Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: A day at sea: Cod, skate, discards and an observer

January 29, 2018 — It’s cold, dark and slippery at 2 a.m. at the Gloucester pier, and as most people are in bed or just going home from a late night out, Capt. Al Cottone is trying to start his engine and prepare his fishing vessel, the Sabrina Maria, for a day out at sea.

The Sabrina Maria is a member of Gloucester’s day fishing fleet, now hovering around 12 boats of what used to be a much larger contingent. This morning Cottone is taking the 42-foot trawler out around Stellwagen Bank, about 15 miles southeast of Gloucester, to trawl for cod, haddock and other groundfish as he skims the coast.

It’s a calm Friday in week of days of snow and freezing rain. Cottone and other fishermen have few good weather days in winter to fish, so they take advantage of whatever clear and calm days they can.

“In the wintertime you sometimes go two-week stretches without going out with the weather,” Cottone said. “Small boats have limitations.” An icy deck, big waves, a false step or slip and Cottone would be in the water with no one to pull him back on deck. He cannot afford a first mate or deckhand, and usually fishes alone.

“The days you fish, you save your money,” said Cottone. No fish means no money. “The winters are usually tough. Once the weather breaks, usually in the spring, you work harder and you make up for it.”

The weather is not all Cottone has to deal with. He also has to deal with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It controls what he and other fishermen can catch, how they must catch it, and how much they can bring back. It’s called the quota.

On this trip Cottone catches well over a thousand pounds of skate fish, but because of quota limitations is only allowed to bring in 500 pounds. The rest is thrown back overboard, mostly dead from being out of the water and in the frigid air for so long.

Cottone also has to deal with and pay for NOAA observers on his boat.

“Once federal at-sea observers became a reality, they added further insult to injury when they forced fishermen to pay for it,” Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said. “If they created the mandate for these observers, they should pay for them to go out with their own money instead of shifting the costs to those that are most vulnerable.”

Last week, NOAA announced groundfishermen such as Cottone can expect to have at-sea monitors aboard 15 percent of all trips boats in their sectors take in 2018. Still in the air is whether NOAA Fisheries will find money to reimburse the groundfishermen for any of their at-sea monitoring costs as the agency has in the past two seasons. In 2017, NOAA reimbursed groundfishermen for 60 percent of their at-sea monitoring expenses — estimated at about $710 per day per vessel — which was down significantly from the 85 percent reimbursement provided fishermen in 2016, the first year the industry was responsible for funding at-sea monitoring.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

NOAA Fisheries Announces At-Sea Monitoring 2018 Coverage Levels for Groundfish Sector Fishery

January 25, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

NOAA Fisheries announces that for fishing year 2018 the total target at-sea monitoring coverage level is 15 percent of all groundfish sector trips.

This target coverage level is a one percentage point decrease from the 2016 coverage level, which was 16 percent. As the target coverage level is set based on an average of at-sea monitoring data from the past three full groundfish fishing years, this level is set based on data from the 2014-2016 fishing years.

Federally funded observer coverage provided by the Northeast Fishery Observer Program to meet the Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology (SBRM) requirements will partially satisfy the 15 percent coverage requirement. Sectors will therefore actually pay for at-sea monitoring coverage on less than 15 percent of their groundfish trips; however, the total will depend on the SBRM coverage rates, which are not yet out.

We were able to reimburse 85 percent of at-sea monitoring costs in 2016, and 60 percent in 2017. We await the enactment of a final Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations bill to determine what funding may be available for the upcoming fishing season.

Certain sector groundfish trips–those using gillnets with 10-inch or greater mesh in Southern New England and Inshore Georges Bank–are also excluded from the ASM requirement due to their low catch of groundfish species. This further reduces the portion of sector trips subject to industry-funded monitoring and better focuses monitoring resources.

For more information, please read the Summary of Analysis Conducted to Determine At-Sea Monitoring Requirements for Multispecies Sectors 2018 that is available on our website.

 

Facing a Dying Industry, Two Young New Hampshire Fishermen Head Out Anyway

January 25, 2018 — It’s a feeling many in today’s economy can relate to: starting out in a career is just harder than it used to be.

One group that’s very familiar with that idea is commercial fishermen. In New Hampshire, dozens of boats used to head out every morning to fish for cod and haddock. Today that number is down to just a handful.

For our series The Balance, which looks at the cost of living in New Hampshire, Jason Moon tells us about two young fishermen who, in spite of the odds, are trying to live a vision of an iconic New England profession.

It wasn’t always Zach Griggs’ plan to become a fisherman. Along the way, he tried other things, too.

“I went to community college for a year-and-a-half and I realized I don’t like book-work.” says Griggs. “I realized I like working.”

But more than just working, Griggs realized he liked this kind of work. The way you get paid for exactly what you catch, the way each day is different.

“The sun rises every day but none of them are the same,” says Griggs. “It’s like, every day you haul the nets, it’s not going to be the same thing as you hauled yesterday. When I did dry wall, I knew I had screw every day and a screw-gun ‘bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.’ Miserable.”

Griggs is 28, but he’s already spent about 8 years in the fishing industry.

About four months ago, he decided to make a bet on staying in for even longer. He took out a loan and bought a boat, the Bridget Leigh. It’s a 44-foot white fishing boat that Griggs knows well. He’s been a deckhand on it for the past 6 years.

It should be an exciting moment – striking out on his own like this. But sitting in his new captain’s chair, Griggs sounds deflated.

“This is about what it’s good for, right here, right now, without permits,” says Griggs, “Sitting on it, hanging out. That’s pretty much all it’s been doing.”

Turns out, being a New Hampshire fisherman isn’t what it used to be.

On a recent night at the Rye Harbor, I met with Griggs and a couple of friends onboard the Bridget Leigh to talk about the state of New Hampshire’s fishery.

One of those friends is Lucas Raymond. At 25 years old, Raymond is New Hampshire’s youngest commercial fisherman. And like Griggs, he can’t imagine doing anything else.

Read the full story at NHPR

 

Council to talk deep-sea coral, at-sea monitors

January 23, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council kicks off its 2018 calendar with meetings in New Hampshire on the final two days of January that will include discussions on its deep-sea coral amendment and industry-funded at-sea monitoring.

The latter, however, will come with a twist.

The discussion on mandated industry-funded monitoring, set as the second agenda item for the first day of meetings on Jan. 30, is expected to include an update on electronic monitoring projects aboard midwater trawl vessels in the region’s herring and mackerel fisheries.

On the same day in the hotel, NOAA Fisheries — with the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center — will hold a free monitoring service provider vendor show to give fishermen and stakeholders the opportunity to meet and question vendors providing monitoring services.

“This is a great opportunity for herring and groundfish fishermen in particular to interact one-on-one with all of these providers,” said Janice Plante, a council spokeswoman.

Herring fishermen, she said, will be subject to new monitoring requirements under the industry-funded monitoring omnibus amendment and groundfishermen may see new monitoring requirements in the groundfish monitoring amendment currently before the council.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

NEFMC: January 30-31, 2018 meeting, Portsmouth, NH

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

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a two-day meeting from Tuesday, January 30 through Wednesday, January 31, 2018. The public is invited to listen-in via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION: Sheraton Harborside, 250 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801; Sheraton Harborside.

START TIME: The webinar will be activated at 8:00 a.m. each day.  However, please note that the meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday and 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday.  The webinar will end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST or shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8388599007058128899.

There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8321.

The access code is 767-546-787.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA: The agenda and all meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at:  https://www.nefmc.org/calendar/january-2018-council-meeting.

SPECIAL EVENT: In conjunction with the Council meeting, the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) will be hosting a vendor show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Harbor’s Edge Room at the same hotel. The show features 11 monitoring service providers:

  • Four that provide at-sea monitoring services and are involved with the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program; and
  • Seven that provide electronic monitoring

This event was organized by GARFO/NEFSC to help industry members familiarize themselves with available at-sea, electronic, and portside monitoring options that may be needed in the future under the Council’s Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring Amendment and, possibly, Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23 further down the road.

SPECIAL EVENT QUESTIONS: Anyone with questions about the vendor show should contact NEFSC’s Nichole Rossi at (508) 495-2128, Nichole.Rossi@noaa.gov. A flyer about the event is available at monitoring service providers.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK: A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available here.

Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.

 

New England’s Newest Fishery Plan has Science at its Core

January 22, 2018 — New England’s fishery managers have released a sweeping new plan for managing the ocean ecosystems off New England’s coasts. Habitat Omnibus Amendment 2 has been fourteen years in the making and, as with any new fishing rule, it’s been controversial, with critics among the fishing industry and environmental advocates.

It has also been hailed as a groundbreaking application of ocean science.

The plan designates a number of areas in which fishing will be restricted in order to protect the physical structure of the seafloor. It’s all based on a model that synthesizes state-of-the-art maps and video surveys of the seafloor, the habitat preferences of individual species, and what’s known about the environmental impacts of different fishing gear.

With dozens of different species – from cod, to scallops, to lobsters – to consider, it’s an enormous juggling act. Michelle Bachmann, the lead fishery analyst for habitat with the New England Fishery Management Council, says that if there are critics on both sides, that probably means the Council has done its job. And she notes that no one is pretending this plan is either perfect or final.

Read the full story at WCAI

 

US cod catch could soon make a comeback, NOAA says

January 19, 2018 — Atlantic cod catch in the United States was recorded at an all-time historical low in 2016, but a rebound for the fishery may be on the horizon, according to officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Once a hallmark of New England’s commercial fishing sector, the Atlantic cod fishery has suffered plummeting catch volumes due to overfishing and environmental changes over recent years, The Associated Press reported, via The Bangor Daily News. However, cod stocks are showing some promising signs for the upcoming season, NOAA officials said, and quotas are on track to increase slightly in spring of 2018.

Cod fishermen in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank can expect a bump in their quotas come 1 May. That’s a step in the right direction, Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said.

“The quotas are so constraining that there’s not a lot of opportunity and interest in targeting cod,” Martens told the Associated Press. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”

Considered a “choke species” by fishermen, once cod quotas are reached, fishing must cease outright. As such, many fishermen have been avoiding cod altogether, the AP reported.

