Saving Seafood

Stone crab catch in short supply across Florida

September 12, 2018 — It seems the only thing Florida stone crabbers harvested with any consistency during the season that ended May 15 was optimism. And that was often hard work.

The average annual haul since 2011 has been 3.7 million pounds, valued at $27.8 million. The harvest in pounds has climbed the past few years, with catch from October to December traditionally being better than January to May.

But 2018 bucked the recent seasonal trend, yielding just 2.1 million pounds — not much more than the 1.98 million pounds caught in 2013-2014 season that was labeled “historically low” by Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officials.

Shorter supply resulted in higher dollar value, though. Commission landings data shows an estimated value for all claw sizes this season at $29.6 million.

Price aside, it was hard for some fish houses to meet demand.

“I don’t know if we broke 100,000 pounds this season,” said Tommy Shook, general manager of Frenchy’s Stone Crab Co. in Palm Harbor, Fla. “The year before was 190,000 [pounds sold].”

The independent crabbers he buys from just weren’t able to deliver. “It sure makes it hard when the phones are ringing and there’s nothing to sell,” he said. “Nothing worse than being a crab company with no crabs.”

“Stones were in very short supply in our area last season,” said Katie Fischer of Island Seafood Co. in Matlacha, on Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast. “Our local crab house couldn’t supply us, so we had to drive to a crab house up in Englewood the whole season.” Island Seafood was paying $28 a pound for jumbo claws and $20 to $25 for large claws at the dock.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Gulf Council Selects Dr. John Froeschke as New Deputy Director

September 5, 2018 — The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has named Dr. John Froeschke as its new deputy director. Froeschke has worked as a fishery biologist and statistician for the Council since 2009.

The change comes after former Deputy Director Dr. Carrie Simmons was selected in April to lead the Council as its executive director. She took over June 1 for Doug Gregory, who retired after the June Council meeting.

Froeschke earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. There, he worked on developing predictive models used to improve the understanding of environmental factors affecting fish distribution and abundance in the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to this, he completed his Master’s of Science in Biology at California State University, Northridge. He worked as a fish biologist at Occidental College in Los Angeles and as a scientific diver for several years. He currently lives in central Florida and enjoys fishing and camping with his wife and two young children.

“Dr. Froeschke brings a well-rounded perspective to the deputy director position,” Simmons said in a press release. “In his nine years of service for the Council, he has worked on a wide range of topics, including reef fish, coral, and habitat.

“He has a great deal of experience working with fisheries data as well as knowledge of the science and management process. I am positive his experience and expertise will enhance the success of the Council and its staff.”

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

Florida’s unusually long red tide is killing wildlife, tourism and businesses

August 29, 2018 — SIESTA KEY, Fla. — Even as she sat under the brilliant Florida sun, her toes covered in sugar-white sand, Alex McShane wasn’t exactly enjoying her summer vacation. Florida’s worst red tide in more than a decade had turned the aqua-blue surf to a rusty dull brown.

And then there were the lifeguards. They were wearing gas masks.

With no mask of her own, McShane, 24, wore a frown. Her eyes itched, she coughed, and the stench was giving her a headache — all telltale symptoms of the monster algal bloom spanning the southern Gulf Coast. It is killing untold numbers of marine animals from Bradenton to Naples, where rotting fish still lay scattered on a beach behind Gov. Rick Scott’s seaside mansion, even after a cleanup.

As the outbreak nears the year mark, with no sign of easing, it’s no longer a threat to just marine life. Business owners in the hardest-hit counties report they have lost nearly $90 million and have laid off about 300 workers because of the red tide and a separate freshwater algal bloom in the state’s largest lake. Together, the two blooms have caused a sharp drop in tourism.

A pair of toxic algal blooms striking the state at the same time is rare and, in this case, especially lethal. A red tide is a natural phenomenon that develops miles offshore before making its way to the coast, where it feeds on a variety of pollutants, including phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizer, along with other runoff and wastewater.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Florida maintains small share of regional flounder catch

August 29, 2018 — The Florida flounder fishery — comprised mostly of the Southern and gulf species — continues to occupy a niche market in 2018 that likely will continue for the foreseeable future.

That’s because recreational hook-and-line and gig fishermen harvest, on average, more than 72 percent of the flat, mottled brown fish that are landed on both coasts of the Sunshine State each year. While commercial giggers and spearfishermen are left with the remainder.

In 2017, rec fishermen landed 206,655 pounds, compared to 167,581 brought in by commercials. At the start of July, the commercial harvest stood at just over 18,300 pounds with an average dock price of $3.34 per pound.

The lion’s share of the commercial catch occurs in Big Bend region near Apalachicola off the west coast and the St. Augustine area on the east coast. On both coasts, it’s a year-round, mostly inshore fishery that peaks in November and December in northeast Florida and March through June in the Gulf.

“This hasn’t been a good spring,” said Jim Nations, manager of Water Street Seafood in Apalachicola, of the 3,825 pounds brought in to his location so far this year. “It’s just cyclical. Lower than I expected, but it’s a small niche fishery and not what it used to be.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

FLORIDA: ‘It’s Going To Be A Rough Year’: Key Largo Fishermen Feel Effects Of Chinese Lobster Tariffs

August 22, 2018 — At 6 a.m. on a recent Thursday morning, Ernie Piton and his son dragged wooden lobster traps across their dock in Key Largo. They stabbed sharp wires through ripe, glossy fish heads, preparing for the grind of baiting and checking Florida spiny lobster traps. As the fishermen turned the key, rumbling their boat to life, they hoped for a good haul.

