Saving Seafood

NEFMC: Atlantic Herring, NGOM Scallops, Electronic Monitoring Seminars at Maine Fishermen’s Forum

February 23, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council is participating in three seminars at the March 1-3, 2018 Maine Fishermen’s Forum at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, ME. Come join us!

  • Meet some of our staff members.
  • Ask us questions.
  • Learn more about the Council’s work.

The forum provides a casual setting where stakeholders – fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, environmentalists, and legislators alike – can engage in meaningful conversation.

On Friday, March 2, we’ll be talking about Atlantic herring, electronic monitoring, and the Northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery.  Here are the details.

                         Atlantic Herring Amendment 8 Informational Update

WHEN:  9 a.m. in the Rockland Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The New England Council is developing Amendment 8 to the federal Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan to consider:

(1) Potential changes to how target catches are set in the herring fishery, starting with a new acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule; and

(2) Alternatives to address potential localized depletion and user conflicts in the fishery.

The amendment will be going out to public hearing in April or May. This forum session provides an ideal opportunity for fishermen and other stakeholders to ask questions and become more familiar with the alternatives in advance of the formal hearings.

FORMAT:  The session will open with a short overview of the Council process, followed by the Amendment 8 discussion, and conclude with a presentation by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the federal Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring Amendment, which includes proposed measures for the Atlantic herring fishery.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL:  Mary Beth Tooley of the O’Hara Corporation is the forum board member who is hosting this session.  She also is the moderator. The panel members are:

  • Deirdre Boelke, New England Fishery Management Council, Atlantic Herring Plan Coordinator
  • Carrie Nordeen, National Marine Fisheries Service, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO)

                                 Electronic Monitoring (EM) on the Water

WHEN:  1 p.m. in the Rockland Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The New England Council and NMFS are taking steps to improve monitoring in the groundfish fishery. These ongoing efforts have prompted increased interest in using camera systems as an alternative to human at-sea monitors. The question is: Can cameras, coupled with dockside monitoring, provide the necessary level of coverage to meet catch monitoring requirements? In an effort to find out, fishermen are participating in several groundfish pilot programs to explore the feasibility of using this electronic monitoring (EM) technology on their boats. The seminar will spotlight the pilot programs, and groundfish captains who are experimenting with EM will share their perspectives on how EM actually works on the water.

FORMAT:  Following a brief overview of the ongoing projects, panelists will give quick synopses of the EM projects they’re involved with and explain why they were willing to participate. Then, EM footage from several of their boats will be shown, and the affiliated captains on the panel will help guide the audience through what’s going on. They also will discuss fishing operations and catch handling while using EM. Plenty of time will be available for questions. Exchanges between fishermen in the audience and panel members are encouraged.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL:  Gerry Cushman of the F/V Bug Catcha is the forum board member who is hosting this session. Janice Plante of the New England Fishery Management Council is the moderator. The panel members are:

  • Randy Cushman, F/V Ella Christine, Port Clyde, ME, trawl fishery
  • Mike Russo, F/V Gulf Venture, Provincetown, MA, gillnet fishery
  • Tyler Bond, F/V Safe Haven (crew), F/V Savage Joe (owner), Harpswell, ME, jig fishery
  • Mike Monteforte, F/V Second Wind, Point Judith, RI, trawl fishery
  • Bob Dooley, owner/operator of West Coast and Alaska-based vessels for over 40 years, Half Moon Bay, CA, trawl/crab fisheries
  • Claire Fitz-Gerald, NMFS/GARFO Fishery Management Specialist, introductory/overview speaker

                                Northern Gulf of Maine Federal Scallop Fishery

WHEN:  2:45 p.m. in the Rockport Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The New England Council recently completed Framework Adjustment 29 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The framework contains specifications and measures for the 2018 federal scallop fishing year, which begins on April 1. The National Marine Fisheries Service has published a proposed rule containing just the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Management Area provisions within the framework and is collecting public comment through March 7. The agency broke out the NGOM measures from the rest of the scallop actions to ensure they are in place by April 1. The intent is to prevent excessive fishing in the Northern Gulf of Maine area. This seminar will provide an overview of the Northern Gulf of Maine management measures and cover how and why they were developed. Information about scallop surveys and research priorities also will be discussed.

