November 26, 2012 — The Council’s newsletter is published after every regularly scheduled Council meeting and provides details about the decisions made by the NEFMC.
Oceana questions ICCAT decision not to manage sharks
November 26, 2012 — Oceana, an official observer at the International Commision for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) special meeting this week, has welcomed the steps taken for Eastern bluefin tuna management in 2013, but has grave concerns about the lack of new measures for threatened highly migratory species of sharks.
Contracting Parties to ICCAT adopted a catch limit of 13 400 t for Eastern Bluefin tuna, with an additional allowance of 100 t for Algeria. Measures beyond 2013 will be determined on the basis of new science.
Maria José Cornax, Fisheries Campaign Manager for Oceana Europe, stated: “The outcomes of this meeting reflect a baffling, contradictory approach within ICCAT. We welcome the willingness of ICCAT CPCs to stay on the path towards bluefin tuna recovery in 2013, but we are extremely concerned about the future of ICCAT’s ‘forgotten species’.”
Cornax added: “ICCAT is much more than bluefin tuna. ICCAT must remove its blinders and look beyond this one fish, to the many other stocks for which it is responsible.”
Seven proposals had been tabled that aimed to enhance the protection and management of threatened sharks in the ICCAT Convention area. Of these, only one vague measure was adopted, claims Oceana, related to compliance with existing measures. Oceana has expressed its extreme disappointment, particularly with the failure to adopt EU, science-based proposals to protect endangered porbeagles and to cap fishing pressure on shortfin makos, which are threatened, but commercially fished without any limits or management.
Dr. Allison Perry, shark expert and Oceana Europe marine wildlife scientist, condemned the abandonment of sharks at this year’s meeting: “ICCAT has failed to assume their responsibility for managing shark fisheries in the Atlantic. Allowing stocks to become seriously depleted, and then prohibiting their capture does not qualify as responsible management. Sharks represent more than 15% of all reported catches in ICCAT, yet most sharks caught in ICCAT fisheries remain completely unmanaged.”
Read the full story at Fishupdate.com
MAINE: Rockland claims lobster business was sham, sues owner
ROCKLAND, Maine — November 26, 2012 — The city has filed a lawsuit against a Massachusetts man for failing to pay for use of the municipal fish pier and claims that he operated the business as a sham to avoid personal responsibility for debts.
Rockland filed the lawsuit Monday in Knox County Superior Court against Rockland Lobster Co. LLC and its sole principal, Antonio Bussone of Chelsea, Mass.
The city is asking the court to order Bussone to pay the city $31,173 plus interest, and attorney and court costs.
Rockland Lobster and its predecessor Live Lobster Co. Inc., which the city said also was owned by Bussone, sold bait and bought lobsters at the city-owned fish pier from 2005 through 2012.
The companies had paid the necessary fees and other charges before 2012, according to the lawsuit.
The city said Rockland Lobster applied and was granted permits to conduct business at the fish pier in 2012 as a bait dealer and to buy lobsters.
The company operated at the pier in early 2012, selling bait, buying lobsters, using floats and storing equipment, such as bait coolers and pallets, at the pier. The company also used electricity and fuel from the pier.
Many of Live Lobster’s operations in Maine, including a lobster processing facility in Prospect Harbor, ceased functioning earlier this year after the company’s primary lender, TD Bank, froze the company’s accounts. In April, TD Bank filed suit against the lobster distributor, claiming the firm violated terms of a 2008 loan agreement for $4 million from the bank. That suit later was dropped, but the bank arranged a foreclosure auction that saw assets sold off in September.
Rockland Lobster ceased doing business at the Rockland pier on or about April 20.
Read the full article at the Bangor Daily News
US bluefin tuna fishermen feel let down by their government’s actions at ICCAT
November 20, 2012 — A GROUP of US fishermen feels let down by the American Government’s stance on tuna quotas at the recent ICCAT meeting in Morocco.
According to the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Association (ABTA), the bluefin tuna stock assessment results, presented by the ICCAT scientists, indicated great news for both eastern and western Atlantic bluefin populations – with the third western Atlantic stock assessment consistently demonstrating an increase in biomass and exceeding the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).
ICCAT scientists also have good news for the eastern bluefin tuna populations, bluefin that are harvested chiefly in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. The ICCAT stock assessment for the eastern fishery validates a significant recovery trend in biomass after high restrictive regulatory measures were put in place in 2007, having the effect of ending prior overharvesting of bluefin tuna in that region and allowing for the process of recovery of eastern bluefin tuna biomass.
Despite rapid stock improvements, made possible by strict compliance with restrictive quotas and other restrictive regulations relating to minimum length of fish and daily catch limits, the tuna industries from the west Atlantic (US, Canada and Japan), in the interest of conservation, collectively opted to request for a precautionary quota of a modest 2,000 metric tons (MT), up from the prior quota level of 1,750 MT set by ICCAT two years ago, but substantially below the scientifically justified level of Maximum Sustainable Yield.
Despite this the ABTA feels that the US government position and objective at the ICCAT meeting, set by the NOAA’s Dr Jane Lubchenko, was to seek another dramatic reduction in the western quota below the quota level set by ICCAT two years ago.
Read the full article at Fishnewseu
Fishing nations agree to maintain quotas to protect endangered Atlantic Bluefin tuna
AGADIR, Morocco — November 19, 2012 — Fishing countries on Monday voted to keep up strict limits on catching Atlantic Bluefin tuna, overruling fierce opposition from critics who argue that the key sushi ingredient is on the rebound.
Observers at a week-long meeting in the Moroccan resort of Agadir said some countries pushed for removing tough quotas, but that the 48-member international organization of fishing nations decided the devastated population still needed time to rebuild.
Stocks of bluefin in the Atlantic Ocean fell catastrophically due to rampant, often illegal, overfishing and lax quotas — dropping by 60 percent between 1997 and 2007. Although there has been some improvement, experts say the outlook for the species is still fragile.
“It is always difficult for this commission to make decision. It has 48 members and the views are very varied,” said Masanori Miyahara, the head of the Japanese delegation and chairman of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. “After a long wait, the bluefin tuna is showing signs of recovery — we have to move step by step and follow scientific advice.”
The quota will be allowed to rise slightly from 12,900 metric tons a year to 13,500 — the upper limit recommended by scientists in 2006. Quotas were as high as 32,000 tons in 2006.
Environmentalists welcomed Monday’s decision, saying it will maintain the recovery for at least the next year. The decision will be reviewed in 2014, though the original scientific recommendation called for maintaining the quotas through 2022.
Read the full article at the Washington Post
Bluefin Fishing Quota Will Rise Only Slightly
PARIS — November 19, 2012 — The international commission responsible for the conservation of the Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna agreed Monday to hold the 2013 fishing quota close to this year’s number despite modest signs of an improvement in stocks of the bluefin, the world’s most valuable fish.
Delegates of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or Iccat, recommended a total bluefin catch of up to 13,500 tons next year in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, up marginally from 12,900 tons this year.
A Canadian proposal to raise the quota for the Western Atlantic stock, which is managed separately, went nowhere, and it will remain at the current 1,750 tons.
Iccat’s bluefin discussions, held in Agadir, Morocco, differed markedly from some held in the recent past in which conservationists fought for quota reductions amid signs that the stock might be on the verge of collapse. This year, a stock assessment by Iccat scientists suggested that the Mediterranean bluefin population had recovered a bit, with fish mortality declining and stock biomass showing “a clear increase.”
The scientists warned that the data on which they based their models remains sketchy, partly because of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Mediterranean, and they called for a conservative approach.
The biomass of the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin has declined by about 30 percent over the last two decades, particularly since the onset of tuna “ranching” for the sushi trade, and the fish is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Conservationists generally welcomed indications that Iccat member states are following the scientific recommendations. “They listened to the scientists this time,” said Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group. “This is an organization that has had a long history of ignoring the science.”
Read the full article at the New York Times
NSC: Gillnet Fishermen Committed to Reduce Harbor Porpoise Interaction
The following was released by the Northeast Seafood Coalition.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. — November 20, 2012 — Gillnet fishermen in the Northeast region of the U.S. are making strident efforts to reduce harbor porpoise interactions and preliminary data shows a low number of takes in the month of October.
A closure for gillnet fishermen that was set to take place in a large portion of inshore Gulf of Maine fishing grounds during October and November 2012 was changed to February and March 2013 due to analysis conducted by NOAA Fisheries based on an industry proposal submitted by the Northeast Seafood Coalition (NSC). This proposal showed more harbor porpoise would be protected by the closing the winter months rather than maintaining a fall closure. Gillnet fishers have been and are continuing to make concerted, proactive choices to benefit harbor porpoise and their industry.
In October, fishing cooperatives, commonly referred to as “sectors,” with active gillnet vessels that operate in the inshore Gulf of Maine are moving forward with their commitment to minimize harbor porpoise interactions.
Northeast Fishery Sectors with active gillnet fishermen have urged their members to deploy twice the amount of required “pinger” coverage in all management areas during October, with the intent of making sure the correct number of working pingers are deployed on the gear. Harbor porpoise pingers are acoustic alarm devices that emit a 10 kHz frequency to deter the marine mammals from swimming into gillnets. Many fishermen are working together to ensure they have more than enough pingers deployed. In New Hampshire, for example, fishermen who are not currently gillnetting offered their pingers to fishermen who needed extras.
In addition to urging fishermen to use more than the required amount of pingers, under the leadership of the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund (GFCPF), industry is also coordinating to replace current technology pingers with new light emitting diode (LED) pinger technology. The LED will enable fishermen and regulatory authorities who test pinger functionality to easily confirm if the devices are operating correctly simply by observing if the pingers are “blinking”. GFCPF received the first wave of LED pingers last week and fishermen began testing the new pingers over the weekend with the intent of providing feedback to the GFCPF and the manufacturer. Anticipating positive results from the testing, GFCPF is prepared to organize an all-out effort to swap out existing pingers throughout the Northeast Fishing Sectors with the new technology. GFCPF will seek financial partners to complete the regional program.
Furthermore, multiple Northeast Fishery Sectors are collaborating with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Northeast Cooperative Research Program to develop an industry-based “hotspot” reporting tool that will help provide fishermen with real-time information about harbor porpoise sightings and interactions. This tool will allow the gillnet fleet the ability to effectively share information in order to influence decisions about fishing behavior. Industry began working on this tool earlier this year, and it will be available for wide-spread industry use beginning in early 2013.
NSC and its members share a full commitment with scientists, environmentalists and concerned citizens to conserve harbor porpoise. Gillnet fishermen are acutely aware of the need to protect harbor porpoise and other marine mammals and continually make rigorous efforts to do so. Now, more than ever, gillnet fishermen are collaborating to reduce harbor porpoise interactions—as is already evident from the low number of takes in October.
NSC looks forward to partnering with individual fishermen, Northeast Fishery Sectors, the Northeast Sector Service Network, NOAA Fisheries, the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Team, the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund, Future Oceans, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and all vested parties to ensure the gillnet industry achieves an unprecedented low number of harbor porpoise takes while continuing to provide healthy and sustainable seafood for the world.
Photo Credit: Jamie Hayward
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About the Northeast Seafood Coalition:
The Northeast Seafood Coalition is a non-profit organization representing over 250 commercial fishing entities, which hold over 500 limited access groundfish permits, in the northeast United States on political and policy issues affecting their interests as participants in the groundfish fishery and the Sector program in the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery. NSC members are small, independent, entrepreneurial businesses that fish for—and support fishing for—cod, haddock, flounders, and other groundfish species along the northeast coast. NSC’s fishing business members fish from small and large ports all along the northeast coast. They fish small, medium, and large vessels, and they employ all groundfish gear types.
