Saving Seafood

ASMFC 2021 Summer Meeting Webinar Preliminary Agenda & Public Comment Guidelines

July 2, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The agenda is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided below. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of Board meetings. Interested parties should anticipate Boards starting earlier or later than indicated herein.

Monday, August 2

1:30 – 4:00 p.m.                     American Lobster Management Board

  • Progress Report on Development of Draft Addendum XXVII on Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank Resiliency
  • Review Workgroup Report on Vessel Tracking Devices in Federal Lobster and Jonah Crab Fisheries
  • Consider Report on Available Data for Assessment, Data Limitations and Uncertainty, and Recommended Assessment Approaches for Jonah Crab
    • Consider Initiation of a Benchmark Stock Assessment
  • Consider Development of Management Strategy Evaluation of the American Lobster Fisheries

4:15 – 5:15 p.m.                     Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT) Update

  • Update on Efforts to Collect Information for the ALWTRT to Develop Recommendations to Modify the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan to Reduce Risk to North Atlantic Right Whales in Coastwide Gillnet and Atlantic Mixed Species Trap Pot Fisheries, and Mid-Atlantic Lobster Fisheries

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Count of locally spawned alewives on the rise

June 16, 2021 — The annual spring river herring census at the city’s West Gloucester fishway is in the books, with 2021 continuing to show low — if slightly improving — numbers of returning fish observed near the end of their spawning journey.

Rebecca Visnick, the Harbormaster’s Office staffer who shepherded the 2021 count, said her cadre of 40 fish counters officially observed 12 river herring, also known as alewives, from April 1 until Memorial Day.

While that pales in comparison to years such as 2017, when counters tabulated 3,300 of the fish making their way up the fishway, it is markedly better than 2020 (five alewives counted) and incrementally better than 2019 (11 alewives counted).

Visnick said the final number also might not reflect the actual number of alewives returning from the Atlantic Ocean — by way of the Little River — to spawn in Lily Pond at the top of the fishway.

“There were other observations (of the alewives) that weren’t part of the official count,” she said. “They were observed below the steep pass ladder and up around the Lily Pond.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MAFMC and ASMFC Approve Bluefish Rebuilding Plan and Revised Allocations

June 14, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Bluefish Management Board (Board) jointly recommended approval of the Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment. The Amendment updates the Fishery Management Plan (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 Council and Board 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 Council and Board subsequently decided to incorporate the rebuilding plan in the Amendment.

During their joint meeting last week, the Council and Board reviewed a summary of the five virtual hearings and written comments submitted by 378 individuals and organizations, in addition to the recommendations of their joint Advisory Panel.

After weighing the pros and cons of shorter and longer rebuilding plan timeframes, the Council and Board ultimately selected the rebuilding plan which utilizes a constant fishing mortality approach and is projected to rebuild the stock in 7 years. Rebuilding progress will be analyzed through management track stock assessments every two years. The management track assessment scheduled for later this month will be the first step in informing specifications for the 2022-2023 fishing years.

The revised sector allocations increase the recreational allocation from 83% to 86% of the acceptable biological catch and decrease the commercial allocation from 17% to 14%. The Council and Board used catch data from 1981-2018 as the basis for sector allocations since it more accurately captures the cyclical nature of the fishery, while providing each sector with sufficient access to the resource considering historical usage.

The Council and Board based state commercial allocations on more recent data to improve efficiency within the commercial fishery and better reflect the current distribution of the stock. As such, 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 Council and Board decided to phase-in the allocation changes over 7 years in order to reduce short-term economic impacts to the affected commercial fishing industry. The Council and Board also committed to reviewing the approved state allocations within 5 years.

Read the full release here

River herring, once eyed for endangered list, grow in counts

June 1, 2021 — A small fish that has been the subject of conservation efforts for years appears to be growing in number in the rivers of the East Coast.

River herring are critically important to coastal ecosystems because they serve as food for birds and larger fish. Regulators have described the fishes’ population as nearing historic lows because of dams, pollution, warming waters and other factors.

But years of effort to save them appear to be paying off. Preliminary counts of the fish from Maine to South Carolina in 2019 showed 2.7 million more fish than in 2015, according to documents provided by the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The 2019 counts found more than 6.5 million fish.

The river herrings include two species of schooling fish, alewives and blueback herring, that have been fished in East Coast rivers for millennia. Harvesters of the fish said conservative management of the fishery in recent years, coupled with conservation efforts such as dam removal, have helped the fish spawn and grow in number.

“You’ve got to get the parents in the bedroom so the kids can go to school,” said Jeff Pierce, a longtime alewife fisherman and the president of Alewife Harvesters of Maine.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Interstate fishery managers postpone action on allocations for multiple species

May 20, 2021 — Local recreational and commercial fishermen will have to wait until December to find out if interstate fisheries managers will make changes to allocations for several fish species.

