Saving Seafood

Groundfish: New England Council CANCELS April 2-3, 2020 GAP and Committee webinars

March 24, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council is CANCELING two groundfish-related meetings: the April 2, 2020 Groundfish Advisory Panel (GAP) webinar meeting and the April 3, 2020 Groundfish Committee webinar meeting.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING: The Council originally scheduled these meetings to give the GAP and Groundfish Committee an opportunity to review and discuss the Groundfish Catch Share Program Review final report. The working group conducting the review has requested additional time to prepare the final report, and the Council granted this request. Therefore, the GAP and Groundfish Committee meetings are no longer necessary.

WHEN WILL THE CATCH SHARE REVIEW BE DISCUSSED: The Council will discuss the report on April 15, 2020 during its two-day meeting, which now will be held April 14-15, 2020 by webinar.

  • Don’t forget to Register for the webinar.
  • A draft copy of the Catch Share Program Review report will be posted here shortly.
  • The Council is encouraging its groundfish advisors and the public to comment on the report either by: (1) providing oral comments at the appropriate time during the webinar; or (2) submitting written comments in advance of the written comment deadline, which is 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 9, 2020.

WHO WILL REVIEW THE REPORT: Once the report is available, the Groundfish Plan Development Team and a sub-panel of the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will review the report and provide feedback.

ALSO HAPPENING – AMENDMENT 23 PUBLIC HEARING: The Council will hold its first public hearing on Draft Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23 on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 4:00 p.m., shortly after the discussion on the Groundfish Catch Share Program Review is over.

  • Here is the public hearing notice.
  • All related documents, including the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, are available on the Council’s Amendment 23 webpage.
  • A public hearing document will be available soon.
  • The Council is in the process of scheduling additional public hearings.

QUESTIONS: Contact Janice Plante, the Council’s public affairs officer, at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Rough week for lobster, fishing industries

March 23, 2020 — We here at FishOn are just as exhausted as everyone else by this otherworldly health crisis that has us tenaciously in its grip. We’re sick of staying indoors. We’re sick of not having any sports to watch. We long to go to the Sawyer Free Library and Pratty’s — which are far more similar than you think. And just once more, we’d like to touch our face. Or somebody’s.

But we are healthy, as are those around us. So we stay the course because we are New Englanders and we give in to nothing.

Still, it was a tough week hereabouts for our fishermen in both the lobster and groundfish fisheries.

As you may have read in the pages of the Gloucester Daily Times and online at gloucestertimes.com, some of the the restrictions enacted to try to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus – principally the shuttering of all in-situ dining at Massachusetts restaurants and travel restrictions that have made it difficult to move product around – have crushed the fishermen.

In the lobster fishery, already high inventory coupled with the loss of the restaurant trade – where the great preponderance of live lobsters are consumed – sent prices down into the root cellar and rocked everyone from harvesters to dealers and processors.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

April 4-10, 2020 PFMC Meeting Notice (WEBINAR) and Agenda Now Available

March 18, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet April 4‐10, 2020 by webinar only, to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, Pacific halibut, coastal pelagic species, and administrative matters.

Please see the April 4-10, 2020 Council meeting notice on the Council’s website for further updates and details regarding webinar participation; schedule of advisory body meetings, our E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines.

Key agenda items for the meeting include Council considerations to:

  • Adopt Final Management Measures for 2020 Ocean Salmon Fisheries
  • Consider Process for Southern Oregon Northern California Coastal Coho Endangered Species Act Consultation Recommendations
  • Adopt Final Incidental Pacific Halibut Catch Recommendations for 2020 and Early 2021 Non‐Indian Salmon Troll Fisheries
  • Adopt a Pacific Sardine Assessment, Final Harvest Specifications, and Management Measures for the 2020‐2021 Sardine Fishery
  • Adopt Final Preferred Harvest Specifications and Preliminary Management Measures for 2021‐2022 Groundfish Fisheries

Meetings of advisory bodies will also be conducted by webinar based on the schedules in the agenda. There will be one opportunity for public comment daily in each of the webinars.

Instructions for how to connect to those webinars will be posted on the Council’s April 2020 Meeting webpage prior to the first day of the meeting.

Please note that the evolving public health situation regarding COVID‐19 may further affect the conduct of the April Council and advisory body meetings. Pacific Council staff will monitor COVID‐19 developments and will determine if there is a need for additional measures. If such measures are deemed necessary, Council staff will post notice of them prominently on our website (www.pcouncil.org). Potential meeting participants are encouraged to check the Pacific Council’s website frequently for such information and updates.

For further information:

New England scallop, groundfish regulatory meetings to continue via web

March 18, 2020 — Important meetings that could help shape future stock assessments, quotas and other regulatory conditions in the waters off the US New England coast will continue in the next few months via the internet due to concerns over the coronavirus, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) announced this week.

“Due to federal and state travel restrictions and updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding the new coronavirus, COVID-19, the April council meeting will be conducted by webinar,” NEFMC has now declared on its website.

The event, which was scheduled to take place in Mystic, Connecticut, April 14-16, will be held online, April 14-15.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

April 4-10, 2020 PFMC Meeting Notice (WEBINAR) and Agenda Now Available

March 18, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet April 4‐10, 2020 by webinar only, to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, Pacific halibut, coastal pelagic species, and administrative matters.

Please see the April 4-10, 2020 Council meeting notice on the Council’s website for further updates and details regarding webinar participation; schedule of advisory body meetings, our E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines.

Key agenda items for the meeting include Council considerations to:

  • Adopt Final Management Measures for 2020 Ocean Salmon Fisheries
  • Consider Process for Southern Oregon Northern California Coastal Coho Endangered Species Act Consultation Recommendations
  • Adopt Final Incidental Pacific Halibut Catch Recommendations for 2020 and Early 2021 Non‐Indian Salmon Troll Fisheries
  • Adopt a Pacific Sardine Assessment, Final Harvest Specifications, and Management Measures for the 2020‐2021 Sardine Fishery
  • Adopt Final Preferred Harvest Specifications and Preliminary Management Measures for 2021‐2022 Groundfish Fisheries

Meetings of advisory bodies will also be conducted by webinar based on the schedules in the agenda. There will be one opportunity for public comment daily in each of the webinars.

Instructions for how to connect to those webinars will be posted on the Council’s April 2020 Meeting webpage prior to the first day of the meeting.

Please note that the evolving public health situation regarding COVID‐19 may further affect the conduct of the April Council and advisory body meetings. Pacific Council staff will monitor COVID‐19 developments and will determine if there is a need for additional measures. If such measures are deemed necessary, Council staff will post notice of them prominently on our website (www.pcouncil.org). Potential meeting participants are encouraged to check the Pacific Council’s website frequently for such information and updates.

For further information:

Fleet monitoring: New England groundfish fleet cooperates with little return

March 10, 2020 — Despite years of ever-increasing monitoring, cooperation from the fleet, and catch-shares-induced consolidation, the New England groundfish industry is still on shaky ground.

A Maine Fishermen’s Forum presentation by Melissa Errand of the New England Fishery Management Council illustrated the council-considered options for monitoring the groundfish fleet (Amendment 23). This presentation focused on the effects on the Maine-based fleet, which is Portland-based.

With projected costs of each alternative ranging from about $1 million to more than $5 million across the fleet, the council expects the changes to force groundfish boats with the fewest at-sea days to lease out their quota rather than go fishing.

The council’s preferred alternative is a blended model that allows boat owners to choose between traditional at-sea monitoring and electronic monitoring.

One Portland-based boat is using the experimental full-retention model that incorporates a combination of full-time cameras on the boat, landing all fish that would qualify as discards, and dockside monitoring and sampling of those retained discards.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Blue Harvest rolls out frozen groundfish, scallop line just in advance of Boston show

February 28, 2020 — Fresh from its acquisition of a dozen groundfish vessels, Blue Harvest Fisheries is rolling out a new line of branded retail products to be sold quick frozen and packaged in 16-ounce re-closable bags.

The new products, which include wild-caught Atlantic scallops, pollock, ocean perch and haddock, arrive just in time to be showcased at the Boston, Massachusetts, seafood show.

Blue Harvest, which is based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 59 miles south of the city hosting Seafood Expo North America, March 15-17, says its new offerings meet “the growing demand by consumers for all-natural, sustainably caught and locally harvested wild seafood”. They are to be sourced from Marine Stewardship Council-certified fisheries “in local US waters” and “100% traceable from fleet to table”.

And even better, they are to be processed in the US, as Blue Harvest plans to rely on its newly completed SQF-certified, 160,000 square foot plant on New Bedford’s waterfront. The company spent millions to build the facility, which comes with six high-capacity processing lines, direct offload capability, two cold storage areas and 700 feet of dock space.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Groundfish Management Team to hold webinar March 24, 2020

February 27, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will convene a webinar meeting to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s April 2020 meeting agenda.  The webinar will be held Tuesday, March 24, 2020 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.  The webinar end time is an estimate, the meeting will adjourn when business for the day is completed.  This meeting is open to the public.

Please see the Groundfish Management Team webinar notice on the Council’s website for participation details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Todd Phillips  at 503-820-2426; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Reminder: March 3-9, 2020 PFMC Meeting Notice and Agenda Now Available

February 20, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet March 3-9, 2020 in Rohnert Park, California, to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, Pacific halibut, highly migratory species, ecosystem, habitat, and administrative matters. The meeting of the Council and its advisory entities will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Sonoma Wine Country, One Doubletree Drive, Rohnert Park, CA 94928: telephone, 707-584-5466.

Please see the March 3-9, 2020 Council meeting notice on the Council’s website for meeting detail, schedule of advisory body meetings, our new E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines.

Key agenda items for the meeting include Council considerations to:

  • Adopt Public Review Alternatives for 2020 Ocean Salmon Fisheries
  • Adopt Final Forecasting Methods for Willapa Bay Coho Salmon
  • Consider Range of Alternatives for Transitioning Management of Non-Indian Directed Commercial Halibut Fishery from International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) to PFMC/National Marine Fisheries Service
  • Adopt Public Review Options for Pacific Halibut Retention in 2020Salmon Troll Fishery
  • Adopt Final Pacific Halibut Retention Limits for 2020 Fixed Gear Sablefish Fishery
  • Annual Report on California Current Ecosystem
  • Adopt Final Updates to Fishery Ecosystem Plan Chapters 1 and 2, Including a Vision Statement, and a Revised Set of Goals and Objectives; Review Proposed Changes to Remaining Chapters
  • Update on 2021-2022 Groundfish Harvest Specifications and Management Measures
  • Consider Exempted Fishing Permits for 2021-2022 Groundfish Fisheries, Including Electronic Monitoring
  • Adopt Final Groundfish Inseason Adjustments for 2020, Including Shorebased Carryover
  • Review the Final Rule, Revisit Previous Council Recommendations, and Provide Guidance on Future Council Considerations for Drift Gillnet Swordfish Fishery Hardcaps

For further information:

Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff at 503-820-2280; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Higher catch limits proposed for haddock

February 20, 2020 — Northeast groundfishermen could have significantly more access to two haddock stocks, American plaice and pollock in the coming fishing season after the New England Fishery Management Council posted revised catch limits to the key stocks.

The council on Wednesday green-lighted triple-digit increases in 2020 catch limits for Georges Bank haddock (129%) and American plaice (100%), as well as a 45% increase in the catch limit for Gulf of Maine haddock as compared to 2019.

It also approved a revised catch limit for pollock that brings the stock’s catch limits closer to 2019 levels. Instead of the 63% reduction initially recommended by the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee, the council approved a 36% reduction.

Those catch limits must be approved by NOAA Fisheries to go into effect for the new fishing season that begins May 1.

“All four stocks are healthy and well above their spawning stock biomass targets based on the latest assessments,” the council said in its statement on the revised catch limits.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times