Saving Seafood

Feds to monitor 100% of New England commercial fishing to protect at-risk species

April 13, 2022 — The federal government has approved a proposal to increase at-sea monitoring of some commercial fishing trips to 100 percent.

At-sea monitors are workers who collect data on board commercial fishing boats to help inform regulations and management of species. The government approved the new, higher percentage of trip cover on Tuesday, said Michael Pentony, a regional administrator with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The rules apply to valuable species that are harvested in the Northeast such as cod, haddock, and flounder. Pentony said the new rules will replace the old process of calculating a target for the level of monitoring coverage every year.

The coverage target will instead be 100 percent for four years as long as federal funding can support agency and industry costs, he wrote in a letter to fishery managers.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Seafood biz braces for losses of jobs, fish due to sanctions

March 31, 2022 — The worldwide seafood industry is steeling itself for price hikes, supply disruptions and potential job losses as new rounds of economic sanctions on Russia make key species such as cod and crab harder to come by.

The latest round of U.S. attempts to punish Russia for the invasion of Ukraine includes bans on imports of seafood, alcohol and diamonds. The U.S. is also stripping “most favored nation status” from Russia. Nations around the world are taking similar steps.

Russia is one of the largest producers of seafood in the world, and was the fifth-largest producer of wild-caught fish, according to a 2020 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Russia is not one of the biggest exporters of seafood to the U.S., but it’s a world leader in exports of cod (the preference for fish and chips in the U.S.). It’s also a major supplier of crabs and Alaska pollock, widely used in fast-food sandwiches and processed products like fish sticks.

The impact is likely to be felt globally, as well as in places with working waterfronts. One of those is Maine, where more than $50 million in seafood products from Russia passed through Portland in 2021, according to federal statistics.

Read the full story at AP News

Unibond CEO challenges conclusions of study on Chinese processing

March 30, 2022 — A Chinese seafood industry executive has taken issue with a report by a group of Norwegian and U.S. academics that suggested mislabeling is commonplace in the huge Chinese seafood processing industry.

Unibond Seafood International CEO David Jiang said the data and conclusions in the report, “China’s Seafood Imports – Not for Domestic Consumption?” are incorrect because they don’t take into account the percentage of the fish volume reduced in processing.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

NEFMC Recommends Recreational Measures for Gulf of Maine Cod, Haddock for 2022; Discusses Atlantic Cod Stock Structure

February 14, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council met February 1-3, 2022 by webinar and devoted the entire third day of the meeting to groundfish issues. In short, the Council:

  • Developed recommendations on recreational fishing measures for Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock for the 2022 fishing year for consideration by the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) of NOAA Fisheries, which consults with the Council but is responsible for setting the measures;
  • Received a presentation on the 2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Science/Assessment and Management Workshops, as well as the resulting draft final report;
  • Received a progress report from the Atlantic Cod Research Track Working Group; and
  • Engaged in an extensive discussion on potential management units for Atlantic cod based on the recent work on stock structure. The Council gave the Groundfish Committee a specific charge for considering next steps, which the full Council will review and discuss during the April 2022 meeting.

Read the full release from the NEFMC

Fishermen not feeling the effects of ‘marked decrease’ in Atlantic cod population

February 11, 2022 — What started as a research presentation on rising ocean temperatures and decreasing cod supply by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration quickly turned into a revealing conversation about how scientists and their data often do not reflect fishermen’s experiences.

NOAA held a virtual meeting Wednesday focused on the status of Atlantic cod, attended by over 70 fishermen and researchers based in the Gulf of Maine and George’s Bank, which extends from Newfoundland to southern New England.

Findings by a working group of researchers indicated that the lifecycle of the species is being influenced by the environment, specifically rising ocean temperatures, which have changed the fish’s spawning behavior and their predator-prey relationships.

“We are at the point where we are seeing the impact of the temperature increase over the years,” said Lisa Kerr, a researcher at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Deep-water temperatures in the Northeast have increased two degrees since the 1980s. The biomass of Atlantic cod is trending downwards year-over-year, meaning the population is on the decline.

