Gulf of Maine Archives - Page 61 of 99

NOAA leader looks to cultivate culture of collaboration

March 1, 2018 — As debuts go, Mike Pentony’s first day on the job as the regional director for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office was a corker.

The federal government marked his ascension on Jan. 22 as only the federal government can — shutting down all but the most essential government services as a consequence of the usual congressional mumbley-peg.

“My first action was to come in and proceed with the orderly shutdown of government operations,” Pentony said recently during an interview in the corner office on the uppermost floor of GARFO headquarters in Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park.

The respite was short-lived. The shutdown lasted a day. When it was over, the 53-year-old Pentony began his new job in earnest as the leader of the regional agency that manages some of the most historically productive — and at times contentious — fisheries in the United States.

It is, as his successor John K. Bullard would attest, a monumental task, working on a canvas that stretches geographically along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to North Carolina and west to the Great Lakes.

But the geographical sweep pales in comparison to the scope and density of the regulations Pentony is charged with enforcing.

There is the crisis of cod in the Gulf of Maine, the alarming demise of the North Atlantic right whales, the malfeasance of cheaters such as New Bedford fishing kingpin Carlos Rafael and a myriad of other issues that affect every fishing community within his purview.

There is incessant wrangling over habitat protections, the usual tug-of-war between environmentalists and conservationists on one side and fishermen on the other. It is a drama with a disparate cast of characters and Pentony is convinced the only way to address extraordinarily intricate problems — usually requiring even more intricate responses — is by forging a collaborative spirit.

“I want to try to develop a culture, not just within GARFO and the agency, but within the region, both mid-Atlantic and New England, where we’re all partners with a collective goal of healthy fisheries and healthy fishing communities.” Pentony said. “The problems and challenges are so huge that we’re only stronger if we’re working together.”

He also understands, given the varying degrees of conflict that exist among fisheries stakeholders, that achieving that collaboration will be far more difficult than contemplating its benefits.

“There’s always going to be people that find it easier to stand outside the circle and throw stones than to get inside the circle and work,” Pentony said. “If they stand outside the circle and just shout about how everything is wrong, that generally doesn’t do much to solve the problem.”

Campaign of engagement

Pentony served under Bullard as assistant regional administrator for sustainable fisheries starting in 2014. He was asked what advice his predecessor gave him.

“He told me there are a lot of people cheering and hoping for your success,” Pentony said. “Not just me personally, but if I’m successful, then the regional office can be successful and the agency can be successful. And if you tie that success to our mission, then our success would mean healthy, sustainable fisheries, healthy and sustainable resources and healthy and sustainable fishing communities.”

Pentony made his fishery management bones as a staff member at the New England Fishery Management Council prior to joining NOAA Fisheries in 2002. That experience, he said, instilled in him a solid faith in the ability of the council system to ultimately arrive at the best decision once all implications are considered.

“I’ve been involved with the council process for 20 years,” Pentony said. “It’s not perfect. But I have a ton of respect for the work and effort council members put into being informed and working through what I think is unique in the federal regulatory process. We have this incredibly unique process that engages stakeholders.”

Pentony didn’t even wait for his first official day in the big chair to begin his own campaign of engagement.

The Friday before his official starting date, he traveled to the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in Seabrook, New Hampshire, to meet with David Goethel — a frequent critic of NOAA Fisheries — and other New Hampshire fishermen to give them a sense of how he plans to approach the job.

Later that day, he had lunch in Gloucester with Vito Giacalone and Jackie Odell of the Northeast Seafood Coalition. He’s also traveled to Maine to breakfast with Maggie Raymond of the Associated Fisheries of Maine and met with New Jersey fishing companies and processors while in the Garden State on personal business.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New England Council adopts coral protection plan

February 28, 2018 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — After years of debate, the New England Fishery Management Council last month took final action on new rules aimed at protecting deep-sea coral from damage by fishing gear.

Meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., the council adopted its Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and voted to submit the document to the National Marine Fisheries Service for review and approval.

Last June, the council adopted three coral protection zones in the Gulf of Maine. They are the area around Outer Schoodic Ridge southeast of the Schoodic Peninsula, the area around Mount Desert Rock, and the Jordan Basic Dedicated Habitat Research Area. This zone is roughly 40 square miles and located 50 miles offshore where the sea floor rises in a “bump” to a depth of about 208 meters or about 682 feet.

