The closure will allow the fish to spawn.
October 30, 2017 — Part of the New England herring fishery will be shut down for two weeks to allow the fish to spawn.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says samples from Massachusetts and New Hampshire show a high number of spawning herring in the area. That means a stretch of coast and ocean from Cape Cod to southern Maine will close from Oct. 29 to Nov. 11.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
October 30, 2017 — A conservation group’s discovery that no wild Atlantic salmon have returned to a key river in New Brunswick is prompting concern for the fish’s population health in the U.S. and eastern Canada.
The New Brunswick-based Atlantic Salmon Federation has been monitoring the Magaguadavic River for the Canadian government since 1992. The group says this year is the first time since then that no wild salmon have returned to the river to spawn.
Atlantic salmon were once abundant in rivers of New England and eastern Canada, but they’re now endangered or have disappeared in parts of both areas. The U.S.’s National Marine Fisheries Service is in the midst of reviewing the Gulf of Maine’s population, which is listed endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
About 900 wild salmon entered the river to spawn in 1983, and the fact that none returned this year is bad news for the fish’s population in Maine and Canada, said Neville Crabbe, spokesman for the Atlantic Salmon Federation.
“It means for the Magaguadavic River, whatever wild salmon that existed there are now extinct,” Crabbe said. “It affects the good work being done on all the rivers.”
October 27, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishery regulators will soon begin work on a new effort to get a handle on the population health of horseshoe crabs on the East Coast.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says its assessment of the horseshoe crab stock will begin this month.
Horseshoe crabs are economically important in part because of their role in medicine. They are harvested for their blue blood, which is used to make sure medical products aren’t contaminated. Horseshoe crab blood contains a chemical that is used to detect bacteria.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post
October 29, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — The Atlantic sturgeon’s population remains depleted along the East Coast, but appears to be slowly recovering.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says a stock assessment indicates the population is still very low compared to its historical abundance. But the commission also says the population has made some strides since the implementation of a complete fishing moratorium in 1998.
Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot
October 28, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Seafood lovers might see the return of Maine shrimp to fish market counters and restaurants next year if interstate regulators decide the critter’s population is strong enough.
The Maine shrimp fishery has been shut down since 2013, and a moratorium has been extended every year since. The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has said the shrimp are “considered at record low levels,” suffering from poor reproduction and warming oceans.
An arm of the commission is set to vote on Nov. 29 on whether the shrimp have recovered enough to withstand the return of commercial fishing. They were a popular winter seafood item in New England and beyond before the shutdown.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe
October 26, 2017 — A Waldoboro man has been sentenced in federal court to serve two years in prison for his role in an East Coast scheme that trafficked in millions of dollars in poached baby eels.
Richard D. Austin, 40, pleaded guilty in April to violating the federal Lacey Act by trafficking in baby eels, or elvers. He was accused of illegally harvesting roughly $190,000 worth of elvers in Massachusetts and Virginia from 2013 to 2015 and of selling the poached elvers to dealers in Illinois and New York.
Austin is the first to be sentenced to prison time of 18 men charged as a result of the so-called “Operation Broken Glass” federal investigation. All 18 men have pleaded guilty in the scheme but only five have been sentenced so far.
Appearing Wednesday in a federal courtroom in Norfolk, Virginia, Austin was ordered to report to federal officials to begin serving his sentence on Dec. 11 at a prison not yet selected. He also was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after he completes his prison term. He was ordered to pay a special assessment off $100 but was not ordered to pay any fines or restitution.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News
October 26, 2017 — 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.
Samples from the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area indicate a significant number of spawning herring, defined as 25% or more mature herring by number in a sample that have yet to spawn. As a result, the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area will re-close for two additional weeks, starting at 12:00 a.m. on October 29, 2017 and extending through 11:59 p.m. on November 11, 2017. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Massachusetts/New Hampshire 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 Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area.
The Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area includes all waters bounded by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine coasts, and 43° 30’ N and 70° 00’ W.
For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
To learn more visit their website at asmfc.org.
October 24, 2017 — NORFOLK, Va. — Interstate fisheries regulators voted last week to approve Maine’s elver landings quota for another year.
Meeting in Norfolk, Va., on Oct. 17, the American Eel Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission authorized Maine harvesters to land up to 9,688 pounds of elvers during the upcoming 2018 fishing season. That is the same quota the fishery has operated under for the past three years.
They also initiated an addendum to consider alternative allocations, management triggers and coastwide caps relative to the current management program for both the yellow and glass eel commercial fisheries starting with the 2019 fishing season.
Back in 2014, for the first time, the ASMFC established a quota for Maine’s glass eel (elver) landings. The quota governed the 2015 through 2017 fishing seasons. The regulators agreed to review that quota allocation before the 2018 season.
Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander
October 24, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal regulators say they have approved a change to fishing rules that will allow Maine and Massachusetts scallop fishermen opportunities to fish in state waters.
An arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says both states qualify for a program called the State Waters Scallop Exemption Program. The program allows some fishermen who are permitted to fish in federal waters to harvest scallops in state waters.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times
October 19, 2017 — NORFOLK, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp. The Amendment is designed to improve management of the northern shrimp resource in the event the fishery reopens (the fishery has been under moratorium since 2014). Specifically, the Amendment refines the FMP objectives and provides the flexibility to use the best available information to define the status of the stock and set the total allowable catch (TAC). Furthermore, the Amendment implements a state-specific allocation program to better manage effort in the fishery; 80% of the annual TAC will be allocated to Maine, 10% to New Hampshire, and 10% to Massachusetts. Fishermen with a trap landings history will continue to operate under gear-specific allocations (i.e., 87% of the state-specific quota will be allocated to the trawl fishery, and 13% to the trap fishery), however, the Section anticipates exploring alternative measures through the adaptive management process that would allow states to modify allocation between gear types on an annual basis. The Section also has the discretion to roll over unused quota from the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts to Maine by a date determined during annual specifications.
Additionally, the Amendment strengthens catch and landings reporting requirements to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported, and requires shrimp-directed trawl vessels to use either a double-Nordmore or compound grate system (both designed to minimize the catch of small, presumably male, shrimp). Other changes include the implementation of accountability measures (i.e., penalties if states exceed their quota), specification of a maximum fishing season length, and formalizing fishery-dependent monitoring requirements.
The Section will meet November 29 at the Westin Portland Harborview, Hotel 157 High Street, Portland, ME, to review the 2017 stock status report and set specifications for the 2018 fishing season. For more information, please contact, Max Appelman, FMP Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
A PDF version of the press release can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/59e8de69pr53NShrimpAm3_Approval.pdf.