Saving Seafood

Groundfish Monitoring Scoping Hearings

February 21, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has scheduled a series of public scoping hearings from Maine to Connecticut to solicit ideas for potentially changing the region’s groundfish monitoring and reporting system. The purpose of this initiative is to improve reliability and accountability of the monitoring program since successful management of the fishery depends on accurate and timely catch reporting.

The changes are being considered under Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. The Council is encouraging fishermen and other stakeholders to participate in this very early stage of the amendment development process.

“The Council, fishermen, and the public recognize the groundfish monitoring program needs improvement,” said Council Executive Director Tom Nies. “This is the first and best opportunity for people to suggest ways to create a program that will give the accurate, reliable information needed to manage this fishery.”

At present, two types of at-sea observers are used in the groundfish fishery: (1)Federally funded Northeast Fishery Observer Program (NEFOP) observers who follow the Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology (SBRM) and implement federal programs; and (2) At-sea monitors who are responsible for groundfish sector monitoring. As of May 1, at-sea monitors will be fully funded by industry.

Amendment 23 will not impact NEFOP or SBRM coverage. However, the amendment could modify or even remove the at-sea monitoring program if an alternative holistic monitoring and reporting program is developed and implemented for the groundfish fishery.

As part of Amendment 23, the Council also may consider changes to the way landings information is provided by both dealers and vessel operators and how it is assigned to stock areas.

Read the full release here

Phil Thompson: Changing our U.S. fish trade is not just for the halibut

February 15, 2017 — In the past five years I have monitored hundreds of halibut offloads from small fishing vessels in Nova Scotia, from Eastern Passage to Marie Joseph.

It’s a rare privilege to be present first thing in the morning while many generations of Maritimers work together with small cranes and strong hands to make a hard living from this dangerous ocean.

To put this fishery in perspective, it was halibut the five young men on the Miss Ally were seeking when they lost their lives in a rogue wave while trying to get home.

I was at the dock in Seaforth that terrible day in February 2013, and the skipper landing halibut had just returned with his catch. He was pale from the storm he had just survived. It was dangerous even at the dock.

We had been listening to the Coast Guard radio communications on his radio regarding the lost crew. We were both devastated. It was the saddest and most poignant offload I have ever monitored.

Read the full opinion piece at The Chronicle Herald

Lawsuit over fishing monitors to reach Court of Appeals soon

February 11, 2017 — A New England fishermen’s group suing the federal government over the cost of at-sea monitoring is scheduled to present oral arguments before the federal Court of Appeals in March.

The monitors are workers who collect data that help the government craft fishing regulations. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors to fishermen last year.

A group led by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel sued the government over the rule change. The fishermen lost in federal district court and appealed. Attorneys say the arguments are set to take place March 7.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

Whale of an Idea: Satellites Help Monitor Migrating Humpbacks

February 7, 2017 — First drones, and now satellites are allowing scientists to spy on whales — for research, that is.

Though they are massive animals, whale populations are difficult to monitor, according to researchers. Drones have been used to capture footage of whales, and now scientists are turning to even higher-flying help. Researchers in Australia are using satellite imagery to track local humpback whale populations, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC).

Humpback whales were considered an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. However, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service lifted the whales’ endangered status last year as a result of successful conservation efforts. But despite this success, the migratory whales are difficult to track, and many population estimates are largely speculative, according to Curt Jenner, managing director of the Centre for Whale Research in Western Australia. [In Photos: Tracking Humpback Whales in the South Pacific Ocean]

Read the full story at LiveScience.com

How Technology is Helping Fishermen

February 3, 2017 — Greetings from New Orleans, where I’m excited to bring you some great news about the recreational fishery! After years of careful analysis and deliberation, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council embraced change and voted unanimously to bring the charter for-hire fishery—which is made up of vessels operated by professional fishermen who take paying customers out fishing—into the Digital Age.

Yesterday’s decision directs the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop an electronic logbook reporting system for the charter boat fleet in the Gulf. Electronic logbooks are devices—some no bigger than a smartphone—that charter captains use to record their day’s catch and send it directly to managers.

As a result, accurate tracking and monitoring of fish caught by charter boats will be captured in a fast and reliable way—improving the management of our nation’s fisheries.

Recreational fishing is a favorite past time for millions of people (myself included) and helps supports thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to coastal economies. Because of its importance, it is critical we make sure the resource is sustainable so our children and grandchildren have the same opportunity we have to enjoy it.

Read the full story at the Ocean Conservancy. 

U.S. seafood group bristles at comments by Canada’s fisheries minister

February 3, 2017 — An American seafood industry association is disputing statements by Canada’s fisheries minister that Canadian producers need to “raise their game” in order to meet new traceability rules for seafood imported into the U.S.

The Washington-based National Fisheries Institute, which opposes the new rules, says Canada has nothing to do with the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) catches the new Seafood Import Monitoring Program was brought in to stop.

​”Canada is actually a leader in the fight against IUU and is globally known for its expertise in digital forensics, used in major international investigations of IUU,” the institute’s vice-president communications, Gavin Gibbons, said in an email statement to CBC News.

Read the full story at CBC News

‘Chevron Deference,’ Key Issue in Fisheries Management, Questioned by Supreme Court Nominee

February 2, 2017 (SAVING SEAFOOD) — On January 31, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. If confirmed, the Court may potentially reexamine the legal principle of Chevron deference, a principle that has heavily impacted fisheries management.

Chevron deference is a legal principle established in 1984, in the Supreme Court case of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. It states that in cases when the meaning of federal laws is unclear, courts should prioritize the interpretations of the regulatory agencies, such as NOAA. Practically, this has the effect of bolstering the influence of the federal bureaucracy at the expense of judicial review. In the case of fishery management, this has resulted in several instances where courts have upheld agency decisions whose legality has been disputed by the fishing community.

Most notably, in Lovgren v. Locke the plaintiffs (including fishermen and several municipalities in New England) challenged the establishment of catch shares management in New England in 2010 as being in violation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act. The First Circuit Court of Appeals relied on Chevron in ruling in favor of the Commerce Department. This principle also was cited last year by District Court for the District of New Hampshire as a reason why the lawsuit against NOAA’s at-sea monitoring industry funding requirements failed.

While the Supreme Court – including Justice Scalia – has previously applied Chevron deference on several occasions, Judge Gorsuch has expressed trepidation about its merits. In his concurring opinion for Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, Gorsuch wrote:

“What would happen in a world without Chevron? […] Surely Congress could and would continue to pass statutes for executive agencies to enforce. And just as surely agencies could and would continue to offer guidance on how they intend to enforce those statutes. The only difference would be that courts would then fulfill their duty to exercise their independent judgment about what the law is.”

While Judge Gorsuch has only been nominated recently, should he ascend to the High Court, look for a reexamination of the principle of Chevron deference in the coming years.

Effort continues to replace humans with cameras on fishing boats

January 9, 2017 — Several years into the controversial effort to bolster Alaska’s fisheries observer program, a top federal fisheries official defended the work at a Seattle gathering of fishermen.

Eileen Sobeck, the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, took the stage this past Nov. 18 to talk to fishermen gathered for the annual Fish Expo event to recap the program.

Observers are the eyes and ears on boats, collecting a range of data, she explained.

“We have been monitoring fisheries for decades, and we do it in a lot of different ways,” Sobeck said.

But the details of the program have been under fire over the past few years. Federal efforts to put a human on smaller boats was met with concerns about safety and efficiency, and fishermen’s requests to use cameras have had logistical difficulties.

Over the past few years, the effort to use cameras has increased nationwide, and the National Marine Fisheries Service has been tasked with sorting out how to make that work, both logistically and cost-wise.

Over 10 years, the National Marine Fisheries Service has helped fund more than 30 electronic monitoring, or EM, pilot programs. Expenses include the cost of cameras, the cost to install them, and the cost of going through the immense amount of data they can collect.

“We have, collectively, an interest in being as cost-effective as we can possibly be,” Sobeck said.

That effort has translated into regional electronic monitoring plans that were finished more than a year ago, and are now being implemented with plans for regular reviews, said George LaPointe, one of the point people on the project.

Although monitoring in some fisheries has developed successfully, like in the groundfish fisheries, LaPointe said, the agency is still working toward certain implementation, such as in Alaska’s small boat fixed gear and pot fisheries, where the target date is 2018.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

East Coast fishermen file appeal over cost of government-required ‘at-sea monitors’

December 12th, 2016 — David Goethel built his life off the profits of cod, trolling the waters of New England for 30 years netting the region’s once-abundant signature fish.

“My slice of the American Dream was paid for from fishing,” Goethel said from behind the wheel of his 44-foot fishing trawler on a windy Friday afternoon in December. “Cape Cod house, two cars, four college educations – it all came out of the fish hole in this boat.”

But a controversial federal mandate is threatening to put him out of business, he claims.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, requires groundfishermen — those who catch cod, haddock and other common bottom-dwelling species — to carry on board “at-sea monitors.” The observers, hired by three for-profit companies, are third-party workers whose task it is to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations and ensure annual quotas are not exceeded.

The dispute lies in the cost of the monitors and who should pay for them: Fishermen are billed on average $700 a day when a regulator is present.

NOAA, meanwhile, says monitors were placed on fishing boats like Goethel’s only 14 percent of the time in 2016 — and claims the fishing industry supported this system of regulation in 2010 when a vote went before the New England Fishery Management Council, an advisory board to NOAA that sets the rules.

Read the full story at Fox News 

Electronic Log Book Project at 88% of Goal; only 23 Vessel Spots Remain for Charter Boat Improvement Program

November 3, 2016 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:

A $1.7 million Charter Boat data collection initiative led by the Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) and technology partner CLS America, Inc. is so attractive that 230 Charter boat Captains are signed on and only 23 spots remain. The program enables Captains with newly installed satellite technology that wirelessly links to mobile tablets onboard to create a real time database with vessel and catch data.

Bob Gill, an effective mediator between federal fishery managers and irritated fishermen and industry during his years on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, serves as the senior program director for GSI. He calls the first year participation rate “exceptional” and says it shows Captains in the Gulf of Mexico are willing to co-engineer a better fishery when given a clear opportunity to do so.

We caught up with Mr. Gill, a Gulf Seafood Institute board member, about the popular pilot program he’s managing. Here are excerpts from the conversation about how it all started, where it’s headed, and how to secure one of the remaining 23 slots. You can READ THE INTERVIEW HERE.