Lobster fishing is grueling work, with long hours spent reeling in nearly 300 lobster traps each day. But it’s been the family’s livelihood for 35 years.

Piton sells lobster and stone crab through his family-run operation, Risky Business II. His 21-year-old son, Travis, also depends on this lobster boat for his full-time job.

For the last decade, the Pitons have sold almost exclusively to the Chinese market. During three of those years, they’ve sold lobster through a third-party buyer that works out of Miami, Ocean Dragon Seafood. But since June, the Trump Administration’s trade war with China has threatened their livelihood and that of many Florida fishermen. That comes as many are still recovering from losses during the 2017 hurricane season.

Read the full story at WJCT

Scallop population rebounding in Florida Panhandle

August 21, 2018 — Wildlife officials say the scallop population is rebounding following a bout of red tide in Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s Panhandle.

A survey of the adult population of St. Joseph Bay scallops posted last week by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shows the population is nearly four times what it was last year.

The News Herald reports the St. Joseph Bay scallop population remains “vulnerable,” which is the wildlife agency’s category for adult populations of between two and 20 scallops per square meter. During the most recent survey, researchers found 8.1 scallops per square meter.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at My Plainview

Florida fish, tourism losses grow from red tide

August 20, 2018 — Florida, U.S.A. restaurants and other businesses are suffering losses from red tide and blue green algae, which have killed millions of fish and impacted public perception of the region.

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency last week, after the red tide bloom expanded to affect around 130 miles of coastline in Southwest Florida. The new declaration for Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties will provide money and resources to combat the ongoing red tide and blue green algae problems.

In Lee County, around 2.7 million pounds of dead fish have been found on the beaches in August. Dead fish from red tide have turned up in multiple locations in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Lee, and Collier counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

While FWC officials say that Gulf of Mexico and Florida seafood sold in stores and served at restaurants are safe to eat, some restaurants along the coast of Florida have experienced plummeting sales since the red tide began earlier this summer.

“What we are hearing is that most folks are fine, but some folks on the water are experiencing decreased sales,” Amanda Handley, press secretary for the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, told SeafoodSource.

When restaurants and hotels receive questions about whether they are serving seafood impacted by red tide or blue green algae, they explain that their seafood is purchased through distributors that have to be inspected by the state.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FLORIDA: Scallop survey shows rebounding population

August 17, 2018 — The extra TLC the past two years would appear to be reaping dividends.

A project begun in 2016 to restore the scallop population in St. Joseph Bay has found purchase based on the results of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s adult population survey.

The survey results, posted Tuesday, show that the current population is nearly four-times that of last year and nearly twice the mean of the past six years.

Scallop harvest season in St. Joseph Bay begins Friday and continues through Sept. 30, the latest starting, and longest by days, scallop harvest season in Florida.

During this year’s survey, which was more extensive than typical due to the late start of the season, researchers found 8.1 scallops per square meter, approximately 1.2 square yards.

That is more than three times the density found during last year’s survey and eight times higher than two years ago, when the population was deemed “collapsed,” with less than one scallop per square meter.

The population remains “vulnerable,” the FWC category for adult populations of between two and 20 scallops per square meter.

Read the full story at The Port St. Joe Star

Florida declares a state of emergency as red tide kills animals and disrupts tourism

August 16, 2018 — Florida’s governor this week made official what residents of southwest Florida already knew: The bloom of toxic algae that has darkened gulf waters is an emergency. The red tide has made breathing difficult for locals, scared away tourists, and strewn popular beaches with the stinking carcasses of fish, eels, porpoises, turtles, manatees and one 26-foot whale shark.

Gov. Rick Scott (R) late Monday declared a state of emergency in seven counties stretching from Tampa Bay south to the fringe of the Everglades. Scott promised $1.5 million in emergency funding.

The governor is facing Sen. Bill Nelson (D) this fall at the ballot box in a contest for the senate seat Nelson has held for three terms. Each man has accused the other of failing to tackle the red-tide calamity and the simultaneous bloom of a different type of algae that is clogging rivers and canals and putting a scum on top of Lake Okeechobee.

Citizens in retirement communities are reporting respiratory distress from the vapors of the microscopic red-tide organism called Karenia brevis. A recent study found a 50 percent spike in hospital visits due to respiratory problems during red-tide blooms.

The red tide has been gradually moving north, to the mouth of Tampa Bay, according to state tracking data. For many places, the daily reports continue to say “Water Color: Dark” and “Respiratory Irritation: Intense.” Worst of all are the reports that state “Dead Fish: Heavy.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

FLORIDA: Expert: Lots of possible causes for dead crabs in Hillsborough Bay

August 14, 2018 — Clusters of dead crabs in Hillsborough Bay along Bayshore have fishery biologist Ryan Rindone scratching his head.

“I’ve lived here for eight years and this is the first time I’ve been along this seawall and seen this many like this,” said Rindone, who works for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

With red tide killing off marine life in surrounding counties, it’s a theory that can’t be ruled out, but the FWC says it hasn’t tested the bay’s water for the phenomenon recently.

The Florida Aquarium’s associate veterinarian says disease could also be a possibility.

“There’s a number of different things that could be implicated here,” Dr. Ari Fustukjian said. “We see animal die-offs for a number of different reasons over the course of the year. It can be related to water change, usually there will be some sort of either viral or bacterial disease outbreak.”

Rindone says if it is red tide, you wouldn’t just be seeing dead crabs.

“You would have seen dead fish, first, in a lot of cases,” he said. “Not all the time, but in a lot of cases. And the crabs could end up suffocating as the bloom gets really bad.”

It could also just be industrial.

Read the full story at FOX 13 News