Saving Seafood

Applications open for Alabama’s CARES Act Marine Industry Relief Program

September 25, 2020 — The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Marine Resources Division announced this week that it is currently accepting applications for its CARES Act relief program for fishery-related businesses.

The program was established to provide financial relief for losses suffered by the state’s marine fishing industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information about the program, visit this website.

Congress awarded $3.2 million of CARES Act money to the state of Alabama to address financial losses caused by the pandemic that occurred in the state’s seafood industry between March 1 and May 31, 2020.

Read the full story at the Alabama Political Reporter

$11 million in aid aimed at Alabama’s seafood, fishing industries

May 21, 2020 — Gov. Kay Ivey has announced that more than $11 million in federal relief money, some of it coronavirus-related, will be directed to fishing- and seafood-related industries.

Details such as who will be eligible for the funds and how the application process will work remain to be ironed out. A statement issued Wednesday by the governor’s office said some of the money will be used to offset coronavirus-related losses, while the lion’s share “will be used to address a range of impacts including those to commercial fishing businesses, charter/for-hire fishing businesses, qualified aquaculture operations, seafood processors, and the fishing ecosystem and environment.”

According to the governor’s office, $3.3 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act will go to “qualifying applicants in the state’s seafood industry who have been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.”

An additional $8.6 million comes from federal fisheries disaster relief funds being directed to Alabama because of freshwater flooding that harmed Gulf of Mexico fisheries in 2019. According to Wednesday’s announcement, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division to establish eligibility guidelines.

Read the full story at AL.com

Restoration projects seek to fight “tragic” decline in Gulf of Mexico oyster population

November 19, 2018 — Last week, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources officially moved to cancel the state’s wild oyster season, which would have run from November through April.

Exploratory dives at oyster harvesting grounds had revealed a continued steep decline in the number of oysters in the state’s waters. Last year’s season was curtailed after fishermen harvested just 136 110-pound sacks of oysters, down from 7,000 sacks in 2013, according to the Associated Press.

Scott Bannon, director of the Marine Resources Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said the findings revealed the apparent collapse of the region’s oyster ecology.

“It’s tragic, to be honest,” Bannon told AL.com.

Numerous factors have dealt blows not just to Alabama’s oyster grounds, but those of the entire Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, hurricanes, disease, and changes in freshwater flows to Gulf rivers and streams have collectively damaged the fishery to the point where up to 85 percent of the gulf’s original oyster reefs no longer remain intact.

According to a new report by The Nature Conservancy, “Oyster Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico,” this dramatic decline has damaged the stability and productivity of the Gulf’s estuaries and harmed coastal economies.

Seth Blitch, the director of coastal and marine conservation in Louisiana for The Nature Conservancy, told SeafoodSource the oyster habitat and the oyster fishery “is not in a particularly good place right now,” which could spell bigger problems for the region.

“Oysters, to me, are a great proxy to a lot of things,” he said. “If oysters are doing well, that’s a good indication of good water quality and of the health entire near-shore estuarine system. When oysters start to fail, that’s good indication there are larger issues at play.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Compromise solution floated on red snapper season

June 12, 2017 — A possible extension of the federal red snapper season could be coming soon, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Acting Commissioner Chris Blankenship has taken part in talks with federal officials to possibly extend the federal season for recreational fishing to Labor Day weekend.

The negotiations have included leaders from across the state and other officials in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas, as well as officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Each state is working out how a compromise could work for its waters.

For Alabama, the current proposal would create a 27-day season that could begin as soon as June 17 to allow fishing in federal waters every Saturday and Sunday until after Labor Day weekend. The newly proposed season would also include July 3 and 4.

In order to get that deal, state officials would have to give up allowed days of fishing in state waters. Fishermen are allowed in Alabama waters, that extend nine nautical miles from the shore, to fish until July 31.

Under the proposed compromise, the state would give up the ability for fishermen to fish within their waters Monday through Friday.

Baldwin County Commissioner Chris Elliott said he and other elected officials across the county had asked for a similar season extension in letters they sent to President Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and added he felt this compromise might be a possible solution.

Read the full story at The Islander

Red snapper season could be extended starting next week

June 9, 2017 — A decision on extending the federal red snapper season for recreational anglers could come as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, said the acting commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Chris Blankenship, who was appointed to the acting commissioner’s role last week and who has been involved in negotiations to extend the season with federal authorities, said Thursday that he feels an agreement is “very close” in extending the federal recreational season to Labor Day weekend.

The agreement would have to be approved by the five Gulf states – Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas – and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA, through National Marine Fisheries Service, is charged with managing fisheries in federal waters.

“We are working out the details in each of our own states,” said Blankenship.

Read the full story at AL.com