Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Herring on the comeback?

May 24, 2016 — For generations, local anglers visited places such as the legendary Vaughan’s Creek on the Hertford-Northampton County line in search of a historic staple of life- herring.

Those boney fish, which migrate annually in the late winter and early spring to spawn before returning to their traditional salty habitat, graced the tables of local residents, as well as around the world. They were often a major source of food – salted and preserved – over the harsh, cold winter months, long before there were such conveniences as supermarkets.

By the turn of the 21st century, the once plentiful herring were threatened by overfishing. North Carolina Wildlife and Fisheries officials attempted to control the herring population by restricting the annual catch. However, by 2007, the state basically shut down herring harvest in hopes that their numbers would eventually rebound.

Now, nine years later, local fisherman strongly believe that the herring population has improved to the point to allow the state to take a serious look at lifting its moratorium. However, there seems to be some discrepancy between what the local fishermen and state wildlife officials have observed in the way of numbers.

Last week, local fishermen attended Board of Commissioner meetings in both Northampton and Hertford counties, seeking resolutions from those local leaders to ask the state to end the herring fishing ban.

Roger Cofield represented the Concerned Citizens of Northampton County for the Restoration of Historical Herring Fishing at the Commissioners’ May 16 meeting in Jackson.

Read the full story at the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald 

Survey delay might hurt fish population research

May 12, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story published today by the Boston Globe.

NEWPORT, R.I. – Even before mechanics found deeply pitted bearings near crankshafts in its generators, problems that could have led to catastrophic engine failure, the Henry B. Bigelow was running more than a month behind.

Now, the government research vessel is embarking on its annual spring voyage later than ever before, a delay that could have serious consequences for scientists’ ability to assess the health of some of the 52 fish stocks they survey, from the waters off North Carolina to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of Maine.

Fish migrate and change their feeding patterns as waters warm, which might make it difficult for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists to compare this spring’s survey of fish populations with previous counts.

The prospect of skewed data could complicate efforts for policy makers to set proper quotas, potentially leading either to overfishing or unnecessarily strict catch limits.

“I worry that this will create statistical noise and more uncertainty,” said Gary Shepherd, a fishery biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, where he and other scientists recommend quotas based on what the Bigelow catches, along with other data.

As the waters warm, some of the fish, such as herring, migrate out of the survey area and into the region’s rivers. Other species, such as squid, which are short-lived, might not survive in representative numbers through June, when the Bigelow is now scheduled to finish its survey.

“If the survey had started at its normal time, it would have found squid on the continental shelf,” said Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, a Washington-based group that represents the fishing industry. “But now it won’t because the survey doesn’t sample Nantucket Sound.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Reminder: NEFMC Atlantic Herring Workshop Next Week

May 10, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

New England Fishery Management Council to Host Atlantic Herring Workshop

May 16-17, 2016

Holiday Inn by the Bay

Portland, ME

The New England Council will hold a public workshop to gather input on the development of Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan.

Through Amendment 8, the Council is considering catch strategies that more explicitly account for herring’s role in the ecosystem. Three types of input are sought: 1.) desired strategy objectives; 2.) possible strategies; and 3.) how the to measure whether the strategies achieve the objectives.

All interested parties are invited to attend the workshop. More detailed information and an online registration form can be found here Atlantic Herring Workshop, May 16-17.

Atlantic herring rules change proposed

May 9, 2016 — Portsmouth, N.H. — Rules for Atlantic herring are being proposed by New Hampshire Fish and Game to help sustain the populations.

The rules are proposed to get New Hampshire into compliance with Amendment 3 to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for Atlantic herring.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is a deliberative body that coordinates the conservation and management of the 15 Atlantic coast states’ shared near-shore fishery resources for sustainable use.

Read the full story at WMUR

PENNSYLVANIA: Exelon reaches agreement to restore fish in Susquehanna

April 29, 2016 — Efforts to improve American shad and river herring populations in the Susquehanna River have increased thanks to a 50-year agreement announced on Monday by Exelon Generation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Josh Tryninewski, a biologist for the state Fish and Boat Commission who manages the shad restoration effort, said the river’s shad population has been declining since 2001 because of limited access to adequate spawning habitats.

Shad and river herring are returning to their spawning on the Susquehanna at their lowest numbers since the 1980s, according to Exelon’s news release. The population peaked in 2001, when hundreds of thousands of shad and river herring passed Exelon’s Conowingo Dam, but that number has dwindled to 1,500 shad and 1,000 herring per year.

Read the full story from The York Dispatch in Bloomberg

Atlantic Herring Landing Days for Area 1A’s Trimester 2 and Next “Days Out” Meeting Notice

April 28, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set the “days out” effort control measures for the 2016 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) as follows:

·         June 1 – 30: Vessels may land herring three (3) consecutive days a week.All other days are designated as “days out” of the fishery (e.g., vessels may not land herring).

·         July 1 – 14: Vessels may land herring four (4) consecutive days a week. All other days are designated as “days out” of the fishery.

·         July 15 – September 30: Vessels may land herring five (5) consecutive days a week until further notice. All other days are designated as “days out” of the fishery.

Landing days in New Hampshire and Massachusetts begin on Monday of each week at 12:01 a.m. Landings days in Maine begin on Sunday of each week at 6:00 p.m.

The initial Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (ACL) is 30,397 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for a carryover from 2014. The Area 1A sub-ACL will be adjusted after the final rule for the 2016-2018 herring specifications is released. The final 2016 Area 1A sub-ACL will include the following reductions: 8% bycatch, 3% research set-aside and 295 mt fixed gear set-aside. The Section allocated 72.8% of the sub-ACL to Trimester 2.

By starting with three landings days per week and then adjusting to four and then five days during Trimester 2, the allocation is projected to extend through the end of the trimester. Landings will be monitored closely and the directed fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when the trimester’s allocation is projected to be reached. The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort and adjust landing days as necessary on the following day:

·         Monday, July 11 at 10:00 AM

To join the call, please dial 888.394.8197 and enter passcode 499811 as prompted.

Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until June 1, 2016.  Please contact Ashton Harp at 703.842.0740 for more information.

Aquinnah Herring Cam Offers Fish’s Eye View of Underwater Action

April 28, 2016 — Since installing the Island’s first underwater herring cam in March, scientists for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), have had a fish’s-eye view of herring, otters, cormorants and other species making their way through a historic herring run in Aquinnah.

On a chilly afternoon this week, Bret Stearns, director of the tribe’s natural resources department, along with lab manager Andrew Jacobs, stood at the top of a steep bank looking down at a simple fish weir and monitoring station between Menemsha and Squibnocket ponds. Small metal poles formed a V-shaped fence, forcing anything larger than a minnow into a small chamber where an underwater camera is running 24 hours a day. Occasionally a cormorant would splash to the surface on the other side and paddle its way upstream, under a culvert and into Squibnocket Pond.

A long-running moratorium on herring fishing in the state applies to both commercial and recreational use, but Native American tribes are allowed to harvest the fish for sustenance. The natural resources department has long sought a better system to monitor the population and ensure that the fish are being harvested sustainably.

In the past, commercial harvests could provide an estimate for the overall population, Mr. Stearns said, but solid numbers were out of reach. In recent years, the data has been purely anecdotal. “There was really nothing to document how the population was doing,” Mr. Stearns said.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Portland Press Herald: Clean Water Rule will help sustain fishermen’s livelihoods

April 22, 2016 — SACO, Maine — You can learn a lot about the life cycle of certain types of fish by spending your time on the seas. As a small-scale, sustainable hook fisherman, I’ve certainly been able to learn a lot over my years. But more recently, some of what I’ve learned has me really scared.

Take herring, a fish that we see a lot of around New England. They make their way to inland rivers in the spring in order to spawn before heading offshore. The problem is, New England has had a huge problem with pollution in our waterways – and herring, at a very young age, are particularly susceptible to pollution. And what they take in could very well end up on your dinner plate.

The same is true with Atlantic salmon, a fish that was harvested here by Native Americans and Pilgrims hundreds of years ago – and that now is on the verge of extinction. Some will say that’s because of climate change, and that’s probably partially true. What they are missing is water quality.

Read the full editorial at the Portland Press Herald

As Pacific sardine collapse worsens, scientists worry about possible ripple in the ecosystem

April 19, 2016 — Nearly a year into a West Coast sardine fishing ban enacted to protect the collapsing population, the fish formerly worth more than $8 million to Oregon’s economy have shown no signs of a comeback.

New federal research indicates numbers of the small, silvery, schooling fish have plummeted further than before the fishing moratorium, dashing any hope of lifting it in 2016.

With the current sardine population hovering at 7 percent of its 2007 peak, fishermen now say they expect to wait a decade or more to revive the fishery.

“I don’t want to take a pessimistic view, but I would think we’ll be shut down until 2030,” said Ryan Kapp, a Bellingham, Washington, fisherman who advises the Pacific Fishery Management Council on sardines and other fish.

Sardines aren’t struggling in isolation. Other fish near the bottom of the marine food web, such as anchovies and herring, are also down. The shortage of sustenance is rippling upward to create crises for predator species from seals to seabirds.

Researchers can’t tell exactly what’s driving the die-off, nor how long it will last. Some say the crash can be attributed to cyclical boom-and-bust population dynamics sardines have always exhibited.

Read the full story at The Daily Astorian

Dedicated Man Helps Endangered Herring Complete Spawning Run

April 12, 2016 — When Bill McWha moved to Wakefield, RI, he expected to deliver packages for UPS. Instead, he found himself transporting tens of thousands of river herring en route to their spawning grounds on the Saugatucket River. According to National Geographic, McWha first visited the river in 2010 and saw thousands of river herring unable to pass the Main Street Dam. So, armed with only a net, he perched himself on a 14-foot board and scooped 10 to 15 fish at a time, then placed them back into the river above the dam.

Though many simply shook their heads, some curious passersby stopped to help. McWha and a dozen volunteers helped about 20,000 fish over the dam during the next three weeks. Since then, helping the herring on their spawning run has become an annual event in Wakefield. Every March and April, growing numbers of volunteers join McWha as he mounts a wooden platform and nets the fish.

McWha says that he felt terrible about the herring’s plight and knew that he had to help. To him, it was “a waste that these herring weren’t going to be able to spawn.”  McWha told National Geographic that he “felt an emotional connection to them, and just had to get them over the dam.”

McWha’s efforts expanded upstream in 2013, when volunteers used buckets to move fish beyond a second dam. In 2014, 75 volunteers, armed with only nets, helped an astonishing 72,000 fish navigate the Main Street Dam. Over the past year or so, however, efforts have slowed down as officials work on existing fish ladders, improving the run. McWha and his band of volunteers will be standing by to count fish and, if necessary, break out the nets and help fish over the dam.

See the full story at Field & Stream