Saving Seafood

Alaska predicts commercial herring harvest will fall short of annual limit

January 15, 2021 — In an unusual move, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game has set a large guideline harvest level for the commercial herring fishing in Sitka this spring, on the understanding that the fleet is not likely to hit that mark.

In a news release Monday, ADF&G announced a guideline harvest level — or GHL — of just over 33,000 tons for the upcoming Sitka sac roe herring fishery.

But that much probably won’t be harvested. In the same news release, Fish and Game predicts that the commercial harvest will likely not exceed 20,000 tons. Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis says the state arrived at that number after speaking to processors about the potential market demands.

“Just from our conversations, like what the individual markets want in terms of herring,” he said. “Part of the reason why we put that in the announcement was, I guess just to temper people’s’ expectations for what will likely get harvested in the fishery. “

Dupuis says 33,000 is already a conservative estimate. The GHL is reduced by 20% of what the state would typically allow from the forecasted population of fish, a mature biomass of 210,453 tons. Even so, he says the state is gearing up as usual for a fishery this year.

Read the full story at KTOO

Distribution and Abundance of Forage Fish in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Waters Affected by Warming Ocean Conditions

January 14, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Pelagic or forage fish species are an important source of food for marine predators in the eastern Bering Sea. This group of fish includes capelin, Pacific herring, juvenile chum salmon, juvenile pink salmon, juvenile sockeye salmon, and walleye pollock during their first year of life.

A new study by scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center shows variable effects on species distribution and abundance. It looked at several warm periods from 2002–2018 when ocean temperatures were warmer than average for four or more consecutive years.

Previous studies by NOAA Fisheries documented a northward shift in age-0 pollock, juvenile salmon, herring, and capelin during the 2002-2005 warm period relative to the 2006-2011 cool period in the eastern Bering Sea.

“However, this is the first study to look at temperature-related changes in the distribution and biomass (total average weight of all fish) of pelagic fishes over multiple warm periods,” said Ellen Yasumiishi, researcher, Alaska Fisheries Science Center and lead author for the study. “Studies like this are also important for understanding factors that may affect juvenile salmon and age-0 pollock growth, development and ability to reach maturity. As adults these fish are targeted by commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries in Alaska.”

Read the full release here

New Plunge Pool Increases River Herring Survival at Maine Dam

January 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We are working with the dam owners to improve fish passage for river herring and American eels on a tributary of the Kennebec River in Gardiner, Maine.

From 2014 through 2019, NOAA Fisheries staff from the Greater Atlantic Region consulted on the relicensing of the American Tissue Dam. As part of the Federal Power Act, NOAA Fisheries may require fish passage at federally licensed dams, which was the case for this dam.

In order to comply with this requirement, Kruger Energy Inc. was busy this summer and fall constructing a new and improved downstream fishway. When migrating fish pass over a notch in the dam, they will now enter a well-designed plunge pool. The pool does a better job reducing fish mortality than the old plunge pool, particularly for the small juvenile river herring.

Additional passage improvements to this project will include an eel ramp to help juvenile eels migrate upstream. A submerged pipe will help adult eels headed downstream to get up and over the dam and back down to the river channel safely. With these fish passage improvements, we are optimistic that restoration of fisheries resources in Cobboseecontee Stream can succeed.

Read the full release here

ALASKA: Sitka Tribe scores one win in herring lawsuit and tries for another

January 11, 2021 — The Sitka Tribe of Alaska in November won another round in its legal fight with the state over the management of the commercial herring fishery. And next week the court will hear new oral arguments and decide whether the state has upheld its constitutional responsibilities in its management of the fishery.

Andy Erickson is a lawyer with the firm Landye Bennett Blumstein, representing the Sitka Tribe of Alaska in its legal battle with the state that’s spanned over two years.

He says November’s proceedings were essentially “part two” of the court’s ruling on whether the state’s interpretation of a specific herring fishery regulation was lawful.

In March, Judge Daniel Schally ruled that the state had failed to demonstrate it was providing a “reasonable opportunity” for subsistence harvesters before opening the commercial fishery.

And in November, Schally issued a second order for “partial summary judgement” in Sitka Tribe’s favor. Schally determined that the state had failed to follow a regulation established by the Board of Fish in 2002.

Read the full story at KTOO

ASMFC 2021 Winter Meeting Webinar Preliminary Agenda and Public Comment Guidelines

December 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Winter Meeting Webinar will be held February 1-4, 2021. Please find attached and below the preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines The preliminary agenda is also available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-winter-meeting-webinar. The final agenda, meeting materials and webinar details will be available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-winter-meeting-webinar by January 20th.

Public Comment Guidelines

To provide a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board  approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings. Please note these guidelines have been modified to adapt to meetings via webinar:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide an opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.

For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.

In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).

  1. Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of the webinar (January 11) will be included in the briefing materials.
  2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, January 26 will be included in the supplemental materials.
  3. Comments received by 10:00 AM on Friday, January 29 will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting.

Comments should be submitted via email at comments@asmfc.org. All comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.

Atlantic Herring Fishery: Fishing Year Ends December 31

December 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries reminds participants in the Atlantic herring fishery that the 2020 fishing year ends on December 31.

If you submit a vessel trip report with a landing date of December 31 or earlier, your catch will count against herring harvest limits for 2020.

If you submit a vessel trip report with a landing date of January 1 or later, your catch will count against herring harvest limits for 2021.

Please note, if the date reported by a federal dealer for your landings differs from the landing date on your vessel trip report, we will use the landing date on your vessel trip report to count your catch against harvest limits for a particular herring fishing year.

Questions?

Fishermen: Contact Carrie Nordeen, Sustainable Fisheries, 978-281-9272

Media: Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, 978-281-9175

At-sea monitoring coming to herring fishery in April

December 14, 2020 — The federal government plans to require herring fishing boats to participate in industry-funded monitoring starting in April.

At-sea monitoring programs allow the government to collect important data that helps manage fisheries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it intends to begin selecting vessels in the herring fishery for monitoring coverage on April 1.

NOAA said the plan could be altered by health mandates or travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency said in a statement that some herring boats have the option of seeking an exempted permit to use electronic monitoring instead of at-sea monitoring.

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

Industry-Funded Monitoring Coverage in the Atlantic Herring Fishery will Begin in April 2021

December 3, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries intends to begin selecting vessels with Category A or B herring permits for industry-funded monitoring (IFM) coverage on April 1, 2021, unless ongoing health mandates and travel restrictions cause a further delay. Beginning IFM coverage at the start of the 2021 IFM year (April 1, 2021 – March 31, 2022) will provide us time to resume the onsite and field-based activities necessary to train observers, and develop applications to successfully implement this program. Also beginning April 1, 2021, midwater trawl vessel owners will have the option of purchasing additional observer coverage to satisfy the requirement of carrying an observer to access Groundfish Closed Areas.

In the meantime, vessels are still required to adhere to all Pre-Trip Notification System (PTNS) requirements for the herring fishery. For complete information on notification and reporting requirements, please see the Notification, Reporting, and Monitoring Requirements for the Atlantic Herring Fishery webpage.

Some herring vessels have the option of being issued an exempted fishing permit (EFP) to use electronic monitoring and portside sampling instead of at-sea monitoring coverage to satisfy IFM requirements in 2021. We will work with the herring fleet by the end of 2020 to determine who is interested in being issued an EFP.

There are currently four companies approved to provide IFM services to herring vessels. Additionally, the agency has contracted Saltwater, Inc. to supply electronic monitoring services for vessels issued an EFP. Outreach will continue through 2020 in support of the program to ensure that the industry understands its requirements.

