The New England Fisheries Management Council voted to recommend to NMFS an increase in the skate possession limit from 1,900 lbs. to 5,000 lbs.. The vote was 16-0 with one abstention. Chairman John Pappalardo thanked the PDT and SSC for the extra work they took on to speed up this reconsideration.
Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device
The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.
The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.
The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.
Read the complete story at The Wall Street Journal.
Mayor Lang writes to New England Council to reiterate position on Skate and Yellowtail.
New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang has written to the New England Fisheries Management Council, meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, to reiterate his grave concern regarding fisheries management. "As a result of the lack of a comprehensive assessment of the socio-economic impacts of the Council's management systems… the Council (NEFMC) continuously makes decisions that threaten our employment, our economy, our working waterfront infrastructure, and our fishermen and their families." said the Mayor.
Regarding the April 28th vote on Skate, the mayor stated "The small token increase to 5,000 pounds (a 75% reduction), while appreciated, will not be sufficient…" The council voted to increase skate limits from 1,900 lbs. to 5,000 lbs., a 260% increase over the previous recommendation for next year, it represents a cut of 75% from last year's level of 20,000 lbs.
The mayor also asked the council to rebuild Yellowtail founder stocks in 10 years rather than 7, which he says could resolve "the entire issue associated with yellowtail landings".
Read the mayor's letter here [pdf]
Death Knell for Fishing Communities
Proposed changes to European fishing rules could sound the death knell for Scotland’s traditional fishing communities, a Scots MEP has warned.
The European Commission is pushing for reforms to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which could see a system of so-called ‘International Transferable Rights’ (ITRs) introduced.
Such a system would allow wealthy fishing firms in other EU member states to buy up Scottish fish quotas in order to boost their catches.
The move is being opposed by Scots Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson, who is senior vice-president of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee.
Read the complete story at Fish Update.
Calif.’s costly trout recovery effort criticized
In hopes of luring the endangered steelhead trout into the Santa Monica Mountains, California's transportation agency is planning to spend $935,000 to pave over part of a popular beach with cement and boulders to build a freeway of sorts for fish.
The project is the latest, yet far from the most unusual, steelhead recovery attempt by government agencies that have spent millions of dollars on concrete fish ladders, cameras, fishways and other contraptions to allow seagoing trout to spawn in Southern California streams.
The problem, even some conservationists say, is that there is little evidence construction efforts since the 1980s have done anything except absorb taxpayer dollars. The work to save the species has led to about a dozen concrete fishways at a cost of more than $16.7 million.
Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.
N.J. offshore drilling lacks support at federal hearing
It may already be a done deal, but New Jersey officials have joined citizens in opposing a federal plan for seismic tests in support of expanded oil and gas drilling off the East Coast.
At the first of two hearings at the Sheraton Airport Hilton, the federal Minerals Management Service heard almost no one speak in support of the plan, which critics said would threaten fisheries and beaches without producing much energy.
The Interior Department agency is holding hearings in coastal cities in the wake of last month's announcement by President Barack Obama, who opened waters along much of the East Coast, northern Alaska and eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling.
Read the complete story at New Jersey News Room.
Opposing view on energy: Fight far from over
Cape Cod congressman Bill Delahunt put it best Wednesday: "Cape Wind is the first offshore wind farm to be built in the wrong place, in the wrong way, stimulating the wrong economies."
But the congressman is wrong about one thing: This wind farm won't be built — for all the right reasons.
OUR VIEW: Good news? Cape Wind OK'd. Bad news? it took a decade.
The Obama administration's decision is a callous dismissal of all of us on Cape Cod and the Islands — from Native Americans whose religious rights were ignored to environmentalists, fishermen and local businesses.
And, as will be clear when Cape Wind is finally forced to reveal the costs of this project, it shows a complete disregard for Massachusetts ratepayers who will be stuck paying some of the highest electricity bills in the nation to cover the cost of an anti-environmental land grab by a private developer for the right to put 130 massive turbines into 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound.
But this fight is far from over.
Read the complete editorial from USA Today.
VIDEO: Feisty freshwater walleyes unwanted in Maine
Biologists say these fish, native to the Midwest, threaten local fish.
See the video from the Boston Globe.
NOAA chief agrees to meet LI fishing community
The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will visit Long Island to meet with commercial and recreational fishermen on their complaints about federal regulations.
Agency administrator Jane Lubchenco agreed to the request from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) when the New York Democrat met her Wednesday in Washington.
Read the complete story at News Day.
New York Fishermen plan civil disobedience
Some day late this June, 20 people from the East End who aren’t fishermen plan to go down to the sea, catch three porgies apiece, and bring them to Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett.
There, in a large parking lot beside the market’s packing house, they will place those porgies in 20 shipping containers filled with ice, and mark them to be sent to the Fulton Fish Market.
If all goes as planned, the media and other notable community members will be on hand to watch as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, whose law enforcement branch will also be invited, tickets or arrests the participants.
Read the complete story at East Hampton News.