During a joint webinar meeting May 8, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s summer flounder, scup and black sea bass board voted to postpone a final decision on potential changes to the allocations. The delay is intended to allow for further development of the recreational reform initiative before any decisions are made.

The council and board are now scheduled to take final action on the allocation amendment at a joint meeting in December. Summer flounder, scup and black sea bass are highly sought by commercial and recreational fishermen throughout the mid-Atlantic and southern New England regions, which includes the North Carolina coast.

The allocations for all three species are currently based on historical proportions of catch or landings. Recent changes in how recreational catch is estimated have resulted in a discrepancy between the current levels of estimated recreational harvest and the allocations to the same sector.

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

MIKE SPINNEY: The gradual and sudden decline of striped bass

May 19, 2021 — Striped bass, also known as rockfish, are arguably the most economically important finfish on the Atlantic seaboard. According to a 2005 economic study by Southwick Associates, commercial and recreational fishing for stripers generated more than $6.8 billion in total economic activity, supporting more than 68,000 jobs. At the time, striped bass were abundant in the Chesapeake Bay and throughout their migratory range, from North Carolina to Maine.

Twenty years earlier, striped bass were practically nonexistent. Scooped up in commercial nets and plucked by rod and reel by a growing number of recreational anglers throughout the 1970s, stripers had been fished to the brink of oblivion when a moratorium was enacted in 1985. Remarkably, once left alone to reproduce in the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, as well as the Hudson River, the fish were spawning in record numbers. In 1995, five years after the moratorium was lifted, the species was declared “fully recovered” by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the interstate body tasked with managing them.

The rebound was touted as a success. Rockfish became a symbol of the ASMFC’s fisheries management prowess. But almost as soon as the commission resumed the task of allotting states their portion of the striped bass pie, things started to go downhill until, in 2019, the commission declared striped bass overfished.

Read the full opinion piece at the Chesapeake Bay Journal

Submission Deadline for Proposals to Conduct Components of the At-Sea Monitoring Training Program Extended to May 24, 2021

May 13, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), is extending the submission deadline for proposals to conduct components of the At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) Training Program for the NEFSC. The deadline is extended until May 24, 2021 (previously May 19, 2021). The complete Request for Proposals (RFP) can be found here. For more information, please contact Deke Tompkins at dtompkins@asmfc.org.

MAFMC Webinar Meeting: June 7-10, 2021

May 13, 2021 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s June 2021 Meeting will be held via webinar Monday, June 7 – Thursday, June 10, 2021. The meeting will begin with a closed Executive Committee session on June 7 to discuss advisory panel appointment recommendations. The public portion of the meeting will begin on June 8 at 9:00 a.m. Part of the meeting will be conducted jointly with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Bluefish Management Board and ISFMP Policy Board. Briefing documents and presentations will be posted on the June 2021 Council Meeting Page as they become available.

Agenda: A detailed agenda is available here. Topics to be addressed during the meeting include:

  • 2020 MRIP Estimation Methodology Presentation
  • Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment – Final Action
  • Recreational Reform Initiative Update
  • Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog 2022 Specifications Review
  • Longfin Squid and Butterfish 2022 Specifications Review
  • Illex Squid 2021-2022 Specifications
  • Unmanaged Commercial Landings Report
  • Habitat Update
  • Offshore Wind Updates
  • ASMFC Policy Board Remand of Black Sea Bass Commercial State Allocations – Council Discussion

Public Comments: Written comments may be submitted using the online comment form linked below or via email, mail, or fax (see this page for details). Written comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 to be included in the briefing book. Comments submitted after this date but before 5:00 p.m. on June 3, 2021 will be posted as supplemental materials. Comments submitted after June 3 may only be submitted using the form below.

Webinar: Webinar connection instructions will be posted on the June 2021 Meeting Page at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

Questions? Contact Mary Sabo, msabo@mafmc.org, (302) 518-1143.

Striped Bass Fishery Managers Zero In On Conservation at May Meeting

May 12, 2021 — Atlantic coast rockfish fishery managers are in the midst of shaping their management plan for the Bay’s most popular fish. So all eyes were on the Striped Bass Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) at its May meeting.

The board narrowed the changes that may come in Amendment 7 of its Striped Bass Management Plan down to three critical parts: Management Triggers (when to declare overfishing), Conservation Equivalency (use of alternative fishery restrictions), and Recreational Release Mortality (the fish that die after being caught and released—alarmingly high in recent years).

Notably, the Board voted clearly not to change current conservative levels on stock rebuilding and biological reference points. The Board’s clear intent was to reduce fishing mortality and allow these valuable fish to rebound.

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Presentations and Audio Files from the ASMFC 2021 Spring Meeting Webinar Now Available

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

Presentations and audio files from the Commission’s 2021 Spring Meeting Webinar are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-spring-meeting-webinar under the respective Board/Committee headers.

Past meeting recordings can also be found on the Commission’s YouTube channel athttp://www.youtube.com/user/ASMFCvideos.