Saving Seafood

ASMFC Schedules Peer Review for the Horseshoe Crab ARM Framework for November 16-18, 2021

October 15, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Adaptive Resource (ARM) Framework will be peer-reviewed on November 16-18, 2021, via webinar. The ARM Framework incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest limits for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay-origin. Since 2013, it has been used by the Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board to set annual specifications for the Delaware Bay region.

The Delaware Bay is home to both the largest staging area for migratory shorebirds in the Atlantic Flyway and the largest population of horseshoe crabs in the world. An estimated 425,000 to one million migratory shorebirds including the threatened Rufa red knot converge on the Delaware Bay to feed and rebuild energy reserves prior to completing their northward migration, with horseshoe crab eggs providing an important component of the shorebirds’ diet. To address this interrelationship, the Commission adopted use of the ARM Framework in 2012 to ensure that horseshoe crab harvest within the Delaware Bay region took into account the forage needs of migratory shorebirds. Nearly 10 years since its development and use, and with more available data, the Horseshoe Crab ARM Committee has been exploring revisions to the Framework. The peer review will evaluate the appropriateness of these revisions for use in management.

The peer review is open to the public, except for the Peer Review Panel’s final deliberations, when the public and all other workshop participants will be asked to exit the webinar. The link to the webinar follows:https://www.gotomeet.me/ASMFCStaff2/horseshoe‐crab‐arm‐review. Please note participants do not need to register in advance of the meeting, simply click on the webinar link the day of the meeting to join the webinar. A copy of the peer review agenda can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/HSC_ARM_ReviewWorkshopAgenda_Nov2021.pdf.

It’s anticipated that the revised ARM Framework and peer review report will be considered by the Horseshoe Crab Management Board in January 2022. For more information, please contact Tina Berger, Director of Communications, at tberger@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

2021 Northeast Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise Completed

September 7, 2021 — Researchers returned to sea for the second ecosystem monitoring (EcoMon) cruise of 2021. Scientists and crew aboard the NOAA Ship Pisces sampled at 149 stations. They achieved near-complete coverage of the survey area,  from north of Delaware Bay through the Gulf of Maine.

Fewer days were available for the cruise than originally planned. The scientific crew dropped all stations south of Delaware Bay at the beginning of the cruise to allow for full coverage in the north. Favorable weather and sea conditions during the entire survey allowed for supplemental stations to be added on the end of the cruise. Sample stations were added adjacent to Nantucket Shoals, near foraging North Atlantic right whales and in and around wind energy lease areas.

Zooplankton are tiny animals and very young stages of some animals that will grow larger. Samples of zooplankton provide information about the food chain supporting fisheries and marine mammals. Scientists use larval fish and egg samples to learn more about fish stock spawning and help estimate stock abundance. Measurements of physical and chemical conditions like temperature and salinity help us describe ecosystem productivity, spawning, larval recruitment, fish condition, and species distributions.

Together, the core measurements conducted by our EcoMon cruises help researchers understand and predict changes in the Northeast shelf ecosystem and its fisheries. Researchers are scheduled to sail on the next EcoMon survey in October aboard the Pisces.

Read the full story from NOAA

 

Offshore wind developers fund shorebird study

June 30, 2021 — Red knot shorebirds make epic annual migrations, some logging up to 18,000 miles from the southern tip of South America to Canada and back, dropping down onto Delaware Bay beaches in May to gorge on horseshoe crab eggs.

That ancient pattern was disrupted by overharvesting of horseshoe crabs for commercial fishing bait in the 1990s. Biologists say neither the crab nor red knot populations have fully recovered yet.

Now, the prospect of dozens, perhaps hundreds of wind turbines spinning over waters on the East Coast outer continental shelf raises questions of how those structures may affect the red knot, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC engaged one of the world’s top experts to find out.

“The birds jump off from Cape Cod, Brigantine, Stone Harbor,” said Larry Niles, ticking off coastal Massachusetts and New Jersey feeding grounds for the red knots. “We know the birds are going through the wind (power) areas.”

As the former chief of New Jersey’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program, Niles started the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project, now in its 25th year of monitoring the migration. He’s now principal of Wildlife Restoration Partners, with years of experience assessing the health of red knots with other shorebirds and working on wind power studies.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Oyster Farmers Who Feared Going Broke Brace for a ‘Bonkers’ Summer

June 14, 2021 — A year ago, oyster growers who farm New Jersey’s marshy coastal inlets and tidal flats were fighting for survival.

Restaurants were shut down by the pandemic, and the oysters they had nurtured for two years were growing past their prime. The pricey seafood that should have been sold in raw bars or served at weddings was instead submerged in cages and racks in Barnegat and Delaware Bays, crowding out a younger crop of oysters.

“When Covid hit, that market disappeared,” said Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, a nonprofit dedicated to the study and conservation of marine life and habitats.

Unable to pay for boat fuel or the following year’s seed, some small aquaculture farmers in New York and New Jersey, struggling to revitalize what was once the country’s pre-eminent oyster market, braced for the worst.

But a year later, against long odds, the industry is poised for a summertime boom.

Read the full story at The New York Times

‘E-ZPass for fish.’ What tracking sturgeon can tell us about this fragile species – and Delaware Bay

May 11, 2021 — This spring marks a decade since New Jersey’s Bureau of Marine Fisheries first deployed acoustic receivers to track the migratory patterns of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon in the Delaware Bay. For the researchers tasked with monitoring this fragile, prehistoric fish species, the past 10 years have been an exercise in hope — and occasional surprise.

“There are signs that the population has started a slow recovery,” said Brian Neilan, a senior fisheries biologist who leads the monitoring program for the bureau. “At least relative to the numbers when the [Atlantic coastwide] fishing moratorium on sturgeon went into effect in 1998.”

