Saving Seafood

NEFMC Council Update – May 8, 2018

May 8, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:   

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, NOAA Fisheries) recently implemented or released announcements about several actions that were developed by the New England Fishery Management Council (Council) or have Council involvement. The actions relate to groundfish, skates, monkfish, and Atlantic sea scallops. Here they are at a glance, followed by a list of upcoming New England Council committee meetings and Atlantic herring public hearings.

GROUNDFISH:  NOAA Fisheries implemented the following groundfish-related actions in time for the May 1 start of the 2018 fishing year.

SKATES:  The New England Council developed Framework Adjustment 5 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan, which contains 2018-2019 specifications and management measures. At the end of April, NMFS announced that the framework would not be in place by the May 1 start of the 2018 fishing year and, as such, the fishery would continue to operate under 2017 regulations until further notice. Framework 5 proposes to allow possession of barndoor skates in the skate wing fishery under certain constraints. IMPORTANT: Possession of barndoor skates currently is prohibited until Framework 5 is implemented. The agency anticipates publishing a proposed rule later this spring. More information about Framework 5 is available at Council action and Skate Framework 5.

MONKFISH:  NOAA Fisheries announced that, on June 4, the agency will implement specifications for the 2018 monkfish fishing year. Days-at-sea allocations, possession limits, and total allowable landings will be the same as those implemented in 2017. The specifications are part of Framework Adjustment 10 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan, which was developed jointly by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils for fishing years 2017-2019. NOAA Fisheries approved the framework on July 12, 2017. View the latest permit holder bulletin at 2018 monkfish specs.

SCALLOPS:  The Council developed Framework Adjustment 29 to the federal Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. This framework contains management measures and specifications for the 2018 scallop fishing year and default measures for 2019, among other provisions.

  • NOAA Fisheries implemented Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Management Area measures on April 1, the start of the 2018 scallop fishing year. The permit holder bulletin is available at NGOM Management Area Open April 1.
  • Limited Access General Category (LAGC) fishermen harvested their 135,000-pound total allowable catch during the month of April. Effective May 2, NOAA Fisheries closed the NGOM area to LAGC fishermen but provided an exemption for: (1) Maine and Massachusetts vessels fishing exclusively in state waters; and (2) limited access vessels fishing “compensation trips” under the Scallop Research Set-Aside Program. Details are available at NGOM closed to LAGC.
  • NOAA Fisheries implemented all other measures in Scallop Framework Adjustment 29 on April 19. The agency issued two permit holder bulletins to explain allocations and measures that apply to:
  • Limited Access Scallop Vessels
  • LAGC vessels

SCALLOP AND HERRING STOCK ASSESSMENTS:  Members of the New England Council staff and relevant Plan Development Teams are serving on working groups that are preparing benchmark stock assessments for Atlantic sea scallops and Atlantic herring.

  • The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s 2018 benchmark assessments website is located here.
  • The scallop and herring benchmark assessments will be peer reviewed June 26-29, 2018 during the 65thStock Assessment Workshop/Stock Assessment Review Committee (SAW/SARC) meeting. The science center will provide a presentation on the assessment results to the New England Council during the Council’s September 25-27 meeting in Plymouth, MA. The science center’s Northeast Regional SAW webpage can be found at SAW/SARC 65.

UPCOMING MEETINGS:  Many of the New England Council’s committees will be holding meetings throughout the rest of May and into June. Follow these links for details.

Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.

 

Massachusetts: Fishing season begins, but New Bedford still on sidelines

May 3, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The 2018 fishing season began Tuesday with nearly 60 permits aligned in Sectors VII and IX not receiving quota allocation from NOAA.

The oceanic governing agency announced the measure a day prior to the opening of the fishing season. It leaves the two sectors on the sidelines as groundfishing begins and continues the ban that was installed in November.

The announcement wasn’t surprising after NOAA attended a New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, last month to discuss the ban as well as the restructured enrollment in Sectors VII, VIII and IX.

Fifty-five permits stationed in Sector IX in 2017 relocated to Sector VII at the end of March. The move was done to potentially allow those permits to lease quota despite not being able to fish.

The meeting extinguished those hopes revealing neither sector would be allowed to lease or fish when the season began.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

NOAA Fisheries Allocates Annual Catch Entitlements for 17 of 19 Groundfish Sectors for Fishing Year 2018

May 1, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is allocating 2018 quotas to 17 of 19 groundfish sectors based on catch limits approved in Framework 57 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.

We are not allocating quota to Northeast Fishery Sectors 7 and 9, as we are still reviewing changes to their sector rosters for fishing year 2018, including related operational and overage payback issues.

We are also approving a new regulatory exemption that allows Day gillnet sector vessels to fish up to 150 gillnets in the Gulf of Maine if at least 50 of those nets are 10-inch or larger mesh and fished east of 70 degrees West longitude. Sectors requested this exemption to allow sector vessels to better target monkfish while on sector trips.

Read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register.

