August 19, 2020 — Last year, Maine’s lobster fishery brought in almost $500 million to the state, and even more when you count the economic benefits to dealers, processors and restaurants. Now, with the pandemic hindering the market for lobsters locally and around the world, this signature industry has been impacted severely. We will talk about how the industry is facing challenges, and what efforts are underway to find new ways to market lobsters and connect with consumers.
VIRGINIA NIXES STRIPED BASS “BONUS FISH PROGRAM” IN LIGHT OF CONSERVATION EFFORTS
August 19, 2020 — When Virginia fishery managers virtually eliminated the striped bass trophy season one year ago, the came up with a plan that would still allow anglers to catch that “once in a lifetime” fish.
But in the interest of protecting the rockfish spawning stock, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) has announced it’s cutting the proposed Striped Bass Bonus Fish Program.
Finding that striped bass were being overfished, East Coast fisheries managers required Virginia, Maryland and the rest of the Atlantic states to reduce their rockfish removals by 18 percent. To achieve the reduction, VMRC took actions in August 2019 that included dropping the fall recreational fishing limit to one rockfish per angler per day and creating a maximum size limit of 36 inches for the fall.
DELAWARE: DNREC Sinks Ex-Military Freighter for Artificial Reef
August 17, 2020 — The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has another vessel in its artificial reef.
On Thursday, the agency sunk the Reedville, originally a World War II and Korean Conflict-era coastal freighter. The supply ship is part of DNREC’s artificial reef 16 miles offshore and 87 feet deep. The reef also includes decommissioned ferries and the “Perfect Storm” ship, the Zuni-Tamaroa. DNREC says the artificial reef helps the local fish habitat and has become a popular angling destination.
“We continue to enhance the angling and recreational diving experience in Delaware by expanding our reef system, which includes 14 separate reef sites in the Delaware Bay and along the Atlantic Coast,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin. “When we sank Twin Capes two years ago as a centerpiece of the system, it was unmatched as an artificial reef for both providing fish habitat and a spectacular dive with its five decks for underwater exploration. Now with the Reedville, we’ve got four reefed vessels of the same class and we are putting it in a place that will be accessible, attract the most fish and where divers will want to explore, too.”
Massachusetts launches online platform for food system connections
August 17, 2020 — The Baker-Polito Administration recently announced the launch of MassGrown Exchange, an online platform designed to facilitate business-to-business connections within the local food system for products and services.
The platform was developed following recommendations from the administration’s Food Security Task Force, which promotes ongoing efforts to ensure that individuals and families throughout the commonwealth “have access to healthy, local food.”
“Our administration developed MassGrown Exchange to serve as an important tool for the commonwealth’s agricultural and seafood industries to expand business opportunities and access new markets, and improve food security for the people of Massachusetts,” said Gov. Charlie Baker. “Through this new platform, a variety of businesses, including farmers, fisheries, restaurants and food banks, will be able to source locally caught and produced food more efficiently.”
“Our Food Security Task Force found that there was a critical need to develop a system to connect processing, storage and distribution resources to ensure ongoing supply of food,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. “Though the platform was designed to address COVID-19 disruptions to the local food supply, it will continue to benefit the local food system long after the pandemic has passed.”
Alaska on the frontlines
August 17, 2020 — In 2019, Alaska experienced its warmest month, summer, and year on record. This year, it recorded some of the hottest average May temperatures on the globe. America’s northernmost state is warming twice as quickly as the rest of the world—and much more rapidly than the continental U.S.
Warming oceans and melting sea ice also present opportunities for Alaskan fisheries and commercial shipping. Changing water temperatures may introduce new fish species into Alaskan waters; increased access for cargo and tanker ships, tour boats, and government vessels will boost sectors like tourism and shipping. The blue economy, which embraces the idea that sustainable economic growth and ecological conservation can coexist, provides a welcome roadmap for the management of new fisheries and increased shipping traffic.
Similar challenges arise in the fishing and shipping sectors. Although warming waters introduce new fish species, they adversely affect traditional species such as salmon and Pacific cod, which are Alaska food staples and export commodities. Warming waters may push some fish northward into international Arctic waters — raising the possibility of conflict over these resources. The U.S. must promote adherence to international law and preserve freedom of navigation.
