Saving Seafood

ASMFC American Lobster Board Initiates Addendum to Increase Resiliency of the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank Stock

August 3, 2017 — ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board initiated Draft Addendum XXVII to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster. The Draft Addendum seeks to increase the resiliency of the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank (GOM/GBK) stock by considering the standardization of management measures across Lobster Conservation Management Areas (LCMAs). This is a proactive management action and is in response to signs of reduced settlement. Initiating an addendum charges the Plan Development Team (PDT) with developing management alternatives for consideration in the Draft Addendum.

The American lobster fishery is one of the largest and most valuable fisheries along the Atlantic coast. In 2016, over 158 million pounds were landed coastwide totaling $666 million in ex-vessel value. The vast majority of harvest occurs within the GOM/GBK stock area, with over 130 million pounds landed in Maine alone. Since 2012, settlement surveys for the GOM/GBK stock have indicated a consistent decreasing trend in young-of-year lobster. This decrease could foreshadow a decline in recruitment and landings. Given the high value of the fishery and the economic importance of the fishery to coastal communities throughout New England, the Board initiated Draft Addendum XXVII as a proactive response to build resiliency in the stock.

The Draft Addendum will consider, to the extent possible, the development of consistent management measures for the GOM/GBK stock, including gauge size and v-notch definitions. Currently, disparate regulations allow lobsters protected in one LCMA to be harvested in another LCMA. A uniform set of regulations would add an additional biological buffer to the stock through the protection of spawning stock biomass across LCMAs. In addition, this action may address enforcement concerns, particularly regarding the sale and transfer of lobsters across state lines which are subject to different minimum gauge sizes. The PDT will provide an update on the development of Draft Addendum XXVII at the Commission’s Annual Meeting in October.

Regarding the Southern New England stock, the Board decided to not move forward with Addendum XXV for management use at the current time. After considering the proposals put forth by the Lobster Conservation Management Teams (LCMTs) and Technical Committee input, the Board was divided in its support of the Draft Addendum. Some members felt the proposed measures did not go far enough to protect the stock, while others were concerned the majority of LCMT proposals would not achieve the required 5% increase in egg production. Others believed significant reductions have already occurred in the fishery and no further action was needed. Ultimately, the Board decided to establish a Workgroup to discuss ways to manage SNE lobster.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Catch Limits for 4 Groundfish Stocks and Windowpane Flounder Accountability Measures in Framework 56

August 1, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries announces the implementation of Framework 56 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.

Framework 56 sets catch limits for four groundfish stocks for the 2017 fishing year (through April 30, 2018). The changes in these catch limits relative to fishing year 2016 are as follows:

  • Georges Bank cod quota will decrease by 13%;
  • Georges Bank haddock quota will increase by 2%;
  • Georges Bank yellowtail flounder will decrease 23%; and
  • Witch flounder quota will increase 91%.

We set catch limits for the 2017 fishing year for the remaining 16 groundfish stocks last year in Framework 55. The 2017 catch limits for these 16 stocks remain the same as or similar to 2016 limits.

The action sets sector allocations and common pool trip limits based on the 2017 limits and finalized 2017 sector rosters.

Framework 56 also:

  • Creates an allocation of northern windowpane flounder for the scallop fishery;
  • Revises the trigger for implementing the scallop fishery’s accountability measures for both its GB yellowtail flounder and northern windowpane flounder allocation; and
  • Increases the GB haddock allocation for the midwater trawl fishery.

Read the Framework 56 permit holder letter posted on our website.

Finally, this action implements the accountability measures for the 2017 fishing year for the northern and southern windowpane flounder.

Read the permit holder letter for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass vessels regarding the southern windowpane flounder accountability measures posted on our website.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Common Pool Area Closure for Georges Bank Cod

July 28, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We are closing the Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area for Georges Bank cod to common pool vessels fishing on a groundfish trip with trawl, sink gillnet, and longline/hook gear for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31, 2017.

The closure is effective today, July 28, 2017, at 0845 hours. The area will reopen at the beginning of Trimester 2, on September 1, 2017.

The closure applies to the following statistical areas: 521, 522, 525, and 561. See map below.

If you have crossed the vessel monitoring system demarcation line prior to 0845 hours on July 28, and are currently at sea on a groundfish trip, you may complete your trip in all or part of the closed area. If you have set gillnet gear prior to July 28, 2017, you may complete your trip to retrieve that gear.