FORMAT:  The session will begin with an explanation of federal scallop fishery management in the Northern Gulf of Maine. Panelists then will provide information about 2018 scallop work priorities, changes to the Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program, scallop surveys, and research initiatives for the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area. Fishermen are encouraged to ask questions about any of these scallop-related activities.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL:  Kristan Porter of the F/V Whitney & Ashley is a member of the New England Council’s Scallop Advisory Panel. He is the forum board member who is hosting this session, and he also is the moderator. The panel members are:

  • Jonathon Peros, New England Fishery Management Council, Scallop Plan Coordinator
  • Travis Ford, NMFS, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
  • Vincent Balzano, New England Fishery Management Council, Scallop Committee Chairman; commercial fisherman

MAINE FISHERMEN’S FORUM INFORMATION:  Many other seminars are lined up. General information about the 2018 forum, including hotel details, directions, and background, is available at Maine Fishermen’s Forum. The seminar descriptions and schedule can be downloaded at forum lineup.

View the event in more detail at the NEFMC site here.

 

Commercial fleet highlights economic impact of Sitka Sound herring catch

February 15, 2018 — Despite three days of impassioned testimony before the Board of Fisheries in January, not much has changed for the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery, which will ramp up in about a month.

Local subsistence harvesters won an increase in the size of their exclusive use area, but failed to persuade the board to reduce the commercial catch.

Fishermen and processors from Petersburg joined with other commercial interests to remind the board of the economic importance of the annual springtime export.

Commercial fishing representatives at January’s meeting testified in oral and written comments about the economic importance of the annual fishery in Sitka Sound.

Icicle Seafoods processes some of the catch at its Petersburg plant and the company’s John Woodruff talked about the impact to the Petersburg economy.

“Last year, we spent roughly $450,000 just on Sitka herring labor,” Woodruff said. “Most of this stays in Petersburg and it comes at a time when there’s not much other economic activity in town and a half-million bucks might not seem like much but at that time of year for a town like Petersburg, I think it’s impactive.”

Read and listen to the full story at KTOO

 

NOAA Fisheries Announces Adjustments to the Atlantic Herring Management Area Annual Catch Limits for Fishing Year 2018

February 14, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces adjustments to the 2018 annual catch limits (ACLs) for the Atlantic herring fishery to account for carryover of unharvested catch from fishing year 2016.

Catch information for fishing year 2016 shows that sub-ACLs Areas 1A, 2, and 3 were under harvested and that the overall 2016 stock-wide ACL was not exceeded. Therefore, we are increasing the Area 1A, 2, and 3 2018 sub-ACLs to include the carryover of unharvested catch from the 2016 fishing year.

The stock-wide ACL is not increased by this action and is less than the sum of all four sub-ACLs.

The 2016 Area 1B sub-ACL was exceeded. Therefore, we are deducting this overage from the 2018 Area 1B sub-ACL.

For more details, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register, and our permit holder bulletin.

Learn more about NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region here.

 

Council to talk deep-sea coral, at-sea monitors

January 23, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council kicks off its 2018 calendar with meetings in New Hampshire on the final two days of January that will include discussions on its deep-sea coral amendment and industry-funded at-sea monitoring.

The latter, however, will come with a twist.

The discussion on mandated industry-funded monitoring, set as the second agenda item for the first day of meetings on Jan. 30, is expected to include an update on electronic monitoring projects aboard midwater trawl vessels in the region’s herring and mackerel fisheries.

On the same day in the hotel, NOAA Fisheries — with the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center — will hold a free monitoring service provider vendor show to give fishermen and stakeholders the opportunity to meet and question vendors providing monitoring services.

“This is a great opportunity for herring and groundfish fishermen in particular to interact one-on-one with all of these providers,” said Janice Plante, a council spokeswoman.

Herring fishermen, she said, will be subject to new monitoring requirements under the industry-funded monitoring omnibus amendment and groundfishermen may see new monitoring requirements in the groundfish monitoring amendment currently before the council.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

ASMFC Begins Preparations for American Shad Benchmark Stock Assessment

January 16, 2018 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for American shad (Alosa sapidissima) to be completed in the summer of 2019.  The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of this species.  The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room.

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment.  This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance, stocking, biological samples (sex, maturity, age, weight, length), life history information (growth, fecundity, natural mortality, sex ratio, spawning), stock structure (tagging data, genetics), mortality (predator diet, anthropogenic sources such as hydropower dams), and catch (harvest, discard, fishing effort). An essential need is data to inform the stock assessment of discards and bycatch in other directed fisheries (e.g. the Atlantic herring fishery). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by February 23, 2018.

The Data Workshop will be conducted March 5-8, 2018 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. This workshop will review all available data sources for American shad and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Maine: Big changes in store for herring fishery

December 20, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — For such a small fish, herring play a critical role in the ecosystem of the Gulf of Maine. Only a few inches long, the plankton-eating fish are an important prey species, providing food for top marine predators, and are an important source of bait for Maine’s $547 million lobster industry.

