Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Archives - Page 77 of 126

ASMFC South Atlantic Board Releases Atlantic Cobia Draft Amendment 1 Public Information Document for Public Comment

August 13, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board approved for public comment the Public Information Document (PID) for Draft Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia (Atlantic cobia). As the first step in the amendment process, the document seeks input from stakeholders and those interested in Atlantic cobia about changes observed in the fishery/resource and potential management measures.

Draft Amendment 1 was initiated in anticipation of removal of Atlantic cobia from the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils’ (SAFMC and GMFMC, respectively) Fishery Management Plan for Coastal Migratory Pelagic Resources (CMP FMP). Both Councils approved removal of Atlantic cobia from the CMP FMP earlier this year, and this action is now pending review by the Secretary of Commerce. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, there would no longer be a federal management plan for Atlantic cobia, and the Commission would become the sole management body for this stock.

The PID outlines three main issues: recommended management for federal waters, a harvest specification process, and biological monitoring requirements. If Atlantic cobia is removed from the CMP FMP, the Commission will need to develop management measures to be recommended for implementation by NOAA Fisheries in federal waters, since a portion of the fishery occurs offshore. Additionally, several management measures within the Interstate FMP are dependent upon the CMP FMP, meaning that these measures will need to be redefined to continue management in state waters.

A harvest specification process would allow the Board to periodically (e.g. annually or biennially) set certain management measures through a Board vote without having to gather input via public hearings as done through an addendum or amendment process. This would expedite the Board’s decision-making process for measures where states commonly gather public input through their administrative process. The Board and members of the public have expressed a desire to change some of the current FMP management measures, and this could be accomplished through a harvest specification process.

Finally, biological monitoring programs have been recommended for Board consideration by the Cobia Plan Development Team and Technical Committee. Information obtained by such programs, like ages or lengths, can provide important information beyond harvest estimates to managers as they make decisions.

Stakeholders are encouraged to provide input on the PID either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The PID can be obtained at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/CobiaDraftAmd1PID_PublicComment.pdf or via the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5 PM (EST) on October 4, 2018 and should be forwarded to Dr. Michael Schmidtke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Cobia PID). If your organization is planning to release an action alert related to the Amendment 1 PID, please contact Michael Schmidtke at mschmidtke@asmfc.org prior to its release.

It is anticipated the states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and potentially Maryland or Delaware will be conducting public hearings in September 2018. A subsequent press release will provide the details of those hearings. The Management Board will meet at the Commission’s 2018 Annual Meeting in October to review and consider public comment and provide direction to staff for items to be included in Draft Amendment 1.

Glass ceiling: Regulators reject Maine elver quota increase

August 10, 2018 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission rejected an effort this week to expand Maine’s lucrative elver, or glass eel, by increasing the annual quota by 20 percent.

Maine harvesters are allowed to harvest 9,688 pounds of elvers annually under current regulations. The state hoped to increase the harvest to 11,749 pounds.

Ultimately, the commission voted 13-5 against a quota increase, with opponents of the effort citing the “depleted” state of the stock as reason for rejecting the proposal.

Prices for elvers have been steadily increasing with market demand from Asia, where the juvenile eels are raised to adult size in controlled farms. Prices have averaged $2,400 per pound in recent seasons. The 2017 season, which ran from March 22 to May 24, earned more than $21 million for Maine harvesters.

The lucrative fishery known for high catches and rising prices is becoming a bigger target for illegal harvests and trafficking.

In May, a U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine, handed down the final sentencing in the drawn out trials of 21 fishermen involved in an elver poaching ring along the East Coast.

William “Bill” Sheldon, 71, who has been called “grandfather of eel fishing” and “Maine’s elver kingpin,” was sentenced to six months in prison and three years of supervised release. The entire ring made an estimated $5 million selling elvers to Asia on the black market after netting their catch along the Atlantic seaboard in states where the fishery is banned. The ring funneled poached elvers through Maine and South Carolina, which have commercial eel fisheries.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAFMC and ASMFC to Hold Public Hearings for Summer Flounder Commercial Issues Amendment

August 10, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission & Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) are soliciting public input on a draft amendment to address several potential changes to the management of the commercial summer flounder fishery, as well as modifications to the fishery management plan (FMP) goals and objectives for summer flounder. Ten public hearings will be held between September 10 and September 27. Written comments will be accepted through October 12, 2018.

The specific issues under consideration in this amendment include:

Requalifying criteria for federal commercial moratorium permits to address latent effort in the fishery: The amendment includes options to reduce the number of eligible commercial federal moratorium permits by implementing requalifying criteria for existing permits.
Modifying commercial quota allocation: The amendment proposes several options for revising the current commercial allocation to the states, which has been in place since 1993 and is based on average landings from 1980-1989.
Adding commercial landings flexibility as a framework issue in the Council’s FMP: This action does not consider implementing landings flexibility policies at this time but considers allowing the Council to implement landings flexibility through a future framework action instead of an amendment. The Commission’s adaptive management process already allows for landings flexibility.
Revising the FMP objectives for summer flounder: This amendment proposes revisions to the current FMP objectives for summer flounder management to provide more meaningful and up-to-date guidance to managers.

Learn More

Additional information about the amendment and the management alternatives being considered can be found on the Council’s website at www.mafmc.org/actions/summer-flounder-amendment and on the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input. This information includes three documents: (1) the Public Hearing Document, which includes all proposed management changes and was developed to solicit public comment; (2) the Commission’s Draft Amendment; and (3) the Council’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Both the Commission’s Draft Amendment and the Council’s DEIS are required under their respective regulatory processes.

Contacts

Kiley Dancy, Fishery Management Specialist, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, kdancy@mafmc.org, 302.526.5257
Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior FMP Coordinator, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, krootes-murdy@asmfc.org, 703.842.0740

Hearing Schedule

Monday, September 10, 7:00 PM – Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Marine Headquarters Boating Education Center (Rear Building), 333 Ferry Road, Old Lyme, Connecticut 06371
Wednesday, September 12, 6:00 PM – North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, Washington Regional Office, 943 Washington Square Mall, US Highway 17, Washington, North Carolina 27889
Thursday, September 13, 6:00 PM – Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources & Environmental Control, DNREC Auditorium, Richardson & Robbins Building, 89 Kings Highway, Dover, Delaware 19901
Thursday, September 13, 6:00 PM – Virginia Marine Resources Commission, 2600 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor, Newport News, Virginia 23607
Wednesday, September 19, 5:30 PM – Bourne Community Center, Room #2, 239 Main Street, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts 02532
Wednesday, September 19, 6:00 PM – University of Rhode Island Bay Campus, Corless Auditorium, South Ferry Road, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882
Monday, September 24, 6:00 PM – Ocean County Administrative Building, 101 Hooper Avenue, Toms River, New Jersey 08753
Tuesday, September 25, 6:00 PM – Ocean Pines Library, 11107 Cathell Road, Berlin, Maryland 21811
Thursday, September 27, 6:30 PM – New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SOMAS), Room 120 Endeavor, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794
Thursday, September 27, 6:30 PM – Internet Webinar, Registration URL: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5467929991483514883; Webinar ID: 658-611-667; Phone: 1-888-585-9008; Room Number: 853-657-937

Written Comments

Given the joint nature of this management effort and to streamline the public comment process, comments should be directed to Council contact information below. In addition to providing comments at any of the scheduled public hearings, you may submit written comments by 11:59 PM, Eastern Time, on Friday, October 12, 2018. Written comments may be sent by any of the following methods:

ONLINE: www.mafmc.org/comments/summer-flounder-amendment
EMAIL: nmfs.flukeamendment@noaa.gov
MAIL OR FAX TO:
Chris Moore, Ph.D., Executive Director
Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council
North State Street, Suite 201
Dover, DE 19901
FAX: 302.674.5399

Please include “Summer Flounder Commercial Issues Amendment Comments” in the subject line if using email or on the outside of the envelope if submitting written comments by mail. All comments, regardless of submission method, will be compiled into a single document for review and consideration by both the Council and Commission. Please do not send separate comments to the Council and Commission.

Web Version / PDF Version

ASMFC American Eel Board Approves Addendum V

August 10, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Eel Management Board approved Addendum V to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Eel. The Addendum increases the yellow eel coastwide cap starting in 2019 to 916,473 pounds. This modest increase in the cap (less than 1%) reflects a correction in the historical harvest. Further, the Addendum adjusts the method (management trigger) to reduce total landings to the coastwide cap when the cap has been exceeded and removes the implementation of state-by-state allocations if the management trigger is met. Lastly, the Addendum maintains Maine’s glass eel quota of 9,688 pounds.

The Addendum responds to concerns with the previous Addendum’s (IV) yellow eel management triggers given the timing and precision of landings data and the challenges of state-by-state quota management. Under Addendum IV, management action would have be triggered when (1) the coastwide cap is exceeded by more than 10% in a given year; or (2) the coastwide cap is exceeded in two consecutive years, regardless of the percent overage. If either of these triggers had been met, state-by-state quotas would have been required to be implemented.

Under Addendum V, management action will now be initiated if the yellow eel coastwide cap is exceeded by 10% in two consecutive years. If the management trigger is exceeded, only those states accounting for more than 1% of the total yellow eel landings will be responsible for adjusting their measures. A workgroup will be formed to define the process to equitably reduce landings among the affected states when the management trigger has been met.

