Saving Seafood

On the Verge of Extinction, a Chinese Fishing Village Resists

September 26, 2016 — YUMINGZUI VILLAGE, China — On a moonless night, when there was nothing in the air except the smell of rotting seaweed and the songs of drunken fishermen, Wang Xinfeng sneaked onto a boat by the dock and sailed into the darkness.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Mr. Wang, 53, made a living combing the Yellow Sea for flounder, herring, fat greenling and yellow croaker. But now the government, hoping to limit environmental damage and encourage villagers to find new jobs, had banned fishing during the summer.

Mr. Wang, desperate to pay medical bills, had taken to venturing into the water at night to avoid detection.

“I was raised at sea — this is my home,” he said. “Even if it’s a rough life, I have to fish.”

For centuries, residents of Yumingzui, a village of 562 people in the eastern province of Shandong, enjoyed a quiet life by the ocean, harvesting enough fish, sea cucumbers and abalone to support a prosperous seafood trade. While nearby villages fell victim to tourism and development, Yumingzui persevered, clinging to ancient fishing rites and homes made of seaweed.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Fishing managers considering changes to herring trawling

September 21, 2016 — Fishing managers who regulate New England’s waters are considering new ways to manage the herring fishery, which is a key source of bait and food.

The New England Fishery Management Council is looking at ways to address “localized depletion” in the herring fishery.

The council says localized depletion occurs when harvesters take more fish than can be naturally replaced in a given time period.

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

NEFMC Receives Atlantic Herring Amendment 8 Update

September 20, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During the first day of its Sept. 20-22 meeting in Danvers, Massachusetts, the New England Fishery Management Council received a progress report on Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The amendment contains two key components that involve:

  • Development of a long-term acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule for the Atlantic herring fishery; and
  • Measures to address potential localized depletion of Atlantic herring.

The ABC control rule may: (1) explicitly account for herring’s role in the ecosystem as a forage species; and (2) address the biological and ecological requirements of the resource itself. It is being developed through a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) approach.

MSE incorporates more public input and technical analyses upfront before alternatives are selected.

The Council held its first MSE public workshop in mid-May to begin gathering recommendations on a potential range of objectives for an ABC control rule, as well as feedback on how the objectives should be evaluated. A second workshop likely will be held Dec. 7-8 in Massachusetts.

The Council also received a briefing on the Atlantic Herring Committee’s late-August discussion about potential alternatives to address localized depletion. Most of the committee’s early proposals focus on variations of “inshore buffer zones” where midwater trawl gear – or in one case all herring gear types – would be restricted or prohibited year-round or seasonally. The Council made two motions to modify the Committee’s initial range of buffer zones, which now span from a discrete six-mile closure in an area off the backside of Cape Cod, up to a 50-mile buffer zone throughout the range of the fishery south of Herring Management Area 1A, covering the inshore portions of Areas 1B, 2, and 3 (see map). The committee will meet again on Oct. 20 and Nov. 9 to further debate and reevaluate the alternatives.

To recap how this all began:

  • The Council went through a public scoping process for Amendment 8 from Feb. 26 to April 30, 2015 to consider long-term harvest strategies for herring through an ABC control rule.
  • After reviewing the scoping comments, the Council in June 2015 expanded the reach of Amendment 8 to “include consideration of the spatial and temporal availability of Atlantic herring” in order to address public concern about localized depletion.
  • The Council is aiming to approve the range of alternatives on localized depletion and ABC control rule measures in January.

Bunker or Pogie: Menhaden by Any Name Makes a Great Bait

September 12, 2016 — Menhaden may have a bit of an identity problem. Most of the Northeast refers to them as “bunker.” But around Massachusetts they’re often known as “pogies.” Whatever you decide to call them, they’re great bait this time of year for fishing big stripers.

Menhaden are a member of the herring family. They migrate into our waters seasonally, arriving from the south each spring. They grow out to a couple of pounds and about a foot long. They’re schooling fish, typically swimming in big schools.

In this week’s Fishing News, Kevin Blinkoff, of On The Water magazine, talks about snagging pogies and using them to fish bigger striped bass in Boston Harbor.

Read and listen to the full story at WCAI

MAINE: State senate candidate Emery applauds reopening of Atlantic menhaden fishery

August 30, 2016 — ROCKLAND, Maine — Facing a shortage of herring that threatens the Maine’s fishing industry, lobstermen and bait fishermen have been relying on menhaden during the peak of the lobster season. Menhaden, known locally as pogies, is the common alternative bait used by lobstermen.

The annual catch limit had been exceeded in July and an emergency extension of the quota to 3.5 million pounds for New England was instituted. As the catch rapidly approached the temporary “episodic event” quota extension, the Maine Department of Marine Resources closed the pogie fishery.

The week of Aug. 19, Maine DMR reopened the pogie fishery after it determined that, even with the increased catch, fish stocks remain healthy.

Dave Emery, Republican candidate for the Maine Senate in District 12, was a member of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Conservation, and the Environment when he served in Congress. Emery met at F.J. O’Hara & Sons with fishermen and industry experts two weeks ago to discuss the bait issue, along with other issues impacting the industry.

“Better data and more frequent analysis would provide the industry with a more complete understanding of fish population. This is important both to guarantee necessary conservation measures, but also to provide the lobster industry with sufficient bait for the robust lobster market, which is valued at $500 million in Maine,” Emery said.

Read the full story at the Village Soup

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Fishermen Seek Buffer From Herring Trawlers

August 29, 2016 — CHATHAM, Mass. — Cape Cod fishermen may be on their way to some relief from sharing inshore fishing grounds with mid-water herring trawling, a practice they say is threatening their livelihoods. But a persistent lack of data on the impact of the trawls may hamper efforts to regulate them.

On Aug. 17, the Herring Oversight Committee of the New England Fisheries Management Council voted to send the council two options for establishing a buffer zone prohibiting mid-water trawling off Cape Cod. The zone would extend either 12 miles or 35 miles from shore — significantly farther than the 6-mile zone proposed by the herring industry and closer than the 50-mile mark sought by environmental groups. The council will consider the options when it meets in September.

Fishermen have been complaining for years about the industrial-sized ships landing on the back side of Cape Cod, scooping up millions of pounds of herring and leaving, they say, a temporary ocean “bio-desert” in their wake.

In 2015, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance collected hundreds of comments and individual letters from fisherman about the phenomenon called “localized depletion” — defined as “when harvesting takes more fish than can be replaced locally or through fish migrating into the catch area within a given time period.”

Read the full story at ecoRI News

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting Scheduled for September 16, 2016

August 25, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts will meet from 9:15 a.m. through Noon on September 16, 2016 to discuss days out measures for Trimester 3 (October 1 to December 31), review recent fishing effort in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) and discuss alternative management approaches for Area 1A. This meeting will take place at the Portsmouth Library at 175 Parrott Ave Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801.

The 2016 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit is 30,102 metric tons (mt) including carryover of unharvested catch in 2014 and deductions for the research and fixed gear set-aside in 2016. The Section set the seasonal split as 72.8% allocated from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% allocated from October 1 – December 31. The seasonal quota for Trimester 3 amounts to 7,533 mt.

As a reminder, the seasonal quota for Trimester 2 is 20,161 mt. As of August 22, 2016, 78% of the Trimester 2 quota has been harvested.

More closures ahead for beleaguered lobster bait fishery

August 24, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The lobster industry’s difficulty getting enough bait could be about to get worse because of upcoming closures in the herring fishery.

Herring is the preferred bait for lobster fishermen, who use the fish to lure the valuable crustaceans into traps. But herring have been in short supply this year because fishermen aren’t catching many of them in offshore New England waters.

Fishing managers have instituted limits on inshore herring fishing to try to ensure a steady supply of herring throughout summer.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is also closing an area off eastern Maine to herring fishing from Aug. 28 to Sept. 24.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

Mid-Atlantic Council Approves Amendment to Protect Unmanaged Forage Species

August 9, 2016 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has approved an amendment to protect unmanaged forage species in the Mid-Atlantic. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, the Unmanaged Forage Omnibus Amendment would prohibit the development of new and expansion of existing directed commercial fisheries on a number of unmanaged forage species in Mid-Atlantic Federal waters. The prohibition would continue until the Council has had an opportunity to assess the available scientific information for these species and consider the potential impacts to existing fisheries, fishing communities, and the marine ecosystem.

Forage fish are small, low trophic level fish that play a central role in the marine food chain. These species facilitate the transfer of energy to higher trophic levels by consuming very small prey and then being eaten by larger, predatory fish and other marine animals.

“Forage species play a vital role in maintaining the productivity and structure of marine ecosystems and are currently at risk of unregulated fisheries development in the absence of adequate science to ensure their ecological sustainability,” said the Council’s Chairman, Rick Robins. “With this action, the Mid-Atlantic Council is taking a proactive approach to conserving unmanaged forage species and the ecosystem services they provide in the Mid-Atlantic region.”

The amendment was not intended to address all unmanaged forage species in the Mid-Atlantic but rather to focus on those species that have high ecological importance and those that have high potential for the development of a large-scale targeted commercial fishery.

The Council received more than 21,000 comments during the public comment period, the majority of which focused on the list of species to be included in the amendment. Although the Council initially considered a list of more than 250 forage species, this was narrowed down to a list of 15 taxa (i.e. species, families, orders, and other taxonomic groupings) for inclusion.

After considering input from its advisory panel, Ecosystem and Ocean Planning Committee, and members of the public, the Council voted to remove false albacore due to its large size and high trophic level. These 15 taxa include more than 50 forage species, including anchovies, halfbeaks, herrings, sardines, and sand lances. The complete list is included at the bottom of this announcement.

The Council voted to designate these taxa, with the exception of chub mackerel, as ecosystem components (ECs) in all of the Council’s fishery management plans (FMPs). The amendment would establish an incidental possession limit of 1,700 pounds for all EC species combined. For chub mackerel, the Council approved temporary measures to be implemented while the Council evaluates potentially adding the species as a stock in the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, Butterfish FMP. These measures would include an annual landings limit of 2.86 million pounds and a 40,000-pound incidental possession limit which would go into effect once this landings limit is met.

The Council also voted to require use of exempted fishing permits (EFPs) prior to allowing any new fisheries or expansion of existing fisheries for unmanaged forage species and to establish a new policy for Council review of EFP applications. The Council also agreed that, prior to allowing any new fisheries or expansion of existing fisheries, the Council would consider whether the species in question should be managed as a stock in the fishery or if other discretionary management measures should be used.

Additional information, updates, and background materials related to this amendment are available on the Unmanaged Forage Omnibus Amendment page here.

MASSACHUSETTS: Cowhide? Lobstermen looking at bait alternatives

July 25, 2016 — Gloucester is Massachusetts’ No. 1 lobster port when it comes to landings, with Rockport in the No. 3 spot.

And when it comes to bait to catch the shellfish, local lobstermen usually use herring.

But the Massachusetts herring fishery will be restricted in an attempt to mitigate a shortage of the bait fish that threatens the lobster fishery.

So, lobstermen are looking further afield to tempt lobsters’ palates and into their traps.

Gerry O’Neill, who owns the two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour, says while fresh herring may be in shorter supply on Cape Ann than in the past, he has frozen fish ready to go at Cape Seafoods on the Jodrey State Fish Pier.

Joey Ciaramitaro of Capt. Joe & Sons, a lobster dealer on East Main Street, says many of the lobstermen who sell their catch to his company are already using alternative baits.

“They’re using cowhides and stuff,” he said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times