February 12, 2021 — Trondheim, Norway-based Norcod, the Norwegian cod-farming venture, has announced a doubling of production volume.
Norcod CEO Christian Riber said the company had achieved “a new milestone”
New Jersey gets biggest cut of commercial sea bass harvest in new quota arrangement
February 12, 2021 — Regional fishery management bodies approved new commercial allocations in the black sea bass fishery based on the distribution of sea bass biomass found in the 2019 stock assessment.
As a result of the new allocations and a northern shift of the fish, New Jersey will see a slight increase to its percentage of the coastwide quota, from 20% to 20.10%. That’s enough to give the Garden State the largest share of the coastwide quota.
Virginia took the biggest hit as its commercial quota was trimmed down from 20% of the coastwide harvest to 16%.
Plastic Ingestion By Marine Fish Is A Widespread And Growing Problem
February 12, 2021 — The consumption of plastic by marine animals is an increasingly pervasive problem, with litter turning up in the bellies of wildlife as varied as mammals, birds, turtles and fish. However, according to a research review by ecologists at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station and PhD student Alex McInturf at UC Davis, the problem is impacting species unevenly, with some more susceptible to eating a plastic dinner than others. With billions of people around the world relying on seafood for sustenance and financial security, this research, published Feb 9. in the journal Global Change Biology, warns that there is a growing number of species – including over 200 species of commercial importance – eating plastic.
Matthew Savoca was collecting data on plastic ingestion by seabirds for his PhD when he became interested in uncovering ecological traits linked to increased consumption. Now, as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station, he has conducted one of the most comprehensive analyses of plastic ingestion on fish ever performed.
“Fish are a really good species to track the flow of plastic pollution through marine ecosystems,” said Savoca, who is lead author of the paper. “Now, we are showing the numbers in ways they haven’t been shown before. No previous studies have looked across all of this research for broad patterns and drivers.”
Rally urges stakeholders to demand better protections for North Atlantic right whales
February 12, 2021 — Oceana hosted a Save the Whales Rally on Tuesday that aimed to support anyone hoping to speak up in favor of better protections for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
The federal government is seeking stakeholder comments about ways to reduce the risks that fishing gear in oceans pose to the whales. During the rally, Oceana staff offered background information, advice and tools to provide input on how and why to better protect the species, which is currently in its calving season off the coast of Georgia and northern Florida.
“North Atlantic right whales come down to the offshore waters of Georgia, north Florida and sometimes even South Carolina — many of them every winter — to have their calves and then they travel in the spring back all the way up into the North Atlantic into the Northeastern U.S. and Canadian waters,” said Paulita Bennett-Martin, Oceana’s field representative for Georgia campaigns. “And so they really come down here for the winter as our return visitor to seek warmer water, safe water, to have their calves. It’s a really exciting time of the year for us that love these whales, as we count the calves that are born every year. And unfortunately sometimes we also count the losses as well.”
The upcoming comment period is a chance to help the whales get on a path of recovery, said Gib Brogan, a senior fisheries manager for Oceana.
NEW YORK: Cable Landing Simmers While Federal Wind Farm Review Is Just Heating Up
February 11, 2021 — While the public debate over the South Fork Wind Farm cable landing in Wainscott has shifted to court filings and the village incorporation effort, the public stage of the federal application for the wind farm itself is just getting started — and advocates for local fishermen say that the most important aspects of the project have yet to be settled.
Whether turbine foundations will be hammered into the heart of one of the most fabled fishing regions off Montauk and whether commercial fishermen will be compensated for lost fishing time or damaged fishing gear are both still up in the air as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and a dozen other federal agencies continue their examination of the project as proposed by Danish wind farm developer Ørsted and it’s American domestic partner, Eversource.
The federal regulators on Tuesday held the first of three public comment sessions on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the 800-plus-page main outline of the project and the various considerations for its design. The will be additional comment sessions on February 11 and 16. The meetings are being held via Zoom and registration and the full details of the project are available at www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/south-fork-wind-farm-virtual-meetings.
CALIFORNIA: Spiny lobster comes back to San Diego
February 11, 2021 — “It started with rumors, said Pete Halmay, seasoned urchin diver and president of San Diego Fishermen’s Working Group. At seventy-something, he’s still out getting salty almost every day. Two or three months before spiny lobster season was set to open in early October, Halmay said, talk on the docks was that Asia wasn’t buying this year, demand was way down due to covid-19, and the price San Diego fishermen would get for spiny lobster would be 30-50 percent of the norm. In a typical year, 95 percent of spiny lobster caught in San Diego goes to overseas markets, primarily Asia.
