December 18, 2019 — A New York board has approved plans to build 27 wind turbines despite a new local intended to block the project. The state’s Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment approved the 124-megawatt Calpine wind farm in eastern Broome County on Monday. A new zoning law adopted by the town of Sanford effectively banned the project but board Chairman John Rhodes said environmental impacts would be minimized, based on plans by developer Calpine. The state Public Service Commission says the decision demonstrates how the state is working to achieve Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s goal of a zero-emissions electricity sector by 2040.
Adak, Groundfish Trawlers at Odds on P-Cod Processing
December 18, 2019 — Pacific cod stocks hard hit by warming ocean temperatures are becoming a focal point at federal fisheries meetings, where harvesting sectors and processors fight over who gets to catch and process this versatile vitamin and protein packed white fish.
Stock assessments in the fall of 2019 put the population of P-cod in the Gulf of Alaska below the federal threshold that allows for commercial harvest, for the benefit of endangered Steller sea lions who rely on them as a food source.
The Gulf cod fishery was cancelled. The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands TAC was cut from 24,319,000 metric tons in 2019 to 22,000 metric tons for 2020.
The lower quota is intensifying the race for fish, and a fight between the trawlers and the community of Adak, Alaska, over where that fish will be processed.
At the heart of the battle is Amendment 113 to the fishery management plan for BSAI groundfish. This amendment set aside a portion of the Aleutian Islands cod fishery TAC for harvest by vessels directed fishing for Aleutian Islands Pacific cod and delivering their catch for processing to a shoreside processor located on land in Adak. The 5,000 metric tons P-cod harvest set-aside was designed to provide the opportunity for vessels, Aleutian Islands shore plants and communities where Aleutian Islands shore plants are located to benefit from the P-cod fishery.
Salmon Frenzy in Western Arctic Reaches Historic High
December 18, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The salmon frenzy that started in the western Arctic earlier this year has gone on to reach a historic high.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been studying Arctic salmon populations since 2000, and collects samples every year as part of the Arctic Salmon Project. This year, 2,400 salmon were submitted to the department.
Last year, less than 100 salmon were collected from western Arctic waters.
Karen Dunmall, a biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said they got more salmon from harvesters in the western Arctic and Nunavut this year than in the last 20 years combined.
She said they also found that salmon appeared earlier than normal.
Dunmall said years when they would see lots of salmon were once “exceptional,” but high counts are becoming more of a regular thing.
“So the highs are becoming more high and they’re becoming closer together,” said Dunmall. “This year was an exceptionally high high.”
Dunmall said they heard from people that there was more ice in the water last summer, compared to this year, when there was no ice.
“So the salmon are responding to environmental variability and change,” said Dunmall. “Generally, things are warming up, but there are lots of other cues that the salmon are responding to.”
Dunmall said people caught salmon everywhere in the western Arctic, from Sachs Harbour and Banks Island, to all the way up the Mackenzie River in Fort Smith.
Each community in the Beaufort Delta region offered grocery gift cards in exchange for up to 10 whole salmon samples, as well as an unlimited number of fish heads.
Fisheries and Oceans then evaluates the samples to gather more information about Arctic salmon — including why their numbers are booming in the first place.
‘Pretty Crazy’ Catch In Norman Wells
Norman Wells resident Kevin Kivi has only been fishing for about three years. Last year, he caught no salmon, so it was quite a shock for him catch nearly 100 salmon this summer.
“There was a period where I put my net in for just over a week… and in those eight days it was 73 salmon I caught,” said Kivi.
He said the size of his catch grew over the course of the season, until he was pulling in 17 fish every time. He said catching big schools of fish like that is unusual.
“It was pretty crazy, the amount that were coming,” he said.
Kivi said that usually he catches lots of whitefish, but this year, he only caught about four.
He tends to give a lot of his fish to elders and other community members in town, or keep them for his family.
However, he said he feels it’s important to help Fisheries and Oceans with their research “to find out why they are coming up here.”
Community Helps With Sampling
The large number of samples meant that the Arctic Salmon Project had to rely on the help of community members to process the whole catch.
