Saving Seafood

MAINE: Lobstermen plagued by low catch, low prices

September 1, 2017 — As the shedder, or soft shell, season winds down with higher value hard shell lobsters on the horizon, local lobstermen are hoping to turn what has so far been a dismal season around.

Lobsters are in hiding, or so it seems to lobstermen.

“I’d say we’ve caught about half the lobsters [than in recent years],” Stonington lobsterman Tony Bray said of the 2017 season.

The Stonington Lobster Co-op, which buys a large proportion of the local catch, reported a 25 to 30 percent drop in volume over last year.

“The lobsters are out there, so this is not likely reflective of a resource decline,” said Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries scientist Carla Guenther, who follows Department of Marine Resources data monitoring. “It may be reflective of a habitat shift as to where the lobsters are, and a behavior shift as a reaction to the colder water.”

For lobstermen, low volume doesn’t equal higher prices. At the dock, price per pound has dropped about 20 percent, with the Co-op paying $2.65 per pound, compared to $3.25 this time last year.

Read the full story at the Castine Patriot

MAINE: Scallop fishery to open through lottery, new legislation

September 1, 2017 — New legislation intended to open up scallop fishing, called An Act to Implement an Owner-Operator Requirement in the Scallop and Sea Urchin Fisheries, passed House and Senate votes in the 128th Legislature and was signed into law in July.

“That was a huge win for the scallop industry,” Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries Communications Director Caroline Goddard said.

New scallop dragging licenses could be issued, at the earliest, for the 2018-19 season. How they will be issued is currently under discussion by the Department of Marine Resources.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion that there will be new licenses,” said DMR Scallop Advisory Council member Carla Guenther, who is a scientist with Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries.

Read the full story at Penobscot Bay Press

States Schedule Hearings on Atlantic Menhaden Draft Amendment 3

August 17, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

August 31, 2017 — This press release revises the release distributed August 17th with the addition of Maryland’s public hearing information. All other information remains the same.

September 20, 2017 — This press release revises the release distributed on August 31st, rescheduling Florida’s hearing from September 26th to October 10th. Details on PRFC’s listen only webinar are also provided below.

The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Florida have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The details of those hearings follow.

Maine Dept. of Marine Resources

October 5, 2017; 6 PM

Yarmouth Town Hall

200 Main Street

Yarmouth, ME

Contact: Pat Keliher at 207.624.6553

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department

October 3, 2017; 7 PM

Urban Forestry Center

45 Elwyn Road

Portsmouth, NH

Contact: Cheri Patterson at 603.868.1095

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

October 2, 2017; 6 PM

Thayer Public Library, Logan Auditorium

798 Washington Street

Braintree, MA

Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531

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October 5, 2017; 6 PM

Bourne Community Center, Room 2

239 Main Street

Buzzards Bay, MA

Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531

Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife

October 4, 2017; 6 PM

University of Rhode Island Bay Campus

Corless Auditorium, South Ferry Road

Narragansett, RI

Contact: Robert Ballou at 401.222.4700 ext: 4420

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

September 11, 2017; 7 PM

CT DEEP Boating Education Center

333 Ferry Road

Old Lyme, CT

Contact: Mark Alexander at 860.447.4322

New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation

September 12, 2017; 6 PM

NYSDEC Division of Marine Resources

205 N. Belle Mead Road

East Setauket, NY

Contact: Jim Gilmore at 631.444.0430

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

September 13, 2017; 6 PM

Manahawkin (Stafford Township) Courtroom

260 East Bay Avenue

Manahawkin, NJ

Contact: Russ Allen at 609.748.2020

Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

September 14, 2017; 6 PM

DNREC Auditorium

89 Kings Highway

Dover, DE 19901

Contact: John Clark at 302.739.9914

Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources

September 18, 2017; 6 PM

Anne Arundel Community College

Cade Center fr the Fine Arts – Room 219

101 College Parkway

Arnold, MD

Contact: Lynn Fegley at 410.260.8285

 

