Gulf of Maine Archives - Page 91 of 100

Maine to pay for research in effort to keep lobster fishery healthy

February 4, 2016 — Maine’s lobsters are about to get new scrutiny.

The Department of Marine Resources has put out a call for proposals to gauge the impact of warming Gulf of Maine waters on lobster biology, populations and susceptibility to disease. A separate study will attempt to measure the economic impact of Maine’s most valuable fishery beyond what lobstermen are paid for their catch.

The department has earmarked up to $700,000 to pay for the studies, with the money coming out of the Lobster Research, Education and Development Fund. The money in that fund comes from sales of the lobster license plate.

Research proposals are due Thursday. The department’s request for proposals suggests the contracts will be awarded by early March, but department spokesman Jeff Nichols said the timing depends on how many proposals are received and how quickly a panel is formed to review them.

The department said it needs the research to determine how to help maintain the industry’s remarkable health over the past 20 or 30 years. Lobster landed in Maine was valued at a record $465.9 million in 2014, up more than fourfold in the past two decades. The catch by 5,818 commercial license holders made up 78 percent of the value of commercial fishery landings in the state.

Carl Wilson, director of the department’s Bureau of Marine Science, said “there are sufficient questions” about what’s happening with climate change and its impact on the Gulf of Maine to warrant more study.

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald

New quotas cut deep for fishing industry

February 3, 2016 — Fishermen and fishing stakeholders say the darkness that has descended on the Northeast groundfish fishery over the past three years is only going to grow deeper in 2016, with some fishing stakeholders envisioning the final collapse of the small-boat industry due to slashed quotas for species they believe are abundant.

“With these cuts, we will not have a fishery as we know it anymore,” said Vito Giacalone, the manager of Gloucester-based Northeast Fishing Sector 4 and the policy director at the Northeast Seafood Coalition. “The great shame to this is we’re going to have this entirely detrimental economic impact while the stocks are in great shape and no one in the government is listening. There is just no leadership.”

At the heart of the issue is the expanding difference between what fishermen say they are seeing on the water and the results from NOAA stock assessments used to produce the annual fishing quotas. Call it a watery Great Divide.

“The fish are in great shape and the only real constraint on catch is quota,” Giacalone said. “Fishermen are seeing that across the board on a lot of the species.”

The quotas, set for 2016 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the final groundfish framework, reflect a far different analysis by NOAA and its scientists. They include savage cuts to gray sole (55 percent), Georges Bank cod (66 percent), northern windowpane flounder (33 percent) and Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder (26 percent).

“We’ve never had a greater gap between what the fishermen are seeing on the water and what the scientists are saying,” Giacalone said. “Never.”

Gloucester fisherman Al Cottone said his personal sector contribution (PSC) for 2016 includes a slight increase in Gulf of Maine cod from the 1,800 pounds he was allotted in 2015, but cuts in several other species such as yellowtail flounder (down 25 percent to 2,400 pounds); American plaice (down 17.6 percent to 2,800 pounds) and gray sole (down 6 percent to 2,800 pounds).

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Whale habitat change concerns fishermen

February 2, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — NOAA Fisheries announced last week that it was expanding the critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. The designated area is much larger than the one it replaces, and now includes all of the Gulf of Maine on the U.S. side of the national boundary with Canada.

The designation also was applied to an expanded area of the whales’ southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat within the range of the species consists of areas that contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of the species.

The final rule, which was first proposed in February 2015 and received 261 general comments over a 60-day comment period, does not include any new restrictions or management measures for commercial fishing operations. It does not create preserves or refuges.

However, federal agencies conducting, funding or permitting activities in these areas are required to work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or reduce impacts on critical habitat.

The announcement has sparked long-standing disagreements between environmental and animal organizations and commercial fisheries.

Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelle called the decision “a lifeline” for right whales in a blog post published Friday. “The HSUS and its allies have been fighting for an expansion of protected habitat since 2009, and it’s a victory for us over commercial fishermen and shipping interests that have irresponsibly downplayed their role in driving down the numbers of these mammoth creatures,” he wrote.

Read the full story at Mount Desert Islander

Herring vs. Haddock in Data Debate

February 3, 2016 — PORTLAND — Last October, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) drastically constrained the ability of midwater trawlers to fish for herring in offshore waters for a period of more than six months, because the herring fleet had bumped up against its quota for the incidental catch of Georges Bank haddock.

As a result, at its December meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) heard a request from herring fishery interests to reconsider the level of constraint for the upcoming fishing year of May 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017, and for future years, since Georges Bank haddock appears to be plentiful and, they said, estimates of haddock catches by the herring fleet were inaccurate.

“A seven-month closure of a major fishery is very significant,” said NEFMC member Mary Beth Tooley, who is the government affairs representative for Rockland-based O’Hara Corp., which owns and operates two herring vessels. “We in the herring fishery don’t want to catch haddock. But that biomass is like locusts: They’re unbelievably abundant. It’s two-pronged: Let’s get groundfishermen catching haddock, and not close the herring fishery.”

Tooley said the herring industry agrees that there should be a limit on what the herring fishery takes from the haddock resource, and that accountability measures to enforce the limit are needed. But the methodology currently used to extrapolate estimates of how much haddock the herring fleet incidentally catches isn’t accurate, she said, and monitoring of harvesting operations, through observer or electronic programs, is inadequate for providing an accurate count of haddock catch.

“We need to have accountability,” Tooley said. “But with our current level of [observer] coverage…it’s become a real issue.”

In an action that became effective Oct. 22, 2015, herring midwater trawl vessels were prohibited from fishing for more than 2,000 pounds of herring per trip or day in the “Herring Georges Bank Haddock Accountability Measure Area,” a limit that will remain in place until the quota becomes available for the 2016 fishing year, on May 1.

The action effectively limited the midwater trawl fishery in Herring Management Area 3, because Area 3 falls within the Georges Bank Haddock Accountability Management Area.

Federally permitted herring vessels, all together, are allowed to catch 1 percent of the Georges Bank haddock resource. The overall allowable haddock catch on Georges Bank for 2015 was 53.7 million pounds (24.3 metric tons); 1 percent, which is further reduced a bit to account for management uncertainty, is 500,449 pounds (227 mt), according to NMFS.

According to data reported on Dec. 21, 2015, based on estimated haddock catches, the herring midwater fleet had reached 93.09 percent of its quota by September, and 104.49 percent by October.

The amount of haddock caught by the herring fleet is extrapolated from the amount of haddock caught on observer trips.

Read the full story at Fisherman’s Voice

Why the U.S. East Coast could be a major ‘hotspot’ for rising seas

February 1, 2016 — New research published Monday adds to a body of evidence suggesting that a warming climate may have particularly marked effects for some citizens of the country most responsible for global warming in the first place — namely, U.S. East Coasters.

Writing in Nature Geoscience, John Krasting and three colleagues from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration find that “Atlantic coastal areas may be particularly vulnerable to near-future sea-level rise from present-day high greenhouse gas emission rates.” The research adds to recent studies that have found strong warming of ocean waters in the U.S. Gulf of Maine, a phenomenon that is not only upending fisheries but could be worsening the risk of extreme weather in storms like Winter Storm Jonas.

“When carbon emission rates are at present day levels and higher, we see greater basin average sea level rise in the Atlantic relative to the Pacific,” says Krasting. “This also means that single global average measures of sea level rise become less representative of the regional scale changes that we show in the study.”

In the new research, the scientists used a high powered climate change model based at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J., that simulates the ocean, the atmosphere and the cycling of carbon throughout the Earth system. The goal was to determine how much sea level rise would occur in the Atlantic, versus the Pacific, under a variety of global carbon emissions scenarios.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Maine Shrimp Hitting Market Thanks to Spawning Study

PORTLAND, Maine — January 29, 2016 — Despite a moratorium on the northern Maine shrimp fishing season for the third consecutive year, a few wholesale buyers, restaurants, and markets could have some Maine shrimp on their hands — and plates — this winter, due to a scientific study currently underway throughout the state.

Fisheries regulators have closed the northern Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery every year since 2014, saying the shrimp population has dipped to an unsustainable low level.

Northern Maine shrimp is now considered by the regulatory committee to be “collapsed,” and a 2015 report indicated that from 2012 through 2015, the Maine shrimp population was the lowest on record during the 32 years that scientists have collected data.

However, this week, some Maine fishermen have been harvesting Maine shrimp from traps and trawlers as part of a sampling project being conducted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Technical Committee— a regulatory panel that manages the fishery — as well as other agencies including the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the School of Marine Science at the University of Maine in Orono.

Read the full story from Maine Pubilc Broadcasting

Supplemental Materials Now Available for ASMFC’s 2016 Winter Meeting

January 27, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental meeting materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2016 Winter Meeting have been posted at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2016-winter-meeting for the following Boards/Sections (click on “Supplemental” following each relevant committee header to access the information).

American Lobster Management Board – Preliminary Results of Claw Removal and its Impacts on Survivorship and Physiological Stress in Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) in New England Waters; NEFMC Correspondence on Jonah Crab Permit Holders; Jonah Crab Plan Review Team FMP Implementation Memo; MaineJonah Crab FMP Implementation Program

Atlantic Herring Section – Revised Draft Amendment 3 (please note this version has been revised from January 21^st draft); Public Hearing Summary; Written Comment (Summary and Submitted Comments); Advisory Panel Meeting Summary

Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board – Draft Addendum XXVII Public Hearing Summaries; Written Comment (Summary and Submitted Comments); Law Enforcement Committee Comments; General Public Comment

ACCSP Executive Committee (please note meeting materials are available through the main header not supplemental) – Draft Minutes from December 17, 2015; Draft Standard Operating Procedures; 2016 Meetings Calendar

ACCSP Coordinating Council (please note meeting materials are available through the main header not supplemental) – Draft Minutes from November 2, 2015

