Saving Seafood

Charter boat owners see jump in cancellations as cod ban takes effect

August 14, 2017 — A new rule that recreational anglers in the Gulf of Maine can’t keep cod they catch is putting the squeeze on the charter boat industry, business owners say.

Capt. Don Taylor runs a six-person charter boat out of Rye Harbor. He said he can see the scientific reasoning behind imposing the restriction, but says it is causing people to cancel their reservations — even though they can still keep haddock, cusk and hake.

“I don’t think not allowing us to have one cod per person on a boat is going to make any difference at all. That’s my opinion on it,” Taylor said. “I think they’re going a little overboard, myself, and it’s hurting the charter boat industry.”

Allison Ferreira, who is in charge of communications for the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office in Gloucester, Mass., said the reason for the restriction is that recreational fishermen exceeded their cod catch limit by 92 percent last year.

Federal officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use estimates from the Marine Recreational Information Program to determine if a population is being overfished. In addition to getting reports from charter boat captains, they survey individuals who go out on their own boats.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader

How Good Data Keeps America Fishing

February 13, 2017 — There are many ways to have a good day out on the water. The ocean gives us endless opportunities to find joy, exhilaration and happiness—playing on the beach, snorkeling, diving and fishing. Most recreational fishermen I know measure their good days by the number and size of fish they’ve reeled in. But it turns out those numbers are important for another reason, too—that’s critical data that ensures there are plenty of fish left for not just for your next trip but also for your kids’ and their grandkids’ trips.

Recreational fishing is a big deal in areas like the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic. That means a lot of folks are out on the water and those coolers of fish start to add up. In 2015, 8.9 million saltwater anglers took 61 million fishing trips in U.S. waters. This industry is responsible for driving $60 billion in sales impacts into coastal communities through purchases like fishing trips and equipment, spending in hotels and restaurants.

With so much riding on the line, it’s important that we manage our fish sustainably, which means having reliable, accurate data of how many fish we’re taking out our ocean each year. That task falls on the Marine Recreational Information Program or MRIP (em-rip). It is housed in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) but works closely with state and local wildlife programs.

Read the full story at the Ocean Conservancy

JIM HUTCHINSON JR: WILL ANGRY ANGLERS RESPOND TO FLUKE FIASCO?

November 28th, 2016 — Seriously, reading any further is just going to make you incredibly angry.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this, the coastwide quota for summer flounder (fluke) in 2017 is expected to be cut by about 40%. That means a shorter season, lower bag, an increase in size limits, or any combination of the three.

Pardon my French, but I told you that you’d be pissed!

The question is, what are you – what are we going to do about it?

NOAA Fisheries recently announced that their July 2016 summer flounder assessment shows continued overfishing and a fluke stock biomass in decline; in response, the federal government proposes a 30% reduction from catch limits previously implemented for the 2017 season, along with a 16% reduction from current 2018 allocations.

Because the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) showed gross overharvest in the recreational sector in 2016, that means we’re officially “overfishing” the fluke stock. That’s not to say the stock is in trouble, but because MRIP showed anglers caught too many fish this past summer, we now have a summer flounder stock that is experiencing statutory overfishing.

Read the full story at The Fisherman 

Summary of ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass & Bluefish Management Boards

July 7, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass and Bluefish Management Boards met via conference call to review the latest recreational harvest estimates from the Marine Recreational Information Program. Most notably for both bluefish and black sea bass, the final 2015 recreational harvest estimates were uncharacteristically larger than the preliminary estimates. Based on this information, the Board discussed the need to change state recreational measures for the 2016 fishing season. While no management action was taken for bluefish since the 2016 annual catch limit had not been exceeded, the Board briefly discussed the possibility of transferring unused recreational quota to the commercial fishery (as allowed under the FMP). However, based on final 2015 bluefish harvest estimates, NOAA Fisheries anticipates the 2016 recreational quota will be fully utilized, prohibiting any transfer to the commercial sector. NOAA Fisheries will be releasing a final rule on 2016 bluefish fishery later this month. The Board and Mid‐Atlantic Fishery Management Council will discuss the final rule at their joint meeting in August.

Taking several factors into consideration, the Board chose to not take any management action for the recreational black sea bass fishery. Its decision was based on (1) the validity of the harvest estimates given the significant change from preliminary to final numbers; (2) concern about changing recently promulgated state regulations; (3) concern regarding socioeconomic impacts to the for‐hire industry; (4) difficultly in enforcing mid‐season regulatory adjustments; and (5) the potential for increases in discard mortality under more restrictive measures. The Board discussed a number of ways NOAA Fisheries could improve the annual specification process for these species. These include providing a more timely delivery of final recreational harvest numbers from the previous season, which would allow the states to more precisely tailor their regulations; incorporating vessel trip reports in its preliminary harvest estimates; and seeking ways to increase sample sizes in the for‐hire fishery to more accurately represent catch and effort in this sector.

See the full summary at the ASMFC