Saving Seafood

South Atlantic Council to Offer Training for Federally Permitted Charter Captains on Upcoming Electronic Reporting Requirements

November 1, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is continuing its series of hands-on training sessions for federally permitted charter captains.
TRAINING LOCATIONS: The next stop in the series is in South Florida with trainings in Key West through Miami over the course of next week. These trainings were originally scheduled for September but were postponed due to the threat of Hurricane Florence.  See the detailed schedule below.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: 
Charter captains with South Atlantic federal, for-hire permits (Snapper Grouper, Dolphin Wahoo, and/or Coastal Migratory Pelagic fisheries).
TRAINING TOPICS:
  • Overview of the South Atlantic For-Hire Electronic Reporting Amendment and rulemaking process;
  • Proposed reporting requirements;
  • Timeline for possible implementation;
  • Hands-on training to learn how to use web-based and tablet reporting tools

Check the webpage for the latest schedule.

Informational Webinars

Can’t attend an in-person training? Council staff will also host informational webinars twice a month for federal for-hire permit holders to provide information about electronic reporting, the proposed amendment, and upcoming training sessions. Registration is required.
Below is the current schedule for informational webinars:

FLORIDA: Off-shore drilling ban goes to voters

October 25, 2018 — In just a few short weeks, Florida voters will head to the polls to vote on candidates and amendments to the Florida Constitution.

The 12 constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot are the most since 1998. One of those amendments concerns an issue that is a hot topic for Floridians and environmentalists.

Amendment 9 would prohibit offshore oil and gas drilling in state-owned waters. While this amendment is a good first step for Florida, some local officials and international organizations say it’s not enough.

“While Amendment 9 would be a great step and a great showing of public opposition, it still doesn’t get to the heart of the leasing plan that’s in federal waters,” said Loryn Baughman, the U.S. communications associate for Oceana, an ocean conservation and advocacy organization.

Currently, the Gulf of Mexico is split up into three separate sections: the western, central and eastern sections. Oil drilling is allowed in the western and central sections but the eastern section is under a moratorium until 2022 as part of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006.

“The Trump Administration released a (oil drilling) proposal in January that involves 90 percent of all U.S. waters, including the eastern Gulf,” said Hunter Miller, the Florida Gulf Coast campaign manager for Oceana.

Miller referenced the Deepwater Horizons oil spill that occurred in 2010 and said it’s still not known just how much damage was done ecologically to the fisheries and ocean environments.

Read the full story at The Destin Log

Satellite images show red tide hugging Florida’s Space Coast

October 24, 2018 — Red tide is so widespread that NASA can see it from space, in large colorful plumes that jut off the Space Coast.

Satellite images from this past Saturday, enhanced by a Melbourne Beach marine biologist, show high chlorophyll levels — further evidence of red tide’s scourge here.

Tests last week confirmed high red tide levels in Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach. And beachgoers continue to sense the algae’s airborne toxin in their itchy throats and see its toll in the sporadic dead fish washing up on the beach.

But where red tide flows next is anyone’s guess.

“I am uncertain about the apparent pool off Cape Canaveral, but I heard that red tide has been found off Ponce Inlet, so there is a good chance that the pool off Cape Canaveral is red tide,” Mitch Roffer, a marine biologists and fishing conditions forecaster, said via email.

Roffer used data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite. He found Saturday’s ocean color imagery showed “pools” of what appears to be chlorophyll stretching off Cape Canaveral, Melbourne, Cocoa and south to Fort Pierce and Port St Lucie.

Read the full story at Florida Today

 

The Invasice Venomous Lionfish is Killing Atlantic Reefs. So Please Eat It.

October 24, 2018 — KEY LARGO, Fla. — What do you do with an invasive fish, covered from head to fin with venomous spines as sharp as hypodermic needles; a fish that can’t be caught with a rod or in a trawling net as it multiplies rapidly, deep in our oceans, flummoxing fishermen and scientists alike?

Conservationists are hoping you eat it.

The Indo-Pacific native lionfish arrived in the Atlantic about a decade ago, the product of well-meaning aquarium owners who released their charges into the ocean, not realizing they reproduce at an alarming rate, prey on more than 70 species of fish and hasten the dying-off of any coral reef they alight on. Scientists describe their invasion into Florida’s waters in the same words noted Key West fisherman Ernest Hemingway used to describe the onset of bankruptcy: slowly, and then all at once. Now estimated to number as many as 1,000 fish per acre, lionfish also have no known predators — except humans.

Read the full story at Vice News

 

Hurricane Michael leaves long-term rebuild for Florida

October 23, 2018 — Hurricane Michael blew through the Florida panhandle nearly two weeks ago, but it appears the major storm will have long-lasting effects on the state’s commercial fishing industry.

The state’s shellfish industries were especially hard-hit, as the storm impacted areas known for clam and oyster beds.

T.J. Ward, whose family has worked in the shellfish business for five generations, said his aquaculture business “is done for at least a year or two” in an interview with WBUR radio in Boston.

“The damage in Apalachicola is the worst I’ve ever seen, and locals that are older than me and been through more hurricanes haven’t seen it this bad,” he said.

The impact to fisheries isn’t just to human structures, as the environment can be heavily impacted by flood waters changing the shape of the landscape.

“We won’t know how this system responds until after. When you look at catastrophic storms, very often they can shift baselines in systems,” Duane DeFreese, executive director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, told Florida Today. “Completely over-wash the wetland, upland transitions, and then it takes some time for systems to recover. The commercial fishing impacts on this could be extreme.”

The effects also will be felt beyond the Gulf for at least one company.

According to The Seattle Times, Michael took a nearly-completed 261-foot trawler and ripped it from the shipyard’s mooring in Panama City, Florida. The ship, being built at Eastern Shipbuilding for Glacier Fish Co., was supposed to depart for Alaska in November and start processing groundfish.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Hurricane Michael leaves a seaside Florida town in an existential crisis

October 23, 2018 — For generations, families have come to Mexico Beach to soak up old-style Florida: the mom-and-pop seafood shacks, the dinky one-story motels and pastel bungalows, the retro ice cream parlor with claw machines and vintage arcade games.

But Hurricane Michael, which less than two weeks ago pummeled the tiny seaside town with 155-mph winds and demolished roughly three out of every four buildings, has left the community in an existential crisis. Nobody is sure what comes next.

Many residents and business owners, anticipating massive insurance shortfalls, have yet to decide whether to commit to the daunting challenge of rebuilding structures strong enough to withstand the next big storm.

About a third of the town’s 1,200 full-time residents are senior citizens. Many homes were not covered by flood insurance. A vast swath of older ranch-style homes and commercial structures sat at ground level and did not meet the state’s current elevation and windstorm requirements.

“They’re gonna make you build so heavy duty, you can’t afford to rebuild,” said Charles “Chuck” Smith, 56, owner of the Gulf View Motel, a modest 1940s-era building that his parents bought in the mid-1980s.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

U.S., Cuban marine biologists put an end to ‘academic embargo’

October 22, 2018 — There are no borders that separate the water, reefs and marine life off the coasts of Cuba and Florida, and that’s why scientists in both countries say they need to get along and collaborate.

During the recent MarCuba conference in Havana, U.S. scientific institutions were well represented and researchers also used the conference to highlight research collaborations and a milestone edition of the Bulletin of Marine Science, a respected marine science journal published by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

The Bulletin devoted its entire spring issue to marine science research in Cuba, carried out by both U.S. and Cuban scientists.

“Science plays an excellent role in diplomacy,” said Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont and the guest editor of the special Cuba edition. What better area for collaboration than one with shared ocean systems, fisheries and conservation efforts, he said.

In a Bulletin editorial, Roman wrote that the Cuba edition “celebrates Cuban marine science and conservation efforts, while recognizing that improved relations and increased tourism and trade could put some natural areas at risk. Joint research shows promise that Cuba, the U.S., and other countries can work together on regional conservation efforts.”

“It’s time for Cuban researchers to reach a wider audience,” Roman said.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

 

Harris Teeter shoppers may have bought mislabeled and ‘distressed’ crabmeat for years

October 19, 2018 — Harris Teeter is contacting members of its VIC loyalty-card program this week to offer refunds involving crab meat sold between 2010 and 2015.

The crab, supplied by a Virginia company called Casey’s Seafood, is part of a massive federal fraud case over the mislabeling of seafood.

The Washington Post reported Sept. 26 that Casey’s owner James Casey, 74, pleaded guilty in September to relabeling and reselling “distressed” crab meat from other countries as fresh crab meat from the Chesapeake Bay. Distressed crab meat is crab that was recalled, returned or out of date. Casey will be sentenced in January and is facing up to five years in prison, according to the Post.

