Saving Seafood

NEFMC Approves Framework 9 Monkfish Fishery Management Plan

November 23, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The NEFMC took final action on Framework 9 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan. It is developed jointly with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Council, with New England in the lead. While this framework addresses monkfish issues, it also would modify the region’s groundfish regulations. If approved by NOAA Fisheries, it would:

  • Allow limited access monkfish category C and D sector vessels only to declare, and use, while at sea, a groundfish (or Northeast Multispecies) day-at-sea while fishing in the Northern Fishery Management Area (NFMA).
  • Eliminate the monkfish trip limit when on a groundfish/monkfish day-at-sea in the NFMA.
  • Reduce the minimum mesh size of standup gillnet gear in the Southern Fishery Management Area (SFMA). Vessels fishing on a monkfish day-at-sea with a stand-up gillnet in the Mid-Atlantic Exemption Area could use mesh a minimum mesh of 5- inches, fish with no more than 50 standup gillnets, and retain dogfish and monkfish.
  • Allow vessels fishing on a monkfish day-at-sea in the Southern New England (SNE) Dogfish Exemption Area to use a minimum standup gillnet mesh size of 6-inches, fish no more than 50 standup gillnets from May 1 through October 31, and retain both dogfish and monkfish. Vessels fishing on a monkfish day-at-sea in the SNE Monkfish and Skate Exemption Area could use a minimum mesh size of 10-inches year round and retain both dogfish and monkfish on the same trip.
  • Allow a 6.5-inch minimum mesh size for standup gillnet gear while fishing on a monkfish and groundfish day-at-sea in the SFMA.

The Council opted for No Action on three alternatives that would have: a.) allowed vessels in the SFMA to declare a monkfish day-at-sea while at sea; b.) increased the daily day-at-sea/ trip limit allocation for Category F (offshore) vessels; and c.) allowed vessels to re-declare or use a monkfish research set-aside day-atsea while already at sea using a monkfish dayat-sea. The decisions were made largely on the basis of concerns effort shifts from north to south.

Both Councils, voting at their respective June Council meetings, agreed on the management measures proposed in Framework 9. It will be submitted to NOAA Fisheries later this summer. The Monkfish Committee is scheduled to consider next Amendment 6, an action that will address among other issues, options for catch shares in this fishery.

View a PDF of the Newsletter

 

Enviros Push for “National Monuments” Off Northeast Coast that Could Ban Recreational Fishing

November, 2015 — A coalition of environmental groups including the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Conservation Law Foundation, and the National Resources Defense Council, is pushing hard to create a half-dozen “marine national monuments” in the Atlantic Ocean that would prohibit commercial fishing and could ban recreational fishing as well.

The coalition is encouraging President Obama to use his authority to designate the monuments through the Antiquities Act of 1906, which was created to “protect the objects of historic and scientific interest” and is supposed to be limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” Through the Act, a president can unilaterally create these areas without any public or congressional oversight or input. A number of presidents have exercised this privilege in the past, yet most monuments have been designated on land or in the Western Pacific Ocean.

At the time of this writing the areas under consideration are not completely clear, but appear to include at least three canyons – Lydonia, Gilbert, and Oceanographer – along with four seamounts to the south, as well as Cashes Ledge some 50 miles offshore in the Gulf of Maine. Other canyons and seamounts are also reportedly under consideration.

It is clear to many of us, however, that the coalition’s intent in creating these monuments has little to do with historical or cultural preservation. As Maine’s Gov. Paul LePage put it, the monuments designations “would serve only one purpose – excluding commercial fishing from certain segments of the ocean.”

The recreational sector, however, needs to be very careful – and skeptical as well. At least one attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has suggested that recreational fishing would likely be allowed in the monuments, in order to garner support from sport fishermen, and indicated that it would be a real “win” for the recreational sector if just the commercials were prohibited in these areas.

But the rec sector isn’t taking the bait. “Just because a couple of environmental groups claim they wouldn’t oppose recreational fishing in the monuments doesn’t mean that sport fishing would be allowed once the final regulations are drafted in D.C.,” explained Frank Blount, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) Groundfish Committee and a party boat fleet owner in RI. “There’s no way to predict what the language in any monument designation will entail. We need to oppose the whole idea, right from the get-go.”

One of the biggest problems with the Antiquities Act of 1906 is that it strips away the open, democratic processes that protect these areas yet can allow sustainable and appropriate fishing activity. The open federal Fishery Management Council system is the vehicle by which this is best accomplished, and in fact the NEFMC has already implemented strong protections for Cashes Ledge, where most commercial fishing is already now prohibited. And in June, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to protect 38,000 square miles of marine habitat in order to protect deep-sea corals.

A marine monuments designation, in contrast, would nullify these existing management actions, and deny the public any input into what new restrictions might, or should, be enacted. “Instead, it all becomes purely political,” says Jim Donofrio, the RFA’s Executive Director. “Whoever has the most influence on the administration and the president will get what they want in the way of restrictions in these areas. This is no way to manage our publicly-owned marine resources. We already have a transparent process via the Magnuson-Stevens Act. It’s certainly not perfect, to be sure, but it at least allows for public participation.”

Read the full story at Making Waves, the official publication of the Recreational Fishing Alliance

NOAA: Haddock flourish, while cod stocks dwindle

November 21, 2015 — The groundfish stock updates released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reflect what the agency says is the continuing deterioration of the Gulf of Maine cod stock, while showing that other stocks such as haddock, pollock and redfish appear to be flourishing.

The operational assessment updates were performed on 20 Northeast groundfish stocks, with the results corresponding to the state of the individual stocks through 2014.

The news for cod, according to the update, is really no news at all.

“Based on this updated assessment, the Gulf of Maine Atlantic cod stock is overfished and overfishing is occurring,” the authors of the report wrote in their executive summary.

The results show the GOM cod spawning biomass to be hovering between 4 percent and 6 percent of what is necessary to sustain a well-managed stock despite three years of Draconian cuts to cod quotas and the more recent shuttering of the Gulf of Maine to all cod fishing.

While the update’s results continue the trend of NOAA data that show the GOM cod stock near total collapse, they also continue to fly in the face of the season-long insistence by Cape Ann fishermen — commercial, recreational, fin and lobster fishermen — that they have seen more cod this season than in many years past.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Agenda, NEFMC Meeting, December 1-3, Portland, ME

November 11, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a meeting on Tuesday-Thursday, December 1-3 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay, 88 Spring Street, Portland, ME.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

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

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

11:15 Spiny Dogfish Report (Jason Didden, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council staff) Approve final action on the 2016-2018 fishery specifications and associated management measures

12:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 Open Period for Public Comments (Terry Stockwell) Opportunity for the public to provide brief comments on issues that are 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)

1:45 Overview and Discussion of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s (NEFSC) Strategic Plan (Dr. Bill Karp, Science Director, NEFSC)

2:15 Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) Report (Dr. Jake Kritzer, SSC Chair)

  • Review and approve committee recommendations for an overfishing limit (OFL) and an acceptable biological catch (ABC) for the following: Atlantic sea scallops for fishing years 2016-2017; red hake for 2016-2017; most of the groundfish stocks in the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for fishing years 2016-2018;
  • Receive SSC comments on NOAA’s Ecosystem-based Fishery Management Policy

3:45 Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management (EBFM) Committee Report (John Pappalardo)

  • Receive a progress report on the development of a prototype Fishery Ecosystem Plan
  • Review and finalize NEFMC comments on NOAA’s EBFM policy

**Public scoping hearing on Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan** at 5:30 or immediately following adjournment of the Council meeting

The intent of the amendment is to establish a limited access program for the five small mesh stocks that are regulated via the NEFMC’s Groundfish Plan — two stocks of whiting (silver hake), two stocks of red hake, and one stock of offshore hake.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

8:30 a.m. Skate Committee Report (Libby Etrie) Approve final action on Framework Adjustment 3 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan (FMP); in addition to setting specifications, other measures may include possession limits and modifications to the seasonal management of the wing fishery

9:15 Thorny Skate Update (Kim Damon-Randall, NOAA Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office staff) Update on NOAA Fisheries’ follow-up activities associated with the petition to list thorny skate as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act

9:45 Groundfish Committee Report (Frank Blount)

  • Overview of the Greater Atlantic Region’s (GAR) Recreational Fishery Implementation Plan (GAR staff) Following a presentation, opportunity for the Council to develop formal comments on the plan
  • Recreational Fishery Measures, beginning at approx. 10:30 Develop final recommendations for Gulf of Maine haddock and Gulf of Maine cod recreational measures for fishing year 2016;
  • Framework Adjustment 55, beginning at approx. 11:15 Take final action on the 2016-2018 fishery specifications for 20 groundfish stocks, plus the three U.S./CA stocks for 2016 only; this framework also could include final action on multiple at-sea monitoring and other management measures

12:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 Groundfish Report/Framework Adjustment 55 – continue until meeting adjournment for the day

Thursday, December 3, 2015

8:30 a.m. Finalize NEFMC Management Priorities for 2016 (Executive Director Tom Nies)

10:00 Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) Briefing (ACCSP staff) Program overview and update

10:45 Research Steering Committee Report (Mark Alexander) Request Council consideration of specific research recommendations for sea scallops and monkfish

11:00 Scallop Committee Report (Mary Beth Tooley)

  • Amendment 19 to the Sea Scallop FMP Take final action on an amendment that would allow earlier implementation of the sea scallop fishery specifications (now proposed as April 1)
  • Framework Adjustment 27 Take final action on fishing year 2016 specifications and default measures for fishing year 2017

12:00 p.m. Lunch Break

1:00 Scallop Committee Report – continued

3:00 Other Business

Times listed next to the agenda items are estimates and are subject to change. The meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities Council member financial disclosure forms are available for examination at the meeting.

View a PDF of the Agenda

Money for New England fishing monitors to end by Dec. 31

November 10, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal officials say money for some at sea fishing monitors will run out by Dec. 31 and the cost will then transition to industry.

The monitors are trained workers who collect data to help determine future quotas on certain fish. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the money for monitors in New England fisheries such as cod and haddock is going to be gone by the end of the year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at San Francisco Chronicle

 

Fishing film to premier in New Bedford, Mass.

November 10, 2015 — The following was released by the Center for Sustainable Fisheries:

COUNTING FISH  

A film by Don Cuddy 

November, 22 at 1.30 p.m.

New Bedford Whaling Museum

New England groundfishermen are in trouble, with catch limits set so low that many boats remain tied to the dock. But the industry has little confidence in the NOAA survey that provides the raw data used for the stock assessment. Accurately counting fish populations in the ocean is a daunting task however and everyone agrees on the need for better science. SMAST researcher Kevin Stokesbury may have found a solution. By using underwater cameras to record fish passing through the open cod end of a net, SMAST survey tows can last for as long as two hours while allowing the fish to escape unharmed.

With very limited resources, Stokesbury and his team have been refining this technology on Georges Bank by conducting spring and fall surveys over the past three years; working in collaboration with the fishing industry which generously donates the boat, the grub and the fuel.

Don Cuddy, program director for the Center for Sustainable fisheries in New Bedford, joined the crew for the May 2015 survey and captured the experience on camera. Those eight days at sea produced more than seven hours of video footage that has now been distilled into a fifty-minute film, called, appropriately enough, ‘Counting Fish.’

 For a fascinating look into the world of marine research, join Cuddy, Stokesbury and the crew of the F/V Justice for the premier screening of ‘Counting Fish’ at the New Bedford whaling museum on Sunday, Nov.22 at 1.30 p.m.

NEFMC Declares Amendment 18 Flawed Then Votes It In

November 4, 2015 — PLYMOUTH, Mass. —“The core message, across the board, is—we don’t want this fishery owned and controlled by a small group of people.”

That was the consensus, as expressed by Brett Tolley, of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, delivered to the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) during their latest deliberations on Amendment 18 to the groundfish management plan.

Tolley continued, “That’s no good for communities or the fish or the seafood system. And right now, at the end of this process, we’re debating whether seven or five entities should control this fishery….So there’s something fundamentally flawed with this public process.”

In late September, NEFMC was considering measures that would impose limits on the amount of fishery permits and/or Potential Sector Contribution (PSC) that individuals or groups may hold, as well as other measures that might promote fleet diversity or enhance sector management.

But fishermen and others at the meeting said Amendment 18 failed to achieve the goals outlined by NEFMC.

“It feels like we’re making things up on the fly,” said NEFMC member John Pappalardo. “The document here doesn’t answer a lot of questions that have come up today. I’m still toying with the idea of making a motion to scuttle this whole thing and send it back for further development….There’s a sense that folks just want to get this over with, but I’m not sure that’s the best course of action right now.”

Ed Barrett, a commercial fisherman from Marshfield, Mass., said he predicted, during the development of Amendment 16, that sector management would never work.

“We’re here in Amendment 18, pretty far down the road in a process that’s included years of scoping and committee meetings, and we have an amendment that’s not going to fix a thing,” Barrett said. “Right now, all we’re arguing over is the minutiae of a bad business model. This has been a waste of taxpayer money. It has failed me as a business owner, it’s failed my family’s business, it’s failed my fishing community. We need to stop this amendment right here. We need to go forward with something that will fix the problems that are killing the industry right now.”

“Give us the names of the five or seven guys who are going to own this fishery,” said Sandwich, Mass., fisherman William Chaprales. “We’re going too fast. Slow down. Let’s shelve this.”

