Saving Seafood

Lobster fishing to be restricted in bid to save population

PORTLAND, Maine — May 3, 2016 — Southern New England’s fading lobster fishery will be the subject of a battery of new regulations to try to save the crustacean’s population locally.

The number of adult lobsters in New England south of Cape Cod was estimated in 2013 to be about 10 million, which is one-fifth the total from the late 1990s. Scientists issued a report last year that said the historic and economically important species is shifting northward in large part due to the warming of the ocean.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s lobster management board voted on Monday to use new measures to address the lobster decline, which has dramatically reduced lobster catches off Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The new regulations could include a combination of things like closed seasons, closed fishing areas, trapping cutbacks and stricter standards about the minimum and maximum size of harvestable lobsters.

“We’ve clearly got an overfished stock. We’ve got multiple problems that we actually need to fix,” said David Borden, chair of the lobster board. “The climate’s changing. When you do this, there is a cost to the industry.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBS Boston

Regulators Consider How To Save Southern New England Lobster

May 2, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Interstate fishing regulators will consider authorizing new tools to address southern New England’s declining lobster population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board will consider the status of the fishery on Monday. The board will discuss a potential motion to create new management measures that address the lobsters’ decline.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBS Boston

Atlantic Herring Landing Days for Area 1A’s Trimester 2 and Next “Days Out” Meeting Notice

April 28, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set the “days out” effort control measures for the 2016 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) as follows:

·         June 1 – 30: Vessels may land herring three (3) consecutive days a week.All other days are designated as “days out” of the fishery (e.g., vessels may not land herring).

·         July 1 – 14: Vessels may land herring four (4) consecutive days a week. All other days are designated as “days out” of the fishery.

·         July 15 – September 30: Vessels may land herring five (5) consecutive days a week until further notice. All other days are designated as “days out” of the fishery.

Landing days in New Hampshire and Massachusetts begin on Monday of each week at 12:01 a.m. Landings days in Maine begin on Sunday of each week at 6:00 p.m.

The initial Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (ACL) is 30,397 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for a carryover from 2014. The Area 1A sub-ACL will be adjusted after the final rule for the 2016-2018 herring specifications is released. The final 2016 Area 1A sub-ACL will include the following reductions: 8% bycatch, 3% research set-aside and 295 mt fixed gear set-aside. The Section allocated 72.8% of the sub-ACL to Trimester 2.

By starting with three landings days per week and then adjusting to four and then five days during Trimester 2, the allocation is projected to extend through the end of the trimester. Landings will be monitored closely and the directed fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when the trimester’s allocation is projected to be reached. The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort and adjust landing days as necessary on the following day:

·         Monday, July 11 at 10:00 AM

To join the call, please dial 888.394.8197 and enter passcode 499811 as prompted.

Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until June 1, 2016.  Please contact Ashton Harp at 703.842.0740 for more information.

MAINE: Big tides, mild nights propel elver harvest

April 21, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — With a magnetic swipe card system now in place, the Department of Marine Resources is able to track elver landings — or at least sales by harvesters to dealers — more or less as they occur in real time.

On Friday, DMR released totals, current through 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, for all elver purchases reported by licensed dealers from DMR and tribally-licensed harvesters.

As of the cutoff time, fishermen had landed a total of 2,932.39 pounds of elvers since the season began on March 22. That represents just over 30 percent of the 9,688-pound annual quota for all harvesters set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

In the four days since the previous report, harvesters sold some 738 pounds of elvers to Maine dealers. Of that, harvesters licensed by DMR rather than by one of the state’s four recognized tribes landed 426.34 pounds. As of Tuesday morning, dealers were paying harvesters about $1,450 per pound for live elvers.

See the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Regulations call for fewer, bigger black bass on hook

April 12, 2016 — While the Massachusetts regulations for recreational fluke and scup remain unchanged for the upcoming 2016 fishing season, recreational anglers will have to adhere to smaller bag limits and minimum possession guidelines for black sea bass.

Massachusetts, which is part of a multi-state management plan for black sea bass administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, must join Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey in the northern region in reducing its black sea bass harvest by 23 percent to adhere to the new management plan restrictions.

In Massachusetts, the 2016 black sea bass season will run May 21 to Aug. 31 and recreational fishermen will be limited to keeping five fish per day, with the minimum catch size set at 15 inches.

Those parameters are different from 2015, when the season ran May 23 to Aug. 27 and anglers were allowed to keep eight black sea bass per day as long as they met or exceeded the minimum possession size of 14 inches.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NMFS Partially Approves Herring Framework Adjustment 4: Empty Fish Hold Provision Not Adopted

April 6, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) partially approved Framework Adjustment 4 to the Federal Herring Fishery Management Plan—the final rule published today, April 4th. The empty fish hold provision, which was recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council and provisionally adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in Amendment 3 to the Interstate FMP, was not approved. The justification for not approving this provision is provided in the following excerpts from the final rule. The final rule can be found at: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-07583.

NMFS could not approve the empty fish hold provision because “…there is insufficient support in the record to conclude that herring vessels are harvesting excess fish and discarding unsold fish at sea. The costs associated with a herring trip, including fuel, crew wages, and insurance, are substantial, so it is unlikely that vessel operators are making herring trips to harvest fish that will ultimately be discarded.”

