Saving Seafood

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

Louisiana inside red snapper limit; Florida, Alabama go over

November 5, 2018 — If Chad Courville didn’t physically show how upset he is with recent catch data posted for each of the five Gulf states, his words certainly did during Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission monthly meeting in Baton Rouge.

Courville, one of the commission’s seven, took note of a report indicating Florida’s recreational fishermen caught 113.5 percent of its allowed red snapper catch during its 40-day season. Alabama’s report was 100.2 percent.

“The MRIP numbers are insane,” Courville said, mentioning the federal Marine Resources Information Program data showing Alabama might have taken as much as four million pounds of snapper and its state agency reported on pounds of red snapper during the recreational season.

Meanwhile, Louisiana, using its highly accredited and federally approved LA Creel system, showed its state anglers took 99.2 percent of its allowed 700,000-pound-plus red snapper allowed limit. Mississippi reported at 95.6 percent while Texas’ numbers are not final because the Lone Star State continues to hold its state waters open to red snapper catches.

Read the full story at The Advocate

 

NOAA Fisheries approves Alabama snapper program

October 12, 2018 — The federal government has approved a system developed by the state of Alabama to count the number of red snapper caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf states, fishing groups and the NOAA Fisheries have disagreed for years about how many snapper can be caught. The decision means Alabama’s numbers can be used in the federal count.

The state’s Marine Resources director, Scott Bannon, says anglers are frustrated with short snapper seasons. He says the federal decision is a “huge step” toward managing gulf waters.

The state developed the Snapper Check program in 2014. It uses a combination of electronic reporting by anglers and dockside checks to verify the number of snapper that boats are keeping.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

Committee votes to let states receive more money from offshore drilling

September 14, 2018 — A House committee voted Thursday to increase the money coastal states receive from offshore oil and natural gas drilling off their coasts.

The bill, from Rep. Garrett Graves (R-La.), would give Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama half of the fee and royalty payments that companies give the federal government to drill for oil and gas in a set of new wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

That would be an increase from the current 37.5 percent, which last year amounted to 0.4 percent of the government’s total income from offshore drilling going to Louisiana last year, or $11 million, Graves said.

At a meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee, Graves framed the issue as one of shoring up states’ coasts. All of the money Louisiana gets from offshore drilling goes to coastal resilience, and Graves said his bill would mandate a quarter of the money go for that purpose for all four states.

“We’ve got to stop the stupidity of spending billions of dollars after disasters instead of millions before,” Graves said.

The panel passed the bill by voice vote after an intense debate over whether Gulf states should get special treatment for the drilling that occurs off their shores.

In one exchange, Rep. Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), the panel’s top Democrat, wanted the money to go to all coastal states for resilience, not just the Gulf of Mexico ones.

Read the full story at The Hill

ALABAMA: 8 years after Deepwater Horizon, beaches look good, but are they really?

August 24, 2018 — Cory Phipps didn’t know what to expect on the family vacation to the Alabama Gulf Coast this year.

The last time he visited Gulf Shores and Orange Beach was 2008, some 2 years before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sparked an environmental and economic disaster of monumental proportions.

“We were hoping it would be nice,” the Gadsden resident said in late-July, as he frolicked in the waters off Gulf State Park with his daughters Rory and Tory. “Of course we had heard about the oil spill and all the trouble it caused. But just look around, it’s beautiful. We like Gulf Shores much more than Panama City and some of the other beaches. It’s more family friendly down here.”

On April 20, 2010, an explosion and fire on the Deepwater oil well set in motion what  many experts have called the greatest marine ecological disaster in history. The offshore well was about 40 miles south of Louisiana. The fire and explosion took 11 lives on the rig. And when the gushing well was declared sealed on Sept. 19, 2010, 4.9 million barrels of oil (or about 210 million gallons) had poured into the Gulf, according to U.S. government estimates.

Fisheries and beaches were closed as the oil spill migrated north and east along the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle coasts. Hotels and condos went empty and cities that rely on tourism, such as Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, became veritable ghost towns at the height of the season.

Read the full story at the Montgomery Advertiser

NOAA Fisheries approves Alabama snapper program

August 20, 2018 — The federal government has approved a system developed by the state of Alabama to count the number of red snapper caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf states, fishing groups and the NOAA Fisheries have disagreed for years about how many snapper can be caught. The decision means Alabama’s numbers can be used in the federal count.

The state’s Marine Resources director, Scott Bannon, says anglers are frustrated with short snapper seasons. He says the federal decision is a “huge step” toward managing gulf waters.

The state developed the Snapper Check program in 2014. It uses a combination of electronic reporting by anglers and dockside checks to verify the number of snapper that boats are keeping.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Red snapper: Unusual experiment in Gulf of Mexico may ripple nationwide

August 8, 2018 — An unusual experiment playing out in the Gulf of Mexico is not only helping defuse the nation’s most politically charged fishing dispute but also advancing a new way of managing one of the country’s most popular pastimes.

