Saving Seafood

Cooke-owned Omega Protein calls 10% cut in menhaden fishing quota ‘not unreasonable’

October 22, 2020 — Cooke-owned Omega Protein in Virginia said the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) decision on Tuesday to cut the US Atlantic coast menhaden quota by 10 percent “is not an unreasonable step.”

ASMFC voted 13 to 5 to cut the quota to 194,400 metric tons for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

In response to the reduced catch limit, Omega released a statement saying the company “recognizes the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s decision to reduce the coastwide [harvest] by 10 percent, while not preferred, is not an unreasonable step toward moving to ecological management of this species,” reported the Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

Read the full story at IntraFish

ASMFC Spiny Dogfish Board Sets Quotas for 2021-2023 Fishing Seasons

October 22, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Spiny Dogfish Management Board approved a commercial quota of 29.6 million pounds for the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 fishing years (May 1–April 30). The quotas are consistent with the measures recommended to NOAA Fisheries by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). State-specific allocations are provided in table below.

Although the Board had previously set multi-year specifications for 2019-2021, in December 2019 the Council approved a new Risk Policy with the intent that 2021/2022 specifications would be revised to reflect the new policy. As such, the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommended increasing the acceptable biological catch (ABC) for 2021 from 35.4 million pounds to 38.6 million pounds. Based on this revised ABC recommendation, the Council approved a commercial quota of 29,559,580 pounds, which is an 8% increase compared to the previously set 2021/2022 quota. The Council also voted to extend these same specifications to the 2022 fishing year to align with the timing of the 2022 research track assessment. The Board works cooperatively with the Council in managing the spiny dogfish fishery in order to have consistency in state and federal waters. Neither the Board nor the Council recommended trip limit changes but the Council has plans in 2021 to conduct socioeconomic analyses of potential trip limit changes.

The Commission’s actions are final and apply to state waters (0-3 miles from shore). The Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils will forward their recommendations for federal waters (3 –200 miles from shore) to NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Administrator for final approval. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Read the full release here

ASMFC South Atlantic Board Approves Atlantic Cobia Addendum I

October 22, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s South Atlantic States/Federal Fisheries Management Board approved Addendum I to Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia. The Addendum modifies: (1) the allocation of the resource between the commercial and recreational sectors, (2) the methodology to calculate the commercial trigger for in-season closures; and (3) and commercial and recreational de minimis measures.

The Addendum changes the allocation of the resource between the recreational and commercial fisheries from 92% and 8% respectively to and 96% and 4% respectively. The change was primarily based on new recreational catch estimates that resulted from changes in survey methodology by the Marine Recreational Information Program. The new catch estimates were, on average, about two times higher than previously estimated, impacting the allocation between the two sectors. In considering the new allocation percentages, the Board took into account the increase in the recreational catch and the harvest levels of the commercial fishery in recent years. The new commercial allocation allows the fishery to operate at its current level with some room for landings to increase as the stock range expands further north.

The Addendum also modifies the calculation of the commercial trigger, which determines when an in-season coastwide commercial closure occurs. The approved trigger is set up to provide states with enough time to close the fishery via their administrative processes without exceeding the quota.

Changes to de minimis measures, which are applied to states with relatively small commercial or recreational harvest, include adjusting the commercial allocation set aside and recreational regulations. For de minimis measures, the Addendum establishes a commercial de minimis set aside of 4% of the commercial quota with a maximum cap of 5,000 pounds to account for potential landings in de minimis states not tracked in-season against the quota. States that are de minimis for their recreational fisheries may choose to match the recreational management measures implemented by an adjacent non-de minimis state (or the nearest non-de minimis state if none are adjacent), or limit its recreational fishery to 1 fish per vessel per trip with a minimum size of 33 inches fork length (or an equivalent total length of 37 inches).

States are required to implement the new measures by January 1, 2021. For more information, please contact Savannah Lewis, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at slewis@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment Finds GOM/GBK Stock Not Overfished nor Experiencing Overfishing & SNE Stock Significantly Depleted: Assessment Introduces Regime Shift Methodology to Address Changing Environmental Conditions

October 22, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The 2020 American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment presents contrasting results for the two American lobster stock units, with record high abundance and recruitment in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank stock (GOM/GBK) and record low abundance and recruitment in the Southern New England stock (SNE) in recent years. The GOM/GBK stock is not overfished nor experiencing overfishing. Conversely, the SNE stock is significantly depleted with poor prospects of recovery. Stock status was assessed using the University of Maine Stock Assessment Model for American Lobster (UMM, Chen et al. 2005), a statistical catch-at-length model that tracks the population of lobster by sex, size and season over time.

“On behalf of the American Lobster Board, I want to applaud the members of the Technical Committee and Stock Assessment Subcommittee for their exceptional work on the 2020 Benchmark Stock Assessment Report,” stated Board Chair Dan McKiernan from Massachusetts. “This assessment made a notable advancement in considering the impact of changing environmental conditions on lobster population dynamics.”

Extensive research has highlighted the influence of the environment on American lobster life history and population dynamics. Among the critical environmental variables, temperature stands out as the primary influence. Further, its range is experiencing changing environmental conditions at some of the fastest rates in the world. Therefore, considering these environmental influences is vital when assessing the lobster stocks and was a focal point of this stock assessment. Environmental data time series included water temperatures at several fixed monitoring stations throughout the lobster’s range, average water temperatures over large areas such as those sampled by fishery-independent surveys, oceanographic processes affecting the environment, and other environmental indicators such as lobster prey abundance.

Environmental time series were analyzed for regime shifts, which indicate a significant difference in the lobster’s environment and population dynamics from one time period to another. Regime shifts can change a stock’s productivity, impacting the stock’s level of recruitment and its ability to support different levels of catch. Temperature time series were also analyzed to quantify the effect of temperature on survey catchability of lobster and correct trends in abundance estimated from surveys by accounting for temperature-driven changes in catchability through time.

Read the full release here

CARES Act funding announced for Maryland fishing industry

October 21, 2020 — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced this week that economic relief funds would be made available to the state’s commercial seafood industry through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), for those who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications will be available beginning on November 4th.  The application will be available to eligible members of the seafood industry on the Maryland OneStop website. The deadline to apply is February 28, 2021.

In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Maryland would be receiving about $4 million. Maryland has dedicated $3 million of that for direct payments to commercial, for hire, aquaculture, and seafood processing operations whose 2020 revenue has suffered a loss of greater than 35% due to COVID-19.

Read the full story at NottinghamMD.com

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Sets 2021 Specifications for Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay Origin

October 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the harvest specifications for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Under the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, the Board set a harvest limit of 500,000 Delaware Bay male horseshoe crabs and zero female horseshoe crabs for the 2020 season. Based on the allocation mechanism established in Addendum VII, the following quotas were set for the States of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia, which harvest horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin:

The Board chose a harvest package based on the Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee’s and ARM Subcommittee’s recommendation. The ARM Framework, established through Addendum VII, incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest levels for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. The horseshoe crab abundance estimate was based on data from the Benthic Trawl Survey conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). This survey, which is the primary data source for assessing Delaware Bay horseshoe crab abundance, does not have a consistent funding source. Members of the Delaware and New Jersey U.S. Congressional Delegations, with the support of NOAA Fisheries, have provided annual funding for the survey since 2016.

For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 orcstarks@asmfc.org.

Atlantic coast’s menhaden fishing haul cut by 10% for 2021 and 2022

October 21, 2020 — A new way of thinking about fishing quotas will bring a 10% cut in the coastwide cap for menhaden, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided Tuesday.

The commission’s menhaden board voted to cut the quota for 2021 and 2022 to 194,400 metric tons from the current 216,000, a 10% reduction.

