August 10, 2012 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has released the summary of its 2012 Summer Meeting.
2012 Northeast Vessel Cost Survey Is in the Mail
August 9, 2012 — The first of three new or redesigned surveys designed to collect vital information on the operational costs and culture of commercial fishing launches Friday August 10, when an annual vessel cost survey will hit the mail.
Tammy Murphy of NOAA’s Social Sciences Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center is the point person on the multi-year effort. "Telling us more about your situation will be voluntary and your responses are confidential," says Murphy, an economist. "Collecting this information is absolutely essential to showing how fisheries, fishermen, and fishing communities are faring as management and fishery stock conditions change."
The annual vessel cost survey, last conducted in 2009, has been significantly redesigned with the help of fishermen. About 1700 vessel owners will receive a 2012 survey. Although that's not every owner, the pool covers all the fisheries, gear types, and vessel sizes in the Northeast, to capture how these costs may vary.
Collected over time, these economic data will be used to evaluate proposed changes to fishery management plans, provide a more complete picture of economic impacts from regulatory actions in the fisheries.
Vessel owners can return the survey by postage paid envelope, or complete it online. The surveys are also available in Portuguese or Spanish. Survey responses are confidential data, just like vessel trip, observer, and dealer reports.
The second survey effort will start this fall using two different approaches: for vessel owners and one for crew members. "We have limited information from vessel owners and really none from crew members on how fishery regulations affect their everyday lives as individuals, as well as the lives of their family and communities," says Murphy, "This effort is intended to start filling in those gaps."
In early fall 2012, about 800 permit holders will get the owner's survey, which will be sent by mail. It will be available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and may be returned by postage paid envelope or filled out online. The crew survey will be conducted face-to-face on the docks in fifteen ports in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with about 1300 willing participants. It will continue for a year, to capture seasonality and port diversity.
Much of the data collection is new, so Murphy is aiming for a high return rate. "The more responses we get, the more accurate our results can be. We want to capture differences across regions, fisheries, gear types and vessel sizes, and that means we need to hear from every fisherman that is asked to participate in these survey efforts" she said.
NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources and their habitat through scientific research, management and enforcement. NOAA Fisheries Service provides effective stewardship of these resources for the benefit of the nation, supporting coastal communities that depend upon them, and helping to provide safe and healthy seafood to consumers and recreational opportunities for the American public.
Read the full story on the NOAA website
New Bedford economic hopes riding on port operations, fishing
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — August 8, 2012 — No longer a sailor’s trade, whaling in New Bedford has been relegated to memories housed in libraries, commemorative statues and museums, but the fishing industry still dominates the docks. Fishing makes up one sixth of the city’s economy, according to Mayor Jon Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor in his first term.
“What we have going for us is this port. A lot of other cities don’t have that,” said Mitchell, a New Bedford native.
Supporting the local fishing industry – which includes 500 vessels that call on New Bedford and a workforce of 4,400 – can mean joining the fray against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which helps the Secretary of Commerce determine catch limits.
Mitchell and Anthes-Washburn both rejected a recent preliminary fish assessment, which showed New England fishing catches may have to be reduced by around 70 percent next season.
“I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of responsibility of NOAA,” Mitchell told the News Service on Tuesday. He said, “Too many fishermen are saying ‘My future is not going to be in fishing,’ and that’s a shame.”
But not all fishermen are in the same boat.
“Here, it’s like ‘The Tale of Two Fleets,’” said Anthes-Washburn.
For the scallop fishing boats that troll the sea floor, hauling up around 56,000 pounds of scallops at around $10 per pound, it continues to be the best of times. For the eleventh straight year, New Bedford has topped the nation’s ports in the total value of its catch, and “the main reason is scallops,” Anthes-Washburn said.
For those who fish groundfish, such as cod, haddock and flounder, it’s more like the worst of times, and could get worse if catch limits follow the preliminary fish report’s numbers.
“The ground fishermen can’t afford to go out,” Anthes-Washburn said. He said, “The main cry from New Bedford fishermen isn’t that they want a handout,” but rather they want better academic funding to create a more accurate system of assessing the fishing stock. “They don’t want to change the science. They want to get accurate science,” Anthes-Washburn said.
Read the full story at the Cape Ann Beacon.
Fish Trawling Priority Fought in 9th Circuit
August 9, 2012 — Hook-and-line fishermen urged the 9th Circuit to overturn new federal regulations that gives 90 percent of the Pacific groundfish catch to large-scale companies. U.S. fishing quotas are governed by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which uses a system of eight councils to develop region-specific fishery management plans. The nation's second largest region, the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery, extends over a quarter-million square miles off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington.
Largely responding to overfishing and economic turmoil in the 1980s, the National Marine Fisheries Service last year amended the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan to create an individual quota system. Amendments 20 and 21 allow for the allocation of fixed shares of the total allowable catch for long-term exclusive use by trawl permit holders.
The statute aims to increase economic efficiency by recalculating quotas every five years – as opposed to every two years. Vessels that do not reach their assigned quotas can sell or trade their shares of a particular fish species with other vessels. Regulators maintained that individual quotas would favor efficient fishermen and decrease environmental harm from by catch, a term that describes fish caught unintentionally.
But the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Port Orford Ocean Resource Team and San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association filed suit after larger fishing enterprises received most quota shares in the initial allotment.
The groups represent fishermen who gather bottom-dwelling fish such as flounder and cod, as well as crabs using traps or hook-and-line systems. They claim that federal agency had violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act by failing to properly consider their community interest in initial allocations, allowing fleet consolidation to drive small fishermen out of the industry. They also argued that NMFS had assessed the environmental impacts of the two amendments separately, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.
Concluding that these claims could not hold water, however, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted awarded summary judgment to the federal defendant. On appeal Tuesday before the 9th Circuit, arguments largely focused on the extent to which NMFS was required to "consider" the fishing communities when establishing the quota program.
Mary Hudson, a Sausalito attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that Magnuson-Stevens Act requires NMFS to let local fishing communities demonstrate their historical participation and environmental sustainability in the industry.
Read the full story on the Courthouse News Service
ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board Selects Options for Inclusion in Draft Amendment for Public Comment
August 9, 2012 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Alexandria, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Atlantic Menhaden Management Board has selected the options to be included in Draft Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. Among the series of options approved for public comment are a range of harvest reduction options from 0-50% for 2013. Given that substantive changes were made to the document at the meeting, the Board approved the Draft Amendment for Public Comment contingent upon an additional round of review by Board members and final review and approval by a subcommittee of the Board. Release of the document for public comment is slated for early September, followed by an extensive public comment period and state hearings. The Board’s intent is to take final action on the Amendment this year for implementation in 2013.
The Board was also presented the findings of the 2012 stock assessment update, which included the addition of data for 2009 – 2011 to the peer review approved assessment model. The update results contained considerable uncertainty because the model fit the data poorly; however, similar issues were observed in the 2010 benchmark stock assessment that passed peer review. Despite the uncertainty in the update results, the Technical Committee believes the stock is experiencing overfishing, but is not overfished based on the current reference points used to assess the stock. The Technical Committee plans to address the issues with the stock assessment at the next scheduled benchmark assessment.
The final Amendment had been scheduled for approval at the Commission's Annual Meeting in October. Given the Commission’s public comment procedures, which requires the Draft Amendment be released 30 days prior to the first public hearing and must be extended two weeks after the final hearing is conducted, the Board will meet sometime after the Annual Meeting to take final action on the Amendment for 2013 implementation. A subsequent press release will announce the availability of the Draft Amendment for public comment, the state hearing schedule, as well as the timeline for the Amendment’s final approval. For more information, please contact Mike Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mwaine@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
ASMFC Winter Flounder Board Initiates Addendum: Addendum Considers Increases to Commercial Trip Limit & Expansion of Recreational Season for Gulf of Maine State Waters Fisheries
Alexandria, VA — August 9, 2012 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Winter Flounder Management Board has initiated the development of Draft Addendum II to Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for the Inshore Stocks of Winter Flounder. The Draft Addendum will propose changes to the commercial and recreational management requirements for the Gulf of Maine (GOM) stock in response to updated stock status information and recent federal action to significantly increase the GOM winter flounder state waters annual catch limit (ACL) subcomponent.
A peer reviewed stock assessment (SAW/SARC 52) of GOM winter flounder was completed in 2011, which changed the stock’s status to not experiencing overfishing, although the overfished status could not be determined. NOAA Fisheries responded to this finding by more than doubling the ACL for the remainder of 2011 fishing year. The ACL was nearly doubled again for the 2012 fishing year. The state waters ACL-subcomponent for 2012 fishing year has increased to 272 mt, a 450% increase from 60 mt in 2010.
