September 4, 2018 — The fishing industry says the U.S. government is crushing them with regulations.
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Meeting September 16-21, 2018
September 4, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
Members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet in September to address federal fishery management measures affecting offshore fisheries including snapper grouper, king and Spanish mackerel, spiny lobster, and habitat protection and ecosystem-based management. The meeting is open to the public unless otherwise specified, and public comment is now being accepted on agenda items.
Agendas, Overviews, and Briefing Materials:
The agenda for the week long meeting as well as individual committee agendas and helpful overviews are available from the Council meeting website. Documents, summaries, presentations, and other briefing materials for the meeting are also available.
Attend the Meeting via Webinar:
The meeting may be accessed via webinar each day as it occurs. Registration for each day is required. Register now and receive email reminders for the upcoming sessions.
– Monday, September 17 2:30 pm – 5 pm
– Tuesday, September 18 8:30 am – 5 pm
– Wednesday, September 19 8:30 am – 6 pm
– Thursday, September 20 8:30 am – 5 pm
– Friday, September 21 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Public Comment:
Comments on agenda items may be submitted using the online comment form. The form allows Council members immediate access to all comments and gives others the opportunity to read comments as they are posted. The Council will also solicit public comment during the meeting beginning at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, September 19, 2018.
Agenda Highlights:
Final Approval: The Council is scheduled to approve four amendments for review by the Secretary of Commerce during the meeting. The amendments address vermilion snapper and black sea bass fishing levels, commercial king mackerel trip limits, use of bully nets in the spiny lobster fishery, and commercial measures as outlined in the Council’s Vision Blueprint for the Snapper Grouper Fishery.
Species Migration Northward
Representatives from the New England Fishery Management Council and the Mid-Atlantic Council will come together during the Habitat Protection and Ecosystem-Based Management Committee meeting to discuss changes in migratory patterns being observed as ocean temperatures continue to warm and other environmental changes occur.
Additional agenda highlights are available online. Access all of the meeting information, submit comments, and listen live as the meeting occurs.
Agendas, Overviews, and Briefing Materials:
The agenda for the week long meeting as well as individual committee agendas and helpful overviews are available from the Council meeting website. Documents, summaries, presentations, and other briefing materials for the meeting are also available.
Attend the Meeting via Webinar:
The meeting may be accessed via webinar each day as it occurs. Registration for each day is required. Register now and receive email reminders for the upcoming sessions.
– Monday, September 17 2:30 pm – 5 pm
– Tuesday, September 18 8:30 am – 5 pm
– Wednesday, September 19 8:30 am – 6 pm
– Thursday, September 20 8:30 am – 5 pm
– Friday, September 21 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Public Comment:
Comments on agenda items may be submitted using the online comment form. The form allows Council members immediate access to all comments and gives others the opportunity to read comments as they are posted. The Council will also solicit public comment during the meeting beginning at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, September 19, 2018.
Agenda Highlights:
Final Approval: The Council is scheduled to approve four amendments for review by the Secretary of Commerce during the meeting. The amendments address vermilion snapper and black sea bass fishing levels, commercial king mackerel trip limits, use of bully nets in the spiny lobster fishery, and commercial measures as outlined in the Council’s Vision Blueprint for the Snapper Grouper Fishery.
Species Migration Northward
Representatives from the New England Fishery Management Council and the Mid-Atlantic Council will come together during the Habitat Protection and Ecosystem-Based Management Committee meeting to discuss changes in migratory patterns being observed as ocean temperatures continue to warm and other environmental changes occur.
Additional agenda highlights are available online. Access all of the meeting information, submit comments, and listen live as the meeting occurs.
California Moves to Ban Mile-Long Fishing Nets Blamed For Killing Whales, Sharks, Dolphins, and Other Sea Life
September 4, 2018 — Environmentalists scored a major victory in Sacramento Thursday after California lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to phase out the use of a controversial type of fishing gear known as drift gillnets: mile-long nets blamed for unintentionally killing thousands of sea creatures, including endangered animals.
Over the past 28 years, drift gillnets have entangled and killed an estimated 4,000 dolphins, 456 whales and 136 sea turtles, according to government data obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization. The federal agency, which regulates the fishing gear, randomly places observers on about 20 percent of all fishing trips that utilize the gear in an effort to document the environmental impact.
California fishermen view the ban as extreme and unnecessary, and believe their livelihood is being unfairly targeted. Without the fishing gear, they fear they won’t be able to continue making a living.
“I don’t know what I’d do,” said Mike Flynn, who has depended on drift gillnets to catch swordfish for the past 40 years. “There’s very few of us left, and we don’t seem to have a chance…we’re being villainized, unjustly.”