We are required to close this area because the common pool fishery is projected to have caught 90 percent of its Trimester 1 Total Allowable Catch for GB cod. This closure is intended to prevent an overage of the common pool’s quota for this stock.

For more details, read the notice (pdf) as filed in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin available on our website.

New England’s Major Groundfish, Except Cod, Enter into MSC Assessment

July 7, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — New England has often been vilified as having some of the worst overfished species in US waters and has long had a contentious fight over fisheries management.

However, three stocks in New England are fully healthy:  haddock, Pollock and redfish. Together the annual catch limit for these stocks totals more than 70,000 tons.  Such a success in rebuilding fisheries is often lost in the attention paid to the failure of the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine cod stocks to recover.

Now a client group led by Atlantic Trawlers of Maine, which is owned by Jim Odlin, and Fishermen’s Wharf in Gloucester, led by Vito Giacalone, have completed the MSC pre-assessment indicating that the fisheries will be able to meet the criteria, and have started the full assessment process.

The certification is being done by Acoura of Scotland, and the individuals who will carry out the assessment are Dr. Joseph DeAlteris, who recently retired from the University of Rhode Island and has many years of both Certification body and stock assessment experience in New England.

The other reviewer is Dick Allen. Allen has 45 years of experience as a commercial fishermen in New England, a Masters in Marine Affairs, and has been intimately involved in New England fishery management for decades.

The assessment is on a timeline to be completed by December of 2017.

The MSC certification will help expand the supermarket redfish programs, as well as support more sales of haddock and Pollock.

Currently, the harvests in these healthy fisheries are constrained by choke species, including cod.

For example, only around 9% of the Georges Bank Haddock Allowable Catch 51,000 tons was caught in 2016, while the Gulf of Maine haddock with an ACL of 2400 tons saw a catch rate of around 66%.

For redfish, the ACL in 2016 was 9500 tons, with a 43% harvest rate, and Pollock was 17,700 tons, with a 16.7% harvest rate.

The MSC certification is a step forward in further utilizing these fisheries, enhancing their markets, and explaining to customers that some New England and Gulf of Maine stocks are healthy and managed to global standards.

Jim Odlin says that the certification will be available to all companies who wish to contribute equitably to the costs of acquiring and maintaining the certificate, as per MSC policy.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

Changes to cod, haddock, flounder quotas eyed in New England

July 3, 2017 — 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. They also want to keep the Georges Bank haddock quota about the same and enact a 25 percent increase for the Gulf of Maine haddock quota. Changes are also planned for some flounder species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

This year, a welcome switch on bait supply for Maine lobstermen

June 29, 2017 — Maine lobstermen are hitting the water late this year because of cold weather, but without the cloud of a looming bait crisis hanging over them.

Bait freezers along the coast are full of herring and pogies, and even alewives, which means that bait is not only available, it is also much less expensive than last year when herring cost as much as 60 cents a pound, said Pat Keliher, commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources. This year the lobstermen’s go-to bait costs about half as much.

That’s still not a great price, Keliher said. Herring fetched about 18 cents a pound at the start of the 2015 lobstering season.

“I won’t say we’re in great shape, but we are in a heck of a lot better shape than we were last year,” Keliher said.

He attributed the strong start to basic supply-and-demand economics. When the supply of bait fish is high and demand is low, lobstermen do well.

Fishermen caught herring in the deep waters off Georges Bank earlier this year than they did in 2016, Keliher said. Although they’ve landed a little more than last year – about 19.9 percent of their quota, compared with 19.1 percent at the same time last year, according to this week’s federal landing reports – this year’s catch came early enough in the season to keep prices low.

The inshore herring fishery in the Gulf of Maine opened this month. The state is applying the same restrictions it implemented last year to stretch out this local supply of fresh herring deep into the summer, when the lobster season starts to peak. These measures include weekly landing limits, a limit on how many days a week herring can be landed, and a prohibition on the use of carrier-only fishing vessels.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Protection of deep-sea Atlantic corals up for debate

June 22, 2017 — A federal panel is considering protections for deep-sea corals in the Atlantic Ocean that would impact commercial fishing interests off New England.

