August 28, 2013 — Today, NOAA Fisheries announced that some groundfish fishery management actions are now finalized. These actions were implemented through Framework 48, Framework 50 and the Sector Operations Plans on May 1, but "interim" management measures to provide more time for public comment are now final. Read the final rule here
NOAA proposes revisions to mackerel, squid and butterfish plan to reduce river herring, shad bycatch
August 28, 2013 — Today at the recommendation of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, NOAA is proposing a number of revisions to the Atlantic mackerel, squid, and butterfish fishery management plan to improve the catch monitoring and reduce the bycatch of river herring and shad through Amendment 14.
NOAA Fisheries explained the changes to Congressional offices as follows:
The proposed measures include:
o Revise fishery management program measures (dealer and vessel reporting requirements, requirements for vessel monitoring systems);
o Increase observer coverage on mid-water trawl and small-mesh bottom trawl mackerel trips;
o Revise vessel requirements to improve at-sea sampling by observers;
o Establish measures to discourage the discarding of catch before it has been sampled by observers;
o Establish a mortality cap for river herrings and shads in the mackerel fishery, with amounts to be set in a future action.
NOAA Fisheries has concerns about three of these proposed measures and did inform the council of these concerns prior to the council's approval of Amendment 14 in a letter.
The concerns are:
o Requiring up to 100-percent observer coverage in the mackerel fishery coupled with an industry contribution of $325 per day;
o Establishing a cap that, if achieved, would require vessels discarding catch before it had been sampled by observers to return to port; and
o Requiring mackerel/squid/butterfish dealers to accurately weigh all fish and, if catch is not sorted by species, also requiring dealers to document how they estimated relative species composition.
Public comments on the Amendment 14 proposed measures will be accepted through October 11, 2013.
Visit the NOAA Fisheries page with related links
East Coast Dolphin Deaths Likely Due To Measles-Like Virus, NOAA Officials Say
August 27, 2013 — A massive string of dead dolphins along the East Coast is most likely due to cetacean morbillivirus, a marine strain of a virus similar to measles, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
At least 333 bottlenose dolphins have been found dead from New York to North Carolina, officials said during a Tuesday press conference. The strandings peak in Virginia, where 174 carcasses have washed ashore. The agency declared the die-off an "unusual mortality event" earlier this month.
Looking at a chart of past years, death rates are nine-times higher than usual.
A die-off this large hasn't happened for more than 25 years — between the summer of 1987 and the spring of 1988, more than 700 bottlenose dolphins washed up along the coast. NOAA officials say they don't know when the strandings will stop, but the similarities between the events could mean they likely won't end until next spring.
Read the full story and watch the video at the Huffington Post
Insiders see changing dynamics in Massachusetts fisheries market
Boston — August 27, 2013 — While the Bay State fishing fleet’s haul of cod has dropped precipitously, the waters now teem with others species that had not been present in such previously cool waters and several that are not common on American menus.
“The biomass is growing, but it’s not necessarily the most marketable fish,” Laura Foley Ramsden, a member of the New England Fishery Management Council and owner of M.F. Foley Fish Company, told the News Service. She said, “The biomass of species has actually grown since the Sustainable Fisheries Act was enacted. I should be clear, though, because there are certainly people that are hurting, lifelong fishermen that are unable to afford fishing.”
Meanwhile, scientists are developing a new method for measuring fish populations, similar to the photographs used to calculate the number of scallops on Georges Bank, which might one day replace the current system of dragging a net and counting the species that are hauled up by it.
“Now we’re applying specially designed cameras that takes stereo images of these fish, measures them and enumerates them with infrared lasers. So we’re going to drag nets but not catch any fish. We’ll be imaging them, and doing something very similar as we do with the sea scallop survey,” said Paul Diodati, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries and an NEFMC member, speaking at last week’s Gaming Commission meeting.