Federal regulators and the five Gulf states – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas – are sharing oversight of red snapper, the reef fish prized by private anglers and seafood lovers across the United States.

Congress last year created the two-year pilot program, known as the “experimental fishing permit” program. It grants states the day-to-day authority to manage red snapper seasons for recreational fishing in U.S. waters as far as 200 miles from the shoreline. Normally, state jurisdiction extends to no more than 9 miles off the coast.

The catch: States are in charge but they must follow strict federal fisheries rules and close the season once they’ve reached their quota.

For environmental groups, it means tougher protections apply to the entire red snapper habitat, including state waters. For the federal government, it’s a chance to test ways of counting fish in an attempt to settle once and for all just how many there are swimming around the Gulf. And for recreational anglers, it means more time to fish for red snapper in federal waters that in recent years have had short seasons.

“We definitely have to get away from the federal government telling us how many fish we can catch,” said Justin Lee Fadalla, 31, a private boat angler from Mobile, Ala. who supports the change. “We really need the state (managing) and actually doing these research trips. They know how many snapper are out there. When you go out and catch your limit in 10 minutes, there’s not a shortage of red snapper.”

Read the full story at the Abilene Reporter News

Gulf Coast lawmakers push bill on red snapper quotas

July 23, 2018 — After years of feuding with the federal government over red snapper fishing quotas, Gulf Coast lawmakers are pushing a bill to seize decision-making powers from the federal government and give them to state regulators.

Lawmakers say states know the resources best and better understand the impact of their decisions, but environmentalists worry the reforms will bypass science-based conservation methods and subject quota decisions to the whims of local politics, ultimately threatening fish stocks that fuel local economies and provide food to millions of Americans.

“This a huge economic thing as well as a question of freedom of the American people to fish in their own waters,” said Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-AL.

Byrne says he and other critics are frustrated with federal regulators, who the critics say rely on faulty science and don’t fully understand the local impact of their decisions.

Recreational fishing is a $63 billion a year industry in the United States, nearly a half million jobs. Byrne says that’s why it’s critically important to change the way conservation decisions are made.

“We’re taking control away from the federal government and giving it to state authorities who are closer to it and who we think make the better decisions,” Byrne said.

Read the full story at KXAN

Congress is considering big changes to longstanding federal fisheries regulatory act

July 2, 2018 — Eric Brazer likens federal fisheries management to a bank account held jointly by commercial fisherman, charter fishermen, restaurants and others who depend on a specific fish for their livelihood.

If one user overdraws the account, there is nothing left for the others, said Brazer, deputy director of the Galveston, Texas-based Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, which includes commercial snapper and grouper fishermen from around the Gulf.

Brazer’s organization is one of many groups keeping a close eye on two bills being debated in Congress. A House bill by Rep. Don Young, an Alaska Republican, and a Senate bill by Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, could lead to significant changes in the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Destin Mayor Gary Jarvis, former president of the Destin Charter Boat Association, has been in regular contact with U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, and other members of the Florida Congressional Delegation over the two bills.

Jarvis said the association doesn’t want want to see a major overhaul of Magnuson-Stevens.

“It is a legacy piece of legislation that does need to be revised from time to time,” he said. “But they are attempting to gut some things in the Magnuson-Stevens Act to change how fisheries are managed.”

Jarvis said charter fishing brings more than $175 million a year to the regional economy.  For the economic benefits to continue, there must be sufficient numbers of red snapper, triggerfish, amberjack, grouper and other popular fish species, Jarvis said.

“The Magnuson-Stevens Act has clear-cut management tools and what is happening is political maneuvering to weaken these existing rules,” he said.

Jarvis said he fears charter fishermen won’t be given a designated share of the catch limits. He also likened catch limits to a joint bank account.

“What is happening is that they are trying to make it easier for one user group to overdraw the account,” he said.

Read the full story at the Pensacola News Journal

May Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Landings Largest Since May 2009

June 26, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service is reporting May 2018 Gulf of Mexico shrimp landings (all species, headless) of 16.281 million pounds compared to 14.585 million pounds in May 2017. This is the largest May total since 16.288 million pounds were landed in May 2009.

The Louisiana fishery led all Gulf states in May with landings totaling 10.369 million pounds. This is considerable since there hasn’t been a single production month in excess of 10 million pounds in that state since June 2014.

The cumulative total for the entire Gulf now stands at 28.14 million pounds; 2.1 million pounds or seven percent below the Jan-May 2017 total of 30.25 million pounds. The trend is still notable as landings in each of the last two months have exceeded the prior five-year average and the 2018 cumulative total stands 5.2 million pounds or 23 percent above the cumulative total of the prior five-year average.

As you would expect, ex-vessel prices are lower, especially for 21/25 and smaller count shrimp; and the Urner Barry markets have come under considerable pressure in recent sessions as seasonal production expands and where carryover inventory exists. Weakness is evident throughout the complex, but especially on 16/20 and smaller headless shell-on shrimp, and all-size PUD’s and P&D’s.

This story was originally published in Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.