Potomac River Fisheries Commission

September 19, 2017; 6 PM

Carpenter Building

222 Taylor Street

Colonial Beach, VA

Contact: Martin Gary at 804.456.6935

Virginia Marine Resources Commission

September 20, 2017; 6 PM

Northumberland High School

201 Academic Lane

Heathsville, VA

Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247

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September 21, 2017; 6 PM

2600 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor

Newport News, VA

Contact: Rob O’Reilly at 757.247.2247

North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

September 27, 2017; 6 PM

Central District Office

5285 US Highway 70 West

Morehead City, NC

Contact: Michelle Duval at 252.808.8013

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

October 10, 2017; 6 PM

Town of Melbourne Beach Community Center

507 Ocean Avenue

Melbourne Beach, FL

Contact: Jim Estes at 850.617.9622

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Draft Amendment 3 seeks to manage the menhaden resource in a way that balances menhaden’s ecological role as a prey species with the needs of all user groups. To this end, the Draft Amendment considers the use of ecosystem reference points (ERPs) to manage the resource and changes to the allocation method. In addition, it presents a suite of management options for quota transfers, quota rollovers, incidental catch, the episodic events set aside program, and the Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap.

The 2015 Benchmark Stock Assessment Report identified the development of ERPs as a high priority for Atlantic menhaden management. Menhaden serve an important role in the marine ecosystem as prey for a variety of species including larger fish (e.g. weakfish, striped bass), birds (e.g. bald eagles, osprey), and marine mammals (e.g. humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins). As a result, changes in the abundance of menhaden may impact the abundance and diversity of predator populations, particularly if the availability of other prey is limited. ERPs provide a method to assess the status of menhaden within the broad ecosystem context. Draft Amendment 3 provides a variety of reference point options, including the continued development of menhaden-specific ERPs as well as the application of precautionary guidelines for forage fish species.

Draft Amendment 3 also considers changes to the allocation method given concerns that the current approach may not strike an appropriate balance between gear types and jurisdictions. Specifically, under the current allocation method, increases in the total allowable catch (TAC) result in limited benefits to small-scale fisheries, and to several states. Furthermore, the current method may not provide a balance between the present needs of the fishery and future growth opportunities. Draft Amendment 3 considers a range of allocation alternatives, including a dispositional quota (bait vs. reduction), fleet-capacity quota (quota divided by gear type), jurisdictional quota, including a fixed minimum quota for each state, and an allocation method based on the TAC. In addition, the document considers five allocation timeframes including 2009-2011, 2012-2016, 1985-2016, 1985-1995, and a weighted approached which considers both historic and recent landings.

The Draft Amendment is available here or on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Amendment either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on October 20, 2017 and should be forwarded to Megan Ware, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Amd. 3). If your organization is planning to release an action alert in response to Draft Amendment 3, please contact Megan Ware at 703.842.0740, so she can work with you to develop a unique subject line to enable us to better organize and summarize incoming comments for Board review.

Final action on the Amendment, as well as specification of the 2018 TAC, is scheduled to occur on November 14th at the BWI Airport Marriott, 1743 West Nursery Road, Linthicum, MD. For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Monuments Review Spurs Call to Overhaul Antiquities Act

Interior Department does not recommend overturning any designations

August 28, 2017 — The Interior Department’s conclusion of a contentious review of national monuments might give Congress some impetus to revisit the Antiquities Act of 1906, which presidents of both parties have used to designate monuments through executive action.

House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop on Thursday called for Congress to overhaul the Antiquities Act to place “reasonable limits” on the way presidents use the statute. Bishop’s statements came shortly before the Interior Department submitted recommendations to the White House after an executive-ordered review of monument designations made over the last two decades.

