Saving Seafood

Fishermen hear red snapper options

May 26, 2016 — PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Charter boat captains and recreational anglers had a chance to weigh in how they think the recreational red snapper fishery should be managed during a Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council hearing Tuesday night.

For the past few years the council has managed for-hire vessels and recreational anglers differently. For example, this year for-hire boats will have a 46-day season to fish federal waters while the recreational fishermen will have nine days.

It’s worth noting that recreational fishermen will have a 78-day season in state waters this year that for-hire vessels won’t be able to participate in.

The provision that allows the two groups to be managed differently at the federal level is set to expire at the end of 2017. The council offered three options to the few dozen fishermen who showed up for the meeting at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel.

Read the full story at the Panama City News Herald

Whole Foods Market to sell invasive lionfish starting Wednesday

May 26, 2016 — Whole Foods is set to sell fresh lionfish in seafood departments, hoping to take a bite out of the non-native, invasive species hurting Florida’s offshore reefs.

Starting Wednesday, 26 Florida Whole Foods stores will begin selling the whole delicate white fish for $8.99 a pound through May 31. The fish will be priced at $9.99 per pound starting June 1.

The economically-priced fish, which has 18 venomous spines, is safe to consume once the spines have been removed. “Once caught and placed on ice, the lionfish physically cannot release venom from the gland, ensuring safe consumption for shoppers,” says the release. The flesh is not poisonous.

Read the full story at the Sun Sentinel

NOAA Fisheries Announces New Snapper-Grouper Regs for South Atlantic

May 24, 2016 — The final rule for Amendment 35 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 35) published on May 23, 2016 (81 FR 32249). Regulations will be effective June 22, 2016.

The final rule will:

  • Remove dog snapper, black snapper, mahogany snapper, and schoolmaster from the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan. These species have extremely low landings, and regulations governing their harvest differ in state and federal waters. The State of Florida has indicated that it will extend state regulations for Florida registered vessels for these species into federal waters if they are removed from the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan, thereby creating a more consistent regulatory environment.
  • Revise regulations for the use of golden tilefish longline endorsements. Specifically, this final rule will clarify that vessels that have valid or renewable golden tilefish longline endorsements, anytime during the golden tilefish fishing year, are not eligible to fish for golden tilefish under the hook-and-line quota. This rule will ensure that fishery participants holding longline endorsements are not allowed to fish under both the hook-and-line quota and the longline quota within the same fishing year. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council reaffirmed that this was their intent when it implemented the longline endorsement program for golden tilefish under Amendment 18B to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan (78 FR 23858, April 23, 2013).

Read the full story at The Outdoor Wire

NOAA Fisheries Announces New Regulations for Snapper- Grouper in the South Atlantic

May 23, 2016 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The final rule for Amendment 35 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 35) published on May 23, 2016 (81 FR 32249). Regulations will be effective June 22, 2016.

The final rule will:

  • Remove dog snapper, black snapper, mahogany snapper, and schoolmaster from the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan. These species have extremely low landings, and regulations governing their harvest differ in state and federal waters. The State of Florida has indicated that it will extend state regulations for Florida registered vessels for these species into federal waters if they are removed from the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan, thereby creating a more consistent regulatory environment.
  • Revise regulations for the use of golden tilefish longline endorsements. Specifically, this final rule will clarify that vessels that have valid or renewable golden tilefish longline endorsements, anytime during the golden tilefish fishing year, are not eligible to fish for golden tilefish under the hook-and-line quota. This rule will ensure that fishery participants holding longline endorsements are not allowed to fish under both the hook-and-line quota and the longline quota within the same fishing year. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council reaffirmed that this was their intent when it implemented the longline endorsement program for golden tilefish under Amendment 18B to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan (78 FR 23858, April 23, 2013).

Atlantic red snapper closure extended through 2016

May 20, 2016 — Local anglers won’t be allowed to keep red snapper this year after federal fishery regulators announced Thursday they will keep the fish closed to harvesting, part of the government’s years-long and controversial plan to increase the species’ abundance.

The closure applies to red snapper caught in federal waters from Florida to North Carolina, a vast area ranging from 3 to 200 miles offshore where virtually all red snapper in the Atlantic Ocean are caught.

