Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Weekly Update for Oct. 19, 2015

October 26, 2015 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

NCFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING TIME CHANGED

Our board of directors will meet tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at the Washington Civic Center, 110 Gladden St., Washington.  We encourage all fishermen who are able to attend, especially those participating in the summer and southern flounder fisheries.  

SAFMC HEARINGS ON PROPOSED FEDERAL MANAGEMENT MEASURES

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has scheduled public hearings regarding the commercial dolphin trip limit for the Atlantic Coast, blueline tilefish, yellowtail snapper and black sea bass in South Atlantic in November.  For more information on the hearings, dates and how to submit comments see the news release.  

MAFMC OCTOBER 2015 MEETING SUMMARY

NMFS SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENTS ON DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT TO MODIFY A BLACK SEA BASS POT SEASONAL PROHIBITION

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement for Regulatory Amendment 16 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Regulatory Amendment 16).  On Oct. 23, 2013, fishery managers implemented an annual prohibition on the use of black sea bass pots from Nov. 1 through April 30 in the South Atlantic. Regulatory Amendment 16 contains management measures to modify this prohibition in terms of area and time closed. The regulatory amendment also contains management actions to require specific rope marking for black sea bass pot gear. The purpose of the proposed actions is to reduce the adverse socioeconomic impacts from the prohibition while continuing to protect whales in the South Atlantic region. For more information see news release.  

NILS STOLPE: “SO HOW’S THAT ‘CATCH SHARES’ REVOLUTION WORKING OUT FOR GROUNDFISH?”

“I’ll add here that catch share management is not a cure-all for all that’s wrong with fishery management – though at the time Dr. Lubchenco and her “team” apparently believed it was – nor is it the reason for management failures. It is nothing more than an option for dividing the catch among users. As such it can have profound socioeconomic impacts on participants in the fishery and on fishing communities that depend on it, but not on the fishery resources themselves.”

Read Nils’ entire opinion here as published in FishNet USA/October 22, 2015.  

NOAA LAUNCHES NEW MOBILE-FRIENDLY FISHWATCH.GOV

October is National Seafood Month, and NOAA Fisheries has launched our first-ever mobile-friendly website to enable our users to access the nation’s database on sustainable seafood anywhere, anytime, on any device. 

FishWatch offers the same great seafood information, but now it’s easier to use on the go from your phone or tablet. Using the site, consumers can: 

  • Make smart seafood choices with facts about what makes U.S. seafood sustainable-from the ocean or farm to your plate.
  • Get information on the status of some of the nation’s most valuable marine fish harvested in U.S. federal waters as well as U.S. farmed fish that help meet our country’s growing seafood demand.
  • Understand how U.S. seafood is responsibly harvested and grown under a strong monitoring, management, and enforcement regime that works to keep the marine environment healthy, fish populations thriving, and our seafood industry on the job.

REGULATION AND RULE CHANGES:

–Commercial Scup Winter II quota and possession limits increase effective Nov. 1

–Commercial harvest of yellowtail snapper in South Atlantic federal waters will close Oct. 31

DEADLINES:

Oct. 29 – NMFS Proposed Rules for Snapper-Grouper, Dolphin and Golden Crab Comments

Nov. 4 – Atlantic HMS SEDAR Pool Nominations

Nov. 9 – NMFS Proposed Rule on ICCAT Bluefin Electronic Documentation Comments

Nov. 16 – SAFMC Proposed Federal Management Measures Comments

Nov. 19 – Derelict Fishing Gear Recovery Project Applications

Dec. 16 – NMFS Draft Ecosystem-based Fishery Management Policy Comments

MEETINGS:

If you are aware of ANY meetings that should be of interest to commercial fishing that is not on this list, please contact us so we can include it here.    

Oct. 27 at 12:30 p.m. – NCFA Board of Directors Meeting, Washington Civic Center, 110 Gladden St., Washington, NC

Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. – Question and Answer Webinar for Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25

Nov. 2-5 – ASFMC Annual Meeting, World Golf Village Renaissance, St. Augustine Resort, 500 Legacy Trail, St. Augustine, Fl

Nov. 9 at 6 p.m.- SAMFC Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 25 Public Hearing

Nov. 12  at 6 p.m. – SAFMC Dolphin Wahoo Regulatory Amendment 1 Public Hearing to address commerical trip limits for dolphin

Nov. 18-20 – ASFMC River Herring Data Collection Standardization Workshop, Linthicum, MD

PROCLAMATIONS: 

GILL NETS – ALBEMARLE SOUND AREA- MANAGEMENT UNIT A-OPEN GILL NETS WESTERN ALBEMARLE AND CURRITUCK SOUND

View a PDF of the Weekly Update

Gulf of Maine’s cold-craving species forced to retreat to deeper waters

October 27, 2015 — For 178 years, dams stood across the Penobscot River here, obstructing salmon and other river-run fish from reaching the watershed’s vast spawning grounds, which extend all the way to the Quebec border.

