Saving Seafood

MARYLAND: After 42 years of fishing, he’s never seen anything like this 310-pound bull shark

August 15, 2018 — In the picture, the bull shark towers over the Maryland fisherman.

Larry “Boo” Powley stares into the camera, seemingly unfazed.

The story of how the 65-year-old commercial fisherman came to pose with a 310-pound bull shark began Monday morning when Powley set out on the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland.

Powley, who has been on the water for 42 years, said he was planning to catch his usual crop of menhaden, a common fish often used in fish oils for humans and bait for blue crab. Menhaden measure 15 inches at most, so the 8.6-foot-long bull shark that got stuck in his trap off Cedar Point, in St. Mary’s County, around sunrise wasn’t hard to notice.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Sportfishing Association opposes oil, gas, seismic testing along Atlantic coast

August 9, 2018 — The White Marlin Open is a hallmark event in Ocean City.

Last year, the tournament brought in more than 350 boats and 3,000 contestants – the camarederie and excitement were palpable.

The excitement this year is similar to last, but something has changed. We’ve all heard about the plans to open the Atlantic to drilling.

For the first time, fishermen are facing the prospect of our fisheries being pummeled by explosive noise, and our waters tainted by oil. Could this be our last tournament before oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic changes fishing and the town of Ocean City forever?

The Atlantic Coast Sportfishing Association hopes not.

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

VIRGINIA: Menhaden landings pacing below disputed cap

August 8, 2018 — Chesapeake Bay landings of menhaden are coming in at a pace well below a controversial cap imposed by an interstate fisheries commission, Virginia Marine Resources Commissioner Steven Bowman said.

As of the end of June, landings for the so-called reduction fishery came in at 24,000 metric tons, Bowman told the management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) this week.

He said that meant landings this year would almost certainly come in below the 51,000-ton cap the interstate commission imposed last year — a cut of more than 40 percent that the General Assembly balked at adopting.

Bowman, joined by Maryland’s director of fisheries, asked the board to hold off declaring that Virginia was not in compliance with the cap because the General Assembly had not written the 51,000-ton limit into state law.

That finding, if adopted by the commission and accepted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, could shut down the menhaden fishery, which employs about 300 people working on Omega Protein’s fishing boats and its processing plant in Reedville, on the Northern Neck. While the cap applies only to menhaden caught by the big “purse seine” vessels Omega operates to catch fish to be processed for oil and fish meal, board members said a finding of noncompliance could shut down the bait fishery, in which smaller operators use a different technique to catch fish used by crabbers and in commercial fin-fisheries

Instead, Bowman and Blazer proposed that the commission find Virginia out of compliance if landings this year actually exceeded 51,000 tons.

That effort failed, but the board decided to delay until February acting on an alternative declaring Virginia out of compliance.

Omega spokesman Ben Landry said he believed the menhaden board’s decision to delay acting reflected commissioners’ new-found concern, underlined by NOAA’s Lynch, about the scientific basis for the cap.

“We have no intention of blowing past the 51,000,” he said. “But it’s an artificial number … our concern is flexibility; if there are storms out in the ocean, we’d like to be able to come into the bay.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

Southern Maryland county considers limiting dock access for oyster farmers

August 7, 2018 — Oyster farming has grown rapidly in Maryland in recent years — too rapidly, in the eyes of some. Last week, spurred by complaints from waterfront homeowners and others, local elected officials in St. Mary’s County moved to put the brakes on the burgeoning industry along their shoreline.

The Southern Maryland county’s board of commissioners voted on July 31 to hold a public hearing on Aug. 28 on a proposed 18-month moratorium on the use of commercial docks to land oysters from any newly issued aquaculture leases in local waters.

Randy Guy, president of the five-member board of commissioners, said they want to “slow down” what he called a proliferation of oyster farming operations in St. Mary’s. The county has no direct role in the approval of state-issued aquaculture leases, so they’re looking to change that by asserting local zoning control over the use of docks and marinas that support the shellfish enterprises.

“We’ve got people coming in who are not involved in the local water culture,” Guy said, noting that some of those seeking leases don’t live in St. Mary’s. “We feel some of this is restricting recreational areas and causing hazards for boating. … I’m worried about an accident happening.”

He and other commissioners — three of whom own waterfront homes — have said they’re also concerned about the aesthetics and impacts on property values from cages or floating baskets of oysters in front of waterfront homes. And at least a couple contend homeowners should have a say in whether they’re permitted.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Company to explore ocean floor off Maryland’s coast to prepare for offshore wind plans

August 1, 2018 — Deepwater Wind, which operates a wind farm in waters off Rhode Island, wants to build another one off the Maryland coast. But before its proposal can go forward, the company needs to know what lies on the sea floor here — and within the ancient layers of sediment beneath it.

So geologists, marine biologists and archaeologists will spend the next couple of months seeking answers, scouting the potential footprint of a wind energy project planned near the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

The survey, being launched this week, is a key step in advancing a proposal vying to be the nation’s second offshore wind farm.

“You can imagine, if you’re going to build a house, you want to know more than just what’s the geology in your town,” said Jeffrey Grybowski, the company’s CEO. “We need to have a very detailed picture of the ocean floor.”