Only about 20 fisherman actively use the gear off the California coast; that’s down from 141 active permits at the peak back in 1990, according to NOAA.
Alaska: What risk do hatchery fish pose to Prince William Sound’s pinks?
August 31, 2018 — Recently, an argument over whether hatcheries are causing more harm than good has been heating up. The debate is nothing new. But an Alaska Department of Fish and Game study is about to take a step toward answering a question central to the debate: do hatchery fish that spawn with wild populations pose a threat to those stocks?
“You want to make two cuts: one to get at the heart and one to get at the otoliths,” Pete Rand told a group of new filed staff.
Rand is a research ecologist with the Prince William Sound Science Center, and he’s explaining how to sample pink salmon carcasses on the banks of Hartney Creek just outside of Cordova.
Rand picks up one of several pinks lined up on the rocks in front of him and cuts just behind its gills before using a pair of tweezers to tear off a tiny piece of its heart. Then, he cuts into the skull or “brain case” as he calls it and extracts two white otoliths or ear bones. They’re smaller than the head of a pin.
“I put my fingers in the eye socket and you basically want to take the top of the head off,” Rand said as his knife crunched into the decomposing skull of a pink salmon.
Read the full story at Alaska Public Media
Alaska: Pink salmon harvest below forecast, slightly up from 2016
August 31, 2018 — Though pink salmon harvests are ahead of what they were in 2016, the last comparable run-size year, they are still significantly below the forecast level.
As of Aug. 28, Alaska’s commercial pink salmon harvest was 38.2 million fish, about 4 percent ahead of the harvest in 2016. Pink salmon have a two-year life cycle, with large runs in even years and smaller runs on odd-numbered years, so the harvests are compared on every other year as compared to year-over-year like other species. Two years ago, the pink salmon runs returned so small that the U.S. Secretary of Commerce declared a fishery disaster on the Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fisheries.
The total harvest so far is slightly more than half of the forecasted 69.7 million fish for this season. Cook Inlet’s fishermen have harvested about 965,000 pinks, significantly more than the 465,000 in 2016. The vast majority of those — about 838,815 pinks — have been harvested in Lower Cook Inlet, largely the southern district bays around the lower edge of the Kenai Peninsula south of Kachemak Bay. The Port Graham Section alone has harvested 345,648 and the Tutka Bay Special Harvest Area has harvested 269,165, both of which have pink salmon hatcheries nearby.
Pink salmon harvest varies in other areas of the state. Kodiak’s harvest of pinks so far is behind the forecast but significantly better than in the 2016 disaster year. The Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands and Bristol Bay are both behind both their forecasts and the 2016 harvest. Southeast’s pink salmon is about 67 percent below its normal even-year harvest, with about 7.3 million pinks harvested so far compared to the 18.4 million harvested in 2016.
Read the full story at the Peninsula Clarion
Pew: Atlantic bluefin not ready for MSC certification
August 31, 2018 — The Pew Charitable Trusts has come out in opposition to a Japanese company’s attempt to get its Atlantic bluefin tuna longline fishery certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.
Last week, the council announced Usufuku Honten Co. Ltd. began the assessment process for the voluntary certification. It marked the first bluefin fishery to be assessed. Control Union Pesca Ltd. will perform the independent review, focusing on the Dai-ichi Shofuku-maru. The ship, which stays in the Atlantic Ocean all year, catches bluefin in October and November annually.
MSC certification is being sought because its process is designed to acknowledge fisheries that meet sustainable fishing management standards, Usufuku Honten said. The council, founded in 1997, has certified 296 fisheries located in 35 countries through its first 20 years of existence. That represents about one-eighth of the worldwide marine harvest. More than 38,000 groceries, restaurants, hotels, and other sites have also been certified to see the more than 25,000 products that come adorned with MSC’s blue label.
Read the full story at Seafood Source
West Coast Fisheries Worried El Nino Likely to Return in 2018-19
August 31, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — As salmon and tuna seasons wind down and Dungeness crabbers start thinking about the winter fishery on the West Coast, some wonder: Will El Niño return?
Recent news articles have reported a 70 percent chance of warm waters in the equatorial Pacific will affect the West Coast.
On land, that could mean a dry winter coming after a summer and fall in which smoke from wildfires filled the skies in the West. On the ocean, it could mean warmer waters that may temporarily disrupt an environment that is accustomed to cooler waters. Some fisheries could benefit months or years after an El Niño. Others — some the most commercially important — may have difficult seasons ahead.
