Saving Seafood

ASMFC American Lobster Board Approves Draft Addenda XXVI & III to the American Lobster and Jonah Crab FMPs for Public Comment

October 17, 2017 — NORFOLK, Virginia — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board approved American Lobster Draft Addendum XXVI/Jonah Crab Draft Addendum III for public comment. Given the same data collection needs apply to both American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries, Draft Addendum XXVI and Draft Addendum III are combined into one document that would modify management programs for both species upon its adoption. The Draft Addenda seek to improve harvest reporting and biological data collection in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. The Draft Addenda propose using the latest reporting technology, expanding the collection of effort data, increasing the spatial resolution of harvester reporting, and advancing the collection of biological data, particularly offshore.

Recent management action in the Northwest Atlantic, including the protection of deep sea corals, the declaration of a national monument, and the expansion of offshore wind projects, have highlighted deficiencies in current American lobster and Jonah crab reporting requirements. These include a lack of spatial resolution in harvester data and a significant number of fishermen who are not required to report. As a result, efforts to estimate the economic impacts of these various management actions on American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries have been hindered. States have been forced to piece together information from harvester reports, industry surveys, and fishermen interviews to gather the information needed. In addition, as American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries continue to expand offshore, there is a greater disconnect between where the fishery is being prosecuted and where biological sampling is occurring. More specifically, while most of the sampling occurs in state waters, an increasing volume of American lobster and Jonah crab are being harvested in federal waters. The lack of biological information on the offshore portions of these fisheries can impede effective management.

The Draft Addenda present three questions for public comment: (1) what percentage of harvesters should be required to report in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries; (2) should current data elements be expanded to collect a greater amount of information in both fisheries; and (3) at what scale should spatial information be collected. In addition, the Draft Addenda provide several recommendations to NOAA Fisheries for data collection of offshore American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. These include implementation of a harvester reporting requirement for federal lobster permit holders, creation of a fixed-gear VTR form, and expansion of a biological sampling program offshore.

It is anticipated the majority of states from Maine through New Jersey will be conducting public hearings on the Draft Addenda. The details of those hearings will be released in a subsequent press release. The Draft Addenda will be available on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org (under Public Input) by October 27th. Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addenda either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on January 22, 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 Addenda XXVI & III).

ASMFC Spiny Dogfish Board Approves 2018 Fishery Specifications

October 17, 2017 — NORFOLK, Virginia — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

The Commission’s Spiny Dogfish Management Board approved a spiny dogfish commercial quota of 38,195,822 pounds for the 2018 fishing season (May 1, 2018 – April 30, 2019). The Board maintained a 6,000 pound commercial trip limit in state waters (0-3 miles from shore) in the northern region (Maine through Connecticut). The quota and northern region trip limit are consistent with the measures recommended to NOAA Fisheries by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. States in the southern region (New York to North Carolina) have the ability to set state-specific trip limits based on the needs of their fisheries.

2018 marks the third year of the current federal 3-year specifications cycle. It is anticipated the stock assessment will be updated in 2018 to inform development of fishery specification recommendations, including the commercial quota, for 2019 and beyond. Additionally, the Board intends to discuss issues raised by the Advisory Panel (and other fishery participants) in more detail prior to setting 2019 specifications. The timing of the next benchmark stock assessment for spiny dogfish is less certain, however, the Board supported the Council’s recommendations to conduct a benchmark stock assessment in 2019, or soon after.

The 2018 spiny dogfish commercial quota allocations (in pounds) for the northern region and the states of New York through North Carolina are provided below. Any overages from the 2017 season will be deducted from that region’s or state’s 2018 quota allocation. Similarly, any eligible roll overs from the 2017 season will be applied to that region’s or state’s 2018 quota allocation.
For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740

The New England fish dish that saved a nation

Shad bakes are a dance of heat and timing that have been going on for generations up and down the East Coast of the United States for more than 100 years.

September 6, 2017 — Joseph Shea presides over a culinary jigsaw puzzle. He and his apprentices squat around a hexagonal fire, shifting slabs of wood with fish nailed to them against the heat. Flames lick at angled oak planks, coaxing out the oils of the American shad, Connecticut’s state fish, and cooking it to a delicate crust just steps away from where it was spawned.

At a call from the bake master, a fire-tender hoists a numbered plank from the heat source and hurries it across the lawn, where a team of workers unhinge half a dozen fish from their crucifix and pass the plate to the server with assembly-line accuracy: gill to gullet in 30 minutes or less.

This dance of heat and timing has been going on up and down the East Coast of the United States for more than 100 years. Though home-planked shad can be traced back to early 18th-Century cookbooks, large-scale shad bakes similar to Shea’s began in the late 1800s, when savvy travel marketers used the events as a way to entice an emerging middle class to the suburbs for entertainment and a taste of country life.

