Saving Seafood

Scientists struggle to measure change in the natural world

August 6, 2018 –We face a paradoxical bind, needing simultaneously to look backward and move forward. It’s dangerous, warn the editors of “Shifting Baselines: The Past and the Future of Ocean Fisheries,” to “ignore historical change and accept the present as natural.”

First coined in 1995 by marine ecologist Daniel Pauly, the term “shifting baselines” describes a widespread tendency to assess change using too recent a reference point – typically how conditions appeared early in a researcher’s life or career. When that pattern extends across generations, it can lead to a persistent ratcheting down of expectations – coming to accept as “normal” simplified food webs with less diversity and resilience.

Shifting baselines can, for example, prompt us to celebrate a population rebound that looks impressive in the context of a 30-year time span but pales in comparison to the population and range of that species 300 – or 3,000 – years ago.

Lisa Kerr, a fisheries ecologist at Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) in Portland, acknowledges how hard it can be for marine researchers to find appropriate reference points against which to measure change in fish stocks. Fisheries managers, she says, typically rely on data from 1980 onward. A longer historical context would be valuable, but is not always possible due to limited data.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Catching fish is easy part; Quota system? Not so much

August 6, 2018 –By 4 a.m. every morning the Finlander is out in the ocean, sometimes traveling as far as 50 to 70 miles into the Gulf of Maine, to catch fish to be sold directly to restaurants and customers at local farmers’ markets.

The Finlander is a 36-foot Northern Bay and one of two vessels operated by New England Fishmongers. On a good day, Finlander’s crew will haul in 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of fish, according to Capt. Tim Rider.

The reason the Finlander usually travels so far out, even beyond the reception of the vessel’s VHF radio, is to increase the odds of catching Atlantic pollock and haddock, instead of a large haul of cod, which has a much higher fishing quota lease price per pound. But out at sea, when the 24-ounce jig is in the water, it’s anyone’s guess what may bite.

“If there’s a problem that far out, we’re out of VHF radio reception in a 36-foot boat and we’re likely dead,” Rider, also the owner of New England Fishmongers, said. “Best case, we’d be stuck out there a long time by ourselves before there is any chance we could be rescued.”

Despite the risks of fishing on the high seas, Rider’s crew feels a sense of heightened purpose to reconnect local restaurants directly to the fishermen.

“This is the only job I could see myself doing seven days a week,” Finlander crew member Chris Roberts said after only his second week as a member of the Finlander’s crew on Monday. “With us, our fish, you’re eating what was caught yesterday. Nothing beats being out on the boat; casting out and catching fish with your hands.”

Read the full story at Fosters.com

NEFMC: Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside Competition Underway; Proposals Due by September 20, 2018

August 1, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The federal competition for 2019-2021 Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Awards is now open. The deadline for submitting full proposals is 5 p.m., Thursday, September 20, 2018.

The New England Fishery Management Council established the RSA program in 2007 under Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. Under the program, the Council sets aside 0% to 3% of the annual catch limit (ACL) from each herring management area to support research identified by the Council as priority projects. NOAA Fisheries manages the RSA competition and administers the program.

IMPORTANT: The amount of quota that will be set aside for 2019-2021 projects is not known yet and will be determined only after the Council sets specifications for the next three fishing years. The Council will receive an update on 2019-2021 specifications during its September meeting in Plymouth, MA and then take final action in December at its meeting in Newport, RI. RSA proposals are due before the Council takes final action.

During the 2016-2018 specification-setting process, the Council elected to set aside the maximum level of 3% for RSA compensation. The Council once again will need to specify the percentage allocated to the RSA Program in the 2019-2021 specifications package.

Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside Priorities

The Council adopted five research priorities for the 2019-2021 Atlantic Herring RSA Program when it met back in December 2017. These – in no particular order of priority – cover the following scope:

  • Portside sampling and bycatch avoidance projects primarily related to haddock and river herring/shad;
  • Stock structure and spatial management projects – in particular, continued work on:
    • distinguishing among subcomponents of the herring resource – Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England – and identifying stocks of origin from mixed catches,
    • identifying the relative size of stock components, movements, and mixing rates,
    • ascertaining the degree of homing, and
    • investigating potential effects of climate change;
  • Research spawning dynamics, including projects related to life history, gear interactions, and spatial patterns, including studies to evaluate whether gear interactions disrupt spawning and negatively affect recruitment due to egg disposition and survival;
  • Localized depletion studies to evaluate the influence of potential localized depletion of herring on predators; and
  • Projects designed to evaluate discard rates and mortality of released fish in the purse seine fishery.

