Saving Seafood

California Considers Sport Crab Fishery for Action Relating to Whale Entanglement

April 19, 2019 — The California Fish and Game Commission is proactively working to avoid further whale entanglements — and further lawsuits.

On Wednesday the Commission approved the Marine Resources Committee to take up the issue of recreational crab fishing, and possibly other fixed gear fisheries, and its potential to entangle whales. The commercial fleet early on questioned why other fisheries, particularly sport fisheries, were not subject to the same scrutiny as the commercial sector.

The commercial season closed earlier this week, on April 15, as part of a settlement agreement between the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which intervened on the case.

CDFW Director Charlton “Chuck” Bonham said during the introduction that, despite a lot of the rhetoric, the increase in whale entanglements in 2015 and 2016 were examples of the real-life impacts of climate change. While the commercial crab season was delayed for months due to elevated levels of domoic acid, whales also ventured closer to shore in search of prey species. Both of those events were linked to warmer ocean waters.

Bonham said during the progression of the lawsuit, the department concluded the judge was likely to rule against the state. Had that happened, the court could have become a “special master” of the crab fishery, he said, and that inserting a federal judge in the management of the fishery wouldn’t make it any easier.

Thus, the state proceeded with settlement discussions between all three parties and began working with NOAA to establish a habitat conservation plan for the whales and get an incidental take permit for the fishery. The process could take up to two years. In the meantime, for some areas, particularly south of Mendocino County, the commercial fishery is scheduled to close on April 1.

The state also is accelerating its rulemaking activities relative to gear, furthering its gear retrieval program, restricting buoy and line configurations and furthering support for the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, Bonham said.

However, there’s also an equity issue, he said.

“It’s time to think about a refined approach to how we manage fixed gear in the water,” noting that recreational crab fishing could have similar issues with whale entanglements as the commercial crabbers have had.

PCFFA Executive Director supported the director’s comments.

“You can’t overstate the impact,” Oppenheim said of the effect on commercial fishermen and processors. “[It was] a seismic shock to our industry.”

The confidential nature of the settlement discussions did not allow any of the parties to discuss potential solutions with the broader fleet, leaving many crabbers frustrated when the agreement was finally disclosed. The fleet had less than a month to remove their gear from the water.

Oppenheim described the past few months as the worst period of his professional career, but it pales in comparison to the livelihoods of his members, he said. Many fishermen are losing the spring fishery on which they depend. Others had to delay their fishing seasons due to elevated levels of domoic acid, so the early closure only made things worse.

Now, recreational fishermen and other fixed gear fishermen may face the same quandary. Entanglements in other fisheries could have an impact on the settlement agreement.

Sport fishermen noted there are vast differences between commercial and sport crabbing gear and sport fishermen should not be subject to the same settlement agreement.

It’s manifestly unfair to apply that settlement on parties who had no representation to the discussion, said George Osborne, a lobbyist for the Coastside Fishing Club. Osborn said the club insists that any management measures on recreational crabbers be proportionate to the degree that anglers may be contributing to the whale and turtle entanglements.

Commission President Eric Sklar said the commission and managers recognize the differences between the fisheries.

The Marine Resources Committee will continue the discussion when it meets on July 11.

This article was republished with permission from SeafoodNews.com

Maine: Bills to address commercial license glitches

January 3, 2018 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Marine Resources will meet next Wednesday for hearings on three bills aimed at fine-tuning the state’s commercial fishing license system.

One bill, LD1652, would allow the Department of Marine Resources to set up a limited entry system for shrimp fishermen in any year when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission sets the state’s northern shrimp landings allocation at less than 2,000 metric tons. Currently there is a moratorium on shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine.

The ASMFC allowed Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts to establish limited entry programs in their individual shrimp fisheries in 2011 but, so far, that hasn’t happened anywhere.

LD1652 “was a department (DMR) bill,” committee Co-chairman Rep. Walter Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) said last week, adding that Commissioner Patrick Keliher was “reluctant” to establish a limited entry program for the fishery because “once you close it, it’s hard to reopen.”

Despite that difficulty, Kumiega said, given the poor status of the shrimp stock, “we may not have a choice. We don’t know when the next season will be, but it doesn’t hurt to have one in place”

The two other bills are more technical.

LD 1720 would extend the maximum duration of a temporary medical allowance for lobster and crab fishing license holders from one year to two. The bill also establishes a temporary terminal illness medical allowance that would allow the spouse or child of the terminally ill holder of a lobster and crab fishing license to fish on behalf of their family member in limited circumstances.

According to Kumiega, use of the medical allowance provisions is required “more often than you’d think,” and he recounted a personal exposure to a situation in which one spouse was able to haul gear for her husband while he was injured.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

MAINE: Committee to hear marine worm, elver bills

February 8, 2017 — The Legislature is in full swing and next Monday, the Marine Resources Committee will hold a public hearing on a controversial bill that could significantly alter two Maine fisheries.