At its January meeting, the council approved a 600-meter (1,969-foot) minimum depth “broad zone” for the continental slope and canyons south of Georges Bank. Once the NMFS accepts the amendment, this entire zone — with one exception — will be closed to all fishing with any kind of bottom-tending gear, including both mobile equipment such as trawls or dredges dragged behind a boat and fixed gear such as traps, pots and gillnets. The council exempted gear used in the small but growing the Atlantic deep-sea red crab fishery.

The 600-meter minimum depth broad zone was one of several options considered by the council during its deliberations, Known as “Option 6” in the Coral Amendment, it was the council’s preferred alternative for protecting the continental slope and canyons prior to extensive public hearings last year. The council postponed taking final action last June so it could consider a proposal put forward by a coalition of environmental groups.

Known as “Option 7,” that proposal covered more of the ocean bottom, including shallower areas with depths ranging between 300 meters (984 feet) and 550 meters (1,804 feet). It, too, would have banned mobile gear but not fixed gear.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

NMFS Northeast Administrator Michael Pentony taking on whale crisis

February 23, 2018 — In January, Michael Pentony was named to replace John Bullard as the new Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Office. Pentony has been with NOAA since 2002 and was most recently the Assistant Regional Administrator for the Sustainable Fisheries Division. Prior to joining NOAA, he was a policy analyst for five years at the New England Fishery Management Council.

Supervising recreational and commercial fisheries, as well as overseeing the welfare of marine species like whales and seals in 100,000 square miles of ocean from the Canadian border to Cape Hatteras and the Great Lakes is no easy task. Pentony inherited a region of tremendous potential but beset by problems both environmental and regulatory.

“The number one issue right now is the right whale crisis,” Pentony said in a phone interview Thursday. “It will occupy our resources and energy for the next several years until we can reverse the trend. That’s going to be a significant challenge.”

NOAA has the unenviable task of managing fisheries so that fishermen get the maximum sustainable yield out of commercial species while being legally bound to protect and restore the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Pentony’s agency has been named in two recent lawsuits that homed in on its management of the New England lobster industry, one of the primary culprits responsible for whale deaths through entanglement in buoy lines.

“There’s definitely a sense of urgency. We have to take action and look at all possible avenues,” Pentony said. “We have a lot of faith in the (Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team) process…Right now everything has to be on the table because it’s such a crisis.”

At the same time, lobsters, which are critical to the economy of many small coastal communities, particularly in Maine, are showing some signs that their boom years may be coming to an end. “Hopefully, lobster in the Gulf of Maine is not going to be a problem like we’ve seen in Southern New England lobster. It’s something we are keeping an eye on,” Pentony said.

A large part of the decline of the lobster population to the south of Cape Cod was warming waters due to climate change. Pentony said a warming ocean and its effect on stock abundance, prey, water currents, temperature gradients, increased susceptibility to disease, impacts many species. Many are on the move, seeking cooler water, perhaps in habitats that provide less food or inadequate protection from predators. Others require management changes that could take time.

Black sea bass, for instance, appear to be moving north into the Gulf of Maine where they were rarely seen in numbers. But the bulk of the quota is held by southern states. Unless higher quotas are negotiated for New England fishermen, they could find their fishery on other species restricted by a limit on black sea bass while losing out on selling the bass they do catch.

“That’s a climate change issue and a management conundrum,” Pentony said. “We have management challenges on stocks that are in poor shape, but even on a healthy stock we have these challenges.”

Pentony would like to see the expansion of aquaculture, both shellfish and finfish.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NEFMC: Atlantic Herring, NGOM Scallops, Electronic Monitoring Seminars at Maine Fishermen’s Forum

February 23, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council is participating in three seminars at the March 1-3, 2018 Maine Fishermen’s Forum at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, ME. Come join us!

Meet some of our staff members.
Ask us questions.
Learn more about the Council’s work.

The forum provides a casual setting where stakeholders – fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, environmentalists, and legislators alike – can engage in meaningful conversation.