The charges involved more than 360,000 pounds of crab sold between 2012 and 2015, although prosecutors believe the crab meat switch may have dated to as early as 2010, the Post reported.

The crab meat was valued at millions of dollars, and was sold to stores and restaurants in multiple Southeastern states, including North and South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia and Tennessee, according to the Associated Press.

Checks by The Observer of other supermarket chains, including Publix, Food Lion, Bi Lo, Earth Fare and Whole Foods, didn’t find other companies in North Carolina involved in the sales of the Casey’s crab meat.

Multiple news reports about the case say that federal agents were notified by a tip and did DNA tests on samples of the product in several states, including North Carolina.

Danna Robinson, communications manager for Harris Teeter, wouldn’t say how many customers were contacted or how much it is providing in refunds.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

What happens to fish and other sea creatures underwater during a hurricane

October 18, 2018 — Hurricanes can be just as deadly for marine life, sometimes stranding them on land or far out at sea. But sometimes marine life benefits or even thrives after these extreme weather events.

Normally when a hurricane is headed for us, we run the other way. But not Isla. She’s a leatherback turtle who was meandering off the coast of Virginia when she accidentally swam straight into Hurricane Florence. Scientists were worried she’d get caught up in the worst of the storm but Isla managed to survive by swimming toward deeper waters.

Turns out, there’s a part of hurricanes we don’t often think about: What happens under the surface. And Isla is just one example.

Far out at sea, fish that live near the surface might feel some turbulence as a storm passes. But most sea creatures — including dolphins, whales, and sharks — avoid the rough surface water and swim to calmer seas. But it’s a different story near shore.

Changes in water temperature and salinity can be catastrophic for marine life. Hurricanes can generate massive waves. Which mix warm surface water with colder, saltier water below generating currents that extend up to 91 meters below the surface. These currents are so strong that they can sweep manatees inland to canals and ponds or away from the coastal waters they prefer, and out into the open ocean. Where they can become disorientated, and even die.

Hurricanes also bring heavy rain, so freshwater often floods coastal regions. And because freshwater is less dense than salt water, it sits on top of the sea water like oil on vinegar. Where it can prevent oxygen from reaching the salty layer below. And disrupt the salinity levels, which can lead to sores, lesions, and ultimately death in whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

Hurricanes also kick up dirt and sand in shallow seas. Which can kill fish by clogging their gills. Experts think this is probably one of the factors that killed an estimated 9.4 million saltwater fish in 1992, during Hurricane Andrew. The dirty, murky water also blocks sunlight from reaching corals and seagrass. In fact, scientists found that coral cover in the Caribbean decreases by 17% in just one year after a hurricane strikes. And that’s in addition to the stress coral already face from human interference.

But it’s not always so bad for sea life. After Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed almost 90% of fishing boats in the Mississippi Sound scientists observed a huge increase in dolphin births. Without the fishing boats, dolphins suddenly found themselves with more available prey which helped their populations thrive.

Read the full story at Business Insider

Florida: Red tide creeps up to Melbourne Beach, Indialantic

October 17, 2018 — INDIALANTIC, Fla. — While test results to prove red tide are pending, the itchy throats and rancid fish carcasses on the beach this week have some already convinced, and fearing a repeat of the toxic tides that thoroughly flogged the Space Coast 16 years ago.

For tourists, another red tide now would be lousy timing. For fish, too.

“Right now we’ve got a big mullet run on the beach, so there are a lot of migratory fish following the mullet runs,” said Jon Shenker, associate professor of marine biology at the Florida Institute of Technology. “I have no idea how bad this is.”

Beachgoers and beachside residents have complained in recent days of coughing and irritated throats after being by the ocean. Dead fish reported in Indialantic and Melbourne Beach on Tuesday included bluefish, Spanish mackerel, mullet and other fish. A dead fish dotted the shoreline every 10 feet or so at Paradise Beach Park.

Brevard County is helping Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gather water samples to test for the red tide organism, Karenia brevis. The algae releases a neurotoxin that can cause asthma-like symptoms. If ingested, it can cause digestive problems. Brevard County Natural Resources has coordinated with FWC for sampling beginning Tuesday and hopes to know the results on Wednesday.

“In the meantime, we have been monitoring conditions and have reached out to various agencies, such as Keep Brevard Beautiful, Tourism and Development, the city of Cocoa Beach, to plan for a coordinated response if and when we have reported fish kills,” Brevard County spokesman Don Walker said via email.

Read the full story at Florida Today