Saving Seafood

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting on May 23

May 9, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Atlantic Herring Section members from the States of Maine and New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet at 10:30 a.m. on May 23, 2017 to discuss ‘days out’ measures for the 2017 Trimester 2 Area 1A fishing season, which occurs from June 1 to September 30.  This meeting will take place at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, 225 Main St. Durham, NH 03824. Parking spaces for meeting participants will be marked with orange cones.

Federally-permitted Herring Category A vessels must declare into the Area 1A fishery prior to the May 23rd Days Out Meeting. Small-mesh bottom trawl vessels with a Federal Herring Category C or D permit must declare into the Area 1A fishery by June 1, 2017.  States will send additional correspondence regarding the notification procedure. 

The 2017 Area 1A allowable catch limit is 31,115 metric tons after being adjusted for a carryover from 2015. The Section set the seasonal split as 72.8% allocated from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% allocated from October 1 – December 31. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per day harvested from Area 1A until June 1, 2017.

 2017 Atlantic Herring Fishing Season Sub-ACLs, NMFS Final Rule: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2016-31392

 Please contact Ashton Harp, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or aharp@asmfc.org for more information.

New rules aim to boost herring supply prized as lobster bait

May 9, 2017 — Interstate fishing authorities took steps Monday to try to keep New England lobster pots full of fresh bait during the peak season.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted many of the same measures that Maine implemented last year to try to “stretch out” the limited quota of inshore Atlantic herring into late summer, when lobster boat captains in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts are clamoring for what many fishermen say is the best, and formerly cheapest, kind of lobster bait.

The commission voted to allow regulators to set weekly herring quotas, to limit fishing to certain days of the week, and to give the three states that regulate the inshore herring fishery in the southern Gulf of Maine the ability to limit or ban the use of so-called “carrier vessels” that transfer herring landed by a licensed boat so it can keep fishing instead of heading back to port to unload its haul.

The measures will create a level playing field for herring fishermen from the three states, give states the flexibility they need to give small fishing boat fleets the opportunity to land herring even in a more restrictive market, and, most importantly, supply the states’ lobster fisheries with much needed bait, said Terry Stockwell of the Maine Department of Marine Fisheries, who proposed the measures.

The three states will meet on May 23 to discuss which herring restrictions they will enact in the inshore summer herring fishery.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

New rules for lobstering in southern New England up for vote

May 8, 2017 — New restrictions on lobster fishing are up for a vote early next week as regulators try to slow the loss of the valuable crustaceans from southern New England waters.

Scientists have said populations of lobsters off of Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts have declined as waters have warmed. A board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to vote on new management measures Monday and Tuesday.

Fishing managers are considering tools like trap reductions, changes to the legal harvesting size of lobsters and seasonal closures to try to preserve the population. Some lobster fishermen have opposed the possibility of new measures, saying such a move would kill off what remains of a once-vibrant fishery.

“Any further reductions in traps would be hard to accommodate, given that there are so few fishermen left in (southern) Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association.

Most U.S. lobster is brought to shore in Maine, on New England’s north end, and Canada’s fishery also contributes a lot of lobster to American markets. Maine has had record high catches in recent years, and the price of lobsters to fishermen and consumers has been high, too. The U.S. lobster fishery was worth more than $620 million at the docks in 2015, a record, and Maine had a record year in 2016.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Concord Monitor

Southern New England Lobstering Changes up for Vote

May 5, 2017 — New restrictions on lobster fishing are up for a vote as regulators try to slow the loss of the valuable crustaceans from southern New England waters.

Scientists say populations of lobsters off of Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts have declined as waters have warmed. A board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to vote on new management measures Monday and Tuesday.

Fishing managers are considering tools like trap reductions, changes to the legal harvesting size of lobsters and seasonal closures to try to preserve the population.

Most U.S. lobster is brought to shore in Maine. That state has had record high catches in recent years. The price of lobsters has been high, too.

