Saving Seafood

Groundfish season opens on time after NOAA passes emergency catch limits

May 1, 2025 — The fishing season for cod, haddock and flounder started on time Thursday after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued emergency regulations this week.

The move came after weeks of delay because of the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA staff, and controversy over proposed changes to how the agency measures cod populations.

For now, catch limits for these bottom-dwelling fish will remain lower than last season. NOAA said it will delay any decision about the suggested updates to cod fishing regulations until next year.

Read the full story at WBUR

How Flounder Wound Up With an Epic Side-Eye

June 21, 2024 — A flounder looks like a hallucination of a fish. Its body is flat as a pancake, its head permanently tilted to one side, and instead of having one eye on each side of its head, both eyes are crowded on one side.

This anatomy, as weird as it may be, is one of evolution’s remarkable success stories. Flounder, like more than 800 other species of flatfish, lie flat on the sea floor, their two eyes gazing up at the water overhead. When a smaller fish swims by, a flatfish shoots up and strikes. One species, the Pacific halibut, can grow to the size of a barn door.

The bizarre bodies of flatfish have long puzzled biologists. In fact, Charles Darwin’s critics used it as evidence against his theory of evolution.

In “The Origin of Species,” Darwin argued that natural selection favors tiny variations. Each little increment benefited an organism. Over countless generations, he said, those increments gradually added up to large-scale transformations.

Read the full article at The New York Times

USDA plans more Alaska, West Coast groundfish buys for nutrition programs

June 22, 2022 — Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, have announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s approval of up to $52 million in Pacific and Alaskan groundfish purchases.

The USDA will buy cod, haddock, pollock, and flounder to supplement the federal government’s food-assistance programs as part of its Section 32 program.

Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act authorizes a percentage of customs receipts to be transferred to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to support the prices of surplus domestic commodities and to distribute those commodities through various USDA programs designed to feed hungry Americans.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Feds to monitor 100% of New England commercial fishing to protect at-risk species

April 13, 2022 — The federal government has approved a proposal to increase at-sea monitoring of some commercial fishing trips to 100 percent.

At-sea monitors are workers who collect data on board commercial fishing boats to help inform regulations and management of species. The government approved the new, higher percentage of trip cover on Tuesday, said Michael Pentony, a regional administrator with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The rules apply to valuable species that are harvested in the Northeast such as cod, haddock, and flounder. Pentony said the new rules will replace the old process of calculating a target for the level of monitoring coverage every year.

The coverage target will instead be 100 percent for four years as long as federal funding can support agency and industry costs, he wrote in a letter to fishery managers.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

UNC Researchers: Climate change causing fish migration

March 30, 2022 — The University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences says climate change is threatening the fishing industry, which contributes close to $300 million to the economy in North Carolina.

Marine researchers say climate change is continuing to impact the environment along the coast and is now impacting the amount of fish in the water here in the east.

University of North Carolina’s Marine Sciences college in Morehead City has conducted research into the decrease in the number of fish.

Dr. Janet Nye, Associate Professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences, has been studying water temperatures and how it impacts fish along North Carolina’s Coast.

Nye says the increase in temperatures has caused flounder and grouper numbers to decrease.

Read the full story at WITN

ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Board to Meet March 24 to Consider Final Action on 2022 Recreational Measures for Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass

February 28, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board will meet via webinar on March 24th from 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM. The purpose of the meeting is to review regional proposals for summer flounder and black sea bass recreational measures for the 2022 fishing year. The draft agenda and meeting materials will be posted to the Meeting Archives webpage by March 10th.

To register for the webinar go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8045885664746620685(Webinar ID 228-241-235). If you are joining the webinar but will not be using VoIP, you can also call in at +1 (213) 929-4212. A PIN will be provided to you after joining the webinar; see webinar instructionsfor details on how to receive the PIN as well as how to navigate the webinar. For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, you can do so by dialing +1 (213) 929-4212, access code 462-622-410.

The webinar will allow registrants to listen to the Board’s deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur.  The Board will provide the public the opportunity to bring matters of concern to the Board’s attention at the start of the meeting. The Board Chair will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the Chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the Board Chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

Public Comment Guidelines
With the intent of developing policies in the Commission’s procedures for public participation that result in a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.

For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.
In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action)
 
·       Comments received by 5 PM on Wednesday, March 9 will be included in the briefing materials.
·       Comments received by 5 PM on Wednesday, March 16 will be included in the supplemental materials.
 
Comments should be submitted to comments@asmfc.org.
 
For more information, please contact Dustin Colson Leaning, FMP Coordinator, at dleaning@asmfc.org.  
 

Groundfish: Council Picks Framework 63 Preferred Measures; Specifications Include 2022 Catch Limits for Georges Bank Cod

December 10, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its December 7-9, 2021 webinar meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council selected preferred alternatives for Framework Adjustment 63 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan. The Council then voted to submit the framework to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries) for review, approval, and implementation. The target implementation date is May 1, 2022, the start of the next groundfish fishing year.

