Saving Seafood

HARTFORD COURANT: Cost of Outdated Rules? Millions Of Dead Fish

September 21, 2015 — This is utterly crazy. Hundreds of thousands — perhaps even millions — of pounds of edible and valuable fish are being wasted every year, thrown overboard from commercial fishing boats off the Connecticut coast, due to long-outdated federal regulations that have not kept up with a changing climate and shifting fish populations.

The problem, as The Courant’s Gregory Hladky has reported, is that catch quotas for some species are based on where the fish were when regulations were created decades ago, not where they are today.

Take, for example, summer flounder or fluke. Catch quotas to protect and rebuild the species were set in 1990, based on data gathered in the 1980s. The concentration or biomass of the species was then off the mid-Atlantic coast, so North Carolina and Virginia fishermen got large quotas, 30 percent and 20 percent respectively, while Connecticut got 2.25 percent.

So too with black sea bass, for which Connecticut fishermen are limited to 1 percent of the commercial catch, about 22,000 pounds of black sea bass this year, while boats from North Carolina get to 11 percent of the total and Virginia fishermen get 20 percent.

Read the full editorial at Hartford Courant

Iconic fish species move north as ocean warms

September 6, 2015 — Warming ocean temperatures off the North Atlantic are causing fish to move up the coast to cooler waters — raising concerns among scientists and regulators about the ocean’s ecosystem, and potentially changing the experience Delaware anglers have enjoyed for generations.

In 2013, a Virginia Beach striped bass tournament drew hundreds of boats, but only one striper was caught.

Wachapreague, Virginia, a tiny town south of Chincoteague that called itself the “flounder capital of the world,” lost its identity and economic engine when summer flounder relocated to waters off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.

And the iconic blue crab, a staple of restaurants and dinner tables throughout the Delmarva Peninsula, are expanding their range, scuttling up the coast to Maine.

Striped bass, which gave birth to a charter fishing industry in Delaware, are swimming into deeper water during their fall migration through the mid-Atlantic — well beyond the 3-mile limit off the coast where it is legal to catch and keep them.

Black sea bass — once so common in area waters, they were the go-to-fish when other species weren’t biting — have moved north to New England.

Read the full story at Delaware Online

 

Mid-Atlantic Council and ASMFC Approve Specifications for Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass, and Bluefish

August 17, 2015 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) met jointly last week in New York, NY to establish specifications for the summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, and bluefish fisheries. The table below summarizes the recommended commercial quotas and recreational harvest limits for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass (2015 values are provided for comparison purposes). Please note that specifications may be adjusted based on changes in the fishery or new scientific information. 

The Council’s recommendations apply to federal waters (3 – 200 miles from shore) and will be forwarded to NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Administrator for approval. The Commission’s actions are final and apply to state waters (0-3 miles from shore).

Summer Flounder 

For summer flounder, the Council and Commission approved an Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) limit of 16.26 million pounds for the 2016 fishing year. This represents an approximate 29% decrease relative to the 2015 ABC.  After accounting for projected discards in the commercial and recreational fisheries, this ABC is divided into a commercial quota of 8.12 million pounds and a recreational harvest limit of 5.42 million pounds for the 2016 fishing year.

These reductions in summer flounder catch and landings limits were recommended based on the findings of the 2015 stock assessment update, which indicates that the summer flounder stock was experiencing overfishing in 2014. The fishing mortality rate in 2014 was estimated to be 16% above the fishing mortality threshold reference point. For more information on the assessment update and its impacts on harvest limits for 2016, please see the Council’s Summer Flounder Catch and Landings Limit Fact Sheet.

Scup 

For scup, the Council and Commission approved an ABC of 31.11 million pounds for the 2016 fishing year. After accounting for projected discards in the commercial and recreational fisheries, this ABC is divided into a commercial quota of 20.47 million pounds and a recreational harvest limit of 6.09 million pounds. This represents a decrease from 2015 levels due to a slight decrease in spawning stock biomass (SSB) as projected by the 2015 benchmark stock assessment. 

Black Sea Bass 

For black sea bass, the Council and Commission approved an ABC of 5.50 million pounds for the 2016 and 2017 fishing years. After accounting for projected discards in the commercial and recreational fisheries, this ABC is divided into a commercial quota of 2.24 million pounds and a recreational harvest limit of 2.33 million pounds. These catch levels are unchanged relative to 2015 levels. Both the commercial quota and recreational harvest limit may be changed pending further review by the Council’s Science and Statistical Committee in September 2015. The next benchmark stock assessment is scheduled be peer-reviewed through the Northeast Regional Stock Assessment Workshop/Stock Assessment Review Committee in late fall 2016.

Bluefish 

For the bluefish fishery, the Commission and Council approved an ABC of 19.45 million pounds for the 2016 fishing year, an approximate 10% decrease from 2015 levels. The reduction responds to the findings of the 2015 benchmark stock assessment which lowered  both the SSB target level (223 million pounds) and the SSB estimate (191 million pounds in 2014). The 2016 commercial quota and recreational harvest limit will be set once the 2015 recreational harvest estimates are available.

 

North Carolina Researcher Aims To Bolster Black Sea Bass Fishery

July 14, 2015 — Black sea bass are making a comeback in North Carolina after the species was overfished a decade ago.  We visit the Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City where they’re using ear bones from hundreds of black sea bass to learn which habitats along our coast best support the fishery.

The commercial fishing industry is an economic engine for the state. $369 million of economic impact was generated by commercial fishing in 2013, according to the Department of Marine Fisheries.  One of the many species caught off the coast is black sea bass.  You may have had it at a fancy restaurant coated in herb butter and served with a wedge of lemon.  Also known as blackfish or old humpback, black sea bass grow to 24 inches and 6 pounds, and they can be found in inshore and offshore waters.  At the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, graduate student Ian Kroll is involved in research with black sea bass and what types of habitat are best suited for the fish.

“If we can find out what habitats produce the best quality fish and maybe the quickest amount of time, there kind of leads to that impetus to conserve these habitats.”

The black sea bass fishery was identified as overfished in 2005.  But in the last decade, their numbers have bounced back, due to more stringent regulatory standards.

“In 2014, commercially, there was over 500,000 lbs of black sea bass, and that equals about $1.4 million going to the economy.  And, just looking at it on the South Atlantic scale, that’s over half the black sea bass caught in the South Atlantic comes from North Carolina.”

Read the full story at Public Radio East