Saving Seafood

ASMFC Schedules State Data Review Workshop for Bluefish for November 3-4, 2021

September 29, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

In advance of the upcoming bluefish research track stock assessment* to be conducted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Bluefish Working Group, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will be holding a State Data Review Workshop on November 3-4, 2021. At this workshop, the Bluefish Technical Committee (TC) will review state data sets that could support the assessment, including fishery-independent surveys, fishery-dependent sampling programs, and life history studies. The TC will develop a report summarizing the available data sets and make recommendations for the Bluefish Working Group.

As part of this data review, the Commission welcomes submission of data sources from stakeholders and the public. Data sources include, but are not limited to, data on recreational and commercial landings and discards, catch per unit effort, biological samples (age, length, and/or sex), and life history information (growth, maturity, fecundity, spawning stock biomass weights, natural mortality). The Commission is also interested in socioeconomic data or analyses, especially those related to recreational bluefish demand. For data sets to be considered at the workshop, data must be sent in with accompanying methods description to Dr. Katie Drew kdrew@asmfc.org by October 25, 2021.

The Workshop will be held via webinar and is open to the public. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1647966037747393550. For more information on submitting data, including the appropriate format, and/or attending the upcoming virtual Workshop, please contact Dustin Colson Leaning, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at dleaning@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740. For more information on the Bluefish Working Group or the research track assessment process, please contact Michele Traver, NOAA Fisheries Federal Assessment Process Lead, at michele.traver@noaa.gov.

* Research track assessments are designed to be carried out over several years and can focus on research topics or on one or more individual stocks; evaluate an issue or new model that could apply to many stocks; and/or consider extensive changes in data, model, or stock structure. Research track assessments may provide the basis for future management track assessments.

Northern Shrimp Population Collapse Linked to Warming Ocean Temperatures, Squid Predation

September 29, 2021 — An extreme heatwave in the Gulf of Maine in 2012 resulted in the warmest ocean temperatures in the region in decades. By 2013, the Atlantic northern shrimp population in the gulf had experienced a stock “collapse.” That is what fishery scientists call a rapid decrease in numbers that is not a natural fluctuation in stock size. Scientists studying the collapse have found that during this time, warmer temperatures were linked to increases in longfin squid, a major shrimp predator. They arrived in the Gulf of Maine sooner than usual and in more areas where shrimp occur.

”Our results suggest that longfin squid may have been a major player in the collapse of Gulf of Maine northern shrimp during an extreme heat wave event,” said Anne Richards, a biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Richards co-authored the study with Margaret Hunter from the Maine Department of Marine Resources Division of Biological Monitoring and Assessment. They recently published their conclusions in the online journal PLOS ONE.

Read the full story from NOAA

ASMFC Begins Preparations for Black Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment

September 28, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) has begun work on the next Black Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and is requesting data from academia, member states, federal partners, participating jurisdictions and stakeholders. A data workshop will occur in December 2021.

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance (fishery-independent survey catch rates, fishery-dependent catch per unit effort), biological samples (lengths, ages, weights), and life history information (growth, maturity, natural mortality, movement and migration). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format with accompanying description of methods to Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org by October 29, 2021.

For more information about the assessment or the submission and presentation of materials, please contact Savannah Lewis, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at slewis@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Read the full release from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting on September 24

September 10, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Members of the Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board from the states of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on September 24, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., to discuss Season 2 (October 1 – December 31) days out measures for the 2021 Area 1A fishery (inshore Gulf of Maine). Days out measures include consecutive landings days for Season 2. The webinar and call information is included below:

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting

September 24, 2021

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/517895485. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (872) 240-3412 and enter access code   517-895-485 when prompted. The webinar will start at 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.

The 2021 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 1,453 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for the carryover from 2019, the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside, and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL). There is no research-set-aside for 2021 because the participants in the RSA program will not continue their RSA project in 2021.

The Board established the following seasonal allocations for the 2021 Area 1A sub-ACL: 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31.

Please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 or efranke@asmfc.org for more information; or visit http://www.asmfc.org/calendar/9/2021/Atlantic-Herring-Area-1A-Days-Out-Meeting-on-September-24/1797.

