Connecticut Archives - Page 17 of 18

New England Fishery Council Honors Steve Correia of Fairhaven, MA

April 20, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Former Massachusetts state fishery scientist Steven Correia received the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) Janice Plante Award of Excellence for 2016 at its meeting today in Mystic, CT. While the now-retired Fairhaven resident was employed by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries for over 30 years, Steve was honored by the NEFMC for his extraordinary contributions to federal fisheries management.

The annual Janice Plante Award of Excellence, first awarded to Janice herself in 2015 for her outstanding news coverage of New England’s fisheries, was established to pay special tribute to those who have displayed outstanding commitment and contributions of time and energy in service to the Council fishery management system.

For the last 26 years Steve served the NEFMC in various ways. He was a member of the technical teams that provide the scientific underpinnings of the Council’s management actions. To that end, he was a charter member of the Scallop Plan Development Team, or PDT, beginning in 1991 and served on the Groundfish PDT from 1994 through 2015, during one of the most challenging periods faced by the New England Council.

But he also was a key contributor to nearly all of the Council’s major PDTs at one time or another. The standing joke among his colleagues was that Steve was the most valuable Council employee who was not on the NEFMC payroll. He was Chairman of the Multispecies Monitoring Committee from 1997 through 2001 and during other periods was a member of the Atlantic Herring, Monkfish, Red Crab, and Dogfish PDTs, always bringing ideas, analysis, and integrity to the job.

During the development of the Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) as we know it today, he was influential in designing effort controls to reduce fishing pressure on fish stocks of concern and stock rebuilding programs, harvesting “sector” rules, and methods to establish and account for catch limits. As a member of the Scallop PDT, Steve participated in the development of the rotational management system and the early scallop closed area access programs. He also helped develop measures to protect river herring and shad that were eventually included in the NEFMC’s Herring Fishery Management Plan.

Steve frequently contributed to the stock assessments supporting each fishery management plan. Through his long experience, he was able provide key perspectives to management challenges, often helping less experienced Council staff better understand the context of management choices. He also served on the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee in 2011 and several years on its Research Steering Committee.

He touched nearly every management decision made by the Council since at least 1990. His hard work and technical skills were valued by every PDT chair and significantly improved the analyses that supported Council actions. During his many years of service Steve Correia was an invaluable asset to both staff and the Council alike.

From left: NEFMC Chairman Terry Stockwell, Correia, and Dr. David Pierce, Director, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

Regulations call for fewer, bigger black bass on hook

April 12, 2016 — While the Massachusetts regulations for recreational fluke and scup remain unchanged for the upcoming 2016 fishing season, recreational anglers will have to adhere to smaller bag limits and minimum possession guidelines for black sea bass.

Massachusetts, which is part of a multi-state management plan for black sea bass administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, must join Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey in the northern region in reducing its black sea bass harvest by 23 percent to adhere to the new management plan restrictions.

In Massachusetts, the 2016 black sea bass season will run May 21 to Aug. 31 and recreational fishermen will be limited to keeping five fish per day, with the minimum catch size set at 15 inches.

Those parameters are different from 2015, when the season ran May 23 to Aug. 27 and anglers were allowed to keep eight black sea bass per day as long as they met or exceeded the minimum possession size of 14 inches.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

On Long Island Sound, Discord Over Push for Fishing Rights

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — February 26, 2016 — The proposal: to open part of Long Island Sound, the sliver of ocean separating New York’s Long Island from Connecticut and Rhode Island, to striped bass fishing by shifting it from federal to state control.

The problem: The New York congressman who’s pushing the idea didn’t check first with Rhode Island or Connecticut, where lawmakers say the proposal is pointless at best and environmentally dangerous at worst.

Striped bass fishing is allowed in state waters but banned in the federal area, and Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York says he wants to restore local control and common sense to fishery management. He introduced a bill to change the boundary for 150 square miles.

Though Rhode Island would get control over a slice, U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, said the notion of removing federal jurisdiction just doesn’t make sense here.

“I’m not sure the rationale for it,” Cicilline said.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, another Rhode Island Democrat, called the bill “an odd little thing.” He said his office contacted Rhode Island fishermen and regulators and “nobody’s very interested in it.”

Recreational anglers who catch striped bass legally in state waters sometimes stray into, or travel through, the federal exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, between areas south of Montauk, New York, and south of Point Judith, Rhode Island.

According to Zeldin’s office, some have been fined for having striped bass on board because they couldn’t prove the bass were caught legally in state waters. Zeldin, whose district encompasses eastern Long Island, is responding to concerns from local fishermen, his office said.

Zeldin is a vulnerable freshman lawmaker who has been targeted by Democrats in a swing district that President Barack Obama narrowly won twice. Passage of the legislation could help him in his re-election bid.