Coveted for its resemblance to a dragon, California spiny lobster is a lucky dish for Lunar New Year and is served at weddings and large get-togethers. Covid-19 crashed those parties in late 2019 and throughout 2020. Spiny lobster prices crashed too. President Trump’s trade war with China and the retaliatory tariffs didn’t help. The rumored price prior to the season opening was $8 per pound, down from the 2019 average of about $20 and 2015’s high near $30. California Department of Fish and Wildlife data showed that spiny lobster was the most profitable local catch at $3.8 million in 2017. In 2018, it brought in $3 million, beating out bigeye tuna. When the pandemic started in China in late 2019, it coincided with the height of legal spiny lobster season in California. Sales in 2019 dropped to $1.8 million. Among San Diego’s top-grossing seafoods, spiny lobster saw the biggest decline. Said Halmay, “They [local fishermen] got together and decided, ‘We can’t make a living off that. Let’s do something about it.’”
Seafood typically changes hands four or five times before reaching the consumer. In San Diego, fishermen sell off the dock to whomever is buying at the highest price, and they have no control over the “chain of custody” after that. “We know one up and one down, where it comes from and who buys it. We don’t really know for sure where it goes after that.”
WASHINGTON: Applications open for federal relief funding to commercial fishing, shellfish, charter and seafood sector industry members
February 11, 2021 — Eligible commercial fishing, shellfish, charter and seafood sector industry members who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can now apply with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) for assistance.
Industry members who experienced a gross revenue loss from January through July 2020 greater than 35 percent of their 2015-2019 average, are eligible to apply for federal relief funding. Washington-based commercial fishers who fish in Alaska are also eligible.
Under Section 12005 of the CARES Act, Congress provided $300 million to states to distribute to fisheries participants. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries allocated the funding among states, territories, and tribes with Washington and Alaska receiving the highest allocation of $50 million each.
Washington non-tribal commercial fishing, shellfish and charter industry members have been allocated $39 million, with $11 million allocated to members of Washington’s 24 treaty tribes. The CARES Act funds are intended to help those who have experienced negative impacts to commercial, subsistence, cultural and ceremonial fisheries resulting directly or indirectly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
NC Fisheries Association seeks to intervene in civil suit against state
February 11, 2021 — A seafood industry nonprofit seeks to intervene in a civil case between a conservation group and state fisheries managers.
The N.C. Fisheries Association, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the state seafood industry, filed Jan. 28 in Wake County Superior Court a motion to intervene in the civil complaint filed Nov. 10, 2020, by the Coastal Conservation Association’s North Carolina branch against the state. CCANC, a recreational fishing and conservation nonprofit, alleges state officials have mismanaged coastal fisheries resources.
According to a statement posted Feb. 5 on the NCFA’s website, the association “felt obligated to protect the interest of our members and those who rely on commercial fishermen as their source to access North Carolina seafood.”
“Along with our motion to intervene, we have filed a proposed motion requesting the dismissal of the CCA lawsuit against the state,” the association said. “Regardless of the outcome of these motions, the NCFA will address, in court or publicly, each false claim put forward by the CCA.”
MASSACHUSETTS: Charlie Baker’s embattled climate undersecretary targets fishing industry
February 11, 2021 — The Baker administration’s embattled climate change undersecretary David Ismay is again being called out for his questionable comments — this time against fishermen.
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, that broke the first video on the $130,000-a-year official’s rhetoric, says he also told climate activists that in order to obtain enough wind power, “something has to give” in regard to the fishing industry.
“We need offshore wind, and yes there is fishing out in the ocean too, but you know, there’s, we can’t have no offshore wind, no transmission, no solar, and have clean energy. Right. Something has to give,” Ismay is quoted telling Vermont climate advocates last month. He goes on to discuss transmission lines that will be placed in the ocean.
Massachusetts is home to some of the nation’s most productive commercial fishing ports, the state Division of Marine Fisheries states. The agency adds they are “happy to help commercial fishermen learn about permits, regulations, and the other commercial fishing resources.”
MASSACHUSETTS: Report: Shellfish industry under threat as oceans grow more acidic
February 11, 2021 — Carbon emissions and wastewater are making the ocean more acidic, an accelerating chemical reaction that could threaten the ability of young scallops, oysters and lobsters to survive to maturity, according to a report published by the Massachusetts legislature on Tuesday.
A coalition of scientists, conservationists and representatives from the seafood industry found that a third of mollusks could be wiped out within 80 years if ocean waters continue to acidify at current rates. The effect on lobsters and crabs is less clear, though they are suspected to be more resilient.
“We’re running out of time before the consequences of ocean acidification become truly catastrophic,” said State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat from Cape Cod who co-founded the coalition.
The group’s 84-page report says that oceans have been acidifying since the industrial revolution by soaking up excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When the gas dissolves, it triggers a chain reaction that raises acidity and saps the ocean of carbonate ions that shellfish use to grow their shells, making them more vulnerable to predators and bruising waves.
It’s hardly the first time scientists have predicted doom for New England’s seafood industry, but the report found rising ocean acidity is threatening scallops, the very species that fishermen in New Bedford and other nearby ports turned to to survive an earlier ecological catastrophe: the overfishing of cod.