Saving Seafood

As Long Island Sound warms, its fish species are changing

June 13, 2016 — During a day of fishing on Long Island Sound earlier this month, Richie Nickerson of Niantic caught 10 legal-sized scup, a black sea bass and a northern kingfish — all species he wasn’t likely to land when he first started angling in these waters 30 years ago.

Tony Murphy of Berlin, who fished from the Black Hawk charter boat with Nickerson, also reeled in a haul of scup, also called porgies, as did most of the other 38 fishermen on board that day.

“It used to be we’d strictly catch bluefish and striped bass,” Murphy said. “But now, there are just so many porgies.”

Scup, black sea bass and northern kingfish are just three of the species once more prevalent in warmer mid-Atlantic waters that are now becoming abundant in Long Island Sound.

As the warmer-water species move in, they compete for food and habitat with cold-water species, such as winter flounder and cod, that are now becoming scarce.

“Everything’s changing,” said Greg Dubrule, owner and captain of the Black Hawk, which takes daily boatloads of anglers into the Sound from its docks on the Niantic River.

“There’s no question that, because of the warmer water, we’re seeing more scup and black sea bass, which had always been a New Jersey and southern Long Island fish,” he said.

“Our mainstay used to be winter flounder and cod, but now it’s sea bass, scup and fluke,” he added, “and we’re catching a lot of trigger fish, which we never used to see.”

Read the full story at The Day

US Department of the Interior Approves New York City Offshore Wind Project, Commercial Fishermen Oppose

June 10, 2016 — The Offshore Wind Project in New York City is given a go signal by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) last week. On the other hand, the commercial fishermen disagree in building windmills on pylons within approximately 329 square kilometers of the New York Bight.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that the department took a major step in broadening the nation’s energy portfolio, channeling power near population centers on the East Coast. The Offshore Wind Project is a public-private collaboration by Con Edison, Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and New York Power Authority (NYPA).

Read the full story at Science World Report

Sen. Schumer: Closing Black Sea Bass Fishing Season Even Though Stocks Are Thriving May Dramatically Hurt LI Fishing Industry

June 6, 2016 — WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today called on federal fishery commissions, including the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, to update outdated and inflexible regulations and New York State DEC to re-evaluate New York’s black sea bass fishing season and consider opening it in June.

Schumer explained that New York’s black sea bass fishing season just closed on May 31st and will not begin again until July 1st. Schumer, today, said forcing the black sea bass fishing season to close – despite healthy stocks – without re-evaluating landing numbers could hurt Long Island’s commercial fishing industry, which supports direct and indirect jobs across the island.

Schumer pointed out that New York is already hurt by poor federally-generated yearly quota allocations, and said that losing out on any of the black sea bass quota due to a June closure would drastically hurt Long Island’s black sea bass commercial fishing industry.

“The black sea bass stocks are thriving and the industry is well below its allowable quota so it makes sense to keep open this fishery in June rather than close it,” said Senator Schumer. “We also must change the arbitrary and outdated federal regulations that hamstring the state DEC so we can more coherently and fairly manage the black sea bass fishery.”

Schumer continued, “Our Long Island fishing community is already reeling from low federal allotments, a closure and potential loss of black sea bass quota will throw it overboard. After a slow start to the black sea bass season, mostly due to weather, our Long Island commercial fishers are ready to bounce back and access the plentiful supply of sea bass, but instead they might fall flat if the feds and the state don’t throw them a line and let them do what they do best—fish. That’s why we should re-evaluate the current black sea bass season and consider opening it in June to help our Long Island fishing communities prosper in a way that is in balance with fishery management.”

Read the full story at LongIsland.com

NEWSDAY: New York fishers deserve fresh assessment of black sea bass

June 3, 2016 — Regulating fisheries isn’t easy. Commercial fishers need to make a living, but species must be protected from overfishing or everyone loses. Quotas and seasons are needed, but regulators must be flexible enough to adjust to unforeseen circumstances.

Those principles are in play now with black sea bass. Cold weather delayed their migration from Maine, so New York’s commercial fishers, most of them Long Islanders, caught only part of their quota in the period ending May 31. June is off-limits, part of a plan fishers helped craft to give equal access to those who fish in different seasons. The state Department of Environmental Conservation wisely agreed to reopen the season this month if final May data show unused quotas. The DEC also was smart to take the unusual step of letting pairs of fishers catch their daily allotment from the same boat, reducing costs of fuel.

Read the full editorial at Newsday

NEW YORK: Long Island Fishermen Trying To Prevent Repeat Of Last Year’s Massive Fish Die-Off

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — There is a new plan on Long Island to prevent a repeat of last year’s massive fish die-off.

CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported it involves bunker – a species of fish used for bait – that are being captured alive in Riverhead as East End fishermen are looking to avoid another Peconic River fish kill.

