Saving Seafood

MAINE: Potential coral protection rules could have big impact on Downeast lobstermen

February 28, 2017 — The New England Fishery Management Council has put rules to protect deep sea corals on the fast track, rules that will have a major impact on lobstermen — primarily from zones A and B with some from Zone C — who set their gear around Mount Desert Rock and Outer Schoodic Ridge.

The council is considering management measures to reduce impacts to corals from commercial fishing activities in three areas in the Gulf of Maine. One of the proposals would impose a total ban on fishing in the protected areas which, according to an analysis the Department of Marine Resources submitted to the council several months ago, are located in waters that produce about one-third of Maine’s lobster landings in terms of value.

Now DMR is asking lobstermen who fish in the potentially closed areas for information that will help the department in its efforts to prevent the fishing bans.

Late last month, Sarah Cotnoir, DMR’s lobster resource coordinator, sent an email to fishermen asking them for data that would “demonstrate the potential impact that these measures would have on the lobster fishery and Downeast economy.” The email asked fishermen for data including: name; boat name and fishing port; number of crew; and the number of family members of the boat’s captain and crew.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Northern Shrimp Data Workshop Scheduled for April 5-7, 2017 in Portland, ME

February 22, 2017 — The following has been released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

The Northern Shrimp Data Workshop will be conducted April 5-7, 2017 at the Westin Portland Harborview in Portland, Maine. The Data Workshop is the first in a series of workshops to develop the next shrimp benchmark stock assessment. The assessment will evaluate the health of the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp population and inform management of this species. The Workshop is open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room. 

For data sets to be considered at the workshop, data must be sent in with accompanying methods description to Max Appelman (mappelman@asmfc.org) by March 17, 2017. All available data will be reviewed and vetted by members of the Northern Shrimp Stock Assessment Subcommittee for possible use in the assessment.  

The benchmark stock assessment will be peer reviewed in April 2018. For more information on submission and presentation of materials at the Data Workshop, or attending the Data Workshop, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.               

Scallops scuffle pitting small boats against big

February 21, 2017 — A disagreement over the right to fish for scallops off New England is pitting small boats against big ones in one of the most lucrative fisheries in the U.S.

The federal government maintains different rules for the small- and big-boat scallop fisheries, though they work some of the same areas. Small boat fishermen say the conflict has arisen in the northern Gulf of Maine, a critically important fishing area stretching roughly from Boston to the border of Maine and Canada.

At issue is the fact that the northern Gulf of Maine is fertile ground for scallops right now, and rules allow the bigger boats to harvest more of them. The smaller boats have a possession limit of 200 pounds, while the largest boats have no such limit, because they are regulated instead by a limited number of days at sea.

Smaller boat fishermen said the bigger boats have been gobbling up the scallops in one of the most important areas where they fish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Press of Atlantic City

New video system may hold promise for cod surveys

February 1, 2017 — Researchers at UMass-Dartmouth continue to refine a new video survey system they believe holds promise for providing more accurate assessments of the beleaguered Gulf of Maine cod stock.

The developers of the system, which employs high-resolution video cameras in an open-ended commercial trawl net to count the number of fish and identify their species as they enter the net, put it through another rigorous test last week and came away pleased with the results.

“This was definitely the best trip yet,” said Travis Lowery, chief scientist and technician on the project along with UMass-Dartmouth professor Kevin Stokesbury and graduate student Nick Calabrese. “We’ve been moving more toward using Go-Pro cameras and the images were crystal clear. It all worked really, really well.”

For six days, the researchers performed 31 survey tows on Stellwagen Bank, about 15 miles southeast of Gloucester, and said they found Atlantic cod aggregating over much of the open fishing grounds.

The test also included a number of closed tows so researchers could collect biological samples to measure the length and weight of the captured fish. In the biggest closed-trawl haul, researchers collected 345 cod in a half-hour, with the largest measuring up to about 33 inches.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New camera can help assess cod stocks in Gulf of Maine

January 26, 2017 — Researchers from UMass Dartmouth say they have successfully tested an underwater video-survey system that they hope will provide an accurate method to assess Atlantic cod stocks.

In collaboration with fishermen, the research team recently placed high-resolution cameras in an open-ended commercial trawl net on Stellwagen Bank in the Gulf of Maine, known as one of the world’s most active marine sanctuaries.

The cameras captured images of cod and other groundfish as they passed through the net. Periodically, researchers from UMD’s School for Marine Science & Technology closed the net for short periods to collect length, weight, and take other biological samples from some of the fish. The fish are unharmed and are returned to the sea.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

UMass Dartmouth Scientists Deploy New Video System to Survey Atlantic Cod Population on the Stellwagen Bank Fishing Grounds

January 26, 2017 — The following was released by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth:

Last week scientists from UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) and fishermen successfully deployed a new video survey system they believe can provide more accurate measurements of the Atlantic cod population, helping regulators manage the fishery.

The system, collaboratively developed by scientists and fishermen over the last four years, was tested on Stellwagen Bank, a fishing ground located in the Gulf of Maine about 15 miles southeast of Gloucester and six miles north of Provincetown. The system involves placing high resolution video cameras in an open-ended commercial trawl net to capture images of groundfish (focusing on Atlantic cod and yellowtail flounder) as they pass through unharmed. Periodically the net is closed to collect biological samples such as length and weight measurements. These cod are kept alive in wells and are returned to the sea alive and in good condition.

SMAST Professor Kevin Stokesbury and his research team – chief scientist and graduate student Travis Lowery and graduate student Nick Calabrese – designed the system so they could identify the species in every image. This allows researchers to approximate the abundance, density, size distribution, and the impacts of commercial fishing. “Our goal is to provide all stakeholders in this issue with trustworthy science that reduces uncertainty for the Gulf of Maine cod fishery,” Dr. Stokesbury said.

“The seven-day cruise was very successful,” Dr. Stokesbury said. “Atlantic cod were observed over much of the bank, and the largest closed tow collection was of 345 cod in a half hour, with individuals measuring up to 83 cm. The idea is to increase the amount of sea floor sampled per sea day without killing more fish.”

A key milestone of the cruise was reached last Friday morning when all project systems came together. Data were collected on the position and speed of the vessel, including how the net was performing (i.e. spread of the doors, spread of the wings, bottom temperature). “We captured video of the footrope as the net passed over the sea floor and of the fish entering the net, as well as extremely clear video of the fish as they pass through the net, and a very large school of cod,” said Stokesbury. “All systems worked for the remainder of the trip; collecting data on cod abundance, distribution, the sea floor over which they school, and the other fish they associate with, including large schools of sand lance a key prey.”

The most recent assessment for Gulf of Maine cod estimated that the spawning stock biomass is a small proportion of its historic size. In response to the low abundance, the total allowable catch has been drastically reduced, constraining the fishermen’s ability to harvest healthy stocks, such as haddock and pollock. “Increasing the amount of sea floor scientifically sampled and increasing the amount of the information collected during a day at sea should reduce the uncertainty in the stock estimate, and reduced uncertainty is ultimately in everyone’s best interest,” Dr. Stokesbury said.  “In the end I think it is a good proof of concept and should give a good estimate of the cod aggregated on Stellwagen Bank.”

The Baker-Polito Administration provided $96,720 in capital money through the state Division of Marine Fisheries to fund the research tows conducted on Stellwagen Bank. Dr. Stokesbury’s research has also received support in state funding the past two years, receiving more than $800,000 through legislation supported by State Senator Mark Montigny, State Representative Antonio F.D. Cabral and the entire SouthCoast legislative delegation.

Read the full release at UMass Dartmouth

MASSACHUSETTS: Fish councilor hopes for reappointment

January 25, 2017 — Elizabeth “Libby” Etrie had a pretty well-formed idea of what awaited her when she was appointed in 2014 to her first term on the New England Fishery Management Council.

Etrie had built a solid professional foundation while working with groundfishermen as the program director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Sector Service Network, and through her work with 13 of 17 New England groundfish sectors as the southern sector coordinator for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute sector extension program.

Still, her elevation onto the council as one of Massachusetts’ at-large members provided her with a glimpse of the fishing world beyond groundfish.

“I had spent a lot of time working on groundfish issues, so I was already comfortable there,” Etrie said. “But the council deals with so much more than groundfish and the challenge was getting up to speed on the other fisheries. It’s required more work, but it’s been really rewarding.”

Etrie, who lives in Gloucester, is in the final year of her first three-year term on the council. Gov. Charlie Baker must decide by March 15 if he will submit Etrie’s name to the council and the U.S. Commerce Department — which has final approval on fishery management council member appointments — for re-appointment to another three-year term.

For now, Baker’s office remains non-committal on its plans for filling the two Massachusetts at-large seats on the council whose terms expire this year. The terms of Etrie and John Pappalardo of Chatham both expire on Aug. 10.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Scientists, fishermen can set the stage for a new way to protect the Gulf of Maine

January 23, 2017 — There’s long been an undercurrent of mistrust between fishermen who make their livelihoods from the Gulf of Maine and the scientists whose surveys and calculations determine the amount of fish they can catch.

That, in part, is because it can seem as if fishermen and scientists are talking about two different Gulfs of Maine when they discuss the size of the cod population.

Scientists document a groundfish stock in perpetual decline with an outlook that doesn’t seem to have changed much in response to increasingly restrictive limits on the amount fishermen can catch. They note a species that has struggled to recover after more than a century of overfishing and now faces the added challenge of rebuilding in an area of the ocean that’s warming faster than 99 percent of the rest of the world’s oceans. Indeed, researchers from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the University of Maine and elsewhere have found that warming waters reduce the number of new cod produced by spawning females and reduce the likelihood that young fish will survive to adulthood.

Fishermen, meanwhile, report something different.

“This is uncalled for,” Joseph Orlando, a cod fisherman who fishes off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts, told NPR in 2014 after regulators cut the Gulf of Maine cod fishing season short that year. “There’s more codfish out there. There’s always been.”

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

New England’s 1816 ‘Mackerel Year’ and climate change today

January 19, 2017 — Hundreds of articles have been written about the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, at Indonesia’s Mt. Tambora just over 200 years ago. But for a small group of New England-based researchers, one more Tambora story needed to be told, one related to its catastrophic effects in the Gulf of Maine that may carry lessons for intertwined human-natural systems facing climate change around the world today.

In the latest issue of Science Advances, first author and research fellow Karen Alexander at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and 11 others including aquatic ecologists, climate scientists and environmental historians recount their many-layered, multidisciplinary investigation into the effects of Tambora on coastal fish and commercial fisheries.

Alexander says, “We approached our study as a forensic examination. We knew that Tambora’s extreme cold had afflicted New England, Europe, China and other places for as long as 17 months. But no one we knew of had investigated coastal ecosystems and fisheries. So, we looked for evidence close to home.”

In work that integrates the social and natural sciences, they used historical fish export data, weather readings,  and town growth chronologies and other sources to discover Tambora’s effects on the Gulf of Maine’s complex human and natural system.

The 1815 eruption caused a long-lasting, extreme climate event in 1816 known as the “year without a summer.” As volcanic winter settled on much of the Northern Hemisphere, crops failed, livestock died and famine swept over many lands. In New England, crop yields may have fallen by 90 percent. The researchers found that 1816 was also called “the mackerel year,” a clue to what they would find regarding fisheries.

Besides Tambora’s climate effects, the authors examined other system-wide influences to explain observed trends. These included historical events such as the War of 1812, human population growth, fish habitat obstruction due to dam building and changes in fishing gear that might have affected fisheries at the time. Employing historical methods in a Complex Adaptive Systems approach allowed them to group and order data at different scales of organization and to identify statistically significant processes that corresponded to known outcomes, Alexander says.

Read the full story at Phys.org

 

Maine fishermen say there’s plenty of cod. Scientists might give them the chance to prove it.

January 16, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Seeking to end a long-running disagreement about exactly how many cod are left in the Gulf of Maine, federal scientists plan to outfit commercial fishermen with equipment used to establish groundfish quotas.

The fishermen tend to argue that there are more cod than the government realizes; therefore, the number they may legally catch should be higher. Government scientists counter that fishermen’s natural tendency to fish where they are most likely to catch large numbers leads them to overestimate the cod population in the entire Gulf of Maine.

By next year, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center hopes to begin outfitting commercial boats with surveying equipment and paying fishermen to pull in catches that will supplement the regular trawl surveys conducted by government scientists, according to Russell Brown, who heads the center’s population dynamics branch. The gathered data will be fed into the complex process used to set catch quotas.

It’s a collaboration that Brown hopes will give regulators a more detailed picture of the fish population and build trust among fishermen, who in turn see it as an opportunity to show the scientists what’s really going on.

For years, fishermen and scientists have clashed over how to properly estimate fish populations and set the catch quotas that rule the livelihoods of Maine fishermen. Fishermen suggest that scientists are missing fish and setting the quotas too low, while scientists say fishermen are missing the big picture. But both groups believe collaboration would be a positive step toward better protecting Maine’s fishing industry and environment, even as ocean waters warm.

“It’s really perplexing that you’ve got a set of federal scientists who are sampling the ocean methodically and coming up with a very different picture than the fishermen about what’s going on out in the Gulf of Maine,” Jonathan Labaree of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News