Saving Seafood

Regulators close Maine’s shrimp fishery for next 3 years

November 19, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Regulators voted Friday to close the Gulf of Maine winter shrimp season for another three years, raising fears that the fishery decimated by rising water temperatures may never bounce back.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has been taking a year-to-year approach to determining whether to allow a winter season, but the panel decided to shut it down for 2019, 2020 and 2021 after receiving a dismal report on the depleted fishery.

The last time the fishery was open was 2014 in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

“The stock has shown very little signs of recovery. It’s considered a depleted resource,” said Tina Berger, spokeswoman for the agency.

Fishermen, the bulk of them from Maine, used to catch millions of pounds of the shrimp every winter.

But the warming ocean and predation have decimated the shrimp fishery. The shrimp are especially sensitive to changes in water temperature, Berger said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Moratorium on Northern Shrimp Commercial Fishing Maintained Through 2021

November 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

In response to the continued depleted condition of the northern shrimp resource, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section extended the moratorium on commercial fishing through 2021. This three-year moratorium was set in response to the low levels of biomass and recruitment and the fact that, should recruitment improve, it would take several years for those shrimp to be commercially harvestable.

The 2018 Stock Assessment Update indicates the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp population remains depleted, with spawning stock biomass (SSB) at extremely low levels since 2013. SSB in 2018 was estimated at 1.3 million pounds, lower than SSB in 2017 (1.5 million pounds). Recruitment has also been low in recent years, with 2018 recruitment estimated at two billion shrimp. This is below the time series median of 2.6 billion shrimp. Fishing mortality has remained low in recent years due to the moratorium.

High levels of natural mortality and low levels of recruitment continue to hinder recovery of the stock. Predation contributes significantly to the natural mortality of northern shrimp and has been at high levels over the past decade. In addition, long-term trends in environmental conditions have not been favorable for the recruitment of northern shrimp. Ocean temperatures in the western Gulf of Maine have increased over the past decade, with warmer water temperature generally associated with lower recruitment indices and poorer survival during the first year of life. With ocean temperatures predicted to continue to rise, this suggests an increasingly inhospitable environment for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine.

Given this change in the environment and the lack of change in stock status despite the fishery being under a moratorium for the past five years, the Section debated current management approaches and if they are appropriate in the face of changing ocean conditions.  Ultimately, the Section unanimously agreed to establish a working group to evaluate management strategies for northern shrimp given changes in species abundance, particularly as a result of changing ocean conditions.  In February 2018, the Commission approved guidance that species management boards and sections could use to address shifts in species abundance and distribution.  The Section will have the opportunity to use this guidance to determine if or what management changes should be made if the stock has no ability to recover.

While industry members advocated for re-opening the commercial fishery in order to evaluate the stock status and provide economic benefits to local fishermen, Technical Committee analysis showed there is little-to-no possibility of 2019 SSB being greater than it was in 2017, even in the absence of fishing. Given the low biomass of the stock, the Section did not establish a Research Set Aside; however, annual surveys including the summer shrimp survey and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center trawl survey will continue to collect important data on the stock.

The Section also approved Addendum I to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp. The Addendum provides states the authority to allocate their state-specific quota between gear types in the event the fishery reopens.

Finally, the Section established a second working group to review the existing Gulf of Maine Summer Northern Shrimp Survey. This working group will evaluate ways to improve the reliability and efficiency of the survey, including shifting to greater commercial industry involvement in the collection of data. Transitioning the shrimp survey to a commercial platform would be one of the options considered by the working group.

For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org  or 703.842.0740.

Group calls on Maine’s federal reps to oppose offshore drilling along entire Atlantic coast

November 19, 2018 — A small group of environmental activists gathered in Bangor Saturday to call on Maine’s congressional delegates to express more opposition to offshore drilling.

Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree all previously voiced their stances opposing offshore drilling in New England, but the group called on them to prevent the practice along the entire Atlantic Coast.

“What we want is for them to increase their opposition and oppose offshore drilling in the entire Atlantic ocean, not just in New England,” said Sarah Starman, a field organizer with Oceana. “We believe that drilling anywhere will affect everyone because oil spills don’t respect state boundaries.”

Senator Collins and King sent a joint letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke back in January — expressing their stances against drilling in New England.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree also voiced her opposition directly to the Secretary during an Appropriations Committee meeting in June.

“Countless Maine jobs depend on the health of the ocean. The Maine lobster, aquaculture, and tourism industries are among the many critical industries dependent on Maine’s pristine waters, and even a minor spill could irreparably damage the ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine,” Senator Collins said in a written statement. “That’s why I oppose any effort to open waters off the coast of Maine to offshore drilling, which could negatively affect the health of Maine’s fisheries and other coastal resources, threatening to harm not only the environment but the state’s economy as well.”

Senator King also said during a floor speech in February:

“In Maine…we depend upon the coast,” Senator King said. “Tourism and visitation to our beaches and coastal communities are a billion dollar industry, the largest single employer in our state. So that is an enormous economic engine that is currently working, and running, and powering at least a portion of the economy in our state. And of course, on my tie, I have lobsters. A $1.7 billion a year industry in Maine and it promises to be even stronger as processing is developed. We also have an offshore fishing industry, shrimp, shellfish. It is enormously important. It is part of who we are in the state of Maine.”

Read the full story at News Center Maine

New England’s shuttered shrimp fishery faces key decisions

November 15, 2018 — Two days of meetings will determine if there’s going to be a shrimp fishing season in New England next year, and it doesn’t look promising.

The fishery, based mostly in Maine, has been shut down since 2013 over concerns about a depleted population of the shrimp. An advisory panel that reports to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meets Thursday in Portland to make a recommendation about having a season in 2019.

The commission’s shrimp section will then cast a vote on the subject Friday, also in Portland. Recent scientific materials released by the Atlantic States commission say the shrimp population remains in poor shape despite several years without fishing pressure. The warming of the Gulf of Maine is often cited as a problem.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Times

Why Is the Gulf of Maine Warming Faster Than 99% of the Ocean?

November 13, 2018 — Late last month, four endangered sea turtles washed ashore in northern Cape Cod, marking an early onset to what has now become a yearly event: the sea turtle stranding season.

These turtles—in last month’s case, Kemp’s ridley sea turtles—venture into the Gulf of Maine during warm months, but they can become hypothermic and slow moving when colder winter waters abruptly arrive, making it hard to escape.

“They are enjoying the warm water, and then all of a sudden the cold comes, and they can’t get out fast enough,” said Andrew Pershing, an oceanographer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, Maine.

Thanks to record-breaking summer water temperatures that quickly transition to cooler conditions, an expanded sea turtle stranding season is just one facet of a new normal for the Gulf of Maine, Pershing explained. And this new normal is a striking contrast to prior conditions.

This year, the Gulf of Maine has experienced only 45 days with what have not been considered heat wave temperatures. Such persistent warmth, scientists warn, can set off a series of other cascading effects on the marine life and fisheries that have historically defined the culture and economy of this region’s coastline.

Read the full story at Earth & Space Science News

1,300 fishermen wanted first new scallop licenses since 2009. Only four got them.

November 12, 2018 — The state has chosen four fishermen from eastern Maine from almost 1,300 applicants who sought the first new scallop fishing licenses to be issued in Maine in the past nine years.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources held a lottery this week to determine who among the nearly 1,300 applicants would be allowed into the lucrative scallop fishery this coming winter.

The names of Matthew Alley of Beals Island, Chase Fitzsimmons of Lubec, Johnathon Oliver of Deer Isle and Frank Gott of Bar Harbor were drawn from the pool. Each of them has 30 days to submit formal paperwork to the department to get his license, DMR officials wrote in a release.

