Saving Seafood

Feds shut down Gulf of Maine herring fishery to protect fish population

August 31, 2020 — A major fishery off New England will be slowed down considerably in September in an attempt to protect the fish’s population.

Atlantic herring are the target of a large fishing industry. They’re used for food as well as bait. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the inshore Gulf of Maine’s fishery for herring will be effectively shut down until Sept. 30.

The fishery is being shuttered for the month because fishermen are approaching a quota limit, the agency said. The shutdown began Aug. 23.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NOAA Will Expand Recreational Cod Fishing off New England

August 25, 2020 — The federal government is expanding the recreational fishing season for cod in the Gulf of Maine in the coming year.

Cod fishing is tightly monitored because the fish’s population off the Northeast has dramatically declined in recent decades. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement the recreational fishing rules “can be liberalized somewhat” without risking exceeding fishing quotas.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Pandemic scraps local shrimp study

August 13, 2020 — When NOAA Fisheries recently cancelled four fishery and ecosystem surveys because of pandemic-related health and safety concerns, it was no real surprise that the Northern shrimp survey was one of the casualties.

It’s was just another indication of the star-crossed nature of the once-thriving regional shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine.

The imperiled fishery, which has suffered debilitating declines in its ability to sustain biomass and recruitment, has been closed since the end of the 2013 fishing season. Six times, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission looked at the numbers generated by stock surveys and six times it saw no recourse but to shutter the fishery.

Matters devolved to the point that in late 2019, the ASMFC abandoned the previous policy of single-season closures and closed the Northern shrimp fishery for three years, ending in 2021.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Fisheries Sets 2020 Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Regulations in the Gulf of Maine

August 13, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is setting Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod and haddock recreational measures for 2020.

The recreational fishery for GOM cod and haddock is managed under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The FMP includes a proactive recreational accountability measure, which allows the Regional Administrator, in consultation with the New England Fishery Management Council, to develop recreational management measures for the fishing year to ensure that the recreational sub-annual catch limits (ACLs) are achieved, but not exceeded. We project that current measures for GOM cod and haddock can be liberalized somewhat without the 2020 recreational fishery’s sub-ACLs being exceeded.

After consultation with the Council, we are making changes to Gulf of Maine cod and haddock management measures as shown in the table below:

Read the interim final rule as filed in the Federal Register and our bulletin.

Read the full release here

Feds cancel study of Maine’s imperiled shrimp fishery

August 7, 2020 — The federal government is canceling a research survey about New England’s imperiled shrimp fishery due to challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Maine shrimp fishery has been shut down for several years because of concerns such as poor survival of young. Scientists have said environmental conditions in the Gulf of Maine have put the future of the fishery at risk.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was scheduled to perform a research survey about the fishery this year, but announced its cancellation this week. The agency said it’s also canceling a handful of other research surveys off the East Coast and Gulf Coast because of “uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique challenges those are creating for NOAA Fisheries.”

The shrimp were once a popular winter seafood item. Fishermen also harvested them in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

The lobster industry has lost a crucial certification for sustainability

August 4, 2020 — In significant news for the lobster industry, the Marine Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of lobster as sustainable, citing concerns about the lucrative industry’s effect on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The suspension, effective Aug. 30, applies to all lobster in the Gulf of Maine, according to the council, a London-based nonprofit that sets international standards for sustainable fishing.

“The suspension comes following an expedited audit and thorough review … during which it was determined that the fishery no longer meets the MSC fisheries standard,” said Jackie Marks, a spokeswoman for the council.

The suspension was linked to a federal district court ruling in April that found that the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect right whales from becoming entangled in millions of lobster lines.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

GMRI report lays path to boost Maine’s aquaculture workforce

August 3, 2020 — The aquaculture industry in Maine is steadily growing, with three large farms being built with recirculating aquaculture systems by Nordic Aquafarms, Whole Oceans, and The Kingfish Co., but will the state be able to grow its workforce to meet the demand for skilled employees?

That’s the question asked and addressed in a new 123-page report from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute that identifies the labor needs of Maine’s growing aquaculture industry and charts a course for Maine to establish a comprehensive workforce training system.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Feds: White hake, winter flounder overfished

July 30, 2020 — Gulf of Maine white hake, Georges Bank winter flounder and Atlantic Coast bluefish have been added to a list of fish stocks considered “overfishered,” according to a federal government report.

The report, released Tuesday, also said that the list of fish stocks subject to overfishing in the U.S. fell to an all-time low in 2019.

The National Marine Fisheries Service tracks the health of species that U.S. fishermen seek for commercial and recreational fishing. The agency places stocks on its overfishing list when the rate of catch is too big.

The agency determined that only 22 of 321 fishing stocks were subject to overfishing last year, the agency said on Tuesday. Fish stocks are sub-populations of fish species that typically live in a geographic area.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA: number of US stocks on the overfishing list reach record low in 2019

July 30, 2020 — Ninety-three percent of the 321 US fishing stocks where a determination can be made are not subject to overfishing, according to figures released Tuesday by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in its Fisheries Economics of the United States 2019 report.

The report outlines the status of managed stocks or stock complexes in the US to determine which stocks are subject to overfishing, are overfished, or are rebuilt to sustainable levels.

NOAA Fisheries manages 461 stocks or stock complexes in 46 fishery management plans. Each year, it determine the status of fish stocks and stock complexes through stock assessments. Of 461 stocks and stock complexes, 321 have a known overfishing status and 244 have a known overfished status.

At the end of 2019, there were 22 stocks on the overfishing list and 46 on the overfished list.

Read the full story at IntraFish

NOAA reports indicate U.S. fisheries sustainable, robust economically

July 28, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries on 28 July released an annual report, and gave a preview of a report slated for release later this year, that both indicate U.S. fisheries are robust and in many cases improving  – both in terms of sustainability and revenue.

NOAA Fisheries has released the 2019 Status of U.S. Fisheries Report, an annual publication that outlines the status of the country’s 461 managed stocks or “stock complexes” in the U.S., to showcase which stocks are overfishing, overfished, or have been rebuilt.

Read the full story at Seafood Source