Saving Seafood

Herring fishing shut down along New England coast

October 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Herring fishermen are nearing their quota along New England’s coast and the fishery will be shut down until further notice.

The National Marine Fisheries Service says fishermen in the inshore Gulf of Maine have caught about 90 percent of their quota and the fishery was shut down early Tuesday morning. The inshore fishing zone ranges from Cape Cod to the eastern edge of the Maine coast.

Herring are an important bait fish, especially in the lobster fishery. A shortage of the fish in offshore waters caused a bait shortage in New England during the summer.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Daily Progress

Herring Fishing Shut Down Along New England Coast

October 18, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – Herring fishermen are nearing their quota along New England’s coast and the fishery will be shut down until further notice.

The National Marine Fisheries Service says fishermen in the inshore Gulf of Maine have caught about 90 percent of their quota and the fishery was shut down early Tuesday morning. The inshore fishing zone ranges from Cape Cod to the eastern edge of the Maine coast.

Herring are an important bait fish, especially in the lobster fishery. A shortage of the fish in offshore waters caused a bait shortage in New England during the summer.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

100-shark milestone surprises even researchers

October 11th, 2016 — With a quick jab, Greg Skomal reached a milestone last week. The detachable stainless steel tip on his harpoon penetrated the skin of a 14-foot male great white shark hunting seals just 20 feet off Nauset Beach. The dart lodged between the tendons at the base of the shark’s dorsal fin, tethered to a pencil-size acoustic tag that will broadcast a signal identifying the shark for the next decade.

Skomal had tagged his 100th great white, dating back to 2009 when the massive predators began showing up in appreciable numbers off Chatham. He named the shark Casey after shark tagging pioneer Jack Casey, who founded the National Marine Fisheries Service Cooperative Shark Tagging Program in 1962 and developed many of the techniques still in use today.

As the number of sharks coming to the Cape seems to grow every year, so has Skomal’s appreciation of the unique situation he finds himself in: a shark researcher caught in a real-life “Sharknado.”

“If you told me 10 years ago we’d hit a hundred, I’d say, ‘You’re crazy,’” he said.

The number of sharks ranging along the Cape’s shoreline, many passing near surfers and swimmers, is sobering. Skomal, a senior fisheries biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, is finishing the third year of a five-year population study and has identified more than 200 individual sharks through tagging and underwater videos that find unique scars and coloration on each animal.

“Frankly, I was surprised nobody got bit this summer,” said Chris Lowe, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, noting that seals and sharks have modified their behavior to the point where the sharks must hunt in increasingly shallow waters, including the popular beaches where millions swim every summer.

A soon-to-be published study of seven adult gray seals, captured and tagged on the Cape three years ago by a team led by Duke University professor David Johnston, showed them leaving the shore to feed at all times of day and night, and taking multiday trips, when sharks are not around in the winter. But the summer is a different story. Johnston said the study found seals have adapted their behavior to better avoid white sharks. Since great whites rely heavily on their eyesight to hunt, tagged seals were leaving at twilight and taking only single day trips in summer, he said.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Times 

Researchers feud over shark studies off Cape Cod

October 5th, 2016 — A battle is brewing on the high seas off Cape Cod between two groups of researchers trying to tag and track the growing population of great white sharks.

In September, OCEARCH, a non-profit that travels the globe studying marine animals, launched a short-term project called Expedition Nantucket in federal waters, between Cape Cod and the island of Nantucket.

But biologists from the state Division of Marine Fisheries, who are in the third year of a five-year study of the oceangoing predators, say OCEARCH’s vessel has come close to state waters, where they are conducting their own research. The state experts fear that OCEARCH’s methods of attracting and capturing sharks could alter the animals’ natural behavior, jeopardizing their work.

“We’re scared to death of introducing any bias into [our own research], so we are being very cautious,” said state biologist Greg Skomal, lead researcher of the shark population study, which is being funded by the non-profit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Herring fishing to be closed off New England in October

September 28, 2016 — YORK, Maine — Herring fishing off of part of the New England coast will be shut down for most of October.

The closure begins on Sunday and lasts until Oct. 29. It is the product of a spawning forecasting method that interstate regulators approved earlier this year.

Regulators say an analysis of samples necessitates a closure of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area for most of October. The area stretches from the north side of Cape Cod to southern Maine.

Vessels will not be allowed to possess Atlantic herring caught in the area during the closure.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Greenwich Time

NEFMC Receives Atlantic Herring Amendment 8 Update

September 20, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During the first day of its Sept. 20-22 meeting in Danvers, Massachusetts, the New England Fishery Management Council received a progress report on Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The amendment contains two key components that involve:

  • Development of a long-term acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule for the Atlantic herring fishery; and
  • Measures to address potential localized depletion of Atlantic herring.

The ABC control rule may: (1) explicitly account for herring’s role in the ecosystem as a forage species; and (2) address the biological and ecological requirements of the resource itself. It is being developed through a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) approach.

MSE incorporates more public input and technical analyses upfront before alternatives are selected.

The Council held its first MSE public workshop in mid-May to begin gathering recommendations on a potential range of objectives for an ABC control rule, as well as feedback on how the objectives should be evaluated. A second workshop likely will be held Dec. 7-8 in Massachusetts.

The Council also received a briefing on the Atlantic Herring Committee’s late-August discussion about potential alternatives to address localized depletion. Most of the committee’s early proposals focus on variations of “inshore buffer zones” where midwater trawl gear – or in one case all herring gear types – would be restricted or prohibited year-round or seasonally. The Council made two motions to modify the Committee’s initial range of buffer zones, which now span from a discrete six-mile closure in an area off the backside of Cape Cod, up to a 50-mile buffer zone throughout the range of the fishery south of Herring Management Area 1A, covering the inshore portions of Areas 1B, 2, and 3 (see map). The committee will meet again on Oct. 20 and Nov. 9 to further debate and reevaluate the alternatives.

To recap how this all began:

  • The Council went through a public scoping process for Amendment 8 from Feb. 26 to April 30, 2015 to consider long-term harvest strategies for herring through an ABC control rule.
  • After reviewing the scoping comments, the Council in June 2015 expanded the reach of Amendment 8 to “include consideration of the spatial and temporal availability of Atlantic herring” in order to address public concern about localized depletion.
  • The Council is aiming to approve the range of alternatives on localized depletion and ABC control rule measures in January.

Opponents of Atlantic monument say process lacked sufficient analysis

September 19th, 2016 — Opponents of President Barack Obama’s newly designated Atlantic marine monument, which will eventually bar all commercial fishing in a 5,000 square-mile area, say its creation was not preceded by sufficient cost-benefit analysis.

Last week, Obama established a protected area — which will be called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument — of nearly 5,000 square miles 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

The area was established under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows the president to create national monuments without congressional approval, and the method means there was a severe lack of economic and scientific analysis before the decision was made, opponents said.

By contrast, the creation of a national park or changes to fishing policies under the Magnuson-Stevens Act typically trigger extensive public comment and review processes.

Grant Moore, president of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, estimated to Undercurrent News that the economic impact could be over $120 million in lost revenue, but added that making predictions is difficult given how diverse and dynamic the fishery is.

“There was absolutely no analysis done. This was basically behind closed doors,” he said, adding that there were some private meetings, but “nothing that you would have to go through under Magnuson-Stevens”.

According to Moore, many in the industry never expected the monument to pass when they first heard about it a year ago at a meeting in Providence, Rhode Island and is now trying to figure out how it will adjust.

“Basically the industry right now is taking a step back and taking a deep breath. It came at everybody pretty fast,” Moore said.  “It was not until last Friday that certain members of the industry saw the proposal for the first time. That doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to comment and try to work with them. It was basically a done deal.”

Read full story from Undercurrent News 

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker says marine monument designation hurts fishermen

September 16, 2016 — Gov. Charlie Baker is “deeply disappointed” by President Barack Obama’s plan to designate an area off the New England coast as the first deep-sea marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, a move the Swampscott Republican’s administration sees as undermining Massachusetts fishermen.

Obama on Thursday announced the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a 4,913 square mile area that includes three underwater canyons and four underwater mountains that provide habitats for protected species including sea turtles and endangered whales.

Recreational fishing will be allowed in the protected zone but most commercial fishing operations have 60 days to “transition from the monument area,” according to the White House. Red crab and lobster fisheries will be given seven years to cease operations in the area, which is about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

“The Baker-Polito Administration is deeply disappointed by the federal government’s unilateral decision to undermine the Commonwealth’s commercial and recreational fishermen with this designation,” Baker spokesman Brendan Moss said in an email. “The Commonwealth is committed to working with members of the fishing industry and environmental stakeholders through existing management programs to utilize the best science available in order to continue our advocacy for the responsible protection of our state’s fishing industry while ensuring the preservation of important ecological areas.”

The Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association condemned the declaration, accusing the president of abusing his power and “indiscriminately” drawing a border “without taking into account the complexity of the marine ecosystem and domestic fishing fleet.”

Baker in November sent a letter to Obama, outlining what he described as “apprehension” over what was then a potential monument designation. Baker wrote that declaring a protected area could undermine ongoing work to develop marine habitat and ocean plans.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

‘Sad day’ for the fishing industry following marine monument designation

September 16, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Backers of the Northeast U.S. fishing industry reacted with anger, chagrin and legal arguments Thursday to President Barack Obama’s declaration of a marine national monument south of Cape Cod, saying the ocean preservation effort circumvented public process and will significantly damage a key economic engine — and way of life — in the region.

“It’s all anybody’s talking about, that’s for sure,” said Jon Williams, president of Atlantic Red Crab Co. on Herman Melville Boulevard. “The general feeling is (that) it’s a sad day for the New England fishing industry.”

Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — in two areas also known as New England Canyons and Seamounts — permanently bars those areas from an array of commercial and industrial uses, including commercial fishing. The areas total 4,913 square miles, are more than 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod and are the first such monument in the Atlantic Ocean. The designation follows at least a year of concerns and opposition from advocates of the commercial fishing industry, who feared yet another financial hit from government regulations that already include catch limits and quotas broadly questioned by fishermen.

“Millions of dollars of lost revenue are at stake” in the monument decision, states a letter from the Washington, D.C. office of international law firm Kelley Drye & Warren.

The firm sent the letter Sept. 14 to Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, on behalf of the Southern Georges Bank Coalition. The coalition of fishing representatives includes Williams, J. Grant Moore of Broadbill Fishing in Westport, and at least 10 other members from Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.

The letter said those entities “are directly affected by the monument description, as it includes their fishing grounds,” and called Obama’s use of the Antiquities Act to declare the marine monument, “an illegal and illegitimate use of presidential authority.”

“I think there’s widespread and pretty much universal disappointment, anger, frustration and feelings of betrayal in the commercial fishing industry,” said Bob Vanasse, a New Bedford native and executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Saving Seafood.

“There is widespread and deep feeling that our fisheries should be managed under the public process of the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” Vanasse added.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Contention Over New Marine Monument Off Georges Bank In New England

September 16, 2016 — President Obama announced the creation of the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument sits off Cape Cod. The newly protected marine environment that has been called an “underwater Yellowstone”.

It is almost 5,000 square miles, the size of Connecticut, a submerged ecosystem of oceanic canyons, vivid corals and teeming marine wildlife.

Obama created the monument by executive order. Oil and gas exploration and drilling are immediately banned in the area, as well as most commercial fishing. That is why many in the New England fishing industry are protesting Obama’s declaration.

Guest

Tim Shank, associate scientist with tenure at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which tweets @WHOI. Shank is attending the sixth International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals at the Long Wharf Marriott in Boston.

Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company, based out of New Bedford, and president of the New England Red Crab Harvesters’ Association.

Listen to the full story at WBUR