On Friday, March 2, we’ll be talking about Atlantic herring, electronic monitoring, and the Northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery. Here are the details.

Atlantic Herring Amendment 8 Informational Update

WHEN: 9 a.m. in the Rockland Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT: The New England Council is developing Amendment 8 to the federal Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan to consider:

(1) Potential changes to how target catches are set in the herring fishery, starting with a new acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule; and

(2) Alternatives to address potential localized depletion and user conflicts in the fishery.

The amendment will be going out to public hearing in April or May. This forum session provides an ideal opportunity for fishermen and other stakeholders to ask questions and become more familiar with the alternatives in advance of the formal hearings.

FORMAT: The session will open with a short overview of the Council process, followed by the Amendment 8 discussion, and conclude with a presentation by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the federal Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring Amendment, which includes proposed measures for the Atlantic herring fishery.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL: Mary Beth Tooley of the O’Hara Corporation is the forum board member who is hosting this session. She also is the moderator. The panel members are:

Deirdre Boelke, New England Fishery Management Council, Atlantic Herring Plan Coordinator
Carrie Nordeen, National Marine Fisheries Service, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO)

Electronic Monitoring (EM) on the Water

WHEN: 1 p.m. in the Rockland Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT: The New England Council and NMFS are taking steps to improve monitoring in the groundfish fishery. These ongoing efforts have prompted increased interest in using camera systems as an alternative to human at-sea monitors. The question is: Can cameras, coupled with dockside monitoring, provide the necessary level of coverage to meet catch monitoring requirements? In an effort to find out, fishermen are participating in several groundfish pilot programs to explore the feasibility of using this electronic monitoring (EM) technology on their boats. The seminar will spotlight the pilot programs, and groundfish captains who are experimenting with EM will share their perspectives on how EM actually works on the water.

FORMAT: Following a brief overview of the ongoing projects, panelists will give quick synopses of the EM projects they’re involved with and explain why they were willing to participate. Then, EM footage from several of their boats will be shown, and the affiliated captains on the panel will help guide the audience through what’s going on. They also will discuss fishing operations and catch handling while using EM. Plenty of time will be available for questions. Exchanges between fishermen in the audience and panel members are encouraged.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL: Gerry Cushman of the F/V Bug Catcha is the forum board member who is hosting this session. Janice Plante of the New England Fishery Management Council is the moderator. The panel members are:

Randy Cushman, F/V Ella Christine, Port Clyde, ME, trawl fishery
Mike Russo, F/V Gulf Venture, Provincetown, MA, gillnet fishery
Tyler Bond, F/V Safe Haven (crew), F/V Savage Joe (owner), Harpswell, ME, jig fishery
Mike Monteforte, F/V Second Wind, Point Judith, RI, trawl fishery
Bob Dooley, owner/operator of West Coast and Alaska-based vessels for over 40 years, Half Moon Bay, CA, trawl/crab fisheries
Claire Fitz-Gerald, NMFS/GARFO Fishery Management Specialist, introductory/overview speaker

Northern Gulf of Maine Federal Scallop Fishery

WHEN: 2:45 p.m. in the Rockport Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT: The New England Council recently completed Framework Adjustment 29 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The framework contains specifications and measures for the 2018 federal scallop fishing year, which begins on April 1. The National Marine Fisheries Service has published a proposed rule containing just the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Management Area provisions within the framework and is collecting public comment through March 7. The agency broke out the NGOM measures from the rest of the scallop actions to ensure they are in place by April 1. The intent is to prevent excessive fishing in the Northern Gulf of Maine area. This seminar will provide an overview of the Northern Gulf of Maine management measures and cover how and why they were developed. Information about scallop surveys and research priorities also will be discussed.

FORMAT: The session will begin with an explanation of federal scallop fishery management in the Northern Gulf of Maine. Panelists then will provide information about 2018 scallop work priorities, changes to the Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program, scallop surveys, and research initiatives for the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area. Fishermen are encouraged to ask questions about any of these scallop-related activities.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL: Kristan Porter of the F/V Whitney & Ashley is a member of the New England Council’s Scallop Advisory Panel. He is the forum board member who is hosting this session, and he also is the moderator. The panel members are:

Jonathon Peros, New England Fishery Management Council, Scallop Plan Coordinator
Travis Ford, NMFS, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
Vincent Balzano, New England Fishery Management Council, Scallop Committee Chairman; commercial fisherman

MAINE FISHERMEN’S FORUM INFORMATION: Many other seminars are lined up. General information about the 2018 forum, including hotel details, directions, and background, is available at Maine Fishermen’s Forum. The seminar descriptions and schedule can be downloaded at forum lineup.

