Saving Seafood

Bill to Expand Lobster Sales Adopted by Massachusetts State Senate

January 28, 2016 — BOSTON — The following was released by the Office of State Senator Bruce Tarr:

The State Senate today adopted a bill which updates Massachusetts’ lobster laws to permit the processing, sale, and transportation of cooked and frozen in-shell lobster parts.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R- Gloucester) sponsored the measure to end prohibitions on in-state sales and processing of lobster parts to accommodate the growing interest of consumers.  The bill, supported by the Massachusetts lobster industry, is expected to cause an expansion of lobster processed in state and a reduction in lobster diversions to Canadian processors. 

“This bill will allow more American lobsters currently being harvested and purchased here and subsequently processed in Canada, to be prepared for market in Massachusetts,” said Tarr. “The net effect of modernizing the law will bolster local economic activity for lobstermen, processors, and local restaurants and food stores.”

Tarr expressed appreciation for coastal Senators Mark Montigny (D- New Bedford),Vinny deMacedo (R- Plymouth), Daniel Wolf (D-Harwich) and Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) for their efforts to strengthen the industry and in championing the bill.

“The time has come to eliminate such outdated restrictions on lobster processing and sales in the Commonwealth.  Easing constraints on processing operations will allow a thriving industry to further invest in our local economy through expanding operations and creating new jobs.  I commend Senator Tarr’s leadership as the sponsor of this bill and am proud to have partnered with him in seeing this through to passage.  It is my hope the House will quickly follow the Senate’s lead to have a bill on the Governor’s desk as soon as possible.” said Senator Montigny.

“I am thrilled that the Senate has taken steps to bring this bill forward with a unanimous vote and I know that the lobstermen will be pleased with the advancements that we’ve made,” said Senator deMacedo.

The lobster industry is a critical part of the Commonwealth’s economy and heritage with more than 900 licensed lobstermen.  A similar law in Maine has boosted Maine’s economy, produced local outlets for product sales, and created jobs in the state.

“The action of the Senate today helps consumers, suppliers and lobstermen, I expect that we will see an economic boost for the lobstermen in my district and in other coastal communities in the state as well,” said Senator Rodrigues.

 “Our historic lobster industry deserves the opportunity to be more creative and flexible in how they market and sell their popular product,” said Cape and Islands Senator Wolf. “This legislation is a huge help in that regard, and will create economic benefits that will ripple through our coastal communities.”

While the sale of live, cooked, and canned lobster is legal in the state, the legislation expands the industry market with the inclusion of other lobster products. The Senate bill allows Department of Public Health licensed wholesale dealers to process unfrozen lobsters, authorizes the importation of unfrozen shell-on lobster parts and tails, and it allows for the retail of previously frozen raw in-shell tails.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries will be responsible for maintaining essential regulations including enforcing minimum lobster shell size standards and processing standards. The lobster fishery adheres to stringent state regulations including trap limits and the release of live juveniles.

The bill now moves to the House for further consideration.

A Canadian Threat to Alaskan Fishing

January 23, 2016 — SITKA, Alaska — From fall through spring, the fleet of commercial fishing boats here in the panhandle of Alaska stalk winter king salmon. In the mornings prisms of ice sparkle beneath the sodium lights of the docks, where I live on a World War II tugboat with my wife and 8-month-old daughter. This winter I’ve been out a few times fishing on the I Gotta, catching pristine wild salmon, torpedoes of muscle. But the work is slow, five fish a day, and my skipper recently traveled down to Reno, Nev., for knee surgery.

Carpeted in rain forest and braided with waterways, southeast Alaska is among the largest wild salmon producers in the world, its tourism and salmon fishing industries grossing about $2 billion a year. But today, the rivers and the salmon that create these jobs — and this particular way of life, which attracted me from Philadelphia to Sitka almost 20 years ago — are threatened by Canada’s growing mining industry along the mountainous Alaska-British Columbia border, about a hundred miles east of where I now write.

At least 10 underground and open-pit copper and gold mining projects in British Columbia are up and running, in advanced exploration or in review to be approved. These operations generate billions of tons of toxic mine tailings stored behind massive dams, creating an ecological hazard at the headwaters of Alaska’s major salmon rivers — the Stikine, Unuk and Taku, which straddle the border with Canada.

Despite being subjected to the environmental and health risks of these upstream mining projects, Alaskans have no say in their approval. Which is why fishermen, Alaska native tribes, local municipalities, tourism businesses, our congressional delegation and thousands of individual Alaska residents have been clamoring for the State Department to refer this issue to the International Joint Commission, an American and Canadian advisory body established in 1909 to ensure that neither country pollutes the waters of the other.

Read the full opinion piece at The New York Times

Secretary of Commerce approves measure to reduce Bering Sea halibut bycatch

January 20, 2016 — The following was released by the NOOA Alaska Regional Office:

The Secretary of Commerce has approved a fishery management plan amendment to reduce halibut bycatch in four sectors of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. NOAA Fisheries anticipates the amendment will reduce the actual amount of halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands by approximately 361 metric tons compared to 2014. It may also provide additional harvest opportunities in the directed commercial, personal use, sport, and subsistence halibut fisheries.

In recent years, the International Pacific Halibut Commission – the joint U.S.-Canadian body charged with management of Pacific halibut – has determined that the exploitable biomass of halibut has declined, particularly in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. This decline has resulted in reductions to the catch limits for the directed commercial halibut fishery in Area 4, in particular Area 4 CDE in the eastern and northern Bering Sea.

Groundfish fisheries–which seek to catch species like pollock and yellowfin sole–regularly encounter halibut as bycatch during their fishing operations.

In response to declining commercial catch limits for the directed commercial halibut fishery, in June 2015, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended reducing halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. The council’s recommendation was Amendment 111 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

Amendment 111 reduces the overall Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limit by 21% to 3,515 metric tons (mt). The PSC limits are reduced by specific amounts for the following groundfish sectors:

  • Amendment 80 sector by 25% to 1,745 mt;
  • BSAI trawl limited access sector by 15% to 745 mt;
  • BSAI non-trawl sector by 15% to 710 mt; and
  • Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program (CDQ sector) by 20% to 315 mt.

The Secretary approved Amendment 111 after determining that it is consistent with the national standards in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

NOAA Fisheries will publish a final rule for the measure this spring, which will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. For more information, visit NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional website.

 

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Changes in law could buoy lobster sellers

January 21, 2016 — BOSTON, Mass. — Millions of pounds of lobster caught by Massachusetts fishermen are shipped to Canada for processing — mostly because a decades-old law prohibits the meat from being prepared locally.

Legislation set for a vote in the state Senate today, Jan. 21, would lift those restrictions, opening what some in the industry say is a multi-billion dollar market for processed lobster, in one of the few areas of the commercial fishing industry that is thriving.

The proposal sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester allows for the processing and sale of frozen, in-shell lobster parts in the state.

A 1997 state law allows wholesalers to process lobsters into frozen, shell-on tails for distribution outside the state, but they cannot be sold in Massachusetts. The law was intended to curb mutilations of undersized lobsters.

Tarr said Maine, a major player in the lobster industry, eased similar restrictions several years ago and has seen a “significant increase in processing capacity and demand for lobster processing licenses.”

“New businesses have taken root in previously abandoned factories, and this has translated into significant job growth and economic stimulation,” said Tarr, who expects the measure to pass when the Senate meets in formal session today.

The proposal would still need to be approved by the House and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker to become law.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Sale of shell-on lobster claws bound for Senate floor

January 14, 2016 — BOSTON — Massachusetts lobstermen could get a leg-up if a Senate bill set for consideration next Thursday becomes law.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who sponsored the bill (S 469), said it would allow for shell-on lobster claws to be processed and sold in Massachusetts.

In contrast to the groundfishery, hampered by lowered federal catch limits on cod and other stock, the Bay State’s lobster fishery is “doing fairly well,” according to Tarr, who said there are concerns about the prices lobsters fetch at the market and competition from Canada.

Read the full story at Saugus Advertiser

Canadian government stands ground on surf clam review

December 24, 2015 — The Canadian government will not back down on a decision to order further review of a plan to expand harvesting in the country’s offshore surf clam fishery, the Chronicle-Herald reported.

The recently elected government of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is reconsidering the previous government’s plans to increase the Arctic surf clam quota for 2016, and allow new firms to enter the fishery.

In July, months before the October defeat of previous prime minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) said science supported the expansion of the country’s offshore Atlantic surf clam fishery, with a potential increase to the total allowable catch (TAC) from 2015’s 38,756 metric tons to 52,655t, plus bycatch, in 2016.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

New England Lobstermen Still Fishing Thanks to Mild Winter

December 28, 2015 (AP) — Many New England lobstermen are still fishing deep into December this year because of unseasonably warm weather and an abundance of the critters, and Maine’s beloved scallops are a little harder to come by as a result.

The extra fishing hasn’t done much to change the price of lobsters, which are selling in the range of $8 to $10 per pound in Maine, typical for this time of year, when Canada is also hauling in large catches. But some lobstermen in Maine, the biggest lobster-producing state, also fish for scallops and haven’t made the transition to the winter scalloping season because lobster fishing is still strong.

As a result, Maine scallops — which usually cost about $20 per pound — have been slightly more expensive, sometimes selling in the $25-per-pound range, and some retailers are low on supply. Alex Todd, a Portland scallop and lobster fisherman, said he expects scallop fishing in the southern part of the state to pick up in mid-January. Supply from scallop-rich Cobscook Bay is helping feed demand for now, he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

Study: Ropes that break more easily could save some whales

December 15, 2015 — BOSTON (AP) — A study published in a scientific journal says life-threatening whale entanglements could be reduced by using ropes that break more easily under the force of the enormous animals.

Whales become entangled in commercial fishing gear almost every week along the East Coast of the United States and Canada. A coastal study in conservation biology examined ropes retrieved from live and dead whales entangled in fishing gear from 1994 to 2010.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Gloucester Daily Times 

NEW JERSEY: Black sea bass: We’ll make more

December 8, 2015 — New Jersey is very interested in a new federal grant program designed to create more black sea bass habitat and also to answer scientific questions about what this particular fish needs to thrive in mid-Atlantic waters.

Black sea bass are both a popular fish for anglers in New Jersey and an important catch for commercial fishermen. For a type of fish that relies on underwater structure, which ran range from a shipwreck to a natural rocky outcrop, a key question is whether building artificial reefs creates new black sea bass or simply concentrates ones already in the ocean.

“That would be a great question to ask. We’d absolutely be interested in that,” said Lisa Havel, a coordinator for the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership or ACFHP.

The partnership, through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, is offering grants of up to $225,000 for projects that restore black sea bass habitat or qualify as research projects to learn more about the habitat needs of a fairly strange fish species, known for, among other things, the ability to change sexes (hermaphrodite transition) as needed.

The restoration or research proposals are for a region that runs from Long Island Sound to Cape Hatteras. While black sea bass range from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, there is a distinct population in the Mid-Atlantic region the study wants to address.

Read the full story at Press of Atlantic City

 

Closing In on Where Eels Go to Connect

December 7, 2015 — Eels hold tight to their biological secrets, so much so that Aristotle mused that they must be sexless creatures spontaneously emerging from the “earth’s guts.” Now, at least one eel enigma is finally a step closer to being solved.

For the first time, scientists have tracked American eels migrating to their legendary spawning grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.

“For a very long time, circumstantial evidence has pointed to the Sargasso Sea as the breeding grounds of eels, but like crime novel detectives, scientists have wanted conclusive proof,” said David Cairns, a research scientist at Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who was not involved in the work.

The search for that proof, he added, “has preoccupied eel scientists for more than a century.”

American eels spend their adult lives, which range from three to 20 years, in rivers and estuaries from Greenland to Venezuela, but those far-flung populations share a single reproductive site in the Sargasso Sea. Their migration to the sea is perhaps one of the most impressive animal journeys in the world, but no one has ever caught an adult in the open ocean — much less observed them reproducing.

Read the full story at the New York Times