Saving Seafood

MAFMC Revises Black Sea Bass Commercial State Allocation Recommendations

August 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a 1% increase in New York’s black sea bass commercial allocation, bringing New York’s baseline share of the coastwide quota to 8%, during a meeting last week with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board (Board). This action modifies the state commercial quota allocations that had been previously approved through the Council’s Black Sea Bass Commercial State Allocation Amendment and the Commission’s Addendum XXXIII to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP).

The Amendment and Addendum, approved in February 2021, address significant changes in the distribution of black sea bass that have occurred since the original allocations were implemented in 2003. Among other things, these actions changed Connecticut’s baseline allocation from 1% to 3% of the coastwide quota to address its disproportionally low allocation compared to the increased availability of black sea bass in state waters. The Amendment and Addendum also added the state-by-state allocations to the federal FMP.

In March, New York appealed the allocation changes approved by the Board in February, arguing that its baseline quota should increase similarly to that of Connecticut as it too had experienced a significant disparity between allocation and the abundance/availability of black sea bass in Long Island Sound, which is shared by New York and Connecticut.

The Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board (Policy Board) considered the appeal in May. Finding that it was justified, the Policy Board remanded the section of Addendum XXXIII addressing baseline allocations back to the Board for corrective action to address impacts to New York’s baseline allocation in a manner comparable to the consideration given to Connecticut. Based on the Policy Board’s decision, the Board was required to increase New York’s baseline allocation by up to 2%.

The Council considered the implications of this decision during their June meeting and agreed to revisit these allocations with the Board, with the goal of maintaining the same final recommendations in the Council’s Amendment and the Commission’s Addendum.

During last week’s meeting, the Council and Board considered various potential increases in New York’s baseline quota. Both management bodies ultimately approved a 1% increase. The Council will forward its revised recommendations to NOAA Fisheries for final approval. A table containing the revised state allocations of the black sea bass commercial quota can be found below.

For more information, visit http://www.mafmc.org/actions/bsb-commercial-allocation or contact Julia Beaty, Fishery Management Specialist, jbeaty@mafmc.org, (302) 526-5250.

*These allocations represent the baseline quota plus the regional biomass distribution based on the results of the 2021 Operational Stock Assessment. These allocations will be updated if future assessments indicate a change to the biomass distribution.

Warm waters further threaten depleted Maine shrimp fishery

August 9, 2021 — Maine’s long-shuttered shrimp fishing business has a chance to reopen in the coming winter, but the warming of the ocean threatens to keep the industry shut down.

Maine shrimp were once a winter delicacy, but the fishery has been shut down since 2013. Scientists have said environmental conditions in the warming Gulf of Maine are inhospitable for the cold water-loving shrimp.

An interstate regulatory board is scheduled to make a decision this fall about whether to extend a moratorium on the shrimp fishery that is slated to end this year. Scientists have not seen a lot of good signs that suggest reopening the fishery is a good idea, said Dustin Colson Leaning, a fishery management plan coordinator for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates the business.

“Looking at recent data hasn’t been very encouraging, and as you know, the ocean temperature isn’t cooling,” Leaning said. “On the environmental side, it doesn’t seem to be encouraging.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Climate Change Scenario Planning: Input Needed to Prepare for Uncertainty in Ocean Conditions and Fisheries

August 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

On the East Coast of the United States, some species of fish are already experiencing climate-related shifts in distribution, abundance, and productivity. Although the future is uncertain, a continuation or acceleration of climate change has the potential to strain our existing fishery management system and alter the way fishermen, scientists, and the public interact with the marine environment.

In order to begin preparing for this possibility, management bodies along the entire Atlantic seaboard have teamed up to launch a new project called East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning. Scenario planning is a way of exploring how fishery management may need to evolve over the next few decades in response to climate change. You can find additional details in the introductory brochure.

Weigh In! Stakeholder Input is Key to Effective Scenario Planning

The initiative is being organized by a Core Team of representatives from the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and NOAA Fisheries. The team has lined up three kick-off webinars:

  1. Monday, August 30, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
  2. Wednesday, September 1, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
  3. Thursday, September 2, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Please register at the links above. The webinars will introduce stakeholders to the overall initiative, explain the benefits of participating in the process, outline additional ways to become involved, and begin collecting stakeholder input.