The Board slightly modified the glass eel aquaculture provisions, maintaining the 200 pound limit for glass eel harvest but modifying the criteria for evaluating the proposed harvest area’s contribution to the overall population consistent with the recommendations of the Technical Committee. Under the revised provisions, the Board approved Maine’s glass eel aquaculture proposal for the 2019 fishing season, allowing for an additional 200 pounds of glass eels to be harvested for development in domestic aquaculture facilities. This amount is in addition to the Maine’s glass eel quota.

The implementation date for Addendum V is January 1, 2019. The Addendum will be posted to the Commission’s website by the end of August at http://www.asmfc.org/species/american-eel under Managements Plans. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

VIRGINIA: A fishy tale

August 9, 2018 — Where else to look for a fish tale about politics than Shad Plank, eh?

Consider, then a casual comment from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s menhaden board discussion this week.

You know, one of Rhode Island’s commissioners mused, as the board wrapped up discussion about whether or not to start down the road of shutting down Virginia’s menhaden fishery, Atlantic herring could come into play here.

Well, if that isn’t enough to make you sit up in your seat. It did for Shad Plank, anyway.

Here’s why. The commission groups 15 states from Maine to Florida to manage onshore fisheries (within three miles of the shore), making sure nobody’s taking too many fishies from sea.

Some species do better than others, and sometimes they do better in some parts of the coast than others. And while nobody on the commission wants to drive any species into oblivion, many find it hard not to think about their fishermen — commercial and recreational — and their desire to harvest the sea’s bounty.

Last year, the commission cut its cap on the catch of menhaden from Chesapeake Bay by more than 40 percent. Not complying with this cap — and the General Assembly declined to enact it into law — could lead the commission to say we’re out of compliance and then ask the federal government to do something about it.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

Depleted stock sinks Maine’s bid to increase its fishing quota for lucrative baby eels

August 9, 2018 — Maine’s efforts to expand its lucrative baby eel fishery by increasing its annual quota by 20 percent were shot down Wednesday. But the state did secure an extra 200 pounds of yearly landings to help a Thomaston eel farmer build a new aquaculture center.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the interstate body that oversees the American eel fishery, cited the “depleted” state of the stock when it rejected the proposal. Licensed Maine fishermen are currently allowed to harvest 9,688 pounds of baby eels, which are also called glass eels or elvers. Maine sought to increase that annual harvest to 11,749 pounds.

The final vote was 13-5, with each of the 15 member states, as well as the District of Columbia and two federal agencies, getting a say.

During discussion, commissioners cited the difficulty that scientists face when estimating the size of the American eel population, especially baby eels, but noted that scientists generally agreed that the stock is depleted. Eels do not reproduce until they are about 30 years old, at the end of their life cycle, so measuring the impact of harvesting babies won’t be known for decades.

“I’m impressed with the efforts that Maine has gone through to strengthen the reporting and monitoring of the fishery,” said Roy Miller, a Delaware commissioner. “Nonetheless, our only advice from the stock assessment scientists was that this stock remains depleted, and that we don’t know what the effect of harvest of Maine glass eels will have on the rest.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Trimester 2 Effort Controls Measures Maintained

August 9, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts reviewed the effort control measures for the 2018 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) fishery. The states agreed to maintain the existing Area 1A Trimester 2 Days Out Measures, which are outlined below.

Days Out of the Fishery

Vessels with a herring Category A permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 Area 1A fishery may land herring five (5) consecutive days a week. One landing per 24 hour period.Vessels are prohibited from landing or possessing herring caught from Area 1A during a day 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.
Small mesh bottom trawl vessels with a herring Category C or D permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 fishery may land herring seven (7) consecutive days a week.

Weekly Landing Limit

Vessels with a herring Category A permit may harvest up to 640,000 lbs (16 trucks) per harvester vessel, per week.
160,000 lbs (4 trucks) out of the 640,000 lbs weekly limit can be transferred to a carrier vessel (see below).

At-Sea Transfer and Carrier Restrictions
The following applies to harvester vessels with a herring Category A permit and carrier vessels landing herring caught in Area 1A to a Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts port.

A harvester vessel can transfer herring at-sea to another catcher vessel.
A harvester vessel is limited to making at-sea transfers to only one carrier vessel per week.
Carrier vessels are limited to receiving at-sea transfers from one catcher vessel per week and can land once per 24 hour period. A carrier vessel may land up to 160,000 lbs (4 trucks) per week. The carrier limit of 4 trucks is not in addition to the harvester weekly landing limit. Carrier vessel: a vessel with no gear on board capable of catching or processing fish. Harvester vessel: a vessel that is required to report the catch it has aboard as the harvesting vessel on the Federal Vessel Trip Report.

The Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (ACL) is 32,084 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for a carryover from 2016 and the research set-aside. The Section allocated 72.8% of the sub-ACL to Trimester 2 and 27.2% to Trimester 3. After incorporating the 295 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), the seasonal quotas are 21,291 mt for Trimester 2 and 7,955 mt for Trimester 3.

These effort controls are projected to extend the Trimester 2 fishery through the beginning of September. Landings will be monitored closely and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when the trimester’s quota is projected to be reached.

Due to the results of the 2018 Atlantic Herring Stock Assessment, which indicate poor recruitment and spawning stock biomass, the New England Fishery Management Council has recommended that the Regional Administrator allow for an in-season adjustment to the 2018 Atlantic herring sub-ACLs. The intent of this in-season adjustment is to reduce the severity of catch reductions in 2019. Following action from NOAA Fisheries to adjust the 2018 sub-ACLs, the Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts will reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort measures. Forty-eight hour notice will be provided before a Days Out Meeting.

Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A on no landing days. Please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.

A PDF of the announcement can be found at – http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5b6b5e15AtlHerringDaysOutTri2_Aug2018.pdf.

VIRGINIA: Menhaden landings pacing below disputed cap

August 8, 2018 — Chesapeake Bay landings of menhaden are coming in at a pace well below a controversial cap imposed by an interstate fisheries commission, Virginia Marine Resources Commissioner Steven Bowman said.

As of the end of June, landings for the so-called reduction fishery came in at 24,000 metric tons, Bowman told the management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) this week.

He said that meant landings this year would almost certainly come in below the 51,000-ton cap the interstate commission imposed last year — a cut of more than 40 percent that the General Assembly balked at adopting.

Bowman, joined by Maryland’s director of fisheries, asked the board to hold off declaring that Virginia was not in compliance with the cap because the General Assembly had not written the 51,000-ton limit into state law.

That finding, if adopted by the commission and accepted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, could shut down the menhaden fishery, which employs about 300 people working on Omega Protein’s fishing boats and its processing plant in Reedville, on the Northern Neck. While the cap applies only to menhaden caught by the big “purse seine” vessels Omega operates to catch fish to be processed for oil and fish meal, board members said a finding of noncompliance could shut down the bait fishery, in which smaller operators use a different technique to catch fish used by crabbers and in commercial fin-fisheries

Instead, Bowman and Blazer proposed that the commission find Virginia out of compliance if landings this year actually exceeded 51,000 tons.

That effort failed, but the board decided to delay until February acting on an alternative declaring Virginia out of compliance.

Omega spokesman Ben Landry said he believed the menhaden board’s decision to delay acting reflected commissioners’ new-found concern, underlined by NOAA’s Lynch, about the scientific basis for the cap.

“We have no intention of blowing past the 51,000,” he said. “But it’s an artificial number … our concern is flexibility; if there are storms out in the ocean, we’d like to be able to come into the bay.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

Regulators will not allow lucrative baby eel fishery to grow

August 8, 2018 –A regulatory board decided Wednesday that Maine’s baby eel fishery, the only one of its kind in the U.S. and one of the most lucrative fisheries in the country, will not be allowed to expand next year.

Fishermen in Maine are allowed to harvest a total of 9,688 pounds of the elvers per year, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission shot down a proposal to increase that by about 20 percent. The increase would’ve been a boost to a fishery that routinely fetches some of the highest prices in the country on a per-pound basis.

Baby eels, called elvers, can be worth more than $2,000 per pound at docks because they are used by Asian aquaculture companies in the worldwide supply chain for Japanese food. Maine is the only state in the U.S. with a significant fishery for them, and worldwide supplies have been low, making them even more valuable.

Maine’s elver fishery is coming out of a contentious season that ended in May, when authorities shut down the fishery early amid concerns about illegal sales. The fishery is tightly monitored to deter poaching, and the illegal transactions circumvented a swipe card system used to track elver sales in Maine, authorities said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Times

Decision due on whether to increase harvest of baby eels

August 6, 2018 –Maine’s baby eel fishery has been through ups and downs in recent years, and regulators might be about to let fishermen catch a lot more of the valuable fish.

Baby eels, called elvers, can be worth more than $2,000 per pound because they are used by Asian aquaculture companies and worldwide supplies are low. Maine is the only state in the U.S. with a significant fishery for them.

Fishermen in Maine are allowed to harvest a total of 9,688 pounds of the elvers per year. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will consider increasing that by about 20 percent on Wednesday.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WABI