Recent marine analysis has indicated more abundance of cod in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, Jamie Cournane, groundfish plan coordinator with the New England Fishery Management Council, an arm of NOAA, told the AP. Such figures have prompted the council to propose doubling the commercial cod quota for both New England areas to nearly 3.9 million pounds, a move that’s still awaiting U.S. Department of Commerce approval, Cournane said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Pacific perch stocks declared ‘rebuilt’

January 18, 2018 — PORTLAND, Ore. — In welcome news for commercial fishermen, an important West Coast groundfish stock that was formerly overfished has now been rebuilt.

Pacific ocean perch, which is managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS or NOAA Fisheries), has constrained the West Coast trawl fishery for decades.

Pacific ocean perch was overfished starting in the mid-1960s when foreign fleets targeted groundfish stocks, in particular Pacific ocean perch, off the U.S. West Coast. The mandates of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law governing U.S. fisheries management, eventually ended foreign fishing within 200 miles of the U.S. coast. The first federal trip limits to discourage targeting and to conserve a U.S. West Coast groundfish stock were implemented for Pacific ocean perch in 1979 by the PFMC and NMFS. Rebuilding plans for Pacific ocean perch were adopted in 2000 and 2003.

Managing groundfish fisheries under rebuilding plans has been an immense challenge for the Pacific Council and the NMFS, accoding to a press release from the agencies. These plans required sharp reductions in commercial and recreational fisheries targeting groundfish, and included widespread fishing closures through the establishment of Rockfish Conservation Areas off the West Coast and other measures.

“We are pleased to see that our management strategies have been successful in rebuilding this important groundfish stock, and want to acknowledge the industries’ cooperation and sacrifice in this effort,” said Council Chair Phil Anderson. “We also want to recognize NMFS for committing the resources to monitor and research groundfish stocks to improve the science used to sustainably manage these stocks.”

Read the full story at the Daily Astorian

 

Scallop Group Praises NMFS Decisions on Openings, But Still Wants Georges Bank Area as Well

January 18, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — In a step towards balancing sustainable scallop fishing and environment protection, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has approved the majority of Omnibus Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2).

The New England Fishery Management Council initiated OHA2 in 2004, and it was implemented in 2017 to update essential fish habitat designations, as well as designate new Habitat Areas of Particular Concern for Atlantic salmon and Atlantic cod. Now the council has received approval for habitat closures in the Great South Channel and western Georges Bank. According to a press release from the Fisheries Survival Fund, a group established to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, the closures will “provide critical protections for species like Georges Bank cod, and will provide dramatically more protection for critical habitat than the nearly 20-year closures that they replace.”

The Fund is praising NMFS’ decision, saying that it creates “new opportunities for the successful scallop rotational management system.” However, they also have some concerns.

While NMFS approved habitat closures in the Great South Channel and western Georges Bank, they rejected habitat management in eastern Georges Bank. The Fund says that the area contains “some of the most historically rich scallop fishing areas in the world.”

“According to its decision memo, NMFS appears to have been seeking more information on how habitat-friendly rotational scallop fishing can be implemented to benefit both fishermen and habitat,” the Fund wrote in a press release. “In the meantime, the outmoded 20-year-old closures remain in place, despite zero evidence that these closures have done anything to promote groundfish productivity. In fact, the evidence suggests they have stymied economic growth and prevented optimization of scallop management.”

The Fisheries Survival Fund says that they hope NMFS is “willing to work on refining a solution to restore Northern Edge access.”

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

 

‘The government is what created Carlos Rafael’

January 18, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Bill Straus saw the writing on the wall years ago.

In 2009 — eight years before Carlos Rafael went to prison — the representative of Bristol’s 10th District spoke out during the establishment of the current catch-share system in the Northeast fishery. And even with Rafael behind bars, Straus says the threat of another Codfather emerging is ever present.

“The risk is still there,” Straus said. “And that’s why what comes out of the different remedies is so important.”

NOAA defines catch shares as a portion of catch for a species that is allocated to individual fishermen or groups. Each holder of a catch share must stop fishing when his/her specific share of the quota is reached. It’s often also looked at as quota. Fishermen and organizations can buy and sell quota.

Like any industry, the largest organization buys the smaller entities, whether it’s Disney purchasing Fox, AT&T attempting to acquire Time Warner or Rafael acquiring more quota.

“Catch shares are complicated things; there’s pluses and minuses,” SMAST Professor Dan Georgianna said. “Almost every study of catch shares shows decline in employment.”

Straus echoed that in a letter to the editor published in 2009 and in a conversation with The Standard-Times on Wednesday.

“The system encourages one owner or permit holder to gobble up the permits, and that it really works to that effect in a stressed fishery like New England groundfish,” Straus said. “What Rafael was able to do was approach people who had tiny bits of shares, and say, ‘I’ll just take it off your hands because you can’t afford to be sending your boat off to get that tiny amount.’”

In buying permits from across the Northeast, Rafael became one of the biggest organizations on the East Coast, not only catching the fish but also using Carlos Seafood Inc. as the landing’s dealer, which masked the act of misreporting.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times