Saving Seafood

Mid-Atlantic Council Approves Squid Amendment

June 12, 2017 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved the Squid Amendment to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan during a meeting last week in Norfolk, Virginia. The amendment includes measures to reduce latent (unused) permits in the longfin squid fishery and modify management of longfin squid during Trimester 2.

After considerable discussion and consideration of public comments, the Council selected preferred alternatives and adopted the amendment for Secretarial review and implementation. Below are summaries of the issues addressed and the Council’s preferred alternatives.

Longfin Squid Moratorium Permit Requalification

In recent years, a relatively small portion of vessels with limited access (“moratorium”) squid permits have accounted for most of the landings. Some fishery participants have expressed concern that activation of latent permits could lead to excessive fishing effort. The amendment considered options for removing latent permits from the directed fishery to limit derby fishing.

Under the alternative selected by the Council, current longfin squid/butterfish limited access moratorium permits would be allowed to retain their permit if they landed at least 10,000 pounds of squid in one year from 1997 to 2013. This would reduce the number of moratorium squid permits by more than 40% but would not affect vessels that have been historically active in the fishery. However, moratorium permit holders that do not requalify to retain the longfin squid moratorium permit would be eligible for a permit that allows a 5,000-pound longfin squid trip limit when the fishery is open. In addition, the Council recommended separating the butterfish part of the longfin squid/butterfish moratorium permit to allow current moratorium permits the opportunity to continue to target and land butterfish.

The Council also approved a one-time “permit swap” opportunity which would allow owners of multiple longfin squid moratorium permits as of May 26, 2017 to swap active requalifying and non-requalifying moratorium permits among their vessels.

Longfin Squid Incidental and Open Access Permits

The Council voted to replace the current open access incidental longfin squid permit with a limited access incidental permit. Qualifying vessels must have landed at least 5,000 pounds of longfin squid in one year during 1997-2013.  Currently about 1,400 vessels possess open access incidental permits, and about 325 are expected to qualify for the limited access incidental permit. The daily trip limit for the incidental permit would remain at 2,500 pounds. In addition, to minimize regulatory discarding of squid bycatch, non-qualifying vessels would still be able to obtain an open access permit that would allow up to 250 pounds of longfin squid per trip.

Trimester 2

The amendment also includes measures to modify management of longfin squid during Trimester 2. Currently, the trip limit in Federal waters after a Trimester closure is 2,500 pounds. Directed fishing after a closure can lead to substantial trimester quota overages, such as in 2016 when a 48% overage occurred. Because fishing during Trimester 2 occurs on the inshore spawning grounds for longfin squid, excessive fishing effort during Trimester 2 may adversely affect the overall productivity of the longfin squid stock by reducing spawning or egg hatching. To avoid future excessive longfin squid catch during Trimester 2, the Council voted to reduce the longfin squid trip limit to 250 pounds per day, a 90% reduction, for all permits once the Trimester 2 quota has been reached. The Council will also continue to work with relevant states to encourage them to match this limit after such a closure.

Illex Squid Moratorium Permit Requalification

Based on recent low landings and low participation in the Illex squid fishery, the Council recommended no changes to the current limited access permit system for this species.

For more information about this amendment, contact Jason Didden (jdidden@mafmc.org, 302-526-5254) or visit http://www.mafmc.org/actions/squid-capacity-amendment.

2016 Study Fleet Solicitation – Due date extended to Aug. 11, 2016

July 26, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

The Northeast Cooperative Research Program is pleased to announce that we have an open solicitation for our Study Fleet program! Quotes are due August 11, 2016.

We are looking for 10-15 boats in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast that fish with commercial trawl or fixed gear for monkfish, groundfish, Atlantic herring, Atlantic mackerel, long-finned squid and other mid-Atlantic commercial species, those with prior experience with electronic reporting software, and vessels interested in assisting with the development of electronic reporting systems for fixed gear deployment to provide long-term tow-by-tow data collection on catch and discards, ocean bottom temperatures, and to test developing real-time data transmission systems.

