Saving Seafood

Regulators Move to Increase At-Sea Monitoring of Groundfish Catch in New England Waters

October 2, 2020 — New England fishing regulators have approved a plan that would significantly increase at-sea monitoring for groundfish trips, as a way to help inform scientists and stocks managers about what’s being caught in area waters.

The plan calls for in-person observers or video monitoring on up to 100 percent of trips made by fishermen who target cod, flounder, haddock, and other groundfish.

For the first four years, nearly all costs are expected to be covered by the federal government and other organizations to avoid financially burdening fishermen. But if the full costs aren’t covered beyond that point, the monitoring level could drop back to the current 40 percent, paid for, at least in part, by fishermen. The new plan calls for reevaluation of costs and other considerations in the fifth year.

The plan was endorsed by the New England Fishery Management Council but still requires additional federal approvals before taking effect.

Read the full story at CAI

NEMFC approves 100 percent observer coverage with federal funding

October 2, 2020 — The Northeast groundfish fleet will move toward 100 percent observer coverage – so long as full government funding if available, the New England Fishery Management Council decided in approving Amendment 23 to its multispecies plan Wednesday.

While most fishermen dispute the need for blanket coverage – whether by at-sea observers or electronic systems – the final amendment offers some temporary respite, in specifying that costs will be 100 percent reimbursed by federal funding for the first four years.

If federal funding is insufficient, industry will pay for a default of 40 percent coverage. In the third year of the program, the council will review results and could reset the requirements for year five.

It’s expected the amendment, if approved by NMFS, could take effect in 2021. The compromise devised by council members came a day after Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker wrote to council chairman John Quinn, urging a solution to monitoring costs.

At around $700 a day, requiring full monitoring on every trip would drive much of the fleet out of business, fishermen warned.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Regional Council Approves Mandatory Monitoring For New England Fishing Boats

October 1, 2020 — A regional fishery council has approved a plan to require human or electronic monitors on all New England fishing boats targeting groundfish such as cod and haddock. The controversial measure seeks funding from Congress to help pay for the monitors.

Conservationists and some fishermen are applauding the New England Fishery Management Council’s decision. They say it would improve depleted fisheries by providing better data on their actual status, while providing fishermen an incentive to more precisely target species that are within set quotas.

“As they get close to their quotas they can adjust their gear and they can fish in different areas, in order to avoid those stocks that they don’t have quota for,” says Geoffrey Smith, marine program director for the Nature Conservancy in Maine.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Council OKs monitors on all fishing trips

October 1, 2020 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted to set a future target of 100% monitoring coverage on sector-base groundfish vessels, but it appears to have found a way to do it without immediately sinking the region’s fleet financially.

The council, deliberating online via webinar on Amendment 23, overwhelmingly approved the motion for its preferred alternative of 100% coverage level for sector vessels in the Northeast Multispecies groundfish fishery.

But the motion, crafted through a morning and afternoon of rulemaking on the fly, included a valuable caveat for fishermen: The region’s commercial groundfish harvesters likely won’t have to pay the full costs for the monitoring for the first four years the amendment is in effect or as long as supporting federal funds last.

According to the approved measure, the commercial fishing industry will receive federal reimbursements, or money from other federal mechanisms, for 100% of their electronic monitoring costs and 100% of their at-sea monitoring costs in the first four fishing years the amendment is in effect.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Baker to fish council: Consider industry’s sustainability

October 1, 2020 — Gov. Charlie Baker is urging the New England Fishery Management Council to develop a program that will take the commercial groundfish industry off the hook for paying for at-sea monitors aboard their vessels.

With the New England Fishery Management Council’s scheduled Wednesday, Sept. 30, to vote on the measure that will set future monitoring levels for groundfish vessels, Baker sent a letter to NEFMC Chairman John Quinn stating his administration’s commitment to the long-term viability of the state’s commercial fishing industry and its coastal fishing communities.

“The decision made by the council stands to have long-term impacts on the fishing industry at a time when it’s essential to protect the commonwealth’s working ports and fishing families,” Baker wrote to Quinn. “I urge the council to devise a program that accounts for the cost of trip monitors and does not place that burden on the industry.”

Baker, unlike a group of about a dozen state legislators, did not call for the council to reject Amendment 23 as currently constituted. But the governor did highlight the importance of building long-term sustainability for an industry that already feels under siege by regulation and pandemic.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NEFMC adopts controversial plan to monitor all trips to sea

September 30, 2020 — After years of concerns about the overfishing of some of New England’s iconic species, the regional body overseeing fishing issues on Wednesday adopted a divisive plan that could require monitors to accompany groundfishermen on all trips to sea.