The territorial department of Environment and Natural Resources partnered with Mackenzie Mountain School in Norman Wells to help with monitoring.
Kevin Chan, a regional biologist with the department in the Sahtu, said kids at the school played a crucial role in collecting the samples.
The department taught them about the science behind the work of fisheries monitoring and management.
Chan said the students measured the heads, recorded data about where and when the salmon were caught, and collected muscle tissue and bones from the ear of the salmon.
Fisheries and Oceans will be continuing the salmon project next year, and hope harvesters continue to submit salmon samples and inform them if they see anything unusual.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
Forbes pins sales of Russia’s top 10 seafood firms at almost $4bn
December 18, 2019 — The combined turnover of Russia’ top 10 seafood companies is RUB 238 billion ($3.80bn), according to a ranking of the top owners and firms in the sector from Forbes.
Forbes last ranked the top companies in the sector in 2017, but focused on volume then. However, for the 2019 edition, turnover is the metric used, with Norebo Holding coming out on top, with almost $1bn in turnover. Forbes also estimates 2 million metric tons of quota has been allocated to the top 10 companies in 2019.
According to Forbes, Vitaly Orlov and his Norebo are the largest player in the sector, with turnover of RUB 58.2bn ($929.45m). Norebo, which is the subject of a bitter legal dispute in the UK’s High Court of Justice, spent about $600m to buy competitors in the North-West and Far East in 2011-2013, according to Forbes.
December 2019 MAFMC Meeting Report
December 18, 2019 — The following was released by Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council met December 9-12, 2019 in Annapolis, Maryland. During this meeting, the Council:
- Approved the use of regional conservation equivalency for the recreational summer flounder fishery in 2020*
- Approved status quo recreational scup and black sea bass management measures in state and federal waters in 2020*
- Approved recreational bluefish measures for 2020 consisting of a 3-fish bag limit for the shore and private mode and a 5-fish bag limit for the for-hire modes*
- Approved a scoping document for the joint Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Commercial/ Recreational Allocation Amendment*
- Agreed to develop the Black Sea Bass Commercial Allocation Addendum/Amendment as a joint action with the ASMFC*
- Approved a supplemental scoping document for the Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment*
- Approved the Commercial eVTR Omnibus Framework with a 48-hour reporting deadline
- Selected a preferred alternative and approved the Omnibus Risk Policy Framework
- Selected preferred alternatives and approved the Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Excessive Shares Amendment
- Approved the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan
- Approved the Comprehensive Five Year (2020-2024) Research Priorities document
- Finalized the EAFM summer flounder conceptual model and agreed to move forward with development of a summer flounder recreational discards management strategy evaluation
- Identified four areas of expertise needed on the Scientific and Statistical Committee
- Reviewed and approved a list of actions and deliverables for the 2020 Implementation Plan
- Received an update on habitat activities
Read the full December 2019 Council Meeting Report for details on these discussions and decisions. Briefing materials, presentations, motions, and webinar recordings are available here.
* Items denoted with an asterisk (*) were undertaken during joint meetings with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board and Bluefish Management Board.
Fisherman’s Perspective: Electronic Reporting Saves Time, Needs to Be Standardized Across Fisheries
December 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries caught up with Rick Bellavance over the summer to ask about his experiences using electronic reporting and electronic monitoring. He’s a charter fisherman out of Point Judith, Rhode Island and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council. This is the first of a two-part interview focusing on electronic reporting.
How did you get started in fishing?
I got my first boat when I was 10 years old, and would run around Narragansett Bay fishing for winter flounder, quahogs, and hardshell clams. When I was 22, I was hired by the fire department, and one of the other firefighters was a charter boat captain. He offered me a crew position on his charter boat, and I ended up working for him for seven seasons, and really learned the business. In 1996, my father and I went in together on the Priority Too and I started working for myself.
Why did you start using electronic reporting to submit your catch reports?
One of my good friends calls me a “closet data geek”—I’ve always been interested in my own data, always kept a logbook. Even as a teenager digging hard shell clams in Narragansett Bay, I meticulously maintained a log of what I caught and when I caught it. So I’ve always had an interest in data. But the real catalyst was when I received a “nastygram” from the Regional Office. It said that if I didn’t complete my vessel trip reports, I wasn’t going to be eligible to reapply for annual permit. So, I sat down in front of my wood stove in December after fishing all year and filled out a hundred vessel trip reports.
