News Archives - Page 605 of 3599

ASMFC Begins Preparations for Spot, Atlantic Croaker, and Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessments

February 14, 2023 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated benchmark stock assessments for spot, Atlantic croaker, and red drum to be completed in 2024. The goals of the assessments are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of these species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data.

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessments. This includes, but is not limited to, data on growth, maturation, migration, tagging, natural mortality, environmental impacts, abundance/biomass, and fishery removals. An essential need is data to inform the stock assessments of discards, including size information, and bycatch in other directed fisheries. For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by March 15, 2023.

The Commission will hold two Data Workshops in the spring of 2023, one for spot and Atlantic croaker and one for red drum, to review all available data sources and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessments. The Data Workshops are open to the public, please contact Tracey Bauer (tbauer@asmfc.org) for information on the workshops. For more information on submitting data, including the appropriate format, please contact Kristen Anstead (kanstead@asmfc.org) for spot and Atlantic croaker or Jeff Kipp (jkipp@asmfc.org) for red drum.

Lobster fishers sued federal government over closure to help whales

February 13, 2023 — A group of Massachusetts lobster fishers has sued the federal government over an emergency closure of fishing grounds that are designed to protect a vanishing species of whale.

The closure, enacted Feb. 1, blocked off about 200 square miles (518 square kilometers) of Massachusetts Bay from lobster fishing until the end of April. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the closure was necessary to protect North Atlantic right whales from dangerous entanglement in fishing ropes.

Read the full article News Center Maine

HAWAII: Have you tried the other (other) white meat? … Swordfish

February 13, 2023 — Hawaii’s commercial fishing industry is asking Hawaii families to consider (or reconsider) a fish that’s fallen out of favor over the years.

While Hawaii is known for its ahi and other tuna, swordfish is actually a big part of the commercial fishing industry in the islands. So much so that the Hawaii Longline Association says its fleet provides about half the country’s demand for swordfish — caught more than 1,000 miles north of Hawaii.

Read the full article at Hawaii News Now

Ocean 14 Capital lands EUR 30 million from Ikea franchisee’s investment arm

February 13, 2023 — The investment arm of the world’s largest Ikea franchisee has placed EUR 30 million (USD 32 million) under the management of Ocean 14 Capital, a private equity group operating a EUR 150 million (USD 160 million) “blue economy” impact fund.

The investment, announced Monday, 13 February, was made to support the Ingka Group’s to “mission of funding sustainable solutions to improve ocean health,” it said. The group operates 392 Ikea stores in 32 countries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Proximar nets JPY 8.8 billion loan for RAS salmon farm in Japan

February 13, 2023 — Bergen, Norway-based Proximar Seafood has secured JPY 8.8 billion (USD 66 million, EUR 61 million) in financing via a loan offer from a syndicate that includes two Japanese banks for the land-based salmon farm it’s building near Tokyo, Japan.

The offer consisted of a highly confident letter along with a term sheet – which the company said should be “considered a strong statement of comfort from the banks” on providing the financing the company needs for its salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility, currently under construction in in Shizuoka Prefecture. The names of the banks were not released by Proximar. Proximar signed a contract with RAS specialist AquaMaof in early 2020 for a design and build of a facility with a 5,300 MT annual production capacity of gutted salmon in its first phase.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

States Schedule Public Hearings on American Lobster Draft Addendum XXVII

February 13, 2023 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through New York have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum XXVII to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster, which considers measures to increase protection of the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank (GOM/GBK) spawning stock. Some hearings will be conducted in-person, and some hearings will be conducted via webinar. Additional details on participating in the webinars can be found later in this release.

The American Lobster Management Board initiated Addendum XXVII in 2017 as a proactive measure to improve the resiliency of the GOM/GBK stock, responding to signs of reduced juvenile settlement and the combining of the GOM and GBK stocks following the 2015 Stock Assessment. Work on this addendum was paused due to the prioritization of work on take reduction efforts for North Atlantic right whales and the 2020 stock assessment. The Board reinitiated work on Draft Addendum XXVII in February 2021, and has since revised its goal to consider a trigger mechanism such that measures would be automatically implemented to increase the overall protection of the GOM/GBK spawning stock when a defined trigger level is reached. Draft Addendum XXVII also considers the standardization of management measures across Lobster Conservation Management Areas with the goal of providing a consistent conservation strategy and simplifying enforcement across management areas and interstate commerce.

