Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Announces Changes to the Cellular Electronic Logbook Program for Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Moratorium Permit Holders

June 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Key Message:

NOAA Fisheries is working to improve the quality of information available for the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery.  This bulletin provides federal shrimp permit holders with an overview of the new changes occurring with the Cellular Electronic Logbook Program.

Having appropriate and current data enables the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries to carry out responsive and timely fisheries management.  Since the implementation of the shrimp permit moratorium in 2007, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center continues the required data collections through fishing regulations.

What is New to the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Permit (SPGM) Cellular Electronic Logbook (cELB) Program:

  • In November 2020, NOAA Fisheries sent a letter to Cellular Electronic Logbook Program participants that 3G cellular technology would no longer be available as of December 31, 2020.  This notification also asked participants to continue to power up the devices onboard the vessel when fishing.  The transmission of those data would no longer be sent via cellular technology; however, the devices would continue to collect data until NOAA Fisheries was able to retrieve the data manually.  Note that participants are still required to power up the devices while fishing.
  • Within the next few weeks, NOAA Fisheries will be providing SD card replacements to each Program participant currently assigned a device onboard the vessel associated with the selected Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Permit.
  • Selected participants will receive a letter with the enclosed step-by-step instructional guide, a new SD card to be swapped on the Cellular Electronic Logbook device, and a pre-paid envelope to return the previously used SD card back to the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center for data analysis.

While NOAA Fisheries explores options for the replacement of the current 3G units, we will continue to send, and ask you to install replacement SD cards.  The swap of SD cards allows the permit holder the ability to comply with the SPGM reporting requirement associated with this program.  The information collected from the SD card returned to NOAA Fisheries will allow us to determine whether your unit is working properly or if you may need a new antenna or unit.

Thank you for your past and future cooperation with these data collection efforts.  The information is critical for more responsive and timely management of the fishery.  All individual information provided is confidential.  These data collections are mandated by the final rule to implement actions in Amendment 13 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Shrimp Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico

Federal Commercial Fishing Regulations are Now Available in the New Fish Rules Commercial App

May 25, 2021 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Federal commercial fishing regulations in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic are now available on the free Fish Rules Commercial mobile app. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council have partnered with Fish Rules, LLC to create an app to host up-to-date, accurate commercial regulations. Now available for free in both the Apple Store and Google Play Store, this mobile application is ready for download immediately.

The app populates with regulations and updates associated with each federal permit that is relevant to you. The app hosts species specific information including the amount of quota harvested, trip limits, and size limits. The app also hosts information on permit conditions and managed areas.

It’s also important to know that the app will function dockside and offshore when you’re out of cellular range.

Up until now, federal commercial fishing regulations have been hosted in the additional information section of the recreational Fish Rules App. Now that the Fish Rules Commercial App is available, those commercial regulations will be removed from the recreational app. We encourage you to transition to the Fish Rules Commercial App where you’ll find much more information relevant to commercial fishing.

We want to ensure that the Fish Rules Commercial App is as accurate, helpful, and user-friendly as possible. Don’t hesitate to contact us directly with questions, comments, and/or suggestions:

South Atlantic Council Contact:

Gulf Council Contact:

Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council raises Red Snapper catch limit

April 21, 2021 — The Great Red Snapper Count has concluded and the population of snapper in the Gulf is now estimated to be three times larger than previous studies suggested.

As a result, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has issued new guidance for the 2021 Red Snapper season. The overfishing limit has been set at 25.6 million pounds, while the acceptable biological catch, or ABC, has been set at 15.4 million pounds. As far as the ABC is concerned, this is a 300,000 pound increase, although frankly that just won’t trickle down to the charter industry.

“The 300,000 isn’t very much,” said Captain Bob Zales, president of the National Association of Charterboat Operators. “I mean it sounds like a lot, but in the overall scheme it just isn’t very much. On the commercial side, they get 51% of the increase so they’ll get around a 160,000 pound increase, which will be another trip or two for most of the commercial guys. For the charter sector, our percentage of the other 49% is the least amount.”

According to Zales, the charter increase won’t even equate to a single extra day of the Red Snapper season, at least for this year. More information will be submitted to the Scientific and Statistical Committee later this summer.

Read the full story at WJBH

Gulf Council promises red snapper season similar to last year’s

April 19, 2021 — The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, known as the “Gulf Council,” is promising a similar red snapper season to last year’s. As always, the catch will be limited.

The season for commercial anglers or charter boats has been set for June 1 through August 3. Private anglers will find out exact dates for a season early next week.

Ever since Alabama was given the authority to manage and set limits in its own waters three years ago, the promise has been to ensure private anglers have access to what is known to be an abundant resource of red snapper.

“For the 2021 season, we are going to fish to about the level that we have fished for about the last two years. Around a million pounds,” said Scott Bannon, Director of Alabama’s Marine Resource Division. Bannon says unfortunately how much you can bring home isn’t going to change from last year. Even as studies show there could be three times as many red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico now compared to previous estimates.

Read the full story at NBC 15

Rep. Graves Statement on Today’s Gulf Fishery Management Council Red Snapper Decision

April 16, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Garret Graves (R-LA):

Congressman Garret Graves (R-South Louisiana) released the following statement today following the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s decision to ​delay implementing calibration of Gulf State’s allocation of red snapper until January 2023:

“The Gulf Council decision today is absolutely the right one and shows that they realize that it would be virtually impossible to explain to the public how in the world you could have the assessment that just came out – the latest assessment using the best science – showing that there is triple the Red Snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, then in the same breath go and cut the amount of fishing days available to our recreational fishers. I’m glad that they listened to the message of our letter urging them toward this correct and defendable resource management decision.”

Background:

In March, Congressman Graves sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the NOAA Fisheries Acting Regional Administrator, and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to avoid an unnecessary recalibration. Read the letter.

Feds aim for reduced red snapper season in 2021

March 1, 2021 — Alabama anglers and seafood lovers who have mistrusted the federal red snapper management program in the past won’t like it any better in the coming year after NOAA Fisheries announced plans to “calibrate” the state’s snapper reporting system to better manage the fishery. What calibration means in this case is to cut in half, apparently, and that means far shorter seasons and reduced bag limits for the popular table fish this summer.

“Under the Gulf Council state management plan, there is a section that says there will be a calibration factor between the federal surveys and what they say about how many fish are landed in each state and what our surveys show are landed,” says Scott Bannon, Director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division (MRD). “Ultimately, NMFS wants to use that calibration number to develop what they call a ‘common currency’ across the Gulf for each state survey.”

Under certain calibration alternatives, Alabama’s quota for red snapper could go from 1.12 million pounds in 2020 to 547,298 pounds in 2021.

“We’re in disagreement with that, and we are working through the Gulf Council process to find an alternative and not have a dramatic cut in our season,” Bannon said. “Mississippi’s calibration is larger than Alabama’s, and they would see a season cut even larger than that. The other Gulf states, Texas, Louisiana and Florida, would stay similar to last year’s quotas.”

Read the full story at AL.com

Reminder of Upcoming Webinars for the New South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico For-Hire Electronic Reporting Requirements

December 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Background

  • NOAA Fisheries and the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils are implementing the new Southeast For-Hire Electronic Reporting Program in January 2021.
  • The intent of the program is to provide more timely catch information by federally-permitted charter vessels, to enhance data collection, and provide accurate and reliable fisheries information about catch, effort, and discards to be used in future population assessments and management evaluations.

Southeast For-Hire Reporting Webinar Information and Registration

  • Please join us as we walk you through the reporting process and answer your questions. The webinars will be recorded and available to the public.
  • For Gulf of Mexico permit holders:
  • For South Atlantic permit holders:

Please Note: All permit holders should have received an informational toolkit with additional program information via US Postal Service.  These tool-kits and instructional videos are also available online at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/recreational-fishing-data/southeast-hire-electronic-reporting-program.  The website also provides information on the webinars including how to register and attend.

If you have any questions or did not receive a toolkit, please call our customer service hotline (available from 8:00-4:30, EST, Monday through Friday) at 1-833-707-1632 or email us at ser.electronicreporting@noaa.gov.

