Saving Seafood

  • Home
  • News
    • Alerts
    • Conservation & Environment
    • Council Actions
    • Economic Impact
    • Enforcement
    • International & Trade
    • Law
    • Management & Regulation
    • Regulations
    • Nutrition
    • Opinion
    • Other News
    • Safety
    • Science
    • State and Local
  • News by Region
    • New England
    • Mid-Atlantic
    • South Atlantic
    • Gulf of Mexico
    • Pacific
    • North Pacific
    • Western Pacific
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Fishing Terms Glossary

MASSACHUSETTS: NBFHC Awarded Seafood Marketing Grant from Dept. of Marine Fisheries

April 22, 2022 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center: 

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the Division of Marine Fisheries’ (DMF) Seafood Marketing Program. The program was launched in 2016 to increase awareness and demand for Massachusetts seafood products and to enhance the viability and stabilize the economic environment for the state’s local commercial fishing and seafood industries and communities.

The Center’s project, A School of Fish: Infusing Sustainable Seafood into Culinary Arts Programs & the Public Palate, will support a year-long partnership with the culinary arts programs at Greater New Bedford Regional-Vocational Technical High School and Bristol Community College. Together, the Center and project partners will produce materials and programs to educate the next generation of chefs and the general public about the local seafood industry with a focus on local, underutilized, and abundant seafood species. “We are thrilled to support the seafood industry by helping to build demand for some of the lesser-known seafood species,” says the Center’s Executive Director, Laura Orleans.  In addition to producing curriculum materials and a digital cookbook, the project will support cooking demonstrations, classes, and a Seafood Throwdown.

“Importantly, these projects will educate and steer consumers towards the Commonwealth’s healthy and sustainable seafood, directly benefiting our economy and historic fishing communities.” Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Ron Amidon says: “The Seafood Marketing Grant Program projects provide further support the for the livelihoods of the many families who rely on commercial fishing, processing, and related business.”

NOAA acknowledges shortage of gear to protect whales

April 22, 2022 — The federal government is acknowledging that supply chain issues will prevent all lobstermen from having gear needed to protect North Atlantic right whales before a May 1 deadline.

The rules will still go into effect on that date, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it will use a “graduated enforcement effort” until supply problems are resolved.

“I want to assure fishermen who are making good faith efforts to comply with these new measures but are not able to procure compliant gear that we understand the difficulty of their situation,” wrote Michael Pentony, NOAA Fisheries’ Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic regional administrator, in a letter.

“We are working closely with our state and federal enforcement partners to implement a graduated enforcement effort that will focus on compliance assistance rather than civil penalties until we have determined that localized supply chain issues have been sufficiently resolved,” he continued.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Scallop leasing on the table? New England council starts scoping meetings

April 21, 2022 — The possibility of allowing leasing in the Atlantic scallop fishery will be explored by the New England Fishery Management Council in the coming weeks.

A preceding publicity campaign aims to get everyone in the industry out to comment in public meetings. It’s a first step for the council to investigate whether a days-at-sea and access area leasing program is needed in the limited access component of the scallop fishery.

Depending on what they learn, council members could vote to initiate a leasing amendment to the scallop management plan when they meet Sept. 27-29 in Gloucester, Mass.

Leasing has been suggested by some scallop operators, and the council approved a scoping plan at its April 12-14 meeting in Mystic, Conn. It calls for public meetings from Gloucester to New Bern, N.C., starting April 27, plus two online webinars in June, to gauge opinions.

The proposal could have broad effects, so the council is looking to go in depth.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New Study Develops Method to Age Ocean Quahog, Longest-Lived Species in the Ocean

April 21, 2022 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Ocean quahogs are some of the longest-lived animals in the world, with the oldest specimens in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic regularly recorded at over 200 years old. But even though they are famous for their longevity, many details about the age structure of ocean quahogs—such as how it affects estimates of recruitment, biomass, and growth—are still not well understood. A newly published study finds that ocean quahogs have recruited continuously for over 200 years on Georges Bank, off the East Coast of the U.S., while also providing new tools to researchers and fisheries managers to better understand the species.

Funded by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS), the study collected a large sample of ocean quahogs—gathering over 600 specimens—and recorded relevant information on them, including age, length, and sex. Researchers then took that information to develop what’s known as an “age-length key,” which charts the probability of an animal of a given age being a specific length.  The key can be used to determine the distribution of ages in a population based on the simple determination of the distribution of lengths.

Currently, ocean quahog models used for management are based on the length of the ocean quahog, rather than its age. Like trees, ocean quahogs can be aged by counting the growth rings that form over time, in this case on its outer shell. But because the process of directly determining an individual ocean quahog’s age is time-consuming and impractical for most larger surveys, length has been used instead as a proxy for age.

The age-length key resulting from this study, given the size of the sample of ocean quahogs collected, is a robust data set that can be consulted to quickly estimate ages of thousands of quahogs using only animal lengths. A reliable age-length key improves the potential to introduce more age-based data into ocean quahog management, making it more consistent with how other species are managed.

“Because ocean quahogs are so long-lived, getting a method to quickly and accurately estimate their age is critically important,” said Kathleen Hemeon, of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and one of the authors of the study, which was published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. “Having this kind of age and length data available can help change the way we manage the species.”

In addition to developing a more comprehensive age-length key, the study had other notable findings that are important in furthering our understanding of ocean quahogs. In the ocean quahogs sampled, the study confirmed that ocean quahogs are a sexually dimorphic species, with female ocean quahogs generally larger than males. It also found that recruitment, or the number of new ocean quahogs that are successfully born into the population every year, has been an annual occurrence since the late 1800s, which is notable given their long lifespans and suspected delayed maturity. In its sampling, the study collected the oldest ocean quahog on record in Massachusetts, at 261 years old.

“This study addresses a conundrum that has bedeviled quahog fishery managers for many years – namely, whether recruitment occurs consistently, or only sporadically in cycles some thirty years apart,” said Tom Alspach, of Sea Watch International, a seafood company based in Maryland. “This evidence of consistent annual recruitment can remove a level of uncertainty from management decision-making, leading to greater confidence in more generous quota setting, with a direct positive impact on industry.”

About SCEMFIS

SCEMFIS utilizes academic and fisheries resources to address urgent scientific problems limiting sustainable fisheries. SCEMFIS develops methods, analytical and survey tools, datasets, and analytical approaches to improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates. SCEMFIS university partners, University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution), and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, are the academic sites. Collaborating scientists who provide specific expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal research, come from a wide range of academic institutions including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, University of Maryland, and University of Rhode Island.

The need for the diverse services that SCEMFIS can provide to industry continues to grow, which has prompted a steady increase in the number of fishing industry partners. These services include immediate access to science expertise for stock assessment issues, rapid response to research priorities, and representation on stock assessment working groups. Targeted research leads to improvements in data collection, survey design, analytical tools, assessment models, and other needs to reduce uncertainty in stock status and improve reference point goals.

Sign up for our Daily News Updates from Saving Seafood.

 

NEFMC Approves Scallop Leasing Scoping Document; Readies for Seven In-Person Meetings and Two Webinars

April 19, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold seven in-person scoping meetings and two webinars over the next two months to solicit public input on whether a leasing program is needed in the limited access component of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery.

The Council approved the scoping document during its April 12-14, 2022 hybrid meeting, which was held in Mystic, CT. In addition, the Council received short updates on:

  • Next steps related to the final report titled “Evaluation of the Atlantic Sea Scallop Rotational Management Program”; and
  • Work being conducted by the Scallop Survey Working Group.

Scoping Meetings Kick Off April 27th in Gloucester

The first scoping meeting for limited access leasing will be held on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 in Gloucester, Massachusetts at the Cruiseport beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Other in-person meeting locations run from New Bedford down to New Bern, North Carolina. The in-person meetings will not have a remote participation option, but two separate webinar scoping meetings are scheduled for June 17 and June 24, 2022.

Read the full release from the NEFMC

The information age is starting to transform fishing worldwide

April 14, 2022 — People in the world’s developed nations live in a post-industrial era, working mainly in service or knowledge industries. Manufacturers increasingly rely on sensors, robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning to replace human labor or make it more efficient. Farmers can monitor crop health via satellite and apply pesticides and fertilizers with drones.

Commercial fishing, one of the oldest industries in the world, is a stark exception. Industrial fishing, with factory ships and deep-sea trawlers that land thousands of tons of fish at a time, are still the dominant hunting mode in much of the world.

Fishing with data

Changes in behavior, technology and policy are occurring throughout the fishing industry. Here are some examples:

  • Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit, monitors and creates open-access visualizations of global fishing activity on the internet with a 72-hour delay. This transparency breakthrough has led to the arrest and conviction of owners and captains of boats fishing illegally.
  • The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability, an international business-to-business initiative, creates voluntary industry standards for seafood traceability. These standards are designed to help harmonize various systems that track seafood through the supply chain, so they all collect the same key information and rely on the same data sources. This information lets buyers know where their seafood comes from and whether it was produced sustainably.
  • Fishing boats in New Bedford, Massachusetts – the top U.S. fishing port, based on total catch value – are rigged with sensors to develop a Marine Data Bank that will give fishermen data on ocean temperature, salinity and oxygen levels. Linking this data to actual stock behavior and catch levels is expected to help fishermen target certain species and avoid unintentional bycatch.

The ocean’s restorative power

There is no shortage of gloomy information about how overfishing, along with other stresses like climate change, is affecting the world’s oceans. Nonetheless, I believe it bears emphasizing that over 78% of current marine fish landings come from biologically sustainable stocks, according to the United Nations. And overharvested fisheries often can rebound with smart management.

For example, the U.S. east coast scallop fishery, which was essentially defunct in the mid-1990s, is now a sustainable US$570 million a year industry.

Read the full story at The Conversation

Biden named in North Atlantic commercial fishing ban lawsuit filed by fishermen

April 14, 2022 — Fishermen in Massachusetts and New Jersey are challenging a Biden administration proclamation in court.

The fishermen have filed a lawsuit, Fehily et al. v. Biden et al., in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey alleging the proclamation that bans commercial fishing in the North Atlantic Ocean, primarily the Georges Bank area, saying it harms their ability to earn a living.

“The creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument violated the core requirements of the Antiquities Act to limit protections to specific monuments,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Frank Garrison said in a news release. “Most fundamentally, the Act gives the president authority to create monuments on federally owned or controlled land. The ocean is not land. Presidential action that goes beyond laws passed by Congress undermines the democratic process and the Constitution’s separation of powers.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

Fishermen from Mass., N.J., sue federal government to block ban on fishing near Gulf of Maine

April 13, 2022 — Two fishermen, one from Massachusetts and one from New Jersey, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Biden administration ban on commercial fishing in the Georges Bank area of the North Atlantic Ocean.

David T. Malley of Massachusetts and Patrick Fehily of New Jersey are commercial fisherman who work near the Gulf of Maine, within the roughly 5,000 square miles that President Biden designated in October as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, according to court documents.

Malley, a fisherman for more than 50 years, and Fehily, a fisherman for more than a decade, name Biden, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland as defendants in the suit, filed in US District Court in New Jersey, according to court documents.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Gulf of Maine wind task force to meet May 19

April 13, 2022 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting on May 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern.

The meeting will take place virtually via Zoom. To register for the meeting, please click here.

This task force is an intergovernmental group composed of federal officials and elected tribal, state and local officials from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The upcoming task force meeting will focus on the following topics:

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Expansion Project to Start Soon on North Terminal at Massachusetts’ Port of New Bedford

April 8, 2022 — On March 22, the New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA) awarded a $27.9 million contract to D.W. White Construction of Acushnet, Mass., for the North Terminal Expansion building project in the port located along the south coast of Massachusetts.

In a news release from the city, New Bedford officials view the expansion as “a transformative port infrastructure project” that will spur long-term economic development by meeting the infrastructure needs of commercial fishermen, the offshore wind industry, and other port users, to ensure economic growth and increased efficiency.

New Bedford’s efforts are a culmination of federal, state and private investment that will build a north/south bulkhead at the North Terminal in the city’s upper harbor. The project also should spur significant investment in the Port of New Bedford in the years to come.

Led by the NBPA, the expansion is designed to create a safer and more efficient connection between the New Bedford Harbor and ground transportation systems in town.

Read the full story at Seafood News

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 300
  • Next Page »

Recent Headlines

  • Scallops: Council Initiates Framework 35; Approves 2023-2024 Research-Set Aside Program Priorities
  • ‘Talk with us, not for us’: fishing communities accuse UN of ignoring their voices
  • VIRGINIA: Youngkin administration warns feds new wind areas could hurt commercial fisheries
  • NOAA Fisheries Invites Public Comment on New Draft Equity and Environmental Justice Strategy
  • Our View: We must have a say in offshore wind plans
  • Explainer: What’s Included in the WTO’s Fishing Subsidies Agreement?
  • Offshore wind farms could reduce Atlantic City’s surfclam fishery revenue up to 25%, Rutgers study suggests
  • Whale activists file objection to Gulf of Maine lobster fishery certification

Most Popular Topics

Alaska Aquaculture ASMFC Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission California China Climate change Coronavirus COVID-19 Donald Trump groundfish Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Illegal fishing IUU fishing Lobster Maine Massachusetts Mid-Atlantic National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NEFMC New Bedford New England New England Fishery Management Council New Jersey New York NMFS NOAA NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic right whales North Carolina North Pacific offshore energy Offshore wind Pacific right whales Salmon Scallops South Atlantic Tuna Western Pacific Whales wind energy Wind Farms

Daily Updates & Alerts

Enter your email address to receive daily updates and alerts:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Tweets by @savingseafood

Copyright © 2022 Saving Seafood · WordPress Web Design by Jessee Productions