Saving Seafood

New American Eel Regulations in Effect in Delaware

February 15, 2016 — A new Delaware law that increases size limits and decreases recreational possession limits on American eel is now in effect, DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife announced today.

The new law, passed by the Delaware General Assembly in January and signed by Governor Markell last week, brings Delaware’s American eel fishing rules into compliance with recent changes in the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American eel.

The law increases the minimum recreational and commercial size limit of American eel to 9 inches from 6 inches, decreases the recreational possession limit from 50 to 25 American eels and sets a minimum mesh size requirement of ½” by ½” for all eel pots in commercial and recreational use.

The law also gives DNREC the ability to change American eel size and possession limits, fishing areas, seasons and allowable fishing gear by regulation as required to keep Delaware in compliance with future changes to the ASMFC’s American eel management plan. If the ASMFC plan requires states to restrict their eel harvest by use of a quota in the future, the Legislature will establish a quota management system through law.

Read the full story at WGMD News Radio

SMFC Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Board Approves Regional Management for 2016 Recreational Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Fisheries

February 4, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries  Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Addendum XXVII to the Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan. The Addendum continues the use of regional management for the 2016 summer flounder and black sea bass recreational fisheries, with a modification to the summer flounder regions. The modified summer flounder regions are intended to provide more equity in recreational harvest opportunities along the coast, especially between New Jersey and Delaware in the Delaware Bay. The approved summer flounder regions are Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut through New York; New Jersey; Delaware through Virginia; and North Carolina. For black sea bass, the Board approved the continuation of management measures by northern (Massachusetts – New Jersey) and southern regions (Delaware – North Carolina). 

Addendum XXVII was initiated to address the discrepancy in management measures between New Jersey and Delaware in the Delaware Bay. In recent years, the difference in size limit, which has been as great as 2-inches, has been cited as having an economic impact on southern New Jersey anglers. The approval of the New Jersey Delaware Bay region will allow New Jersey to pursue, through its regulatory process, the following management measures for New Jersey waters west of the COLREGS line in the Delaware Bay: a 17-inch minimum size, 4 fish possession limit, and a 128 day season. For New Jersey anglers east of the COLREGS line and north along the New Jersey coast, the state will seek to maintain 2015 management measures in 2016, namely, a 18-inch minimum size, 5 fish possession limit, and a 128 day season. The latter measures are consistent with those of New York and Connecticut. Management measures for the remaining states remain unchanged from 2015. The adaptive regional management approach for summer flounder has been approved for the 2016 fishing year only.

For black sea bass, the Board approved the continuation of ad hoc regional management measures for the northern (Massachusetts – New Jersey) and southern regions (Delaware – North Carolina). This approach has been used since 2011 and offers some advantages over coastwide regulations, which can disproportionately impact states within the management unit.  States in the northern region, which are responsible for approximately 97% of the total recreational harvest, will reduce their harvest by 23% to achieve the 2016 recreational harvest limit. Based on the recommendations of the Technical Committee, the Board approved management proposals and methodologies submitted by the northern states. The northern states will finalize their black sea bass management measures by the spring of 2016.

States in the southern region will implement measures consistent with federal regulations (current recommended federal measures are a 12.5 inch TL minimum fish size, 15 fish possession limit, and open season from May 15 – September 21 and October 22 – December 31). Combined, the regulations of the two regions are expected to achieve the required coastwide harvest reduction in order to not exceed the 2016 recreational harvest limit. The Board approved the ad hoc regional measures approach for the 2016 fishing year with the option of extending it through 2017 by Board action.

The Board also approved the maintenance of 2015 scup recreational measures for the 2016 fishing season. Addendum XXVII will be available on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org, by the end of February 2016. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

                   

NEW JERSEY: Fluke fortunes may rise on Delaware Bay

January 7, 2016 — STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Southern New Jersey anglers gave hearty support this week to a plan that would boost fluke fishing in the Delaware Bay.

