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who chairs the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's  menhaden technical committee. The coast wide population of menhaden is 20-40 billion, he said, more than enough to sustain Virginia's fishery.

Read the complete story from The Daily Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA Fisheries Service announced today that effective 0001 hours on September 3, 2010, fishing vessels issued a Federal open access skate permit may not possess or land more than the incidental limit of 500 lbs of skate wings per trip for the remainder of the 2010 fishing year (through April 30 2011).

Under new management measures that went into effect on July 16, 2010, NOAA is required to reduce the skate wing fishery possession limit when 80 percent of the annual Total Allowable Landings of skate wings are caught. 

Read the permit holder letter from NOAA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – August 29, 2010 -The federal government has announced a decision to stop all landings of dogfish. The action was taken by Patricia Kurkul, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Gloucester-based regional administrator of fisheries. And it comes after the six-month NOAA Fisheries allocation was landed in three months.

But that's a development that industry analysts attribute to the overabundance of the small schooling shark and efforts by fishermen to keep working even for a low-value, low-margin prey, while saving their small allocations of the more valuable ground fish.

Dogfish was bringing around 25 cents a pound last week, and, with a 3,000-pound daily limit, the day boats could eke out gross revenues of $750 a day while saving small allocations of high value groundfish.

Dogfish are by far the most abundant species to be brought up by NOAA's research nets, said Dr. Brian Rothschild, the dean emeritus of the UMass School of Marine Science and Technology.

Some 20 times as much dogfish was recorded by weight compared to the next most abundant species, redfish, he said.

"The dogfish is extremely abundant, mortality rate very low, and the great abundance of the small sharks is not typical of the ecosystem," said Rothschild. He urged reconsideration of the closure "in light of the effect of catch shares on jobs and fishery."

"This just shows the disconnect between the government, the regulators and the industry," said Larry Ciulla, president of the auction. Losing the access to dogfish while rationing small allocations of high value groundfish will have a destabilizing effect on the fishing industry, he added.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Daily Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old-fashioned snail mail and a postage stamp might be the answer for federal officials struggling to keep the waters off the U.S. coast from being overfished.

Anglers who fish for fun in U.S. coastal waters say the federal government currently relies on bad data to determine which ocean locales are overfished and subsequently placed off limits to recreational and commercial fishing so stocks can rebuild.

The government through the National Marine Fisheries Service has relied heavily on a home telephone survey since the 1970s to random-digit dial coastal households for information about fishing trips.

Now a pilot study in North Carolina has found a new way to calculate recreational fishing activity in the ocean — and it's proven promising as a method to replace calling people on the phone, according to statistician Lynne Stokes, one of five researchers who conducted the North Carolina pilot study.

Read the complete story from PhysOrg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fishing Vessels from New Bedford join a fleet of boats in protest of the Obama Administration's oversight of the fishing industry,

See the photo gallery from The Standard Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 26, 2010 – Last week, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) voted to increase the total allowable catch of summer flounder for 2011 to 33.95 million pounds.

While specific size, season and bag limits for recreational anglers won't be determined until sometime in November, the increase is obviously good news for the local fishing community and a sure sign that the stock is on its way to being rebuilt.

This positive development is due in part to the fact that when the Magnuson-Stevens Act was reauthorized by Congress in 2006, lawmakers from New Jersey and New York successfully fought to include a provision to extend the rebuilding timeframe for summer flounder by an additional three years. Initially, the deadline was 2010. It also showed that the fishery could be put on the path to recovery without shutting it down.

Read the complete story form The Asbury Park Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 27, 2010 – A fleet of more than 14 fishing boats, mostly from New Bedford, staged a protest in the waters off Vineyard Haven yesterday afternoon to make a statement about fishery restrictions while President Obama is visiting the Vineyard.

“Fishermen have gone through a lot of pain. We support the rebuilding and don’t believe in overfishing. We want an increase in catch limits. We are not asking to catch more than biologically is allowed . . . We are trying to get the attention of the President, that this is an issue of a lack of balance,” declared Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition.

The coalition, made up principally of Gloucester and New Bedford commercial fishermen, ran a full-page advertisement in the Gazette on Tuesday this week.

“My business is only one of hundreds facing extinction . . . Is this the way to rebuild our storied, centuries-old groundfish fishery?” wrote Capt. Russell Sherman in a letter that was the centerpiece of the advertisement.

Read the complete story from The Vineyard Gazette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having successfully shut down an estimated 23,000 American oil drilling jobs off the Gulf Coast, citing possible environmental concerns, the Obama administration is now moving on New England fishermen.

It's rained during much of Obama's latest vacation there. And now the Democratic president is scheduled to be confronted with a flotilla of protesters today off his private estate on the souvenir-laden island of Martha's Vineyard.

"They want to close the fisheries into 'commodities markets' where the government essentially licenses fishermen and then allocates the catch based on a predetermined distribution plan. The 'commodities markets' will kill many fishing-based jobs and essentially turn fishermen into government employees, and they’re not happy about it."

Lubchenco, a former official with the Environmental Defense Fund, has said that her policy goal is to eliminate "a significant fraction of the vessels."

Negotiations between Lubchenco and congressional delegations from New England, an important region within Obama's political base, have broken down.

Read the complete story from The Los Angeles Times.