Saving Seafood

Management & Regulation

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Section July 30 Days Out Conference Call Cancelled

July 29, 2015 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Comission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section will not meet via conference call on July 30th to discuss Area 1A landings and days out measures. As of July 24th, preliminary landings for Area 1A are estimated to be 6,062  mt, consistent with projected landings. The Section will meet via conference call in August to review Trimester 2 landings and set Area 1A days out specifications for Trimester 3 (October 1 – December 31); the details of this call will be released once they are finalized.  Landings will continue to be closely monitored and the directed fishery will be closed when the trimester’s quota is projected to be reached.
 
For more information, please contact Ashton Harp, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at aharp@asmfc.org.

U.S. court upholds California ban on shark fins

July 27, 2015 — SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — A federal appeals court upheld California’s ban on possession or sale of shark fins Monday, rejecting a challenge by Bay Area suppliers and sellers of shark fin soup, a traditional dish in the Chinese American community.

The law prohibited selling and serving shark fin soup when it took effect in July 2013. Opponents, including restaurants, Chinese American community organizations and shark fin suppliers, argued that the law exceeded the state’s authority and interfered with a commercial fishing market that federal regulations were intended to preserve. Federal laws prohibit shark “finning,” the removal of fins from live sharks, but do not forbid possessing or selling shark fins.

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said federal laws on shark fishing recognize the importance of conservation and allow states to adopt their own protective measures, even if they reduce the number of sharks that might otherwise be caught and sold.

“The purpose of the shark fin law is to conserve state resources, prevent animal cruelty, and protect wildlife and public health,” said Judge Andrew Hurwitz in the 2-1 ruling, which upheld a federal judge’s decision in the state’s favor.

Read the full story at San Francisco Chronicle

 

Feds: ‘Wicked Tuna’ TV fisherman claimed to be disabled

July 27, 2015 — MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – A Massachusetts man seen manning big fishing rods and harpooning huge fish on the reality show “Wicked Tuna” collected government benefits while claiming to be disabled and unable to work, federal prosecutors said.

Paul Hebert, 50, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted more than $44,000 in Social Security and Medicaid benefits between 2010 and 2013, according to a four-count indictment filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Burlington.

Hebert first filed for Social Security disability in the spring of 2009, claiming on his application that he was unable to work at any job, could not walk properly, could not lift heavy weights or drive for more than short distances, according to the indictment. Hebert also said he lived alone that he had no financial resources, no vehicle and no income. He began receiving benefits in October 2010, authorities said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at New Jersey Herald 

 

 

A RENEGADE TRAWLER, HUNTED FOR 10,000 MILES BY VIGILANTES

July 28, 2015 — Aboard the Bob Barker, in the South Atlantic — As the Thunder, a trawler considered the world’s most notorious fish poacher, began sliding under the sea a couple of hundred miles south of Nigeria, three men scrambled aboard to gather evidence of its crimes.

In bumpy footage from their helmet cameras, they can be seen grabbing everything they can over the next 37 minutes — the captain’s logbooks, a laptop computer, charts and a slippery 200-pound fish. The video shows the fishing hold about a quarter full with catch and the Thunder’s engine room almost submerged in murky water. “There is no way to stop it sinking,” the men radioed back to the Bob Barker, which was waiting nearby. Soon after they climbed off, the Thunder vanished below.

It was an unexpected end to an extraordinary chase. For 110 days and more than 10,000 nautical miles across two seas and three oceans, the Bob Barker and a companion ship, both operated by the environmental organization Sea Shepherd, had trailed the trawler, with the three captains close enough to watch one another’s cigarette breaks and on-deck workout routines. In an epic game of cat-and-mouse, the ships maneuvered through an obstacle course of giant ice floes, endured a cyclone-like storm, faced clashes between opposing crews and nearly collided in what became the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel in history.

Industrial-scale violators of fishing bans and protected areas are a main reason more than half of the world’s major fishing grounds have been depleted and by some estimates over 90 percent of the ocean’s large fish like marlin, tuna and swordfish have vanished. Interpol had issued a Purple Notice on the Thunder (the equivalent of adding it to a Most Wanted List, a status reserved for only four other ships in the world), but no government had been willing to dedicate the personnel and millions of dollars needed to go after it.

So Sea Shepherd did instead, stalking the fugitive 202-foot steel-sided ship from a desolate patch of ocean at the bottom of the Earth, deep in Antarctic waters, to any ports it neared, where its crews could alert the authorities. “The poachers thrive by staying in the shadows,” Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Barker, said while trying to level his ship through battering waves. “Our plan was to put a spotlight on them that they couldn’t escape.”

Read the full story at The New York Times 

There’s a border dispute heating up between the US and Canada over lobster

July 28, 2015 — There is still a tiny bit of disputed territory between the US and Canada, and relations on the border are getting frosty.

The northeastern-most part of the US — on the coast where Maine meets New Brunswick — there are two tiny, uninhabited islands in a political gray area. It isn’t because anyone wants the islands — instead, they want the lobster surrounding the islands, and it’s disputed which country has the fishing rights.

During normal times, the dispute seems to be little more than an annoyance. But apparently this year, there are real problems because the price of lobster is so high ($5.50 a pound in that area, compared to $4 the previous year), according to Zane Schwartz in Maclean’s.

Read the full story at Business Insider

 

Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance Support for the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Act of 2015 (H.R. 774)

July 28, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance:

The Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance (Shareholders’ Alliance) and the commercial fishermen and women we represent are strong advocates for sustainable management of our marine resources in the Gulf of Mexico. We believe that healthy fish populations bring stable fishing businesses, profitable fishing communities, and a stable source of sustainable, domestically-harvested seafood that Americans consumer deserve to enjoy.

The Gulf’s red snapper population continues to rebound thanks to a sustainable commercial management plan. Quotas are increasing for everyone, red snapper are getting larger, and are being caught more easily by many fishermen from Texas to Florida. Unfortunately, this rebound brings with it a new threat – the poaching of red snapper and other reef fish my Mexican fishermen illegally fishing in US waters.

“Mexican nationals routinely and illegally enter U.S. sovereign waters off the coast of Texas and other Gulf states to steal the fish we’ve worked hard to rebuild,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, commercial fisherman and owner of Katie’s Seafood Market in Galveston, Texas. According to U.S. Coast Guard data more than 1,100 illegal fishing operations happen each year, harvesting three- quarters-of-a-million pounds of fish annually. Many of these illegally-caught fish end up back in US markets, impacting the bottom line of thousands of U.S. commercial fishing businesses. “It’s too bad that all the US Coast Guard can do right now after catching these fishermen is confiscate their boat and what they’ve caught, and send them back over the boarder to Mexico,” said Steve Tomeny, commercial and charter fisherman from Port Fourchon, Louisiana. “There they just find another boat and head back into US waters to continue poaching.”

Read the full release here

 

Reef protections aim to grow fish stocks

July 28, 2015 — Fishing practices that disturb the sea floor will soon be banned in a 38,000-square mile swath of the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to protect fragile East Coast coral reefs.

While the new rules will mean fishermen are catching less in coral zones, officials say the effort could grow fish populations, keeping customers from having to pay more for seafood.

In mid-June, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to establish “deep sea coral zones” from waters off the northern North Carolina border through New York. Trawls, dredges, bottom long lines and traps would be prohibited in the protected area, which starts at about the 450-feet depth point and extends 200 miles out to sea.

The rule still needs to be approved by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, but it would complement protections passed in 2010 by sister organization the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to safeguard coral zones from Southeastern North Carolina through Florida.

Read the full story at Star News Online

NOAA Fisheries Announces Common Pool Area Closure in Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic

July 28, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

We are closing the Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder Trimester TAC Area to common pool vessels using trawl and sink gillnet gear for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31.

The area will reopen at the start of Trimester 2 on September 1.

We are required to close this area because the common pool fishery has caught over 90 percent of its Trimester 1 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for Southern New England/ Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder.

Read the permit holder bulletin.

Questions? Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, at 978-281-9103 or allison.ferreira@noaa.gov.

VIRGINIA: Meeting could lead to truce over menhaden

July 26, 2015 — Decades of animosity don’t disappear overnight. But a conversation is a good place to start.

Officials from Omega Protein met with recreational charter captains Tuesday night to discuss the conflict between two groups that depend on the same waters to earn a living.

Reedville-based Omega is the East Coast’s only menhaden reduction fishery. Recreational anglers often have blamed the company for harming certain fisheries. Omega reduces the small, oily fish to produce Omega 3 fish oil supplements and pet food.

There also are small fleets that catch menhaden to sell as bait for commercial and recreational fishermen. In Virginia, Omega often gets blamed for just about any problem caused by the bait industry.

The menhaden fishery is highly regulated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and must report its catches and mishaps. Omega even employs a Norfolk-based company to take care of spillages or beachings of spilled fish.

Menhaden also are a vital food source for a vast majority of game fish targeted by anglers. And they are considered a filter feeder that is vital to the health of the environment.

Read the full story at the The Virginian-Pilot

 

 

Powerful typhoon kills 11,000 farmed tuna in Japan: reports

Tokyo, Japan (AFP) — July 24, 2015 — A powerful typhoon which lashed Japan last week has killed more than 11,000 farmed bluefin tuna, costing over $10 million in damage, local media said Saturday.

Typhoon Nangka made landfall in southwestern Japan on the night of July 16 and slowly moved northward before turning into a tropical depression.

Torrential rain and gusts of wind wreaked havoc in various parts of western Japan, also causing high waves and clouding sea water in the fish farm near the Pacific coastal town of Kushimoto, Kyodo News and the Asahi newspaper reported.

Read the full story from the Agence France-Presse at Business Insider