Vessels will need to supply a suitable laptop computer and dedicated GPS unit.  All software necessary will be provided by the NCRP.

Full details and quote pages are in the attached RFQ, and some tips on the forms and contracting registration system is attached.

Read the RFQ as a PDF

Read the instructions for SF Application as a PDF

NOAA Fisheries Announces Final Measures for 2016-18 Mackerel, Squid, Butterfish Fisheries

April 26, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries announces the 2016-18 management measures for the Atlantic mackerel, squid, and butterfish fisheries.

Atlantic Mackerel Fishery

As of May 26, we are decreasing the Atlantic mackerel commericial quota to 9,177 mt  and the recreational quota to 614 mt because catches have remained low since 2011,and the last stock assessment for mackerel was in 2010. Without a new stock assessment the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee decided to base the 2016-18 Acceptable Biological Catch on 50% of the long-term median catch.

To keep the catch cap on river herring and shad in the mackerel fishery proportional with the quota, we are reducing it from 89 mt to 82 mt.

Squid and Butterfish Management Controls

This action requires longfin squid and butterfish moratorium permit holders to use 3-inch mesh when possessing more than 5,000 lbs, up from 2,500 lbs, and clarifies that 5-inch (square or diamond) or greater strengtheners may be used outside the 3-inch mesh to avoid breaking nets during large hauls. These measures go into effect on May 26.

As of April 26, vessels with a longfin squid and butterfish moratorium permit are no longer required to call into the Pre-Trip Notification System (PTNS).

For more information on these management measures, read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register today and the fishery bulletin pdf posted on our website.

Mid-Atlantic Council Announces Funded Collaborative Research Projects

April 8, 2016 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council announces that four research projects have been selected to receive a total of approximately $610,000 in funding as part of the Council’s 2016-2017 Collaborative Fisheries Research Program. The four projects each address research priorities identified by the Mid-Atlantic Council in a Request for Proposals distributed in December 2015.

“Accurate information is the foundation of effective fisheries management,” said Council Chairman Rick Robins. “These research projects will help fill critical gaps in our understanding of Mid-Atlantic fisheries and ensure their continued sustainability.”

Below is an overview of the selected projects. Click here to view Executive Summaries for these projects.

Changes in Availability of Mid-Atlantic Fish Stocks To Fisheries-Independent Surveys 

Principal Investigators: Janet Nye, Michael Frisk, and Skyler Sagarese.  

This project will investigate how habitat modifies the availability of summer flounder, black sea bass, and spiny dogfish to the NEFSC trawl survey. The focus of this research is on the relationship between the NEFSC trawl survey index and actual abundance of these species.

Collaborative Development Of A Winter Habitat Model For Atlantic Mackerel, “Version 2.0”, For The Identification Of “Cryptic” Habitats And Estimation Of Population Availability To Assessment Surveys And The Fishery

Principal Investigator: Gregory DiDomenico; Co-Principal Investigators: William Bright; Peter Moore, Josh Kohut, Mitchell Roffer, and John Manderson. 

This project will synthesize existing information to develop and evaluate a quantitative model describing dynamic winter habitat distributions for Atlantic Mackerel. The goal of this study is to develop a model that can be used to accurately estimate the availability of the population to fishery independent surveys.

Estimating and Mitigating the Discard Mortality Rate of Black Sea Bass in Offshore Recreational Rod-And-Reel Fisheries 

Principal Investigator: Olaf Jensen; Co-Principal Investigators: Eleanor Bochenek and Jeffrey Kneebone. 

This objective of this project is to estimate the discard mortality rate of black sea bass captured by recreational anglers using rod-and-reel fishing gear in the deepwater offshore fishery during fall/winter in the Mid-Atlantic. In addition, this research will generate “best practice” capture and handling recommendations.

Determining Selectivity and Optimum Mesh Size to Harvest Three Commercially Important Mid-Atlantic Species 

Principal Investigator: Emerson Hasbrouck; Co-Principal Investigator: Jonathan Knight. 