Now, two years after the dam’s removal, the salmon’s proponents fear the fish face a more fearsome threat: a warming sea.

In recent years, the Gulf of Maine has been one of the fastest-warming parts of the world’s oceans, and climate change models project average sea surface temperatures here to increase by another 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2065, a development that could extirpate Atlantic salmon and other cold-loving species, many of which already find Maine at the southern edge of their ranges.

“We’re all for taking down the dams and all the things that are going on to restore habitat, but how much are they looking at the evidence?” asks Gerhard Pohle of the Huntsman Marine Science Center in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, co-author of a study predicting how the changes are likely to affect 33 commercial species over the next 75 years. “Distribution of salmon in the Gulf of Maine would be such that there wouldn’t be many left at all.”

The warming gulf is already presenting challenges to many of its cold-loving denizens. Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Services, or NMFS, have recorded the steady retreat of a range of commercially or ecologically important fish species away from the Maine coast and into deep water in the southwestern part of the gulf, where bottom water temperatures are cooler.

The retreat, which intensified over the past decade, includes cod, pollock, plaice, and winter and yellowtail flounder. Other native species that once ranged south of Long Island – lobster, sand lance and red hake – have stopped doing so, presumably because the water there is now too warm.

“You can imagine that when you have species at the southern end of their ranges, they will be really sensitive to these changes,” says Michael Fogarty, chief of the Ecosystem Assessment Program at the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. “They will either shift distribution or their survival rates might change.”

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald

The next food revolution: fish farming?

October 25, 2015 — Sanggou Bay looks like a place where the pointillism movement has been unleashed on an ocean canvas. All across the harbor on China’s northeastern coast, thousands of tiny buoys – appearing as black dots – stretch across the briny landscape in unending rows and swirling patterns. They are broken only by small boats hauling an armada of rafts through the murky waters.

For centuries, Chinese fishermen have harvested this section of the Yellow Sea for its flounder, herring, and other species. Today the area is again producing a seafood bounty, though not from the end of a fisherman’s rod or the bottom of a trawler’s net. Instead, the maze of buoys marks thousands of underwater pens or polyurethane ropes that hold oysters, scallops, abalone, Japanese flounder, mussels, sea cucumbers, kelp, and garish orange sea squirts. They are all part of one of the world’s biggest and most productive aquaculture fields. Sanggou Bay is a seafood buffet on a colossal scale.

The buoys here extend for miles out to the horizon, offering, on an aluminum-gray day, the only clue to where the ocean stops and the sky begins. Hundreds of migrant workers – many from as far away as Myanmar (Burma) – pilot the fishing boats zigzagging around the floats, shuttling fish to shore, checking the lines for mussels and oysters, and voyaging farther out to sea to harvest seaweed.

Read the full story at The Christian Science Monitor

 

 

RUSSELL LAY: “Disputed Fisheries Studies: Politics Or Inexact Science?”

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 29, 2015 – The following excerpt appeared on September 27, 2015 in the Outer Banks Voice. Its author, Russell Lay, is co-owner and journalist at Outer Banks Voice, and an advocate for menhaden fishermen:

Science plays a big role in managing fisheries.

Scientists assess fish stocks, migration patterns, environmental issues – useful data that allow regulators to set policy.

We expect our science to be accurate and unaffected by politics, and as citizens, we expect political actors to treat science in the same manner.

Even Robert Fritchey, the author of Wetland Riders, a history of the Coastal Conservation Association, acknowledges that size limits, creel limits and other restrictions are necessary, and that “the science of estimating recreational discards and mortality is vastly improved.” Which would suggest that if interest groups are put aside, there is some hope science could be used in an unbiased manner to help manage fisheries.

Yet a series of e-mails found their way into the public domain from a 2007 round-robin discussion among several N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries scientists trying to peg a mortality rate for speckled seatrout caught by recreational anglers. See video

It would take a few hundred words to demonstrate where science goes off the rails and how other factors, including interest group reactions, exert an influence on what is expected to be an unbiased, fact-driven process.

The mortality rate is important because it is applied to the estimated landings of recreationally caught species and used to assign “catch quotas” for recreational and commercial interests.

The group of six scientists struggled. They questioned even the scope of the studies. “I have a problem with the adjusted values. The handling effect is a real phenomenon with recreational fishing and is definitely a cause for release mortality . . . this study wasn’t designed to look at stress-related mortality . . . ” said one team member.

They also expressed concerns over small sample sizes, differing numbers based on seasonality and salinity of the water, and a wide variance in mortality rates produced by the studies – from a low of 7.3 percent to a high of 19.4 percent.