Alaskans Own, Northline Seafoods donate 45,000 pounds of sockeye
August 17, 2020 — This week, two community supported fisheries announced a plan to give back to Alaska communities in need. Alaskans Own and Northline Seafoods are teaming up to deliver 45,000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to Alaska Native villages experiencing record-low salmon returns this year. The announcement follows on the heels of SeaShare’s announcement that its donation requests to food banks and other hunger-relief efforts have skyrocketed this year.
Both Alaskans Own and Northline Seafoods are based in Sitka and evolved from a devotion to sustaining fishing communities, which makes these donation initiatives a perfect match.
Massachusetts looks to extend commercial fishing season for some species
August 14, 2020 — The unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic has dampened commercial fishing in state waters for striped bass, black sea bass and summer flounder and state fishery regulators are trying to help fishermen make up for the slow start.
The state Division of Marine Fisheries wants to extend the seasons for the commercial harvest of the three species — and give commercial fishermen wider access to remaining quotas — by adding open fishing days to the late summer and fall portions of this fishing season.
“The purpose is to provide active commercial fishermen with additional access to these quota-managed fisheries during the fall,” DMF said in its announcement seeking public comment on the proposed in-season adjustments. “This will let these businesses fish around worsening seasonal weather, which typically has a limiting impact on commercial fishing quotas.”
Army-Navy freighter added to artificial reef off the Delaware coast.
August 14, 2020 — DNREC continued to bolster Delaware’s artificial reef system today by sinking the Reedville, originally a coastal freighter and supply ship, at a reef site 16 miles offshore.
The Reedville was converted to a commercial fishing vessel after military decommissioning and today found another new life as fish habitat and diving attract through DNREC’s artificial reef program.
The sinking of the 180-foot long Reedville was the reef program’s first deployment of a vessel since a retired Chesapeake Bay cruise ship was sunk late last year.
It came after the nationally-publicized and viral-videoed 2018 sinking of the retired Cape May-Lewes ferry Twin Capes onto the Del-Jersey-Land Reef, second only to Reef Site No. 11 as a popular fishing destination.
Because of the ship’s profile featuring a cavernous hold, the Reedville is expected to be a boon to two fish prominent in Delaware inshore waters, black sea bass and tautog. The area where vessels have been sunk does not have suitable habitat for some species.
Four-year forecasts possible for Hawaii bigeye tuna fishery
August 14, 2020 — Measuring the extent of microscopic ocean plant life around Hawaii could reliably predict bigeye tuna catch rates four years out for Hawaii’s deep-set longline fleet, according to a new study by researchers at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.
“Bigeye tuna are the primary target species of Hawaii’s most valuable commercial fishery, a longline fishery with landings that are valued at over $100 million and that account for nearly half the United States tuna landings,” NMFS scientists Phoebe A. Woodworth-Jefcoats and Johanna L. K. Wren wrote in their study, published July 22 in the journal Fisheries Oceanography.
“A reliable predictor of targeted species catch rates could help the fishery time fishing activity and plan capital improvements. It could also potentially inform adaptive management and facilitate ecosystem‐based fisheries management.”
Using routine oceanographic measurements including satellite data for sea surface chlorophyll and temperature, the researchers calculated the median size of microscopic plants, called phytoplankton, over the calendar year and the extent of the fishery area around the Hawaiian Islands.
2020 salmon returns have been so poor that Alaska communities already are claiming fishery disasters
August 12, 2020 — Unless you fished for salmon this summer at Bristol Bay, it’s been slim pickings for fishermen in other Alaska regions. Salmon returns have been so poor that communities already are claiming fishery disasters.
Cordova’s City Council last week unanimously passed a resolution asking the state to declare disasters for both the 2018 Copper River sockeye and chinook salmon runs and the 2020 sockeye, chum and chinook runs at the Copper River and Prince William Sound.
The resolution also urges the state and federal governments to declare a “condition of economic disaster in Cordova as a result,” reported Seafood.com, adding, “The town of 2,500 is now the first of what will likely be at least one or two others to ask for a fisheries and economic disaster declaration in 2020.”
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