Bishop, a Utah Republican and forceful critic of federal control of public lands in the West, said in a call with reporters that the Obama administration had abused the statute that allows presidents to designate national monuments without congressional action. The Interior review, he said, was necessary because some of the designations were a result of abuse of the statute and did not allow for adequate input by local communities.

“If we don’t reform the Antiquities Act, we will have a replication of failures,” Bishop said. “If the procedure is flawed, the product is going to be flawed.”

Former President Barack Obama’s most contentious designation, the creation of the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears monument, drew much opposition from Bishop and other Utah lawmakers, who lobbied the Trump administration for its reversal. Another of the more contentious ones is Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, which marked its first anniversary Thursday.

Read the full story at Roll Call

MAINE: Woman’s Body Recovered Off Shore of Biddeford Pool

August 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine State Police/Marine Patrol Dive Team has recovered the body of a woman who was on-board a recreational fishing boat today approximately 10 miles off Biddeford Pool.

The woman was among four people fishing when their 21 foot boat was capsized by a wave at approximately 10:30 a.m. Three of the people were rescued by a good samaritan who heard a hand gun fired by one of the occupants of the boat as a distress call.

A search was begun in the vicinity of the boat as soon as it was determined that one of the party was missing.

Involved in the search were the Maine Marine Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Scarborough Fire Department, the Biddeford Pool Police Department, and the Saco Fire Department. Several private citizens also took part in the search.

No one on the boat was wearing a life jacket, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.

The woman’s body was recovered at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Names of the deceased and survivors are being withheld until notification of next of kin.

Atlantic Herring Eastern Maine Spawning Closure in Effect Starting August 28, 2017 through September 24, 2017

August 23, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic herring Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure. However, if sufficient samples are not available then closures will begin on predetermined dates.

There is currently only one sample for the Eastern Maine spawning area to determine spawning condition; therefore, the Eastern Maine spawning area will be closed starting at 12:00 a.m. on August 28, 2017 extending through 11:59 p.m. on September 24, 2017. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Eastern Maine spawning area during this time and must have all fishing gear stowed when transiting through the area. An incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip/calendar day applies to vessels in non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Eastern Maine spawning area.

Eastern Maine spawning area includes all waters bounded by the following coordinates:

Maine coast   68° 20’ W

43° 48’ N       68° 20’ W

44° 25’ N       67° 03’ W

North along the US/Canada border

For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

A PDF version of the announcement can be obtained here –http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerring_EasternMaineSpawningClosure_Aug2017.pdf.

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section to Meet August 31st in Portland, ME to Consider Approval of Amendment 3

August 23, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet on August 31st from 1 – 3:30 PM at the Westin Portland Harborview, Winslow Homer Ballroom, 157 High Street, Portland, ME (Tel: 207.775.2411). The Section will be reviewing submitted public comment and considering final action on Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp.

While the fishery is currently under a moratorium, the Amendment considers measures to improve management of the northern shrimp resource in the event the fishery reopens. Proposed options include state-by-state allocations and accountability measures to better manage effort in the fishery. The Draft Amendment also explores the mandatory use of size sorting grate systems to minimize harvest of small (presumably male) shrimp, as well as reporting measures to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported. 

If approved by the Section, the Amendment will be forwarded to the Commission’s Business Session for final approval in October at the Commission’s Annual Meeting.

Meeting materials for the Section meeting can be accessed at  http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/NShrimpSectionMtgMaterials_Aug2017.pdf.

A PDF version of the press release can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/599da091pr38NShrimpSectionMtg_Aug2017.pdf.

Where’s the kelp? Warm ocean takes toll on undersea forests

August 22, 2017 — APPLEDORE ISLAND, Maine — When diving in the Gulf of Maine a few years back, Jennifer Dijkstra expected to be swimming through a flowing kelp forest that had long served as a nursery and food for juvenile fish and lobster.

But Dijkstra, a University of New Hampshire marine biologist, saw only a patchy seafloor before her. The sugar kelp had declined dramatically and been replaced by invasive, shrub-like seaweed that looked like a giant shag rug.