An online questionnaire will be available soon to serve as an additional tool to collect input. Watch the Scenario Planning webpage for updates.

ASMFC 2021 Summer Meeting Webinar Press Release, Summaries, and Motions Now Available

August 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Press releases, meeting summaries and motions from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2021 Summer Meeting Webinar are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/2021SummerMeeting/2021SummerMeetingSummary.pdf.  The document can also be obtained on the Commission website on the Meeting Archives page athttp://www.asmfc.org/home/meeting-archive.

Presentations and audio files from this week’s meetings will be available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-summer-meeting-webinar (under the respective Board header) early next week.

ASMFC Lobster Board Initiates Draft Addendum to Consider Electronic Tracking for Lobster, Jonah Crab

August 6, 2021 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)’s American Lobster Board initiated Draft Addendum XXIX to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster.

This Draft Addendum considers the implementation of electronic tracking requirements for federally permitted vessels in the American lobster and Jonah crab fishery. The potential new tracking will aim to collect “high resolution spatial and temporal effort data.

Read the full story at Seafood News

ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board Initiates Addendum on Fishery Measures

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board initiated an addendum to Amendment 3 to consider changes to commercial allocations, the episodic event set aside (EESA) program, and the incidental catch and small-scale fisheries provision. This action responds to the recommendations of a Board work group charged with evaluating provisions of the current management program and providing strategies to refine those provisions.

Amendment 3 (2017) established commercial fishery allocations, allocating a baseline quota of 0.5% to each jurisdiction with the rest of the total allowable catch (TAC) allocated based on historic landings between 2009 and 2011. The work group report outlined landings have shifted in recent years, with some states landing significantly more quota (through transfers and other FMP provisions) than they are allocated due to changes in abundance of menhaden and availability of other bait fish. The Board action aims to align state quotas with recent landings and availability while maintaining access to the resource for all states, reduce dependence on quota transfers, and minimize regulatory discards.

The addendum will also propose changes to the EESA and incidental catch and small-scale fisheries provisions. Both provisions have been impacted by recent trends in landings, most notably in New England where states rely on the EESA to keep their commercial fishery open while working to secure quota transfers. The increasing abundance of menhaden in New England has also led to a rise of landings under the incidental catch and small-scale fisheries provision once commercial quotas have been met. The Board is interested in exploring options to promote accountability such as capping the total amount of landings under this category or to count these landings against the TAC. Management alternatives for the incidental catch and small-scale fisheries will also consider changes to the current eligibility of gear types under the provision. In addition to these topics, the Board indicated the management document should maintain flexibility to respond to management needs in the future.

The Board will consider the Draft Addendum at the Annual Meeting in October and provide feedback, if needed, to further develop the document. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

ASMFC Approves Amendment 2 to the Bluefish FMP to Adjust Allocation and Establish a Rebuilding Plan

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved the Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Bluefish: Allocation and Rebuilding Program. The Amendment updates the FMP goals and objectives, initiates a rebuilding plan, establishes new allocations between the commercial and recreational sectors, implements new commercial allocations to the states, revises the process for quota transfers between sectors, and revises how the management plan accounts for management uncertainty.

The Commission’s Bluefish Management Board and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), who jointly manage bluefish, initiated the Amendment in December 2017 to consider revisions to the commercial and recreational fisheries allocations and the state-specific commercial allocations. In 2019, an operational stock assessment for bluefish indicated the stock was overfished, and the Board and Council subsequently incorporated the rebuilding plan in the Amendment.

Given the stock’s overfished condition, the Amendment establishes a 7-year rebuilding plan to be achieved through a constant fishing mortality approach. Rebuilding progress will be analyzed through management track stock assessments every two years. The 2021 management track assessment will be used to inform specifications for the 2022-2023 fishing years. The Amendment also revises sector allocations, increasing the recreational allocation from 83% to 86% of the acceptable biological catch and decreasing the commercial allocation from 17% to 14%. Catch data from 1981-2018 were used as the basis for sector allocations since this time series captures the cyclical nature of the fishery, while providing each sector with sufficient access to the resource considering historical usage.

