Saving Seafood

Fisheries officials seek count of booming seal population

December 19, 2016 — NANTUCKET, Mass. — Fisheries officials in Massachusetts are seeking a head count of the booming seal population that’s drawn great white sharks to Cape Cod waters in greater numbers.

The Cape Cod Times reported earlier this month that state Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce said determining the size of the gray seal population size is “extremely important” for ecosystem management in New England at the recent Nantucket Seal Symposium.

But National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials warned the count could cost as much as $500,000.

New England fishermen have been calling for a seal population count for years to gauge its impact on cod, haddock, flounder, striped bass and other important species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

New England Fishery Managment Council Approves 2017 Management Priorities

December 16, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Managment Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council recently approved its 2017 management priorities, which will guide the Council’s committees and working groups in the year ahead. The Council annually takes this step for two reasons: to focus its time on mutually agreed-upon issues of importance; and to give the public a snapshot of what to expect in the foreseeable future.

“Our priority-setting exercise helps us determine how to best allocate available resources,” said Council Executive Director Tom Nies. “We always have more proposals on the table than we’re able to handle each year, so by collectively deciding upfront which actions rank the highest, we’re able to work much more efficiently on the Council’s most pressing issues without getting sidetracked.”

Setting annual catch limits and other fishery specifications – a requirement under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act – remains the Council’s highest cross-cutting priority.

But for 2017, the Council also supported many high-priority items that fishermen and other stakeholders said were especially important. Here are a few of the highlights that were approved during the Council’s mid-November meeting in Newport, Rhode Island:

  • Sea scallops: Consider regulatory changes to the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area;
  • Groundfish: Revise Atlantic halibut management measures;
  • Groundfish: Review groundfish catches in “other” non-groundfish fisheries and assess implications;
  • Recreational fishing: Improve Gulf of Maine cod and haddock recreational management process;
  • Barndoor skates: Initiate action to allow landings of this rebuilt species;
  • Habitat: Coordinate wind power issues with other agencies over the long term, not just 2017; and
  • Council: Conduct a programmatic review of Council operations.
  • Atlantic herring – Continue work on Amendment 8 to address localized depletion and user conflicts in the fishery and develop a new acceptable biological catch control rule using a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) process;
  • Habitat – Complete the Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and a separate framework adjustment to address surf clam fishery access to pending Habitat Management Areas;
  • Whiting – Move forward with Amendment 22 to consider limited access for the Small-Mesh Multispecies Complex and consider changes to possession limits;
  • Skates – Prepare an amendment to consider limited access for both the skate bait and skate wing fisheries with provisions that may consider catch share alternatives; and
  • Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management – Continue work on the development of operating models and a draft example Georges Bank Fishery Ecosystem Plan and develop a MSE process to engage fishermen and other stakeholders while conducting testing and validation.

A table identifying all of the Council’s 2017 management priorities is available at: http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/161201_Approved_Priorities.pdf

See the full release at the NEFMC

Atlantic Herring Framework 5 and Amendment 8 Take Shape

November 17, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council today discussed two actions related to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan.

  • Amendment 8: The Council looked over the draft goals and agenda for its second Atlantic Herring Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) Workshop (see blue box). MSE incorporates more public input and technical analyses upfront before alternatives are selected. The approach is being used to establish an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule for the Atlantic herring fishery under Amendment 8 that: (1) may explicitly account for herring’s role in the ecosystem; and (2) deals with biological and ecological requirements of the herring resource itself. The amendment also contains a set of still- evolving alternatives to address potential localized depletion and user conflicts in the herring fishery.
  • Framework Adjustment 5: The Council received an overview of the range of alternatives under consideration to modify the Georges Bank haddock accountability measures (AMs) that apply to the herring midwater trawl fishery. The Herring Plan Development Team will conduct additional analyses on the alternatives, and the Council is scheduled to take final action during its January meeting

The herring/haddock issue is being addressed through two channels – one groundfish action and one herring action.

The Council voted yesterday to increase the herring midwater trawl fishery’s Georges Bank haddock sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) from 1% to 1.5% through Framework 56 to the groundfish plan.

Herring Framework 5, on the other hand, is the vehicle being used to potentially modify the AMs to help keep the midwater trawl herring fishery from exceeding the haddock sub-ACL. The range of alternatives includes two options for implementing a “proactive” AM closure in addition to maintaining the existing “reactive” AM closure.

The reactive AM requires a shutdown of all green and red areas in the charts below to directed herring midwater trawl fishing – for the remainder of the groundfish fishing year – once the haddock sub-ACL is caught. Framework 5 proposes a proactive approach that would prevent midwater trawl fishing in Closed Areas I and II – either with or without a 15-nautical-mile buffer around the red areas – under three possible seasons: (a) a year-round proactive closure; (b) a May-October proactive closure; or (c) a June-August proactive closure.

