October 3, 2013 — State officials believe extreme natural changes are to blame for millions of dead fish in two major river systems here in Eastern Carolina.
The dead Menhaden are turning up in both the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins.
SCOTLAND: Fishermen caught in a net of bureaucracy
September 25, 2013 — MOST of us have become accustomed in recent years to a very gloomy narrative about the amount of harvestable fish in the waters around the UK. Egged on by chefs with a certain celebrity to sustain, academics, environmentalists and like-minded politicians have convinced the public that benighted, self-serving fishermen have emptied the seas of cod, haddock, mackerel – choose your species.
Stocks in the seas around Shetland are recovering well, but the men who know these waters are not free to look after them, writes Simon Collins, executive officer of Shetland Fishermen’s Association
MOST of us have become accustomed in recent years to a very gloomy narrative about the amount of harvestable fish in the waters around the UK. Egged on by chefs with a certain celebrity to sustain, academics, environmentalists and like-minded politicians have convinced the public that benighted, self-serving fishermen have emptied the seas of cod, haddock, mackerel – choose your species.
And the lesson of this beguilingly simple story? We might as well pack away our nets, tie up our boats and consign, in Shetland’s case, a third of our economy and centuries of community tradition to the history books.
There’s one problem with this narrative. It’s not true. I came to Shetland in January this year to work as executive officer for the Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA), which represents most of the vessels in the islands. Having worked in banking and translation (I ran my own business in a remote Alpine hamlet, Villard-sur-Doron, for a decade), I obviously have no background in the fishing industry. But I had reached the stage in my life when I wanted to work for something more meaningful – and the SFA offered me that opportunity.
Read the full story from Fishing For The Truth
Press Release: ICES releases advice on mackerel in the Northeast Atlantic
COPENHAGEN — October 4, 2013 — The following was released by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES):
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has today released its advice on mackerel in the Northeast Atlantic. ICES advises that catches should not increase in relation to the last three years’ average. This corresponds to landings of no more than 889 886 tonnes in 2014.
In previous years, ICES advice on mackerel has been based on the management plan agreed by Norway, Faroe Islands, and European Union (EU). This year, however, ICES was unable to give advice in relation to the plan as there was no accepted analytical assessment for mackerel.
"ICES is trying to produce useful advice while still being precautionary. All indications are that the mackerel stock has increased in recent years despite catches in excess of those advised by ICES. There are technical issues with the input data for the assessment used until 2012 and continuing to use it would imply catch advice markedly lower than current catches,” explains ACOM Vice-Chair John Simmonds.
“In the short term ICES is advising no rise in landings for one year to allow scientific work to be completed. ICES is already developing alternative modelling approaches to take account of these data issues,” Simmonds continues.
Today’s advice based on recent landings is seen as an interim measure. ICES will attempt to incorporate more stock size information into an appropriate assessment model as part of a benchmark process in 2014.
Mackerel stock on the rise
Data from recent years indicate that mackerel stocks have expanded north-westwards to spawn and for the summer feeding migration. This change in distribution likely reflects an increased stock size coupled with changes in the physical environment and in the zooplankton concentration and distribution.
This has had an effect on fisheries. Traditionally, the fishing areas with higher mackerel catches have been in the northern North Sea, around the Shetland Islands, and off the west coast of Scotland and Ireland and extending into Faroese waters to the west. The southern fishery off Spain’s northern coast has also accounted for significant catches. In recent years though, substantial catches have been made in Icelandic waters, areas where almost none were reported prior to 2008. In 2012, catches in this area constituted approximately half of the total reported landings. Those made from Greenland were reported for the first time in 2011, and have increased in 2012.
For more information read ICES' advice on mackerel published on the ICES website.
MASSACHUSETTS: UMD’s Marine Fisheries Institute forms advisory council to help fishermen
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — October 4, 2013 — Local members of a newly-formed fishing advisory council hope their group can help the greater New Bedford fishing industry survive increasingly Draconian federal regulations.
"We are getting to a point where we can't wait longer. We have to see some kind of relief," said local seafood consultant Jim Kendall, who is on the council. "The fishermen have one scene they see and science is slower and reluctant to agree to that picture. We need to get both groups of people on the same page."
UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, last month announced the formation of the 16-member Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute (MFI) Advisory Council.
NEW YORK: Fish Gone at Shuttered Local Ocean Farm
GREENPORT, N.Y. — October 2, 2013 — As many as a million saltwater fish have been removed from Local Ocean fish farm in Greenport outside the city of Hudson.
Greenport Supervisor John Porreca confirmed that the fish were gone on Tuesday afternoon, months after the once-promising business closed when the property was foreclosed upon by its lender.
The new owner of the property — a Long Island developer named Mike Spielman — could not be reached for comment. Neither could his Hudson-based attorney, who is on vacation.
WNYT-TV in Albany reported that the inventory was sold to fish markets, as well as a company that makes fertilizer.
California Fishermen Defeat Federal Lawsuit Using VMS Deficiencies as Defense
October 3, 2013 — Two Santa Barbara brothers accused of violating federal laws related to a no-fishing zone off San Miguel Island beat the charges in late August when a federal judge determined that the government presented insufficient evidence to prove the crime.
The brothers were only able to fight the charges, which date back to a fishing trip they took on May 17, 2010, because attorney Rusty Brace of the Santa Barbara firm Hollister & Brace took on the case pro bono. Had he been tallying his time on this complicated matter, which he says the feds fought tooth-and-nail despite no hard evidence, the bill would have far exceeded the fines, costing perhaps as much as $80,000 when all was said and done.
The decision highlighted deficiencies in the vessel monitoring system (VMS) used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to watch fishing boats and enforce the rules surrounding marine protected areas (MPAs), prompting an ongoing review of the system with changes likely on the way.