In mid-March, Neilan and his team deployed 19 acoustic receivers throughout the New Jersey side of the bay, from Cape May to Egg Island Point, in Cumberland County. The receivers pick up frequencies pinged from sturgeon and other fish implanted with radio tags that are similar to the microchips used for household pets. “It’s like E-ZPass for fish,” said Neilan.

On April 12, the first dataset was pulled from the receivers. Of the over 600 detections recorded, 66 came from just five sturgeon. “Those numbers are pretty on par for what we see during March and early April,” Neilan said. “May is typically when we get the most detections, because that’s when the sturgeon are using the bay the most, to go up to their spawning grounds in the river and then come back down and back out into the ocean.”

Like other depleted, culturally significant fish species in the Delaware Estuary, sturgeon are anadromous, meaning they spawn in fresh water, where they remain for the first couple years of their life before migrating to the ocean.

Read the full story at the New Jersey Spotlight

NJDEP Proposes Changes to Marine Management, Seeks Public Input

March 10, 2021 — The state Department of Environmental Protection is seeking comments on proposed new rules regulating crab and lobster management, marine fisheries and fishery management in New Jersey. Written comments can be electronically filed until April 30 or submitted via the regular mail.

“The department is proposing to reduce the number of commercial crab pot/trot line licenses and crab dredge licenses for both the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic coast due to a reduction in the number of actively harvesting license holders,” according to the March 1 DEP bulletin on the proposed rule change.

Under the proposal, a licensee could transfer licenses to any person, based upon the number of available licenses.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

As water temperatures rise, Rutgers scientists breed tougher shellfish

February 23, 2021 — Over the last half-century, global sea surface temperatures have been on the rise, but in the last decade they have increased at an accelerated rate.

New Jersey’s coastal waters, both along the Atlantic Coast and Delaware Bay, have been no exception. More alarming, recent research indicates that sea surface temperatures in the Northeast are warming two to three times faster than the global average. For instance, in 2012, water temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic reached the highest levels ever seen in over 150 years of recorded observations.

This rapid increase in water temperature is already influencing New Jersey’s marine species. Breeding habits, ranges and growth rates are adjusting as the environment in which they have evolved to thrive has changed at an unnatural pace. For the commercial fishermen and women whose livelihoods depend on the state’s fishery, particularly those who are only just beginning to experiment with shellfish aquaculture, warmer waters mean higher operational risk.

A new study from the Rutgers University Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, which has been monitoring New Jersey’s shellfish stocks for more than a century, is working to combat the impacts of climate change by selectively breeding bay scallops and surf clams that can grow faster and tolerate higher water temperatures.

Read the full story at NJ Spotlight News

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Sets 2021 Specifications for Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay Origin

October 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the harvest specifications for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Under the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, the Board set a harvest limit of 500,000 Delaware Bay male horseshoe crabs and zero female horseshoe crabs for the 2020 season. Based on the allocation mechanism established in Addendum VII, the following quotas were set for the States of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia, which harvest horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin:

The Board chose a harvest package based on the Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee’s and ARM Subcommittee’s recommendation. The ARM Framework, established through Addendum VII, incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest levels for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. The horseshoe crab abundance estimate was based on data from the Benthic Trawl Survey conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). This survey, which is the primary data source for assessing Delaware Bay horseshoe crab abundance, does not have a consistent funding source. Members of the Delaware and New Jersey U.S. Congressional Delegations, with the support of NOAA Fisheries, have provided annual funding for the survey since 2016.

For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 orcstarks@asmfc.org.

ERIC BURNLEY: Commercial fishermen do not affect recreational fishing

February 3, 2020 — There is a misconception among some recreational fishermen that commercial fishermen are to blame for all the ills we suffer with a lack of flounder, bluefish, trout, striped bass, or (you name it) . Sorry, Charlie, it just ain’t so.

There was a time when both commercial and recreational fishermen could take as many fish of any size as they wanted, and we did. I have seen coolers full of flounder come off the Point at Cape Hatteras with many of those fish well below 12 inches. Blues stacked up like cordwood at Indian River when the run was on, and trout deck loaded in Delaware Bay. At the same time, commercial fishermen were filling their nets with the same fish until the market value dropped to the point where it became a losing proposition to go after them.

I was a small part of the movement to put limits on both recreational and commercial fishermen here in Delaware and in Virginia. In Delaware, I was on the Delaware Wildlife Federation’s Advisory Council, and we met regularly with state officials to try to bring some order to the fishery. The late Buddy Hurlock and his wife Rose were the driving force behind this movement.

Read the full story at the Cape Gazette

New funding to study microplastic pollution effect on Delaware Bay blue crabs

November 6, 2019 — The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is often held up as the poster child for ocean pollution. And while the collection of trash collecting in the Pacific Ocean certainly deserves attention, researchers at the University of Delaware are concerned about a smaller source of pollution, much smaller.

Through its marine debris program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving the university a $325,000 grant to study the impact of microplastics on blue crab populations near the Delaware Bay. Microplastics are defined as pieces of plastic less than five millimeters in length, or smaller than a pencil eraser. According to NOAA, some microplastics are microbeads, fibers or pellets that come from cosmetics or personal care products, for instance. They can also come from larger pieces of plastic that split apart and break down after exposure to the sun.

It’s estimated that there’s about five trillion tons of marine debris in our oceans and plastics are 90% of that, said UD College of Earth, Ocean and Environment Dean Estella Atekwana. “This grant is really timely so we can advance our understanding of what plastics do to our marine ecosystems,” she said.

Read the full story at WHYY