Red snapper have been strictly regulated since 2010 after a study by the federal government found that the species had been overfished for decades to dangerously low levels.

Read the full story at the Florida Times-Union

FLORIDA: Scallop season up in the air

May 20, 2016 — Taking a trip during the summer to Port St. Joe in search of bay scallops has become an annual event for many residents along the Gulf Coast. The season typically opens in late June and closes sometime in September each year.

A couple of weeks ago, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission put out a release stating they were considering making arrangements to cancel the 2016 harvest season in Florida state waters west of St. Vincent Island, including St. Joseph Bay.

Earlier this week, they scheduled two workshops to gather public input on this summer’s bay scallop season in St. Joseph Bay for Tuesday and June 13. Both will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Capital City Bank conference room, 2nd floor, 504 Monument Ave., in Port St. Joe.

Read the full story at the Pensacola News Journal

FLORIDA: TDC adopts message to counter possible scallop season suspension

May 12, 2016 — The Gulf County Tourist Development Council Advisory Committee adopted a rapid response plan during its regular meeting last week to address the possibility the 2016 scallop season will be cancelled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

A final decision on the season will be made by the FWC, which intends to hold local public workshops this month and next, in June.

The Board of County Commissioners last week passed a resolution sent to the FWC suggesting alternatives to cancellation, such as size limits, smaller bag counts or a shorter season.

Jennifer Jenkins, TDC executive director, confirmed that FWC officials would conduct their regular scallop surveys of the bay in June and present those findings at an FWC meeting June 22-23, after which a decision would be made.

Currently, scallop season is set to open Saturday, June 25.

Read the full story at The Star

Florida Red Snapper Season Now Open on Gulf Coast Weekends

May 11, 2016 — At its April 13 meeting in Jupiter, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) set the 2016 recreational red snapper season in Gulf of Mexico state waters.

The 2016 season is open Saturdays and Sundays in May starting May 7. On May 28, the season will open continuously through July 10. Finally, the season will reopen for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in September and October, and on Labor Day.

This would provide for a 78-day season in Gulf state waters. This season will help maintain fishing opportunities for recreational anglers in state waters and provide additional May and fall weekend fishing days.

Read the full story at The Fishing Wire

FLORIDA: Panhandle leaders seek ways to end lionfish invasion

May 11, 2016 — Environmental leaders are looking for an economic roar from the troubling invasion of lionfish into the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Because of the high concentration of the fish in the waters off Pensacola, the region has become Florida’s lionfish capital, the leaders said Monday night during a Regional Lionfish Control Workshop sponsored by Escambia County.

“What we are trying to do is to turn that lemon into lemonade,” Anna Clark of the Pensacola-based environmental advocacy organization Coast Watch Alliance told the group.

Clark and others pushed ideas that might provide a boost to the local economy while also combating the lionfish problem, including ecotourism based on “lionfish safaris.”  The plan would encourage divers who spearfish to come to the area to hunt lionfish.

Clark’s organization and the University of Florida’s Sea Grant program also are working to encourage retailers to sell lionfish meat and to promote restaurants that offer lionfish-based menu items.

Read the full story at the Panhandle News Journal

Florida power plant has sucked in over 4,100 sea turtles in the past decade

May 10, 2016 — Over the past decade, over 4,100 sea turtles — averaging to more than a turtle a day — have been sucked into the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant on Hutchinson Island in Florida, resulting in injuries and even deaths, TCPalm reported. Since the plant opened in 1976, about 16,000 turtles, mainly the threatened loggerhead and endangered green, have been affected.

Xander, a subadult loggerhead, is just one of these many turtles. In August, he was found tangled up in fishing line and wounded in the canal. After being rescued, Xander was given antibiotics and underwent orthopedic surgery. After treatment, he was released back into the wild on March 31, according to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

The federal government is finally stepping in to build pipe grates on the three pipes, each a quarter-mile long, that run through the ocean, which will take two years to build and test. This is the first step taken in addressing this issue, but the crosshatched mesh grate will only protect about 27% of the turtles that ever enter the pipes. Any smaller mesh would also stop water flow, the Florida Power & Light Company said, according to TCPalm.

Read the full story at AOL News