Today, the tradition is kept alive by civic organisations, most famously in the tiny Connecticut hamlet of Essex, which has held an annual Rotary Club shad bake since 1958.

This unique way of cooking large amounts of shad is a rite of spring in my home state of Connecticut. The filleted fish, its 1,000 tiny bones expertly removed, is nailed to boards and circled around a roaring fire. Angled in such a way and blackened by decades of reuse, the planks help release the excess fish’s oils into a pan below to make the fish light, imparting a flavour that cannot easily be replicated outside of an open fire.

The resulting delicacy, sometimes compared to a lean salmon, requires little else beyond the smoky taste of the fire – and strip of salt pork fat and a smattering of paprika for added flavour, applied to the fish before it hits the flame.

Read the full story at the BBC

States Schedule Hearings on Atlantic Menhaden Draft Amendment 3

August 17, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

August 31, 2017 — This press release revises the release distributed August 17th with the addition of Maryland’s public hearing information. All other information remains the same.

September 20, 2017 — This press release revises the release distributed on August 31st, rescheduling Florida’s hearing from September 26th to October 10th. Details on PRFC’s listen only webinar are also provided below.

The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Florida have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The details of those hearings follow.

Maine Dept. of Marine Resources

October 5, 2017; 6 PM

Yarmouth Town Hall

200 Main Street

Yarmouth, ME

Contact: Pat Keliher at 207.624.6553

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department

October 3, 2017; 7 PM

Urban Forestry Center

45 Elwyn Road

Portsmouth, NH

Contact: Cheri Patterson at 603.868.1095

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

October 2, 2017; 6 PM

Thayer Public Library, Logan Auditorium

798 Washington Street

Braintree, MA

Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531

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October 5, 2017; 6 PM

Bourne Community Center, Room 2

239 Main Street

Buzzards Bay, MA

Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531

Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife

October 4, 2017; 6 PM

University of Rhode Island Bay Campus

Corless Auditorium, South Ferry Road

Narragansett, RI

Contact: Robert Ballou at 401.222.4700 ext: 4420

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

September 11, 2017; 7 PM

CT DEEP Boating Education Center

333 Ferry Road

Old Lyme, CT

Contact: Mark Alexander at 860.447.4322

New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation

September 12, 2017; 6 PM

NYSDEC Division of Marine Resources

205 N. Belle Mead Road

East Setauket, NY

Contact: Jim Gilmore at 631.444.0430

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

September 13, 2017; 6 PM

Manahawkin (Stafford Township) Courtroom

260 East Bay Avenue

Manahawkin, NJ

Contact: Russ Allen at 609.748.2020

Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

September 14, 2017; 6 PM

DNREC Auditorium

89 Kings Highway

Dover, DE 19901

Contact: John Clark at 302.739.9914

Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources

September 18, 2017; 6 PM

Anne Arundel Community College

Cade Center fr the Fine Arts – Room 219

101 College Parkway

Arnold, MD

Contact: Lynn Fegley at 410.260.8285

 

Potomac River Fisheries Commission

September 19, 2017; 6 PM

Carpenter Building

222 Taylor Street

Colonial Beach, VA

Contact: Martin Gary at 804.456.6935

Virginia Marine Resources Commission

September 20, 2017; 6 PM

Northumberland High School

201 Academic Lane

Heathsville, VA

Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247

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September 21, 2017; 6 PM

2600 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor

Newport News, VA

Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247

North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

September 27, 2017; 6 PM

Central District Office

5285 US Highway 70 West

Morehead City, NC

Contact: Michelle Duval at 252.808.8013

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

October 10, 2017; 6 PM

Town of Melbourne Beach Community Center

507 Ocean Avenue

Melbourne Beach, FL

Contact: Jim Estes at 850.617.9622

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Draft Amendment 3 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.

The Draft Amendment is available here or on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. 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 Amd. 3). If your organization is planning to release an action alert in response to Draft Amendment 3, please contact Megan Ware at 703.842.0740, so she can work with you to develop a unique subject line to enable us to better organize and summarize incoming comments for Board review.

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.

Crews recover bodies of 2 fishermen swept off Penfield Reef

August 21, 2017 — FAIRFIELD, Ct. — The bodies of two fishermen have been found by divers after they went missing off of Penfield Reef in Fairfield Saturday morning.

Fairfield fire officials say Victor Paulino, 32, and Jose Cruz, 40, were among six people who were there fishing around 4 a.m. When the tide came in, three of the fishermen became stranded on the reef. Three others were swept into the water.

The first 911 call came in around 7:30 a.m., and fire and police boats were able to rescue those stuck on the reef and one person from the water.

Read the full story at News 12

No new rules for declining southern New England lobstering

August 2, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — An interstate panel that manages fisheries voted on Tuesday against a plan to try to preserve the declining southern New England lobster population with new fishing restrictions.