The premise is that a seasonal proactive closure of Closed Areas I and II would help keep the midwater trawl fishery within its Georges Bank haddock sub-ACL and prevent a closure of the entire green/red area, which defines the reactive Georges Bank Haddock AM Area. In 2015, the reactive AM was triggered, and the whole AM area was closed to herring midwater trawling from Oct. 22, 2015 through April 30, 2016.

Framework 5 contains other alternatives, including one to seasonally split the Georges Bank haddock sub- ACL so that 80% of the quota is released on May 1 and then 20% is released on Nov. 1 to support a winter herring/mackerel fishery. Copies of the draft alternatives and other herring materials can be found at: http://www.nefmc.org/library/atlantic-herring-committee-november-2016.

The Bycatch That Gives You a Haddock

November 4, 2016 — Starting in October, the federal government began a pilot project to test electronic monitoring on midwater herring trawlers fishing in “groundfish closed” areas off the coast of New England, two of which are in the rich spawning grounds on the continental shelf known as Georges Bank. The yearlong project will help regulators decide whether cameras can replace people as observers to regulate herring trawlers’ catch of haddock.

But before the study is finished, the New England Fishery Management Council will be working to loosen the rules on how much haddock herring trawlers can catch.

Since 2011, government observers have been required on any trips trawlers make to those areas, as part of a program to limit incidental catch, often called “bycatch,” of untargeted fish species. In the case of herring fishing, the biggest bycatch concern on Georges Bank has been haddock, a species on the rebound after the groundfish collapses of the mid-1990s.

But the monitoring program has been expensive. A recent amendment to all Northeast fisheries plans required the industry to assist in funding its overseers, increasing pressure to bring down costs.

Federal regulators believe electronic monitoring could be the answer.

“This year we’ll get really good (human) observer coverage — 440 sea days — so we’re going to compare what the observer sees and what the camera sees,” said Daniel Luers, a monitoring expert at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries office of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “The contractors will watch all the videos, and then NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) will watch to confirm that what the contractors have seen correlates with the observers.”

What they’re looking for are “discard” events, where fishermen dump unwanted fish back into the sea — rather than reporting the bycatch and facing fishing closures.

Read the full story at Eco RI News

Could man-made noise interfere with cod reproduction?

October 6th, 2016 — A new study of Britain’s seas is attempting to determine whether man-made aquatic noise is affecting the communication and breeding of cod.

Led by Steve Simpson, associate professor in marine biology and global change at the University of Exeter, the study will look at how unnatural noise — from shipping, wind farm construction, and oil and gas drilling — has affected the reproductive behavior of fish.

Cod and haddock, for instance, are known to use certain sounds to attract mates.

“We’re interested in whether the human noise we’re making is drowning this out,” Simpson said.

Additionally, the two-year study will seek to determine whether fish — not unlike killer whales and songbirds — have “regional accents,” or mating calls particular to certain areas. Climate change has sent some fish migrating north in search of cooler waters, and the result could be a sort of underwater language barrier, according to the British scientists. (On this side of the Atlantic, warming waters have coincided with a dramatic drop in cod stocks.)

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester fishermen achieve sustainability certification for Acadian Redfish, Haddock and Pollock

August 19, 2016 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — To prove that their Acadian redfish, haddock and pollock fisheries meet rigorous sustainability requirements, Gloucester-based Sustainable Groundfish Association, Inc. (SGA) has achieved certification to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard. This science-based standard is the world’s most credible and recognized standard for environmentally sustainable wild-caught seafood.

Kristian Kristensen of Cape Ann Seafood Exchange, a member of SGA, said: “MSC certification allows consumers to buy New England redfish, haddock and pollock with the confidence that the fisheries will continue to be operated and managed in a sustainable manner. We are committed to preserving a way of life for commercial fishermen and their families while minimizing ecosystem impact to insure these fisheries are sustainable for generations to come.”

Acadian redfish, haddock and pollock are all lesser known fish species that New England fishermen have turned to as economically viable and sustainable alternatives. The total combined commercial harvest for these fish, which are caught in the waters of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, was valued at more than $21 million in 2013. The redfish and pollock fisheries currently harvest less than half of their annual quotas.

Brian Perkins, MSC regional director – Americas, said: “The MSC’s vision is for oceans to be teeming with life for future generations. We are extremely pleased to see the US Acadian redfish, haddock and pollock fishery succeed in the MSC process and we hope to be their partner in creating and maintaining new markets.”

New England benefits from a concentration of certified sustainable fisheries. However, consumer awareness of the abundant sustainable seafood offerings from area sellers remains low. To address this, the MSC recently launched a campaign to educate New England consumers about identifying sustainable seafood products. MSC will take its “Good Catch!” campaign and promo video directly to consumers this month with events at Whole Foods and Big Y grocery stores, which feature MSC at their fresh fish counters, in greater Boston, Springfield and Great Barrington, as well as at Green Fest and the Quincy Farmers Market.

The independent assessment of the Acadian redfish, haddock and pollock fisheries was conducted by SAI Global Assurance Services, an accredited third-party conformity assessment body. SAI Global Assurance Services assembled a team of fishery science and policy experts to evaluate the fishery according to the three principles of the MSC Fisheries Standard: the health of the stock; the impact of fishing on the marine environment; and the management of the fishery. The MSC process is open to stakeholders and all results are peer reviewed.

“Good Catch!” Campaign Bolsters New England’s Sustainable Seafood Businesses

August 10, 2016 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

BOSTON — According to new independent research, seafood consumers in New England are significantly more likely than national consumers to purchase fresh fish at a seafood counter, 58 percent and 40 percent, respectively. New England consumers’ affinity for fresh seafood is renowned, and the region benefits from a concentration of certified sustainable fisheries, which work to protect fish stocks, ecosystems and local fishing communities. However, consumer awareness of the abundant sustainable seafood offerings from area sellers remains low. To address this, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an international non-profit dedicated to safeguarding the seafood supply, will launch a campaign to educate New England consumers about identifying sustainable seafood products.

MSC will take its “Good Catch!” campaign directly to consumers this month with events at Whole Foods and Big Y grocery stores, which feature MSC at their fresh fish counters, in greater Boston, Springfield and Great Barrington, as well as at Green Fest and the Quincy Farmers Market.

“As consumers are developing greater awareness of their impact on the world, they are demanding more ways to validate that the products they buy support their values,” said Brian Perkins, MSC Regional Director – Americas. “You should have confidence that what you are buying really is what it says it is and that it originates from a sustainable source. The blue MSC label ensures that the seafood was caught wild, using methods that don’t deplete the natural supply or come at the expense of other ocean life.”

IMPACT ON LOCAL FISHING INDUSTRY: The fishing industry – at the heart of many New England communities – has seen first-hand the consequences of unsustainable fishing. Sustainable fisheries in New England, and globally, are the most important players in addressing these problems. The MSC certification program helps these fishing communities prove to the marketplace that their seafood supplies are healthy. In New England, the US Atlantic sea scallop; Maine Lobster; US North Atlantic swordfish; US Atlantic spiny dogfish; US Acadian, redfish, pollock and haddock fisheries are MSC certified.

“The fishing industry is vital to New England’s economy, and operating them sustainably ensures that our industry will continue for generations to come,” said Doug Feeney a commercial fisherman and member of the Cape Cod Fisherman’s Association. “Consumers want to know that the seafood they buy is responsibly sourced – MSC certification allows us to let local shoppers know that what they’re buying really does come from our sustainable sources.”

Consumers wishing to learn more about sustainable seafood can look for the MSC booth throughout August outside Whole Foods stores in the Boston area, Big Y stores in Springfield and Great Barrington, Green Fest, and the Quincy Farmers Market. Visit msc.org/goodcatch for information.

“By purchasing seafood that they know comes from a sustainable source, consumers help protect our oceans and ensure that seafood can be enjoyed for many generations to come,” said Perkins. “They have the power to impact the health of the ocean and the continuation of the fishing industry simply by the products they choose.”

About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC): The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization. Our vision is for the world’s oceans to be teeming with life, and seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations. Our ecolabel and certification program recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market. The MSC ecolabel on a seafood product means that it comes from a wild-catch fishery which has been independently certified to the MSC’s science-based standard for environmentally sustainable fishing, and it’s fully traceable to a sustainable source. More than 280 fisheries in over 35 countries are certified to the MSC’s Standard. These fisheries have a combined annual seafood production of almost nine million metric tons, representing close to 10% of annual global yields. More than 20,000 seafood products worldwide carry the MSC ecolabel. For more information, visit www.msc.org.

MASSACHUSETTS: State fisheries survey underway in Gulf of Maine

July 18, 2016 — SCITUATE, Mass. — Over the past seven years, Kevin Norton watched the number of commercial groundfish vessels working out of his home port drop precipitously from 17 in 2009, to just four today.

“If not for the (federal fisheries) disaster money, there’d be no one left,” Norton said about fishermen who catch New England’s most familiar species like cod, haddock and flounder.

On July 11, Norton stood at the wooden wheel of Miss Emily, his 55-foot dragger. He was the only groundfisherman leaving from Scituate Harbor that day. He said he’d be tied up at the dock like the other three if he hadn’t been selected by the state to help Division of Marine Fisheries scientists conduct eight months of scientific research.

“All of our lives depend on this (the scientific data used to set fishing quotas),” he said. “That’s why this survey is so important.”

Massachusetts received more than $21 million in federal fisheries disaster aid, most of which was distributed to fishermen. But the state kept some for research projects, including $400,000 for an eight month Industry-Based Survey of random tows throughout the Gulf of Maine, from Cape Cod Bay up to Portland, Maine, focusing on cod, but counting and cataloging the fish and other species they catch.

“Science is the key to getting it right,” said Matthew Beaton, the state secretary of Energy and the Environment. Beaton and state Department of Fish and Game Commissioner George Peterson were on board the Miss Emily July 11 and helped sort the catch.

The state survey is part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s promise to help fishermen answer some of the key questions plaguing fishery management, Beaton said. Fishermen contend they are seeing a lot of cod in the Gulf of Maine, but their observations don’t match NOAA stock assessments that show historically low populations. The disconnect, fishermen say, results from the federal government using a vessel and net that have had trouble catching cod and performing surveys in the wrong places at the wrong time of year.

While it catches and documents all species it encounters, the state survey was designed to evaluate the status of Gulf of Maine cod, said principal investigator and DMF fisheries biologist William Hoffman. Its timing — April to July and October to January — mirrors peak spawning times for this cod stock. Similar surveys were done from 2003 to 2007 and, with the summer work now complete, Hoffman said they have found fewer cod in the places they previously sampled and didn’t find any major aggregations in deep water areas.

“We really need to do this for at least three years before we can draw any solid conclusions,” Hoffman cautioned. “But right now, surveying at the same time, in the same area, (as the previous survey) we’re seeing less fish.”

The trip on July 11 netted just one cod.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

East Coast fishermen spar with federal government over cost of at-sea monitors

July 14, 2016 — Every year, the federal government spends millions monitoring New England commercial fishermen to ensure they ply their timeless maritime trade in accordance with the law.

Now, a judge is set to rule on who should foot the bill for the on-board monitors: the government or the fishing boat owners. The East Coast fishermen say sticking them with the bill would be the “death knell” for their  industry and is illegal on the part of the federal government.

Fishermen of important New England food species such as cod and haddock will have to start paying the cost of at-sea monitors soon under new rules. Monitors — third-party workers hired to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations — collect data to help determine future fishing quotas and can cost about $18,000 a year, or $710 per voyage.

The Cause of Action Institute, a legal watchdog representing a group of East Coast fishermen, sued the federal government in December in U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., seeking to block the transfer of payments from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the fishermen.

“It is unlawful for NOAA to force struggling fishermen to pay for their own at-sea monitors,” said former federal judge Alfred Lechner, the institute’s president and CEO. “The significant costs of these regulations should be the responsibility of the government.”

The lawsuit was filed against the Department of Commerce on behalf of David Goethel, owner and operator of F/V Ellen Diane, a 44-foot trawler based in Hampton, N.H., and Northeast Fishery Sector 13, a nonprofit representing fishermen from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

It called the transfer of payments the “death knell for much of what remains of a once-thriving ground fish industry that has been decimated by burdensome federal overreach.”

“Fishing is my passion and it’s how I’ve made a living, but right now, I’m extremely fearful that I won’t be able to do what I love and provide for my family if I’m forced to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors,” Goethel said when the suit was filed last December.

Read the full story at Fox News

SUSAN POLLACK: Fishing For Progress: Saying No To ‘No Women On Board’

June 10, 2016 — In 1982, as supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment fought claims that that the proposed amendment to the Constitution would destroy the American family, I confronted an older mythology: Women are bad luck on boats.

I was a young maritime reporter for The East Hampton Star on Eastern Long Island. I loved boats and the sea, and I’d always loved adventure. That summer, I planned to join local fishermen aboard a state-of-the-art Japanese squid ship. This was several years after the United States enacted its 200-mile limit, but before American fishermen had fully developed a squid fishery of their own. In exchange for sharing their technical know-how, the Japanese would be permitted to catch squid in our waters.

I was game.

But as I was readying my boots and gear, I received an unexpected warning from the American sponsors of the U.S-Japan venture: no women on board.

Surely, something must be wrong: I’d spent the previous five years in gurry-soaked oil skins reporting on life at sea on American draggers, lobster boats, bay scallopers, gillnetters, long-liners and clamming rigs. I’d photographed the sun rising over the stern of a dragger hauling its catch of yellowtail and blackback flounders, cod, haddock and scup. I’d spent bone-chilling winter days in an open skiff, culling bay scallops – separating the delicate fan-shaped bivalves from whelks, rocks and seaweed. I’d danced on the boat, not for joy, but to keep warm.

On summer evenings, I’d helped my neighbor lift his gillnets, gingerly plucking out sharp-toothed bluefish and the occasional striper. And I’d finally succeeded in filleting a flounder without mangling the fragile flesh.

Read the full story at WBUR