 

NOAA Fisheries Sets 2018-2020 Catch Limits for Groundfish Stocks and Announces Other Management Measures for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan

May 1, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Through Framework 57, we have set catch limits for 20 groundfish stocks for the 2018-2020 fishing years (May 1, 2018-April 30, 2020), including the 3 stocks managed jointly with Canada.

Framework 57 increases quotas for 11 stocks compared to 2017, including: Georges Bank cod (139%), Gulf of Maine cod (41%), and Gulf of Maine haddock (190%). Quotas are decreasing for nine stocks, including Southern New England yellowtail flounder (-75%) and Gulf of Maine winter flounder (-45%).

We expect increases in the quotas for Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine haddock, and Georges Bank cod to provide additional economic revenue and flexibility to the commercial groundfish industry. Overall, we expect the measures in Framework 57 to generate $9 million in additional gross revenues this fishing year compared to last year.

Framework 57 also:

  • Revises the way common pool quotas are split between trimesters for six stocks.
  • Modifies the Atlantic halibut accountability measures.
  • Changes the trigger for the scallop fishery’s accountability measure for the Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder stock to when total catch exceeds the overall catch limit.
  • Revises the southern windowpane flounder accountability measure for the summer flounder, scup, and skate fisheries.
  • Sets a Georges Bank cod catch target of 138 mt for the recreational fishery and grants the Regional Administrator authority to set recreational measures for 2018 and 2019 to prevent the catch target from being exceeded. A separate rule implements new Georges Bank cod recreational measures.

Read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin on our website.

 

Frozen fish: NMFS approves Sector IX management plan

April 25, 2018 — Fishing boats in New England’s Sector IX groundfish fleet that were in danger of being barred from leasing groundfish quota moved into Sector VII in late March in order to recoup losses from a post-Carlos Rafael trip shutdown of the New Bedford groundfish industry. But the process of approving new operating plans will keep that quota frozen until midsummer at the latest.

NMFS reported that Sector IX was shut down completely in order to determine how much of the sector’s quota was illegaly used to cover Rafael’s quota evasion scheme.

Under a new plan operating plan put forward by the sector, which was narrowly recommended for approval by the New England Fishery Management Council with a 7-5-5 vote, NMFS will treat illegal catch in each fishing year as if it was known immediately after the end of the season, eliminating any carryover of unused quota into the next fishing season if there was any illegal fishing.

The council recommended that that NMFS authorize the “lease only” operations plan “with the condition that all overages attributable to the known misreporting are paid in full.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Northern Cod Fisheries Improvement Project to Aid in Understanding of Stock Components

April 24, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A Northern Cod Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) will help researchers understand Northern Cod stock components and their movement along the slope of the continental shelf, as well as their inshore offshore migration patterns.

The project is being led by the Groundfish Allocation Council (GEAC) and the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) in an effort to “enable more effective stock assessment modeling and management measures to control fishing mortality.” Acoustic receivers will be dropped in waters off Eastern Canada and acoustic tags will be placed on Northern cod.

“This is crucial work, and an important piece in addressing longstanding scientific questions around the Northern cod resource,” said FIP co-chairs Derek Butler, Executive Director of ASP, and Bruce Chapman, President of GEAC.

Government scientists, as well as academia from Memorial University, Dalhousie University, the Ocean Tracking Network, and the Ocean Frontier Institute, andindustry reps from Icewater Seafoods and Ocean Choice International of Canada, and Davigel Inc. of France, sat in on a scientific workshop for the research program. The group came up with a final deployment plan for the acoustic tags and receivers.

Industry stakeholders reported on the progress at their third annual FIP Working Group meeting in Brussels.

This story was originally published by Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

Massachusetts: New Bedford fishermen docked for season’s start

April 23, 2018 — The New Bedford groundfishing fleet will remain at dock — and without the ability to lease quota to other fishing entities — when the 2018 fishing season dawns on May 1. What happens after that is anybody’s guess.

NOAA Fisheries staffers informed the New England Fishery Management Council earlier this week that operations plans for New Bedford-based Northeast Fishing Sectors VII and IX will not be completed in time for the opening of the 2018 fishing season.

But the discussion following the briefing, as well as the council’s widely split vote on a draft recommendation to NOAA Fisheries, reflected stark divisions within the council and the Northeast groundfish fishery at large over how NOAA should resolve the issues borne from the long-standing catch misreporting and conviction last year of New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael.

 In the end, the council voted 7-5, with five abstentions, to recommend NOAA Fisheries authorize the “2017 and 2018 Sector IX lease-only operation with the condition that all overages attributable to the known misreporting are repaid in full.”

It also recommended that, following full repayment of the overages associated with Rafael’s cheating, NOAA Fisheries work with Sector VII “to ensure that the 2018 sector operation plan and associated conditions” are fully implemented.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

US Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank Waiting on MSC Final Consultation for Haddock, Pollock and Redfish

April 19, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The U.S. Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank haddock, pollock and redfish trawl fishery are one step closer to receiving Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

A determination was reached by certification body Acoura Marine Ltd., who found that the fishery should be certified “according to the MSC Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fisheries.” However, the fishery must wait until the final consultation period has concluded before receiving their official MSC certification. Any party that disagrees with the determination has 15 working days to object in a written letter.

Objections must be submitted by May 9. The fishery will be able to use the MSC logo on their products once the final consultation period has ended without objections.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it it republished here with permission.

 

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell to NEFMC: Sector IX Closure Is Hurting New Bedford’s Economy

April 18, 2018 — The following statement was delivered to the New England Fishery Management Council today on behalf of New Bedford, Massachusetts Mayor Jon Mitchell. Mayor Mitchell also serves as Chairman of the New Bedford Port Authority:   

Thank you Chairman Quinn and Members of the Council for this opportunity to communicate about a matter of ongoing concern to the Port of New Bedford, namely the impact that the closure of Sector 9 of the Northeast Fishery is having on groundfishing operations in the Port.

The NOAA decision has had–and continues to have–troubling economic consequence for the Port of New Bedford and our local economy. It has triggered significant business losses among local companies that provide support services to the commercial fishing fleet, and has meant the loss of livelihood for dozens of local fishing families.

It is important for all parties to keep in mind the numerous New Bedford businesses and families who have played no direct role in the operation of Sector 9, but who now find themselves in severe financial distress as a result of the Sector’s closure.

While the significant human cost of the closure cannot be adequately measured, Professor Dan Georgiana of the School of Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts (SMAST) has used a standard NOAA economic impact model to estimate the economic damage being done to the Port of New Bedford. His analysis found that the Port suffered roughly $12 million in economic losses in just the first twenty-five days after the closure went into effort on November 20th of last year.

This week marks the fifth full month of the Sector 9 closure, and the losses continue to mount. If one extrapolates from Professor Georgiana’s original analysis, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the Port of New Bedford may now have cumulatively suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses in the last five months.

This figure includes the impacts on harvesting, processing, wholesale and retail market activity, but does not include the cost to the public of unemployment compensation or the impact on businesses that supply vessels or process groundfish.

None of this is to suggest that the one person at the center of the controversy should not be punished severely. Carlos Rafael should be held fully accountable for his actions. I emphasize rather that the Fisheries Service should undertake its rulemaking, as it is statutorily required, with the interests of the Port and its businesses in mind. At a minimum, this means that it should complete the rulemaking “expeditiously”–as NOAA’s notice of withdrawal said it would–so that the effected fishermen and businesses can get back to work without further delay.

The Service also noted it had to calculate the amount of “overage” to certain groundfish stocks caused by Rafael’s fraud before it completed its rulemaking. Yet the Service has had, for some time now, all the reasonably available information to complete this loss calculation. Again, I urge the Service to complete these calculations and its rule-making with all deliberate speed.

The clock is ticking against New Bedford fishermen and shore-side businesses. A resolution of this matter therefore cannot come soon enough for the Port of New Bedford. Thank you for your consideration.

 

NEFMC Presents 2018 Award for Excellence to Dr. Bill DuPaul

April 18, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:   

The New England Fishery Management Council today presented its 2018 Janice M. Plante Award for Excellence to Dr. Bill DuPaul, a highly respected scientist and pioneer of cooperative research in the Atlantic sea scallop fishery. His early work on scallop dredge ring size helped revolutionize the fishery’s primary gear-type, leading to enhanced selectivity of large scallops and the release of smaller ones. He forged and nurtured partnerships with fishermen from the very start of his career, earning industry’s trust and willingness to participate in a wide range of studies that greatly advanced management of the resource and the fishery.

Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn, who presented the award, said, “Dr. DuPaul is a man of great integrity. He intuitively knew that solutions to hard problems would come only when people on all sides worked together. He proved that cooperative research can break through seemingly insurmountable barriers and help resolve even the most challenging issues.”

Dr. DuPaul is an emeritus professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary. His research included extensive work on the relationship between scallop meat weight and shell height, and he consistently strove to improve dredge efficiency, enhance scallop quality, and reduce bycatch, especially of yellowtail flounder.

He is a strong supporter of the industry-funded Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program. He has spent countless hours at sea with fishermen conducting gear research, biological studies, and annual surveys that have helped gauge abundance and distribution of scallops both on Georges Bank and throughout the Mid-Atlantic. The annual surveys also helped document incoming recruitment, enabling fishery managers to identify and close areas with large beds of seed scallops for additional grow-out. This practice is a bedrock of the current rotational area management program – and one that Dr. DuPaul was in on from the beginning. He is a staunch advocate of Scallop RSA Share Days where industry members and scientists gather to openly discuss their research results and exchange ideas about emerging issues.

In 1991, the New England Council established the Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT). Dr. DuPaul was an inaugural member of the team and to this day continues to provide valuable guidance. He is the PDT’s longest serving member. He also has been heavily involved with the Council’s Research Steering Committee and, from 2007-2010, served on the former Scallop Survey Advisory Panel.

Dr. DuPaul remains active in the scientific world. He currently is a member of the Scallop Stock Assessment Working Group, which is doing the legwork for the upcoming scallop benchmark stock assessment. As an esteemed veteran of the field, his voice is routinely sought after as wise counsel on a multitude of scallop issues.

View the release in its entirety here.