The New England lobster fishery is based largely in Maine, where the catch has soared to new heights in recent years. But the population has collapsed off Connecticut, Rhode Island, southern Massachusetts and New York’s Long Island as waters have warmed in those areas.

An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission considered a host of new restrictions about lobster fishing in southern New England on Tuesday and chose to shoot the plan down.

Restrictions could have included changes to legal harvesting size, reductions in the number of traps fishermen can use and closures to areas where lobsters are harvested. But members of the commission’s lobster board said they feared the proposed restrictions wouldn’t do enough to stem the loss of lobsters.

Board members agreed to try to figure out a new strategy to try to help the crustaceans, which have risen in value in recent years as Asian markets have opened up.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

New rules to help southern New England lobsters up for vote

July 31, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — A plan to try to slow the decline of southern New England’s lobster population with new fishing restrictions is up for a potential final vote this week.

The population of lobsters off Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts has plummeted in recent years. The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering a host of new restrictions about lobster fishing at a meeting on Tuesday.

Proposed management tools have included changes to legal harvesting size, reductions to the number of traps and seasonal closures to fishing areas.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

CONNECTICUT: Industry expert says consumers have a role in saving local seafood

July 28, 2017 — STONINGTON, Ct. — Finding fresh, locally caught fish isn’t easy, but if educated consumers are persistent, they will not only help local fishermen, they’ll also help rebuild weakened domestic seafood markets that have been deeply gouged by imports and regulations.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a producer and trader of frozen seafood in North Kingstown, explained these points and more in her presentation, “Sea to Table: Bringing the Bounty of the Sea to You,” before an audience of about 40 people at the La Grua Center Thursday night.

In attendance were state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, First Selectman Rob Simmons and a number of longtime local fishermen. The Stonington Economic Development Commission sponsored Lapp’s presentation.

She was joined by a panel comprised of Tom Williams, a generational fisherman with two sons who are commercial fishermen; Rich Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance; and Mike Gambardella, owner of Gambardella Wholesale Fish at the Stonington Town Dock.

Lapp said the fishing industry was so over-regulated, “You practically have to be a lawyer to go fishing.”

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun

CONNECTICUT: Resurgent Blessing of the Fleet keeps focus on local fishermen who died at sea

July 26, 2017 — Sunday’s 63rd annual Blessing of the Fleet will feature some new additions while retaining its customary focus on members of the Town Dock fishing fleet who have died at sea and their families.

“We never want to lose sight of that. This is a family tradition we’re upholding,” said committee co-chairman Mike Crowley about the event, which he added is experiencing a resurgence thanks to supporters with new attractions and a growing parade.

Crowley said this year’s blessing will include the restored 61-foot eastern-rig dragger Roann, a National Historic Landmark that is on display at Mystic Seaport. The Roann’s previous owners, the Williams family, fished out of Point Judith, R.I., and occasionally Stonington.

There will also be tent at the Town Dock this year with artifacts from the fleet as well as photos and stories about its boats, captains and crews. New England Science and Sailing in the borough also will have an exhibit and will be offering children’s activities from noon to 4 p.m. at the Town Dock.

As it always does, the event begins with a special Fishermen’s Mass at 10:30 a.m. St. Mary Church in the borough, which plays an integral part in the annual celebration, Crowley said. The Mass commemorates fleet members who have died at sea and includes prayers for the safety and success of current fishermen.

About 11:45 a.m., a parade will step off from the Town Dock, proceed through the borough and pass by St. Mary Church, where the Most Rev. Michael Cote, Bishop of Norwich, will join the procession back to the Town Dock, where he will bless the boats in the fleet. After the blessing and laying of a wreath in memory of local fishermen who have died at sea, there will be food at the Town Dock and music by the band Country Misfits from noon to 4 p.m.

Read the full story at The Day

CONNECTICUT: Expert’s talk at LaGrua Thursday to focus on benefits of local sea-to-table options

July 24, 2017 — STONINGTON, Ct. — Meghan Lapp, an expert on the commercial fishing industry and its regulations, will give a talk entitled “Sea to Table: Bringing the Bounty of the Sea to You” on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the LaGrua Center at 32 Water St.

The Stonington Economic Development Commission is sponsoring the presentation, which will focus on how local harvesters provide fresh seafood, navigate fishery regulations and science, and what species are fresh, local and available. Admission is free.

Lapp, of Narragansett, is a fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a producer and trader of sea-frozen fish in North Kingstown. She is on the Habitat Advisory Panel and the Herring Advisory Panel for the New England Fishery Management Council, the Ecosystems and Oceans Planning Advisory Panel for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Menhaden Advisory Panel for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

She holds a master’s degree in legal science from Queen’s University in Belfast.

Growing up in Long Island, Lapp had familial ties in the fishing industry and worked in a fish market alongside commercial fisherman during summers in college.

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun