Gulf of Maine Archives - Page 31 of 99

NEFMC Posts Draft Groundfish Framework 59 Update on Website

February 19, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has posted a revised draft of the preferred alternatives for Framework Adjustment 59 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan on its website. The draft includes updated tables that reflect the Scientific and Statistical Committee’s (SSC) acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations for groundfish stocks for the 2020-2022 fishing years and the annual catch limits (ACLs) and sub-ACLs that stem from those recommendations.

A copy of the revised preferred alternatives is available here. The revised sub-ACLs are reflected in the tables at right and on page 2.

The Council signed off on Framework 59 during its December 2019 meeting. At the time, the Council approved 2020-2022 catch limits for most of the stocks in the groundfish complex based on the SSC’s ABC recommendations.

However, the Council voted to send four stocks back to the SSC for reconsideration – Gulf of Maine haddock, Georges Bank haddock, American plaice, and pollock. All four stocks are healthy and well above their spawning stock biomass targets based on the latest assessments

Read the full release here

Listening for Right Whales in the Gulf of Maine

February 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Two passive acoustic data collection efforts are underway in the Gulf of Maine to gather information on North Atlantic right whales. One will deploy fixed archival-acoustic recorders mounted on the ocean bottom for a specific period of time. The other will use autonomous underwater vehicles called gliders, equipped to record acoustic information and report it back in near real-time.

“Real time monitoring provides the opportunity for direct conservation action through alerting vessels to the presence of endangered whales and to slow down to avoid striking the whales, while archival monitoring helps build a long-term 24/7 picture of their presence,” said Sofie Van Parijs, who leads the Passive Acoustic Research Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

“These new efforts will support routine passive acoustic monitoring of North Atlantic right whales and other baleen whale species throughout priority areas, and improve our understanding of changes in their movement patterns,” she said.

Right whales have changed their historic migration patterns in recent years, and tracking them is a difficult task.

Like most whales, this species does not spend much time on the ocean surface where they can be seen by researchers during aerial or ship-based surveys. Sound is the whale’s primary means of communicating, so if they are present in an area, they are probably making sounds. Underwater microphones can detect those sounds and even report back to researchers in near real-time.

Passive acoustic monitoring – detecting and recording sounds, in this case underwater – offers scientists another tool for learning about whale behavior and migration patterns. Advanced underwater microphones or hydrophones and autonomous underwater vehicles can detect and record those sounds. Computer programs help differentiate species and indicate time, direction and location.

These instruments can remain in the water continuously for months at a time. Along with visual sightings made from ships and aircraft, the sound recordings are revealing information about where and when whales of various species are present.

Read the full release here

Conservation Law Foundation petitions to halt Northeast cod fishing

February 14, 2020 — Charging that New England fishery regulators are dominated by “deference to short-term economic interests,” the Conservation Law Foundation on Thursday filed a petition with the Department of Commerce seeking a halt to all directed fishing for Atlantic cod.

No fishing should be allowed until the New England Fishery Management Council and NMFS meet their legal obligation to end overfishing and rebuild the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine cod stocks, the Boston-based environmental group says. Those steps should include 100 percent at-sea monitoring, area closures to protect spawning locations and habitat, and requiring selective groundfish gear, such as haddock separator trawls, the petition says.

The foundation wants a prohibition on directed commercial and recreational fishing using large area closures “once a stock’s incidental catch limit is caught.” The petition also calls for reducing “the incidental catch rate annually consistent with the current acceptable biological catch control rule until overfishing at sea is ended.”

“Our regional managers have lost control of and abandoned the cod fishery,” said Peter Shelley, the foundation’s senior counsel, in announcing the petition.

“After decades of reckless decision-making, Atlantic cod populations are now in crisis,” said Shelley. “To give this iconic species a chance at survival and recovery, the federal government must take the strongest possible action today and temporarily prohibit further cod fishing.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Regulators to hold hearings about planned changes to New England’s herring fishery

February 14, 2020 — Interstate fishing regulators are holding a series of public hearings in March about plans to try to better manage the fishery for Atlantic herring.