That includes any hills or valleys, boulders or sand dunes, thriving habitats for aquatic life, and even any shipwrecks.

Read the full story at the Capital Gazette

 

MARYLAND: Why the fishing industry is against offshore wind farms near Ocean City

July 23, 2018 — Concern from the fishing industry is the latest development in the escalating debate over offshore wind farms near Ocean City.

Representatives say wind farms could cause harm by driving marine wildlife away, disturbing the ocean environment and making navigation more difficult for fishers and mariners.

“Now with the current offshore wind leasing process, we have these fishing grounds being sold right out from under us,” said Meghan Lapp during a recent presentation to the Ocean City Town Council. Lapp is a fishing liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a Rhode Island commercial fishing company.

But marine biologists and wind farm officials say the impact won’t be that severe.

“I think they took an emotional approach to the problem. … So there was some degree of misinformation,” said Salvo Vitale, general counsel for U.S. Wind, one of the offshore wind energy companies involved in the Maryland project.

Conflicting information has muddied many discussions surrounding offshore wind energy. This back and forth pattern of counter arguments has persisted throughout the history of the project.

Read the full story at the Salisbury Daily Times

MARYLAND: Offshore Wind Projects’ Impact On Fishing Grounds Discussed

July 18, 2018 — After hearing a strong presentation on the potential impacts of offshore wind energy farms on fishing off the Ocean City coast and throughout the mid-Atlantic, resort officials this week seemed poised to strengthen their opposition to the proposed projects.

Since the Maryland Public Service Commission over a year ago approved the leases for two wind energy projects off the coast, Ocean City officials have been in a prolonged battle with the two approved developers to site the massive turbines offshore by at least 26 miles, or a distance perceived to have them not visible from the shoreline. From the beginning, the Mayor and Council’s official position has been an overall support of the concept of renewable, offshore wind energy, but not at the expense of sightlines from the resort’s coast and the potential impact on tourism and property values.

While much of the wind turbine issues, at least locally, have focused on the proposed distance and the perceived impact on tourism and property values, there has been little formal discussion of the possible impact on the resort’s vast fishing industry. Almost certainly, there will be some disruption of commercial and recreational fishing during the construction of the vast wind farms off the resort coast including some likely closures.

Read the full story at the Maryland Coast Dispatch

Are Chesapeake Bay dolphins eating all the fish?

July 18, 2018 — Rockfish are a Chesapeake Bay delicacy pursued heavily by commercial and recreational fishermen alike.

But many say it’s been a poor year on the Bay and now a growing number are beginning to question whether an apparently increasing population of dolphins in the Bay might be to blame.

Researchers who have been tracking dolphins in increasing numbers said they don’t have any answers.

“We don’t have information to confirm one way or the other if there is any impact,” say Greg Bortz, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Many commercial watermen said dolphins are chasing and eating valuable game species like rockfish, but there are many other environmental factors that are impacting the health of the Bay this season.

“We’ve had a lot of weather that isn’t normal,” said commercial fisherman Andy Mattes III, who noted heavy rains this spring and high temperatures this summer.

Mattes said low oxygen in much of the bay cause by polluted runoff is a major problem. He said blaming dolphins is too simplistic.

Read the full story at WUSA 9

Mussels Could Help Make the Anacostia Safe for Swimming

July 11, 2018 — It might be hard to imagine now, but the DC Department of Energy and the Environment says the Anacostia River will be swimmable and fishable in the next 14 years. How will it get there? As part of the ongoing effort to clean up the river and fulfill the promises of the Anacostia 2032 plan, the department, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Anacostia Watershed Society, is attempting to outsource some of the cleanup to an unlikely crew: freshwater mussels.

In June, floating baskets and submerged silos containing dozens of baby mussels from a hatchery—each about as big as a sunflower seed—were placed in the water, from Buzzard Point to Bladensburg, as part of a 10-week study. The team has since been conducting weekly water-quality checks, and the progress so far is encouraging. On Monday, Fred Pinkney, a Fish and Wildlife environmental contaminants specialist, measured some of the mussels under the 11th Street bridge and by a pier at the Yards. Both locations showed promising growth.

If the mussels are thriving, that’s great news for the status of the river.  Mussels are a biological indicator species. When they die off or fail to thrive, it means the water can’t support the ecosystem. In two more weeks—the halfway point of the 10-week study—all of the mussels will get their first official measurement.

Read the full story at the Washingtonian

Marylanders warned to avoid Venezuelan crab meat after nine sickened by Vibrio bacteria

July 9, 2018 — State health officials are warning consumers to avoid unpasteurized Venezuelan crab meat because they believe it has sickened nine people in Maryland with infections of Vibrio bacteria.

They have not pinpointed a single source of the contaminated meat. Illnesses have been traced to crab dishes prepared at homes and in restaurants, and the cases are spread around the state.

Two of the people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.

Symptoms of food-borne Vibrio infection include watery diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills.

Venezuelan crab meat was already a concern for many Maryland watermen, but not for health reasons — the imports are major competitors to local seafood. The United States has imported more than 1,000 pounds of Venezuelan crab meat so far this year, fourth-most from any country after Indonesia, China and the Philippines, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun