Saving Seafood

Changes in lobster processing rules on Massachusetts Legislature’s plate

May 6, 2019 — Lawmakers are moving toward consensus on an overhaul of Massachusetts’ lobster processing laws.

The plan was recently endorsed by the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, which concluded it would deliver “economic benefits throughout the state’s seafood supply chain” and give consumers more choice of lobster products to purchase.

The legislation would change state rules to allow for processing and sale of raw and frozen lobster parts that are still in the shell — claws and tails, for example — and permit shell-on lobster parts to be imported for further processing.

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

NEFMC Atlantic Herring RSA Press Release

April 25, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program will continue to support an important project focused on maintaining and expanding bycatch avoidance strategies in the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery both at sea and through shoreside sampling. The project is a partnership between industry, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF).

The New England Fishery Management Council sets research priorities for the Herring RSA Program, while NOAA Fisheries manages the RSA competition and the program itself. This particular project, which was announced today by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, is consistent with the research priorities identified by the Council for the 2019-2021 RSA award cycle.

“We’re pleased that researchers and the fishing industry are able to utilize the Herring RSA Program to maintain this important bycatch avoidance project,” said Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Tarr keeps clawing at lobster rules

April 25, 2019 — State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr sometimes must feel as if the lobster gods are conspiring against him.

The Gloucester legislator, on three occasions, has filed a bill in the state Senate to liberalize the Bay State’s lobster processing laws to allow in-state processing and the sale of frozen lobster parts.

Three times it passed the state Senate, only to expire either at the hands of the House or in some other quadrant of the legislative hurly-burly.

Most recently, Tarr succeeded this session in attaching the measure to a supplemental budget bill for fiscal year 2019 already passed by the House.

But the lobster processing measure didn’t make the final cut during negotiations between the House and the Senate on the final supplemental budget even though a report from the Division of Marine Fisheries supported the legislative reform.

Tarr, however, continues to push his bill and the additional opportunities it could create for the lobstering industry, as well as economic benefits that could accrue for coastal communities.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Black sea bass gobbling up lobsters

March 12, 2019 — Black sea bass, a saltwater fish taken commercially and recreationally in Massachusetts, have increased in number throughout southern New England waters and rattled the lobster industry with their wolfish appetites.

“They feed aggressively,” Rutgers University marine biologist Olaf Jensen said. “They’re not picky eaters. If it’s the right size and it’s alive, they’ll eat it.”

The young of New England’s iconic crustacean fall into the right size category. “Black sea bass love little lobsters,” Michael Armstrong, assistant director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said.

That’s of deep concern to Beth Casoni, president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, who says lobster traps are being pillaged by these fish. They are often hauled up with the bass inside the traps, alongside lobsters they couldn’t fit in their mouths, she said. Even more concerning to Casoni is their alleged habit of picking off undersize lobsters tossed overboard by lobstermen.

Read the full story at The Martha’s Vineyard Times 

The secret lives of New England sharks

February 28, 2019 — The New Bedford Science Café returns Wednesday March 6 with fisheries biologist Megan Winton, a PhD candidate at the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), UMass-Dartmouth.

His presentation, “You’re gonna need a bigger dataset: How statistics are shedding light on the secret lives of sharks,” is slated for 6 to 8 p.m. at Greasy Luck, 791 Purchase St., New Bedford. Open to everyone. Free, except for beer and food.

Little is known about the great white sharks that swim in these waters. Sharks are notoriously difficult to study in the wild, especially as they migrate vast distances, are elusive and difficult to capture, a press release about the event states. But, as Winton will relate, that’s changing thanks to the rapid development of electronic tags that are capable of recording a tagged shark’s location, movement patterns, and local environment. Scientists now have unprecedented volumes of information to make sense of.

How does the collected data tell scientists what an animal is actually up to? What can be revealed about the broader population? Since 2015, Winton has been working with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to unravel mysteries about great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod. As a quantitative fisheries biologist, she employs both math and her knowledge of species biology to gain insights into fish populations. The science, in the long run, can lend to better ways of protecting sharks and improving safety for humans.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

ME, NH & MA Schedule Hearings on Atlantic Herring Draft Addendum II

February 20, 2019 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The States of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 3 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring. An additional hearing will also be conducted via webinar. The details of the hearings follow.

Maine Department of Marine Resources
March 6, 2019 at 5 PM
ME DMR Augusta Office
Room 118
32 Blossom Lane
Augusta, Maine
Contact: Pat Keliher at 207.624.6553
 
New Hampshire Fish and Game
April 2, 2019 at 7 PM
Urban Forestry Center
45 Elwyn Road
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095
 
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
April 1, 2019 at 6 PM
MA DMF Gloucester Office
Annisquam River Station
30 Emerson Avenue
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Contact: Cate O’Keefe at 617.626.1512
 
Webinar Hearing
March 26, 2019 at 6 PM

Webinar link – https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/121211557

For Audio, dial 1.888.585.9008 and 
enter the passcode: 853-657-937

Contact: Kirby Rootes-Murdy at 703.842.0740 

 

The Draft Addendum proposes options to strengthen spawning protections in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine). The Draft Addendum responds to the results of the 2018 benchmark stock assessment, which show reduced levels of recruitment and spawning stock biomass over the past five years, with 2016 recruitment levels the lowest on record.

 Currently, the Board uses a series of closures to protect spawning aggregations in the Gulf of Maine. These closures, which were implemented through Amendment 3, use biological samples to annually project the start of spawning. The closures are initially implemented for four weeks but can be extended by two additional weeks if samples indicate the continued presence of spawning herring. Recent analysis by the Atlantic Herring Technical Committee found that while the current spawning closure system was significantly improved under Amendment 3, the protocol could continue to be strengthened by considering when, and for how long, a closure is initiated. Specifically, the analysis showed, under the current protocol, spawning closures are initiated when there are approximately 25% spawners in the fishery; greater protection could be provided by initiating a closure when a lower percentage of the population is spawning and extending the closure for a longer time. As a result, Draft Addendum II considers extending the length of the spawning closures as well as altering the point at which closures are triggered in order to provide greater protection to the stock.
 
Fishermen and others interested in Atlantic herring management are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum by attending state public hearings, participating in the webinar hearing, or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum is available here. It can also be obtained via the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on April 4, 2019 and should be forwarded to Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Herring Draft Addendum II). For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.                             
PR19-08
A PDF of the press release can be found here
The Draft Addendum can be found here 

Tide turns as striped bass stock falters

February 19, 2019 — Striped bass, a summertime favorite with fishermen and diners, has joined the ranks of New England’s overfished species.

A summary from the Feb. 6 meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board stated that a computer population model revealed the species was overfished in 2017 and that fishermen were still catching too many fish to sustain the population.

The report is part of a scheduled deeper, peer-reviewed analysis by the commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. Known as a benchmark assessment, it incorporates new information and gives fishery managers a more accurate picture of the status of a fish stock than an annual assessment. It’s a reality check, and while it isn’t official, the result of the striped bass assessment will likely be the same as the draft version when the final report is issued at their next meeting April 30, said Michael Armstrong, chairman of the striped bass board and an assistant director at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

Declaring the species overfished does not mean a return to the 1980s, Armstrong said, when a coastwide moratorium was instituted after striped bass stocks collapsed due to overfishing and degraded environmental conditions, particularly in spawning areas.

“The sky is not falling,” he said. “Stocks don’t fall overnight.”

Even though recent species barometers have indicated a downturn in population, the stock remains at levels far above what they were nearly 40 years ago.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New measures proposed for Gulf of Maine scallops

February 13, 2019 — Federal fishery regulators are considering new measures for the Atlantic sea scallop management plan and have scheduled a series of public hearings from Maine to Virginia to collect public comment.

The public hearings, which include an April 3 session at the state Division of Marine Fisheries’s Annisquam River Station on Emerson Avenue in Gloucester, will touch upon three primary issues contained in Amendment 21 currently being developed by the New England Fishery Management Council:

* Measures to support a growing scallop fishery in the federal waters of the northern Gulf of Maine.

* Increasing the individual fishing quota possession limit of 600 pounds for those fishing with a limited access general permit.

* Measures that would allow limited access vessels to transfer quota to vessels fishing on a limited access general permit.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Striped Bass Rule Changes Aim to Conserve Stocks, Regulators Say

February 11, 2019 — State regulators are considering a series of rule changes for the striped bass fishery that could affect fishermen along the East Coast, including on the Vineyard.

The changes would open the commercial striped bass fishery two weeks earlier, require circle hooks for fishermen who use live bait and ban the use of gaffing to land fish.

Proposed by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), the changes are intended to help reduce striped bass mortality, especially among fish that are caught and released.

“We’re in a little bit of a down period,” said Mike Armstrong, assistant director for DMF, speaking to the Gazette by phone this week. “The only way to rebuild the stock is to lower fishing mortality. A good portion of fishing mortality is catch and release, mostly recreational.”

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette

Striped bass population in trouble, new study finds

February 8, 2019 — Striped bass, one of the most prized species in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic Coast, are being overfished according to a new assessment of the stock’s health — a finding that will likely trigger catch reductions for a species long touted as a fisheries management success.

The bleak preliminary findings of the assessment were presented to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a panel of fisheries managers, on Wednesday. The full analysis was not available. Its completion was delayed by the partial government shutdown, which sidelined biologists in the National Marine Fisheries Service who were working to complete the report.

But, noted Mike Armstrong of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, who also chairs the ASMFC’s Striped Bass Management Board, the final results “will likely be the same when [the report] comes out.”

The board asked its technical advisers to estimate the level of catch reductions needed to bring the stock above management targets at its May meeting, when the stock assessment is expected to be ready for approval.

“We know it is going to be pretty drastic,” said John Clark of the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, a member of the board.

The findings of the assessment were a bit of a surprise. Though the overall population was known to be declining, striped bass are often considered a signature success for fishery management.

The overharvest of striped bass, also called rockfish, sent their population to critically low levels in the early 1980s, eventually leading to a catch moratorium. The population rebounded, allowing catches to resume, and by 1997 the population recovered to an estimated 419 million fish aged one year or more.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal