November 14, 2017 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The federal government is shutting down fishing of a popular species of flatfish in Rhode Island for the rest of the year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says boats fishing under a federal permit for summer flounder may no longer bring the fish to shore in Rhode Island. The shutdown went into effect early Tuesday morning and will last until the end of the year.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Connecticut Post
November 10, 2017 — There’s another species in the ocean that is slowly disappearing. This one doesn’t have fins, but orange waders, heavy rubber gloves, and fishing tackle. It’s the commercial fishermen. The industry in which they work, fishermen say, is being choked by unmanageable fines and regulations.
Jim Ford of Lisa Ann Fisheries is one of those still standing. Fewer and fewer boats are going out to sea, to Ford’s dismay. While there used to be dozens of draggers going out of Newburyport, he’s now the only fisherman doing it full-time — pulling a net or trawling the rocky seabed to scoop up his catch.
Ford, 47, disagrees that the sea is being depleted. One of his recent 14-hour runs yielded 1,000 pounds of gray sole (worth about $3 a pound at auction), 300 pounds of monkfish, and some flounder. On his 52-foot fiberglass boat, Lisa Ann III, Ford typically steams out at midnight for a three-hour trip to Jeffreys Ledge with two crewmen on deck and a federal observer — a third-party ombudsman — to monitor overfishing.
This government watchman, a stranger with notepad and pen — and sometimes getting seasick — has spoiled fishing excursions for Ford. The thrill of the hunt, the wild unpredictability of the wind and the waves has turned into a list of quotas, trip limits, and gear restrictions.
He hopes that “some day the marine fishery agencies will figure out there’s more cod and other fish in the ocean then they think there is now. The government doesn’t see what I see out there every day.” Still, fishing policies aside, Ford never fails to get excited when the catch sensor blinks, indicating that there’s plenty of fish in the net. “I love fishing. Otherwise, I’d put my anchor down and call it quits,” Ford said. He spoke with the Globe about why he remains hooked.
Read the full story at the Boston Globe
October 27, 2017 — October is National Seafood Month, and there’s no better place to celebrate seafood than right here in the Magnolia State.
What Mississippi may lack in coastline length, it more than makes up for in seafood heritage and pride. Popular delights like oysters, shrimp, flounder and blue crabs — just to name a few — are all pulled from the briny waters off our coast and shipped fresh to seafood lovers across the state and this great nation.
The Mississippi seafood industry had a profound impact on the Gulf Coast by establishing itself as a diverse immigrant community that led it to be called the “Seafood Capital of the World” as far back as 1869. In 1890 alone, local canneries reportedly processed 2 million pounds of oysters and 614,000 pounds of shrimp. Twelve years later, those numbers had skyrocketed as 12 canneries reported a combined catch of nearly 6 million pounds of oysters and 4.4 million pounds of shrimp.
Over the years, Slovenians, Cajuns, Eastern Europeans and Vietnamese are among those who came to Mississippi for its seafood bounty, its canning industry and its promise of opportunity for all.
Read the full story at the Sun Herald
October 23, 2017 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — The completed operational assessments to help determine 2018-2020 groundfish quotas do not appear to be any more optimistic about the state of Gulf of Maine cod than those that effectively shuttered the fishery in the fall of 2014.
The New England Fishery Management Council’s science and statistical committee is set to meet Monday and Tuesday in Boston to review the assessments for 19 groundfish species and finalize its catch recommendations to the full council.
According to committee documents, the operational assessments show the respective stocks of eight species — Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank haddock, redfish, white hake, windowpane flounder, pollock, Georges Bank winter flounder and American plaice — to be abundant and healthy.
October 11, 2017 — LONG ISLAND, New York — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo threatened Tuesday to sue the federal government if two interstate fishery-management agencies meeting in December fail to reach an “equitable” redistribution of the coastwide quota for fluke.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Tuesday, Cuomo wrote it was “imperative” that the federal and interstate agencies take “immediate action” to “reallocate” the quota for fluke “in a fair and equitable manner or New York will be forced to take legal action to protect the interests of fishermen in this state.”
