August 4, 2014 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council: Monday, August 11, 2014
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
W Hotel (map)
515 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20004
Telephone 202-661-2400
Webinar:http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/august2014/.
Members of the public are invited to attend the Council’s next listening session at 5 p.m. on Monday, August 11th to learn about NOAA Fisheries’ Fishery-Dependent Data Visioning Project and provide input on how fishery-dependent data collection systems can be improved to better meet the needs of Mid-Atlantic stakeholders. The listening session will be held in conjunction with the Council’s August meeting in Washington, D.C. Individuals who can’t attend in person can listen and participate via webinar at the web address above.
Fishery-dependent data is information collected directly from participants in the fishery. In December 2013 NOAA Fisheries announced that it was undertaking a coordinated effort to improve the quality, usefulness, timeliness, and delivery of data collected from the fishing industry. Over the past few months, NOAA Fisheries has conducted surveys and interviews with stakeholders affected by regional fishery-dependent data. Responses from these surveys and interviews are being used to characterize data uses, evaluate existing data collection methods, and identify the characteristics of an improved system.
Interested stakeholders are encouraged to attend next week’s listening session to learn more about this initiative and share Mid-Atlantic perspectives on fishery-dependent data collection. Below is a list of trigger questions for you to think about and offer input on during the listening session.
Trigger Questions
Integrating Vessel and Dealer Data:
1. What’s the best way for DEALERS to get data (e.g., vessel trip identifier) from vessels?
2. What’s the best way for VESSELS to get data (e.g., price) from dealers?
3. How can we improve data collection from various landing scenarios?
Transition to Electronic Data Collection:
4. Are Mid-Atlantic fishermen ready for electronic reporting?
5. What do you see as the biggest challenge for reporting data electronically?
6. What’s the best way to submit data electronically (iPhone apps, websites)?
Missing Data Needs:
7. Are there any data that you want, but can’t get?
8. Is there a better way to provide you with the data you need?
More Precise Fishing Location:
9. How can we collect more precise fishing location?
10. When do you write down the area you fished (tow, end of trip, etc.)?
11. When is the earliest that you can or would send that information to us? Are there roadblocks to collecting more precise area information?
About Listening Sessions
Listening sessions are held during each Council meeting as an open and informal opportunity for the public to interact with Council members and leadership, as well as with experts in a range of relevant fields. Most listening sessions focus on a specific topic of current interest. Listening sessions are always accessible via webinar.
Seafood major enticement for Jersey Shore visitors
BARNEGAT LIGHT, N.J. (AP) — August 2, 2014 — It was like Christmas morning, solving a Rubik's cube, and the movie Groundhog Day all rolled into one as soon as the Grand Larson III docked at Viking Village.
A seven-man crew – the maximum allowed under strict government regulation – returned Wednesday from five days on the 80-foot steel-hulled trawler, which had gone to a managed scalloping area called the Delmarva, about 50 miles off the coast of New Jersey, and pulled 12,000 pounds of scallops from the deep.
Currently, boats like the Grand Larson III, licensed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, are permitted to harvest scallops in controlled growing areas only 15 days of the year, said Kirk O. Larson, the boat's owner, who is also the mayor of Barnegat Light.
"People wonder why seafood is so expensive . . . but it involves boats that cost lots of money to build and outfit, and $35,000 in diesel every time you go out," Larson told The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/1m9LFti). "It's not an easy business."
While the boat was still at sea, each scallop was shucked and cut – by hand – before being stuffed into a muslin bag and cold-stored in the hold.
And then it was a race against the clock to get the precious bounty – scallops sell for about $25 a pound retail – to the dock so it could be officially weighed, packed in shaved ice, and distributed to various fishmongers, supermarkets, restaurants, and other outlets as far away as San Francisco within a matter of hours. Much of this particular batch was headed to the Great American Seafood Cook-off being held in New Orleans.
"It's like a big puzzle leading up to this moment. . . . So many factors go into it, good fisheries management, timing, a good crew, a good boat, regulations . . . everything," said the ship's captain, Kirk Larson Jr., as he directed the dockside "pack out" that had about a dozen people scurrying between the deck and the dimly lit, wet-floored receiving area. "And it's an in-demand commodity."
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Houston Chronicle
New NOAA assessment sees more grim cod numbers
August 1, 2014 — The health of the Gulf of Maine cod stock worsened in 2013 in virtually every indicator, according to the preliminary results of an unscheduled NOAA stock assessment that the federal fisheries regulator said “presents a grim picture for the potential recovery of this iconic fish stock.”
The assessment, according to NOAA, was performed after the most recent survey data for the Gulf of Maine cod showed “all major indicators of stock health appear to have deteriorated since the 2012 assessment.” The agency released the preliminary results of the assessment late Friday afternoon.
The survey and assessment, according to NOAA, showed two major disturbing declines:
— Spawning biomass levels are estimated to be at only 3-to-4 percent of the biomass target for maximum sustainable yield.
— Fishery resource survey indices and spawning stock biomass are at all-time lows.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times
Camp prepares future fish farmers of America
August 2, 2014 — On a grassy compound in southern Ohio, Laura Tiu rounded up her recruits for boot camp.
The two dozen men and women standing before her on a recent Saturday fell quiet as she gave them marching orders: Stock the nearby ponds with perch and prawns.
The recruits are preparing not for a life in the Army but a life aquatic — as fish farmers.
Americans consumed 4.5 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2012, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That sizable appetite for seafood — along with a greater awareness of where our food originates — has translated into an increased interest in aquaculture, the fancy word for fish farming.
"Aquaculture is growing by leaps and bounds," said Bob Calala, president of the Ohio Aquaculture Association, which has about 50 active members.
This year, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has issued 235 aquaculture permits to fish farmers of all scales and sizes — up from 152 permits a decade earlier.
Years are often needed to learn to grow fish — to tackle the intricacies of aquaculture, from finding the best fit in fish breeds to navigating the channels of bureaucracy.
To help speed up the process, the Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development at Ohio State University's South Centers set up a yearlong boot camp to help newbie fish farmers enhance their aquaculture know-how.
Read the full story at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Two Maryland Fishermen Plead Guilty to Illegal Fish Harvesting Conspiracy in the Chesepeake Bay
August 1, 2014 — Michael D. Hayden, 41, and William J. Lednum, 42, both of Tilghman Island, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to violate the Lacey Act and to defraud the United States through their illegal harvesting and sale of striped bass, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division Sam Hirsch, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Superintendent of the Maryland Natural Resources Police Colonel George F. Johnson IV and Regional Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Honora Gordon.
“These defendants admitted to systematically plundering the Chesapeake Bay of an important and protected natural resource, and at the expense of the many honest fishermen who play by the rules,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Hirsch. “The Justice Department is committed to enforcing environmental laws that protect our shared natural resources and sustain the vital marine life of the Chesapeake Bay for future generations.”
According to their plea agreements, Hayden and Lednum were “captains” on fishing vessels owned by them, William J. Lednum Fisheries d/b/a Michael D. Hayden Jr. and Michael D. Hayden, Jr., Inc. The defendants also employed numerous “helpers” as part of this scheme, including co-defendant Kent Sadler.
From at least 2007 to 2011, Hayden and Lednum illegally harvested, possessed, falsely labeled and/or sold at least 185,925 pounds of striped bass. They used illegally weighted and/or anchored gill nets, left the nets in the water overnight, and set the nets during times when the commercial striped bass gill-netting season was closed. The defendants exceeded their maximum daily vessel limit of striped bass and either unloaded the surplus onto an anchored vessel or paid others a fee to check-in fish for them. Hayden and Lednum falsified the permit allocation cards and daily catch records for their striped bass fishing trips to over-report the numbers of striped bass caught and under-report the weights. This allowed them to request additional state tags under false pretenses and therefore harvest additional striped bass illegally.
Read the full story at eNews Park Forest
Florida enacts lionfish ban, but is it too little, too late?
FORT MYERS, Fl. — August 4, 2014 — If you want to see a perfect eating machine in action, you can hardly do better than watching a hungry lionfish. Since its introduction into the Atlantic off the Florida coast in the 1980's and 1990's, the fish has been on a disastrous feeding frenzy.
That feeding frenzy has lead the lionfish all the way from Florida to North Carolina to coastal Venezuela, Scientific American reports. They have even been sighted as far north as Rhode Island, but here, they can't survive in cold waters.
Now, Florida has instituted a first-of-its-kind ban that went into effect on August 1, even though this ban may be an example of too little, too late. Bringing this spiny, voracious agent of maritime destruction into Florida is now punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in the slammer. Adopted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in June, the measure also calls for the following, per FloridaToday:
• Allowing the harvesting of these fish when divers use a rebreather, which recycles air and allows divers to remain in the water for a longer period.
• Allowing participants in approved tournaments and other such events to spear lionfish or other invasive species in areas where spearfishing is not allowed. This will be done under the auspices of a permitting system.
At least some of the lionfish were likely dumped from aquariums and their population has literally exploded. The fish has been declared a major threat throughout much of the coastal waters of the Atlantic from North Carolina to the Caribbean, Time.com reports.
Sadly, this ban will hardly put a dent in most of their populations, however.
A female lionfish can produce up to two million eggs in a year. Keeping up with this evolutionary assembly line would be difficult even for the most ardent divers. The invasion of these fish has been so all-pervasive in the Caribbean that their populations have reached densities never seen before in the Pacific of Southern Asia, where they are native, reports Inter Press Service.
Read the full story and watch the video from Digital Journal
Scientists worry lobster conservation is faltering
WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — August 8, 2014 — Marine scientists and lobster harvesters in Maine's largest fishery say some fishermen may be abandoning a key conservation method practiced for nearly 100 years at a time of growing fears that a run of record hauls is coming to an end.
The mandatory practice, called v-notching, requires lobstermen to mark the tail of any egg-bearing lobster they catch and let it go. The notch lasts two to three years and alerts other lobstermen that that lobster is off-limits.
State officials say about 66 percent of egg-bearing females surveyed in 2013 were v-notched, down from nearly 80 percent in 2008.
The decline comes at a time when the state's lobster catch has boomed, growing from 70 million pounds in 2008 to more than 125 million pounds in 2013. State officials and some lobstermen said the lower percentage of v-notching could indicate waning participating in the conservation program or could mean fishermen are having trouble keeping up with notching so many lobsters.
Carl Wilson, the state's lobster biologist, said the downward trend bears monitoring.
Read the full story from the Miami Herald
Massachusetts court sends last summer’s oyster thief to jail for two years
BARNSTABLE COUNTY, Mass. — August 2, 2014 — A West Yarmouth man was sentenced Friday to two years in the Barnstable County Correctional Facility for poaching thousands of oysters from beds in Dennis and Barnstable last summer.
Michael Bryant, 37, pleaded guilty in Barnstable Superior Court to shellfishing in a contaminated area, a commercial fishing license violation and six counts of larceny of more than $250.
Judge Gary Nickerson sentenced Bryant to the two-year term for shellfishing in a contaminated area and 10 years of probation for the remaining offenses. Bryant must complete two years of supervised probation; after that, his probation will end upon the payment of restitution.
A restitution hearing was scheduled for Sept. 12. The Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office estimates that restitution will be $25,000.
Bryant was responsible for a string of raids on oyster grants in Crowes Pasture in Dennis and in a town-run area in Barnstable in June and July of 2013.
In court Friday, James Ward, a victim who owns grants in Crowes Pasture, thanked law enforcement officials who "made this day possible." He was joined by Lynne Fox, a co-worker, and Aaron Brochu, who also owns grants in Crowes Pasture that were raided by Bryant.
Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times
Oyster deaths from ocean acidification become key issue in Washington state fall elections
OLYMPIA, Wash. — August 3, 2014 — Billions of baby oysters in the Pacific inlets here are dying and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington is busy spreading the bad news.
“It used to be the canary in the coal mine,” Mr. Inslee said in a recent interview. “Now it’s the oyster in the half shell. You can’t overstate what this means to Washington.”
Or to Mr. Inslee’s ambitions. The Democratic governor, aided by what is expected to be millions of dollars from his billionaire friend Tom Steyer, is using the story of Washington’s oysters — scientists say a rise in carbon levels has spiked the acidity of the Pacific and is killing off shellfish — to make the case for passing the most far-reaching climate change policies in the nation.
Mr. Inslee, who is campaigning for his agenda across the state this summer with oyster farmers in tow, is trying to position himself as America’s leading governor in the climate change fight. But Mr. Inslee does not have the support of the majority of the Washington State Senate, particularly those conservative lawmakers from the rural inland, so Mr. Steyer’s advocacy group, NextGen Climate, is working with the Washington League of Conservation Voters to handpick Democratic, pro-climate policy candidates across the state.
Mr. Steyer’s strategy is to spend heavily this fall to help defeat sitting lawmakers who oppose Mr. Inslee’s agenda and pave the way for the governor to move his policies through next year — an example, his critics say, of the insidious influence of big money from outsiders that makes local elections less local.
“We’re working to give Jay the Legislature that he needs,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the national League of Conservation Voters. “The state senators are the obstacles.”
Read the full story from The New York Times
NEFMC: Additional logistics regarding Gulf of Maine cod, Groundfish Oversight Committee webinar information
August 4, 2014 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
Please find the revised Groundfish Oversight Committee meeting agenda for August 4th attached. It includes information on how to access the webinar (at the bottom of the page).
Meeting documents can be found at this link: http://www.nefmc.org/nemulti/cte_mtg_docs/2014/140804/140804.html