The framework contains revised fishery specifications for several stocks, including:

• Gulf of Maine cod for fishing years 2022 through 2024;

• Georges Bank cod for fishing year 2022, marking a sharp reduction from previous catch limits;

• Georges Bank yellowtail flounder for fishing years 2022 and 2023; and

• White hake for fishing year 2022, consistent with the new rebuilding plan for this stock.

In addition, the framework includes 2022 total allowable catches (TACs) for three resources on Georges Bank that the U.S. shares with Canada – Eastern Georges Bank cod, Eastern Georges Bank haddock, and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder. The Council signed off on the U.S./Canada TACs during its September meeting. All other groundfish stock specifications remain unchanged from what the Council adopted in Framework 61.

Read the full release from the New England Fishery Management Council

Alaska residents’ salmon permits down 50 percent since 1975

October 13, 2021 — The preliminary value to fishermen of the nearly 41 million salmon caught this summer at Alaska’s largest fishery at Bristol Bay is nearly $248 million, 64 percent above the 20-year average. That figure will be much higher when bonuses and other price adjustments are paid out.

But as with the fish bucks tallied from Alaska’s cod, pollock, flounders and other groundfish, the bulk of the Bay’s salmon money won’t be circulating through Alaska’s economy because most of the fishing participants live out of the state.

In 2017, for example, 62 percent of gross earnings from the Bristol Bay driftnet fishery and 40 percent from the setnet fishery left Alaska as nonresident earnings.

That’s due to the region experiencing an overall 50 percent decline in local permit holdings since Alaska began limiting entry into commercial salmon fisheries in 1975. Combined, residents of the Bristol Bay region now hold less than one-quarter of the region’s salmon permits.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

North Carolina flounder: Prices rise, but Southern species cut back to rebuild stock

August 9, 2021 — North Carolina’s summer flounder trawl fishery typically occurs in waters off New Jersey and New York, outside of the Southern flounder range, with the catches landed in North Carolina under the state’s summer flounder quota — the lion’s share among East Coast states at 27.44 percent.

For the 2019-21 fishing seasons, the coastwide commercial quota is set at 11.53 million pounds, approximately a 49 percent increase over the previously set 2019 quota.

Harvest of both summer and Southern flounder in North Carolina remained consistent for the past several years. Prices have also remained consistent with the average retail price from $8 to $12 a pound for filets and $4 to $5 a pound for whole fish. Price to fisherman has varied between a low of $3.50 to $5 throughout the season.

Jeff Styron of Garland Fulcher Seafood, Oriental, N.C., says things are looking up after a year of covid.

“We were basically shut down last year,” says Mr. Styron. “With few restaurant purchasing products, we ended up with a lot of frozen fish and slim markets. Now the demand has gone crazy.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Rhode Island’s Warming Marine Waters Force Iconic Species Out, Disrupt Catch Limits and Change Ecosystem Services

August 2, 2021 — For generations, winter flounder was one of the most important fish in Rhode Island waters. Longtime recreational fisherman Rich Hittinger recalled taking his kids fishing in the 1980s, dropping anchor, letting their lines sink to the bottom, waiting about half an hour and then filling their fishing cooler with the oval-shaped, right-eyed flatfish.

Now, four decades later, once-abundant winter flounder is difficult to find. The harvesting or possession of the fish is prohibited in much of Narragansett Bay and in Point Judith and Potter ponds. Anglers must return the ones they accidentally catch to the sea.

Overfishing is easily blamed, and the industry certainly bears responsibility, as does consumer demand. But winter flounder’s local extinction isn’t simply the result of overfishing. Sure, it played a factor, but the reasons are complicated, from habitat loss, pollution and energy production — i.e., the former Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Mass., pre-cooling towers, when the since-shuttered facility took in about a billion gallons of water daily from Mount Hope Bay and discharged it at more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

The climate crisis, however, is likely playing the biggest role, at least at the moment, by shifting currents, creating less oxygenated waters and warming southern New England’s coastal waters. These impacts, which started decades ago, have and are transforming life in the Ocean State’s marine waters. The changes also impact ecosystem functioning and services. There’s no end in sight, as the type of fish and their abundance will continue to turn over as waters warm.

Rhode Island’s warming water temperatures are causing a biomass metamorphosis that is transforming the state’s commercial and recreational fishing industries, for both better and worse. The average water temperature in Narragansett Bay has increased by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1960s, according to data kept by the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

Locally, iconic species are disappearing (winter flounder, cod and lobsters), southerly species are appearing more frequently (spot and ocean sunfish) and more unwanted guests are arriving (jellyfish that have an appetite for fish larvae and, in the summer, lionfish, a venomous and fast-reproducing fish with a voracious appetite).

Read the full story at EcoRI