Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Great White Shark Numbers Increasing On Cape Cod

May 26, 2017 — We’re getting close to that time of year, when the great white sharks make their annual visit to the waters of Cape Cod. Cape Cod is the only known aggregating site for white sharks in the North Atlantic.

According to the latest study by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the number of great white sharks vacationing there appears to be rising. That’s a public safety issue for towns, according to the state’s top shark expert.

Guest

Gregory Skomal, program manager and senior marine fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. His research group tweets @a_whiteshark.

Interview Highlights

On their survey of the numbers of great white sharks

“We are right in the middle of a 5-year population study … what I can tell you … is how many individuals we’ve tabulated year for the last couple of years. In 2016 for example, we identified 147 individual white sharks along the Eastern shoreline of Cape Cod. The year prior to that, it was 141 and the year prior to that in 2014, it was about 80. So we’re seeing that subtle increase from year to year. And as tempted as I am to say that it’s actually an increase in the population size, it’s more likely a shift in the distribution of sharks in response to the growing seal population.”

On how the seals are attracting sharks

“Most people don’t realize the interesting history of the seal populations on the Northeastern coast of the U.S. They had been all but drive to extinction a couple of hundred years ago. And now, with protection that was put in place in the early 1970s, we’ve seen the slow growth in the population that has now resulted in literally tens of thousands of seals along our coastline. And that has drawn the attention of one of their predators, the white shark.”

Read and listen to the full story at WBUR

Out at sea, under the watchful eyes of cameras, fishermen work as the government monitors catch

May 16, 2017 — Chris Brown has grown used to the five video cameras that record every move he and his two crew members make aboard the Proud Mary.

Since installing the equipment in January on the 45-foot otter trawler, whenever Brown steams out of Galilee in search of flounder and other groundfish in the Atlantic Ocean waters off Rhode Island, the electronic monitoring system kicks on.

And as Brown engages the boat’s hydraulics to haul in its nets, the cameras track everything he and his crew catch, all the fish they keep and all the fish they discard over the side.

The cameras may seem intrusive, but then Brown has an easy answer when asked about them.

“I’d much rather have a camera overhead than an observer under foot,” he said.

Brown is one of three Rhode Island fishermen who have signed on to a program that is testing out electronic surveillance as an alternative to human monitors that the federal government requires to be on board one in every seven fishing trips in the Northeast in an effort to stamp out overfishing.

The new program being led by The Nature Conservancy offers the potential for closer observation of commercial fishing, enhancing compliance with quotas and deterring misreporting.

Its supporters say it also provides more accurate data that will lead to better science and better regulations, all with the aim of supporting a fishing industry that is sustainable for years to come.

“There’s a mismatch between what fishermen say they see on the water and what the science says,” said Christopher McGuire, marine program director with The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. “We’re trying to bridge that gap.”

Electronic monitoring on fishing boats is nothing new. It’s been in use in British Columbia, in Canada, for more than 15 years, was eventually adopted by American fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, and was tested by Cape Cod fishermen as far back as 2005.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen’s Alliance to Launch Program to Promote Dogfish, Skate

May 16, 2017 — The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is launching a new program Memorial Day weekend to create demand for “under-loved” fish species caught in area waters.

Pier to Plate will see small-boat fishermen give free skate and dogfish throughout the summer to 20 restaurants, a fish market and catering company on the Lower Cape to serve to customers.

“This program is actually giving the fish to the restaurants for the summer to experiment with, play with, and serve to their clients,” said Nancy Civetta, the communications director for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. “And that way we are hoping to just make them very popular because people will be more familiar with them if they find them on restaurant menus and in fish markets.”

The skate and dogfish, or Cape shark, are caught in abundance off Cape Cod and are mostly shipped overseas to be used in restaurants in Europe and Asia.

The goal of Pier to Plate is to make a consistent supply of these species available locally in an effort to support sustainable fishing on Cape Cod and familiarize residents, visitors and chefs with the fish swimming off the shore.

“We just aren’t landing as much cod and other groundfish as we used to here on Cape Cod,” Civetta said. “It’s a changing ecosystem out there. It’s still full of fish. It’s just different fish than we are used to eating.”