“In summary, there is ~60 percent chance of El Niño in the Northern Hemisphere [of] fall 2018 (September-November), increasing to ~70 percent during winter 2018-19,” the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center wrote in an El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion earlier this month.
However, each El Niño and warm water period is different and creates effects to varying degrees. The extreme warm water period in 2015-16, “The Blob,” proved disastrous to Dungeness and rock crab fisheries because harmful algal blooms thrived. It also hampered the ocean survivability of coho salmon. In years past, pink shrimp populations plummeted but then bounced back after El Niño events.
“When El Niño is developing … short-term fluctuations in the near-surface winds [in the Pacific] can have substantial effects,” Emily Becker wrote on a Climate.gov blog in early August. “A period of weaker trade winds can help build El Niño’s warmer surface waters, while a period of stronger trade winds can cool the surface and impede El Niño’s growth. It appears that the trade winds are currently weakening, and may continue to do so through the next week, likely helping push things in the El Niño direction.”
Weather forecasters caution that making any predictions beyond a week to 10 days is uncertain. The Climate Prediction Center will make its next El Niño report and update in mid-September.
This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.
Waters off New England in midst of record year for warmth
August 31, 2018 — The waters off of New England are already warming faster than most of the world’s oceans, and they are nearing the end of one of the hottest summers in their history.
That is the takeaway from an analysis of summer sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine by a marine scientist with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland. The average sea surface temperature in the gulf was nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit above the long-term average during one 10-day stretch in August, said the scientist, Andy Pershing, who released the work Thursday.
Aug. 8 was the second warmest day in recorded history in the gulf, and there were other sustained stretches this summer that were a few degrees higher than the average from 1982 to 2011, Pershing said. He characterized this year as “especially warm” even for a body of water that he and other scientists previously identified as warming faster than 99 percent of the global ocean.
ASMFC Coastal Sharks Board Releases Draft Addendum V for Public Comment
August 31, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Coastal Sharks Management Board releases Draft Addendum V to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Coastal Sharks for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes options to allow the Board to streamline the process of state implementation of shark regulations so that complementary measures are seamlessly and concurrently implemented at the state and federal level whenever possible.
The FMP currently allows for commercial quotas, possession limits, and season dates to be set annually through Board approved specifications. All other changes to commercial or recreational management can only be accomplished through an addendum or emergency action. While addenda can be completed in a relatively short period of time, the timing of addenda and state implementation can result in inconsistencies between state and federal shark regulations, particularly when NOAA Fisheries adopts changes through interim emergency rules. The only option for the Board to respond quicker than an addendum is through an emergency action, which has a set of criteria that are rigorous and often not met, making it rarely used to enact regulatory changes. The Draft Addendum seeks to provide the Board more flexibility in responding to changes in the fishery for shark species managed under the FMP.
A public hearing webinar will be held Tuesday, September 25th at 5:30 p.m. The details of the webinar follow:
Registration URL: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2613822106816627203
Phone: 1.888.585.9008
Room Number: 853-657-937
Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on Draft Addendum V either by attending the public hearing webinar or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum is available at
http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/CoastalSharksDraftAddendumV_PublicComment_Aug2018.pdf and can also be accessed on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on October 1, 2018 and should be forwarded to Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA, 22201; 703.842.07401 (fax); or comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Addendum V).
MSC addresses forced labor, process issues in standards update
August 31, 2018 — The Marine Stewardship Council has announced an overhaul of its certification process after a review that lasted more than two years.
The changes include a new requirement that MSC-certified fisheries declare they are free from forced labor and child labor, and changes to the timeline of both when stakeholder input is accepted and to the dispute resolution process between parties seeking an MSC certification and those who have objections to an individual certification.
MSC Fisheries Standard Director Rohan Currey said introduction of updates to MSC’s Fisheries Certification Process and General Certification Requirements came after an organizational review that began in late 2015.
“The Marine Stewardship Council is a listening organisation and this review began in response to feedback from partners and stakeholders on the complexity of the assessment process and the resources required to engage with it,” Currey said. “To address this feedback, we aimed to reduce complexity and increase effectiveness of stakeholder engagement whilst maintaining the credibility and robustness of the whole process.”
Most prominent among the changes is MSC’s new requirement that by 31 August, 2019, all fisheries in the MSC program must complete and submit a Certificate Holder Forced and Child Labour Policies, Practices, and Measures, detailing the measures they have in place to mitigate the presence of forced or child labor. If the deadline is not met, the fishery will no longer be eligible for certification and any existing fishery certificates it has from the MSC will be suspended. Fishing and supply chain companies and their subcontractors that have been successfully prosecuted for forced labor violations will not be eligible to participate in the MSC program for two years after their conviction.