Rep. Robert Alley (D-Beals) is offering a bill (LD 115) that would ban dragging for mussels in any Washington County river and close Maine intertidal flats to worm harvesting from Dec. 1 through March 31. Last week, the Independent Maine Marine Worm Harvesters Association sent a mailing to all marine worm license holders soliciting their opinions on the proposal.

Judging from responses posted on the association’s Facebook page and elsewhere online, there is little support for a closed season and a divided opinion on the dragging ban.

A few harvesters commented on Facebook that a four-month closure could cost Maine diggers the opportunity to ship worms to the busy European bait market during the winter. When digging resumed in the spring, they said, there would be little incentive for European buyers to come back into the Maine worm market. That could leave harvesters and dealers with an oversupply of worms for the domestic market, and that could reduce prices.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Maine May Adjust In-Season Fishing Days for Elvers

SEAFOODNEWS.COM (AP) — January 27, 2016 — Maine fishing regulators are considering changes to the rules governing fishing for baby eels.

Maine’s the only state in the country with a significant fishery for baby eels, called elvers. The elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them and use them as food, including sushi. Maine’s elvers were worth about $875 per pound in 2014, when fishermen caught a little less than 10,000 pounds.

The state Legislature’s marine resources committee is considering changes in the designation of the closed period for elver fishing. It is currently illegal to fish for elvers from noon Friday to noon Sunday during fishing season. A bill would change the closed period to a weekly 48-hour timeframe established before the start of the season.

The committee will consider the bill on Wednesday.

This story from the Associated Press appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

Some dislike proposal to ease long waits for Maine lobstering licenses

January 24, 2016 — It can take years for someone to move off a waiting list to become a commercial lobsterman in Maine, and for years fishermen have been trying to figure out a way to make the licensing process work while protecting the health of the lobster population.

Now a bill that aims to accomplish both goals appears to be headed for a fight when it goes before the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee on Feb. 10.

The bill, if enacted, probably wouldn’t have an impact on lobster prices or consumers, especially in the short term. But it could affect who gets some of the roughly 5,800 commercial lobster licenses available statewide. It also could make a difference in areas where lobstering is the major industry or where the population of lobstermen is older.

“People who live in struggling coastal communities care about this,” said Rep. Walter Kumiega, D-Deer Isle, sponsor of the bill and House chairman of the Marine Resources Committee.

The core issue is how to protect the state’s lucrative lobster fishery, which is in the midst of a boom even as the fishery has drastically declined in southern New England. In Maine the lobster haul reached 123.6 million pounds – worth a record $456.9 million – in 2014, the latest year for which statistics are available.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Lobster license bill hearing is scheduled

AUGUSTA, Maine — January 9, 2016 — A bill that would tweak the state’s commercial lobster license system is scheduled for a public hearing with the legislature’s Marine Resources Committee Feb. 3.

LD 1503, “An Act to Create a Class II Limited Lobster and Crab Fishing License and Improve the Limited-entry System,” was sponsored by Rep. Walter Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) and drafted in consultation with Department of Marine Resources staff. The bill makes some changes to entry into the lobster fishery and other changes to address latent effort (traps and licenses not being actively fished).

Between 2012 and 2014, only two fishermen were issued new licenses off the apprentice program waiting list in Zone B, which includes waters off Mount Desert Island. In that same period, 31 young people received Zone B commercial licenses when they upgraded their student licenses to commercial ones, bypassing the waiting list.

Zone B has a waiting list with 54 names, with the top seven having joined the list in 2005.

“Nobody expected the apprentice waiting lists to get this long,” Southwest Harbor fisherman Andy Mays said. “Once you make it so you can’t get a license, nobody’s gonna get rid of them. That’s why there’s so much latency.”

Read the full story opinion piece from the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Marine Resources Committee schedules hearing on elver legislation

January 6, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee has scheduled a public hearing on a bill introduced by Rep. Walter Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) that would give the Department of Marine Resources more flexibility in managing the elver fishery.

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13, in Room 206 of the Cross Building in Augusta.

Sen. Brian Langley (R-Hancock County) is among the bill’s co-sponsors.

Kumiega, House chairman of the Marine Resources Committee, has proposed a bill that would, he said last month, “provide increased flexibility and promote maximum utilization of the elver quota by Maine’s elver harvesters.”

The law as it now stands calls for a 48-hour fishing closure each week to give the juvenile eels, commonly known as elvers, a chance to pass upstream on their spring journey from the sea to their spawning grounds in Maine’s streams, lakes and ponds. The closed period is now set by statute and runs from Friday at noon to Sunday at noon each week. Kumiega’s bill would let DMR set the 48-hour closed periods by rule prior to the start of the season, based on the timing of the weekly tidal cycle. The department would consult with industry members to determine which weekly 48-hour period would have the least impact on the fishery opportunity by setting the closed periods when the tides are the least advantageous to harvesting.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American