The meeting announcement can also be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerringSep2021DaysOutMeetingNotice.pdf

ASMFC October 18-21 Meeting to be Held by Webinar Only

September 10, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Due to concerns about the continued spread of COVID-19 and the challenges of conducting a fully participatory hybrid meeting (in-person and virtual meeting combined), the Commission’s Executive Committee, which met via webinar today, made the difficult decision to shift its meeting, scheduled for October 18-21, from an in-person meeting to one that will be conducted entirely via webinar. The details regarding the other committees that were scheduled to meet (Law Enforcement Committee, Habitat Committee and Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership Steering Committee) are still being worked out and will be shared over the next couple of weeks. At the Executive Committee’s direction, Commission staff will also explore the possibility of shifting the in-person Annual Meeting in New Jersey to January 2022.

Recreational Fishery Reform in the Mid-Atlantic: Sidestepping Magnuson-Stevens?

September 3, 2021 — Since March 2019, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), in conjunction with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), has been working on what they call the “Recreational Reform Initiative,” (Initiative) a project that could completely change the way recreational fisheries are managed in the mid-Atlantic region.

The Council describes the Initiative this way:

The Recreational Reform Initiative considers improvements to management of the recreational fisheries for summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, and bluefish. This joint initiative…will address a range of recreational management issues through a joint framework/addendum and a joint amendment.The framework/addendum will further develop and consider the following topics and management issues:

  • better incorporating [Marine Recreational Information Program] uncertainty into the management process;
  • guidelines for maintaining status quo recreational management measures (i.e., bag, size, and season limits) from one year to the next;
  • a process for setting multi-year recreational management measures;
  • changes to the timing of the recommendation for federal waters recreational management measures; and
  • a proposal put forward by six recreational organizations called a harvest control rule.

The amendment will consider options for managing for-hire recreational fisheries separately from other recreational fishing modes (referred to as sector separation) and will also consider options related to recreational catch accounting such as private angler reporting and enhanced vessel trip report requirements for for-hire vessels.

Goal/Vision:

  • Stability in the recreational management measures (bag, size, season)
  • Flexibility in the management process
  • Accessibility aligned with availability/stock status

Reading that description, one of the things that sticks out is that, despite all of the words, there’s not a single mention of maintaining healthy and abundant fish stocks.

That could signal a problem.

Recreational fishery management isn’t perfect, and could benefit from new approaches that account for management uncertainty, and perhaps align management changes with the biennial stock assessment updates that are produced for summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, and bluefish. Still, there is one aspect of the Initiative that might be taking recreational fishery management in the wrong direction.

That is the “proposal put forward by six recreational organizations called a harvest control rule” (Control Rule) which supposedly promotes the Initiative’s Goal/Vision of stability, flexibility, and accessibility in recreational fishery management.

If that Goal/Vision reminds you of the debate over the so-called “Modern Fish Act” a few years ago, that’s not a coincidence. The organizations promoting the Control Rule are the same ones that promoted the Modern Fish Act, and are continuing to disrupt red snapper management in the Gulf of Mexico; they are now bringing the same arguments that they have made in the Gulf to the mid-Atlantic region.

They haven’t concealed their intent to undermine the current federal fishery management system, and its use of science-based annual catch limits and accountability measures, in favor of the sort of less structured, seat-of-the-pants management measures that are often used by state agencies, and which have so often failed when employed by the ASMFC.

Read the full story at the Marine Fish Conservation Network

 

New Recreational Management Effort Raises More Questions than Answers

September 3, 2021 — For longer than a year, we’ve been keeping an eye on the Recreational Reform Initiative (RRI), a comprehensive joint effort by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) to improve the management of four key recreational fisheries—black sea bass, fluke, scup, and bluefish. The process has been complex, evolving, and largely devoid of public input. However, now that concrete alternatives for the first piece of the RRI, the Recreational Harvest Control Rule (HCR) Framework/Addendum, are out in the public sphere, its time share our thoughts and concerns—and get you, the public, up to speed with what’s going on.

Quick Background on Recreational Reform

The RRI grew out of Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) growing pains, specifically with regard to black sea bass. After recalibrated MRIP estimates were approved for management use in 2017, our understanding of many stocks fundamentally changed. MRIP told us that because recreational effort, catch, and landings were substantially higher than previously understood, there must have been more fish in the ocean. This resulted in a phenomenon known as “chasing the recreational harvest limit (RHL),” where managers were constantly trying to constrain recreational catches.