Read the full story at New England Cable Network

Elver prices rebounding

May 3, 2017 — With a month still left in the fishing season that ends May 31, the price of elvers (technically, glass eels) is on the rise, but many fishermen have already filled their annual quota and are dumping juvenile eels back into the water.

According to Ellsworth elver buyer Bill Sheldon, there are still plenty of elvers in the water, but that’s not doing the fishermen any good. Some harvesters with just 1 or 2 pounds of quota remaining have had to toss 15 to 20 pounds of elvers overboard to avoid overfishing their allocations.

“It’s a shame when you consider the economics of Hancock and Washington counties,” Sheldon said on Monday.

Maine elver harvesters are limited to a total annual landings quota of 9,616 pounds set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. According to preliminary figures released by the Department of Marine Resources, as of 6 p.m. on Sunday, dealers had reported buying just under 7,218.4 pounds from licensed harvesters, approximately 75 percent of the annual limit. With 31 days still to go in the season, only 2,397.6 pounds of quota remained available to harvest.

On Monday, Sheldon said that after falling to $1,150 per pound, the going price for elvers was $1,300 and going up.

The price “seems to have bottomed out,” Sheldon said. “My expectation is that it will increase slowly to the end of the season.”

According to DMR, the average price harvesters have received for elvers so far this season is $1,311. A few years ago, the price reached $2,600 per pound.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

ASMFC 2017 Spring Meeting Supplemental Materials Now Available

May 3, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2017 Spring Meeting are available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2017-spring-meeting for the following Boards/Sections (click on “Supplemental” following each relevant committee header to access the information). For ease of access, supplemental materials for all Boards/Section, with the exception of the South Atlantic Board, have been combined into one PDF.

Atlantic Herring Section – Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; FMP Review; Correspondence Regarding VMS; NEFMNC Comment on Draft Amendment 1; Spawning Closure Protocol; Public Comment

 Tautog Management Board – Summary of Management Options; Draft Amendment 1; MA/RI Proposed Regional Options; Public Comment

 Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board –  Draft Addendum V and Technical Comments on Proposed Options

 Atlantic Menhaden Management Board –  Update on Draft Amendment 3 Development; Allocation Work Group Recommendations on Management Alternatives to include in Draft Amendment 3; Draft Amendment 3; NY menhaden landings Recalibration; Lenfest Correspondence; Public Comment

 Executive Committee – Memo on Advisory Panel Members Serving as Board Proxies and Chair Term Limits

 Coastal Sharks Management Board – NOAA Fisheries HMS Presentation on Amendment 5b

 Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board and MAFMC – Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; Correspondence from CT Charter and Party Boat Association & RI Party and Charter Board Association; Summer Flounder Recreational Management White paper; Technical Committee Report on Black Sea Bass Recreational Data; Public Comment

 ISFMP Policy Board – Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview

 Business Session – Revised Agenda

 South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board – Atlantic Croaker Benchmark Stock Assessment & Peer Review Reports and Spot Benchmark Stock Assessment & Peer Review Reports

March/April 2017 Issue of ASMFC Fisheries Focus Now Available

May 2, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has released the 14th report in its Habitat Management Series entitled, Atlantic Sciaenid Habitats: A Review of Utilization, Threats and Recommendations for Conservation, Management and Research. Prepared by ASMFC staff, sciaenid experts, and a subset of the Commission’s Habitat Committee, the report is the most comprehensive compilation of habitat information to date on Commission-managed and other common sciaenid species found throughout the Western Atlantic. These species include Atlantic croaker, black drum, red drum, spot, spotted seatrout, weakfish, northern kingfish, southern kingfish and Gulf kingfish. The report provides a habitat description for all stages of each species’ life cycle, their associated Essential Fish Habitats and Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (when applicable), threats and uncertainties to their habitats, and recommendations for habitat management and research. It was developed to serve as a resource for fisheries managers to use when amending existing fishery management plans.

Sciaenids are found throughout the Western Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Mexico, in shallow coastal waters and larger bays and estuaries, including their tributaries. They utilize a variety of habitats throughout their life stages, including estuaries, salt marshes, freshwater marshes, oyster reefs, sea grasses and mud banks/shores. Because of the way different species of sciaenids use various types of habitats throughout their life, several different habitats are key for maintaining healthy populations.

Read the full release here

BEN LANDRY: Assertions about menhaden population were a bit fishy

May 1, 2017 — In his recent Bay Journal op-ed, Don’t let menhaden become a case of could have, should have, would have, March 2017, Bill Bartlett claims that menhaden are both scarce and unregulated in the Chesapeake Bay.

Neither assertion is true according to the latest and best science on menhaden. This data instead indicate that this species is being managed sustainably and responsibly.

The late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously stated that everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Because a column appears in the op-ed section does not excuse it from journalistic obligations of fact-checking and accuracy. Let’s look at the facts along with supporting citations.

Bartlett believes “the [Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission] lets people have their say about menhaden and then does nothing or very little” to properly manage the species. This could not be further from the case – the ASMFC bases its very precautionary management decisions on the most up-to-date scientific standards. The evidence points to that management being quite conservative: According to the most recent stock assessment report on Atlantic menhaden, menhaden are not overfished, nor are they experiencing overfishing. The commission deemed the species to be so healthy that the quota was actually increased 10 percent. Analysis from ASMFC experts indicated that the quota could have been increased by as much as 40 percent without the risk of overfishing the stock.

Read the full opinion piece at the Bay Journal

ASMFC 2017 Spring Meeting Final Agenda and Meeting

April 26, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The final agenda and meeting materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2017 Spring Meeting can be obtained at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2017-spring-meeting; click on the relevant Board/Committee name to access the documents for that Board/Committee. Please note there are two links for the American Lobster Board meeting – the first link is for the main materials and the second link is to the NEFMC’s Deep-Sea Coral Amendment. For ease of access, all Board/Section meeting documents, with the exception of the American Lobster Board materials, have been combined into one document – Main Meeting Materials. 

The agenda is subject to change. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of meetings. Interested parties should anticipate meetings starting earlier or later than indicated herein.

Board/Section meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning May 8th at 1:00 p.m.  and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 3:00 p.m.) on Thursday May 11th. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board/section deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast, the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible. Please go tohttps://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/936308200287732994 to register.

As a reminder, the guidelines for submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action) are as follows: 

1.   Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of a meeting week will be included with the main meeting materials.

2.   Comments received by 5:00 PM on the Tuesday immediately preceding the scheduled ASMFC Meeting (in this case, the Tuesday deadline will be May 2, 2017) will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting and a limited number of copies will be provided at the meeting.

3.   Following the Tuesday, May 2, 2017 5:00 PM deadline, the commenter will be responsible for distributing the information to the management board prior to the board meeting or providing enough copies for the management board consideration at the meeting (a minimum of 50 copies).

The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.  As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail, fax, and email.

No shrimp today: Maine’s waters are warming and it’s costing fishermen money

April 20, 2017 — David Goethel wishes he could retire.

At 63, he’s been fishing off the Gulf of Maine for over 34 years. Shrimp used to be plentiful there. Back in 2000, Goethel remembers seeing 100 commercial boats out in the harbor. Now, he’s just one of a handful of local fisherman struggling to make a living.

“There was life on the docks, there were people working,” lifelong fisherman Arnold Gamage, 64, agrees. “Now, it looks like a ghost town.”

Maine’s fishing industry has been declining for years due to factors like overfishing and increased regulation, but there’s another culprit eating away at profits: Maine’s ocean waters are warming — and it’s killing northern shrimp.

Goethel, Gamage and other fishermen used to look forward to shrimping as a way to augment their income in the cold New England winters.

“Now, I see a lot of those same people, they’ve got 4-wheel trucks and they’re trying to plow snow to take in some kind of income,” Goethel says.

Regulators at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission banned commercial shrimping in 2014. The goal was to give northern shrimp a chance to repopulate. While the ban has helped, regulators are still worried about the species’ survival.

Read the full story at WGNO