For those who skipped the video, one comment by DMF scientist Douglas Mumford angered commercial fishermen already suspicious of state and national studies that were reducing stock assessment numbers in several species and therefore, reducing commercial quotas.

“If we put the 19.4 percent on the table, (recreational) folks will flip out. They’ll tell you there is no way 1 out of 5 fish they release dies,” Mumford wrote.

In the end the group decided to go at the low end and chose a mortality rate of 9.8 percent, even though more than one scientist felt a range closer to 14.8 percent was more accurate.

In 2015, another clash between science and politics took place.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries had ordered a stock assessment of southern flounder, a species many believe is suffering from a decline in North Carolina.

Commercial fishermen dispute those claims, citing rising numbers in commercial landings with no concurrent loss of landings on the recreational side, even while previous restrictions on southern flounder have reduced the catch effort by 137 percent, according to Britton Shackleford, president of North Carolina Watermen United.

Even though the DMF staff recommended against releasing the study, which subsequently failed to pass a peer review, DMF director Dr. Louis Daniel, backed by recreational members of the Marine Fisheries Commission and at-large member Chuck Laughridge (a life member of the Coastal Conservation Association), as well as the CCA and another recreational interest group, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), declared their intention to move forward on reducing the commercial catch of southern flounder.

Once again, commercial fishermen, noting a study that failed to pass a scientific peer review, saw the “flawed study” still being used to reduce commercial operations, and adding further fuel to the fire regarding whether science or politics was dictating policy at the state level.

While a group of 13 state senators and representatives was able to persuade the MFC to delay taking action on imposing those restrictions until their September meeting, vote counters in Raleigh worry that inland Republicans will follow the CCA lead and allow the MFC to impose restrictions even though the science backing the decision has failed to pass academic muster.

Menhaden was once a major economic contributor to coastal North Carolina communities.

Severe restrictions on menhaden harvesting were imposed in North Carolina and other states based on a 2012 stock assessment from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which claimed the species had been severely overfished by the commercial industry.

Read the full op-ed at Outer Banks Voice

 

North Carolina Fisheries Association Update for August 10, 2015

August 11, 2015 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

MFC BRIEFING BOOK AVAILABLE ONLINE

The briefing book is now available for the MFC Aug. 19-21 business meeting at the DoubleTree by Hilton Raleigh Brownstone University Hotel, 1707 Hillsborough St., Raleigh. The commission is scheduled to:

  • Select and approve management measures for the southern flounder supplement
  • Receive the 2015 Stock Status Report presentation
  • Hear an update on the adaptive management measures for the blue crab fishery
  • Vote on posting information updates for the Interjursidictional and Kingfish fishery management plans online for public review
  • Approve a five-year fishery management plan schedule

NOTE: The commission will deliberate on southern flounder issue 8:30 a.m. Friday.  Please plan to attend if at all possible.

GOVERNOR MCRORY SIGNS S-374

The legislation repeals the logbook requirement for the for-hire fishing industry and prohibits the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from entering into a joint enforcement agreement with NFMS.

FACT SHEET: 2016 SUMMER FLOUNDER CATCH AND LANDINGS LIMITS

NMFS ANNOUNCES 2015 ACL FOR ATLANTIC BLUEFISH 

Annual catch limits for the 2015 bluefish fishery:

  • 2015 commercial quota: 5.241 million lb. This is a 35 percent decrease from 2014.
  • 2015 recreational harvest limit: 12.951 million lb. This is a 4.3 percent decrease.

Together, the total allowable landings for 2015 is 18.19 million lb. This is a 13.7 percent decrease from the 2014 total allowable landings.  Although the bluefish stock is not overfished, and overfishing is not occurring, the most recent stock assessment update indicates the size of the stock has declined, which triggered the reductions. In recent years, states’ landings of bluefish have been below their allocated quota, and the quota reductions may be partially mitigated by the states’ ability to transfer quota.  Read the final rule and get more information from the permit holder bulletin. 

RECREATIONAL SECTOR EXCEEDS 2015 FOR GOLDEN TILEFISH, NMFS CLOSES FISHERY

Recreational harvest of golden tilefish in South Atlantic federal waters will close 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2015. Recreational harvest in federal waters will reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2016. The recreational annual catch limit for golden tilefish is 3,019 fish. Reports indicate that landings have exceeded the 2015 annual catch limit for the recreational sector for golden tilefish.

AGENCIES SEEKING PUBLIC INPUT ON RESTORING THE CAPE FEAR RIVER NEAR WILMINGTON

State and federal agencies are seeking public participation to identify opportunities to restore natural resources damaged due to decades of contamination from a former wood treatment operation near Wilmington.  The agencies will host a public meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 18 at the Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St., Navassa, N.C., to describe their efforts and solicit restoration ideas from the public. Comments on the restoration scoping document will be accepted through Sept. 4, 2015.

