Saving Seafood

Floating wind farms a hot topic at forum

March 20, 2020 — If a changing climate, whale protection regulations and, now, the as yet immeasurable threat arising from the emergence of the coronavirus aren’t enough to keep fishermen awake at night, the potential development of offshore power generation facilities in the Gulf of Maine should do the trick.

Earlier this month, the Maine Fishermen’s Forum opened with a day-long seminar on the state of wind energy development in the Northeast in general and the Gulf of Maine in particular. So far, there are no wind generators in the Gulf of Maine or pretty much anywhere else in New England. The exception is off Block Island, in Rhode Island, where five, 600-foot-tall wind turbines anchored by piles driven into the seabed about 4 miles offshore are anticipated to generate 125,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually.

Plans for a giant windfarm sited in the waters of Nantucket Sound south of Cape Cod were abandoned in 2017. The proposed project known as Cape Wind was to cover some 24 square miles and was expected to generate 454 megawatts of electricity when complete. Plans for the wind farm called for 130 wind turbines with hubs 285 feet above the water and a total height of 440 feet. After years of controversy and litigation, the developer received all the permits needed to build the windfarm, but ultimately lost its contracts for the sale of the electricity and gave up on the project.

Currently, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for oversight of proposed offshore wind power projects. Fishermen at the forum heard from representatives of the New England Fishery Management Council that there is increasing interest in the possibility of developing floating windfarms in the Gulf of Maine. That, according to Michelle Bachman of the NEFMC, could make fishing “much stickier” than in fixed windfarms such as the roughly 60 large farms already in operation in off the coasts of Holland, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Reminder: Current Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Measures

March 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This is a reminder that current recreational fishing measures for the Gulf of Maine cod and haddock remain in place until we implement Fishing Year 2020 measures.

Gulf of Maine Cod

The recreational Gulf of Maine cod fishery is closed until September 15, 2020.

Gulf of Maine Haddock

Open Season: April 15, 2020-February 28, 2021
Minimum Size: 17 inches
Possession Limit: 15 fish per day

We are developing the proposed rule for the 2020 measures, and expect to have the new rules in place in early summer 2020.

For more, read the bulletin posted on our website.

Questions?

Fishermen: Contact Spencer Talmage, Regional Office, 978-281-9232

Media: Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, 978-281-9175

JESSICA HATHAWAY: Why local fisheries matter — with or without a global pandemic

March 18, 2020 — The topic of food security has been on the mind of forward thinkers for years now, who primarily have focused on access to food as affected by natural disasters. As Covid-19 closes ports, markets and distributors, and social distancing practices threaten the supply chain for goods and services, many of us are discovering how valuable local products are.

Some of my Maine-based social media groups have been filled with posts from the staff of locally owned stores, detailing the products they have for sale, and from local farmers hoping to find new distribution points for their goods and to remind local buyers that not everything is sold out, despite the popularity of Empty Shelf Shots.

I’m feeling lucky to live in a state with small-scale farmers and fishermen. The products being delivered locally are made, grown and caught right here. On Friday, as my office was closing for the foreseeable future, I hauled home 20 pounds of Maine blueberries and 10 pounds of Gulf of Maine scallops for the freezer.

This pandemic is a reminder that a global marketplace can satisfy our worldly desires, but it cannot sustain us through deeply troubled times when our access is limited. Diversification of markets would ideally include expanding local distribution points, as well as global ones. And if we as consumers want access to our local products in times of trouble, then we have to keep buying them even when the world opens up to us again.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New right whale protection measures announced by Canadian government

March 6, 2020 — Canada has announced new protection measures for North Atlantic right whales, which face severe threats to their survival due to human activities off the Atlantic Coast of North America.

With just around 400 individuals believed to be left in the world, the North Atlantic right whale is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Right whales were once common on both sides of the North Atlantic, but have been effectively wiped out in the eastern North Atlantic. Members of the western population of North Atlantic right whales migrate between calving grounds off the coasts of Florida and Georgia in the United States to their summering grounds in the Gulf of Maine, Bay of Fundy, Scotian Shelf, and Gulf of Saint Lawrence. This migration is proving especially dangerous, as the most serious threat to the whales is death or injury from entanglements in fishing gear and collisions with ships off the east coast of North America, according to the IUCN.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared an “unusual mortality event” in 2017, a particularly bad year for North Atlantic right whales in North America that saw 17 deaths as the result of entanglement or ship strike. 12 of those deaths occurred in Canadian waters.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Gulf of Maine Longline Survey in Rocky Habitats Now in Sixth Year

February 21, 2020 — For fisheries managers around the world, trawl gear is an efficient way to sample species inhabiting the sea floor or the benthic column above. Depending on the size of the net, grid surveys will capture enough of the animals in the area at the time to compile data used in abundance models that go into stock assessments.  Unless the fish swim out of the net before it is hauled. Or unless the sea bottom is rocky or pinnacled.

In those areas, longline gear can help fill in the blind spots for regional surveys. Longline gear can be lain across rock piles, and retrieved without destroying the gear itself. It differs from a trawl net in several ways: the longline has baited hooks distributed evenly across its length, it is stationary, anchored to the sea floor with location buoys at the sea surface at each end, and it can be deployed by smaller vessels.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Higher catch limits proposed for haddock

February 20, 2020 — Northeast groundfishermen could have significantly more access to two haddock stocks, American plaice and pollock in the coming fishing season after the New England Fishery Management Council posted revised catch limits to the key stocks.

The council on Wednesday green-lighted triple-digit increases in 2020 catch limits for Georges Bank haddock (129%) and American plaice (100%), as well as a 45% increase in the catch limit for Gulf of Maine haddock as compared to 2019.

It also approved a revised catch limit for pollock that brings the stock’s catch limits closer to 2019 levels. Instead of the 63% reduction initially recommended by the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee, the council approved a 36% reduction.

Those catch limits must be approved by NOAA Fisheries to go into effect for the new fishing season that begins May 1.

“All four stocks are healthy and well above their spawning stock biomass targets based on the latest assessments,” the council said in its statement on the revised catch limits.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Gulf of Maine Longline Surveys Target Species in Rocky Habitats

February 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Abundance, distribution, age, and other data are vital for assessing and managing important fish species. To obtain these data, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Cooperative Research Branch works with commercial fishing vessels to conduct annual spring and fall bottom longline surveys in the Gulf of Maine.

The longline survey uses random stratified sampling to detect the abundance and distribution of fish species and how they are changing over time. It focuses on areas where researchers know less about some species and the rougher terrain makes it harder to sample with trawl gear.

The team spent several days this fall staging the 50-foot F/V Mary Elizabeth in Scituate, Massachusetts and 40-foot F/V Tenacious II in East Dennis. In just over 3 weeks, they completed the planned 45 stations on November 2, in a typically breezy New England autumn.

Weather was also on their side in the spring. On May 7, they had completed the 45 stations in the survey in about 2 weeks. To take advantage of the limited fair weather windows that occur during seasonal transitions, each vessel makes multiple 2–4 day trips.

Read the full release here

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