Saving Seafood

Federal study surveys spawning Atlantic Cod

March 23, 2020 — Fisheries biologists used to rely on fishermen to tell them where fish were spawning and when. Fish are attracted to specific areas at certain times of the year, and fishermen find those important spawning grounds because the fishing is easy and the females come up bursting with eggs.

“Historically, researchers try to get in a good relationship with fishermen,” said Timothy Rowell, a research biologist with the passive acoustic research group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. “They have the best local knowledge of where (the fish) are aggregating and spawning.”

Although researchers still depend on fishermen, they also use ever more sophisticated technology to help them find and study fish in the immensity of the world’s oceans. That is true of a four-year $1.3 million study of spawning fish in the sprawling blocks of ocean southeast of Block Island that are zoned to build massive offshore wind farms.

NOAA, the state Division of Marine Fisheries, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology are all participating in the study, which is funded by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The research is focused on what may be one of the last remaining major seasonal spawning gatherings in the Northwest Atlantic, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NOAA Fisheries Announces Adjustments to the Inseason Possession and Trip Limit Increases for the Common Pool Groundfish Fishery

March 23, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Effective today, the common pool possession and trip limits for Georges Bank (GB) cod, Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod, GOM haddock, Cape Cod(CC)/GOM yellowtail flounder, American plaice, and witch flounder are increased, as summarized in the table below. These increases are in effect through the end of the fishing year on April 30, 2020.

For more details, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register, and our permit holder bulletin.

Read the full release here

Reminder: Current Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Measures

March 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This is a reminder that current recreational fishing measures for the Gulf of Maine cod and haddock remain in place until we implement Fishing Year 2020 measures.

Gulf of Maine Cod

The recreational Gulf of Maine cod fishery is closed until September 15, 2020.

Gulf of Maine Haddock

Open Season: April 15, 2020-February 28, 2021
Minimum Size: 17 inches
Possession Limit: 15 fish per day

We are developing the proposed rule for the 2020 measures, and expect to have the new rules in place in early summer 2020.

For more, read the bulletin posted on our website.

Questions?

Fishermen: Contact Spencer Talmage, Regional Office, 978-281-9232

Media: Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, 978-281-9175

What lives, what dies? The role of science in the decision to cull seals to save cod

March 16, 2020 — Atlantic cod on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland supported one of the world’s greatest fisheries for over three centuries. Yet this seemingly inexhaustible resource is in bad shape. Some stocks are now endangered and their survival could depend on removing a key predator, the grey seal.

This raises some difficult questions: How do we determine the value of one species over another, and what is the role of science in this conundrum?

My colleagues and I in the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia are fascinated by these questions. As an interdisciplinary group of economists, ecologists and social scientists, we commonly attribute values to animals in different ways. But determining whether to kill one animal to preserve another is less straightforward.

The collapse of the Grand Banks fisheries is considered one of the most significant failures in the history of natural resource management — akin to the ongoing degradation of the Amazon — and casts a long shadow over Canadian fisheries management.

Read the full story at The Conversation

Scientists Collecting Data on Commercial Fish Species in Wind Energy Lease Areas

March 12, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries scientists and colleagues have started a three-year study of Atlantic cod and other commercial fish species in Southern New England. Their goal is to gather baseline data to address how offshore wind development in the region could affect these animals.

An autonomous underwater glider is surveying areas in and around Cox’s Ledge. This includes the South Fork wind energy lease area south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The glider has a hydrophone to detect fish spawning sounds and an acoustic telemetry receiver to detect tagged fish. The receiver will identify location and seasonal occurrence of hotspots for key commercial and federally listed fish species.

According to project lead Sofie Van Parijs, there is little information on Atlantic cod spawning specific to Southern New England waters. Cod elsewhere are known to form large, dense spawning aggregations in predictable locations relatively close to shore, where they can be vulnerable to disturbance that might affect spawning success. Van Parijs also heads the Passive Acoustics Research Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

“Biological sampling will determine the population’s onset of spawning and track growth, maturity, age structure, and other life history parameters,” Van Parijs said. “This information will help inform the starting date for our glider surveys each year. We will tentatively conduct these surveys from December through March this year and for longer periods in the subsequent two years.”

Read the full release here

ALASKA: RFM Certification for Gulf of Alaska Cod Remains, While MSC Certification is Suspended

March 11, 2020 — For the next 33 days, Alaska processors who sell Pacific cod from the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification program will be switching from packaging and promotions that use the MSC logo to those that don’t.

But the state’s other certification program, Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM), will not be suspended on April 5, 2020. Pacific cod from the GOA, no longer certified as sustainable by MSC, continues to be labeled sustainable under RFM without interruption.

Read the full story at Seafood News

What the History of Salmon Can Tell Us About the Future of the Planet

March 5, 2020 — Mark Kurlansky has been telling the story of how humans eat, one food at a time over the last 20 years. He has published popular books including Cod, Salt, and Milk, but his 33rd book is written with a new sense of urgency.

“Of all the things that I’ve looked at over the years, I’ve never run across anything that I found scarier than the fact that the oceans are losing their carrying capacity, that the ocean is losing its ability to feed fish. That’s another way of saying that the planet is losing its ability to sustain itself,” he said. “Salmon is one avenue to talk about that.

Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate, released this week, includes a fascinating account of how these unique creatures live, sometimes navigating hundreds of miles back to their place of birth to spawn while leaping waterfalls and actively changing the color of their bodies.

“It’s just one of the most incredible animals in the animal kingdom. It’s extremely beautiful and has this incredible lifecycle that sounds like it was written by a Greek tragedy writer,” he said.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

US Commerce Department allocates $35 million for Alaska fisheries disasters

March 2, 2020 — Fishermen affected by the 2018 Pacific cod and Chignik sockeye disasters will soon have access to about $35 million in relief funding.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross allocated about $65 million to fisheries disaster relief, about $35 million of which is for Alaska, according to a Feb. 27 announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Within Alaska, about $24.4 million will go to the Pacific cod fishery disaster and about $10.3 million to the Chignik sockeye fishery. The funding was appropriated when Congress passed the 2019 Consolidated and Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Fisheries disasters can be declared under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Management and Conservation Act when natural disasters or management actions significantly negatively impact stakeholders’ ability to participate in a fishery.

In the case of the Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska, scientists are linking the decline in stock abundance to environmental causes; in Chignik, the salmon decline seemed to be linked to poor environmental conditions for sockeye that summer.

Both disaster requests had already been granted, but the amount of funding that the fisheries would have allocated to them was yet to be determined. The National Marine Fisheries Service determines how much funding to allocate to fisheries based on commercial revenue loss information.

Affected fishermen will be able to apply for funding to help with infrastructure projects, habitat restoration, state-run vessel and fishing permit buybacks, and job retraining, according to the announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

NOAA grants Alaskan Fisheries $24.4 million in disaster relief funding

February 28, 2020 — Thursday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), approved a $24.4 million dollar disaster relief package to help restore the loss of fisheries impacted by the 2018 pacific cod fishery disaster and sockeye salmon failure in Chignik.

The money will be administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission who will distribute the relief payments to fishermen and their deckhands, processors, and fishery research in the affected regions.

Read the full story at KTUU