Saving Seafood

Barndoor Skate Now Sustainable Seafood Choice After Years of Prohibited Fishing

October 24, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fifteen years after the New England Fishery Management Council crafted the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan, fishermen are now able to harvest barndoor skate.

According to NOAA, the species became depleted during the 1960s and early 1970s due to foreign fleets. Numbers of barndoor skates remained low until the Magnuson-Steven Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which restricted foreign fleets from fishing 200 miles off the U.S. shore. The Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan was put in place in 2003 to rebuild the stock, and after several years of harvest being prohibited, commercial fishermen are once again allowed to catch limited numbers.

NOAA reports that fishermen in the directed skate fishery may now catch up to 650 pounds of barndoor skate wings per trip during the period of May 1 to August 21. From September 1 to April 30 fishermen are able to catch up to 1,025 pounds per trip.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

NOAA considering letting fishermen take endangered skate

May 9, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal fishing managers are considering allowing commercial fishermen to take a species of endangered skate that is currently prohibited.

Fishermen catch skates for use as food and bait on both coasts. They are currently prohibited from possessing barndoor skates, or bringing them to shore. Barndoor skates are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says proposed changes to the skate fishery include an allowance for limited possession of barndoor skates. The new rules weren’t yet in place on May 1, which was the start of the new fishing year, and the skates are still prohibited at the moment.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post

NOAA Reminder to Skate Fishery: Barndoor Skates Still Prohibited, 2017 Quotas in Place

April 30, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

The new skate fishery regulations proposed within Framework Adjustment 5 will not be in place by May 1, 2018, the start of the fishing year.

Thus, the current regulations, including the prohibition on retention, possession, and landing of barndoor skates and the 2017 quotas, will remain in place until further notice. The wing and bait possession limits remain unchanged.

Framework Adjustment 5 proposes to:

  • Set quotas for the 2018-2019 fishing year;
  • Allow limited possession of barndoor skate in the skate wing fishery; and
  • Exempt vessels from some specific domestic skate regulations when fishing exclusively within the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Regulatory Area.

We plan to have the proposed rule out later this spring.

Get more information on skate fishery regulations.