TRADEWINDS

Last week’s email link to Maureen was incorrect.  If you’re interested in advertising for the upcoming Sept./Oct. issue – which will be distributed to thousands at Fishermen’s Village and the State Fair – you can contact her at editor@nctradewinds.com.

STATE FAIR/FISH VILLAGE

Fishermen’s Village at the N.C. Seafood Festival and the State Fair will be here before you know it.  Fishermen, we need you to come out for both events to tell your story.  No one can do it better than you.  Fishermen’s Village is Oct. 3 and the State Fair begins mid-October.  If you cannot attend, please consider donating seafood.  We will be providing samples again this year in Raleigh.  It’s a big hit and great way to show people why it’s “Got to be NC.”

REGULATION AND RULE CHANGES:

–Coral Amendment 8 in the South Atlantic Effective Aug. 17

-USCG Mandatory Dockside Inspections Required Effective Oct. 15

DEADLINES:

Aug. 26 – Green Sea Turtles ESA Uplisting Comments

Sept. 1 – SAFMC Snapper-Grouper Draft Vision Blueprint Comments

Sept. 4 – Cape Fear River Restoration Scoping Document Comments

Sept. 10 – NMFS Updated Draft Acoustic Guidelines Comments

Sept. 14 – NMFS Generic Amendment to Snapper-Grouper, Golden Crab and Dolphin-Wahoo FMPs Comments

Sept 21 at 5 p.m. – 2016-2018 Atlantic Herring Research Set Aside Applications

Oct. 2 – MFC Proposed Rules Comments

MEETINGS:

If you are aware of ANY meetings that should be of interest to commercial fishing that is not on this list, please contact us so we can include it here.

 

Aug. 11-13 – Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council Meeting

Aug. 12 – Correction – SAFMC Snapper-Grouper Regulatory Amendment 16 Public Hearing, Jacksonville, NC

Aug. 13 – Correction – SAFMC Snapper-Grouper Amendment 36 Public Hearing, Morehead City

Aug. 18  at 6 p.m.– Cape Fear River Restoration Public Meeting, Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St., Navassa

Aug. 19 at 1:30 p.m. – MAFMC Spiny Dogfish Advisory Panel Meeting via webinar

 

Aug. 19-21 – Marine Fisheries Commission Meeting, Raleigh

Aug. 31-Sept.1 – ASMFC Menhaden Ecosystem Management Workshop

Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. – MFC Rules Public Hearing, DMF Central District Office, 5285 Hwy 70 W, Morehead City

PROCLAMATIONS: 

SNAPPER-GROUPER COMPLEX – RECREATIONAL PURPOSES

View a PDF of the release here

 

Tensions build leading up to NC Marine Fisheries quarterly meeting

August 5, 2015 — As the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission plans to hold its quarterly meeting at the end of August, many recreational and commercial fishermen are worried about what the outcome might be.

“This is just a very fast track way to get this passed,” said North Carolina Fisheries Association Membership and Operations Manager Lauren Morris. “We are very concerned that their assessment cannot determine whether the fish is over-fished or not.”

The fish up for debate is the Southern Flounder, which is one of the most sought after fish in North Carolina.

The NCFA and commercial fishermen in the state are uneasy about the possible changes. The groups say it would mean drastic reductions in bag limits for fishermen, which would eventually lead to a sharp price increase for consumers and less dollars for the families and communities of fishermen.

“We have scientists that are telling us they don’t see exactly what the Division sees,” Morris added. “We are asking for kind of a pause button. Let’s go into the amendment process and let’s look at this more in depth.”

Read the full story from WECT

NOAA Fisheries Announces Common Pool Area Closure in Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic

July 28, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

We are closing the Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder Trimester TAC Area to common pool vessels using trawl and sink gillnet gear for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31.

The area will reopen at the start of Trimester 2 on September 1.

We are required to close this area because the common pool fishery has caught over 90 percent of its Trimester 1 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for Southern New England/ Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder.

Read the permit holder bulletin.

Questions? Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, at 978-281-9103 or allison.ferreira@noaa.gov.

NORTH CAROLINA: Last call for flounder comment

July 8, 2015 — Flounder are fish enjoyed on many N.C. dinner tables, and their popularity is shared by recreational and commercial fishermen.

That popularity has brought many comments to N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries as the July 10 deadline arrives for public comment on six southern flounder management proposals approved for consideration during the Marine Fisheries Commission’s May meeting.

“We had a public meeting that about 150 people showed up at, and about 60 spoke, and we’ve received quite a few written comments,” said Patricia Smith, Marine Fisheries public information officer. “It’s a very important fish in North Carolina.”

Southern is one of three flounder species found in North Carolina.

Catch reduction options, increased size limits and gill net mesh restrictions are among measures being considered to help southern flounder recover from fishing pressure.

Read the full story at The News & Observer