NOTE: RSA compensation fishing is exempt from: (1) the Area 1A January-May seasonal closure and the Area 1B January-April seasonal closure; and (2) area closures that occur when a sub-ACL has been reached.

2018 Assessment Results, Amendment 8

The Council is awaiting results from the 2018 benchmark stock assessment for Atlantic herring. The stock’s status will factor into the Council’s decision-making for 2019-2021 specifications. Information about the assessment is available at SAW/SARC 65 and 2018 benchmarks.

The Council also is scheduled to take final action on Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring FMP in late September and may select a new acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule. Control rules guide the specification-setting process. Learn more at Amendment 8.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

To great white sharks off Maine: Smile, you’re on research cameras

July 24, 2018 — Marine researchers have deployed underwater cameras in hopes of documenting great white sharks off the coast of southern Maine for the first time.

The effort is part of the first study dedicated to learning about the habits of the sharks near Maine. Scientists say great whites – the world’s largest predatory fish – have increased in number in the Atlantic Ocean and will continue to do so in the Gulf of Maine.

Two cameras, each attached to a crate of chum to attract large fish, were deployed by University of New England professor James Sulikowski and undergraduates two weeks ago near Stratton Island, 2 miles from Old Orchard Beach. The island was chosen because a radio receiver that Sulikowski placed on a nearby buoy detected a tagged great white shark last fall.

“The goal is to get a better understanding of the ecosystem and what white sharks are coming in, and to find out how prevalent they are,” said Sulikowski, a marine biologist.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Those lobster license plates are supporting $340,000 in research on vital industry

July 18, 2018 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources is using $340,000 from the sale of specialty license plates to bankroll lobster research.

The state agency is using lobster license plate profits to fund six research projects, including five run by the University of Maine and one by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and give $5,000 mini-grants to four other researchers. Project data will be shared through a research collaborative created to address the impact of a changing ocean environment on Maine’s lobster industry.

“Maine’s lobster industry is our most valuable and is a critical piece of the economy of nearly every community along the coast,” Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “We know that change is happening in the Gulf of Maine and we want to be positioned with improved science to adapt to those changes.”

The agency in charge of regulating the state’s $1.5 billion industry is trying to up its own scientific efforts with these grants, which will be shared and shaped by a research collaborative made up of state officials, scientists and industry leaders. At the centerpiece of the new emphasis is research to support Maine’s most valuable fishery. The plan was to fund $500,000 in lobster science projects.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Looming bait shortage poses another threat to Maine lobster industry

July 17, 2018 — Feeling pressure from trade tariffs and pending rules to protect right whales, Maine’s lobster industry is facing yet another threat: a severe bait shortage.

Regulators want to cap this year’s herring landings at last year’s levels, or 50,000 metric tons, and slash next year’s quota of the most popular lobster bait from 110,000 to 30,000 metric tons. They want to do this to offset record low numbers of newborn herring that are entering the fishery to replace those that are caught, eaten by other predators or die from natural causes.

The 2019 quota could fall even lower if regulators adopt a separate proposal to leave more herring in the sea to feed the fish, birds and marine mammals that eat them, including Gulf of Maine species such as cunner, cod, seals, whales, puffins and terns. The New England Fishery Management Council could decide the issue as early as September.

“We need to think about the realities of the 2019 lobstering season with eyes wide open,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said in the group’s July newsletter. “There will be an acute bait shortage and bait prices will be very high. … We must start now to think about how we fish and when we fish. We must think about how we can be more efficient.”

That will mean different things for different lobstermen, McCarron said – some will decide to use less bait in each trap, use a finer mesh bait bag or forgo the practice of dumping old bait and simply add to it with each haul. Some might switch baits, swapping out herring for pogies or redfish, even though a herring shortage will likely cause price spikes and shortages there, too.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MADELEINE FENDERSON & JASON GOLDSTEIN: Taking action to curb climate change could throw lifeline to Maine lobsters

July 16, 2018 — As most Maine residents are well aware by now, climate change does not bode well for our fisheries in the Gulf of Maine. For decades, the American lobster has been the hero of our commercial fishing industry – its fame, sustainability, market value and sweet taste have made it the success it is today. In 2017, the American lobster accounted for 76.2 percent of the total value of our state revenue from fisheries, which boasted a hefty $433.7 million. But what exactly is going to happen to the Maine lobster as our coastal waters increase in temperature, and what will this mean for our state?

