December 5, 2017 — The federal government is expected to issue new rules on how it manages the ocean habitats off of New England in early January.
The habitats are critical for commercial fishing and marine animals like whales and dolphins. The new rules are likely to have a big impact on the way fishermen harvest important species like clams, scallops, haddock and flounder. They would affect many fishermen along the Connecticut shoreline.
December 4, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government is closing the public comment period on a plan to change the way it manages ocean habitat off of New England.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is looking to change the way it manages the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England waters. The three areas are critical for commercial fishing operations and marine animals such as whales and dolphins.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Haven Register
December 1, 2017 — BARNEGAT LIGHT, N.J. — Federal fishing regulators say they’ve closed a New Jersey fishery that targets a popular species of flatfish through the end of the year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the summer flounder fishery in the state must close because fishermen have hit their quota. Regulators previously shut down the summer flounder fishery in Rhode Island.
The state of New Jersey has also shut down the flounder fishery. The state is one of the biggest producers of the fish, which is sold as food in restaurants, super markets and seafood markets.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News
November 24, 2017 — The federal government is close to enacting new rules about New England ocean habitat that could mean dramatic changes for the way it manages the marine environment and fisheries.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has been working on the rules for some 13 years and recently made them public. They would change the way the government manages the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England waters, which are critical pieces of ocean for rare whales, unique underwater canyons and commercial fishermen.
The new rules would affect the way highly valuable species such as scallops and haddock are harvested, in part because it would alter protections that prohibit fishing for species in parts of the ocean. The proposal states that its goal is to minimize “adverse effects of fishing on essential fish habitat.”
Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News
November 24, 2017 — In late October, about a month after the New England Fisheries Management Council insisted by vote that NOAA Fisheries hold Northeast Fishing Sector IX accountable for allowing the illegal actions of its most dominant member, Carlos Rafael, the Northeast Seafood Coalition brokered a meeting at the NOAA Fisheries office at Blackburn Industrial Park.
The Gloucester-based fishing advocate sought to bring together officials of the sector’s reconstituted board of directors with federal fishery regulators. It’s mission was to begin sifting through the rubble of the Rafael-induced damage to the fishery and begin focusing on future reforms to bring the sector into compliance with its operation plan to preclude widespread abuse from occurring again.
“We facilitated the meeting to open up a dialogue,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the coalition. “That’s our role. We understood the severity of the charges and we certainly don’t condone Carlos’s actions. We just wanted to try communicating in a calm, reasonable manner.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
November 21, 2017 — WASHINGTON — An unprecedented Trump administration decision over the summer that overruled an interstate fishing commission has drawn the ire of critics who worry that keeping a healthy and viable supply of flounder in the Atlantic Ocean is being sacrificed to commercial profits.
While the fight over fish largely has been out of the public eye, it has implications for Maryland and other coastal states. Critics charge the controversy further underscores environmental backsliding by a White House beholden to business interests seeking fewer restrictions on the potentially harmful exploitation of natural resources.
In July, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross overruled a recommendation by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission finding New Jersey out of compliance with proposed 2017 harvest limits of summer flounder along the Atlantic coast.
The reversal marked the first time since passage of the Atlantic Coastal Act in 1993 that the Department of Commerce overruled the commission’s finding of noncompliance, said commission spokeswoman Tina Berger.
“It was a big surprise that the commission’s authority would essentially be disregarded by the Commerce Department,” said Maryland Del. Dana Stein, D-Baltimore, one of the fisheries commissioners. “I was very disappointed upon hearing about this.”
Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News and World Report
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.