Saving Seafood

How safe is the fishing industry in South Jersey?

May 25, 2016 — CAPE MAY, N.J. — The dangers of commercial fishing were illustrated dramatically 6 miles off Cape May on April 28 when the scallop boat Last Stand collided with a 400-foot barge pushed by the tug Dean Reinauer.

Three fishermen aboard the Last Stand donned survival suits, climbed into a life raft and paddled away from the rigging as the fishing boat rolled and sank beneath the waves in just minutes.

Nobody was hurt, and the U.S. Coast Guard based in Cape May rescued the fishermen safely. The Coast Guard is investigating the accident.

“The industry is as cautious as they can be. They are prepared. They’re not careless. They’re not reckless,” said Gregory DiDomenico, president of the trade group Garden State Seafood Association.

DiDomenico said the sinking shows how preparation and training made a difference in a crisis. By comparison, he said, many times more recreational boaters die in accidents each year.

“When you consider all the regulatory measures and Coast Guard inspections and the amount of technology and electronics on board today … they want to come home at the end of every trip,” he said.

Read the full story at Press of Atlantic City

Changing Migration Patterns Upend East Coast Fishing Industry

May 11, 2016 — Summer flounder that once amassed in North Carolina have gradually shifted about 140 miles to New Jersey—one facet of the northward migration of fish species that is upending traditional fishing patterns.

The move north has sparked debate among regulators over how to respond to changing natural resources that could affect commercial fisheries across the eastern seaboard.

For the first time, a group of researchers backed by the federal government is trying to ascertain what the northward movement means for fishermen’s income and way of life.

“Some fisherman will end up losing out and some will win big,” said Malin Pinsky, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at Rutgers University, who is part of a team of scientists from Rutgers, Princeton University and Yale University studying the phenomenon.

Funded through a piece of a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant, the team of scientists is examining how shifting patterns of where fish congregate is affecting commercial anglers and how they are changing their practices. They are also studying what kind of regulations may be needed to adapt to these changing realities.

For Lund’s Fisheries, for example, the northward creep has forced the company’s boats to catch the flounder in New Jersey and then spend time traveling to North Carolina, where regulations allow them to bring them on shore in more abundant quantities. When the boats travel south, the fishery can’t catch sea bass, scup and other species they may have reeled in at the same time in waters off New Jersey.

“It does cause us to drive fish around the ocean longer than we have historically. That gets factored into the cost of doing business,” said Jeff Kaelin, an executive at the company, which has facilities in Cape May, N.J., and North Carolina.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

First U.S. Clam Fishery Embarks on Sustainable Fishing Assessment

December 22, 2015 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC):

The Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog fishery has become the first clam fishery in the U.S. to step forward for assessment to the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) global standard for sustainable fishing. Working with scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups, MSC has developed the world’s most credible and recognized standard for environmentally sustainable wild-caught seafood.

Iconic surfclams and ocean quahogs are important commercial species in the U.S, found in products such as breaded clam strips, minced clams, stuffed clams, chowders and bisques. In 2014, the surfclams and quahogs harvest was valued at approximately $30 million and $22 million, respectively.

If certified, these clams will be eligible to carry the internationally recognized blue MSC ecolabel, which provides consumers an easy way to choose seafood that can be traced back to a certified sustainable source.
 
Mike Kraft, Vice President of Sustainability, Bumble Bee Seafoods, one of the processors supporting this assessment said: “Our customers and consumers care about sustainability and want to contribute to healthy ocean ecosystems by enjoying sustainably harvested surfclams and quahogs now, and in the future. We are confident that the MSC process will validate the sustainability of these well-managed and healthy fisheries.”

Brian Perkins, MSC regional director – Americas, said: “The MSC’s vision is for oceans to be teeming with life for future generations. We welcome the U.S. Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog fishery’s decision to enter MSC assessment. This is an important milestone for the MSC and for fishing in the U.S.”

Landing ports for U.S. Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog are New Bedford, Gloucester, and Fairhaven, Massachusetts; Warren and Bristol, Rhode Island; Point Pleasant, Atlantic City, Cape May, and Port Norris, New Jersey; and on occasion, Ocean City, Maryland. The processors supporting this assessment include: Bumble Bee Seafoods; Sea Watch International Ltd; Lamonica Fine Foods; Atlantic Capes Fisheries Inc.; and Surfside Foods LLC.

The independent assessment will be conducted by SCS Global Services, an accredited third-party conformity assessment body. SCS Global Services will assemble a team of fishery science and policy experts to evaluate the fishery according to the three principles of the MSC Fisheries Standard: the health of the stock of surfclam and ocean quahog; the impact of fishing on the marine environment; and the management of the fishery. The process takes around 18 months and is open to stakeholders. All results are peer reviewed and no decision is made about a fishery’s sustainability until after the assessment is

Court case highlights conflict between fishermen and marine mammals

November 16, 2015 — A Cape May County tuna fisherman is fighting federal charges of shooting a pilot whale that was feeding on his boat’s catch.

Daniel Archibald denies the charges filed against him in U.S. District Court. But his lawyer, Bill Hughes Jr., said in court papers that even if Archibald shot the animal, he wasn’t breaking any laws.

The unusual case highlights the often contentious relationship between fishermen and the seals, whales and dolphins that steal their catch. And it points to the murky laws that give fishermen, marine contractors, researchers and others permission in some cases to kill them.

Prosecutors say Archibald, 27, of Cape May, in 2011 used a rifle to shoot at short-finned pilot whales feeding on the long-line catch of the Capt. Bob, a tuna boat based in Sea Isle City.

He was charged with conspiracy to take marine mammals on the high seas and violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Read the full story at Press of Atlantic City

New Bedford seafood company files for chapter 11 bankruptcy

October 28, 2015 — A New Bedford seafood company filed yesterday under chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, listing assets of $709,000 and liabilities of $2.9 million.

Chapter 11 usually indicates a company is trying to reorganize and stay in business.

Top Quality Seafood & Shellfish LLC listed its biggest unsecured creditor as Atlantic Capes Fisheries of Cape May, New Jersey, owed $2.06 million. The filing attributes the debt to a “civil judgment.” The biggest Boston creditor listed is Red’s Best, owed $15,643.

Read the full story from the Boston Business Journal

Dozens of whales join fishermen off New Jersey coast

August 18, 2015 — Dozens of long finned pilot whales joined anglers fishing offshore in the 24th Annual MidAtlantic offshore fishing tournament taking place this week in Cape May.

Several pods of the whales mixed in with the fishing boats as they trolled for trophy fish in the offshore canyons.

Pilot whales are the second largest member of the dolphin family with killer whales being the largest. According to Bob Schoelkopf  founder of the  Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine said pilot whales feed mainly on squid and they travel in large groups with up to 150 individuals. Males can reach up to 25 feet and females are about 18 feet.

View the video and read the full story at Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Shellfish mother lode found off Cape May

LOWER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (Press of Atlantic City) — July 10, 2015 — It may be fortunate that nobody has asked Dvora Hart to count the Atlantic sea scallops recently captured by camera images off the New Jersey coast.

Hart, a mathematical biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, knows numbers. She could count that high. The problem: It would take awhile.

“Ten billion is my best guess. It’s probably conservative and it’s very preliminary,” said Hart.

It’s being called one of the biggest scallop sets ever recorded, eclipsing one in 2003 fishermen harvested for years. The estimate of 10 billion is only for the most concentrated area, scallop grounds called the Elephant Trunk just southeast of Cape May covering more than 1,500 square nautical miles. The set actually extends as far north as Long Island and Block Island and as far south as the Delmarva Peninsula. Hart is still working on the overall numbers.

“The big concentration is southern New Jersey, a little north of Cape May, down to Delaware. You start to see them at 35 meters and the highest density is 50 to 60 meters. They drop off at 70 to 80 meters,” said Hart.

NOAA’s underwater camera recorded about 4 million images off the Mid-Atlantic coast earlier this year. Each picture is one square meter of ocean floor and Hart was seeing up to 350 scallops per image. Hart, the chief scallop assessment scientist with NOAA, puts that into perspective.

“Normally we’d see one scallop per square meter, which is actually good recruitment. We had a wide range of more than 100 per square meter and several places where they were on the order of 350 per square meter. This is an extreme event. It’s pretty amazing,” said Hart.

The find is great news for the Port of Cape May, where scallops are still the No. 1 catch but recent East Coast harvest cutbacks, about 20 percent averaged over the last two years, hurt the industry.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City