In addition, NMFS determined “Framework 4’s proposed waiver provides no way of verifying the amount of fish reported relative to the amount of fish left in the hold. Therefore, NMFS does not believe that this measure contains a viable mechanism to verify whether harvested fish that are left in the hold were reported by the vessel.”

Ultimately, “Because the measure lacks a mechanism to verify or correct the amount of fish reported on the VTR, the measure is unlikely to improve catch monitoring in the herring fishery. In contrast, the compliance and enforcement costs associated with the measure may be high.”

As stated in Amendment 3, implementation of the empty fish hold provision is contingent on federal adoption. Since NMFS did not approve this provision, ASMFC will maintain status quo measures on this issue. Under status quo there is no requirement to empty vessel holds of fish prior to a fishing trip departure. Amendment 3 was updated to reflect this information and can be obtained at: http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file//57042f26Amendment3_RevisedApril2016.pdf.

Aggregated Large Coastal Shark and Hammerhead Shark Management Groups Reduced to 3 Sharks per Trip

March 30, 2016 — The following was released by the National Marine Fisheries Service:

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is reducing the retention limit for the commercial aggregated large coastal shark (LCS) and hammerhead shark management groups for directed shark limited access permit holders in the Atlantic region from 36 to 3 large coastal sharks (other than sandbar sharks) per vessel per trip as of 11:30 p.m. on April 2, 2016. As agreed upon by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Coastal Sharks Management Board (in December 2015), the Commission will follow NMFS for in-season changes to the retention limit.

NMFS takes this action because 24% or 6.6 mt dressed weight (dw) of the available quota for the hammerhead shark fishery has been harvested. If the average catch rate continues, it is projected that landings would reach 80% of the quota by mid-May. The LCS management group is affected because the quotas for the LCS and hammerhead shark management groups are linked.

The retention limit for the LCS and hammerhead shark management groups will remain at 3 large coastal sharks (other than sandbar sharks) per vessel per trip in the Atlantic region (federal and state waters) through the remainder of the 2016 fishing season or until NMFS announces via the Federal Register that another adjustment to the retention limit or a fishery closure is warranted. As previously stated, NMFS intends to increase the commercial retention limit around July 15, 2016, as this was the date used for recent prior season opening dates. However, any future change in the retention limit will not be made unless deemed appropriate.

Read the ASFMC release

ASMFC Releases 2015 Annual Report

March 2, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is pleased to provide you with our 2015 Annual Report, http://www.asmfc.org/files/pub/ASMFC_AnnualReport_2015.pdf. It describes the Commission’s activities and progress in carrying out our public trust responsibilities for the valuable marine fisheries under Commission stewardship. Included in this report are figures displaying the historical trends in stock status or landings for each species managed by the Commission.  Also provided is a summary of the significant management actions Commissioners took in 2015 to maintain and restore the abundance of Commission managed species. 

This report reflects our Commissioners’ commitment to accountability and transparency in all they do to manage and rebuild stocks under their care. We hope that you will find the information contained within this report useful and interesting. 

ASMFC 2016 Winter Meeting Final Agenda and Meeting Materials Now Available

January 21, 2016 — 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 2016 Winter Meeting can be obtained at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2016-winter-meeting; click on the relevant Board/Committee name to access the documents for that Board/Committee.  For ease of access, all Board and Section materials have been combined into one PDF. 

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 at 9:00 a.m. on February 2nd and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 3:45 p.m.) on February 4th. 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. To register for the webinar, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/86228471613051649.

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 January 26, 2016) 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, January 26, 2016 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.

Fate of New England shrimp fishery will be decided soon

November 23, 2015 — ELLSWORTH — Fishermen wondering whether there will be a shrimp season this winter won’t have long to wait for an answer.

On Monday, Dec. 7, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section and Advisory Panel will meet in Portsmouth, N.H., to decide whether boats from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts will be allowed to this winter. Last year, the regulators imposed a moratorium on fishing because scientists said the shrimp stock was on the verge of collapse.

Next month, the scientific advisory panel will meet to review the 2015 Stock Status Report and develop recommendations for the 2016 fishing season. The section will meet later in the day to set specifications for the 2016 fishing season, if there is to be one, after reviewing the 2015 Stock Status Report and the advisory panel recommendations.

Information from the ASMFC suggests that another moratorium is likely. According to surveys in the Gulf of Maine, between 2012 and 2014 the abundance of shrimp and the size of the shrimp biomass were at their lowest levels in the 31-year history of the survey. The 2014 fishable biomass was the lowest on record.”

The presence of juvenile shrimp in the survey was discouraging as well. Shrimp hatched during 2013 were not expected to reach fishable size until 2017 and the level of recruitment in 2014 was the ninth lowest since the surveys began.

In a document prepared to introduce the public to proposed changes to the Northern Shrimp Fishery Plan (which have been postponed), the ASMFC said that scientists believed that “the northern shrimp stock has collapsed with little prospect of recovery in the near future.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American