Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Designates Critical Habitat for Atlantic Sturgeon

August 16, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries today designated critical habitat for Atlantic sturgeon–an important step to ensuring their recovery.

The critical habitat designation will require federal agencies to consult NOAA Fisheries if they operate or fund activities that may affect designated critical habitat in more than 3,968 miles of important coastal river habitat from Maine to Florida. Atlantic sturgeon was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2012 and is comprised of the threatened Gulf of Maine distinct population segment and the endangered New York Bight, Chesapeake Bay, Carolina, and South Atlantic distinct population segments.

The ESA requires that NOAA Fisheries designate critical habitat when a species is listed as threatened or endangered. Under the ESA, critical habitat is defined as specific areas within the geographical areas that are occupied by the species, that contain physical or biological features essential to the conservation of that species, and that may require special management considerations.

The designation of critical habitat does not include any new restrictions or management measures for recreational or commercial fishing operations, nor does it create any preserves or refuges. Instead, when a federal agency funds, authorizes, or carries out activities that may affect critical habitat, it must work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or minimize potential impacts to critical habitat. The activity of the federal agency may need to be modified to avoid destroying or adversely modifying the critical habitat.

“We look forward to working with our federal partners to reduce potential impacts to Atlantic sturgeon critical habitat,” said Samuel D. Rauch III, deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs at NOAA Fisheries. “Our focus now will be on providing guidance to federal agencies to help them carry out their actions efficiently and effectively while minimizing impacts to habitat that is critical to these endangered and threatened populations of sturgeon.”

Atlantic sturgeon are anadromous and use coastal and estuarine waters throughout their lives, and travel to rivers to spawn or lay their eggs. Unlike some anadromous fish, sturgeon do not die after spawning and will return to spawn multiple times. They can grow up to 14 feet long, weigh up to 800 pounds, and live up to 60 years.

Historically, Atlantic sturgeon inhabited approximately 38 rivers in the United States spanning from Maine to Florida. Scientists identified 35 of those as spawning rivers. Atlantic sturgeon can now be found in approximately 32 of these rivers, and spawn in at least 20 of them. Critical habitat areas in coastal rivers were identified based on physical and biological features, such as soil type in the river bed, water temperature and salinity, and underwater vegetation, that are essential to the conservation of Atlantic sturgeon, particularly for spawning and development.

Atlantic sturgeon were harvested heavily in the twentieth century, particularly for their eggs (or roe) used for caviar. Overfishing led to a decline in abundance of Atlantic sturgeon, and in 1998 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission issued a coast-wide moratorium on the harvest of Atlantic sturgeon, and NOAA Fisheries followed with a similar moratorium in federal waters.

More information on the critical habitat designation is available in the Federal Register notice and on our website.

Request for Comments: Application for Incidental Take of Atlantic Sturgeon in the James River, Virginia.

August 15, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We recently received an application from Dominion for an Endangered Species Act Section 10(a)(1)(B) Incidental Take Permit for activities associated with their Chesterfield Power Station along the James River in Chesterfield, Virginia.

We are considering issuing a 10-year permit to the applicant that would authorize take of endangered Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) from the Chesapeake Bay Distinct Population Segment (DPS) incidental to the withdrawal of cooling water from the James River and sampling required by the Clean Water Act.

Dominion’s application for an Incidental Take Permit, their draft habitat conservation plan, and our draft environmental assessment are all available at Regulations.gov for public review and comment.

Comments are due on September 13, 2017.

ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board Approves Draft Amendment 3 for Public Comment

August 3, 2017 — ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Menhaden for public comment. The Draft Amendment seeks to manage the menhaden resource in a way that balances menhaden’s ecological role as a prey species with the needs of all user groups. To this end, the Draft Amendment considers the use of ecosystem reference points (ERPs) to manage the resource and changes to the allocation method. In addition, it presents a suite of management options for quota transfers, quota rollovers, incidental catch, the episodic events set aside program, and the Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap.

