Saving Seafood

Citizen scientists on the seaboard: How lobstermen gather data from the bottom of the ocean

July 5, 2017 — A few decades ago, Jim Manning wanted to know what was at the bottom of the sea. And after years of studying waterways on the Atlantic coast, he says he’s seen a steady change in ocean temperatures that he calls ‘unprecedented.’

Manning is an oceanographer at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He partners with lobstermen on the Northeast Shelf from Maine to New York, attaching low-cost temperature and depth loggers to some of the millions of lobster traps deployed throughout New England.

The project, called eMOLT (Environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps) records and plots long-term seabed temperature records.

Fishermen use bottom water temperatures to look for changes over time in their favorite locations, which might indicate lobsters are moving in or out of that area.

“Every day they go out, they wonder why does their catch change from day to day and what is it that drives the animals to one day go in the trap and others not,” Manning said. “Almost all of the hundreds of lobstermen that I’ve talked to are convinced that temperature is the big driver and what moves the animals. The more the temperature changes, the more the lobsters move. The more they move, the more [they are] exposed to the traps.”

About a dozen boats are outfitted with wireless sensors that can deliver data immediately as the fishing gear surfaces, allowing near real-time data transfer to NOAA.

Read the full story at FOX News

MAINE: Lobster marketing campaign draws criticism, converts

July 1, 2017 — San Francisco chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski were among the attendees at an after-hours Maine lobster tasting party in Portland, where new-shell lobster was the only item on the menu. They and other far-flung chefs spent a day on a lobster boat, mingled with lobstermen, talked to local chefs experienced with different ways to prepare it and ate buckets of it, be it on toast, in a chowder or on a bun.

“I’ve always liked lobster, but I fell in love with the story” of how it’s caught and by whom, Krasinski said. “We’ve had it before as a special, but it’s definitely going on our menu.”

That’s exactly the response the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, a group organized four years ago to promote Maine lobster, wanted to hear. It validates the collaborative’s two-year campaign to familiarize chefs with new-shell lobsters – also called soft-shells or shedders because they have just molted – through a series of tasting parties and marketing events in foodie cities across the nation.

Building that kind of demand is good for Maine’s $533 million lobster fishery, said collaborative director Matt Jacobson, especially in the summer, when almost all of the 6,500 licensed lobstermen are fishing, and much of the coastline is rolling in product. The new-shell campaign focuses on building demand in nontraditional lobster markets when supply is at its highest.

But some Maine lobstermen, especially those who fish Down East, say the collaborative’s focus on selling new-shell lobster in the summer is not helping them. They don’t start catching a lot of new shells until fall, when restaurants that focus on seasonal fare trade in lobster for mussels or duck and the biggest buyers left are Canadian processors eager to finally have the new-shell lobster market to themselves.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

This year, a welcome switch on bait supply for Maine lobstermen

June 29, 2017 — Maine lobstermen are hitting the water late this year because of cold weather, but without the cloud of a looming bait crisis hanging over them.

Bait freezers along the coast are full of herring and pogies, and even alewives, which means that bait is not only available, it is also much less expensive than last year when herring cost as much as 60 cents a pound, said Pat Keliher, commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources. This year the lobstermen’s go-to bait costs about half as much.

That’s still not a great price, Keliher said. Herring fetched about 18 cents a pound at the start of the 2015 lobstering season.

“I won’t say we’re in great shape, but we are in a heck of a lot better shape than we were last year,” Keliher said.

He attributed the strong start to basic supply-and-demand economics. When the supply of bait fish is high and demand is low, lobstermen do well.

Fishermen caught herring in the deep waters off Georges Bank earlier this year than they did in 2016, Keliher said. Although they’ve landed a little more than last year – about 19.9 percent of their quota, compared with 19.1 percent at the same time last year, according to this week’s federal landing reports – this year’s catch came early enough in the season to keep prices low.

The inshore herring fishery in the Gulf of Maine opened this month. The state is applying the same restrictions it implemented last year to stretch out this local supply of fresh herring deep into the summer, when the lobster season starts to peak. These measures include weekly landing limits, a limit on how many days a week herring can be landed, and a prohibition on the use of carrier-only fishing vessels.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

ASMFC 2017 Summer Meeting Preliminary Agenda & Public Comment Guidelines

June 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Please find attached and below the preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Meeting, August 1-3, 2017 in Alexandria, VA. The agenda is also available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2017-summer-meeting. Also included in the attachment are the travel authorization form, travel reimbursement guidelines and directions to the hotel.  Materials will be available on July 19, 2017 on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2017-summer-meeting.

A block of rooms is being held at The Westin Alexandria, 400 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA  22314. Cindy Robertson will make Commissioner/Proxy reservations and will contact you regarding the details of your accommodations. Please notify Cindy of any changes to your travel plans that will impact your hotel reservations, otherwise you will incur no-show penalties. We greatly appreciate your cooperation. 

For all other attendees, please reserve online or call The Westin Alexandria at 866.837.4210 as soon as possible and mention the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to obtain the group room rate of $174.00 plus tax single/dbl. Please be aware that you must guarantee your room reservation with a major credit card or one night’s advance payment. Hotel reservations must be made by Wednesday, July 5, 2017.  Room availability will not be guaranteed beyond this date.  If you are being reimbursed by ASMFC for your travel, please make your reservation directly with the hotel. Reservations made through travel websites do not apply toward our minimum number of required reservations with the hotel. Cancellations at The Westin must be made prior to 48 hours of arrival to avoid penalty. If you have any problems at all regarding accommodations please contact Cindy at 703.842.0740 or at crobertson@asmfc.org. For those driving to the meeting, the Colonial Parking Garage, 551 John Carlyle St. near the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Open 24hrs). The $10 daily rate there is a substantial savings over parking at the Westin.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

Summer Meeting

August 1-3, 2017

The Westin Alexandria

Alexandria, Virginia 

Preliminary Agenda

The agenda is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided below. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of Board meetings. Interested parties should anticipate Boards starting earlier or later than indicated herein.

Tuesday, August 1

8:00 – 9:30 a.m.                         Executive Committee

(A portion of this meeting may be a closed session for Committee members and Commissioners only)

  • Discuss Council/Commission Line in NOAA Budget
  • Discuss Executive Director’s Contract Renewal

9:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.              South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board

  • Review and Consider Cobia Draft Fishery Management Plan for Public Comment
  • Review and Consider Spot Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report for Management use
  • Technical Committee Update of Traffic Light Analysis for Atlantic Croaker and Exploratory Analyses for Incorporation of Shrimp Trawl Bycatch Index

1:45 – 2:45 p.m.                        Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program Coordinating Council

  • Program Update
  • Review and Consider Approval of Marine Recreational Information Program Recreational Implementation Plan
  • Recreational Data Collection: Changes on the Horizon

3:00 – 6:00 p.m.                        American Lobster Management Board

  • Consider American Lobster Draft Addendum XXV for Final Approval
  • American Lobster Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank Subcommittee Report
  • Review Draft Addendum XXVI
  • Report on State and Federal Inconsistencies in Lobster Conservation Management Area 4 Season Closure
  • Law Enforcement Committee Report on American Lobster Chain of Custody

Wednesday, August 2

8:00 – 10:00 a.m.                      Shad and River Herring Management Board

  • Review River Herring Stock Assessment Update
  • Review and Consider Approval of Shad and River Herring Sustainable Fishery Management Plans (SFMP)
  • Technical Committee Report
    • South Carolina: Updated River Herring SFMP
    • Florida: Updated Shad SFMP
  • Consider Approval of 2017 FMP Review and State Compliance Reports

10:15 – 11:15 a.m.                   American Eel Management Board

  •  Update on North Carolina Aquaculture Program in 2017
  • Consider Approval of 2016 FMP Review and State Compliance Reports

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.          Atlantic Menhaden Management Board

  • Review 2017 Stock Assessment Update

1:30 – 5:45 p.m.                        Atlantic Menhaden Management Board (continued)

  • Biological Ecological Reference Point Work Group Review of Hilborn, et al (2017) Paper
  • Review and Consider Approval of Draft Amendment 3 for Public Comment
  •  Set 2018 Atlantic Menhaden Fishery Specifications

Thursday, August 3

8:00 – 11:30 a.m.                      Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board

  • Executive Committee Report
  • State Director Meeting Overview
  • Consider New Jersey Appeal of Addendum XXVIII to the Summer Flounder FMP
  • Annual Report on the Performance of the Stocks
    • Review 2017 Atlantic Sturgeon Benchmark Stock Assessment Update
  • Consider Standard Operating Policies and Procedures for Standard Meeting Practices
  • Discuss New England Fishery Management Council Participation on the Atlantic Herring Section
  • Review Reports from the Assessment Science Committee, Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership, Habitat Committee, Artificial Reef Committee, Law Enforcement Committee, and Northeast and Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Programs

11:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m.            Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council

  • Update on Summer Flounder Recreational Working Group
  • Review of 2017 Black Sea Bass Recreational Measures
  • Consider Approval of 2017 FMP Review and State Compliance Reports

2:00 – 4:30 p.m.                        Tautog Management Board

  • Consider Amendment 1 for Final Approval 

Public Comment Guidelines

With the intent of developing policies in the Commission’s procedures for public participation that result in a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings: 

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will use a speaker sign-up list in deciding 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 a meeting week will be included in the briefing materials.
  2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on the Tuesday immediately preceding the scheduled ASMFC Meeting (in this case, the Tuesday deadline will be July 25, 2017) will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting and a limited number of copies will be provided at the meeting.
  3. Following the Tuesday, July 25, 2017 5:00 PM deadline, the commenter will be responsible for distributing the information to the management board prior to the board meeting or providing enough copies for the management board consideration at the meeting (a minimum of 50 copies).

The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.  As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail, fax, and email.

Lobstermen question the need for camera surveillance aboard vessels in Nova Scotia

June 26, 2017 — Several Nova Scotia lobster fishermen voiced doubt over their support of the possible implementation of vessel video surveillance during a workshop held last week in Lockport, Nova Scotia.

Camera surveillance aboard fishing boats was the primary topic of discussion during the 22 June information session hosted by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans and organized by the Ecology Action Center. The session was attended by more than a hundred southwest Nova Scotia fishermen, many of whom were concerned that the technology posed a threat to their privacy, CBC News reported.

Speakers including a fisherman from British Columbia and a program manager from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Discussion focused on the use of camera surveillance as a means to monitor catch and to cut down on bycatch, in particular regional endangered species such as Atlantic cod and cusk. However, many fishermen claimed practices are already in place that do enough to provide proper catch assurances.

Port La Tour fisherman Wilford Smith noted that the industry is already self-reporting its bycatch in logbooks, and throwing at-risk species back.

Regarding the prospect of camera surveillance on boats, Smith said: “What for? We’ve got nothing to hide…We’re not keeping nothing secret,” according to CBC News.

Spurred by insistence from main lobster-buying markets – including the United States, Europe and Asia – requiring evidence of the sustainability of imported seafood, the Nova Scotia lobster fishery obtained certification from the Marine Stewardship Council in 2015. As standards continue to evolve, though, the elements needed to prove the sustainability of catch is changing as well, and there aren’t a lot of options beyond camera surveillance that are cost-effective, according to Susanna Fuller, senior marine co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Center. While video surveillance isn’t being imposed upon Nova Scotia lobster fishermen, alternatives including at-sea observers will cost more, Fuller told CBC News.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine lobstermen win concession to fish in coral protection zone

June 22, 2017 — A deep-sea coral protection plan adopted Thursday won’t keep Maine fishermen out of their traditional Gulf of Maine fishing spots.

The New England Fisheries Management Council voted to ban all but lobstermen from fishing about 39 square miles of coral-rich area in two protection zones near Mt. Desert Rock and Outer Schoodic Ridge. About 50 Maine lobster boats from more than a dozen ports harvest more than $8 million worth of lobster from those areas, according to state estimates.

Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher called the coral protection plan a good compromise.

“The Gulf of Maine coral motion is one I helped perfect,” Keliher said. “It gives adequate protection to the corals in certain areas of the Gulf of Maine and it exempts lobster gear, which has a lot of landed value and really a very low impact to the corals. We think it’s a good balance. … I would rather take a bite of the apple here one bite at a time instead of trying to do it all.”

Keliher noted that most fishermen avoid corals “like the plague” because it destroys their gear and costs them money.

Lobstermen turned out in big numbers at some of the public hearings on these proposed coral zones, but their anxiety faded once the council decided to choose a proposal that would allow lobster fishing in these areas as the preferred option. The council could have reversed course, but such a turnaround is rare for a board that works so closely with the fishing industry.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Martha’s Vineyard ‘Permit Bank’ Looks To Buoy Small Fishermen

June 21, 2017 — Out on the docks of Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard, Wes Brighton rigged up lobster pots he planned to set the next day.

In an ideal world, he’d also be fishing for other species — like scallops and groundfish — but he can’t afford the expensive government-issued permits that would grant him the fishing rights.

“They’ve turned a public resource into a commodity, and they haven’t limited the people who can own that commodity to commercial fisherman,” Brighton said. “And so a fisherman who wants to go catch scallop quota inside of a small community, like we have here on Martha’s Vineyard, can’t access that … without coming up with a ton of money. “

The fishing boats and docks of Menemsha present a postcard view of Martha’s Vineyard. But through Brighton’s eyes, there’s more to the picture.

“Every time you look somewhere you are losing dock space on our own town dock, which has always been allocated to commercial fishing,” he said. “And just recently we lost a big chunk to a charter boat. It’s up to us to keep this fight because if we lose our tradition, we lose our heritage, and that’s something we just can’t let [happen].”

Read the full story at WBUR

For fish, the good and bad of warming ocean waters

June 19, 2017 — According to a recent study published in “Progress in Oceanography,” some fish species will thrive in warmer waters — and others, not so much.

Using a detailed climate model and historical observation data, researchers at NOAA and The Nature Conservancy modeled the shifting thermal habitats of over 50 species along the Atlantic coast, from North Carolina to the Gulf of Maine.

“So it’s basically a picture of the water temperature and the depths that individual species are most commonly associated with,” says lead author Kristin Kleisner, now a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund’s Fisheries Solutions Center.

Ocean temperatures in the region are expected to increase 6.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (3.7 to 5.0 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century, according to NOAA. For many species, like summer flounder, striped bass and Atlantic croaker, researchers found warming oceans could lead to increased habitat availability.

“Those are all species that are currently caught off the more southern portions of our coastline and they’re associated with warmer waters,” Kleisner says. “And these guys might do pretty well as climate changes and new areas of suitable thermal habitat open up for them.”

Kleisner is careful to point out that the study only considered water temperature and depth in its picture of thermal habitats. Other factors like ocean acidification could change the game for lobsters, for example, which otherwise stand to gain from warming waters. “That could be a pretty big wild card,” she says.

Meanwhile, for species like Atlantic cod, Acadian redfish and others found in northern coastal areas, the study’s picture “was not so rosy,” Kleisner says. That’s not to say these species won’t find suitable water temperatures in deeper waters, or further north, she adds — but their habitats may shift out of reach for some fishermen.

Read the full story at PRI.org

MASSACHUSETTS: Tarr proposal could buoy local lobster industry

June 20, 2017 — Tuesday is Lobster Day at the State House and lobster industry stakeholders are using the event to urge legislators to support a proposal to expand in-state processing of lobsters and lobster parts.

The proposal, contained in an amendment in the state Senate’s recently passed budget, would allow licensed Bay State wholesalers to process unfrozen raw lobsters, as well as allowing the sale of previously frozen raw in-shell tails and the importation of unfrozen shell-on lobster parts and tails.

“Right now, we depend on Canada for so much of our processing facilities,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, which supports the proposal. “This would allow us to do that processing here in Massachusetts, helping us to create jobs here and create markets for our lobster products.”

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, who championed the amendment in the Senate budget, said the bill would modernize the current law and help accelerate local economic activity for lobstermen, processors, restaurants and food stores. Tarr also represents two of the state’s biggest ports for lobsters: Gloucester and Rockport.

The House version of the budget, Tarr said, currently seeks funds for further study.

“We’re trying to convince the House to go beyond a study and include the actual action of expanding the different types of lobster processing allowed in Massachusetts,” Tarr said.

Currently, the sale of live, cooked and canned lobster is legal in Massachusetts, as is the processing and sale of frozen lobster tails. In 2012, the legislature changed the state law to allow the in-state processing of frozen cooked lobster tails — but no raw tails or other lobster parts.

Massachusetts lobstermen and seafood wholesalers have been required to sell or transport lobsters out of state for the majority of processing, leading to higher industry costs and limiting the creation of medium and high-skilled seafood processing jobs, Tarr said.

The initial rationale, he said, for the more restrictive regulations was to prevent poachers from taking short lobsters and mutilating them for the parts.

“The time between 2012 and now has given the Environmental Police the chance to develop enforcement methods to prevent that from happening,” Tarr said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Climate Change, and Cod, Are Causing One Heck of a Lobster Boom in Maine

June 15, 2017 — Maine has had a commercial lobster industry since the 1700s, and the lobster’s place in food has changed a lot during that time.

Today, Maine is faced with an unprecedented glut of lobsters–so many that the price of lobster is on the way down. But it wasn’t always so. And it may be different tomorrow.

In the 1600s and 1700s, writes Daniel Luzer for Pacific Standard, there were so many lobsters around Massachusetts Bay Colony, for instance, that they washed up on the beach in piles two feet high. “People thought of them as trash food,” Luzer writes. The ocean bugs were regarded as food for lower-class people and convicts, and used as fertilizer at times.

That began changing in the 1800s. Lobster prices–and interest in eating lobster–began to go up and down according to price, culinary innovations (like cooking lobster alive rather than dead) and availability. A century and a half later, he writes, “lobster was firmly established as a delicacy; lobster was something movie stars ate when they went out to dinner.”

On the coast of Maine, lobster culture became a way of life. But all was not well. .In the early twentieth century, once-abundant lobster had become rare, writes the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, and “there were plenty of rumors about lobstermen turning to rum-running along the Maine coast during Prohibition days.”

According to Gwynn Guilford for Quartz, lobster stocks dwindled and the number of boats fishing lobster went up–a pattern, she writes, that looked like that of “other fisheries on the eve of collapse.” But today, Maine is in the midst of a lobster boom.

Maine now produces 80 percent of American-caught lobster, writes Justin Fox for Bloomberg View, and more than seven times the average take in a pre-2000 year.

Read the full story at Smithsonian.com