Saving Seafood

Fishing industry pushes for safety exams every 2 years

September 27, 2015 — SEATTLE — The Coast Guard will require commercial fishing vessels to undergo dockside safety examinations only once every five years, a move that North Pacific industry officials are protesting as far too infrequent.

The industry officials want the exams, which become mandatory Oct. 15, to be required every two years so that the Coast Guard has a better chance of spotting torn survival suits, malfunctioning alarms and other safety problems.

Commercial fishing has long ranked as one of the most deadly occupations in the nation. Plenty of people within the industry have bridled at regulations that have come about in recent decades, so it’s unusual to have some call for tougher oversight. But the North Pacific industry officials said in their letter that the two-year interval would do a much better job of overseeing safety and could save lives.

“Once every half decade is just a really bad idea,” said Chris Woodley, executive director of the Seattle-based Groundfish Forum and a member of the Coast Guard’s Fishing Vessel Safety Advisory Committee. He is one of 15 representatives of North Pacific fishery associations and seafood companies that have signed onto the protest letter sent this month to U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

 

Weekly Update: 9/21/15 North Carolina Fisheries Association

September 21, 2015 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

INTERESTED CANDIDATES FOR SAFMC SEAT EXPIRING IN 2016
Members interested in serving in the obligatory seat for the South Atlantic Marine Fishery Commission, please let Lauren know. You can email or give her a call at 252-725-2468.

NEW ANALYSIS COMPARES COSTS OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING AND AT–SEA OBSERVERS
Earlier this year, NOAA Fisheries issued regional electronic technology implementation plans that lay out our vision for the implementation of this technology in U.S. fisheries. One key element missing from those plans and ongoing Council discussions regarding the use of electronic monitoring was cost information. To better inform the Council decision-making process with regard to fishery-dependent data collection, NMFS is issuing two reports comparing the projected costs of two different operational electronic monitoring programs with the costs of more traditional observer/at-sea monitoring programs, as well as an independent review of the groundfish electronic monitoring report. The costs in both reports are estimated for hypothetical programs and costs are based on agency spending and cost estimates provided by three electronic monitoring service
providers in the fall of 2014. Access the reports below:

Cost Comparison for Hypothetical Groundfish Sector
Independent Review of the Groundfish Cost Comparison
Cost Comparison for Hypothetical Herring/Mackerel Fishery

Read the full update from the North Carolina Fisheries Association

NOAA teaches about devices that return fish to the deep

September 15, 2015 — A group of about 20 NOAA Fisheries port agents and other staffers will be heading out on an educational mission Wednesday to learn techniques to more safely catch and release deep-water groundfish without piling up dead discards.

The group, scheduled to head out of Gloucester aboard the Yankee Fleet’s 75-foot Yankee Clipper for a half-day charter that will cost the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about $1,200, will learn how to use safe-handling devices designed to help return fish to the appropriate depths, even if they suffered barotrauma on the way up from the bottom.

“Our goal is to reduce the dead discards, which often occur because of barotrauma,” said Greg Power, a NOAA fisheries specialist who supervises the network of the agency port agents extending from Maine to Virginia. “We want to help get them safely back down to the bottom so they can survive.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Fisheries Announces Increase in Common Pool Gulf of Maine Cod Possession and Trip Limits

September 15, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries announces an increase to the trip and possession limit for Gulf of Maine cod for common pool vessels.

We had reduced possession and trip limits to zero on June 15, 2015, to prevent the common pool from exceeding its Trimester 1 quota. To date, the common pool fishery has harvested approximately 31% of its annual quota for Gulf of Maine cod.

Through this action, we are increasing the possession and trip limit from zero to 25 pounds per trip for the remainder of the fishing year, though April 30, 2016.

This new limit goes into effect with publication in the Federal Register on Wednesday, September 16.

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

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-6175 or Jennifer.Goebel@noaa.gov.

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Criteria for fishing aid likely to be relaxed

September 11, 2015 — WESTON, Mass. — It probably isn’t going to be the so-called Gloucester Plan that dictates which Massachusetts-based fishermen receive shares of the approximately $6 million in the final installment of federal fishing disaster aid, according to state fisheries officials.

Massachusetts Fish & Game Commissioner George Peterson said Thursday he anticipates the final spending plan, which the state expects to submit to NOAA Fisheries for approval by Oct. 1, will be much closer to the plan put forward by a cadre of Cape Cod fishermen, legislators and stakeholders at last Friday’s contentious meeting of the disaster aid working group in New Bedford.

That plan, with a lower standard of qualifying criteria needed to share in the assistance than the initial recommendations by the city of Gloucester and the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, would provide assistance to any fisherman who landed at least 10,000 pounds of groundfish in any of the fishing years from 2010 to 2014 or who had one vessel trip with an at-sea monitor aboard in 2014.

“After the public hearing and a lot of comment, we think it’s a better plan, a more inclusive plan,” Peterson said.

Peterson said he expects the state Division of Marine Fisheries, which he oversees, will provide him, Secretary of Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton and Gov. Charlie Baker with the final draft proposal of the distribution plan sometime at “the beginning of next week.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times 

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Warring plans delay awarding of fish aid

September 10, 2015 — The consensus toward developing a plan to distribute the approximately $6 million remaining in federal groundfish disaster aid seems to have degenerated into a contentious melee and now local stakeholders anxiously await the decision by the state Division of Marine Fisheries on which Massachusetts fishermen will qualify for assistance.

“I think we should hear something pretty soon,” Jackie Odell, the executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s as soon as the end of this week.”

