Saving Seafood

SQUID FISHING IS A BOON TO THE LOCAL ECONOMY

May 31, 2017 — It’s high squid fishing season. Recreational anglers crowd the Calamari (Goat Island) Causeway at night, carrying floating water lights and special jigs to scoop them up in buckets. The commercial fleet is pumping squid into the Port of Galilee by the boatload. From the seabed to the boat to a saltwater flume that shoots them into the maw of a dockside processing facility, they are sorted, graded and flash frozen at minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

In late March, Ryan Clark, president and CEO of the Town Dock, took advantage of a quiet pre-season moment to demonstrate how the Loligo pealei, or longfin squid, is hand-gutted and cleaned. He deftly slices the tentacles from the body just above the eye and pulls out the beak. The guts and the backbone — called the quill for its resemblance to a molted flight feather — are extracted from the long tube of its body. Clark works his thumb between the skin and flesh to peel off the skin, then strips off the back fins to produce a white tube.

A squid’s body is soft and offers little resistance to disassembly. At full throttle, workers at the Town Dock’s Johnston facility hand-process 500 squid an hour to send on their way to Spain, China or your favorite local seafood joint.

“It’s not typical manufacturing,” says Clark. “The seafood world is very challenging with the unpredictable nature of fisheries. There are so many dynamics going on in the ocean. The science tries to keep up, but no one knows what’s underneath the waves. My team has to gear up. When squid season is upon us, it’s all hands on deck to keep the boats going to maximize the catch.”

The Rhode Island fleet has been so adept at maximizing this particular catch that Galilee is now the number one port for longfin squid landings on the East Coast. In 2015, for example, Rhode Island landed sixteen million pounds. New York, its nearest competitor, landed about 4.3 million pounds.

Last year was Rhode Island’s best yet, with 119 vessels landing 22.6 million pounds of squid, valued at $28.6 million. Once an underutilized species, squid is the linchpin of the port. With three processors — the others are Sea Fresh USA and Seafreeze — Galilee also attracts out-of-state vessels, magnifying the economic impact, says Department of Environmental Management (DEM) port manager Daniel Costa.

“Squid is not a state-restricted fin fish. Other vessels come here because of our processing and they are the ones buying the fuel, the ice, the groceries,” he says. “They are getting their vessels repaired here and mending their nets. They are spending a lot of money and that is where we get the boost.”

Rodman Sykes, a commercial fisherman for forty-seven years, recalls the days when Rhode Island-caught squid never hit the shore.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Monthly

Fishing Report: Rhode Island Seafood brand catching on

December 2nd, 2016 — I love it when a plan comes together. And, Wednesday I had that feeling at the Rhode Island Seafood Marketing Collaborative meeting chaired by Janet Coit, director of the Department of Environmental Management.

Four years of meetings with fishermen, tourism and commerce representatives, scientists, fish processors, health department officials, chefs and restaurants owners to develop and implement a Rhode Island Seafood brand (seal) is starting to catch on. There’s no doubt in my mind that it will pay off with big dividends for the fishing industry and tourism in Rhode Island. Ultimately it is (and will be) a big shot in the arm for RI’s economy.

However, the big winners of this branding initiative will be Rhode Islanders. We get to dine out or eat at home more seafood that is grown and/or landed in Rhode Island as that is what the RI Seafood label means. Look for the RI Seafood label and you know the fish was grown and/or landed in Rhode Island.

Presenter after presenter at the Seafood Marketing Collaborative meeting shared success stories about implementing the RI Seafood brand. Highlights included:

A very successful Calamari Cook-Off in Narragansett in September where a 1,000 pounds of fresh Rhode Island calamari (donated by the industry) was prepared by area restaurants and chefs with thousands of people in attendance. RI lands more squid that any other port in the nation.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal 

Counting fish from the air

March 31, 2016 — This week, I was reminded of the outstanding Atlantic menhaden management program we have in Narragansett Bay. Monday night, George Purmont, a spotter pilot commissioned by the Marine Fisheries Division of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), spoke about his work of counting schools of Atlantic menhaden (pogies) from the air in Narragansett Bay.

At a R.I. Saltwater Anglers Association meeting, Purmont said, “When the amount of Atlantic menhaden in the Bay goes above the threshold, the Bay is open to commercial harvesting. When it falls below the threshold, the Bay is closed to Atlantic menhaden fishing.”

The program is one of the most sophisticated and effective programs of its type in the nation. Purmont said, “Flights once or twice a week give fish managers at DEM good information to manage the fishery.” The program works well for recreational fishermen to protect this forage fish, as well as for the commercial fishery, allowing the Bay to be fished when there is an abundance of fish in the Bay.

