Saving Seafood

Feds protecting South Carolina waters for endangered whales

January 26, 2016 — A stretch of the southern Atlantic coast needed by endangered right whales to survive will receive more federal oversight under a decision that’s expected to put greater government scrutiny on efforts to locate and drill for oil and gas off the South Carolina seashore.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday declared the entire South Carolina and Georgia coasts as “critical habitat’’ for North Atlantic right whales, rare sea mammals that migrate from New England to southern waters. Parts of north Florida, New England and southern North Carolina also fall under the designation for the first time.

Tuesday’s decision doesn’t necessarily preclude oil and gas drilling in South Carolina or other states and it won’t add new regulations that would impede shipping or commercial fishing, federal officials said.

But it “would definitely make it harder’’ for oil and gas exploration to occur, said David Gouveia, a marine mammal coordinator for NOAA’s fisheries division. The critical habitat designation allows the government to more carefully review the proposals to search or drill for fossil fuels that might be buried in the sea floor, federal officials said. If concerns arise, the government could recommend changes.

Not only will the agency look at the direct impact of oil and gas development on right whales, but it also would examine how that could affect habitat important to the species’ survival, Gouveia said during a conference call with reporters. The government unveiled the proposal about a year ago and finalized the rule Tuesday.

NOAA Expands Critical Habitat for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales

January 26, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Using new information not previously available, NOAA Fisheries is expanding critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region and southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

This final rule, which was initially proposed in February 2015 and received 261 general comments over a 60-day comment period, does not include any new restrictions or management measures for commercial fishing operations.

North Atlantic right whale mother and calf. Credit: Christin Khan/NOAA

“With two decades of new information and improved understanding since we first designated critical habitat for the species, we believe the expansion will further protect essential foraging and calving areas to further improve recovery of this animal,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “We’re making significant progress in reversing the population decline of the species, and are seeing signs of recovery – up to about 500 animals from the estimated 300 in 1994. But we still have a long way to get to complete recovery. “This rule is based on 35 years of aircraft and ship borne surveys of right whale distribution, research into foraging and prey availability to better understand right whale movements and life history. Together, these data provide a far more robust understanding of the factors critical to species recovery. Based on this information and public comments, NOAA scientists and managers determined a critical habitat expansion associated with feeding in the North and calving in the South is necessary for species recovery.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat within the range of the species consists of areas that contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of the species. The new designation does not create preserves or refuges or any other restrictions that directly affect the public. However, federal agencies conducting, funding or permitting activities in these areas, and project proponents that need federal permits or funding for such activities, are required to work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or reduce impacts on critical habitat.

Figure 1: Comparison of 1994 and 2016 Right Whale Critical Habitat Designations

Read the final rule, along with comments and responses, as filed in the Federal Register this morning.

Read the whole press release on our website.

Read more about right whales.

GSI’s Walk On the Hill Important For Survival of Gulf Fisheries

January 25, 2016 — Even before members of the Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) took their first steps toward Capitol Hill, they realized this year’s “Walk on the Hill” would be extremely important for the survival of commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The surprise that state boundary limits for all fisheries going to nine miles introduced into the Sportsman’s package has dire consequences for a lot of seafood sectors that haven’t been vetted,” said GSI Florida Board Member David Krebs, president of Ariel Seafood. “I think we are all surprised these amendments have been attached to an Environment and Public Works bill instead of through the Commerce Committee. Hopefully GSI will be able to circumvent the damage before it is done.”Hours before GSI members were scheduled to leave their D.C. headquarters at the Hotel George, GSI received word that two amendments would be offered to the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act being heard at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that would negatively impact the harvesting of commercial seafood in the Gulf of Mexico. One of these amendments would have permanently extended state waters in the Gulf of Mexico to nine miles, effectively rescinding the Magnuson Stevens Act for all commercial, charter-for-hire and recreational fishing out to 9 miles – an outcome that would imperil consumers’ access to Gulf fisheries.

With a telephone glued to his ear, GSI President Harlon Pearce, owner of Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans, made call after call to other organizations to raise awareness of the proposed amendments. The organization made last minute changes to its legislative agenda as it prepared to meet with the Gulf Congressional Delegation, as well as Maryland’s Senator Barbara Mikulski and Alaska’s Senator Dan Sullivan.

“We often meet with legislators outside of the Gulf,” said Pearce. “It was a stroke of luck that we were in the right place at the right time to bring this important information on the proposed amendments to their attention. We also thanked them for all they have done for our industry in the past. It is important to meet with legislators outside of the Gulf to educate them that what affects our fisheries eventually affects their constituents.. We want to keep Gulf fish available for all Americans.”

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood Institute

 

Could invasive lionfish end up in Chesapeake Bay?

