Saving Seafood

NOAA to foot monitoring costs

March 29, 2018 — Timing may not be everything, but it sure counts for a lot. Just ask New Hampshire groundfisherman David Goethel.

Goethel, who had persevered through cascading years of escalating regulation, slashed fishing quotas, a failed lawsuit and, more recently, the prospect of paying the full cost of at-sea monitoring, was ready to get out of commercial groundfishing.

“I had planned to sell my boat this summer,” Goethel said Wednesday, referring to his 44-foot, Hampton, New Hampshire-ported Ellen Diane. “I was done.”

But not now.

Last week, following a full year of working behind the scenes with U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Goethel got the news he and other groundfishermen wanted to hear:

Shaheen, the lead Democrat on a pivotal Senate appropriation subcommittee, was able to insert language and secure $10.3 million in additional funding that directs — some fishing stakeholders would say forces — NOAA Fisheries to fully fund at-sea monitoring in 2018 for the first time in three years.

“All of the credit should go to Sen. Shaheen,” Goethel said. “She just wouldn’t give up on this. She personally took it and guided it through the byzantine and frustrating budget process.”

Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, echoed Goethel’s comments about Shaheen’s leadership and also said the full funding comes at a critical time for the Northeast groundfish fleet.

“Sen. Shaheen and her office are really the ones who spearheaded this,” Odell said. “She really knows how important this is for fishermen. Viability continues to be a concern for many fishing interests and at-sea monitoring is a huge burden on the fishery.”

In January, NOAA Fisheries said it would mandate at-sea monitoring coverage on 15 percent of the Northeast multispecies groundfish trips in 2018 — down from 16 percent in 2017. The agency, however, did not say whether it would reimburse monitoring costs or leave them entirely to fishermen.

NOAA Fisheries reimbursed groundfishermen for 60 percent of their montitoring costs in 2017, down from 80 percent in 2016. Prior to 2016, NOAA Fisheries assumed all at-sea monitoring costs.

But the writing seemed to be on the wall.

Odell said NOAA Fisheries told industry stakeholders a couple months ago the agency did not envision reimbursing any of the monitoring costs in 2018, increasing the likelihood that more groundfish dayboats would be forced out of active fishing.

Longtime Gloucester fisherman Al Cottone, who also serves as executive director of the city’s Fisheries Commission, said the new at-sea monitoring funding could help convince some fishermen to return to more active fishing or allow others to continue apace without having to foot the bill.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Feds seek comments on plan for more cod, haddock catch

March 26, 2018 — U.S. fishing regulators are soliciting feedback from the public about a plan to increase catch quota for a slew of key fish stocks, some of which are jointly managed with Canada.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to increase quota for Georges Bank cod by 139 percent, Gulf of Maine cod by 41 percent and Gulf of Maine haddock by 190 percent. The agency also wants to increase eight other stocks and decrease nine others.

The agency says increased cod and haddock quota would provide “economic revenue and flexibility” to Northeastern fishermen. The haddock stock has been strong, but the cod stock has plummeted this decade and has been the subject of intensive rebuilding efforts by regulators.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Analyses not ready for at-sea monitoring meetings

March 26, 2018 — Let’s kick off today’s edition of FishOn with a little programming note, courtesy of the New England Fishery Management Council.

If you had planned on traveling to Boston on Monday, March 26, to attend the council’s groundfish advisory panel meeting on at-sea monitoring, don’t. And don’t bother heading down there on Tuesday, either, for the scheduled meeting of the council’s groundfish committee on the same subject.

Actually, you’re free to go to Boston. Just don’t go to the meetings. Due to the fact that there apparently are no more groundfish, the meetings have been postponed. Kidding. Just kidding. We’ve got a whole ocean of groundfish out there.

In fact, the meetings have been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date in May because there is more work to be done on the technical analyses used as the basis for discussions by both the advisory panel and the groundfish committee as a whole.

“The necessary analyses aren’t ready yet, either for the groundfish committee or the advisory panel, to discuss Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23,” Janice Plante, council spokeswoman, said in a Friday email. “And Amendment 23 was the focus of the meetings.”

The council staff, she said, has been working feverishly to finish the council framework that includes specifications for the upcoming groundfish season, including catch limits for 20 groundfish stocks. They also have been working at trying to complete a separate measure dealing with recreational cod and haddock measures.

Both proposed rules have been published in the Federal Register and regulators are seeking stakeholder comment on both.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Spending bill takes cost of at-sea monitors off groundfish fleet

March 26, 2018 — The federal omnibus spending bill that U.S.President Donald Trump signed into law Friday, 23 March, included a provision lifting a fee New England groundfish fishermen paid for at-sea monitors to accompany them on excursions.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) said the spending package now prevents the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from placing the cost of at-sea monitors on fishermen in the Northeast. The charge was as much as USD 700 (EUR 564) per day on fishing trips.