Read the full story at The Warwick Beacon

23% harvest reduction approved for recreational black sea bass fishery

February 10, 2016 — Last week a board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved Addendum XXVII to the Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan, which continues the use of regional management for the two species in the 2016 recreational season.

Summer flounder (fluke) regulations will likely be the same in Rhode Island (eight fish per person, per day), however, the board approved a 23-percent harvest reduction for the recreational black sea bass fishery. This will result in more conservative regulations for Rhode Islanders.

At a public workshop Tuesday night, the Marine Fisheries Division of the Department of Environmental Management shared six black sea bass regulation options. All six can be found by clicking “Workshop Presentation” in the Marine Fisheries Division’s Feb. 16 public hearing meeting notice at www.dem.ri.gov.

One option in particular has drawn the attention of both private anglers and the charter/party boat industry. This would allow private anglers to take three fish from July 20 through Dec. 31, while party and charter boats who apply for and receive a “Letter of Authorization” would be allowed seven fish from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.

Comments from recreational anglers on the various options for black sea bass and other species will be vetted at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Coastal Institute Building, on the URI Bay campus.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Rhode Island’s Groundfish Economic Assistance Program Now Accepting Applications

December 10, 2015 — The following was released by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management:

A new federal funding opportunity is available for Rhode Island fishermen through the Groundfish Disaster Economic Assistance Program, a direct-aid disbursement plan funded by the NOAA in response to the September 12, 2012 Northeast Multispecies (groundfish) disaster declaration by the Acting Secretary of Commerce. The groundfish disaster was declared for the 2013 fishing year in the states of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, and New York. 

On May 28, 2014 the state fishery directors from Rhode Island and other affected states, in partnership with NOAA, announced a three-part framework for the distribution of $32.8 million in federal disaster aid monies to the New England groundfish industry. Rhode Island has completed the distribution of about $1.4 million to 43 pre-qualified federally permitted commercial groundfishermen (phase one) and this week began accepting applications for phase two of this framework.  In this phase, Rhode Island will distribute $519,656 for additional assistance to the Rhode Island commercial groundfish industry.

This state-specific program will be used by DEM to mitigate economic hardship experienced by the commercial groundfish industry not previously addressed by the phase one aid to qualified federal permit holders. This objective responds to cumulative economic impacts, which include lost harvest opportunities because of reduced quota allocations, high costs to operate within a sector, past debt incurred to survive the management program, and added investment needed to continue in sector programs, all of which have contributed to decreased revenue for a significant portion of the industry. 

Phase two of Rhode Island’s aid disbursement, the Groundfish Disaster Economic Assistance Program, extends direct-aid payments beyond the federal permit holders, to the captains and crew members who worked aboard the 43 vessels during the same four-year period when the reduced quotas were having the most impact on the commercial industry. It also extends direct-aid payments to the for-hire permit holders who were active in the groundfish fishery during the same period, as well as captains and crew associated with those permitted vessels, thereby addressing the impacts incurred by that sector of the groundfish industry.

Rhode Island’s Groundfish Disaster Economic Assistance program addresses the restoration and sustainability of the State’s commercial groundfish industry by also providing direct aid for the administration of RI-based sectors, which play a central role in the management program and are in need of financial support to remain viable. It is the goal of this disaster aid to ensure the needs and interests of the groundfish community are being met so that we can promote long-term stability in the Rhode Island commercial fishing industry. Additional information and applications can be found online at www.dem.ri.gov/groundfish.htm. Interested applicants should contact the program administrator, Amy MacKown, at 401-782-4492 or amy.mackown@dem.ri.gov. The deadline to submit an application is January 15th.

An ‘explosion’ of menhaden

October 13, 2015 — Here’s a statistic, which is a best-guess estimate, but nonetheless difficult to wrap one’s head around: On Tuesday, Oct. 6, there were 5.8 million pounds of menhaden swimming in the bay.

That isn’t too hard to imagine if you looked down from the Pawtuxet River Bridge the following day, or actually, as it turns out, just about any time in the last two weeks. What you would have seen are thousands upon thousands of fish. Most of them were juvenile menhaden averaging about three inches long. Mixed in the schools – so thick that they looked like carpets – were a few adults of about 11 inches. And then there were the predators – the cormorants, sea gulls, terns and bluefish and stripers – gorging themselves.

“The menhaden population has absolutely exploded this year,” says Christopher Deacutis.

Deacutis, supervisor of environmental science for the Department of Environmental Management, said large schools of the fish have been seen up and down the eastern seaboard, and there have been reports of humpback whales feeding off them last month in Long Island Sound. The whales haven’t been reported in Rhode Island waters, but Deacutis suspects the menhaden are the reason why schools of common dolphins have been spotted at the mouth of Narragansett Bay.

Read the full story from the Warwick Beacon