View the event in more detail at the NEFMC site here.

Maine lobster industry facing many challenges, changes

February 21, 2018 — Maine’s lobster industry is pushing back against new rules that they say are costly and put onerous requirements on them to record data.

Maine does not have the funds to pay for the new reporting requirements mandated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, according to Patrice McCarron, the executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. McCarron said the new rule, which requires 100 percent of Maine lobstermen to report certain catch data over the next five years, is cost-prohibitive.

“We have more than 4,000 lobstermen, so we have no way to collect trip-level data from all of them,” she told SeafoodSource.

Currently, data is collected from only 10 percent of the state’s lobstermen. The MLA opposed the ASMFC’s proposal on the reporting requirement, explaining that the state does not have the funds for data collection and that its current data system has a 95 to 98 percent confidence interval level.

“The question for Maine is how do we pay for it. We need electronic reporting technology that would make it simple and fast,” McCarron said.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association lobster analyst Peter Burns said the more thorough reporting requirements are necessary to give scientists a fuller picture of how the fishery is performing.

“We have a big black hole of reporting somewhere in the Gulf of Maine and into Georges Bank,” Burns told the commission, according to the Portland Press Herald.

As a compromise, ASMFC is phasing in the more stringent reporting requirements over five years, which it said would give Maine time to implement an electronic reporting requirement that may reduce the burden placed on fishermen to comply with the rules.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Patrice McCarron: Lobstermen’s conservation efforts an investment in the future

February 14, 2018 — KENNEBUNK, Maine — How many of you keep money in the bank? Savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit or investments – we all use different methods to ensure that we have something set aside for the future. Maine lobstermen have been doing just that for the past century, making sure that there will be lobsters in the Gulf of Maine for their children and grandchildren to harvest. In doing so, they have earned a worldwide reputation as leaders in stewardship of marine resources.

Their conservation practices certainly have paid off, according to a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Maine’s lobstermen have built one of the world’s most sustainable fisheries by implementing common-sense conservation measures aimed at ensuring that lobsters are able to reproduce before being caught.

It started more than 100 years ago, long before the establishment of extensive government survey programs or sophisticated computer models. Lobstermen began marking female lobsters that were carrying eggs with a notch in their tails, a practice now known as “v-notching.” It was a simple method that let any lobsterman who might catch that female later, without eggs, know to not harvest her order to allow the lobster to spawn again. Since that time, lobstermen have rallied behind other important conservation measures, such as protecting large lobsters, because the bigger the lobster, the more young they can produce. Lobster traps are equipped with vents to allow smaller lobsters to escape and grow to legal size. Only lobster traps, rather than nets, can be used to catch lobsters, a passive gear that ensures that under- or oversized lobsters can be returned to the sea alive.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine: Benchmark study of lobsters begins

February 13, 2018 — In 2015, data collected in a benchmark assessment of New England lobster stocks showed record-high abundance for the combined stocks of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank and record lows for the lobster stock of southern New England.

Now, about three years later, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is beginning preparations for the next American lobster benchmark assessment that is expected to be completed around March 2020.

“We’re in the very early stages right now,” said Jeff Kipp, senior stock assessment scientist at the Arlington, Virginia-based ASMFC that regulates the Northeast lobster fishery. “The process will be mostly data-driven.”

Nothing is certain in the periodic assessments of various seafood species. But if some recent projections hold, the 2020 assessment could sketch a different picture from the 2015 assessment, possibly reflecting the declining abundance predicted by a recent Gulf of Maine Research Institute study.

The study, compiled with the University of Maine and NOAA Fisheries, forecast a 30-year decline in the Gulf of Maine lobster boom that began around 2010. The culprit? Increasingly warmer temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, which scientists have said is warming faster than 99.9 percent of the rest of the world’s ocean waters.