Cuomo gave the agencies until December to act. “If the December meetings do not result in a process for a dramatic increase [in] the commercial fluke allocation for New York, I will commence litigation and secure from the courts the rights of New York’s fishermen as a matter of law,” he wrote.
September 28, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council today accepted 2018 total allowable catches (TACs) for three groundfish stocks on Georges Bank (GB) that the U.S. shares with Canada – Eastern GB cod, Eastern GB haddock, and GB yellowtail flounder. The TACs were recommended by the U.S./Canada Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) based on advice from the U.S./Canada Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee (TRAC). The U.S. has members on both the TMGC and the TRAC.
The TACs will be included in Framework Adjustment 57 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, which is still under development. The National Marine Fisheries Service must approve the TACs before they are implemented.
Proposed Fishing Year 2018 U.S./Canada TACs in Metric Tons (mt)
|
Eastern GB Cod |
Eastern GB Haddock |
GB Yellowtail Flounder |
|
|
Total Shared TAC |
951 |
40,000 |
300 |
|
U.S. TAC |
257 |
15,600 |
213 |
|
Canada TAC |
694 |
24,400 |
87 |
The allocation shares for 2018 are based on the following formula: historical catches weighted 10%; and resource distribution based on trawl surveys weighted 90%.
The TACs reflect the following changes from 2017 levels for U.S. quotas:
Read the full release at the New England Fishery Management Council
September 18, 2017 — A major overhaul could be coming in how menhaden are managed along the East Coast — one that might, for the first time, try to account for the ecological role of the small and oily fish.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which oversees migratory fish along the coast, is preparing to update its menhaden management plan this fall. It’s looking to revisit how the catch is distributed among states and fisheries and may adjust the catch limit for the Chesapeake. Public hearings on potential changes are scheduled for September, with written comments accepted through Oct. 20.
It should be noted that a July ruling by the U. S. Commerce Department has thrown into doubt the ASMFC’s authority in regulating fisheries. The federal ruling allowed New Jersey, one of the 15 states regulated by (and represented on) the ASMFC, to reject the commission’s harvest restrictions on Atlantic flounder, which has been declining since 2000. It’s the first time since the commission was authorized by Congress in 1993 to adopt and enforce coastwide harvest restrictions that a state has been allowed to ignore the commission’s harvest regulations. Fisheries managers are concerned that other states might follow suit if pressure from fishing interests is great enough.
Regarding menhaden, people generally don’t eat the small, oily fish, yet it has been the focus of heated debates in recent years over how many should be caught. By weight, menhaden are the largest catch in the Bay, primarily because Reedville, VA — home port of Omega Protein’s “reduction” fishing fleet — is where the fish are reduced (processed) into vitamin supplements, fish meal and other products.
September 18, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal fishing regulators are planning a host of changes to the quota limits of several important New England fish, including cod.
New England fishermen search for cod in two key fishing areas, Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine. Regulators have enacted a series of cutbacks to the cod quota in those areas in recent years as cod stocks have dwindled.
This year, regulators want to trim the Georges Bank cod quota by 13 percent and keep Gulf of Maine’s quota the same.
September 15, 2017 — WASHINGTON — A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research project in the Northeast was recently conducted to test the efficiency of different sweep types of fishing nets.
The team targeted summer flounder from Long Island to Nantucket and red hake in the western Gulf of Maine off Cape Ann.
Preliminary results show that smaller fish were caught more often using a chain sweep.
September 12, 2017 — Alaska’s salmon season is nearly a wrap but fall remains as one of the fishing industry’s busiest times of the year.
For salmon, the catch of 213 million has surpassed the forecast by 9 million fish. High points include a statewide sockeye catch topping 50 million for the 10th time in history (37 million from Bristol Bay), and one of the best chum harvests ever at more than 22 million fish.
Total catches and values by region will be released by state fishery managers in November.
Hundreds of boats are now fishing for cod following Sept. 1 openers in Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet, Kodiak and throughout the Bering Sea.
Pollock fishing reopened to Gulf of Alaska trawlers Aug. 25. More than 3 billion pounds of pollock will be landed this year in Alaska’s Gulf and Bering Sea fisheries. Fishing also is ongoing for Atka mackerel, perch, various flounders, rockfish and more.