Contrary to popular belief, our local crustaceans will not pack up and move north to Canada. Additionally, they will not die all at once when the sea hits a certain temperature. Like humans, lobsters have a specific range of temperatures they can survive in, and once the temperature reaches a threshold, these animals face some challenges. If humans consistently lived in environments too hot for us, our bodies would have stress reactions, and some of our bodily functions, like our immune or reproductive systems, may not work as efficiently. The same may apply to lobsters.

This question – could climate change affect the productivity by which lobsters reproduce? – is being answered in part at the Wells National Estuary Research Reserve, one of 29 nationally funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-supported reserves dedicated to coastal research, education and stewardship.

Researchers at the Wells Reserve laboratory are working to determine to what extent shell disease (a topical bacterial infection that erodes shell, also known as shell rot) influences how many eggs female lobsters can successfully carry and maintain. Last summer, I had the privilege of working as a research intern, through the NOAA Five Colleges Program, to work specifically on this ground-breaking project with Jason Goldstein, the research director at the reserve.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

NOAA Creates Protected Zone for Endangered Whales

July 6, 2018 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will implement a protected zone off the coast of Massachusetts until the middle of the month to try to help endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The protected area is located south of Nantucket and is designed to protect right whales. The whales are among the most endangered marine mammals, and they have suffered from high mortality and low reproduction in recent years.

There are as few as 360 right whales remaining.

Their critical habitat is around Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Maine, and just off of New Hampshire’s coastline, according to NOAA Fisheries. They can be found from Nova Scotia to the Southeast Atlantic coast, where pregnant females travel to give birth and nurse their young.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NHPR

U.S. law enforcement’s boat stops along maritime border rankle Canadian fishermen

July 6, 2018 — U.S. Border Patrol agents have ramped up their activities along Maine’s maritime border with Canada in an operation that has rankled Canadian fishermen, surprised Americans and alarmed civil liberties groups already concerned about the agency’s activities.

The agents are stopping vessels in a rich lobster fishing area known as the Gray Zone that is claimed by both the United States and Canada.

Twenty-one Canadian vessels and an unknown number of American boats have been questioned by Border Patrol since October 2017 with no immigration arrests, said Stephanie Malin, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman.

Maine fishermen report being stopped and asked for identification, and some boats have reportedly been boarded by Border Patrol agents. Canadian fishermen, meanwhile, say the stops are occurring in international waters and Border Patrol agents shouldn’t be boarding their vessels.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Why Canadians are upset about Border Patrol run-ins in the disputed waters off Maine

July 6, 2018 — Border Patrol agents in northern New England apparently aren’t just ramping up their immigration enforcement on land. They’re also doing so on the water.

Canada is investigating at least two incidents in which two Canadian fishing vessels were reportedly stopped and questioned by U.S. Border Patrol agents in disputed waters off Maine, a spokesman for the country’s foreign affairs department confirmed Thursday.

The CBC reported Wednesday that the encounters occurred on June 24 and 25 in a so-called “grey zone” around Machias Seal Island and North Rock between the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the agents were just conducting “regular” patrol operations. However, Canadian officials are not happy.

“They’re being harassed,” Rick Doucet, New Brunswick’s fisheries minister, told the Toronto-based National Post. “Canadian fishermen are being harassed by U.S. border patrol. As far as I’m concerned, it needs to stop immediately.”

Doucet said Wednesday that the “heavily armed” Border Patrol agents were looking for undocumented immigrants, but that the fishermen were just “doing their job.”

“Absolutely overkill,” he said of the “disturbing” stops.

Laurence Cook, the chair of the Grand Manan Fisherman’s Association, wrote on Facebook at the time that the Border Patrol agents said they were “looking for illegal immigrants.”

“Typical American bullies,” Cook wrote in the June 25 post, asserting that the Canadian vessels were rightly fishing in Canadian water.

Read the full story at Boston.com