Saving Seafood

Management & Regulation

NOAA Fisheries Announces 2nd Reduction in Northern Red Hake Possession Limit

August 19, 2015 — NOAA Fisheries announces that the possession limit for Northern red hake will be reduced from 1,500 lb per trip to 400 lb per trip effective on Monday, August 24. This revised possession limit will be in effect for the remainder of the 2015 fishing year (April 30, 2016) to ensure the total allowable landings will not be exceeded.

The northern red hake possession limit must be reduced from 1,500 lb to 400 lb when landings for the fishing year reach or are projected to reach 62.5 percent of the total allowable landings.
Read the rule as filed in the Federal Register, or read the permit holder bulletin on our website.
Questions? Contact Reid Lichwell, Regional Office, at 978-281-9112 or reid.lichwell@noaa.gov.

State leaders express concern about NOAAs “oppressive” observer funding decision

August 19, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, MA — Public officials statewide are criticizing a recent decision by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association requiring fishermen in the groundfishing industry to pay for federally mandated observers.

The Baker-Polito administration sent an letter to federal partners Monday expressing “serious concern” about the requirement, and urging their support in covering the costs of the At-Sea-Monitoring (ASM) program for the Northeast fishery, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

“While we, too, respect the importance of proper fisheries management, we question the fiscal and programmatic decisions that the agency has made of late with regards to the Northeast Fishery,” states the letter, which was sent to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and members of the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees.

Read the full story at South Coast Today

Baker and Mass. congressional delegation urge federal officials to pay for ground fishing observers

August 19, 2015 — In an effort to reduce the financial burdens on the region’s struggling fishermen, Governor Charlie Baker and the state’s congressional delegation urged federal officials this week to pay for a controversial program that requires observers to monitor fishermen who catch cod, flounder, and other bottom-dwelling fish.

In a letter sent to the secretary of the US Department of Commerce, which oversees the nation’s fishing industry, Baker and the delegation expressed “serious concern” about a decision this year by the National Marine Fisheries Service to require the region’s fishermen to pay for the observer program.

Fishermen insist they can’t afford to pay for the observers, especially after major cuts to their quotas. The Fisheries Service estimates that it costs $710 a day every time an observer accompanies a fisherman to sea, and the agency’s research has suggested that requiring fishermen to cover those costs would cause about 60 percent of their boats to operate at a loss.

“To shift the cost of this ineffective program onto the fishery just as the industry begins to rebuild is not only imprudent, but irresponsible,” Baker and the delegation wrote. “This equates to an unfunded mandate that could lead to the end of the Northeast Groundfish Fishery as we know it.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

 

Some Washington restaurants serve New England-style seafood over usual Chesapeake blue crabs and Old Bay

August 19, 2015 — Apponaug Harbor is a small secluded part of Rhode Island’s Greenwich Bay, whose waters eventually flow into the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

It was within a tiny restaurant on this tiny harbor that I had one of the most delicious lobster rolls I ever tasted, proving that you cannot escape mouth-watering seafood in New England — the place I call home.

Fortunately for everyone at University of Maryland, it turns out seafood like New England’s can be found elsewhere in the country, like in Washington, where a couple restaurants have earned high marks from customers craving a bite from the Atlantic.

“We’re the most authentic and highest quality New England experience you can get in the District,” said Ben Coniff, vice president at Luke’s Lobster — a popular seafood restaurant in the capital region that serves seafood New England-style.

Luke’s receives its seafood and accompaniments, like sodas and dessert ingredients, through its sister seafood company called Cape Seafood which is based in Saco, Maine.

Read the full story at The Diamondback

 

 

Granddaughter of Massachusetts ship cook to speak at service

August 19, 2015 — Carol Figurido of Gloucester never knew her grandfather.

Thomas Isaac Moulton and five other Gloucester men “went down to the sea in ships” aboard the fishing vessel Mary E. O’Hara in 1941, before Figurido was even born.

But through speaking with relatives and tracking down her family history, Figurido says she’s learned a good deal about Moulton, who was lost at sea at the age of 48. So, come Saturday, she will speak of her grandfather — and the 5,383 other Gloucestermen whose names grace the Fishermen’s Memorial Cenotaph — at the annual Fishermen’s Memorial Service.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Costco Sued for Selling Slave-Labor Shrimp

August 19, 2015 — A new lawsuit filed against Costco takes the retailer to task for selling shrimp farmed by sea slaves in Thailand. The first of its kind, the class-action suit was filed by California resident Monica Sud, who argues that the Washington-based warehouse club has helped sustain the farmed-prawn industry through its purchasing power and that, furthermore, it hasn’t been honest with consumers about where its shrimp comes from. If true, doing so would violate California law, which requires companies to be honest about illegal conduct in their supply chains.

Several reports over the last year have revealed that horrid conditions and abusive labor practices are rampant in the Thai fishing industry, and that many Americans have very likely unwittingly purchased fish and shrimp produced using slave labor at chains including Costco, Safeway, and Walmart.

Read the full story at Grub Street

Alaska’s salmon harvest numbers indicate large harvest despite perceptions

August 19, 2015 — Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish.

“It just depends on how these late returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound performs, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division.

One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double runs of sockeye salmon (reds) to Bristol Bay. As soon as a slow-going first run petered out and the fishery was declared a bust, a surge of late reds caught everyone by surprise and pushed the catch to nearly 36 million fish.

Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery sometimes accounts for almost two-thirds of the value of the total salmon harvest. A statewide tally of 51.5 million by mid-August 14 makes it unlikely the sockeye harvest will reach the projected take of 58.8 million fish.

Reds might be the big money fish but pinks are fishermen’s bread and butter, and Prince William Sound scoops the story there. Record returns to some hatcheries and better than expected wild pink salmon returns have pushed catches above 75 million and the humpies are still coming home. Will it top the Sound’s record 93 million pinks taken in 2013?

“You never know,” Bowers said.

Conversely, the much anticipated pink salmon boom at Southeast Alaska has yet to materialize with the catch nearing 23 million.

“There’s still a bit of fishing time remaining and the harvest will continue to tick upward, but right now it doesn’t look like we’ll hit that forecast of 58 million pinks,” Bowers said.

The statewide catch forecast for pink salmon this year is 140 million; the take by mid-August was 128 million fish.

Other salmon highlights:

Cook Inlet’s sockeye harvest of 2.7 million is just slightly higher than last year’s.

 

Read the full story at Capital City Weekly

 

Season of ups and downs leaves salmon short of forecasted 221 million

August 19, 2015 — Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish.

“It just depends on how these late-returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound perform, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division.

One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double runs of sockeye salmon (reds) to Bristol Bay. As soon as a slow-going first run petered out and the fishery was declared a bust, a surge of late reds caught everyone by surprise and pushed the catch to nearly 36 million fish.

Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery sometimes accounts for almost two-thirds of the value of the total salmon harvest. A statewide tally of 51.5 million by Aug. 14 makes it unlikely the sockeye harvest will reach the projected take of 58.8 million fish.

Reds might be the big money fish, but pinks are fishermen’s bread and butter, and Prince William Sound scoops the story there. Record returns to some hatcheries and better-than-expected wild pink salmon returns have pushed catches above 75 million — and the humpies are still coming home. Will it top the Sound’s record 93 million pinks taken in 2013?

Conversely, the much-anticipated pink salmon boom at Southeast Alaska has yet to materialize with the catch nearing 23 million.

“There’s still a bit of fishing time remaining, and the harvest will continue to tick upward, but right now it doesn’t look like we’ll hit that forecast of 58 million pinks,” Bowers said.

The statewide catch forecast for pinks this year is 140 million; the take by mid-August was 128 million fish.

Read the full story at the Homer Tribune

U.S. Determines that Mexico’s Measures to Reduce the Bycatch of Sea Turtles are Insufficient

August 19, 2015 — Mexico was identified for bycatch of a protected living marine resource (PLMR) in the 2013 Biennial Report to Congress. For a number of reasons, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) decided not to make a certification decision on the 2013 PLMR bycatch identification in the 2015 Biennial Report.

First, Mexico made meaningful progress late in 2014 to develop a draft regulatory program to address loggerhead sea turtle bycatch, which culminated in the December 5, 2014, publication of a proposal to establish a refuge area within the Gulf of Ulloa for the conservation of this species. Second, the Government of Mexico gave assurances that this program would be adopted by April 1, 2015. Although the 2015 Biennial Report stated an intention to issue the final certification determination in May 2015, this determination was delayed as NMFS did not receive the adopted regulatory program from Mexico until April 10, 2015. NMFS now issues the PLMR bycatch certification determination for Mexico in this Addendum to the 2015 Biennial Report to Congress.

For the reasons explained below, NMFS has determined that Mexico should receive a negative certification concerning its actions, to date, to address the issues raised in the 2013 bycatch identification. Basis for Mexico’s 2013 Identification for Bycatch of PLMRs. In 2012, Mexican fishing vessels in the gillnet fishery in Baja California Sur incidentally caught North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles, a PLMR shared with the United States. In October 2012, the Mexican Fisheries Research Institute published a report on bycatch reduction trials conducted earlier in 2012 in the gillnet fishery in Baja California Sur.

Read the full story at the Yucatan Times

 

Crossing Borders and Defying Policing, Abuses of Thailand’s Fishing Industry Challenge International System

August 18, 2015 — Somewhere off the coast of Thailand, “ghost ships” bump and crash along the choppy waves scrapping the sea floor with nets that spare nothing. Pulling up these illegal hauls in shifts that sometimes last 20 hours are thousands of migrant fishermen, many of whom have been forced into indentured servitude or kidnapped. Far from shore on unregistered boats, they have little hope of escape and face daily abuse and squalid conditions. More recently, some captains have turned to trafficking Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar, pressing some into service, extorting others, and taking sex slaves.

As explored in an investigative series in The New York Times and reporting by The Guardian and AP, a cycle of human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and impunity revolves around the fishing industry in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand. What’s more, it’s in part due to growing demand from consumers around the world, like you and me.

Catch rates for the region’s fish have been decimated in recent years. The Environmental Justice Foundation reports Thailand’s fish stocks are 85 percent depleted compared to levels 50 years ago. The Times series follows boats that are now catching “trash fish” – small herring and jack mackerel that are processed into dogfood, fish oil, or feed for factory-farmed shrimp sold to companies like Walmart and Cost Co. But to make decent profits on these small fish, and what’s left of the bigger species, fishing boats need to work longer hours and move further out to sea.

Meanwhile, Thailand faces a major labor deficit, particularly in the maritime industry, where conditions and pay are poor. The fishing fleet is annually short as many as 60,000 workers. Combined, these pressures are pushing some captains to resort to kidnapping crewmembers from shore, spending longer and longer periods at sea, and even participating in human trafficking.

Read the full story at NewSecurityBeat.com