What drives the cut is a new approach to managing fisheries — an ecosystem-based one pioneered for menhaden, the small fish that is harvested for fish oil and bait and is an important source of food for other fish, birds and whales.

The older technique considers how many young fish join the population of a species in a year, how many die from natural causes and how many are caught. The idea with this traditional approach is to calculate how many can be caught without causing a species’ numbers to fall too far.

Read the full story at The Daily Press

ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board Approves TAC for 2021-2022

October 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board (Board) approved a total allowable catch (TAC) of 194,400 metric tons (mt) for the 2021 and 2022 fishing seasons, which represents a 10% reduction from the 2018-2020 TAC level. The 2021-2022 TAC was set based on the ecological reference points (ERPs) approved by the Board in August, and reaffirms the Board’s commitment to manage the fishery in a way that accounts for the species role as a forage fish.

“This TAC represents a measured and deliberate way for this Board to move into the realm of ecosystem-based management,” said Board Chair Spud Woodward of Georgia. “The TAC strikes a balance between stakeholder interests to maintain harvest on menhaden at recent levels, while also allowing the ERP models to do what they are intended to do.”

Based on projections, the TAC is estimated to have a 58.5% and 52.5% probability of exceeding the ERP fishing mortality (F) target in the first and second year, respectively. The TAC will be made available to the states based on the state-by-state allocation established by Amendment 3 (see accompanying table for 2021 and 2022 based on a TAC of 194,400 mt).

In determining which level to set the TAC, the Board also considered recent updates to the fecundity (FEC) reference points, and current stock condition. According to the latest assessment results, the 2017 estimate of fecundity, a measure of reproductive potential, was above both the ERP FEC target and threshold, indicating the stock was not overfished. A stock assessment update is scheduled for 2022 which will inform the TAC for 2023 and beyond.

For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, or Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at mappelman@asmfc.org or tkerns@asmfc.org, respectively.

CARES Act Funding Available for Maryland Fishing Industry

October 20, 2020 — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announces applications will be available Nov. 4 for economic relief funds for the commercial seafood industry through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), for those who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The application will be available to eligible members of the seafood industry on the Maryland OneStop website. The deadline to apply is Feb. 28, 2021.

In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that Maryland would be receiving about $4 million. Maryland has dedicated $3 million of that for direct payments to commercial, for hire, aquaculture, and seafood processing operations whose 2020 revenue has suffered a loss of greater than 35% due to COVID-19. The remaining $1 million will fund seafood marketing and business support for individuals in the seafood industry. Maryland worked with NOAA to develop this spending plan based on the provisions of the CARES Act and federal guidance. Funds will be distributed through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Read the full story at The Bay Net

Menhaden board lowers allowable catch by 10% for Atlantic coast states, Chesapeake Bay’s cap stays the same

October 20, 2020 — The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board voted to lower the total allowable catch for Atlantic menhaden coast-wide by 10% in response to a change in management that considers the role the tiny oily fish plays as food for others.

After a few hours of discussion Tuesday morning, the board voted at its online meeting to lower the allowable catch to 194,400 metric tons for 2021 and 2022. No change was made to the allocation of menhaden that can be caught in the Chesapeake Bay, which is capped at 51,000 metrics tons. Maryland was among the states voting in favor of the change.

The total allowable catch was last changed in 2017, when the board increased it from 200,000 metric tons to 216,000 metric tons.

Earlier this year, the Atlantic Menhaden Management Board, a subset of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, approved the use of a new ecological reference point model to inform management that considers menhaden’s role as food for other species such as rockfish and bluefish. Instead of focusing on menhaden abundance as a single species, the model examines the interactions between the tiny silver fish and other key species in the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, where it plays a vital role in the food chain, eating up plankton and being eaten in turn by larger fish and whales.

Using those new reference points, which assume striped bass are also fished sustainably, managers calculated different catch scenarios for the next two years.

Read the full story at the Capital Gazette