Menhaden rules to be heard Aug. 28 by Maryland panel
August 27, 2013 — ANNAPOLIS — Maryland watermen will have their chance to be heard in front of the Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28 in Annapolis.
The emergency regulations put on the menhaden fishery this season by the state Department of Natural Resources expire on Thursday, Aug. 29. The permanent regulations wouldn’t take effect until Monday, Sept. 2, leaving a gap of time that watermen wouldn’t have to operate under the provisions of the emergency regulations.
Recently, DNR requested that the emergency regulations be expanded until the permanent ones could be put into effect. The action brings the regulations in front of the AELR Committee, which had to hear the request this week due to when the emergency regulations expire, according to a spokesman for the Department of Legislative Services.
For watermen, this is a chance for their voice to be heard on regulations that some, like Bob Newberry, who is a co-organizer for the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition, say are negatively affecting their livelihood and aren’t necessary.
“We’re just asking for our day in front of the AELR Committee to explain our side of the situation,” Newberry said.
Read the full story at the Easton Star Democrat
Gloucester, Massachusetts Mayor Kirk backs Cape Pond Ice Designated Port Area shift
August 27, 2013 — Mayor Carolyn Kirk’s administration will support Cape Pond Ice owner Scott Memhard’s request to remove his Commercial Street property from the city’s Designated Port Area through the filing of special legislation in the Massachusetts Legislature.
“We should not turn our back on Mr. Memhard and the Cape Pond Ice Company,” Kirk wrote in a letter to state Sen. Bruce Tarr. “Therefore we must support his request for removal from the Gloucester Designated Port Area by legislative means as a most effective way to allow the company to physically restructure its organization, retain its core mission of providing ice to fishing vessels in a sustainable manner, and to attract additional market opportunity to its location for investment and long-term profitability.”
Tarr could not be reached Monday for comment.
Memhard, in an email, expressed his gratitude for the mayor’s support and spoke of the long process that remains. Meredith Fine, Memhard’s lawyer, reiterated her client’s gratitude for the manner in which Tarr, Kirk and the mayor’s staff listened to Memhard’s case at a meeting last week in Kirk’s office.
“I want to emphasize the unique position this property is in,” Fine said. “If you care about keeping the fishing industry alive, and you believe in the goals of the DPA, then you have to preserve the only independent ice house on the waterfront.”
Market forces take edge off New England lobster boom
August 26, 2013 — Lobster populations in Maine are booming. Tourists readily pay $15 (£9.60) or more for lobster rolls, and environmentalists have praised the harvest as a rare example of sustainability in a sea of over fishing.
Enter market forces. Last year’s record haul of 126 million pounds, double that of just a decade ago, led some to wonder whether lobster might go the way of cheap, everyday foods like the chicken nugget or TV dinner. Prices paid to lobstermen at the dock plummeted and have not recovered. They are barely enough, said Mr Train, to cover fuel and bait.
“It’s hard to make a business plan the way things are going,” said the 46-year-old lobsterman, who has fished the island- studded waters of Casco Bay since he was a teenager.
Even as many of the world’s fisheries have floundered, the Maine lobster harvest, recently certified as sustainable by the charity the Marine Stewardship Council, has reached epic proportions, but success is relative.
“I’m sure the corn farmer, or the wheat farmer, or chicken farmers all felt the same way at some point,” said Pete Daley, a manager at Garbo Lobster in Hancock, Maine, one of the country’s largest distributors. “People say, ‘I’m not getting the price I used to get, or the price I deserve.’ But what we’re seeing here is an industry that’s evolving.”
No one knows exactly why lobster populations have increased so quickly. The answer, says marine biologist Robert Steneck, is likely to be a combination of rising water temperatures, the over fishing of inshore predators like cod and a long history of forward-thinking conservation measures.
Read the full story at The Scotsman
MAINE: Saltwater fish could tap high-value market
August 26, 2013 — The first black sea bass and California yellowtail to come from a trial land-based culture method have earned excellent reviews from chefs and consumers.
