Saving Seafood

MAFMC Reminder: Electronic Reporting Requirements for Party/Charter Vessels with Mid-Atlantic Permits

March 7, 2018 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Beginning Monday, March 12, 2018, all charter and party vessel operators holding a federal permit for species managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will be required to electronically submit Vessel Trip Reports for all trips carrying passengers for hire. These electronic Vessel Trip Reports (eVTRs) must be submitted through a NOAA-approved software application within 48 hours of entering port following the end of a fishing trip. This regulation applies to all vessels with these permits, including vessels outside of the Mid-Atlantic region, regardless of where they are fishing when carrying passengers for hire.

This action is not a change in reporting requirements; it is an administrative modification to the method and timing for submitting VTRs.

This change applies to all vessels with federal Greater Atlantic Regional charter or party permits for any of the following species:

  • Atlantic mackerel
  • Squid
  • Butterfish
  • Summer Flounder
  • Scup
  • Black sea bass
  • Bluefish
  • Tilefish

Electronic Reporting Information and Resources

For more information, visit the Mid-Atlantic Council’s For-Hire Electronic Reporting page or the NOAA Fisheries Summary of eVTR Reporting Requirements. Additional details about eVTR software applications and contacts/support for eVTR problems are available here.

Training Opportunities

The Council has hosted several training sessions to help for-hire vessel operators prepare for these upcoming electronic reporting requirements, including two workshops in April 2017, two workshops in February 2018, and a webinar in March 2018. A recording of the webinar can be viewed online at this link.

On March 16, 2018, The Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) will host a workshop on using the SAFIS eTrips software in Riverhead, NY. Registration is required, and participation will be limited to the first 25 captains who sign up. View the announcement for additional details.

Contact

Individuals with questions about eVTRs should contact Daniel Luers, Sustainable Fisheries Division, at 978-282-8457 or email at Daniel.Luers@noaa.gov.

Quick Links

Learn more about the MAFMC by visiting their site here.

 

NOAA Fisheries Announces Increase in Atlantic Herring Quota for Area 1A for Period of October 24 – December 31, 2017

October 20, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Atlantic Herring Management Area 1A sub-annual catch limit is being increased from 31,115 mt to 32,115 mt  for the period of October 24-December 31, 2017. This is due to an underharvest of the New Brunswick weir fishery.

As stated in the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, if the New Brunswick, Canada weir fishery herring catch through October 1 is less than 4,000 mt, then 1,000 mt will be subtracted from the management uncertainty buffer and allocated to the annual catch limit (ACL) and Area 1A sub-ACL.

Based on the best available information, the New Brunswick weir fishery landed 1,724 mt through October 1, 2017.

On October 24, NOAA Fisheries will allocate 1,000 mt of herring to the Area 1A sub-ACL, increasing the fishing year 2017 (Jan 1-Dec 31, 2017) Area 1A sub-ACL from 31,115 mt to 32,115 mt, and increasing the stockwide ACL from 101,656 mt to 102,656 mt.

Check the current status of the Atlantic herring catch.

For more details, read the notice as filed in the Federal Register, and the permit holder bulletin on our website.

Questions? Contact Daniel Luers, Fishery Management Specialist, 978-282-8457, Fax 978-281-9135.

The Bycatch That Gives You a Haddock

November 4, 2016 — Starting in October, the federal government began a pilot project to test electronic monitoring on midwater herring trawlers fishing in “groundfish closed” areas off the coast of New England, two of which are in the rich spawning grounds on the continental shelf known as Georges Bank. The yearlong project will help regulators decide whether cameras can replace people as observers to regulate herring trawlers’ catch of haddock.

But before the study is finished, the New England Fishery Management Council will be working to loosen the rules on how much haddock herring trawlers can catch.

Since 2011, government observers have been required on any trips trawlers make to those areas, as part of a program to limit incidental catch, often called “bycatch,” of untargeted fish species. In the case of herring fishing, the biggest bycatch concern on Georges Bank has been haddock, a species on the rebound after the groundfish collapses of the mid-1990s.

But the monitoring program has been expensive. A recent amendment to all Northeast fisheries plans required the industry to assist in funding its overseers, increasing pressure to bring down costs.

Federal regulators believe electronic monitoring could be the answer.

“This year we’ll get really good (human) observer coverage — 440 sea days — so we’re going to compare what the observer sees and what the camera sees,” said Daniel Luers, a monitoring expert at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries office of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “The contractors will watch all the videos, and then NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) will watch to confirm that what the contractors have seen correlates with the observers.”

What they’re looking for are “discard” events, where fishermen dump unwanted fish back into the sea — rather than reporting the bycatch and facing fishing closures.

Read the full story at Eco RI News