In the Gulf of Maine, besides feeding whales, seals, harbor porpoises and dolphins, herring, particularly juvenile herring, provide a principal source of food for sea birds such as Atlantic puffins, razorbills, common terns and Arctic terns. Much of their catch is fed to young birds still in the nest.

In the water itself, top predators such as bluefin tuna, bluefish and striped bass, as well as cod, hake, pollock, dogfish and many species of shark, feed on herring.

Man is another top predator that relies on herring. In 2016, fishermen landed more than 77 million pounds of herring in Maine, most of it to be used as lobster bait, and most of it caught by trawlers fishing far offshore. That number is down from 103.5 million pounds just three years ago.

Not surprisingly, the price of lobster bait has climbed significantly. According to the Department of Marine Resources, the price of herring increased 57 percent between 2014 and 2016, and lobstermen saw the price of herring increase by a third or more, according to Maine Lobstermen’s Association President David Cousens.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Change in Atlantic Herring Area 1A Trimester 3 Effort Controls

December 15, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts revised the effort control measures for the 2017 Area 1A Trimester 3 (October 1 – December 31). Section members, with input from industry, agreed to seven consecutive landing days until 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be harvested.  Vessels may only land once every 24-hour period.

·         Beginning on December 18, 2017: Vessels in the State of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may land herring starting at 12:00 a.m. on seven (7) consecutive days a week.

Trimester 3 landings will be closely monitored and the directed fishery will close when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be reached. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip once the fishery is closed. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at 703.842.0740 or tkerns@asmfc.org.

A copy of the announcement can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file//5a340dfdAtlHerringDaysOutTri3Changes_Dec2017.pdf.

Public gets say on changes to herring rules

December 12, 2017 — Cape Cod’s small boat fishermen, both commercial and recreational, have been asking for protection from a fleet of large herring trawlers for more than a decade.

They may get an answer to their plea as early as June, when the New England Fishery Management Council will likely vote on whether to create buffer zones that prohibit fishing close to shore by these large vessels for part or all of the year.

The council’s potential actions are focused on midwater trawlers which tow large nets, sometimes between pairs of vessels, targeting huge schools of herring swimming midway between the bottom and surface. Back in 2007, the council prohibited midwater trawlers from fishing during the summer months along the coast north of Provincetown to Canada. But they allowed them to come within three miles of the Cape and states to the south.

Herring are considered a forage species, a vital link between the massive food source contained in the plankton they eat, and the protein needed by important commercial species like striped bass, cod and bluefin tuna that prey on them. But Cape and other East Coast fishermen have argued that the massive nets and large vessels used by the herring fleet are so efficient that cod, tuna and other species, with no herring to eat, do not come close enough to shore for the smaller vessels of the inshore fleet.

“Our guys are not fishing the way they did 12 years ago around the Cape because those fish aren’t there because the bait isn’t there,” said John Pappalardo, executive director of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance and a member of the fishery council. “We live in a migratory corridor here. We depend on the bait to be there.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

New England Fishery Management Council Sends Atlantic Herring Amendment 8 to Public Hearing

December 6, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — On Tuesday the New England Fishery Management Council voted to send “Draft Amendment 8” to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan public hearing. The Council has no preferred alternatives and will be receiving feedback on the controversy about localized depletion and use of herring as forage fish.

The amendment features two major components: Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) control rule and potential localized depletion and user conflicts. The ABC Control Rule is supposed to be used to set specifications and annual catch limits. The Council has 10 options and did not select a preferred one at their September meeting in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Similarly, the Council also has a list of alternatives to address potential localized depletion and user conflict. Alternative options range from “no action” to a year-round prohibition on using midwater trawl gear in specific Atlantic Herring management areas.

The Council will make a final decision in 2018 after receiving feedback at the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management plan public hearing. Attendees will be presented with a fill list of likely costs and benefits associated with each option.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Alaska’s seafood marketing agency expands its reach

December 1, 2017 — On a domestic and international scale, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute expanded its reach over the past year to promote domestic and overseas sales of wild Alaska seafood, and educate the industry on seafood technical issues.

In presentations Nov. 28, at the start of ASMI’s three-day All Hands meeting in Anchorage, some 200 participants heard progress reports on these and other related issues, including ASMI’s sustainability program.

Fisheries market researcher Andy Wick, presenting for the McDowell Group in Juneau, noted that the cumulative first wholesale value of wild Alaska seafood from 1959 through 2016 totaled $170 billion, equal to the value of all major professional sports teams in North America.

Eighty percent of the state’s commercial seafood harvests from 2011 through 2015 was in high volume groundfish, including Pollock and cod, while salmon garnered on average 15 percent of the catch, halibut and black cod 1 percent, and crab 1 percent.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times