The lottery was devised last winter as part of a system to allow new people into the fishery while still limiting the number of licenses issued by the state. Only people 18 or older who previously have been licensed to fish scallops (and who don’t currently have a license) or who have worked on the crew of a commercial scallop boat are allowed to participate in the annual lottery.

The 2018-19 scallop fishing season is expected to get under way in the next few weeks and to run until early next spring.

The state stopped issuing new scallop fishing licenses nine years ago when stocks were declining and the state’s annual scallop season was in danger of being canceled. A new fishery management scheme the state developed and implemented since then has helped stocks recover, while demand has pushed the price of scallops to historic highs.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Days Out Call Scheduled for November 13, 2018 at 10:30 AM

November 9, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set effort control measures for the Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery via Days Out meetings/calls.

The Atlantic Herring Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to convene via conference call to review fishing effort on:

• Tuesday, November 13th at 10:30 AM

To join the call, please dial 888.585.9008 and enter conference room number 502-884-672 as prompted.

Please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.

New estimate lowers number of right whales

November 9, 2018 — A gut feeling among North Atlantic right whale experts that the population of the beleaguered animals has dropped to around 400 has been reinforced with a new statistical estimate of 411 animals as of the end of 2017.

“The public shouldn’t think there are exactly 411 whales,” Center for Coastal Studies right whale researcher Charles “Stormy” Mayo said Thursday at the end of the two-day North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium annual meeting in New Bedford. “We believe that they are in the low 400s, or around 400.”

The consortium’s annual report card for the end of 2016 had set the population number at 451, using a statistical model unveiled last year.

The loss of about 40 right whales, under the statistical model, between the end of 2016 and the end of 2017 would include the 12 documented deaths in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada and the five off the Cape and Islands linked in large part to human causes of entanglement in fishing rope and being struck by ships.

“Everyone in the field – conservationists, the public, scientists – continue to be saddened by the decline,” Mayo said. “There’s no question there’s a decline. There’s no question we need to solve the mortality issue.”

The maximum number of human-caused deaths should be no more than one a year to sustain the critically endangered population along the U.S. and Canadian coast, according to a federal stock assessment in September.

U.S. and Canadian government agencies and nonprofit organizations are working to identify the best ways to respond, with new technology to eliminate vertical ropes in the water, for example.

Read the full story at The Inquirer and Mirror

American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment Workshop Scheduled for January 28-31, in New Bedford, MA

November 8, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold the American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment Workshop at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, 836 South Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford, MA. The stock assessment, which is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2020, will evaluate the health of the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank and Southern New England stocks and inform management of this species.  The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data*, when the public will be asked to leave the room.  

The Commission welcomes the submission of alternate assessment models. For alternate models to be considered, the model description, model input, final model estimates, and complete source code must be provided to Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org by December 28, 2018. Any models submitted without complete, editable source code and input files will not be considered.

For more information about the assessment or attending the upcoming workshop (space will be limited), please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

* Each state and federal agency is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of its data and deciding who has access to its confidential data.  In the case of our stock assessments and peer reviews, all analysts and, if necessary, reviewers, have been granted permission by the appropriate agency to use and view confidential data. When the assessment team needs to show and discuss these data, observers to our stock assessment process are asked to leave the room to preserve confidentiality.

 

Ruling Soon On New England Shrimp Fishery

November 8, 2018 — Fishing regulators are collecting the final comments from the public before deciding whether New England’s shrimp fishery should remain closed for another year.

Scientists and environmentalists have portrayed the shrimp fishery as a victim of climate change, as the warming temperature of the Gulf of Maine has made the shrimp’s habitat inhospitable. The fishery was shut down in 2013.

An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission was collecting comments about possible new rules for the fishery, should it ever reopen, through 5 p.m. Wednesday. It’s expected to make a decision next week about whether to allow a fishing season in 2019.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public