December 29, 2015 — Few fish are as lovely as the lionfish. Few are as venomous.

A frilly, colorful native of the clear tropical waters and reefs of the South Pacific and Indian oceans, the lionfish has been a favorite of aquarium hobbyists for years.

In the Atlantic, however, it was unknown.

Then in the 1980s genetic researchers believe a handful of hobbyists in Florida, perhaps thinking it a kindness, released their aquarium pets into the wild ocean.

At that point, the lionfish proved they aren’t just lovely and venomous — they also breed like rabbits on Viagra. Ravenous eaters, they gobble up any smaller fish they spot and easily displace native species. And because nothing in this part of the Atlantic recognizes them as prey, their population has exploded into a serious and unfortunate marine invasion.

“It’s gotten really bad,” said Richard Brill, fishery biologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point.

“There’ve been some efforts in Florida and some parts of the Caribbean to get people to eat them. And there’s been some efforts — and this is pretty crazy — but groups of recreational spear fishermen have been spearing them and then feeding what they catch to sharks, trying to convince the local shark population to eat these things.”

The hardy little invaders have established year-round populations from the Gulf of Mexico to the Outer Banks. They’ve been spotted in warmer months as far north as Massachusetts, although they can’t survive the northern winters.

Read the full story at the Hampton Roads Daily Press

 

Rep. Jolly teams with GSI’s Hogarth on Gulf Red Snapper Legislation

November 30, 2015 — One of the largest issues both commercial and recreational fishers face is getting both fishermen and regulators to have faith in the data, especially when it comes to Gulf of Mexico reef fish. Recently introduced legislation by Congressman David Jolly of Florida will hopefully lead to a more accurate count of red snapper and other reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf Red Snapper Data Improvement Act recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jolly will allow for third-party data collection of fish populations to be used for federal stock assessments, which could ultimately lead to longer red snapper fishing seasons for the recreational sectors.

“Nobody trusts the data anymore,” said Dr. Bill Hogarth, Director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography and a Board member of the Gulf Seafood Institute. “Fishermen are on the water everyday and they see what is happening. When you are doing a stock assessment now, you are working with data that is at least two years old. Things change. We have to get more real time data, and this legislation is a good start.”

Rep. Jolly’s bill designates $10 million annually for third-party data collection of Gulf Red Snapper and other Gulf reef species. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast Regional Office located in St. Petersburg, Florida would manage the data collection program. A member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, Jolly was able to secure similar language in the fiscal year 2016 House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Bill earlier this year.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood Institute

 

 

FLORIDA: Waters close to gill nets

November 5, 2015 — Waters in the Pamlico Sound and the northern portion of Core Sound will close to anchored, large-mesh gill nets starting this morning due to interactions with sea turtles.

The closure impacts Management Unit B under the state’s Sea Turtle Incidental Take Permit, which includes all of Pamlico Sound and the northern portion of Core Sound down to a line from Club House on Core Banks to a point on the shore at Davis near Marker 1, according to a North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries news release.

The closure took effect beginning one hour after sunrise.

DMF staff have observed numerous interactions with sea turtles in the management unit since it reopened Nov. 2. The closure is meant to avoid exceeding the allowed number of sea turtle interactions for the management unit.

Read the full story at Jacksonville Daily News

 

SAFMC: Proposed Commercial Trip Limit for the Atlantic Coast Dolphin Fishery

October 27, 2015 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is soliciting public input in November on measures affecting fishermen as far north as New England. Commercial fishermen that target dolphin (fish) in federal waters along the Atlantic coast may be operating under a new commercial trip limit if measures proposed by the Council are approved during its December 7-11, 2015 meeting in Atlantic Beach, NC. The Council is developing Regulatory Amendment 1 to the Dolphin Wahoo Fishery Management Plan with trip limit alternatives designed to help extend the commercial season. On June 30, 2015, the commercial dolphin fishery was closed for the first time when NOAA Fisheries projected that the annual catch limit of 1,157,001 pounds would be met. Dolphin are managed from New England to the Florida Keys under the fishery management plan, and the closure impacted the commercial fishery along the entire Atlantic coast. The Council approved measures in December 2014 to modify the allocation between commercial and recreational sectors, increasing the commercial allocation to 10% and the annual catch limit by 377,484 pounds. NOAA Fisheries is currently reviewing the measures approved by the Council. As proposed, the trip limit would become effective once a designated portion of the commercial annual catch limit is reached. Fishermen and other interested members of the public are being asked to provide their comments on various alternatives by participating in public hearings being held via webinar or by submitting written comments (see details below).

The Council is also requesting public input on proposed management measures for blueline tilefish, yellowtail snapper and black sea bass in Regulatory Amendment 25 to the Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan. New annual catch limits for blueline tilefish in the South Atlantic and other management parameters are being considered based on a new Acceptable Biological Catch of 224,100 pounds. Changes to commercial trip limits and recreational bag limits for blueline tilefish are also being considered. For yellowtail snapper, a species commonly targeted off the southeastern coast of Florida, the amendment includes alternatives to change the fishing year and modify accountability measures. The change in the current fishing year is being requested by fishermen in order to allow harvest during the winter season and have any closures that may occur due to meeting the annual catch limit coincide with the spring/summer spawning season. The final action in Regulatory Amendment 25 would allow an increase in the current recreational bag limit for black sea bass of 5 fish per person per day. Alternatives range from increasing the bag limit to 6 fish up to a total of 10 fish per person per day. Once overfished, the stock was deemed rebuilt based on the 2013 stock assessment and the annual catch limit more than doubled. The Council is scheduled to approve measures in Regulatory Amendment 25 during its December meeting in Atlantic Beach, NC.

The public is encouraged to provide written comment and participate in upcoming public hearings scheduled via webinar with concurrent comment stations at various locations. A public hearing scheduled for Monday, November 9th will address actions proposed in Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25. A public hearing scheduled for Thursday, November 12th will address commercial trip limits for dolphin through Dolphin Wahoo Regulatory Amendment 1 and measures proposed in Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25. The public hearings begin at 6:00 PM.

Learn More – Q&A Webinar

Monday, November 2, 2015 at 6:00 PM – Question and Answer Webinar for Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25. Registration for the webinar is required and information is available from the Public Hearing and Scoping Meeting page of the Council’s website at www.safmc.net. Public Hearing Summary documents for each amendment and other materials will be posted on the same page by October 30, 2015.

Submit Written Comment

Written comments for both amendments can be submitted via mail, fax, and email and will be accepted until 5:00 PM on November 16, 2015. Instructions for submitting comments are available from the Public Hearing and Scoping Meeting page of the website or by contacting the Council office at 843/571-4366 or Toll Free 866/SAFMC-10.

Public Hearing Webinars and Comment Stations

Public hearings will be held via webinar in conjunction with comment stations throughout the region beginning at 6:00 PM. Stakeholders have two options for participating in the public hearings: Option1) Participate via webinar on the scheduled dates listed below; and Option 2) Participate in person at one of the designated comment stations in NC, SC, GA and FL on the scheduled dates listed below. Registration is required for each webinar. Webinar registration links are available from the Public Hearing and Scoping Meeting page of the Council’s website at www.safmc.net. Council staff will be available one hour prior to each webinar to assist with setup if needed. Call 843/571-4366 or Toll Free 866/SAFMC-10 for assistance. Council staff will review the amendments via webinar beginning at 6:00 PM and local Council members will be on hand at each comment station and tuned into the webinar. Members of the public on the webinar and at comment stations will then have an opportunity to go on record to provide comments for consideration by the Council.

 

SAFMC November 2015 Public Hearings Webinar and Comment Station Dates 6:00 PM

 

Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25 

 

Monday, November 9th

 

Public Hearing via Webinar

Register at www.safmc.net

 

Comment Stations:

GA Department of Natural Resources

Coastal Resources Division

One Conservation Way

Brunswick, GA 31520-8687

Phone: 912/264-7218

 

Hilton Garden Inn Charleston Airport

5265 International Boulevard

North Charleston, SC 29418

Phone: 843/308-9330

 

Dolphin Wahoo Regulatory Amendment 1 and Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25 

 

Thursday, November 12th

 

Public Hearing via Webinar

Register at www.safmc.net.

 

Comment Stations:

Dare County Government Complex

Room 168, 1st Floor

954 Marshall C. Collins Drive

Manteo, NC 27954

Phone: 252/475-5000

 

Wingate by Wyndham (Hotel)

2465 State Route 16

St. Augustine, FL 32092

Phone: 904/824-9229

 

View a PDF of the release here

Cuba launches shark protection plan produced with US group

October 21, 2015 — HAVANA (AP) — Cuba announced Wednesday that it is launching a long-term plan to preserve its sharks in cooperation with a U.S. environmental group, part of a rapidly accelerating partnership between the two countries aimed at preserving their shared waters in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits.

Nearly a year after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that they would end a half-century of official hostility and start moving toward normalization, the most visible progress has been in the realm of environmental protection.

The shark plan announced by Cuba after two years of work with the U.S -based Environmental Defense Fund commits Cuba to recording shark catches by fishing vessels and eventually implementing stricter rules that would limit shark fishing and protect shark nurseries.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced in Valparaiso, Chile this month that the U.S. and Cuba were signing an accord to work together on protecting marine preservation areas in far western Cuba located a relatively short distance from Texas and Florida across the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits.