A crowd of about 50 anglers showed up at the Thursday night meeting here at the municipal building on East Bay Avenue to give opinions on 2016 regulations for black sea bass, scup and fluke, which is also called summer flounder.

The most important question of the night was whether to support Option 2B of the fluke plan that would allow the New Jersey side of the Delaware Bay to compete with Delaware. This support now goes to the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council when it makes decisions on 2016 fluke regulations in March.

The 2015 regulations for the New Jersey side of the bay included a minimum fish size of 18 inches, five fish per day, and a 128-day season.

In Delaware, Maryland and Virginia anglers were allowed a 16-inch fish, four fish a day and enjoyed a 365-day season. Option 2B would allow the New Jersey side to have a 17-inch fish, four fish a day and the 128-day season. It’s not equal to Delaware, but it is closer to parity.

Read the full story at Press of Atlantic City

Sunken sanctuary: Former Omega Protein WWII-era vessel becomes artificial reef

December 15, 2015 — For much of the last decade, the MV Shearwater caught menhaden by the ton but in its new life, as part of the Del-Jersey-Land reef 26-miles off the coast, it will become a fish habitat and diving destination in the state’s artificial reef program.

The ship didn’t go easy into the deep last week. The stern sank first and the ship started to turn leaving just the bow out of the water. It took about six hours to fully sink after the seacocks opened and the interior compartments flooded.

The 176-foot-long vessel went down in 120 feet of water. It lays about one-half nautical mile from the 568-foot long USS Arthur W. Radford, a former Navy destroyer. The Radford was sunk at the artificial reef site in 2011 and has become a popular destination for divers and anglers.

“About three weeks ago, a state-record bluefish was caught there,” said Jeff Tinsman, the state artificial reef coordinator.

“These old freighters make ideal reefs because of the voids and cavities in them – they’re really the perfect sanctuary for fish,” Tinsman said. “But not long after this ship sinks, the fish will start to come ‘outside’ it to feed. Within a few weeks, blue mussels, sponges, barnacles and soft corals will attach themselves to the structure, and in about a year, the reef will be fully productive, for fish and fishermen alike.”

Read the full story at Delaware Online

Iconic fish species move north as ocean warms

September 6, 2015 — Warming ocean temperatures off the North Atlantic are causing fish to move up the coast to cooler waters — raising concerns among scientists and regulators about the ocean’s ecosystem, and potentially changing the experience Delaware anglers have enjoyed for generations.

In 2013, a Virginia Beach striped bass tournament drew hundreds of boats, but only one striper was caught.

Wachapreague, Virginia, a tiny town south of Chincoteague that called itself the “flounder capital of the world,” lost its identity and economic engine when summer flounder relocated to waters off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.

And the iconic blue crab, a staple of restaurants and dinner tables throughout the Delmarva Peninsula, are expanding their range, scuttling up the coast to Maine.

Striped bass, which gave birth to a charter fishing industry in Delaware, are swimming into deeper water during their fall migration through the mid-Atlantic — well beyond the 3-mile limit off the coast where it is legal to catch and keep them.

Black sea bass — once so common in area waters, they were the go-to-fish when other species weren’t biting — have moved north to New England.

Read the full story at Delaware Online

 

DELAWARE ONLINE: Why are the fish moving north?

September 5, 2015 — Forget gloom-and-doom outlines. Forget too, simple denial. Something is happening and we should 1) take it seriously. and 2) do something about it. Even if the something we do is to start adjusting for enormous changes.

Sea levels are rising. We know that. It will slowly affect those who live near the ocean’s edge. It will affect commerce and travel as well. Consider that a New England scientist who found that blue crab living in the Gulf of Maine. He also found the blue crab are eating the green crabs. How will that affect the environment? What else is going on? And what will be the repercussions in the short- and long-term? We simply do not know.

In addition to the temperatures and the sea rise, we know we have overfished many areas and we have damaged habitat. All of these things could create conditions that we as of yet do not understand.

Rich Wong, a scientist with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said, “It’s really small, incremental rises in temperature that have huge impacts.”

Read the full editorial at Delaware Online

 

Delaware facing possible moratorium on eel fishing

DOVER, Del. — September 4, 2015 — Federal regulators are eyeing a possible moratorium on eel fishing in Delaware waters.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is reviewing a referral from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission that found Delaware out of compliance with the interstate management plan for American eel, whose numbers are depleted.

If the national agency determines that Delaware failed to carry out its responsibilities, and that the measures the state failed to implement are necessary for conservation, then it must declare a moratorium on eel fishing in Delaware waters. A determination must be made by Sept. 18.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

ASMFC Finds Delaware Out of Compliance with Addendum III to the Interstate FMP for American Eel: Noncompliance Finding Forwarded to the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior

August 19, 2015 — ARLINGTON, VA – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has found the State of Delaware out of compliance with the mandatory management measures contained in Addendum III to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for American Eel. The Commission has notified the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior of its finding.  This action was taken pursuant to the provisions of the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act of 1993.

The State of Delaware has failed to effectively implement and enforce the provisions of Addendum III to the FMP for American Eel. Specifically, Delaware has not implemented the following regulations required by Addendum III:

•     9” minimum size for yellow eel recreational and commercial fisheries

•     ½” x ½” min mesh size for yellow eel pots

•     Allowance of 4”x4” escape panel in pots of ½” x ½” mesh for 3 years (beginning on January 1, 2014)

•     Recreational 25 fish bag limit per day per angler

•     Crew and Captain involved in for-hire are exempt and allowed 50 fish bag limit per day

The implementation of these measures is necessary to achieve the conservation goals and objectives of the FMP to rebuild the depleted American eel stock. In order to come back into compliance the State of Delaware must implement all of the above measures.  Upon notification by the Commission, the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior have 30 days to review the recommendation and determine appropriate action, which may include a federal moratorium on fishing for American eel in Delaware’s state waters.

For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, Director, Interstate Fisheries Management Program, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

DELAWARE: Crab yield projected to be double last year’s catch

July 8, 2015 — LEIPSIC, Del. — As summer heats up, so does crab season.

Local crabbers are bringing in more blue crabs now than they have all season to this point.

“Overall, this year has been better than last year, but these past few weeks have been way better and I think the rest of the summer looks promising,” said Lingo Voss, a local crabber for more than 40 years.

Lingo and his brother, Larry, crab with a few employees in the Leipsic River starting at daylight during the season, which runs from March to November.

The Vosses usually are done with the day around noon.

“It’s easier to get more done in the morning and it’s also the coolest time of day,” Lingo said. “If you come out in the afternoon, it’s going to be too hot for the crabs and they’re not going to last very long.”

The brothers keep a daily log of how many crabs they bring in. After flipping through a few pages they saw that during the week of July 4th, 2014, the largest catch amounted to only three bushels.

The Vosses said on any given day over the past month or so their boats bring in five to 10 bushels a day.

According to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s projections, about 3 million to 3.5 million pounds of crabs (weight includes the shell) are expected to be harvested in 2015. If the yield meets the projections, it will be almost twice as many crabs as last year, the best year since 2010.

To make projections for each year, DNREC monitors the size and quantity of young crabs between April and October at 26 Delaware locations, a process they’ve followed since 1978.

Read the full story at Delaware State News

 

 

 

New GIS Shapefiles of Delaware Reef Special Management Zones Available on NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region Website

July 9, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries announces the publication of new GIS shapefiles for the Delaware Reef Special Management Zones that go into effect today.

More information on these Special Management Zones is available in the Federal Register notice, supporting documents on our website, and in our web story.

We will continue to add new shapefiles and geospatial data to our GIS website as they become available.

Questions about GIS? Please contact Dean Szumylo via email at dean.szumylo@noaa.gov.