Fishermen in the audience did not dispute these findings. What they did question is whether these facts are having the same implications that the researchers believe.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

U.S. to spend $25 million to distribute East Coast fish to nutrition programs

December 27, 2021 — The federal government will spend $25 million on East Coast fish to aid nutrition assistance programs and help New England’s struggling commercial fishing industry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it would make the purchase on Atlantic groundfish. That is a group of species such as cod, haddock and pollock that come to the docks in states including Massachusetts and Maine and are popular in seafood markets and restaurants.

The purchase came after members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation called on the USDA to purchase more East Coast seafood through its programs that distribute food to residents in need.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

 

Groundfish: Council Picks Framework 63 Preferred Measures; Specifications Include 2022 Catch Limits for Georges Bank Cod

December 10, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its December 7-9, 2021 webinar meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council selected preferred alternatives for Framework Adjustment 63 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan. The Council then voted to submit the framework to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries) for review, approval, and implementation. The target implementation date is May 1, 2022, the start of the next groundfish fishing year.

The framework contains revised fishery specifications for several stocks, including:

• Gulf of Maine cod for fishing years 2022 through 2024;

• Georges Bank cod for fishing year 2022, marking a sharp reduction from previous catch limits;

• Georges Bank yellowtail flounder for fishing years 2022 and 2023; and

• White hake for fishing year 2022, consistent with the new rebuilding plan for this stock.

In addition, the framework includes 2022 total allowable catches (TACs) for three resources on Georges Bank that the U.S. shares with Canada – Eastern Georges Bank cod, Eastern Georges Bank haddock, and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder. The Council signed off on the U.S./Canada TACs during its September meeting. All other groundfish stock specifications remain unchanged from what the Council adopted in Framework 61.

Read the full release from the New England Fishery Management Council

Proposed cod cuts to cost Gloucester fleet

December 9, 2021 — To help rebuild what NOAA scientists say is a Georges Bank cod stock that is overfished, the New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday unanimously set new rules that would drastically reduce the cod catch in the fishing year 2022 that begins May 1. The cuts could cost the Gloucester fleet $1 million in revenue.

The council set limits on both commercial and recreational Georges Bank cod fisheries as it voted to pass along all components of so-called Framework 63 management measures to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which still has to approve this package of recommendations.

After several hours of debate and several back-and-forth amendments, the council declined to remand back to its Scientific and Statistical Committee its recommendations on a 57% lower acceptable biological catch of Georges Bank cod.

New England Fishery Management Council member Elizabeth “Libby” Etrie, program director of the fishing membership organization Northeast Service Sector, Inc. of Gloucester, appeared to have found a compromise position between a remand, which could have delayed the implementation of new fishing rules, and setting a 754 metric ton cod catch for three years, as the scientific panel had originally recommended.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishery groups question cod limits

December 8, 2021 — Two fishing industry trade associations are asking the New England Fishery Management Council to reevaluate its drastically reduced catch limit recommendations on Georges Bank cod.

The groups, the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition and the Associated Fisheries of Maine, say the New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee lacked “relevant information” to make its determination on an Acceptable Biological Catch for Georges Bank cod. They are asking for a remand.

The New England Fishery Management Council is meeting through Thursday, Dec. 9. It plans to discuss its Scientific and Statistical Committee’s recommendations on overfishing limits and acceptable biological catches for several species — including Georges Bank cod and Gulf of Maine cod — for 2022-2024 on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 10:45 a.m.

You can find a link to join the webinar for the council’s meeting here: https://www.nefmc.org/calendar/december-2021-council-meeting.

The Newburyport-based New England Fishery Management Council is charged under federal legislation with conserving and managing fishery resources off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“Why are these assessments not reflecting what fishermen are seeing on the water?” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the nonprofit Northeast Seafood Coalition, which represents commercial fishing interests in the northeastern United States. She said the council will be discussing two critical stocks in Georges Bank cod and Gulf of Maine cod. She said there is uncertainty about the assessment of both stocks.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times