Chaprales referred to the report produced by consulting firm Compass Lexecon (CL), which was charged in 2013 by NEFMC to determine if excessive market share currently exists in the groundfishery and to recommend potential constraints that could prevent excessive shares in the future. CL concluded there was no evidence of excessive market share and recommended accumulation limits in the 15.5 to 25 percent range on stock-specific potential sector contributions, and said lesser controls could reduce efficiency unnecessarily. PSC is an individual fisherman’s historical share of landings of groundfish species.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s Voice

 

 

Fishermen get face-to-face meeting with NOAA official

October 29, 2015 — HAMPTON, N.H. – Fishermen had a rare meeting Saturday with the federal administrator whose agency has put what Granite State fishermen call backbreaking regulations on their industry.

While no promises for action were made by the official — Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association — those who met with her said they appreciated the hour and a half sit-down she gave them at the Ashworth by the Sea Hotel.

Sullivan took notes, asked questions and heard right from the mouths of the fishermen their fears that recent regulations will make New Hampshire the first state to have its groundfishing industry completely wiped out.

“I said (to Sullivan) I felt that I’m very patriotic, I love my country, but I feel my government has completely failed us in New Hampshire and in the fishing industry, and the public process has been non-existent,” said Ellen Goethel, Hampton marine biologist and wife of commercial fisherman David Goethel. Both met with Sullivan, as well as Portsmouth commercial fisherman Erik Anderson, Fish and Game’s Marine Fishery Division Chief Doug Grout, state Sen. Nancy Stiles (R-Hampton) and state Rep. Renny Cushing (D-Hampton).

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., organized the 4 p.m. meeting. Shaheen contacted the NOAA administrator when she learned Sullivan would be attending a summit at the Ashworth Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24 and 25.

Ellen Goethel said it was important for Sullivan to hear about the economic impact the regulations have had on the fisheries in New Hampshire, supported by information gathered by Grout.

Grout said the gross income for New Hampshire’s groundfishermen was reduced roughly 69 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to analysis provided by NOAA. That’s a bigger impact on groundfishermen income than in any other state, the analysis showed.

Also discussed was the core of the problem for struggling fishermen in New Hampshire – whether the science behind the strict regulations is accurate.

Grout told Sullivan there was an apparent disconnect between what NOAA’s scientists were reporting for cod stock levels and what fishermen are seeing on the water.

Read the full story at Portsmouth Herald

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Fishery science will make all the difference

October 29, 2015 — The message coming to New Bedford fishermen from federal regulators isn’t all bad.

On Tuesday, the top administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, visited New Bedford to meet with local members of the fishing community and spoke in a way that suggests the regulators understand the industry’s perspective.

“We are committed to working with the best science and trying to find the right way forward to sustain the health of the fisheries and the fishing community,” she said following a closed-door meeting, a harbor tour and a discussion at the School for Marine Science and Technology in the South End.

There are short-term crises for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery as well as long-term crises. A brief postponement of industry-funded observers takes some pressure off the fishermen and allows more work to find a compromise that satisfies the requirement of the law without driving boats out of business. In the meantime, while the right folks work out that short-term crisis, there is a necessity to keep working on the long-term issues.

The industry can hardly focus beyond the looming requirement that they pay for the implementation of at-sea monitors on groundfish boats and the immediate economic effect it will have on marginally profitable permit holders.

For too long, the message from the courts, some environmental groups and older NOAA enforcement actions had been concerned with only the resource, not the impacts of trying to sustainably harvest that resource. Administrator Sullivan’s statement of NOAA’s commitment to keeping both strong — and underpinning that work with science — opens great opportunities for collaboration and success.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Spiny dogfish gets a marketing makeover

October 27, 2015 — When Steve DeLeonardis, the owner of the Corner Store restaurants on Cape Cod, heard about the new FDA-approved name for spiny dogfish, he immediately created a new menu item — “SharkRito.”

“Cape shark” has been an alternative moniker for the Cape’s ubiquitous groundfish for some time, but it gained local popularity when the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance adopted it last year.

“We’re on the Cape, and there’s been all this buzz about the great whites down here,” said DeLeonardis, who operates restaurants in Orleans and Chatham.

“We have a younger, hip demo here that responds well to what we’re doing.”

He debuted the SharkRito at his Orleans location in mid-June and, despite the fact that the fish-filled burrito is available only on Fridays, he’s already selling 20 to 30 pounds a week.

The SharkRito is just the latest in ongoing efforts by New England seafood interests to expand the culinary taste of Americans. Their goal is to support the ecological management of aquatic life while stabilizing the income of fishermen and others who work in the field.

 

Read the full story at the Boston Globe