Joe McBride, of the Montauk Boatmen & Captains Association, publicly thanked Zeldin for his leadership on the issue. Sport fishing is important to the Long Island economy, especially in Montauk, McBride said.

Connecticut’s entire congressional delegation signed a letter opposing the “misguided bill,” citing the potential for “major economic losses” to the Connecticut fishing industry and a “major blow” to efforts to rebuild the striped bass stock.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

Presumed Dead, Wild Atlantic Salmon Return to the Connecticut River

February 23, 2016 — By the fall of 2015, the salmon of the Connecticut River were supposed to be doomed. The silvery fish that once swam the Northeast’s longest river, 407 miles from the mountains of New Hampshire to Long Island Sound, went extinct because of dams and industrial pollution in the 1700s that turned the river deadly. In the late 1800s a nascent salmon stocking program failed. Then in 2012, despite nearly a half-century of work and an investment of $25 million, the federal government and three New England states pulled the plug on another attempt to resurrect the prized fish.

But five Atlantic salmon didn’t get the memo. In November, fisheries biologists found something in the waters of the Farmington River — which pours into the Connecticut River — that historians say had not appeared since the Revolutionary War: three salmon nests full of eggs.

“It’s a great story,” said John Burrows, of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, a conservation group, “whether it’s the beginning of something great or the beginning of the end.”

The quest to resurrect Atlantic salmon in the Connecticut River began anew in the mid-1960s when the federal government and New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut joined forces. They worked to curb pollution in their shared river and also build passageways around some of the 2,500 dams that plugged the river and its feeder streams in the 11,250-square-mile Connecticut River watershed.

The streamlined wild Atlantic salmon, genetically different from their fattened domesticated counterparts, which are mass-produced for human consumption, are so rare that anglers spend small fortunes chasing them across Canada, Iceland and Russia. Robert J. Behnke, the preeminent salmon biologist of the 20th century, wrote that Salmo salar (Latin for “leaping salmon”) has inspired in people “an emotional, almost mystical attachment to a species they regard as a magnificent creation of nature.”

Read the full story at Al Jazeera America

Proposed Bill Could Put Connecticut Fishermen Out of Business

February 20, 2016 — New York Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin has introduced a bill to divide Block Island Sound between New York and Rhode Island.

Currently, there is a federal area three miles out from Block Island, R.I.

Zeldin says, “For recreational anglers or charter boat captains, this shift in jurisdiction can mean the difference between a nice day on the water and committing a federal offense.”

The problem? Connecticut commercial fishermen wouldn’t be able to fish the waters.

Read the full story at Wide Open Spaces

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Fishermen Decry Catch Rules at Seaside Summit

February 16, 2016 — STONINGTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal met with a group of local commercial fishermen at the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society club Monday afternoon to discuss the challenges they face from seasonal regulations governing the amount and type of fish they are allowed to catch.

The regulations, which are intended to restore fish stocks, are the result of an outdated system, Blumenthal said.

“I don’t need to tell anyone here how antiquated and byzantine the system is,” he said to the group of more than 30 fishermen at the Main Street club. “The bottom line is fishermen are increasingly underrepresented and unrespected. Many of you are having to discard fish that are already dead before they hit the water again.”

Blumenthal said his reason for convening the meeting, which was sponsored by the Connecticut Seafood Council, was to listen to the fishermen, as they are the group that is most immediately affected by the rules.

“If the conversation is confined to this room, then we lose,” he said. “This is all about increasing public awareness. People’s voices need to be heard.”

Many of the fishermen who attended the meeting shared their opinions and concerns.

Chuck Fellow said the rules don’t just affect the Stonington fishing community, but also every fishing community across the nation as well as consumers.

“The people who made the decisions about the regulations are so misinformed and weren’t fishermen,” he said. “We’re hard workers and we’re doing this for our families and our communities. We need our fish back and don’t want to throw away any more fish that come across our docks.”

The issues include limits on catches, restrictions on gear, state quotas, rules intended to limit the mortality of bycatch, and seasonal closures of fishing grounds.

Fisherman Joel Hovanesian of Narragansett said if something isn’t done about the regulations, many fishermen might be forced to close up shop.

“I don’t often use this word, but what’s happening to us from the heads of these government agencies has become tyrannical,” he said. “It’s infuriating. Why are fishermen and farmers under attack from the federal government?”

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

Bill in Congress could hurt Connecticut Fishermen, and Fish

February 16, 2016 — WEST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)– A battle brewing in Washington could mean big changes for Connecticut fishermen. Those fishermen, and some environmental experts say that the proposal for changing who controls Block Island Sound could have dangerous effects.

Block Island Sound is between New York and Rhode Island, but it is used by Connecticut fishermen all the time. And it’s used as a breeding ground for a very important kind of fish. The change they’re talking about in Washington could be very bad for both.