“We are over half-a-million pounds,” Lenny Nilson of L&L Wholesale Bait said. “In three weeks we are seeing a difference.”

Nilson is using small seine netting as Will Caldwell and his team are using a 300-foot nylon net rigged to a system Caldwell invented just for this purpose.

“We are trying out best here. I am losing sleep over it because I don’t want to be wrong about this,” Caldwell of Hampton Bays said. “I think it is definitely working. Just keep up hope the bluefish don’t come in great herds.”

This time last year the river, bay and marinas chocked with dead bunkers, which became a biological and tourism nightmare.

Read the full story at CBS New York

Long Island lobstermen decry new federal rules on closures

May 9, 2016 — Long Island lobstermen, already straining under the weight of a seasonal closure of the Long Island Sound and sharply reduced lobster populations, face the potential for more closures as federal regulators work to rebuild a depleted stock.

Local lobstermen oppose closures, and question how regulators are making their decisions.

At a meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission last week, the American Lobster Management Board agreed to review a series of new measures to address what they called the continuing decline in the Southern New England lobster fishery, which includes the Long Island Sound. The fishery has been affected by environmental factors and fishing activity, the board said.

“Our most recent [2015] assessment showed that the stock has continued to decline and we’re at record low abundance right now,” said Megan Ware, fishery management plan coordinator for the commission.

Read the full story at Newsday

Statement from the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association on ASMFC Marine Monument Policy

May 6, 2016 — The following statement was released by Bonnie Brady, Executive Director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, following the passage of the ASMFC motion calling for the president not to declare a marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean:

“The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association fully supports the motion approved by the ASMFC. The plan is a win for all. It allows for the protection of deep-sea corals, while at the at the same time protects commercial fishing jobs. It prevents the further contraction of our fisheries as we try to reclaim domestic markets from the onslaught of imported fish and shrimp, which too often is harvested by forced and involuntary laborers working in inhumane conditions.”

###

The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association works to promote and educate the public about commercial fishing on Long Island.

Read more about the ASMFC decision at Saving Seafood

Flounder Are Vanishing

April 29, 2016 — With winter flounder said to be almost nonexistent, Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences asked the East Hampton Town Trustees at a meeting on Monday to endorse the collection of data this summer in Napeague Harbor to find out why.

Ms. McElroy said not only were recreational landings of adult winter flounder in New York’s inland waters almost nonexistent but mortality for juveniles appears higher in Long Island waters than elsewhere. The study being planned would be funded by the National Marine Fisheries Service and include a random survey of waterways from Napeague to Jamaica Bay. The goal, she said, is to incrementally rebuild the stocks.

Genetic studies in 2010 and 2011 had found that winter flounder in Long Island waters come from a very small parental stock, she said. As few as 1,200 fish contributed to the individuals at six study sites across the island, with fewer than 200 contributing in some bays. “This was very troubling. The more diversity in the gene pool, the more ability to respond to changes in the environment,” she said.

The Stony Brook team is to count and measure all winter flounder to estimate mortality and to take samples from up to 50 fish to assess responses to stress, among other factors affecting the fishery. A caging study in three areas of Shinnecock Bay will collect up to 450 additional fish in an effort to determine optimum locations for caged fish, an effort to shield juveniles from predators. Mortality rates in and outside the cages will be measured, along with dissolved oxygen, salinity, and temperature.

Read the full story at the East Hampton Star

125 square miles off New York coast dedicated for wind power

March 17, 2016 — NEW YORK — Federal officials on Wednesday dedicated more than 125 square miles in the waters off the coast of Long Island for the development of commercial wind energy, pushing forward a renewable energy proposal initially created by New York utilities.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the state has “tremendous” offshore wind potential.

“Today’s milestone marks another important step in the president’s strategy to tap clean, renewable energy from the nation’s vast wind and solar resources,” she said in a statement.

The Long Island Power Authority, New York Power Authority and Con Edison initially went to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in 2011 with the proposal to build the farm in the Atlantic Ocean that would include up to 200 turbines generating about 700 megawatts of energy capable of powering about 245,000 homes. The price tag was estimated at between $2 billion and $4 billion.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

U.S. dedicates 81,000 acres off Long Island for commercial wind energy

March 16, 2016 — The yearslong process of assessing and approving an expansive wind-farm off the South Shore of Long Island moved another step forward Wednesday when the federal government formally designated the site a “wind-energy area.”

Fishing interests were quick to condemn the move, saying the government could have identified a much smaller segment or avoided the site entirely to protect vital fisheries for squid, monkfish, scallops and other species.

“We’re disappointed to say the least,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents 250 scallop fishing permit holders from Massachusetts to North Carolina. They face a combined loss of $5 million annually if the site becomes a wind farm.

Minkiewicz said the group would “use every means available” to stop the effort. The federal government “has to protect existing reasonable uses and they’ve done nothing of the sort so far. They’re clearly violating the law.” 

Read the full story at Newsday