The plan approved by the New England Fishery Management Council would require that fishermen who target cod, flounder, and other groundfish bring monitors on their trips or install electronic devices to track their catch. The plan aims to ensure that fishermen accurately account for the haul they unload at the dock and are not improperly discarding fish that might exceed their quotas.

But the plan is contingent on Congress covering much of the costs, putting its future in doubt.

At the start of a contentious virtual meeting, John Quinn, the council’s chairman, described the debate over increased monitoring as “the most divisive issue” he has experienced in his five years overseeing the group, noting there have been multiple threats of lawsuits.

Environmental advocates called the plan a step in the right direction, but they worried that it wouldn’t be viable without sufficient government support.

“If federal funding continues, we will finally have accurate and precise baseline information about the catch, discards, and landings in this fishery,” said Gib Brogan, a fisheries policy analyst at Oceana, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group. “This information is the foundation of successful modern fisheries management, and we are optimistic that today’s action will help chart the future success of this fishery.”

One environmental group, The Nature Conservancy, offered to pay as much as $2 million to cover the costs of the entire fleet to equip the boats with electronic monitoring devices, calling such action “essential” to preserving the region’s fisheries.

“The critical discussion of establishing monitoring targets that improve catch accounting while maintaining flexibility and fleet viability has yet to be addressed by the council,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, an advocacy group for groundfishermen in Gloucester. “The can has been kicked down the road.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Fishermen Groups Concerned About At-Sea Monitoring Expansion

September 30, 2020 — Fishing organizations including the Northeast Seafood Coalition are concerned about the potential of universal at-sea monitoring requirements for commercial groundfish vessels the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is currently mulling.

The Coalition, the Associated Fisheries of Maine and other Northeast organized seafood sectors have raised issues about the cost and effectiveness of the monitoring expansion. Groups submitted public comments on the NEFMC’s Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fisheries Management Plan, which deals with changes to the monitoring requirements, the Coalition explained in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood News

NEFMC’s increased monitoring consideration raises concerns among fishermen

September 29, 2020 — The New England Fishery Management Council is considering the adoption of a new rule that would require the expansion of current monitoring mandates.

The new rulemaking, called Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23, has been in process for over two years and is intended to overhaul the way groundfish monitoring takes place. The council had been seeking comments on the new amendment over the summer, and is now considering the implementation of the new rules.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SEAN HORGAN: Fishery in Hail Mary mode

September 28, 2020 — A quick recap: The council has been working on the measure — Amendment 23 — for more than two years. It seems like 50.

The amendment will set future monitoring levels for sector-based groundfish vessels. The council faces four alternatives: Monitors aboard 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of groundfish trips. The council has chosen 100% coverage as its preferred alternative.

That’s not good for the groundfishermen. Once the federal government stops harvesting spare change from between the sofa cushions to keep reimbursing the fleet for at-sea monitoring, the onus for paying falls on the fishermen at a current tune of about $700 per day per vessel.

If 100% monitoring carries the day, it will add an estimated $6.4 million of additional costs across the fishery. The fishermen aren’t even patting their pockets. They are serious when they say it could easily spell the end of the fleet.

So this is a big deal.

Environmental groups have poured in resources and comment in support of the preferred alternative. If they set a betting line on fisheries management, conservationists would probably be heavy favorites.

The industry is in Hail Mary mode. The long pass, not the prayer. Though at this point, it’s a difference without a distinction.

In a letter, the Northeast Seafood Coalition reached out to Gov. Charlie Baker for support and leadership on the issue — Massachusetts stands the most to lose within the fishery — and was rewarded with a palpable silence.

Sixteen members of the Massachusetts Legislature, at the urging of Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and others from fishing communities, signed a letter asking the council to reject Amendment 23 as currently constituted. They cited the measure’s inconsistency with a number of standards within the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and executive orders.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishery Regulators Plan Vote on 100% At-Sea Monitoring

September 28, 2020 — The prospect of a sharp increase in at-sea monitoring requirements for groundfishing vessels is pitting New England’s seafood providers against environmental advocates, and players from the Port of New Bedford are right in the middle of the discussions.

“Amendment 23” to the region’s fisheries management plan will be up for a vote Wednesday by the New England Fishery Management Council. The council will decide whether sector-based groundfish vessels should be monitored at a 25, 50, 75, or 100-percent level. Currently, fewer than 50 percent of all trips are monitored.

The council, known as the NEFMC, will also decide whether human at-sea monitoring, electronic monitoring via cameras, or a combination of the two will be allowed. Under electronic monitoring, video of the fishing operation would be either saved to a hard drive or uploaded to the cloud, then reviewed by regulators.

The council has already stated that a 100-percent coverage level is its “preferred alternative,” and that it wants to allow electronic monitoring in addition to human monitors, but that’s not set in stone.

Read the full story at WBSM