When fishing boats head out for the day, the first three miles from shore is considered state waters, then the federal government takes over. So from 3 miles off the eastern end of Long Island, New York, there are several miles of federal water before you reach the 3 mile limit around Block Island, Rhode Island. That is important because Block Island Sound is a breeding ground for striped bass, a prized trophy fish, but it is illegal to fish for them in federal waters.

“Everybody would love to fish here, obviously,” said charter boat captain John Frione. He knows where he can and can’t fish, but a Long Island congressman worries some fishermen might accidentally drift into federal waters.

Read the full story at WTNH

Congressman Joe Courtney Tells Congressional Subcommittee that Plan Would Bankrupt Lobstermen

February 2, 2016—U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District told a congressional subcommittee Tuesday that a proposal to transfer control of 155 square miles of federally controlled ocean to Rhode Island and New York jurisdiction would bankrupt Connecticut lobstermen, including those from Stonington and other southeastern Connecticut towns.

“This is damaging people’s livelihood and I think we have to be a lot more careful in terms of how we as a Congress treat federal jurisdiction and people’s rights … .” he told the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans of the Committee on Natural Resources.

If the plan passes, Courtney said Connecticut lobstermen would be shut out of fishing in Rhode Island waters because they are not residents while in New York they would have to try and obtain a non-resident permit through a costly auction process.

Courtney told the subcommittee that there was no consultation with the Stonington-based Southern New England Fishermen and Lobstermen’s Association about the plan and there was no biological analysis to back up the change.

Courtney explained to the subcommittee the economic importance of Long Island Sound and the balancing act needed to protect its fragile ecosystem.

He said he has worked closely in the past with New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who introduced the bill before the subcommittee, which is aimed at striped bass management, on issues such as the restoration of Long Island Sound and the preservation of Plum Island.

But in this case, he said Connecticut was not represented in the development of the plan, despite the impact on its fishermen.

Read the full story at The Day

Connecticut fighting move to give Long Island Sound waters to New York, Rhode Island

February 2, 2016 — WASHINGTON – Connecticut’s lawmakers and state officials are trying to derail a bill would take about 150 square miles of Long Island Sound waters from federal government control and give that authority to New York and Rhode Island, a move that could hurt the state’s fishing industry.

The bill would require Connecticut fishermen to obtain permission from the neighboring states to continue to fish those waters, known as an “exclusive economic zone,” or EEZ. Members of the state’s congressional delegation say that would be a costly and burdensome process.

“We believe that this misguided legislation was crafted strategically to benefit certain states while disproportionately harming the Connecticut fishing industry,” delegation members said in a letter to the leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee.

At issue is the “EEZ Clarification Act,” sponsored by New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, that would re-designate 150 square miles of federal EEZ waters in the vicinity of Block Island, between Montauk, N.Y., and Point Judith, R.I., as New York and Rhode Island state waters.

At a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Zeldin said the strip of water known as the EEZ poses a threat to fishermen “who can go from fishing legally to breaking the law” by inadvertently straying into federal waters and facing fines.

“Law-abiding, responsible fishermen should not be punished for doing their job,” Zeldin said.

But a representative from the Fish and Wildlife Service and conservationist John McMurray, owner of One More Cast Charters, testified that stripping federal protections from the waters would hurt the Long Island Sound striped bass population.

Read the full story at The Connecticut Mirror

MASSACHUSETTS: Fisheries Center Might Move Out Of Woods Hole

December 23, 2015 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is exploring the possibility of relocating the Northeast Fisheries Science Center to a new facility outside of Woods Hole.

NOAA’s chief of research communications Teri Frady said Monday that the United States Department of Commerce, which oversees the NEFSC, has been evaluating the feasibility of the existing facility for about a year. She said a report will be completed by spring 2016 outlining options for the facility, which could include moving operations to a new building outside of Woods Hole.

The fisheries center, which operates as a research division of NOAA Fisheries, was founded by Spencer Fullerton Baird upon his appointment by President Ulysses S. Grant as the country’s first fisheries commissioner in 1871. The original facility was built on Water Street in 1885. After the facility was destroyed during Hurricane Carol, the current building was constructed in the same location in 1961.

Today, the Woods Hole branch manages operations of four other fisheries laboratories in the northeast, including those in Sandy Hook, New Jersey; Milford, Connecticut; Narragansett, Rhode Island; and Orono, Maine.

Ms. Frady said NOAA sees relocating as a way of possibly bringing all the fisheries operations together. In addition to its headquarters on Water Street, the fisheries houses its observer program on Carlson Lane, while its social sciences department operates out of leased space in the Falmouth Technology Park. The organization also operates a warehouse in Pocasset.

Read the full story at The Falmouth Enterprise