“New Hampshire fishermen face enough daunting challenges – the last thing they need right now is to be further burdened with a costly regulatory fee,” Shaheen said in a press release. “We should be focused on making it easier, not harder for our commercial fishing industry to compete in today’s market, which is why I fought to include relief for at-sea monitoring costs this year. I’ll continue to prioritize our fishermen and work to ensure the industry’s long-term sustainability.”

At-sea monitors collect data on board commercial fishing vessels by interviewing boat captains, observation, and photographing their catches. The monitors weigh both the fish kept and discarded as well as monitor interactions with protected species.

The new law ends a lengthy battle taken on by fishermen in the region who fought to keep the government from shifting the cost onto them. They filed the suit in December 2015, nine months after NOAA announced it would start charging them for the monitors.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Annual Catch Entitlements for Groundfish Sectors for Fishery Year 2018

March 23, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

NOAA Fisheries is proposing allocating 2018 quotas to groundfish sectors based on catch limits recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council.

We are also proposing to grant a new regulatory exemption that would allow Day gillnet sector vessels to fish up to 150 gillnets in the Gulf of Maine as long as 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 proposed rule as published in the Federal Register, and submit your comments through the online portal. You may also submit comments through regular mail to: Michael Pentony, Regional Administrator, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Please mark the outside of the envelope: “Comments on the Proposed Rule to Allocate 2018 Sector Quotas.”

Learn more about NOAA by visiting their site here.

 

NEFMC Groundfish UPDATE – March 26-27 meetings POSTPONED, news roundup

March 23, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has POSTPONED two groundfish meetings.

  • Groundfish Advisory Panel, Monday, March 26, 2018:  This meeting is being RESCHEDULED to a date in early May; and
  • Groundfish Committee, Tuesday, March 27, 2018:  This meeting also is being RESCHEDULED to a date in early May.

Both meetings were intended to focus on Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23, which currently is under development. However, the technical analyses related to this amendment are not ready for discussion at either meeting.  New meeting dates will be announced soon on the Council’s Northeast Multispecies Webpage.

WHAT HAPPENED:  Staff from both the New England Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS – NOAA Fisheries) have been working at full strength to complete two critical actions that need to be implemented in time for the May 1 start of the 2018 groundfish fishing year.

  • Framework Adjustment 57 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management contains catch limits and other fishery specifications and measures for 2018.  NMFS published the proposed rule for this action on March 22.  It’s available at comment now on Framework 57.
  • Fishing Year 2018 Recreational Management Measures for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock and Georges Bank cod also were published on March 22 in separate proposed rule.  It’s available at comment now on 2018 recreational cod/haddock measures.

Completion of these two actions took top priority, and now work will resume on Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23.

ADDITIONAL GROUNDFISH ACTIONS:  Here are several other important groundfish-related actions that stakeholders should be aware of.

  • Groundfish Sectors: On March 23, NMFS published a proposed rule containing: (a) 2018 annual catch entitlements (ACE) to groundfish sectors; and (b) a new sector exemption pertaining to day gillnet vessels fishing in the Gulf of Maine. Details are available at comment now on proposed sector ACE and day gillnet exemption.
  • Yellowtail Flounder: On March 21, NMFS transferred 30 metric tons of unused quota of Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder from the Atlantic sea scallop fishery to the commercial groundfish fishery. Learn more at yellowtail flounder transfer.
  • Groundfish Charter/Party Control Date:  As a reminder, NMFS published a new control date for the Northeast multispecies charter/party fishery. The new control date is March 19, 2018. Specifics can be found at comment now on charter/party control date.
  • Juvenile cod: NMFS’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office has written a feature story on the Council’s Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) for inshore juvenile Atlantic cod. The HAPC went into effect January 3, 2018. Learn more at juvenile cod HAPC.

MORE INFORMATION:  Visit “Related News,” “Upcoming Meetings,” and “Past Meetings” on the Council’s groundfish webpage for press releases and documents associated with upcoming and past meetings. Go to stay in touch.

 

Don Cuddy: Reidar’s — like others — part of Sector IX collateral damage

March 19, 2018 — It was just before Thanksgiving that NOAA shut down Sector IX after Carlos Rafael had been found guilty and sent to jail and, three months later, none of the boats or crews from the sector are any closer to going back to work. “There has been a lot of talking but not much action,” Tor Bendiksen told me. A number of suggestions have been out forward about how to resolve the issue but there is a notable absence of leadership, and throwing local business owners under the bus because one of their customers gamed the system is rough justice, to say the least.

Tor is now on the board of Sector IX and earns his living in the family business, Reidar’s Trawl-Scallop Gear and Marine Supply. It was started by his father, Reidar Bendiksen in 1986 on the Fairhaven side and its reputation for excellence extends the length of the Eastern seaboard. This family, like the fishing families of Sector IX, who like the rest of us have mortgages, monthly bills and kids in college, deserves more from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“A business like ours relies on revenue coming in all the time. Usually you get paid sixty days after the job. So when you lose the December, January and February billing because the draggers aren’t going it’s a problem because you are relying on that constant turnover. We operate on small margins so it takes a lot of volume to actually make a profit. Now we’re scraping just to keep up with the bills.” They have to order the net-making gear and supplies they need months in advance and their suppliers are not going to wait months for payment so they are drawing on their reserves to keep going, he said.

The scallop season begins April 1 this year and some work is now coming into the shop from the scallop fleet. “But they won’t pay us until May,” he said. The winter fishing season has now passed the sector boats by and all of the shoreside businesses that service the groundfish fleet have taken a hit. “Essentially we all have a share of the fish in Sector IX. We get paid when the boats come in, sort of like in the whaling days,” Tor said. The continued closure of Sector IX is causing far more damage on the waterfront than is being acknowledged or reported, he believes.

With a new fishing season set to open in May, and with it a new allocation of quota, the sensible option now is to allow these boats to go fishing under the direction of the new board of directors in Sector IX. NMFS taking so much time to actually do something to resolve this serves no one.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

NEFMC: Council Update – March 19, 2018 – Scallops, Herring, Groundfish, more

March 19, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

ATLANTIC SEA SCALLOPS:  The 2018 scallop fishing year will begin on April 1.

  • The New England Fishery Management Council developed Framework Adjustment 29 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which contains 2018 fishery specifications and other measures. Visit “Related News” and “Framework 29” on the Council’s Scallop Webpage. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) currently is reviewing the framework for approval and implementation.
  • Northern Gulf of Maine measures are expected to be in place by April 1. The proposed rule is available at NGOM Framework 29 measures. NMFS will publish the final rule soon.
  • The remainder of Framework 29 will not be in place by April 1. Therefore, the 2018 scallop default measures implemented through Framework Adjustment 28will kick in. NMFS’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) published a side-by-side comparison of the measures at Defaults vs. Framework 29 Guide.
  • On March 15, NMFS published the proposed rule containing the remainder of the Framework 29 measures, meaning everything exceptthe NGOM actions. The agency is collecting public comment through March 30. Visit Framework 29 proposed rule for details.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: In addition to Framework 29, the scallop fleet must wait for the Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 final rule to be published before being able to access the new Closed Area I and Nantucket Lightship-West Visit the New England Council’s Habitat Webpage and NMFS Approves “Majority” of Council’s Habitat Amendment for more information.
  • The New England Council’s Scallop Advisory Panel (AP) will meet March 21, 2018 in Providence, RI. The Council’s Scallop Committee will meet the following day at the same hotel in Providence. Details and documents are available at Scallop Committee March 22, 2018 meeting.

ATLANTIC HERRING:  Effective March 14, NMFS prohibited Atlantic herring midwater trawl vessels from directed fishing in the Mid-Atlantic/Southern New England Catch Cap Area after projecting that the fishery’s river herring/shad catch cap had been harvested. The herring midwater trawl possession limit is 2,000 pounds in this area for the remainder of the 2018 fishing year, which ends December 31.

  • ATLANTIC HERRING DETAILS: Additional details and a map showing the Mid-Atlantic/Southern New England Catch Cap Closure Area can be found at NMFS herring fishery bulletin.
  • ATLANTIC MACKEREL FISHERY: The Atlantic mackerel fishery, which is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Council, also reached its river herring/shad catch cap. Effective February 27, NMFS prohibited federally permitted mackerel vessels from possessing more than 20,000 pounds of mackerel per trip through December 31. Learn more at NMFS mackerel fishery bulletin.
  • The New England Council’s Herring Committee and Herring AP will meet jointly on April 4 in Boston to, among other things, discuss the implications of the river herring/shad catch cap accountability measures (AMs) being triggered in both the Atlantic herring and Atlantic mackerel fisheries. The Committee and AP also will review a draft white paper considering the addition of river herring and shad as “stocks in the Atlantic herring fishery.” The meeting notice is available at April 4 Herring Committee/AP meeting. Related documents will be posted on this same page as they become available.

GROUNDFISH:  Effective March 1, NMFS extended its previous emergency action to remove the 2017 southern windowpane flounder AMs for non-groundfish trawl vessels. The emergency action will run through April 30, the end of the 2017 fishing year.  Read the notice at emergency action extension. A map of the area is available at bulletin.

  • The New England Council’s Groundfish AP will meet March 26, 2017 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Logan Airport in Boston. The Groundfish Committee will meet the following day at the same location primarily to discuss Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23 and work-to-date on 2018 groundfish priorities.  The meeting notice is available at March 27, 2018 Groundfish Committee Meeting. Related documents also will be available on this page shortly.

GROUNDFISH RECREATIONAL:  At the request of the New England Council, NMFS published a new control date that may be used to determine future participation in the Northeast multispecies charter/party fishery. The new control date is March 19, 2018. This replaces the previous March 30, 2006 control date, which many members of the industry considered to be “stale” and not reflective of current conditions in the fishery. NMFS is collecting public comment on the new date through April 18. The notice is available at March 19, 2018 control date. Learn more about the New England Council’s recent recreational actions at January 31 decision-making.

RED HAKE:  NMFS has notified the New England Council that the Southern Georges Bank/Mid-Atlantic stock of red hake is now subject to overfishing and overfished based on the recent 2017 assessment. As such, the Council will be working to develop measures to end overfishing and rebuild the stock.  Read the Federal Register notice and visit the Council’s Small-Mesh Multispecies Webpage.

DOGFISH, MID-ATLANTIC SPECIES:  Spiny dogfish is jointly managed by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils. The Mid-Atlantic, which has the administrative lead over the Spiny Dogfish FMP, is soliciting applications from qualified individuals to serve on the Dogfish Advisory Panel.

  • The application deadline is April 20, 2018.
  • All current advisory panel members must reapply in order to be considered for reappointment.
  • The Mid-Atlantic Council also is accepting applications for seven other advisory panels, which are the: River Herring and Shad AP; Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass AP; Mackerel, Squid, Butterfish AP; Surfclam and Ocean Quahog AP; Tilefish AP; Bluefish AP; and Ecosystem and Ocean Planning AP.
  • Additional information and an application form are available at serve on an advisory panel.

Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.

 

Legit Fish is Adding Validity to a Peculiar Part of the Seafood Industry

March 14, 2018 — Certain entrepreneurs have an interest in a particular topic or industry that serves as an underlying theme to their career.

Taking a look at the career of Legit Fish Founder and CEO Michael Carroll, you will see he has been involved with the seafood industry for nearly 30 years. Carroll has worked as a commercial fisherman, in various marketing roles selling cod and haddock to grocery stores, and as a business consultant for seafood-companies.

And now, he is the founder of a seafood-focused tech startup in a city both catered to tech and seafood.

Legit Fish provides an administrative and tracking platform for seafood offloaders and independent fisherman to certify and market their fish as local. The software application replaces the current paper and Excel logistics systems with a cohesive cloud-based system that offers a scalable and unmatched level of traceability in the seafood industry.

The seafood offloader simply inputs the vessel, species, sizes, and relevant harvest information which is automatically transmitted to federal harvest records, inventory, sales, accounting etc. substantially reducing labor and transaction efficiencies. The application verifies the accuracy of the product information against the official government harvest record through proprietary API access and approves the printing of labels.

“Our software is built for traceability and logistics. If you lie on a federal harvest record, there are consequences, therefore we ground our product origin claims on this record. It’s up to us to make sure that the seafood distributors are honest, while still trying to be a business solution,” Carroll said. “With our current business partners, we can authenticate landings in Boston, New Bedford and Gloucester which represents an estimated 70% of the New England Groundfish Fishery and 30% of Atlantic Sea Scallops Fishery.”

Read the full story at VentureFizz

 

New Bedford’s seafood passion wows international buyers

March 12, 2018 –Fish buyers from around the world – 11 countries to be exact – congregated early Friday morning at the Wharfinger Building. While most partaking in the 14th annual fish buyer’s tour spoke English, an attribute of New Bedford communicated to all 30 people.

“They’re really passionate about their own businesses and what they sell to the people,” said Peter Lai, who traveled from Hong Kong to represent Sea and Earth Food Sources.

This year’s tour made stops at BASE New England Seafood Auction, Oceans Fleet, Northern Wind and Bergie’s Seafood.

Those on the tour also enjoyed a seafood lunch at the Waterfront Grille, which included a presentation from Kevin Stokesbury, a professor at UMass Dartmouth’s SMAST.

He offered a presentation that featured the latest research on trying to aid the groundfish fishery through the implementation of cameras.

It tied into what the buyers heard at nearly every stop on the trip regarding quotas, fishing seasons and regulations.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times