Civetta said the program is receiving support from the restaurant community as the Alliance has met with many around the Lower Cape.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

JOHN PAPPALARDO: Rafael Should be Permanently Banned from Fishing, Redistribution of Quota

May 15, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Carlos Rafael pled guilty to running a massive criminal enterprise that stole from honest fishermen and undermined the fisheries as a whole.  One of his quotes offers a revealing insight into his perspective:

“This is America; anything can happen, with money behind it.”

Let’s put his money to work fixing the fishery he badly damaged.

Carlos Rafael should be banned from commercial fishing forever. The fish quota he owns should be redistributed to all the fishermen he harmed. That’s what existing regulations mandate, that’s what many in the industry believe, and we agree.

But we can demand and expect more. Honest fishermen have not been playing on a level field with the likes of Carlos. We need to make sure they aren’t put in that position again.

To do that, we must invest some of his illegal gains in fishing’s future by improving dockside monitoring, expanding electronic monitoring and increasing fishermen-scientist collaborations to get better fish counts.

We can transform this moment into an opportunity to create the oversight and infrastructure necessary to make honest, long-term success possible for our iconic fishery.

This can happen, and Carlos Rafael’s money should be behind it.

This letter originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

Fishermen, Conservationists Go Head To Head Over East Coast Underwater National Monument

May 9, 2017 — New England fishermen are hoping President Donald Trump will reverse an undersea monument designation they say has cut them off from nearly 5,000 square miles of valuable fishing grounds off the coast of Cape Cod.

Trump last month directed the Department of the Interior to conduct a sweeping review of national monument designations over the last two decades, including the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, which President Barack Obama declared the first undersea national monument in the Atlantic Ocean in September.

The area is a “spectacular landscape” home to a “whole diversity of otherwordly creatures that most people are not familiar with,” said Peter Auster, a senior research scientist at Mystic Aquarium who helped secure the designation and has conducted research in the area. There are undersea canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and extinct underwater volcanoes “taller than anything east of the Rockies” with a variety of species of fragile coral, he said.

But Joseph Gilbert, owner of Stonington-based Empire Fisheries, said since the designation, “we’ve been pushed to other areas” creating unnecessary competition and pressure as more boats are fishing in a smaller area. Fishermen, who have been using the area for 200 years, Gilbert said, were given just two months to get out.

Obama used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to declare the area a national monument, and that’s what’s at the heart of Gilbert’s objections, he said. Using the Antiquities Act circumvented the New England Fishery Management Council, the normal process for fishery management, and allowed for less input from the industry, Gilbert said.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

MASSACHUSETTS: All You Need To Know About Cape Cod Herring Runs

May 8, 2017 — For many Cape Cod residents, it’s not spring unless the herring are swimming up local rivers, en route to their summer spawning areas.

These two species of fish, Alewives and Blueback Herring, swarm the Cape’s streams and rivers from hundreds of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean each spring. Amazingly, each individual returns to breed in the same freshwater bodies in which it was born.

Dedicated Herring Counters keep track of them, but the spectacle is seen by all who pay the runs a visit during peak season in April and May.

When to See Herring on Cape Cod

The rest of Eastern Massachusetts often has herring still in migration through mid-June, but on Cape Cod, you’ll see most of them shuffle through by mid-May. They spend the summers in our water bodies, and then head back to sea before autumn.

When driving near rivers and streams, keep an eye out for frenzied seagulls. That’s a clue that herring are running. Water temperature is a tell, also. The fish really crank into gear at 50 degrees.

Cape Cod Herring Run Locations

Monument River Fishway, Bourne – A critical spot for herring, since the groups which flock up this river system are one of the most productive in Massachusetts.

Santuit Pond Fish Ladder – A dam completed in 2013 separates Santuit Pond from the river of the same name at the Santuit Pond Preserve, Mashpee.

Route 130 Herring Run – Not far from the Santuit Pond Ladder, the Rt. 130 ladder next to the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum is easily accessible.

Eastham Herring Run – Nestled on the aptly-named Herring Brook Road near Bridge Pond Drive.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

SEAN HORGAN: Trump take on marine monuments may be good for Cashes Ledge

May 1, 2017 — Last week, President Trump’s declaration that his Interior Department will apply the gimlet eye to the newly designated protected areas — particularly those born of the dreaded single-organism parentage, Antiquitatum Actum — was quickly followed by reports that the prez found his new gig required more heavy lifting than expected.

It’s as if his emergence onto the ramparts of the hostilities over the widespread and autonomous creation of the national monuments areas by the Obama administration finally, utterly convinced Trump that being the fearless leader really is a beast.

Trump’s grand entrance should inflame the narrative even more (if that’s possible), re-energizing all of those city-states — conservationists, fishing stakeholders, energy and mining companies and local communities — spread across Gatsby’s dark fields of the republic.

It also might be better news for one New England area that wasn’t designated than it is for one that was.

Trump’s edict may or may not result in the rollback of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, also known as the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts area, located about 150 miles off Cape Cod.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times

Trump order could put marine monument back in play

April 28, 2017 — President Donald Trump’s new executive order calling for a review of national monument designations under the Antiquities Act could have implications for a marine monument created by President Barack Obama last year in a sweeping area off Cape Cod.

Obama last September announced the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in a 4,913 square mile area about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod. At the time, Gov. Charlie Baker said he was “deeply disappointed” by the designation of the first deep-sea marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, a move the governor viewed as undermining Massachusetts fishermen.

According to the Interior Department, Trump’s order does not strip any monument designation and also does not “loosen any environmental or conservation regulations on any land or marine areas.” It calls for the review of all declarations made since Jan. 1, 1996 that cover more than 100,000 acres or where the Interior secretary determines that the designation “was made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders.”

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area includes three underwater canyons and four underwater mountains that are habitats for protected species, including sea turtles and endangered whales. Local critics of Obama’s September 2016 marine monument designation said it was made without sufficient public input.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Environmentalists vow to fight Trump on Maine monument

April 26, 2017 — President Trump on Wednesday will issue a sweeping executive order to review as many as 40 national monument designations made by his three predecessors, an unprecedented move that could curtail or rescind their protected status.

It was unclear which areas would come under review, but the list could include monuments designated last year by President Barack Obama, including thousands of acres of pristine woods in northern Maine and sensitive marine habitats in the submerged canyons and mountains off Cape Cod.

Environmental groups immediately questioned the president’s legal authority to reverse a previous president’s designation, but the Trump administration has suggested that some of the restrictions on mining, logging, and other commercial and recreational activities have gone too far.

“The review is long overdue,” US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said at a White House news conference.

“No one can say definitely one way or another whether a president can undo an earlier president’s designation, because the issue has never been litigated,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, who has opposed Obama’s closing of 5,000 square miles of seabed to fishing by designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, about 130 miles off Cape Cod.

Mitchell said there is precedent for presidents to change the boundaries and activities within a national monument. President Woodrow Wilson reduced by half the size of the Mount Olympus National Monument in Washington, created by President Theodore Roosevelt.

“Intuitively, one would assume that if the president can establish a monument, the president can undo an earlier establishment,” he said.

Andrew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington, D.C., said the president wouldn’t have to rescind Obama’s designation to address the concerns of the fishing industry.

“With the stroke of a pen, he could just say there’s no longer a ban on commercial fishing,” he said.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

NEFMC Approves Atlantic Herring Alternatives for Analysis

April 24, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its April 18-20 meeting in Mystic, CT, the New England Fishery Management Council reviewed Draft Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and subsequently approved a wide range of alternatives for further analysis. The alternatives fall into two categories: (1) proposals to address potential localized depletion and user conflicts in the fishery; and (2) options to establish an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule that would be used when setting specifications and catch limits. The Council advanced nine primary localized depletion/user conflicts alternatives for additional development:

  • Alternative 1 – No action, meaning no new measures would be implemented;
  • Alternative 2 – A June 1-August 31 closure to all vessels and gear types fishing for Atlantic herring within 6 nautical miles (nm) from shore in Area 114 (solid green area off the back of Cape Cod in map at right);
  • Alternative 3 – A year-round prohibition on using midwater trawl gear in Atlantic Herring Management Area 1A (red hatching in map);
  • Alternatives 4, 5, and 6 – Three “buffer zone” proposals that would prohibit midwater trawl gear inside of 12 nm, 25 nm, and 50 nm respectively in Herring Management Areas 1B, 2, and 3 year-round from Cape Cod to the North/South Carolina border (see map next page);
  • Alternative 7 – A prohibition on midwater trawl gear year-round within five different thirty minute squares – 99, 100, 114, 115, and 123 (green outlined blocks in map at right);
  • Alternative 8 – Revert to original boundary line between Area 1B and 3 (see map page 3);
  • Alternative 9 – Modify the Area 1B seasonal closure to open January 1 instead of May 1.

Read the full release here