That's the word from Ed Robinson, co-owner and director of Harpswell-based RAS Corporation. Now plans are in the works to expand RAS's limited trial run of 1,000 each of the two marine species.
RAS was founded early in 2011 by Christopher Heinig and Tap Pryor, marine biologists with long histories in aquaculture-related businesses. The company won two rounds of funding from the Brunswick-based Maine Technology Institute, in September 2011 and June 2012, to grow one tank of black sea bass combined with a prototype system to remove the solid waste from the discharge water.
In December 2012, MTI awarded RAS a third round of financing, this time $125,000. The funds were matched by a loan and equity from Coastal Enterprises, Inc., in Wiscasset.
The financing will allow RAS to buy 10,000 to 12,000 California yellowtail juveniles and grow them in 18 larger tanks over the coming year, with the goal of getting into commercial-scale production in the 2015-2016 timeframe. To be economically viable, initial commercial production would be in the range of hundreds of thousands of fish per year.
RAS has been conducting its initial studies over the past two years at the Franklin-based Center for Cooperative Aquaculture, considered one of the most sophisticated aquaculture development facilities in the U.S.
Read the full story at the Working Waterfront
Fish Landings at the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange
August 27, 2013 — The Cape Ann Seafood Exchange handled 22,900 pounds of fish Monday:
Top species landed and average prices were:
:Ocean perch (redfish): 6,800 pounds (65 cents)
Snapper haddock: 2,700 pounds ($1.22)
Medium pollock: 2,100 pounds ($1.04)
Medium and small pollock: 1,900 pounds (92 cents)
Large hake: 1,600 pounds ($1.99)
Clawback: The economics of lobster pricing
August 28, 2013 — For more than a decade, we’ve been living through a commodity price boom. From oil to wheat and beef, the general rule has been that if you farmed it, caught it, or took it out of the ground you were probably going to make money selling it. But there has been a strange exception: lobster. In 2005, Maine lobster was selling for almost six dollars a pound wholesale. By 2009, it cost just half that, and, in the past couple of summers, huge lobster harvests, believed by some to be a result of global warming, have glutted the market, sending prices tumbling further. This month, lobster off the boat is selling for as low as $2.20 a pound.
The impact of low-priced lobster is easy to see in the ports of Maine, where lobstermen are wondering how they can stay in business. And you can see it in supermarkets in the Northeast, where whole lobsters are often surprisingly cheap. Where you won’t find much evidence of a lobster glut, though, is in American restaurants. Even as the wholesale price of lobster has collapsed, restaurant prices for lobster tails and that hipster favorite the high-end lobster roll have stayed buoyant. There’s more lobster out there right now than anyone knows what to do with, but we’re still paying for it as if it were a rare delicacy.
Keeping prices high obviously lets restaurants earn more on each dish. But it may also mean that they get less business. So why aren’t we seeing markdowns? Some of the reasons are straightforward, like the inherent uncertainty of prices from year to year: if a bad harvest next summer sent prices soaring, restaurants might find it hard to sell expensive lobster to customers who’d got used to cheap lobster. But the deeper reason is that, economically speaking, lobster is less like a commodity than like a luxury good, which means that its price involves a host of odd psychological factors.
Lobster hasn’t always been a high-end product. In Colonial New England, it was a low-class food, in part because it was so abundant: servants, as a condition of their employment, insisted on not being fed lobster more than three times a week. In the nineteenth century, it became generally popular, but then, as overharvesting depleted supplies, it got to be associated with the wealthy (who could afford it). In the process, high prices became an important part of lobster’s image. And, as with many luxury goods, expense is closely linked to enjoyment. Studies have shown that people prefer inexpensive wines in blind taste tests, but that they actually get more pleasure from drinking wine they are told is expensive. If lobster were priced like chicken, we might enjoy it less.
Read the full story at The New Yorker