Earlier this year, the Council and Commission prioritized the HCR as a possible alternative and solution to the current system of managing the recreational sector. An HCR can provide relief by relying on predetermined measures (bag size, season length, and size limit) for certain scenarios like stock status and trend. Additionally, HCRs can remove the political pressures surrounding recreational management measures—when implemented and developed effectively. Leading up to the joint Council/Commission meeting in August, Council and Commission staff met several times to develop various alternatives. Following these meetings, the slate of options on the table was comprehensive and addressed many—but not all—of ASGA’s initial concerns.

Throughout this whole process, our primary concern was that the HCR appeared to offer a way for recreational fisheries to sidestep the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirement of Annual Catch Limits (ACL)—bringing back unpleasant memories from the Modern Fish Act debate on Capitol Hill in 2017-2018. If you’re wondering why that’s a concern, consider that the same groups who initially proposed the HCR were also behind the Modern Fish Act. For months, staff members grappled with developing HCR alternatives without fully sorting out how this system will adhere to ACLs. We view this as a major issue for two reasons. One, ACLs work; they have been an integral reason for the Magnuson-Stevens Act’s success in rebuilding overfished stocks. Second, catch limits are a legal requirement; operating without them or ignoring them can open NOAA Fisheries to legal liability. Details regarding how managers plan to integrate ACLs—and accountability measures—into an HCR system remains to be seen.

Another glaring issue with the HCR discussions thus far concerns the public’s lack of awareness or involvement and the rushed effort to implement a brand-new management strategy as soon as next year. Follow along for a deeper dive into the HCR alternatives, how the most recent management discussions went, and what’s next.

Read the full story at the American Saltwater Guides Association

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Commercial black sea bass season expanded

August 27, 2021 — The state has approved an in-season adjustment to the commercial black sea bass fishery that will provide more open fishing days and higher catch limits.

The in-season adjustments, approved by the state Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission based on recommendations by the state Division of Marine Fisheries, represent the first adjustments in commercial fishing limits for the directed hook and line and pot fishery for black sea bass since 2017.

Since 2017, Massachusetts’s share of the annual commercial black sea bass quota, allocated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, has increased 32%.

Effective Aug. 30, according to DMF, Mondays and Wednesdays will be added as open commercial fishing days for the directed commercial black sea bass pot and hook and line fisheries.

The additional days will allow anglers to fish for black sea bass Sunday through Thursday.

On Oct. 1, the schedule will be expanded even more when Fridays and Saturdays are added to allow commercial harvesters to fish for black sea bass seven days per week.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

ASMFC 80th Annual Meeting Preliminary Agenda and Public Comment Guidelines Now Available

August 27, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 80th Annual Meeting will be held October 18-21, 2021 at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, 1 Ocean Blvd, Long Branch, New Jersey. As of now, the Commission is moving forward with an in-person meeting that will also be accessible via webinar. ASMFC leadership is monitoring CDC guidelines for large meetings/gatherings, state travel restrictions, and the occurrence of COVID-19 cases in Monmouth County. Please do not make travel reservations yet; we will notify when to do so. Additional meeting information regarding the hotel, registration for social events, and reimbursement guidelines will be provided as we get closer to the meeting date.

The preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines, which follow and are attached, are also available on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-annual-meeting. The final agenda and meeting materials will be available on October 6th on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021‐annual‐meeting.

ASMFC & NOAA Fisheries Select Coonamessett Farm Foundation to Conduct Components of the At-Sea Monitoring Training Program

August 24, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, in cooperation with NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), has selected the Coonamessett Farm Foundation to conduct components of the At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) Training Program for NEFSC. Training will include identifying target and bycatch species in Atlantic groundfish fisheries, collecting and reporting fisheries-dependent data following federal guidelines, and instruction in offshore safety and survival.

At-sea monitors collect data aboard commercial fishing vessels that are used to manage and monitor annual catch limits in the Northeast groundfish sectors. A sharp increase in the required ASM coverage rate (up to 100%) and observer attrition during the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in the need for approximately 140 new at-sea monitors. Coonamessett Farm Foundation will take on the majority of the training with support from NEFSC. ASM training by the Coonamessett Farm Foundation will start this year and extend at least through 2022.

To learn more about becoming an at-sea monitor, contact one of the companies that provides at-sea monitors to the NEFSC’s Northeast Fisheries Observer Program. A list is posted here:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/fisheries-observers/sea-monitoring-northeast

For more information on Coonamessett Farm Foundation ASM training award, please contact Tania Lewandowski (Tania.Lewandowski@noaa.gov), Tasha O’Hara (tohara@cfarm.org), or Quinn McWatters (qmcwatters@cfarm.org).