Read the full release here

MSC certificates to be suspended for all Atlanto-Scandian herring and blue whiting fisheries

December 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The independent assesssors responsible for certifying fisheries to the MSC Fishery Standard have today annouced that Atlanto-Scandian herring and blue whiting fisheries will be suspended from the program on 30 December 2020.

The suspension affects eight certificates covering fisheries from the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Russia, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and most recently the United Kingdom, which claimed independent Coastal State status in 2020.

Atlanto-Scandian herring and blue whiting caught on or after 30 December 2020 cannot be sold as ‘MSC certified’ or bear the blue MSC label.

The Atlanto-Scandian herring fisheries that will be suspended land between 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes per year, which is around 50% of the total MSC-certified herring catches landed annually. MSC labelled herring is sold to consumers via supermarkets and fishmongers throughout Europe.

The landings of the soon to be suspended blue whiting fisheries are predominantly used to produce fishmeal for farmed salmon, a small quantity is sold as surimi to consumers in Japan, Australia and France.

Lack of an international quota sharing agreement

The reason for the fisheries´ suspension is the lack of an international agreement on how to manage catch levels between different nations. The absence of an effective stock management – in particular, a quota sharing agreement between the involved nations in line with scientific advice – has led to the combined catch exceeding the recommended catch levels for a number of years.

In 2019, Atlanto-Scandian herring fisheries collectively caught 32% more than the scientific advice for the year. Following the catch quotas announced by the individual states, the same will happen in 2020 [1].

The annual meeting of the Northeast Atlantic Coastal States held in October 2020 did not reach a solution to this stock management problem.

The MSC’s Northern Europe Director, Erin Priddle, said:

“We urge nations to commit to a quota-sharing agreement in line with the scientific advice. Only through effective stock management can we ensure the health of the herring and blue whiting stocks in the short, medium and long term. While individual fisheries often make great efforts to improve their sustainability, ultimately, they cannot do it alone. Migratory species like Atlanto-Scandian Herring do not observe national boundaries, so we need international agreements to manage whole ecosystems in an adaptive, scientific way, rather than managing fish resources based on national interest.”

No sustainability without effective stock management

The MSC is focused on securing and maintaining the long-term health of fish stocks. Avoiding the boom-bust cycle of overfishing and recovery is a fundamental principle of the MSC’s Standard for sustainable fishing. This is even more important in the context of climate change which is already impacting on the productivity and distribution of fish stocks [2].

Independent assessors identified that the absence of a quota-sharing system could threaten the health of the stock and set a condition that nations must reach an agreement by 2020 for continued MSC certification. This was stipulated in 2015, giving fisheries a five-year time frame to work towards. Due to a lack of progress on this condition, the fisheries are now having their MSC certificates suspended.

For the same reason MSC certified mackerel fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic were suspended in 2019 and have not yet been reinstated due to ongoing concern about how catch is managed in response to scientific data on stock levels and inability to agree a quota share arrangement between the relevant fishing states.

Fisheries facing suspension from MSC certification

Atlanto-Scandian herring: 

Blue whiting:

NOAA Fisheries Announces Atlantic Herring Management Area 1B Sub-ACL Harvested

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

Effective 00:01 hours on November 25 through December 31, 2020

Under the New England Fishery Management Council’s Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, no person may fish for, possess, transfer, receive, land, or sell more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or calendar day from Area 1B for the remainder of the fishing season, as of 00:01 hours on November 25, 2020.  We project that 92 percent of the Area 1B Atlantic herring catch limit will be harvested by November 25, requiring a closure of the directed fishery. At 00:01 hours on November 25, 2020, a 2,000-lb herring possession limit per trip or calendar day will become effective for Management Area 1B and will be in effect through December 31, 2020.

Additionally, federally permitted dealers may not purchase, possess, receive, sell, barter, trade or transfer more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or calendar day from Area 1B.

This action is in effect through 24:00 hr local time, December 31, 2020, except for vessels carrying more than 2,000 lbs of herring from Area 1B that enter port before 00:01 local time on November 25, 2020.

Read the full release here