In April, a research vessel operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration carried marine scientists from Cuba and other countries on a research cruise aimed at gathering information about the spawning of blue-fin tuna, a commercially valuable and highly threatened species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard – Times

 

 

What Will Florida’s Stone Crab Season Bring? It’s Complicated

October 14, 2015 — FLORIDA — Today, hundreds of fishing boats heaped with traps will race shoreward from the Gulf of Mexico with the season’s opening day bounty of stone crabs, one of Florida’s highest-grossing fisheries.

So, as the boats head toward shore, seafood wholesalers, retailers and stone crab enthusiasts engage in a bit of prognostication about what this season may bring. Will there be lots? And what will they cost?

It’s complicated.

Last year, the stone crab season set a new record: More than $31 million worth of crab claws were pulled from Florida waters from Oct. 15 to May 15.

But before you start melting celebratory butter, that record was not a good one for Florida diners. The record just means that crabs cost more last year; yields were nearly at a record low, said Ryan Gandy, a crustacean researcher with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in St. Petersburg.

The stone cold fact about stone crabs: Demand exceeds supply. Landings of stone crabs last year were 2.2 million pounds — the only worse year in the past decade was the previous season, with just under 2 million pounds landed. A decent year historically is a landing of more than 3 million pounds of claws (one claw is removed, and crabs are returned alive to the water).

Gandy, whose group runs eight trap lines throughout the fishery from Steinhatchee down to Key West, said he has seen a slight increase in their catch per trap. This is what gives them a sense for how the population is doing.

“We’re starting to see some higher numbers coming in, so we’re thinking there’s some population recovery. To the north, we’re seeing some larger crabs, but we won’t know what it looks like until they start pulling traps.”

Read the full story at Tampa Bay Times

NILS E. STOLPE: FishNet-USA/Who’s really in charge of U.S. fisheries?

September 14, 2015 — An Oligarchy is defined as “a country, business, etc., that is controlled by a small group of people” 

Ancient City Shrimp is an eight minute YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WepRokGO8d8) produced by the St. Augustine Lighthouse Museum that examines St. Augustine’s past as one of several centers of commercial shrimping in Florida.

Unfortunately – or perhaps tragically is a better fit – Florida’s shrimp fleet is only a shadow of what it once was. One of the reasons for this is the imposition of unrealistic regulations on U.S. shrimpers that has made the fishery much less profitable than it used to be.

The video’s producers don’t really focus on this as one of the reasons for this decline, rather emphasizing the impacts of cheaper – and generally inferior – shrimp from abroad. This is understandable. You can only cover so much ground in a short video. Opening the can of worms that fishery regulation in the Southeast has become is a guarantee of complication and controversy, things which few museums would willingly get involved in.

In spite of a really good job overall I found part of the final narration troubling. Almost at the end (7 minutes and 50 seconds or so in) the narrator in his wrap-up states “while we can’t change federal regulations we can change our purchasing habits. Demand local shrimp(my emphasis added).” He’s on target with the “demand local shrimp” but it’s hard to imagine anything more antithetical to the principles that our country was founded upon than his acceptance of the idea that we can’t, or that we shouldn’t, change federal regulations.

While it seems unlikely, apparently he missed out on any exposure to or consideration of the words “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”

As close to immortal as any words spoken in the last half a millennium, they are from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In a commemoration of the sacrifices of Union soldiers in the battle of Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863, President Lincoln expressed what governance in the United States was all about. To repeat those words, “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

It kind of makes you wonder how the documentarians who put together Ancient City Shrimp became convinced that we (the people, I presume, as in the U.S. Citizenry) can’t or shouldn’t change federal regulations. One possibility is that they weren’t aware that Aldous Huxley’s 1984 was a work of fiction. Another would be that they have been exposed to the bottomless morass that federal fisheries management has been turned into.

A history lesson or two

Back in 1976 (this was before the existence of a multi-billion dollar environmental industry so thankfully they weren’t there ti impede the process) the Magnuson-Stevens Act became law. It brought fishing in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone under federal control and established a management regime that would eventually phase out virtually all foreign commercial fishing in U.S. waters.

It was generally agreed that one of the strongest features of the Act was the determination that fishermen were an integral part of the federal fishery management process. This was achieved by mandating that fishermen were voting members on each regional Fishery Management Council.

This was in recognition of a number of factors that the public, or at least the majority of the involved politicians and bureaucrats, have subsequently turned – or been turned – away from. Among these were the relative lack of knowledge of our fisheries and what affects them, the value to fisheries managers of the knowledge that has been accumulated by a multigenerational fishing industry over many years, and the belief in and the commitment of fishermen to the long term sustainability of the fisheries they participate in.

Read the full op-ed at FisheryNation.com