Executive Committee (please note these materials are the same as those provided for the ISFMP Policy Board) – Memo on Changes to Commission Guidance Documents; Draft ISFMP Charter; Draft Compact, Rules and Regulations; Draft Technical Support Group Guidance and Benchmark Assessment Process

Atlantic Menhaden Management Board – Law Enforcement Committee Report on Maryland and Potomac River Fisheries Commission Equivalency Proposals; Public Comment

Atlantic Sturgeon Management Board – 2016 FMP Review

Horseshoe Crab Management Board – Adaptive Resource Management Subcommittee Meeting Summary

Tautog Management Board – Decision Document for Draft Amendment 1; Law Enforcement Committee Report on Commercial Harvest Tagging Program Objectives

Winter Flounder Management Board – NEFMC Presentation on Overview of Federal Management Measures for Gulf of Maine and Southern New England/ Mid-Atlantic Stocks; Scientific and Statistical Committee Report

American Eel Management Board – Advisory Panel Report and Technical Committee Review on North Carolina’s Aquaculture Plan; Final version of North Carolina’s Aquaculture Plan; Public Comment

ISFMP Policy Board (please note these materials are the same as those provided for Executive Committee) – Memo on Changes to Commission Guidance Documents; Draft ISFMP Charter; Draft Compact, Rules and Regulations; Draft Technical Support Group Guidance and Benchmark Assessment Process

As a reminder, Board/Section meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning at 9:00 a.m. on February 2^ndand continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 3:45 p.m.) on February 4^th. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board/section deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast, the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible. To register for the webinar, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/86228471613051649.

NOAA Expands Critical Habitat for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales

January 26, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Using new information not previously available, NOAA Fisheries is expanding critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region and southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

This final rule, which was initially proposed in February 2015 and received 261 general comments over a 60-day comment period, does not include any new restrictions or management measures for commercial fishing operations.

North Atlantic right whale mother and calf. Credit: Christin Khan/NOAA

“With two decades of new information and improved understanding since we first designated critical habitat for the species, we believe the expansion will further protect essential foraging and calving areas to further improve recovery of this animal,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “We’re making significant progress in reversing the population decline of the species, and are seeing signs of recovery – up to about 500 animals from the estimated 300 in 1994. But we still have a long way to get to complete recovery. “This rule is based on 35 years of aircraft and ship borne surveys of right whale distribution, research into foraging and prey availability to better understand right whale movements and life history. Together, these data provide a far more robust understanding of the factors critical to species recovery. Based on this information and public comments, NOAA scientists and managers determined a critical habitat expansion associated with feeding in the North and calving in the South is necessary for species recovery.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat within the range of the species consists of areas that contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of the species. The new designation does not create preserves or refuges or any other restrictions that directly affect the public. However, federal agencies conducting, funding or permitting activities in these areas, and project proponents that need federal permits or funding for such activities, are required to work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or reduce impacts on critical habitat.

Figure 1: Comparison of 1994 and 2016 Right Whale Critical Habitat Designations

Read the final rule, along with comments and responses, as filed in the Federal Register this morning.

Read the whole press release on our website.

NEFMC: Fish Tank Request for Proposals

January 21, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the New England Fishery Management Council are requesting proposals for projects that aim to improve the data and models used to manage New England groundfish, and that address one or more of the six research priorities developed during GMRI’s 2015 Fish Tank series of scoping meetings. A total of $30K is available to support an anticipated one or more projects. Proposals are due Friday, February 19th.

Attached is the full request for proposals. As stated in the attachment, please be aware that the submitting applicant must have attended one of the Fish Tank port meetings or the Taking Stock workshop (http://www.gmri.org/fishtank). However, other project team members need not have participated in the Fish Tank series.

Please contact GMRI Project Coordinator, Mary Hudson, at mhudson@gmri.org or 207-228-1666 with any questions.

Study: Gulf of Maine warming faster than thought

January 19, 2016 — The news just keeps getting worse for cold-temperature fish such as cod in the ever-warming waters of the Gulf of Maine.

A new study, conducted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers and appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Oceans, reached an ominous conclusion: the waters of the Gulf of Maine, which a previous study showed to be warming faster than 99.9 percent of the rest of the planet’s oceans, are continuing to warm at an accelerated rate and are expected to continue doing so for at least the next 80 years.

“The Gulf of Maine is really being subjected to a one-two punch,” said Vincent Saba, a NOAA Fisheries scientist and lead author of the study. “On one hand, the region is dealing with the elements of global warming being experienced in all of the oceans, but there also has been a change in the circulation of the two gulf streams that feed into the Gulf of Maine.”

The result, according to Saba, is that more of the warmer water contained in the shifting Gulf Stream is making its way into the Gulf of Maine from the south, while less of the colder water from the Arctic and Labrador streams are entering the gulf from the north and east.

“The Gulf of Maine really sits at the intersection of those two currents,” Saba said.

Saba said the climatic models used in the study project the warming trend could continue for the next 80 years, potentially rising another 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit and setting the stage for extreme and potentially ruinous changes in the region’s ecosystem.

Read the full story at The Salem News