Herring are the subject of a major fishery on the East Coast, as the fish are used as food for humans and as bait for species such as lobsters. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said in a statement that a recent assessment of the herring stock found downward trends in the health of the population.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

Changes to herring business subject to New England hearings

February 13, 2020 — Interstate fishing regulators are holding a series of public hearings in March about plans to try to better manage the fishery for Atlantic herring.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WGME

Cod, haddock anglers could get 2 extra weeks of fishing

February 10, 2020 — Recreational anglers of cod and haddock would receive two extra weeks of spring fishing in upcoming seasons under new measures recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council.

The council, in advancing its recommendations, followed the guidance of both its recreational advisory panel and groundfish committee concerning Georges Bank cod, Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock.

The recommendations require approval by NOAA Fisheries, which said it expects to implement its recreational measures by the time the new fishing season dawns on May 1.

The council recommended no changes from the 2019 season for Georges Bank cod. The open season will be year-round, with a bag limit of 10 fish per day per angler and a minimum size of 21 inches.

For Gulf of Maine cod, the council recommended instituting a two-week spring open season — April 1 to 14 — in addition to the existing fall open season of Sept. 15 to 30.

The bag limit and minimum size for Gulf of Maine cod remain the same as 2019 — one fish per day per angler and 21 inches, respectively.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NEFMC Recommends 2020 Recreational Measures for Gulf of Maine Cod/Haddock

February 4, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council is supporting 2020 recreational fishing measures for Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock that provide an additional springtime window of fishing opportunity for cod and greater access to the abundant haddock resource. The Council took this position during its late January 2020 meeting in Portsmouth, NH based on advice from both its Recreational Advisory Panel and Groundfish Committee.

The measures are recommendations only that are being submitted to the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) of NOAA Fisheries for consideration. NOAA Fisheries will make the final decision and anticipates implementing recreational measures by May 1, the start of the new fishing year.

Read the full release here

Pending Federal Report Key to Offshore Wind’s Future

January 13, 2020 — The forthcoming report from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on the cumulative environmental impacts of the Vineyard Wind project will determine the future of offshore wind development.

BOEM’s decision isn’t just the remaining hurdle for the 800-megawatt project, but also the gateway for 6 gigawatts of offshore wind facilities planned between the Gulf of Maine and Virginia. Another 19 gigawatts of Rhode Island offshore wind-energy goals are expected to bring about more projects and tens of billions of dollars in local manufacturing and port development.

Some wind-energy advocates have criticized BOEM’s 11th-hour call for the supplemental analysis as politically motivated and excessive.

Safe boat navigation and loss of fishing grounds are the main concerns among commercial fishermen, who have been the most vocal opponents of the 84-turbine Vineyard Wind project and other planned wind facilities off the coast of southern New England.

Last month, state Sen. Susan Sosnowski, D-New Shoreham, gave assurances that the Coast Guard will not be deterred from conducting search and rescue efforts around offshore wind facilities, as some fishermen have feared.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Offshore wind in New Hampshire: Now what?

January 10, 2020 — One year after Governor Sununu announced plans to investigate offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine, much has been accomplished.

The first official Intergovernmental Task Force meeting — established to gauge the technology’s potential — was held on Dec. 12. Convened by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM for short), the meeting was well attended and provided a great deal of information and clarification on what the Task Force’s next two years will entail.

Still, this meeting was just the beginning — an inflection point that has since sparked the beginning of many other initiatives throughout the region. All with the aim of establishing greater understanding of the gulf’s marine environment and how offshore wind might fit in.

Over the next three to five years, the states of New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts will be gathering information to determine the most appropriate siting locations for offshore wind development. While this data-collection effort includes many moving parts, one word in particular looms largest of all: assessment.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Business Review

MAINE: Lobstermen Down East throw cold water on state plan to protect whales

January 10, 2020 — Fishermen in the heart of Maine’s $485 million lobster industry don’t like a state proposal to protect endangered right whales from buoy lines, arguing that it forces them to give up too much to fix a problem they aren’t causing.

About 75 people packed a local lobster board meeting in Deer Isle on Thursday night to vent about the plan, which they argue is overly complicated, puts them in danger and is unlikely to help the species it is trying to save.

“I wonder why the state made it so confusing and so difficult,” said Richard “Dick” Larrabee Jr. of Stonington. “This is stupid. I don’t want you to pass this because this does not work. It makes us look like a bunch of monkeys.”

The Deer Isle meeting was the first stop in the state Department of Marine Resources’ monthlong presentation of its right whale plan to the local lobster zone councils in each of Maine’s seven lobster fishing zones, from Whiting to Kennebunk.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald