State and Local

November 11, 2013 — A storm that brought high winds, high water and high surf caused flooding to communities along the coast of Western Alaska this weekend. At least two communities have made disaster declarations. Listen to the audio from Alaska Public Media

November 8, 2013 — Peconic Bay scallops,  Long Island's own sweet, nutty, briny mollusks, are here. According to Ken Homan, owner of Braun Seafood in Cutchogue, "the season opened on Monday and we're starting to see the first harvests."

In the coming weeks, restaurants and fish markets all over Long Island will be offering this delicacy. If you’re heading east for this weekend’s Taste North Fork festival, you can get a jump start.

At 18 Bay (23 N. Ferry Rd., Shelter Island, 631-749-0053), Adam Kopels and Elizabeth Ronzetti are making a crudo with sliced scallops and pickled pumpkin with rice wine vinegar, coriander and juniper, among other aromatic seasonings.

Read the full story at Newsday 

November 11, 2013 — Maine’s lucrative elver fishery is facing some big changes, including smaller catch quotas and a new swipe-card monitoring system that state officials hope will help manage the resource while reducing the poaching of baby eels that fetched up to $2,000 a pound last season.

Both changes follow the state’s promise to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission last month that it will find ways to reduce the 2014 harvest between 25 percent and 40 percent. In the background is a recently uncovered welfare and tax fraud investigation that specifically targets elver fishermen, many of whom are members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Records obtained by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram show that the investigation is scheduled to conclude at the end of January, about two months before the next season.

State officials have refused to comment on the fraud initiative, which involves three state agencies reviewing catch records and tax filings from 2010 to 2013 to determine whether any elver fishermen who received welfare benefits have failed to report income. It’s unclear what motivated the special investigation or how much money the state is devoting to the initiative.

A spokesman for the Passamaquoddys worried recently that the initiative specifically targeted his tribe, but was generally supportive of the investigation. Representatives for the tribe have not returned calls seeking comment since the Maine Sunday Telegram published the story Nov. 3. State officials have also declined to comment, citing advice from Office of the Attorney General not to discuss an investigative matter.

Tensions between the Passamaquoddys and the state have been simmering since last year, when the tribe cited its sovereign nation status and issued 575 licenses, far more than the 433 that the state certified. The industry is bracing for another clash between the tribe and state officials, who in April sent wardens and police officers to Pembroke to seize fishing nets and equipment from Passamaquoddy fishermen whose licenses weren’t certified with the state.

The conflict abated after the administration of Gov. Paul LePage and tribal leaders agreed to enter negotiations at the end of the 76-day season.

However, a long-term settlement hasn’t been reached and the Passamaquoddys still believe that their plan to manage the elver fishery is sufficient, a signal that tensions could reignite next year over an industry that was worth nearly $40 million in 2012 and $33 million this year.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

BOSTON — November 8, 2013 — The continuing war over striped bass has entered a new battle on Beacon Hill with a renewed effort to eventually make the lucrative catch off limits for commercial fishermen.

A bill filed by Rep. Walter Timilty, D-Milton, would limit commercial licenses to fishermen who could demonstrate they've caught and sold more than 1,000 pounds of striped bass annually over the last five years on record.

Fishermen who meet that standard would be allowed to keep their striped bass licenses until 2025, when commercial licenses for the fish would no longer be issued.

A group of some 10 concerned Cape and Island commercial fishermen, clad in fishing caps and sweatshirts, joined with Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, on Wednesday to oppose the bill before the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.

“Let's make no mistake about it. This bill exterminates the commercial fishery by 2025,” said Darren Saletta, a Chatham resident and founder of the Massachusetts Commercial Striped Bass Association.

Saletta and his group were pitted against members of Stripers Forever, a nonprofit group with a mission of conserving striped bass. The group unsuccessfully pushed for a commercial ban in 2010. Maine, Connecticut and New Hampshire ban commercial fishing of striped bass.

“We do not seek through this bill to further the economic harm that legitimate (commercial) fishermen are currently facing, but we want to get rid of people who sell a few striped bass to pay for the cost of their gas, bait and tackle,” Mike Spinney, a Stripers Forever policy coordinator, told the committee.

Under the bill, commercial fishermen who can demonstrate a legitimate reason for failing to reach the required 1,000 pounds could seek hardship relief from the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times 

 

November 6, 2013 — A former New York-state commercial fishermen turned Kenai River fishing guide is leading a drive to ban set-net fishing in Cook Inlet south of Anchorage and near other urban centers.

Joe Connors and the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance (ACFA) say the use of indiscriminate setnets threatens king salmon in the Kenai River and other fish elsewhere. The group Wednesday presented Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell with the paperwork necessary to gain approval for a ballot initiative, which would allow voters next year to vote on whether to ban "setnet fishing in the five, urban, non-subsistence areas of Alaska."

"This ballot measure would not affect set nets in the 90 percent of the state that is designated a subsistence or rural area," a press release from the Alliance said. "Set nets are less intrusive and a reasonable means of fishing in low population areas. However, ACFA believes it is time that set nets are banned in the urban, highly populated centers of Alaska."

The Kenai Peninsula is ground zero for the battle.

Connors, a former University of Alaska Anchorage professor, and others contend that setnets off the river's mouth are doing to Kenai kings what setnets in New York’s Hudson River did to shad — wiping them out.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — November 8, 2013 — The body of a man who fell overboard from a fishing vessel in the Chesapeake Bay has been recovered.

Omega Protein said the Virginia Marine Police recovered the body of 32-year-old Bernard Redmond of Lancaster on Thursday in coordination with the Coast Guard.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post

November 8, 2013 — A project to rebuild a commercial fish-packing dock in Montauk — needed because an electrical fire in May 2012, gutted the packing and distribution facility that serves the commercial fishing fleet — has gotten a $120,000 grant from Empire State Development, the state’s main economic development agency.

The money is to be used to purchase machinery and equipment to replace what was destroyed in the blaze, and to expand dockside processing and distribution services, according to State Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor), who said the commercial dock is “a vital part of the commercial fishing infrastructure.” Montauk is the biggest commercial fishing port in New York State.

Read the full story at Newsday

November 6, 2013 — Dozens of commercial mullet fishermen flocked to the St. Johns River this week after a Leon County judge allowed long-banned nets to be used in Florida waters, stirring up a decade-old controversy about balancing fish populations and commercial profits.

The nets, called gill nets, were banned in 1995 after voters approved a state amendment to outlaw the nets, saying they encouraged overfishing. Leon County Judge Jackie Fulford decided last week to stop the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission from enforcing this rule, saying in her ruling the fishermen had “lost the tools of their trade, and thus, their ability to earn a living.”

The controversy boils down to two schools of thought. On one side, the gill nets are said to be an essential instrument that spare baby fish and help fishermen make a better living. To the other side, the nets are considered an overly zealous tool that have the power to demolish essential fish populations, just to feed fishermen’s pocketbooks.

In some ways, the controversy is less about the fish meat, but what’s inside them.

With the mullet on the move for spawning season, the timing of the ruling is ideal for fisherman, who want to sell the eggs in profitable Asian markets, said Ted Forsgren, special adviser for advocacy for the Coastal Conservation Association. Conservationists worry the fish will be caught before they can re-populate the river.

“What we’re afraid of now, this gap that the judge has created in her ruling is going to cause tremendous damage to the mullet fisheries,” Forsgren said. “They have the tools they need to make a living, but they want to go back to the days of the slaughter of the river.”

Read the full story at the Florida Times-Union

November 7, 2013 — A commercial fish processing facility that serves the Montauk commercial fishing fleet will receive a $120,000 state grant to fund a project to rebuild the plant following an electrical fire and expand it, New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said on Thursday in a statement applauding the award.

Montauk Fish Dock, a fish unloading, packing, processing and distribution facility, will receive the sum from Empire State Development. The grant is intended to help fund the purchase of machinery and equipment and renovate the dock, much of which was destroyed in the 2012 fire.

Read the full story here

HOOPERS ISLAND, Md.– November 5, 2013 — Watermen have been saying for months that striped bass, also called rockfish, have been eating crabs, and now they say they have proof.

A picture circulating the Internet since the first weekend of November shows a striped bass cut open with roughly 20 small crabs spilling out of it.

Watermen that spoke with WBOC said this is not a freak occurrence.

"That happens all the time.  Right across from here, I fish with my father in law right off the wharf, and one day we caught one that had 47, but see they're not going to advertise that because I guess the rockfish is the state fish now," said waterman Larry Powley.

Powley took this reporter out on his boat to show how many striped bass there are in the Chesapeake Bay.  He said he has to throw back most of what he catches because the quotas are too low, which leads to an overabundance of the fish.  He says striped bass will eat just about anything that moves, and since bay grasses are at a low this year due to Hurricane Sandy, the crabs have nowhere to hide.

Read the full story at WBOC