After that, I decided I was taking the family out to dinner because I had lost the desire to cook. At the restaurant, I watched the staff tap things on a computer and hand me a bill, and I thought, “I want that for fishing! It would be so much easier.” That’s when I started looking into it. I love it now. We do electronic vessel trip reports all the time, and it really is so much easier.
Social unrest in Chile led to USD 656,000 in delayed salmon exports, official says
December 18, 2019 — Social protests and violence that erupted in Chile mid-October, including mobilizations at the salmon-farming area of Quellón and at ports used to move harvested salmon, cost around CLP 500 million (USD 656,485, EUR 589,076) in delays, according to Francisco Muñoz, the economy minister for southern Chile’s Los Lagos region.
The protests caused a 7 percent delay in volume with respect to the contracts that needed to be filled, Muñoz told SeafoodSource. Los Lagos represents 34 percent of all of Chile’s salmon breeding, while the region’s processing plants handle more than 70 percent of the salmon harvested.
Rep. Huffman, Pacific Coast Members Announce Major Win for Trawlers in Year-End Spending Bill
December 18, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):
Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA-2), joined by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Kamala Harris (D-CA), and U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR-4), Greg Walden (R-OR-2), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA-3), Kurt Schrader (D-OR-5), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1), today announced a major, bipartisan victory for West Coast trawlers in the 2020 spending bill that passed the House today.
The bipartisan members of Congress last week sent a letter advocating for the change. The provision secured in today’s bill would forgive the interest resulting from the bureaucratic error, finally making West Coast trawlers whole and helping grow and revive coastal economies from Northern California all the way up to the Canadian border. The language proposed would forgive more than $10 million in accrued loan interest that was forced onto the West Coast groundfishing fleet because of mismanagement by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
“The recovery of the West Coast groundfish fishery is an environmental success story,” said Rep. Huffman. “We all know how vital this industry is: sustainable fisheries are critical to the economic health of communities up and down California’s North Coast. I have been working to ease the fleet’s unnecessary financial burdens since I was first elected to Congress. Along with Appropriations Committee leaders like Nita Lowey and Rosa DeLauro, and our west coast congressional delegation, it is incredibly rewarding to be able to announce that the 2020 funding package will direct the Commerce Department to finally and fully forgive the unwarranted loan interest on the West Coast groundfish trawl fleet. This is an essential step to ensure a sustainable economic future for this fishery.”
“Today’s news is a huge victory for our coastal communities in Oregon and up and down the West Coast,” said Senator Merkley, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which negotiated the spending bills.“It was outrageous that the federal government forced family fishermen to foot the bill because of bureaucratic incompetence. This win will lift a huge burden off our trawlers’ backs, helping them keep their small businesses afloat and keep our coastal economies humming.”
“After years of uncertainty for our fishers, I’m glad we were able to secure some much-needed relief for Washington state’s groundfishing fleet. Our fisheries play a vital role in the Pacific Northwest, and this provision is an overdue correction by Congress to lift an unnecessary burden off of our trawlers who do so much to support our culture, economy and communities,” said Senator Murray, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I’m glad this issue for West Coast fishermen will finally be resolved. Groundfish fishermen shouldn’t be held responsible for interest accrued on a disaster loan before the federal government had a repayment plan in place. Removing the unfair interest charges will go a long way toward helping these fishermen rebuild and flourish,” said Senator Feinstein.
“Oregonians working on trawlers along the coast can now enter the new year without this senseless burden on the bottom line of their fishing operations,” said Senator Wyden. “Fishing on the Oregon Coast for a living is a key piece of our state’s economy that never should have been a victim of this bureaucratic bungling, and I am glad to have teamed up with fishermen and my congressional colleagues to get this problem fixed.”
“This is a victory for West Coast groundfish fishermen and fishing jobs in the Pacific Northwest,” said Senator Cantwell. “This legislation is an important step to ensure year-round economic activity and stability for rural fishing communities.”