“I remember going to some dive sites and honestly being shocked at how few kelp blades we saw,” she said.

The Gulf of Maine, stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, is the latest in a growing list of global hotspots losing their kelp, including hundreds of miles in the Mediterranean Sea, off southern Japan and Australia, and parts of the California coast.

Among the world’s most diverse marine ecosystems, kelp forests are found on all continental coastlines except for Antarctica and provide critical food and shelter to myriad fish and other creatures. Kelp also is critical to coastal economies, providing billions of dollars in tourism and fishing.

The likely culprit for the loss of kelp, according to several scientific studies, is warming oceans from climate change, coupled with the arrival of invasive species. In Maine, the invaders are other seaweeds. In Australia, the Mediterranean and Japan, tropical fish are feasting on the kelp.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

Maine fishermen, scientists combine forces with goal to save shrimp fishery

A new Fisheries Management Plan has been created for the fishery that has been closed since 2014.

August 21, 2017 — For more than 20 years, Dana Hammond made close to half his annual income shrimping. But his shrimping profits began to dwindle in 2013. That season, regulators were alarmed by the lack of shrimp biomass in the Gulf of Maine, and the amount he was allowed to catch was cut 72 percent. The fishery was closed entirely in 2014. It hasn’t reopened since and Hammond, who fishes out of Portland on his boat the Nicole Leigh, has been trying to make up the deficit from his other main source of income, groundfishing.

But Hammond isn’t ready to let shrimping go. It’s an ideal winter fishery for him, allowing him to stay close to shore during rough and cold weather. He’s so vested in the future of the fishery that this summer he went to sea with the Northeast Fisheries scientists who conduct the annual summer survey, the main source of data that determines the status of the fishery every year.

“I didn’t get paid,” Hammond said. “I went anyway because I want to make sure they are doing stuff right.”

Hammond’s goal is to help the scientists be better fishermen – the more they catch, the more likely it is his fishery will reopen. Or better put, the more shrimp the survey finds, the better chance it is that there will be another season for Maine shrimpers. The survey concluded earlier in August and though its findings won’t be available until late October, it is the key to determining whether Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide at its meeting in early to mid-December whether to reopen the fishery for the tiny Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) in 2018.

In the event that the fishery does reopen, it will likely follow different rules. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has, with the cooperation and input of local fishermen, developed a new Fisheries Management Plan, updated in consideration of the recent problems in the shrimp fishery. That plan, known as Amendment 3 will be finalized at a meeting in Portland on Aug. 31.

Typically, putting the regulatory side of a fishery in contact with those who do the fishing entails some tension, distrust even, the kind that can make for a combative relationship. The people who make their living on the water don’t want to be told what to do and how to do it, especially not by people who came up in the world of petri dishes and test tubes, not traps and trawls.

But as the Northern shrimp fishery faces the most extreme challenge in a history that spans nearly a century, the relationship between shrimpers and scientists has become, cautiously, more collaborative. The more so the better, from the perspective of fisheries biologist Peter Chase, who oversees the annual survey for the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center. He’s used to getting a lot of questions about the survey as soon as he comes ashore in summer – starting with, “did you see a lot of shrimp?” Moreover, he understands the frustrations of the fishermen. Some of them “have been vocal about complaining about our survey,” he said. “Others have been really helpful.” Like Hammond.

“It shouldn’t be an us-versus-them thing here,” Chase said. “I don’t want to put anyone out of business.”

“We want to be in this together,” he added. “This is research that I am hoping will show that the resource is coming back.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Days Out Call for August 23 Cancelled

August 18, 2017 — 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 effort control measures for the Area 1A fishery via Days Out meetings/calls.

The previously scheduled Days Out call on August 23, 2017 at 10:00 AM has been cancelled. The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts will continue to monitor landings information and will schedule a call if necessary. If a call is scheduled, at least 48 hours’ notice will be provided.

Please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.