The Commission manages winter flounder under Addendum I. Approved in May 2009, the Addendum required an 11% reduction in fishing mortality for the recreational sector and a 250 pound possession limit for non-federally permitted commercial fishermen (estimated 31% reduction in harvest). Recreational reductions were achieved through a combination of possession limits, seasons, or other measures. These actions were taken in response to the results of the 2008 benchmark assessment which determined the GOM stock was likely to be overfished with overfishing likely to be occurring. The Addendum's provisions were also intended to complement federal management measures on groundfish stocks, including winter flounder, in offshore waters (3 – 200 miles).
Given the significant increase in state waters ACL-subcomponent for the 2012 fishing year, the Draft Addendum will consider modifying Addendum I's GOM winter flounder requirements by increasing the commercial trip limit from 250 pounds to 500 pounds limit and expanding the recreational season to a year-round fishery. The Draft Addendum will include an annual specifications process to allow the Board to respond to changes in stock condition. The Board tasked the Technical Committee with evaluating the impacts of relaxing the recreational and commercial measures on state water landings. The Board will review the Technical Committee Report prior to action to approve the Draft Addendum for Public Comment in the next few weeks. For more information, please contact Toni Kern, Acting ISFMP Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
ASMFC American Eel Board Initiates Development of Draft Addendum III to Improve Conservation and Protection of the Stock
August 9, 2012 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Alexandria, Va. — The Commission’s American Eel Management Board has initiated the development of Draft Addendum III with the goal of reducing mortality and increasing the conservation of American eel stocks across all life stages. The 2012 benchmark stock assessment found the American eel population in U.S. waters is depleted. The stock is at or near historically low levels, due to a combination of including historical overfishing, habitat loss, food web alterations, predation, turbine mortality, environmental changes, toxins and contaminants, and disease.
The Draft Addendum will include a range of options suggested by the American Eel Technical Committee, including possible moratoria on glass (elver) and silver eel harvest, reductions in glass and yellow eel catch and effort, seasonal closures, and future monitoring requirements. The commercial fishery is currently regulated by a six inch size minimum, with the exception of Maine and South Carolina glass eel fisheries, and the recreational fishery is currently regulated by a 50 fish per day creel limit. States and jurisdictions are required to annually report on commercial harvest and monitor juvenile abundance. The Draft Addendum will be developed for preliminary review by the American Eel Management Board in October.
For more information, please contact Kate Taylor, Fishery Management Coordinator, at ktaylor@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
NOAA Fisheries Service’s New Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard to Hold Public Meetings to Hear from Industry
August 9, 2012 — NOAA Fisheries Service’s new Regional Administrator for the Northeast Region, John Bullard, would like to hear from a variety of stakeholders about the major issues currently facing the fishing industry, and thoughts on how a successful industry could be structured. Please join us. Meetings in additional ports are currently being scheduled.
Thursday, August 16
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Surf City Volunteer Fire Hall
713 Long Beach Blvd.
Surf City, NJ
Tuesday, August 21
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Gloucester City Hall
9 Dale Avenue
Gloucester, MA
Thursday, August 23
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
175 Edward Foster Road,
Scituate, MA
Tuesday, August 28
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Gulf of Maine Research Institute
350 Commercial Street
Portland, ME
Maine ponders industry strategy as lobster protests continue in Canada
ELLSWORTH, Maine — August 8, 2012 — As protests in New Brunswick over Maine lobster imports have flared up and shipments across the border into Canada have slowed to a crawl, the commotion has injected new urgency into a persistent question in Maine: How can the state increase Maine’s processing capacity and keep more of the market value of Maine’s $334 million commercial lobster fishery?
A sizeable portion of lobster caught in Maine’s waters — some have said it’s as high as two-thirds at some points during the year — is shipped to Canada where Canadian firms cook and freeze the meat, packing it as lobster tails and other products. According to the Telegraph-Journal newspaper of Saint John, N.B., 80 percent of the $400 million worth of lobster products processed each year in the province is shipped to the United States.
Maine lobstermen this year have had to contend with the lowest prices they’ve been offered in decades due to a glut of soft-shelled lobsters. Such lobsters aren’t well suited for shipping live, which has been the traditional market for the the state’s lobster industry, and so generally have to be processed into cooked meat and frozen tails in order to meet market demand.
On Tuesday, Gov. Paul LePage issued a press release saying that, to help address the broader issue of relying on Canadian processors and to add more value to Maine’s catch, there should be more processing capacity in Maine. Canada has two dozen lobster processors, he said, while Maine has only three: Cozy Harbor Seafood of Portland, Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine in Rockland, and Shucks Maine Lobster in Richmond.
“That’s why my administration has been exploring ways to implement smart strategies that drive energy costs down and provide incentives to build more processing plants in the state,” LePage said. “The lobster industry is a critical component of our Maine heritage and economy. It deserves our attention.”
But John Norton, president and CEO of Cozy Harbor Seafood in Portland, said Wednesday that though he would love to reduce his energy bill, there are other costs he faces that are more onerous — costs that are not nearly as formidable for his Canadian competitors.
Norton said his firm spends about $350,000 a year on wastewater disposal costs and another $250,000 to $300,000 on health care expenses, which he expects will increase when elements of President Obama’s new health care plan go into effect in 2014. Canada has nationalized health care, he said, and their processors are allowed to release water byproduct from their processing operations back into the ocean.
“We do have expensive energy costs, but that’s not what determines how competitive our processing sector is,” Norton said. Wastewater and health care costs “far outstrip the energy cost issue,” he added.
There are other ways that Canadian processors have a competitive advantage over those in Maine and other states, according to Norton. The provincial government in New Brunswick subsidizes capital equipment costs, which can run up to $1 million dollars or more just for a high-end piece of equipment and another couple of million for a building to put it in. In Quebec, he added, processors get operating subsidies for their labor costs and for the amount of lobster they handle.
“That’s part of the equation,” Norton said of the competitive advantage enjoyed by Canadian processors. “To my knowledge, it’s not so much the federal government as it is the provincial governments.”
Canadians also have nonsubsidy related advantages, he said. They have a longer processing season, with different parts of the maritime provinces fishing at different times of the year. They also are permitted to process lobsters that are larger and smaller than the size limits in Maine, even though a new law adopted last year in Maine allows processors here to process large lobsters that show up in shipments from Canada. However, that law is set to sunset in 2013, Norton added.
Norton said his company employs 225 people on a seasonally fluctuating basis and likely will process eight million pounds of lobster this year. He said he would be happy to expand his firm, but that it doesn’t make sense to expand processing without also expanding the market of customers for lobster products.
He said there may not be much processing in Maine but he thinks the U.S. and Canada combined have too much processing capacity, spread out over an annual basis, for what the global lobster market can consistently support.
“If you don’t focus on marketing, more processors in Maine is just going to force the price down,” Norton said. “If you want to increase the price [fishermen are paid], then you have to increase the price people are willing to pay for the product, and that means expanding the market.”
A case in point, Norton said, is what happened to Live Lobster in the past year. Live Lobster, a lobster distribution firm based in Chelsea, Mass., last year opened its first processing facility in the Gouldsboro village of Prospect Harbor, in a former sardine cannery that it purchased from Bumble Bee Foods. The company also has buying stations in Phippsburg, Rockland, Spruce Head and Stonington.
Live Lobster, which operated in Maine as Lobster Web LLC, has been idle since March, since its checking accounts were frozen. The company is being sued by its bank and by a former company official for more than $3.5 million.
Read the full story in the Bangor Daily News
Court: River herring need protection
MASSACHUSETTS — Last week, a federal judge agreed the species needs more protection and ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service by two Massachusetts fishermen and a Cambridge-based environmental group.
The New England Fishery Management Council and NMFS did not follow federal law in drawing up an update to the management plan for Atlantic sea herring in March 2011 and should have included river herring in the plan, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler said in her decision issued in Washington, D.C.
She ordered the council and NMFS to include river herring in a new amendment to the fishery management plan and set a strict limit for the amount that could be caught.
Kessler ordered that new regulations also need to reduce the bycatch of river herring by sea herring boats, and new herring quotas currently being drawn up by the council must include a calculation of the biological role all herring play in the food chain.
The fish are a valuable link in the food chain converting the vast plant energy of plankton into protein consumed by whales and commercially important species such as cod, tuna, and swordfish.
The fisheries service and the council are to report to the court on their progress one month, six months and a year after the ruling. The court will retain jurisdiction in the interim.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times.