This project will analyze the selectivity of multiple codend mesh sizes relative to summer flounder, black sea bass and scup retention in the commercial bottom trawl fishery in the Mid-Atlantic region.

NOAA Issues Climate Warning for Scallops

February 9, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — “Sea scallops have a high vulnerability ranking,” reads a Feb. 3 announcement from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which operates in Woods Hole under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Negative impacts are estimated for many of the iconic species in the ecosystem including Atlantic sea scallop, Atlantic cod and Atlantic mackerel.”

The NOAA study, formally known as the Northeast Climate Vulnerability Assessment, said Atlantic sea scallops have “limited mobility and high sensitivity to the ocean acidification that will be more pronounced as water temperatures warm.”

Water temperatures in Buzzards Bay have risen 4 degrees over the past two decades, for example, according to a recent study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

Scallops are vital to New Bedford’s fishing industry. NOAA Fisheries announced last October that New Bedford, for the 15th year in a row, was the No. 1 port in the country in terms of dollar value of its catch. Much of that value, which totaled $329 million in 2014, comes from scallops.

The money has big local impacts. Eastern Fisheries captain Christopher Audette, for example, told visitors at an annual buyers’ tour in March 2014 that deck hands on his scallop boat had taken home more than $200,000 in 2013 — and that he had made even more than that.

Harbor Development Commissioner Richard Canastra, who has been instrumental to the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction since 1984, said this week that the scallop industry — and stock — continues to boom in New Bedford.

“The biomass has been increasing over the last 10 years, and there is no sign of it depleting because of the warmer waters,” Canastra said. “They’re talking a few degrees, and that’s not going to make much of a difference in terms of scallop population.”

Chad McGuire, associate professor of environmental policy at UMass Dartmouth, said that while the NOAA findings are not a surprise, they could be another “warning signal” for the industry.

“This study suggests that if you care about one of the largest economic drivers for this region, then you need to care about climate change,” said McGuire, whose work includes fishery management and climate change issues.

“We should be worried that this could greatly affect how many scallops we’re taking in the future,” he added.

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard-Times

GMRI: Out of the Blue

October 9, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute:

Many bountiful and well-managed fish species from the Gulf of Maine are not harvested, primarily due to lack of market demand. Fishermen get paid so little for these products, they can’t afford to pay their expenses to harvest them. For example, the average boat price for cape shark, also known as dogfish, in 2013 was $0.16/lb, while cod garnered $2.10/lb. Meanwhile, chefs who have worked with dogfish compare it to working with the popular mahi mahi.

To give the public an opportunity to try these products, GMRI’s restaurant, institution, and retail partners work together to make them available and promote them. In addition, our Seafood Dining Series provides an opportunity to try these fish at special dinners hosted by our Culinary Partners.

Out of the Blue species include Acadian redfish, Atlantic mackerel, cape shark (dogfish), whiting, and Atlantic pollock. Look for them at your local restaurants and retailers to expand your palate and support the local fishing industry!

Interested in cooking up some Out of the Blue species yourself? Check out these great recipes and cooking tips.

Read the release online

 

NOAA Fisheries Announces Atlantic Mackerel Fishery Consequence Measures for Slippage Events

August 11, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces measures to enhance catch monitoring and address slippage (catch that is discarded before it has been sampled by observers) in the Atlantic mackerel fishery.

The slippage consequence measures for limited access mackerel vessels carrying an observer are:

  • If slippage occurs due to safety, mechanical failure, or excess catch of spiny dogfish, the vessel has to move and remain at least 15 nautical miles from the location of slippage; and
  • If slippage occurs for any other reason, the vessel must terminate its trip immediately and return to port.

We are also requiring that vessel operators report slippage events that occur on observed trips via the vessel monitoring system daily catch reports.

Read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register today, and the permit holder bulletin available on our website.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-9175 or email Jennifer.Goebel@noaa.gov.