The process for formulating a distribution plan turned ugly at a two-hour Friday afternoon meeting in New Bedford, according to several people who participated, with different Bay State fishing regions — and fishermen of different species — pitted against each other in their respective efforts to influence DMF’s final spending plan. The meeting had been expected to end with a decision on what plan to forward to DMF.

“When I left that call, I was feeling very frustrated and very upset,” said Gloucester Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano, who participated via conference call. “It was very unfortunate. We shouldn’t be pitting one fisherman against another. It shouldn’t be Gloucester versus the Cape or the Cape versus New Bedford. That doesn’t move the industry forward at all.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

New Analysis Compares Costs of Electronic Monitoring and At-Sea Observers

September 9, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Earlier this year, NOAA Fisheries issued regional electronic technology implementation plans that lay out our vision for the implementation of electronic technology in U.S. fisheries. One key element missing from those plans and ongoing Fishery Management Council discussions was cost information. 

Today, NOAA Fisheries is releasing two reports comparing costs of actual at-sea monitors and observers against a proposed electronic monitoring system in hypothetical Northeast groundfish and Atlantic herring/mackerel fisheries.

We found that electronic technologies can be a cost-efficient monitoring option in some cases, but not always. Our findings suggest technology, such as on-board camera systems, may be most cost-effective for monitoring compliance, such as in the midwater trawl herring and mackerel fisheries. Our reports also show that human observers proved more cost-efficient than electronic technologies at catch accounting, such as required for groundfish sectors.

Any monitoring program must weigh many factors including data quality, feasibility, and cost. This analysis of relative costs fills an important information gap, and is a first step that will help inform the broader discussion taking place at the Fishery Management Councils about the most effective way to monitor fisheries.  

You can find the full reports, including details about factors driving program costs and our assumptions, as well as an independent peer review pf the report, online.

STEVE URBON: Groundfish Industry Taking Another Hit With Addition of At-Sea-Monitors

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — September 6, 2015 — So this is how it looks. The gradual collapse of the New England groundfish industry continued last week as about two dozen people jammed into a meeting room of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries office in the former voc-tech school on Purchase Street to argue about the distribution of disaster relief money allocated by Congress.

The discussion was about the so-called “Bin 3” money, the third piece allocated in the disaster relief bill that Congress approved to mitigate the effects of the collapse of the groundfish industry in New England.

Richie Canastra, president of the BASE seafood auction, pleaded with the fishermen and cooperative managers from New Bedford, Chatham and Scituate for civility and derided NOAA Fisheries for “throwing them under the bus” in the wake of failed regulatory policies that continue to heap regulatory costs on the back of the fishing industry.

Canastra, late in the two-hour meeting, pleaded with his colleagues in the industry to think about where the industry will go from here once it decides how to allocate the remaining $6 million of federal disaster relief money approved by Congress three years ago.

Read the full opinion piece from the New Bedford Standard-Times

Cape Cod legislators urge Baker to spread relief funds across the fleet

September 2, 2015 — CHATHAM, Mass. – Legislators from the Cape and Islands urged Gov. Charlie Baker to reconsider his current proposal to allocate $6.6 million in federal fisheries disaster money to fishermen who had caught at least 20,000 pounds of groundfish — bottom-feeding fish like cod, haddock and flounder — in 2013 and 2014. Cape fishermen said it would benefit only a relative few boats; they had proposed that the state Division of Marine Fisheries use $4 million to pay for monitors who ride along on groundfish vessels and report on what fishermen catch and what they discard.

“It became apparent to us that that was not going to work,” said Claire Fitz-Gerald, manager of the Georges Bank Fixed Gear Sector, representing 24 boats, and headquartered in Chatham.

There was strong sentiment within the Massachusetts fleet for direct aid to fishermen, and Gov. Baker and the state’s congressional delegation sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and House and Senate appropriations committee chairmen claiming that federal requirements for fishermen to carry observers was an unfunded mandate and the federal government should pay for them, not fishermen. The letter also said paying for observer coverage was not the intent of Congress when it appropriated the federal fisheries disaster money.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

 

Lawmakers fear some fishermen may miss out on aid

September 2, 2015 — BOSTON — Steering a course opposite from the recommendations that came out of Gloucester for spending the last pot of federal fishing disaster funds, elected officials from Cape Cod are urging Gov. Charlie Baker to recast the landings criteria so the approximately $6.5 million will be spread among all 200 boats in the state’s groundfish fleet.

That position most certainly will not be embraced by the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition and the city of Gloucester, whose separate recommendations to the state Division of Marine Fisheries call for landing criteria that would send the disaster aid money to Massachusetts-based groundfishermen who landed at least 20,000 pounds of groundfish in any of the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 — levels that could exclude fishermen on Cape Cod who have scaled back from catching groundfish. 

The Cape Cod effort comes just as the process for determining how to distribute the so-called Bin 3 money is about to close, with the public hearings completed, the period for public comment elapsed, and the advisory group established by the state to help draft a distribution plan set to meet for the final time on Friday in New Bedford.

Why the change?

The last-minute attempt to recast the criteria flows from the decisions by many Cape Cod fishermen, operating under shrunken quotas for cod, to shift their focus to catching other species such as dogfish, skate and monkfish.

But that business decision, some lawmakers worry, could be jeopardizing the fishermen’s ability to qualify for the last pot of federal disaster relief funding being dispersed by the Baker administration to help offset the hit to their livelihoods from declining fish populations.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times