The Amendment revises state-by-state commercial allocations to better reflect the current distribution of the stock and the needs of the states’ commercial fisheries. The Amendment allocates a baseline quota of 0.1% to each state, and then allocates the rest of the commercial quota based on landings data from 2009 to 2018 (see Table 1 below). Recognizing that several states will be losing quota during a time when the coastwide commercial quota is already at an historic low, the Amendment phases-in the allocation changes over 7 years in order to reduce short-term economic impacts to the affected commercial fishing industries. State allocations will be reviewed by the Commission and Council within 5 years.

The Amendment updates the sector transfer process to allow for quota transfers in either direction between the commercial and recreational sectors. Previously, quota could only be transferred from the recreational sector to the commercial fishery. The transfers will now be capped at 10% of the acceptable biological catch for a given year.

Finally, the Amendment modified the management uncertainty tool within the FMP to a sector-specific approach. It allows the Commission and Council to apply a buffer to either sector, in the form of a quota reduction, to account for management uncertainty during specifications. While this tool has not been used often, the modified approach allows managers to better target areas of uncertainty within one sector without reducing the quota or harvest limit in the other sector.

Given the joint nature of the Amendment and the federal process that requires the Council’s Amendment to undergo federal review and rulemaking, the implementation date for the Commission plan will be set once NOAA Fisheries approves the Council’s Amendment. The Amendment is expected to go into effect for the 2022 fishing year.

For more information, please contact Dustin Colson Leaning, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at dleaning@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

States Achieve Required Coastwide Reductions in Atlantic Striped Bass Total Removals

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board’s review of the performance of the 2020 fishery yielded positive news, with the states achieving Addendum VI’s goal of reducing total removals by 18% relative to 2017 levels. In fact, the states realized an estimated 28% reduction in total removals coastwide in numbers of fish from 2017 levels. Total removals include commercial harvest, commercial dead discards, recreational harvest, and recreational release mortality. Addendum VI was initiated in response to the 2018 benchmark assessment and aims to reduce total removals in order to end overfishing and reduce fishing mortality to the target level in 2020. The next stock assessment update for striped bass, scheduled to occur in 2022, will provide an update on the status of stock relative to the biological reference points.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted data collection for the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) dockside sampling program, but MRIP was able to fill those data gaps using information from 2018 and 2019. While this does increase the uncertainty around the estimates of total recreational catch, there is still high confidence in those estimates and the estimates of the realized reductions.

After considering 2020 fishery performance, the Board provided guidance on a number of topics related to the development of Draft Amendment 7 (e.g., recreational release mortality, conservation equivalency, management triggers). Amendment 7 was initiated in August 2020 to update the management program to reflect current fishery needs and priorities as the status and understanding of the resource and fishery has changed considerably since implementation of Amendment 6 in 2003. The Amendment is intended to build upon Addendum VI’s action to end overfishing and initiate rebuilding. The Plan Development Team will continue to develop options for the Draft Amendment based on the guidance received from the Board.

Concurrent with the development of Draft Amendment 7, the Board initiated an addendum to Amendment 6 to consider allowing the voluntary transfer of commercial striped bass quota between states/jurisdictions that have commercial quota. This action is in response to a request from the State of Delaware to reconsider Delaware’s current commercial quota allocation.

Based on progress made on Draft Amendment 7 and Draft Addendum VII to Amendment 6, the Board’s next opportunity to meet and consider possible approval of both documents for public comment will be in October during the Commission’s Annual Meeting. For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at efranke@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

New York’s Black Sea Bass Baseline Commercial Quota Increased to 8% under Addendum XXXIII

August 6, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board (Board) approved a 1% increase in New York’s black sea bass commercial allocation, bringing New York’s baseline share of the coastwide quota to 8%. This action modifies the state commercial quota allocations that had been previously approved through Addendum XXXIII to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan. The final 2022 state-by-state commercial shares can be found in the table on page 2.