“In the Gulf of Maine, the lobster fishery is vulnerable to future temperature increases,” the authors of the study wrote. “The researchers’ population projections suggest that lobster productivity will decrease as temperatures continue to warm, but continued conservation efforts can mitigate the impacts of future warming.”

The findings of the GMRI study were strongly disputed by some Maine lobster dealers and the state’s Department of Marine Resources. The Maine DMR criticized the GMRI computer model used to arrive at the study’s conclusions, calling it “an unreliable tool on which to base management decisions.”

The benchmark assessment of the region’s lobster populations — which will include data on lobster landings, lobster growth and prevalent diseases among the population — could go a long way toward determining exactly what is happening to the region’s American lobster stocks.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

All Maine lobstermen will have to report fishing details, including secrets of success

February 9, 2018 — All Maine lobstermen will have to start giving up their most treasured fishing secrets, including where they set their traps and how much they catch, in five years.

Starting in 2023, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will require all lobster fishermen to submit detailed reports on their fishing activities, including those in Maine, the nation’s lobster capital, where current regulations only require 10 percent of licensed lobstermen to share their fishing data. In other states, lobster fishermen have been submitting reports on every trip for years.

The commission was considering a plan to require Maine lobstermen to begin filling out these reports immediately, but Maine Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher argued against it. He said it would require state government to hire five employees and raise industry fees by $500,000 to review that many paper records. Keliher said he would rather wait a couple of years for the development of a cheap and easy electronic monitoring system before requiring 100 percent reporting in Maine.

“I’d rather spend my money on things that are more important at this time while we focus on electronic reporting development,” Keliher told the commission.

Fisheries managers say the data is necessary to assess the health of the Gulf of Maine lobster stock and understand the economic impact of other ocean projects, such as deep-sea coral protections or wind farms, on the valuable lobster fishery. In Maine, which lands 83 percent of the nation’s lobsters, the industry caught more than 130 million pounds of lobster valued at $533.1 million in 2016.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Ocean Acidification Threatens Our Shellfish

February 2, 2018 — The Massachusetts legislature is current considering a number of bills regarding ocean acidification. If passed into law, the bills will establish a special commission or task force to study the effects of coastal and ocean acidification on coastal communities, fishing and aquaculture industries, and local commercially-harvested species. These bills come at a very critical time when what we do or don’t do next to address the effects of ocean acidification could very well alter the Commonwealth’s culture and economy.

What is ocean acidification?

Excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels is driving climate change and along for the ride is increased global temperatures, rising sea levels, and increased storm intensity. We hear about it almost daily. But on a planet that’s 70 percent ocean, what’s happening below the waves? They call it global warming’s evil twin: ocean acidification.

Much like the atmosphere, the ocean is absorbing more and more carbon dioxide. As a result, ocean temperatures are not only rising, but the actual chemistry of the ocean is changing. Research estimates that the ocean has become 30 percent more acidic since the Industrial Revolution. In particular, the Gulf of Maine is especially vulnerable because its colder waters can absorb more carbon dioxide than other ocean areas. Massachusetts’ bays and sounds are among those waters impacted by ocean acidification.

Why do we need to act?

Ocean acidification should be very alarming to Massachusetts and its legislators because it poses a grave threat to the Commonwealth’s shellfish fisheries – the most valuable in the Commonwealth. Increased ocean acidity interferes with the ability of shell-forming organisms such as clams, mussels, and oysters to build and maintain their calcium carbonate shells. The planktonic larval stages of many species are also vulnerable, a concern for hatcheries and wild populations of shellfish.

Read the full story at TalkingFish

Recreational cod fishing to stay shut down in Gulf of Maine

February 2, 2018 — Fishing managers are recommending that cod remain off limits to recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Maine.

Cod were once harvested in colossal numbers from New England waters, but the population has collapsed in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere. The New England Fishery Management Council is calling on the federal government to maintain a year-round ban on possession of Gulf of Maine cod by recreational fishermen.

Commercial fishermen are still allowed to catch cod in the Gulf of Maine, though quotas for the fish are so low that many try to avoid the fish altogether. Cod are widely used to make fish and chips.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Greenwich Time