Saving Seafood

Secretary of Commerce approves measure to reduce Bering Sea halibut bycatch

January 20, 2016 — The following was released by the NOOA Alaska Regional Office:

The Secretary of Commerce has approved a fishery management plan amendment to reduce halibut bycatch in four sectors of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. NOAA Fisheries anticipates the amendment will reduce the actual amount of halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands by approximately 361 metric tons compared to 2014. It may also provide additional harvest opportunities in the directed commercial, personal use, sport, and subsistence halibut fisheries.

In recent years, the International Pacific Halibut Commission – the joint U.S.-Canadian body charged with management of Pacific halibut – has determined that the exploitable biomass of halibut has declined, particularly in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. This decline has resulted in reductions to the catch limits for the directed commercial halibut fishery in Area 4, in particular Area 4 CDE in the eastern and northern Bering Sea.

Groundfish fisheries–which seek to catch species like pollock and yellowfin sole–regularly encounter halibut as bycatch during their fishing operations.

In response to declining commercial catch limits for the directed commercial halibut fishery, in June 2015, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended reducing halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. The council’s recommendation was Amendment 111 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

Amendment 111 reduces the overall Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limit by 21% to 3,515 metric tons (mt). The PSC limits are reduced by specific amounts for the following groundfish sectors:

  • Amendment 80 sector by 25% to 1,745 mt;
  • BSAI trawl limited access sector by 15% to 745 mt;
  • BSAI non-trawl sector by 15% to 710 mt; and
  • Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program (CDQ sector) by 20% to 315 mt.

The Secretary approved Amendment 111 after determining that it is consistent with the national standards in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

NOAA Fisheries will publish a final rule for the measure this spring, which will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. For more information, visit NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional website.

 

 

Study: Gulf of Maine warming faster than thought

January 19, 2016 — The news just keeps getting worse for cold-temperature fish such as cod in the ever-warming waters of the Gulf of Maine.

A new study, conducted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers and appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Oceans, reached an ominous conclusion: the waters of the Gulf of Maine, which a previous study showed to be warming faster than 99.9 percent of the rest of the planet’s oceans, are continuing to warm at an accelerated rate and are expected to continue doing so for at least the next 80 years.

“The Gulf of Maine is really being subjected to a one-two punch,” said Vincent Saba, a NOAA Fisheries scientist and lead author of the study. “On one hand, the region is dealing with the elements of global warming being experienced in all of the oceans, but there also has been a change in the circulation of the two gulf streams that feed into the Gulf of Maine.”

The result, according to Saba, is that more of the warmer water contained in the shifting Gulf Stream is making its way into the Gulf of Maine from the south, while less of the colder water from the Arctic and Labrador streams are entering the gulf from the north and east.

“The Gulf of Maine really sits at the intersection of those two currents,” Saba said.

Saba said the climatic models used in the study project the warming trend could continue for the next 80 years, potentially rising another 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit and setting the stage for extreme and potentially ruinous changes in the region’s ecosystem.

Read the full story at The Salem News

MASSACHUSETTS: Sale of shell-on lobster claws bound for Senate floor

January 14, 2016 — BOSTON — Massachusetts lobstermen could get a leg-up if a Senate bill set for consideration next Thursday becomes law.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who sponsored the bill (S 469), said it would allow for shell-on lobster claws to be processed and sold in Massachusetts.

In contrast to the groundfishery, hampered by lowered federal catch limits on cod and other stock, the Bay State’s lobster fishery is “doing fairly well,” according to Tarr, who said there are concerns about the prices lobsters fetch at the market and competition from Canada.

Read the full story at Saugus Advertiser

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Commission to talk monitoring, seafood show

January 13, 2016 — The city’s Fisheries Commission is set to discuss a variety of issues dealing with at-sea monitoring at its meeting Thursday night at City Hall, as well as details of Gloucester’s participation in the upcoming international seafood show in Boston.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 7 in the conference room on the first floor.

The groundfish at-sea monitoring items involve a request from the Northeast Seafood Coalition for the commission to support the recent votes by the New England Fishery Management Council to reduce the level — and ultimately the cost — of at-sea monitoring coverage mandated for groundfish vessels.

NOAA Fisheries has said it has enough money to continue paying for the monitoring — at an estimated cost of $710 per day per vessel — into some point early in 2016 and then plans to shift those costs to the permit holders.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘We’re not dying yet. But …’

January 8, 2016 —  Gerry O’Neill looks at the water world spinning around him, a world of regulation and re-regulation and over-regulation — in other words, the modern world of commercial fishing — and thinks that he’s seen this movie before.

Two days removed from the public comment hearing at the state Division of Marine Fisheries offices on Emerson Street on potential changes to rules governing the scope and the schedule of the herring season, O’Neill sits in his office on Jodrey State Fish Pier and wonders if his two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour and the Cape Seafood fish processing and sales operations that collectively employ almost 40 full-time workers — and even more when the product is flowing — will survive the future any better than the nearly decimated Gloucester groundfish fleet.

“At the end of the day, the groundfishermen are struggling and everybody knows that and it’s because of over-regulation as well,” O’Neill said. “We’re not dying yet. But if they keep doing what they’re doing, we’re going to go the same way as the groundfishermen.”

Given the state of the groundfish fleet, that is a chilling phrase, made even more-so by his matter-of-fact delivery in the soft brogue of his native Ireland and his admission that he favors regulations that will sustain the fishery even when they cost him fish and money.

Fishery not broken

His voice was steady and calm, just as it was at Tuesday’s session in which David Pierce, the executive director of DMF and the state’s representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission which governs the Northeast herring fishery, conceded the fishery remains robust.

“The stock remains rebuilt and over-fishing is not occurring,” Pierce told the approximately 20 stakeholders that attended. “The mortality seems to be under control and the stock appears to be in a good shape.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen’s Trust Looks to the Future

January 7, 2016 — After a strong year, the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust is pressing ahead with its mission to support commercial fishermen on the Island. On Tuesday, eight of the nine board members attended a meeting of the Chilmark selectmen to seek further support.

“We have accomplished as much as we possibly can do in a volunteer setting,” board member and commercial fisherman Wes Brighton said, emphasizing the need for funding and other support to help attract young fishermen and sustain the industry. The Island fleet has struggled in the face of increasing costs and regulations in recent years.

Last summer the trust held its first Meet the Fleet event in Menemsha, drawing large crowds to the harbor and raising awareness of the challenges facing the industry. It also partnered with The Nature Conservancy to purchase the Island’s last federal groundfish permit, in its efforts to establish a permit bank to support Island fishermen.

But the Island’s historic fishing harbor is changing. In September, the 75-foot Unicorn dragger was sold in New Bedford, following the path of its sister ship, the Quitsa Strider II, in 2014. Both ships had once landed groundfish and other species by the ton but ended up unused and rusting in the harbor. Trust president John Keene worried that as Island lobstermen retire, a new generation may be unable to replace them.

“Pretty soon the harbor will be without the main attraction,” he said of the commercial fishing fleet. “We’re worried that if that happens, then Menemsha starts changing from what it is to more of a marina.”

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

 

Agenda Released for NEFMC January 16 Meeting

January 6, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

 

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

9:00 a.m. Introductions and Announcements (Council Chairman Terry Stockwell)

9:05 Reports on Recent Activities Council Chairman and Executive Director, NOAA Regional Administrator (Greater Atlantic Region/GAR), NOAA General Counsel, Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council liaisons, and representatives of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, U.S. Coast Guard, and NOAA Enforcement

11:30 Sea Scallop Committee Report (Mary Beth Tooley)

Receive an update on the February sea scallop workshop being held to explore concerns about inshore scallop fishing in the Northeast

12:00 p.m. Open Period for Public Comments (Terry Stockwell)

Opportunity for the public to provide brief comments on issues relevant to Council business but not listed on this agenda for formal discussion (speakers are asked to sign up beforehand and limit remarks to between 3-5 minutes)

12:15 Lunch Break

1:30 Risk Policy Working Group Update (Mary Beth Tooley)

Receive an update on finalizing a “roadmap” that contains guidance on implementation of the NEFMC’s approved risk policy

2:00 Atlantic Herring Committee Report (Peter Kendall)

  • Review the development of Amendment 8 — the focus of the action is to establish long-term harvest strategies for Atlantic herring, including an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule that explicitly accounts for herring’s role in the ecosystem and the issue of localized depletion;
  • Discuss revising the Georges Bank haddock catch cap accountability measure through a framework adjustment to the Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP);
  • Discuss the use of portside data in river herring/shad catch cap monitoring

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

8:30 a.m. Overview of NOAA Fisheries Fishery Dependent Data Project (GAR staff)

Receive a report on the NOAA Fisheries data project prior to Council and public discussion on the topic

9:30 Observer Policy Committee Report (Terry Stockwell)

Select preferred alternatives among the omnibus elements in the Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Amendment and approve the associated draft Environmental Assessment for purposes of public review; the action will address standard cost responsibilities, framework provisions for IFM programs, service provider requirements, a prioritization process to allocate federal funding, and a monitoring set-aside option; the Council is expected to select preferred alternatives for the herring and mackerel alternatives at its April 2016 meeting

12:00 p.m. Lunch Break

1:15 Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) Report (Dr. Jake Kritzer)

Review SSC recommendations, if any, for a revised overfishing limit and an acceptable biological catch for witch flounder for fishing years 2016-2018; receive an update on additional topics discussed by the SSC at their January 20 meeting, as appropriate

2:00 Groundfish Committee Report (Frank Blount)

Take final action on the 2016-2018 fishery specifications for witch flounder (preliminary values were selected at the December 2015 Council meeting); receive a committee update on the development of measures to address the 2016 groundfish priorities, including potential changes to the at-sea monitoring program and the management process for recreational fishing

3:30 Review NOAA’s Draft Guidance for Conducting Catch Share Program Reviews (Council staff)

Review NOAA’s Catch Share Guidance document and review/approve NEFMC comments on the draft

Thursday, January 28, 2016

8:30 a.m. Small Mesh Multispecies Committee Report (Mark Gibson)

Review scoping comments for Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP and approve the range of issues to be addressed in the action; the major topic under consideration is the development of a limited access program for the small mesh fishery comprised of whiting (silver and offshore hake) and red hake

9:30 Presentation on the Northeast Region’s Revised Stock Assessment Process (Dr. Bill Karp, Science Director, NEFSC)

Discuss Northeast Regional Coordinating Council-recommended changes to the Stock Assessment Workshop/Stock Assessment Review Committee process

10:30 Other Business

View a PDF of the Meeting Agenda

MASSACHUSETTS: Northeast Seafood Coalition seeks support for monitoring plan

January 1, 2015 — The Northeast Seafood Coalition is seeking the city Fisheries Commission’s support for the New England Fishery Management Council’s recent vote to reduce the mandated level of at-sea monitoring for groundfish boats when the 2016 fishing season opens May 1.

Jackie Odell, NSC executive director, said she will make a formal request for a letter of support from the commission at its yet-to-be scheduled January meeting to begin building public and industry support for the actions the council took at its December meetings in Portland, Maine.

With the prospect of groundfishermen forced to assume the hefty cost of at-sea monitoring at some point within the first quarter of 2016, the council voted to reduce the level of mandated monitoring from approximately 24 percent of all groundfish trips to about 13 percent to help ease the additional financial burden looming on the horizon.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

On Facebook, EDF Attributes “Amazing Comeback of U.S. Fisheries” to Catch Shares

December 29, 2015 (Saving Seafood) — Yesterday, in a Facebook post, the Environmental Defense Fund attributed the “amazing comeback” of U.S. fisheries to the implementation of catch shares, stating “There’s a boatload of evidence (pun very much intended) that this approach is working.”

According to EDF:

“Just a decade ago, many commercial fisheries were something of a free for all, with little incentive to do anything but fish first, fish fast, and fish until there was nothing left. Risky for fishermen and detrimental to species abundance, this system too often corroded the health of fishing communities and fish populations alike. Since then, an alternative management approach called catch shares has transformed this dynamic in many domestic fisheries by aligning the economic interests of fishermen with long-term conservation outcomes.”

Northeastern fishermen and fishing families with Facebook accounts who would like to comment, and let EDF know what catch shares have meant to them, can access the post here.

DAVID GOETHEL: Fishermen on the Hook to Pay for Their Own Regulators

December 27, 2015 — Few professions are as significant to New England’s economy and history as fishing. Yet the ranks of groundfish fishermen have dwindled so much that we’re now an endangered species. The causes are many—but the one now threatening us with extinction is the federal government. Along with one other plaintiff, I’m suing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to stop it from sinking New England’s groundfish industry for good.

Groundfish include cod, haddock and 11 other common bottom-dwelling species. After years of dwindling stocks, in 2012 the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a disaster declaration for groundfish territory off the coast of New England. Over the past four years my cod quota—my bread and butter—plummeted from 60,000 pounds to 3,700 this year. I caught my limit in four days in June.

Shifting ocean patterns have certainly contributed to our struggles, but regulators are a separate anchor altogether. Groundfish fishermen are organized into a patchwork of 15 sectors, i.e., government-designed cooperative organizations. We operate under at least seven overlapping federal and state entities and programs, all of which have their own regulatory nets.

Read the full opinion piece at the Wall Street Journal