Addendum XXXIII, approved in February 2021, addressed significant changes in the distribution of black sea bass that have occurred since the original allocations were implemented in 2003, while also accounting for the states’ historical harvest of black sea bass. Among other things, the Addendum changed Connecticut’s baseline allocation from 1% to 3% of the coastwide quota to address its disproportionally low allocation compared to the increased availability of black sea bass in state waters of Long Island Sound (LIS). The remaining state shares (with the exception of Maine and New Hampshire) were allocated using their adjusted historical allocations (to account for the Connecticut change) as well as a portion based on the most recent regional biomass distribution information from the stock assessment.

In March, New York appealed the allocation changes approved by the Board in February. The Commission’s appeal process provides states/jurisdictions the opportunity to appeal management decisions if a state/jurisdiction finds a Board decision has not been consistent with language of an FMP, resulted in unforeseen circumstances or impacts, did not follow established processes, or was based on flawed technical information. Through its appeal, New York argued that its baseline quota should increase similarly to that of Connecticut as it too had experienced a significant disparity between allocation and the abundance/availability of black sea bass in LIS, which is shared by New York and Connecticut.

In May, the Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board (Policy Board) considered the appeal and found it was justified based on New York’s arguments. This included data showing New York’s historical allocation was based largely on its ocean fishery. Since 2010, there has been an exponential increase of black sea bass in LIS. This increased availability has resulted in an expansion of New York’s commercial black sea bass landings from LIS from 24% (2004-2008) to 51% (2015-2019) of the state’s total landings.

The Policy Board remanded Section 3.1.1 of Addendum XXXIII (which only addresses baseline allocations) back to the Board for corrective action to address impacts to New York’s baseline allocation in a manner comparable to the consideration given to Connecticut. The Policy Board’s action specified the Board must increase New York’s baseline allocation by up to 2%, while maintaining Connecticut’s baseline allocation of 3%. No other aspects of these allocations, and no other alternatives in the associated Addendum, may be revised by the Board.

Based on the Policy Board’s directive, the Board considered a number of motions with various increases in New York’s baseline quota and ultimately approved a 1% increase. As a joint partner in the management of black sea bass, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council also approved the same changes to New York’s commercial quota share. The Council will forward its revised recommendations, which include adding the state-by-state shares to the federal Fishery Management Plan, to NOAA Fisheries for final approval.

For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, Fisheries Policy Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

ASMFC American Lobster Board Initiates Draft Addendum XXIX

August 4, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board initiated Draft Addendum XXIX to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster. The Draft Addendum considers implementing electronic tracking requirements for federally-permitted vessels in the American lobster and Jonah crab fishery, with the goal of collecting high resolution spatial and temporal effort data.

“In my opinion, this is the single most important thing the American Lobster Board can do to ensure the viability of the American lobster fishery,” stated Board Chair Dan McKiernan from Massachusetts. “Through the proposed action, the Board seeks to significantly improve our understanding of stock status, identify areas where lobster fishing effort might present a risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales, and provide important information to help reduce spatial conflicts with other ocean uses, such as wind energy development and aquaculture.”

A number of challenges facing the fishery (e.g., rising water temperatures, protected species interactions, reduced recruitment) present a critical need for the collection of enhanced spatial and temporal data via electronic tracking devices in the offshore fishery. The stock assessment models that estimate exploitation and abundance for American lobster could be greatly improved with these data, as they would provide size composition data at a finer resolution than what is currently available. Additionally, the models used to assess the location of vertical lines in the fishery and their associated risk to endangered right whales could be substantially improved with vessel tracking data, which could impact federal risk reduction requirements for the fishery. Better understanding the footprint of the U.S. lobster fishery will also be vital to ocean planning efforts to minimize spatial conflicts with other ocean uses such as aquaculture, marine protected areas, and offshore energy development, as well as provide fishery managers tools to help maintain industry fishing grounds. Furthermore, vessel tracking could improve the efficiency and efficacy of offshore law enforcement efforts.

Draft Addendum XXIX will propose specifications for tracking devices to ensure the collected data meet both management and assessment needs. These specifications include data reporting rates, preferred technologies, and minimum standards for tracking devices. Implementation timelines, as well as budgetary and staff resource needs will be further discussed as the Draft Addendum is developed. For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at cstarks@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.