A committee of the New England Fishery Management Council is looking at proposals to preserve corals in two key fishing areas, the Gulf of Maine and south of Georges Bank.

The committee decided Thursday to hold off on voting on options to protect corals near Georges Bank. Coral protections in the Gulf of Maine will be considered Thursday afternoon.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Framework 56 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan

June 22, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

We are seeking public comment on an action that would set catch limits for four groundfish stocks the 2017 fishing year (May 1, 2017-April 30, 2018), as follows:

  • Georges Bank cod would quota would decrease by 13%
  • Georges Bank haddock quota would increase by 2%
  • Georges Bank yellowtail flounder would decrease by 23%
  • Witch flounder quota would increase by 91%

We set catch limits for the 2017 fishing year for the remaining 16 groundfish stocks in Framework 55. The 2017 catch limits for these 16 stocks remain the same as or similar to 2016 limits. 

This action will set sector allocations and common pool trip limits based on the 2017 limits and finalized 2017 sector rosters.

Framework 56 would also:

  • Create an allocation of northern windowpane flounder for the scallop fishery;
  • Revise the trigger for implementing the scallop fishery’s accountability measures for both its GB yellowtail flounder and northern windowpane flounder allocation; and
  • Increase the GB haddock allocation for the midwater trawl fishery.

Finally, this action describes the accountability measures for the 2017 fishing year for the northern and southern windowpane flounder.

Read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register, and the supplemental documents on our website. 

Please submit your comments through the online portal by July 7, 2017.

You may also submit comments through regular mail to: 

John Bullard, Regional Administrator

Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office

55 Great Republic Drive

Gloucester, MA 01930

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel at 978-281-9175 or jennifer.goebel@noaa.gov

Advancing fishing rule aims to protect deep-sea coral in New England waters

May 31, 2017 — Fishing trawlers bring in an average of $6.4 million annually to Bay State ports from fish scooped off seabeds 600 meters or more below the surface of New England waters.

In an effort to save coral on the ocean floor, the New England Fisheries Management Council is advancing a proposed restriction on draggers and trawlers fishing at those depths.

The waters off New England do not get that deep until beyond George’s Bank and lobstermen that fish on the bank do not set traps at that depth, according to council staff. The proposed rule would exempt the relatively small red crab fishery.

The council’s Habitat Committee signed off Tuesday on the proposal, which affect fishing operations in a roughly 25,000 square mile area. If it is passed by the full council it would need to go through the National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries, before it would go into effect.

Environmental groups Wild Oceans, Earthjustice, Pew Charitable Trusts and Conservation Law Foundation urged the council’s scientists to study an alternative proposal, which they said would protect more coral than the plan the council advanced. The council agreed to study the conservation groups’ proposal.

“There could be changes at any point in time. Ultimately when the full council votes on this June 22, we’ve got this preferred alternative going in. That hasn’t changed. But other things may be brought up,” said Habitat Committee Chairman John Quinn, a Dartmouth resident and former state rep.

Read the full story at the Boston Business Journal

MAINE: Fishermen support alternative coral protection plan

May 26, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — A plan to protect deep sea coral from damage caused by fishing drew strong support from Maine’s lobstermen Thursday but mostly because planned fishing restrictions won’t affect them.

The New England Fishery Management Council has spent much of the past two years developing an “Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment” aimed at reducing the potential impacts of fishing on corals found in extremely deep water along the Northeast coast. As part of the process, the council proposed several alternatives that would prohibit all fishing in the affected areas. One plan would bar fishing in water depths ranging between 300 and 600 meters (about 985 to 1,970 feet). Another would ban fishing in 20 separate submarine canyons off the southern boundary of Georges Bank.

Some of those canyons lie within the boundaries of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument established by President Barack Obama last September.

While most of the areas that could be protected lie far offshore, two areas are situated within the Gulf of Maine. One is near Mount Desert Rock. The other is on Outer Schoodic Ridge.

Mount Desert Rock lies about 20 miles south of Mount Desert Island in Lobster Management Zone B. The council considered two alternative protection zones, primarily southwest of the rock, one of about 18 square miles and the other about 8 square miles, with water depths of 100 to 200 meters (330 to 660 feet).

The Outer Schoodic Ridge area lies about 25 miles southeast of MDI in Lobster Management Zone A. The protected area would be about 31 square miles in size.

Both areas are important lobster fishing grounds.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American