NSC works for rules that embody real solutions to complex fishery problems.
NOAA Statement on ICCAT Determination on Bluefin Tuna
WASHINGTON – Nov. 20, 1012 – Russell F. Smith III, NOAA Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries, and head of the US delegation stated: "We are pleased to have made progress on improving the management of ICCAT’s fisheries, although we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that all of ICCAT’s species are well-managed. In addition, the United States, Belize and Brazil again proposed a requirement that all sharks caught in ICCAT fisheries be landed with fins naturally attached. While not adopted, international support for this approach is building. Together, the positions advanced by the United States at ICCAT called for a precautionary approach and international standards to strengthen fishery monitoring and reporting in all ICCAT fisheries. The newly agreed measures will support the long-term sustainability of ICCAT stocks across international fisheries, to the benefit of U.S. fishermen."
BACKGROUND
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded its annual meeting today with significant advances that will combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and support the rebuilding of bluefin tuna and marlin stocks. With leadership from the United States, ICCAT was able to:
• Adopt conservation measures that support the long-term sustainable management of western Atlantic bluefin tuna. Among other things, we agree to do more research on the biology of this iconic species in order to improve our ability to manage it. Consistent with scientific advice, we also extended the catch limit for western Atlantic bluefin tuna through 2013 to ensure continued stock growth. Management measures were also adopted for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean stock that will support its recovery and strengthen monitoring and control, including improvements to the operational aspects of the high seas boarding and inspection scheme.
• Adopt, for the first time, country-specific quotas for landings of blue marlin and white marlin. These quotas will significantly reduce the number of fish that may be caught and follow scientific advice. The marlin rebuilding plan also includes an Atlantic-wide recreational minimum size equal to that of the United States, a ban on sale of recreationally-caught marlins, and measures to improve data collection in artisanal fisheries.
• Improve the monitoring of ICCAT fisheries by adopting a strengthened set of minimum standards for port inspections and an at-sea transshipment measure that closes compliance loopholes. We also agreed to begin using a new electronic bluefin tuna catch documentation program in May 2013, and to start work, under a U.S.-Japan proposal, to consider modernized catch certification schemes for tuna and tuna-like species. These tools are critical to ongoing efforts to fight IUU fishing and level the playing field for U.S. fishermen.
• Thoroughly review whether parties are complying with existing obligations. ICCAT’s Compliance Committee is chaired by the US.
• Agree on a process for amending the 1969 ICCAT Convention so that it is in line with modern principles of fisheries management – and clarifies the Commission’s authority to manage certain stocks, including some sharks found in ICCAT fisheries.
NSC Statement Clarifying Position On Amendment 18 Appearing In Gloucester Daily Times Article “Fish Council Eyes Limits On Catch Shares”
November 20, 2012 — The Northeast Seafood Coalition issued the following statement to clarify their position on Amendment 18.
The groundfish fishery is currently faced with an overwhelming number of challenges, including massive reductions in annual catch limits (ACLs) for numerous core stocks in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank and the obligation to reduce interactions with protected species. The management responses to these challenges threaten to destroy many fishing businesses and force far greater changes in the demographics, diversity and consolidation of our fishery than anything the sector management system ever can or will. Consequently, the financial viability and future of this fishery is in serious jeopardy as never before.
The Northeast Seafood Coalition (NSC) believes any and all groundfish management measures must be highly sensitive to the potential for unintended consequences to all segments of this fragile fishery. NSC’s efforts have consistently focused on the need to prevent excessive shares of groundfish resources and the need to preserve fleet diversity. Consistent with its longstanding support for family-owned businesses and a diverse fishery, NSC sponsored and designed the Northeast Fishery Sectors to be inclusive of the full diversity of fleet and community demographics that were representative of the entire groundfish fishery. Small, medium, and large vessels each occupy key niches of the industry, and they together keep the entire industry operational. We believe one niche without the others dooms the whole industry.
NSC has and continues to work hard to forge solutions that have help to preserve all segments of the groundfish fleet through immense stresses the industry has faced over the past decade. Highlights of recent NSC action items include, but are not limited to:
· Leading the effort with NOAA Fisheries to implement an Emergency Action interim rule for Gulf of Maine cod for the current fishing year, which prevented a much larger cut in the stock and thus preserved the inshore Gulf of Maine fleet;
· Proposing a successfully implemented modification to a closure for inshore gill-net vessels, which enabled gill-net fishermen to harvest during October and November while preserving marine mammals;
· Engaging independent, highly-respected scientists to participate in the scientific process for stock assessments such as of Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine cod, the winter flounder benchmark assessment, and NSC was involved in other independent scientific reviews of Atlantic sturgeon and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder;
· Spearheading the effort to provide access to haddock for the groundfish fishery by working closely with offshore lobster fishermen who set traps in Closed Area 2 to establish an offshore lobster and groundfish mobile gear sector industry agreement, which disperses fishing effort and helps ensure offshore vessel viability;
· Persistently and successfully pursued an in-season adjustment for Gulf of Maine winter flounder, a former “choke” species for much of the groundfish fleet, based on updated scientific evidence;
· Actively engaging in issues related to the Georges Bank yellowtail fishery including scientific, management, and sub-ACL discussions;
· Continuously advocating for federally funding for sector operations including monitoring funding—an essential need for the survival of the small boat fleet.
· NSC has been the leader in the groundfish fishery’s effort to establish an inshore Gulf of Maine declaration, which has been supported by all sectors in the Northeast region.
NSC is concerned that the consideration of accumulation limits and other concepts being discussed in the context of Amendment 18 may be driven by the desire by some to ‘backfill” Amendment 16 sector management to qualify as a LAPP under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). NSC notes that the agency has made a definitive legal determination that the sectors are not LAPPs as defined in the MSA and that sector allocations are not permanent. With these points in mind, NSC has adopted the following position:
“It is NSC’s position that a LAPP should not be developed unless and until fishermen themselves develop and propose a LAPP through the petition process set forth in section 303A(c)(6)(B) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), (rather than being developed from the “top-down” though a Council-initiated process), and that all elements of the Amendment 16 sector system including the allocation formula are on the table for reconsideration in that process. If Amendment 18 develops into an effort to retrofit the current Amendment 16 allocations and the sector system to qualify as a LAPP, then NSC must oppose it.”
Read the Northeast Seafood Coalition's public comments on Amendment 18
Fish council eyes limits on catch shares
November 19, 2012 — NOAA’s regional fishery management council has decided to write a program of controls next year to protect the diversity of the groundfishing fleet between big and smaller boats and protect against monopolization of the catch share commodity trading system that has governed it since 2010.
The elevation of Amendment 18 — the ‘“fleet diversity and accumulation caps” action — to a top priority was confirmed at the end of last week’s three-day council meeting in Newport, R.I.
In support was a broad cross section of interests including a number of fishermen, NOAA’s regional administrator, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Pew Environment Group, Food & Water Watch and the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance — which is based in Gloucester and helped found the Cape Ann Fresh Catch program. But one entity not supporting any potential changes is the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the largest industry group, which represents 12 of the 17 catch share sectors or fishing cooperatives, covering more than 300 members.
”We don’t feel that the purpose and intent of Amendment 18 has been clearly defined,” Jackie Odell, executive director of the coalition, said in a telephone interview Monday.
She also questioned the motives of the advocates.
”Where were all these people (during the creation of Amendment 16 which set up the catch share commodity trading and sector system in 2009?” Odell said. “No one has described to us what the problem is,”
The system took effect in May 2010 and — combined with constrictions on landings from NOAA science center assessments and regulatory decisions to hold down allocations through the governing Magnuson-Stevens Act — has brought the groundfishery to an economic “disaster” or “failure,” according to a finding by the acting commerce secretary in September. The disaster declaration was based on two socio-economic studies and a petition by Gov. Deval Patrick in November 2011.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
Read the Northeast Seafood Coalition's response here