“For years, Oregon’s groundfish vessels have been subject to a heavy financial loan burden, caused solely by government ineptitude. Groundfish fisheries are a vital part of Oregon’s coastal economy that need support, not red tape, from Washington. I’m proud to have helped right this ridiculous wrong and ease the financial burden on our region’s fishermen. I will be vigilant to ensure the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) follows through with Congress’s decision and does not short-change Oregonians,” said Rep. DeFazio.
“Commercial fishing is an important part of Oregon’s economy. It’s hard enough work without government failures making business harder. Government inaction has left the fishing industry with a costly and unnecessary burden. This legislation corrects that wrong and I was glad to work with my colleagues to get this long overdue fix into law,” said Rep. Walden.
“For the groundfish trawlers that provide jobs along our coast, today’s news is a relief and a victory. As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I was pleased to help successfully advocate for providing relief to these employers,” said Rep. Herrera Beutler.
“Fisheries are an integral part of the Oregon Coast’s economy,” said Rep. Schrader. “When the federal government asked West coast fishermen to make a sacrifice for the future of their fisheries, they did. But when the government failed to implement the buyback program correctly, they turned their back on those same fishermen. Today we are righting those wrongs. Thank you to all of those who have been tireless advocates for West coast fishermen for so many years.”
“In Northwest Oregon, the robust groundfish fishery helps provide year-round economic stability for our coastal communities,” said Rep. Bonamici. “But the industry is still working to recover from the fishery disaster in 2000. I’m proud to have worked with colleagues to address debt accrued by the Pacific Coast groundfish trawl industry as a result of delays in NMFS regulations to collect loan payments for the buyback programs. This was the not the fault of the industry, and we are pleased to stand with them in securing these long-overdue federal dollars. As Co-Chair of the House Oceans Caucus, I know how important our fisheries are to the blue economy. I will keep advocating for strong, effective management to help more species like the West Coast groundfish recover.”
“The West Coast congressional delegation has stepped up and righted a wrong that will have a huge economic benefit for Oregon trawl fishing businesses,” said Heather Mann, Director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. “The west coast trawl rationalization program, which has been an environmental success, will now start realizing some real economic benefits as well, thanks to our champions in Congress.”
After the Secretary of Commerce declared the West Coast groundfish fishery an economic disaster in 2000, the NMFS provided a $36 million buyout loan to retire one-third of the fishing fleet to reduce overcapacity.
After providing the loan, however, the NMFS inexplicably failed for nearly two years to implement a repayment mechanism and refused to allow the owners of the remaining vessels to start paying off the loan.
As a result, $4 million in interest accrued before repayment was even permitted to start. That additional interest has grown over time; the industry today owes at least $10 million more than it would have if repayment had started immediately as intended. Over the years, this additional interest has created an albatross around the neck of an industry that is already facing significant challenges.
The bill is expected to be passed by both the House and Senate this week, and to be signed into law prior to December 20 to avert a government shutdown.
Waters Off California Acidifying Faster Than Rest of Oceans, Study Shows
December 17, 2019 — California’s coastal waters are acidifying twice as fast as the rest of the oceans, a study published Monday shows. And some of California’s most important seafood — including the spiny lobster, the market squid and the Dungeness crab — are becoming increasingly vulnerable.
The carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to the planet’s rapidly warming climate are also changing the chemistry of the world’s oceans, which have absorbed roughly 27 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted worldwide.
Ocean water is ordinarily slightly basic, or alkaline, but is becoming more acidic as it absorbs carbon dioxide. This can harm marine life, especially shellfish, because they struggle to make their shells in acidic waters.
Emily Osborne, a scientist in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ocean acidification program, with her colleagues studied the fossil record of planktonic foraminifera — tiny simple organisms which, like shellfish, build their shells from calcium carbonate. They have been around for millions of years, but each individual organism only lives for roughly a month.
Press Release, Summaries and Motions from the Joint ASMFC/MAFMC December 2019 Meeting Now Available
December 17, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The press release, meeting summaries and motions from the December 2019 Joint Meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/