Saving Seafood

NOAA: Gulf of Maine skate makes comeback

January 6, 2020 — After nine years in a rebuilding plan with strict management, including a prohibition on landings, Gulf of Maine smooth skate was declared rebuilt in 2018.

The declaration was included in “Status of U.S. Fisheries Annual Report to Congress,” prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and submitted to lawmakers this fall.

The report details the status of 479 federally managed stocks or stock complexes in the U.S. in an effort to identify which stocks are subject to overfishing, are overfished, or are rebuilt to sustainable levels.

Building on a trend of the past few years, the report noted that the vast majority of U.S. fish stocks were at sustainable population levels in 2018, and the number of U.S. fish stocks subject to overfishing remains at a near all-time low.

According to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, the Northeast skate complex fishery includes seven skate species and operates from Maine to North Carolina. The bottom-dwelling, kite-shaped skate is taken with long lines and gill nets, both as a targeted fishery and as by catch.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen Training Pilot Program Coming to Cape Cod in 2020

December 27, 2019 — The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is working with local partners and fishermen to conduct a pilot training program that will cover basic training such as navigation, boating safety, personal survival, and today’s fisheries.

The course will run in two sessions from late January to early February and from late February to early March in the coming year.

Students will learn about basic maritime terminology, crew responsibilities on board different types of fishing vessels, basic knot tying, offshore survival, first aid, Cape Cod fisheries, and the types of gears used in the region.

Upon successful completion of the course, students and interested captains will be given an opportunity to attend a meet-and-greet event at the Fishermen’s Alliance office to discuss potential hiring opportunities.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Atlantic Halibut Subject of NOAA Research

December 9, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries is working with fishermen across Cape Cod to see if the Atlantic halibut is showing signs of recovery in the Gulf of Maine as well as the New England region.

A three-part study is currently underway to see if the halibut population is rebuilding after the size of the fish shrunk over centuries.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is working with local fishermen to understand the life history, stock structure, and movement patterns of the Atlantic halibut.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

New England council closes in on new herring limits

October 4, 2019 — Years of debate over New England herring are culminating in new fishing limits and an inshore midwater trawl restricted area to reduce user conflicts.

With an Oct. 21 deadline for public comment, fishing and environmental groups are pushing for NMFS approval of Amendment 8 to the New England Fishery Management Council’s herring plan.

If approved by the agency, Amendment 8 would prohibit the use of midwater trawl gear inshore of the 12-mile territorial sea limit, from the Maine-Canada border south to the border of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Off eastern Cape Cod, the restricted area would bump out to 20 miles, within 30-minute squares 114 and 99.

John Pappalardo, CEO of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance that pushed hard for the changes, said the future impact is uncertain.

“The first and most obvious thing is what we won’t see: the lights of midwater trawlers, factory boats working in pairs, wiping out schools of forage fish like herring close to shore,” Pappalardo wrote in the association’s Sept. 25 newsletter.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape herring fishery could rebound with new regs

October 1, 2019 — Fatter trophy fish, and a healthier ecosystem overall, are in the offing if the public supports recently approved regulations.

“After 10 years of debate, the New England Fishery Management Council has finally accepted the proposals favored by Cape communities and what would keep midwater trawls off our coast year round. It will have benefits for all our commercial and recreational fisheries and the nearshore ecosystem,” said John Pappalardo, chief executive officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, in a press release.

The protections were vetted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and were recently published on the Federal Register for final comment.

“This is it,” said Pappalardo. “We need people to speak out for herring one more time to make sure these important rules become a reality.”

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Buyer Be Aware: Dogfish Is Every Bit as Good as Cod and Far More Plentiful

May 13, 2019 — Dogfish doesn’t have an appetizing ring to it. The name for this member of the shark family has kept it off dinner plates, at least in the United States. In Britain, dogfish is often the key ingredient in fish and chips.

A few years ago, in an attempt to make the fish sound more appealing, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, New England fishermen, and conservationists tried to rebrand it as “Cape shark.” The effort to create local demand for this plentiful regional species, which grew in number with the collapse of the cod fishery, hasn’t yet taken hold.

With its mild white boneless flesh, Kate Masury, program director for Eating with the Ecosystem, said dogfish is less flaky than cod but just as delicious.

Eating with the Ecosystem, a Rhode Island-based nonprofit that promotes a place-based approach to sustaining New England’s wild seafood, is working with consumers, chefs, suppliers, processors, and fishermen to build a market for dogfish and the many other lower-valued species swimming off New England’s coast.

Read the full story at EcoRI News

Moulton’s right whale bill sailing toward House

May 3, 2019 — Last week, a federal panel drafted a slew of conservation recommendations to help the imperiled and declining North Atlantic right whale population. Now Congress may enter the fray.

A House bill to create a decade-long, $50 million grant program to help protect the North Atlantic right whales was approved Wednesday by the National Resource Committee and is heading to a vote by the full House membership.

The bill, with U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton — now announced as a presidential candidate — as the primary sponsor, would require the Commerce secretary to provide $5 million annually for 10 years to fund competitive grants for projects related to the conservation of the whales, whose declining population is estimated to hover under 450.

“The health of the right whales is directly tied to the health of our region’s economy and identity,” Moulton said in a statement. “The whales play a key role in an ecosystem that supports thousands of jobs in commercial fishing and tourism, and it’s up to us to do everything we can to save this species.”

The bill is supported by the New England Aquarium in Boston and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

A similar bill, with Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey as a co-sponsor, has been filed in the Senate.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA to cut dogfish quota in half

April 4, 2019 — Federal fishing regulators say they’re reducing the quota for a small species of shark that is fished commercially off the East Coast.

Fishermen catch spiny dogfish off the eastern states, from Maine to North Carolina. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says quota for the dogfish will be cut by nearly 50 percent this year. That will leave the commercial quota at about 20.5 million pounds.

The agency says the quota will climb back up in 2020 and 2021 because the dogfish population is expected to grow. That would bring with it a reduced risk of overfishing the species, which is harvested for use as food.

Dogfish are primarily consumed in Europe. Members of the seafood industry have tried marketing dogfish to U.S. consumers, but it remains an uncommon menu item.

Last year, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance received a Saltonstall-Kennedy grant of about $37,000 from NOAA for a marketing and promotion project centered on raising the profile of dogfish — including changing the name of the species — to make it more attractive to consumers.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishing Leaders Seek Public Support for Herring Trawler Buffer Zone

November 26, 2018 — Local fishing industry leaders are seeking public support to finalize regulations that would push midwater herring trawlers at least 12 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

The New England Fishery Management Council voted in September to recommend the measure in an effort to help protect the struggling fishery.

Local fishermen and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance supported pushing the midwater trawlers back 50 miles to avoid localized depletion.

That concept is defined as a reduction of fish population, independent of the overall status of the stock, over a relatively small area as a result of intensive overfishing.

The new buffer zone would be estimated to reduce midwater trawler revenue by about 30 percent.

The midwater trawlers, which usually work in tandem, use large nets to scoop up entire schools of herring, which local fishermen have said negatively impact the local fishing industry and related economies.

Atlantic herring is a food, or forage fish for many larger fish species and whales which feed in the area. Herring is also an important bait fish in the New England lobster industry.

Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance CEO John Pappalardo says the restrictions now head to the National Marine Fisheries Service for review.

“I’m very confident that if all the people who helped us get a positive vote out of the council will one more time put effort in to making sure that the National Marine Fisheries Service adheres to the recommendation I am very confident we will end up with a positive result,” Pappalardo said.

Fisherman Charlie Dodge says the local industry and the public need to keep the pressure on at the political level to ensure the trawlers are pushed back.

“We’ve seen things before get to this point but even with keeping focus on it sometimes they never come to fruition,” Dodge said.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

New Study Seeks To Reveal The Secrets Of Halibut

August 29, 2018 — Fred Bennett has been a fisherman for about 60 years and he just stared, perplexed, at a graph supposedly showing a halibut, tagged to track its progress, moving in the water column.

He shook his head in consternation and looked at fellow captain Mike Anderson who has spent more than 40 years on the water.

How is that possible? Bennett wondered.

Anderson was laughing.

It’s not, he said – unless the storied flat fish had been eaten by something, most likely a great white shark.

“The tag was hanging out near the bottom during the day and was near the surface of the water during the night time, plus the tag temperature shot up suddenly and stayed there – pretty clear indications that it was eaten by a shark,” agreed George Maynard, research coordinator at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

Stumping Bennett and Anderson would be tough. The two spent many years catching halibut, a great-tasting fish that is making fishermen money in Canada, and used to make fishermen money here. But stocks crashed, and for the last 18 years local fishermen have been allowed to land only one fish per trip, and that one has to measure at least 41 inches.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Chronicle