For longtime fishermen Jason and Shane Robinson, the decision saved them from paying more than $17,000 in fines, which is a relatively low amount compared to other penalties, in part because they were only charged with idling in an MPA too long, not for fishing there, which can bring fines of up to $140,000. But the case also revealed what they believe is an unfair culture of guilty until proved innocent when it comes to commercial fishing laws. “They threaten you based on the fact that it costs more to fight these than to accept a settlement,” said Jason. “That’s what they told me, and that’s how they did it. In my mind, this is their ATM machine. … It feels like extortion.”
“It’s impossible to say what they did,” said Brace, which is basically what the judge determined, as well. Brace appreciates how difficult it must be for the government to watch the entire West Coast and the roughly 1,000 boats working the groundfisheries (the area close to the bottom where many fish swim), and he understands how VMS makes the monitoring somewhat possible, even if he finds the constant tracking somewhat oppressive. “It’s a great way to identify suspect behavior, but it’s not a viable way to prove a case,” said Brace. “You have to have other corroborating evidence.”
Read the full story at the Santa Barbara Independent
Read a PDF of the opinion here
ASMFC Launches Redesigned Website
ARLINGTON, Va., — October 3, 2013 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announces the release of its redesigned website at www.asmfc.org. With a completely new look, improved navigation and functionality, and expanded content, the website provides our member states, fishermen and other stakeholders with the most up-to-date information on the Commission’s fisheries science and management activities. Along with the redesigned website is an increased presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“We are excited about our new site, which was designed with the end user in mind. There was a deliberate intention to add relevant and timely information to the homepage with the Quick Links and Calendar features, create streamlined menu options highlighting all of the Commission’s programs, and construct a site that was user friendly, informative, and accessible to all our stakeholders,” states Robert E. Beal, ASMFC Executive Director. “Through it, the Commission seeks to be to transparent in our fisheries management process, facilitate an understanding of the science behind our management decisions, highlight the importance of healthy habitat to productive fisheries, and emphasize the need for dedicated and coordinated law enforcement efforts.”
New website features include:
Ø Species-specific pages, with one-stop access to all species-related materials, such as fishery management plans, amendments and addenda, stock assessment reports, and meeting summaries and proceedings;
Ø Expanded pages on the Commission’s fisheries science activities, including a Fisheries Science 101 page that presents basic fisheries science and stock assessment information in layman’s terms, as well as links to stock assessment webinars, such as “Understanding the Science Behind Northern Shrimp Management;
Ø Revised habitat pages including a subpage devoted to habitat hot topics that explores current and emerging habitat issues, such as alternative energy, harbor deepening, shellfish habitat and coastal alterations;
Ø A law enforcement page highlighting the activities of the Commission’s Law Enforcement Committee and recognizing the notable accomplishments of state and federal conservation officers coastwide;
Ø New kids & teachers resources page containing links to ASMFC educational materials; and
Ø A searchable database of all ASMFC publications.
SEAFOOD NEWS: Legal Sea Foods promotes seafood consumption’s health benefits in best ‘brainless act’ contest
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [seafoodnews.com] October 3, 2013 — Legal Seafoods is expanding its "Fish is Brain Food" ad campaign calling on consumers to submit images or videos depicting less than intelliegent behavior that could have been prevented with more seafood consumption.
Legal Seafoods is expanding its "Fish is Brain Food" ad campaign calling on consumers to submit images or videos depicting less than intelliegent behavior that could have been prevented with more seafood consumption.
The Boston-based seafood restaurant chain said it will take social media submissions of brainless acts through November 17. Legal will accept entries via Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #fishisbrainfood, alternatively uploads can be accepted through Legal Sea Foods' Facebook page.
The winner of most the unintelligent display will win a $250 gift card from Legal.
The Fish is Brain Food" ad campaign debuted earlier this summer with homemade videos of people engaged in acts exhibiting questionable judgment or intelligence that may have been prevented with a more seafood centric diet.
Legal said this new promotion plays off the current ads, as it seeks to find further humorous examples of outrageous behavior where the subjects could have clearly benefited from eating more fish.
"The whole ad campaign was sourced from real life examples of people doing clearly stupid things, so there must be even more ridiculous examples of those acts that sure sounded like a good idea at the time," said Ellis Verdi, president of DeVito/Verdi, the ad agency that created the campaign.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission
OREGON: Appeals court upholds killing sea lions to save salmon
GRANTS PASS, Ore., — October 2, 2013 — An appeals court has upheld killing sea lions that eat too many salmon at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had told NOAA Fisheries Service it needed to do a better job of explaining why it was authorizing the killing of dozens of sea lions, which are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And on Friday the court affirmed that the latest explanation filled the bill.
The court said the service examined the relevant data, and explained the rationale behind killing up to 92 sea lions a year to reduce the loss of threatened and endangered salmon.
Read the full story by the Associated Press at The Oregonian
CANADA: British Columbia Premier warns Canada unprepared for tanker oil spills
October 2, 2013 — If a tanker were to spill oil off the coast of British Columbia today, the federal government would not have the resources to handle a large-scale disaster, warns B.C. Premier Christy Clark.
In an interview with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, Clark sounded the alarm over Canada's inability to handle a major coastal oil spill now, let alone in the future should new pipelines be approved.
"We are woefully under-resourced," Clark said.
Her comments come amid a recent video ad campaign by Coastal First Nations in B.C. directed at Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The video shows devastating images from the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989. The song The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel accompanies the dramatic pictures.
The video tells viewers a similar oil spill could cost taxpayers $21.4 billion to clean up and notes that 80 per cent of British Columbians oppose oil tanker traffic in the province's coastal waters.
Read the full story and watch the video at CBC News