The 2015 Benchmark Stock Assessment Report identified the development of ERPs as a high priority for Atlantic menhaden management. Menhaden serve an important role in the marine ecosystem as prey for a variety of species including larger fish (e.g. weakfish, striped bass), birds (e.g. bald eagles, osprey), and marine mammals (e.g. humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins). As a result, changes in the abundance of menhaden may impact the abundance and diversity of predator populations, particularly if the availability of other prey is limited. ERPs provide a method to assess the status of menhaden within the broad ecosystem context. Draft Amendment 3 provides a variety of reference point options, including the continued development of menhaden-specific ERPs as well as the application of precautionary guidelines for forage fish species.

Draft Amendment 3 also considers changes to the allocation method given concerns that the current approach may not strike an appropriate balance between gear types and jurisdictions. Specifically, under the current allocation method, increases in the total allowable catch (TAC) result in limited benefits to small-scale fisheries, and to several states. Furthermore, the current method may not provide a balance between the present needs of the fishery and future growth opportunities. Draft Amendment 3 considers a range of allocation alternatives, including a dispositional quota (bait vs. reduction), fleet-capacity quota (quota divided by gear type), jurisdictional quota, including a fixed minimum quota for each state, and an allocation method based on the TAC. In addition, the document considers five allocation timeframes including 2009-2011, 2012-2016, 1985-2016, 1985-1995, and a weighted approached which considers both historic and recent landings.

It is anticipated the majority of states from Maine through Florida will be conducting public hearings on the Draft Amendment. The details of those hearings will be released in a subsequent press release. The Draft Amendment will be available on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org (under Public Input) by August 11th. Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Amendment either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on October 20, 2017 and should be forwarded to Megan Ware, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Amendment 3). Organizations planning to release an action alert in response to Draft Amendment 3 should contact Megan Ware at (703)-842-0740.

Final action on the Amendment, as well as specification of the 2018 TAC, is scheduled to occur on November 14th at the BWI Airport Marriott, 1743 West Nursery Road, Linthicum, MD. For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Opposition grows to seismic testing for offshore oil reserves

More state and local officials join scientists in voicing concerns about impacts on marine life

August 1, 2017 — Scientists are worried that an executive order issued by President Trump earlier this year that seeks to open large portions of the mid-Atlantic and other coastal areas to oil and gas exploration would harm the endangered North Atlantic right whale and other species that occasionally visit the Chesapeake Bay.

Trump’s order, issued April 28, would reverse a 2016 policy from the Obama administration that closed federal waters off portions of the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific coasts and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling as part of the administration’s effort to boost domestic energy production. The order also instructed federal agencies to streamline the permitting process to speed approval of seismic testing to locate oil and gas reserves in those areas.

But the action is increasingly unpopular with many elected officials along the East Coast. In July, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan publically stated his opposition to any further offshore exploration. And the attorneys general from nine East Coast jurisdictions — including those from Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Delaware — submitted comments opposing additional surveys.

“The proposed seismic tests are themselves disruptive and harmful,” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a statement. “Worse, they are the precursors to offshore drilling that would put the Chesapeake Bay at risk to drilling-related contamination. That contamination would have catastrophic impacts on fragile ecosystems and important economies. This is a foolish gamble with our precious natural resources.”

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia is the lone Southeastern governor supporting marine oil exploration, saying he “never had a problem” with seismic testing. While 127 municipalities have passed resolutions against the tests, only five are in Virginia.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

House Committee Approves Harris Chesapeake Bay Amendment

July 17, 2017 — The following was released by the office of Representative Andy Harris (R-MD)

On July 13, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment introduced by Congressman Andy Harris (MD-01) to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2018. This amendment prohibits the use of funds to implement or enforce the designation of any area of the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a “Critical Habitat” for the Atlantic Sturgeon. Congressman Harris issued the following statement praising the amendment’s passage:

“The Appropriations Committee’s adoption of this amendment is a victory for both the conservation of the Bay and the Eastern Shore’s economy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) proposal to designate the Chesapeake Bay as a Critical Habitat for the Atlantic Sturgeon was crafted without adequate opportunity for input from the communities surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. Furthermore, NOAA has failed to document sufficient cause for the designation.

Designation of the Bay as a Critical Habitat for the Sturgeon is an unnecessary and burdensome regulation that could lead to restricted use of various regions of the Bay, stifling commercial activity in the Bay and inhibiting oyster restoration and other important conservation activities.”

Rep. Andy Harris amendment aims to stop Chesapeake sturgeon effort

July 17, 2017 — An amendment from Congressman Andy Harris (R-Md.-1st) to an appropriations bill would prohibit funds to implement a “Critical Habitat” designation for Atlantic Sturgeon anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee adopted Harris’ amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018, according to a statement from Harris’ office.

Harris said a proposal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to designate the Chesapeake Bay as a Critical Habitat for the Atlantic Sturgeon was created without adequate opportunity for input from the communities surrounding the bay, and that NOAA has not documented sufficient cause for the designation.

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

Bill package in Congress funds Chesapeake Bay cleanup

July 11, 2017 — A legislative package in Congress proposes funding several environmental initiatives that would help pay for Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts.

Six out of nine of the bills included in the package were originally introduced by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., according to the senator’s spokesman.

According to a statement from the senator’s office, the package would “reauthorize marquis programs at the heart of restoring and maintaining the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.” Both Democrats and Republicans have signed on as sponsors.

“A healthy Bay means a healthy economy for Maryland and the entire Chesapeake Bay Watershed region, which cannot be accomplished without a reliable federal partner,” Cardin said. “I urge appropriators to take note of the bipartisan support for authorizing these programs, despite the president’s lack of understanding of their worthiness.”

Chesapeake Bay cleanup funding is feared to be in jeopardy following the release of President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which altogether eliminates funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program, an arm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s that helps facilitate Bay cleanup between states across the watershed and tracks progress of pollution reduction.

One part of the legislation would reauthorize and fund the Chesapeake Bay Program until 2023 at $90 million each year, which Cardin’s office said is more than the program has ever been funding in its history.

Read the full story at The Star Democrat

Virginia Marine Resources Commission cuts crab season, scales back bushel limits

June 29, 2017 — Virginia crabbers will come up a bit short this fall after state fisheries managers opted Tuesday to close the season earlier than last year and scale back bushel limits to address an alarming drop in juvenile crab numbers in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted 6-1 in a public hearing to close the crab pot season on Nov. 30 and re-open it March 17 next year. This timeline aligns with a typical crabbing season, but will add up to 16 fewer crabbing days for watermen who’ve been working an extended season because of last year’s ideal stock numbers. Commissioners closed the season on Dec. 15 last year and opened it March 1 this year.

The commission also voted to reduce bushel limits for the entire month of November. Those reductions usually don’t begin until mid-November.

The move comes after a Blue Crab Advisory Report released Monday by the Chesapeake Bay Program showed that juvenile crab numbers had plummeted 54 percent over last year, dragging down the overall blue crab population by almost 18 percent, from 553 million to 455 million. That drop is despite surging numbers in spawning females.

Robert O’Reilly, chief of VMRC’s fisheries division, urged the commission to act to help the stock rebuild.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

LYNTON S. LAND: Bay fishery to keep deteriorating unless nutrients from land are addressed

June 28, 2017 — The March Bay Journal 2017 commentary, Don’t let menhaden become a case of could have, should have, would have, laments the decline in Bay menhaden populations and blames the reduced number of predatory “sport” fish on Omega Protein’s harvest.

The Atlantic States Marine fisheries Commission is quite clear this year that “Atlantic menhaden are neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing” (asmfc.org/species/atlantic-menhaden).

In Maryland, juvenile menhaden are sampled annually through the Estuarine Juvenile Finfish Survey. The index of juvenile menhaden has been low since 1992, and “environmental conditions seem to be a major factor driving recruitment.” (dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Documents/Section_4_Atlantic_Menhaden.pdf).

Something other than overfishing must contribute to, or even be responsible for, reduced Bay menhaden populations. I contend that the primary cause of depleted finfish stocks, including bottom-feeding fish like croaker that do not eat menhaden, and the menhaden themselves, is poor water quality, not overfishing.

As a child in the late 1940s, I recall visiting my uncle’s cottage on the water near Solomons Island, MD, where we caught large bluefish and rockfish. He would give me a quarter to pull up eelgrass from under his boat so the propeller wouldn’t chop it up and foul the engine’s water pump. Dense meadows of grass were obvious beneath the clear water. I doubt there is much eelgrass anywhere near Solomons Island today and Bernie Fowler’s “Wade-In” documents turbidity and the fact that there has been no recent improvement.

I moved to Virginia’s Northern Neck on the Little Wicomico River, near Smith Point, in 1998. At that time, I could exit the jetties and turn to the southeast into about 30 feet of water and easily catch large croaker, as well as spot, trout and flounder. I haven’t caught fish there, nor seen them on the depth sounder, in many years.

The pound nets nearby still catch menhaden for crab bait, although they are smaller than fish in the past. They no longer catch many “food fish.”

In about 2000, big Omega trawlers fishing for menhaden were common up to the Maryland-Virginia line. Now, I never see the trawlers and most of the plentiful menhaden are being caught outside the Bay, where the population is robust. In late summer, schools of Spanish mackerel and bluefish once chased bait on the bar west of Smith Point Light. Casting into the schools, as they were being worked by birds, or trolling beside them, was great fun and very productive. No more.

Spanish mackerel, my favorite fish, are no longer abundant and I rarely see birds actively working the water. Trolling for big rockfish was almost always successful a decade ago. Lately it is more often unsuccessful, although a few are still being caught.

Read the full opinion piece at the Bay Journal

Trump administration pledges to do more with less for U.S. aquaculture

June 5, 2017 — “Aquaculture is not the future of oyster harvests. It’s the present,” said Mark Luckenbach – Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Luckenbach, based at the VIMS lab at Wachapreague, told me those words 11 years ago, when I wrote my first story about oyster aquaculture. Since then, I’ve written more than 100 stories on the topic, and someday, I hope, I’ll write a book. One thing is sure: the present has taken a long time to arrive – not just in the Chesapeake Bay, but all over the country.

Eighty to 90 percent of the seafood eaten in the United States is imported, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In Baltimore, where I live, the crabmeat at my local grocery store is not from the Chesapeake Bay. The salmon is not from this country. And striped bass? Never seen it there, though I live just an hour from where one could catch some of the nicest rockfish you could find anywhere.

NOAA officials want to change what they’re calling a $14 billion seafood trade deficit. At a webinar last week, agency officials said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees NOAA, is committed to “eliminating barriers” to growing aquaculture here in the United States.

In Maryland, we know well some of these barriers as they relate to growing oysters. Would-be growers have spent years awaiting permission to put oysters in the water, even though the bivalves filter the water, increase biodiversity, and even spur recruitment for the Bay’s long-troubled wild oyster population, which is less than 1 percent of historic levels.

On a conference call during the webinar, federal officials touted Maryland’s permit innovations as a success. (They didn’t mention that oyster farmers have blamed NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service for some of those delays, relating to the possible impact of oyster farming on endangered marine turtles.) Maryland worked with the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to streamline the permit process. State and federal officials, as well as oyster farmers, report it is working more smoothly now. (NOAA officials said they had an “ombudsman” role in the process.)

Read the full story at the Bay Journal