New South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico For-Hire Electronic Reporting Requirements Begin January 2021

November 24, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Educational materials are on their way to all permit holders and are available online

NOAA Fisheries and the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils are implementing the new Southeast For-Hire Electronic Reporting Program in January 2021.  The intent of the program is to provide more timely catch information by federally-permitted charter vessels, to enhance data collection for better fisheries management and science, and to provide accurate and reliable fisheries information about catch, effort, and discards to be used in future stock assessments and management evaluations.

South Atlantic – Start Date for reporting is January 4, 2021

Federal Charter/Headboat Permit Holders for South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper, Atlantic Coastal Migratory Pelagics, or Atlantic Dolphin Wahoo are required to begin submitting weekly reports on January 4, 2021.

Gulf of Mexico – Start Date for reporting is January 5, 2021

Federal Charter/Headboat Permit Holders for Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) Reef Fish or Gulf Coastal Migratory Pelagics are required to begin reporting on January 5, 2021.  The owner or operator of a vessel with a federal Gulf Charter/Headboat Permit will be required to submit an electronic fishing report for each trip prior to offloading fish, or within 30 minutes after the end of the trip, if no fish are landed.  Also, the owner or operator of a vessel with the permit must electronically declare (hail-out) a trip before departing for a trip.  Additionally, at a later date that NOAA Fisheries has not yet determined, vessel owners or operators must install NOAA Fisheries approved hardware/software with location tracking capabilities that, at a minimum, archives vessel position data and transmits data to NOAA Fisheries.

Helpful Tools and Materials

To help you prepare for the upcoming reporting requirements, NOAA Fisheries and the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils have developed the following outreach tools:

  • Information tool-kit: Informational packet describing the requirements with a step-by-step guide on how to sign-up for an account, download reporting applications, and begin reporting. The tool-kit will be mailed to all charter/headboat permit holders in the beginning of December 2020.
  • Instructional videos: Short videos describing the requirements and how to report.
  • Webinars: Hands-on training to answer your questions and walk you through the reporting process. The webinars will be recorded and made available to the public.
    • Gulf of Mexico federal for-hire permit holder webinars:
      • December 15, 2020 at 10:00 AM–12:00 PM, EST
      • December 15, 2020 at 6:00–8:00 PM, EST
    • South Atlantic and Atlantic federal for-hire permit holder webinars:
      • December 16, 2020 at 10:00 AM–12:00 PM, EST
      • December 16, 2020 at 6:00–8:00 PM, EST
    • Southeast For-Hire Electronic Reporting Website: This website will contain all the informational materials and host the most up-to-date information on vendors, landings locations, reimbursements, and more.

To access the tool-kits and instructional videos go to: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/recreational-fishing-data/southeast-hire-electronic-reporting-program.  The website also provides information on the webinars including how to register and attend.

If you have any questions, please call our customer service hotline (available from 8:00-4:30, EST) at 1-833-707-1632 or email us at ser.electronicreporting@noaa.gov.

Please know that NOAA Fisheries is here to help, and we respect your time and business operations.  We look forward to working with you during the implementation phase of this new program.  Our goals are to provide each fisherman with excellent customer service, improve for-hire data collection, and reduce the amount of time you spend reporting so you can focus more time on your customers.

SAFMC: Council Meeting to Focus on Recreational Issues in November

October 28, 2020 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold a recreational information meeting on Monday, November 9, 2020 via webinar to review recreational fisheries issues and ongoing Council actions. The Council will review the status of several amendments that address recreational topics such as recreational permits and angler reporting requirements in the snapper grouper fishery and recreational accountability measures.The Council will also receive a final report on the MyFishCount voluntary recreational reporting pilot program.

Council members will receive an update on a joint workgroup convened by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to develop recommendations in response to Section 102 of the Modern Fish Act, designed to expand management flexibility. Given the importance of recreational fisheries in the Southeastern U.S. and the jurisdictional overlap between the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic stocks and fisheries, both Councils agreed to use this workgroup to develop initial strategies for implementing flexible management approaches for recreational fisheries.

The Council is using this meeting format primarily for informational and discussion purposes as Council members continue to consider options for improving data collection and management of recreational fisheries. Discussion questions are included as part of the meeting materials.

The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and is open to the public via webinar. Registration is required. Meeting materials, public comment form and registration link are now available from the Council’s website at: https://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/council-meetings/.