Webinar Instructions

For all virtual hearings, please note that in order to comment during webinar hearings you will need to use your computer or download the GoToWebinar app for your phone. Those joining by phone only will be limited to listening to the presentation and will not be able to provide input. In those cases, you can send comments to staff via email or U.S. mail at any time during the public comment period. To attend the webinar in listen only mode, dial 213-929-4212 and enter access code 210-711-884.

For all virtual hearings, please click HERE and select the hearing(s) you plan to attend from the dropdown menu to register for a public hearing webinar. Hearings will be held via GoToWebinar, and you can join the webinar from your computer, tablet or smartphone. If you are new to GoToWebinar, you can download the software by (clicking here) or via the App store under GoToWebinar. We recommend you register for the hearing well in advance of the hearing since GoToWebinar will provide you with a link to test your device’s compatibility with the webinar. If you find your device is not compatible, please contact the Commission at info@asmfc.org (subject line: GoToWebinar help) and we will try to get you connected. We also strongly encourage participants to use the computer voice over internet (VoIP) so you can ask questions and provide input at the hearing.

Hearing Presentation Recording

For those who cannot attend any in-person or virtual hearings, the Commission will also post a recording of the hearing presentation on the Commission’s Public Input page so that stakeholders may watch the presentation and submit comment at any time during the comment process. This recording will be available in early March.

Submitting Comments

The Draft Addendum is available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/AmLobsterDraftAddendumXXVII_PublicComment.pdf or via the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input. All those interested in the management of American lobster are encouraged to provide input either by participating in public hearings, which may be conducted via webinar, or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 11:59 PM (EST) on March 31, 2023 and should be sent to Caitlin Starks, Senior FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Lobster Draft Addendum XXVII).

If your organization is planning to release an action alert in response to the Draft Amendment, please contact Caitlin Starks at cstarks@asmfc.orfg or 703.842.0740, so she can work with you to develop a unique subject line to enable us to better organize and summarize comments for Board review.

Wind energy efforts in Gulf of Maine pick up steam

February 10, 2023 — Stakeholders across Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), are inching closer to developing offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine.

In a series of public meetings last month, including one in Portsmouth, BOEM detailed its progress on bringing the renewable energy source to a portion of the 36,000-square-mile gulf area.

Last August, the Department of the Interior released a request seeking “commercial interest in obtaining wind energy leases in the Gulf of Maine consisting of about 13.7 million acres.” Based on input from the request, BOEM joined with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Center for Coastal and Ocean Science to produce a spatial analysis. This led to reducing the potential offshore wind gulf acreage to 9.9 million acres.

Read the full article at NH Business Review

Wind energy gets scrutiny following whale deaths

February 10, 2023 — Politicians, citizens and some environmentalists are calling for a slow-down or complete halt of wind energy activity off the East Coast as officials examine the cause of a rash of marine animal deaths, but neither action nor an answer appears to be imminent.

In January, the debate landed on the shores of Worcester County with the body of a humpback whale, which immediately led to speculation regarding the cause of its death.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is examining samples taken from the whale, but representative Allison Ferreira said that it will take “weeks to months” to receive the necropsy report.

“Given that necropsy reports provide a comprehensive account of the stranding event, ranging from a description of external observations and internal examination findings to the diagnostic results of samples taken, they can take several weeks to months to complete and finalize,” Ferreira said in an email.

A few days later, Ferreira added that preliminary findings from the necropsy indicate vessel strike as the cause of death.

“But we do not know (definitively) if it was struck before or after death,” she said. “Results from samples taken from the whale may help inform this, but we may never know.”

Read the full article at Ocean City Today

Sullivan, Whitehouse, Menendez, Peters, Bonamici & Gonzalez-Colón Seek to enhance effectiveness of Marine Debris Program

February 10, 2023 — U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Jenniffer González-Colón (R-Puerto Rico), Thursday reintroduced legislation amending the 2020 Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act and the 2006 Marine Debris Act to provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with greater flexibility to deliver federal resources and enter into cooperative agreements to conduct marine debris prevention and clean-up.

The legislation also clarifies the function and responsibilities of the congressionally-chartered Marine Debris Foundation. The legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent in the previous Congress.

Read the full article at KIFW

NOAA introduces new electronic monitoring tablets to increase observer data accuracy

February 10, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries observers on the U.S. West Coast are moving to the use of tablet-based electronic systems to gather data on fishing vessels, replacing the outmoded pencil-and-paper system previously used.

Two of these systems are the ORCA 1 and 2 systems used by the West Coast Regional Observer Program and OPTECS system used by the West Coast Groundfish Observer Program.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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