Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Herring trawlers just offshore anger Cape fishermen

November 16, 2016 — ORLEANS, Mass. — They were visible from shore for most of Tuesday, seven vessels of between 140 to 170 feet in length, four miles off Nauset Beach.

Some worked in tandem, towing a huge net between them, scooping up mackerel or herring right on the Cape’s doorstep and making local fishermen like Bruce Peters angry.

“They suck up all the herring and mackerel, the forage fish we need for the cod, tuna, stripers, the whales, what we need for the food chain,” said Peters, a longtime commercial cod and groundfish fisherman, who now runs a charter boat business and fishes commercially for tuna. “We need a 50-mile buffer zone to keep these guys offshore.”

Buffer zones that prohibit the herring fleet from fishing within anywhere from 6 to 50 miles from shore are part of a new amendment to the herring fishery management plan that will be outlined at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting Thursday in Newport, Rhode Island, and voted on at the January meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The council — a representative body of fishermen, industry representatives, environmental organizations and state and federal fishery officials — draws up plans to sustainably manage fish and shellfish stocks in federal waters. They received 238 pages of comment, much of it in support of requiring the herring fleet to fish farther from shore.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Heritage Center Launches Exhibit Series

November 14, 2016 — The following was released by the Fishing Heritage Center:

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The Fishing Heritage Center is pleased to announce the opening of New England Fishermen: The Photography of Markham Starr, the first in a series of changing exhibits.  An opening reception will take place on Friday, November 18th at 8 p.m. The Center is wheelchair accessible and located at 38 Bethel Street in New Bedford. Parking is available in the lot adjacent to the Center.  This first exhibit will be on display through January 17th.

The commercial fishing industry in New England has long been an economic mainstay of the region, but has struggled for its very survival over the past two decades. Fearing the loss of yet another traditional working culture, Markham Starr began going to sea to photograph commercial fishermen from ports such as Point Judith, Rhode Island, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Corea, Maine. His black and white images attempt to place today’s fishermen within the context of the long history of commercial fishing in New England, and preserve something of this important working culture for future generations.

Starr’s work has been translated into a dozen books and has been featured in magazines such as LensWork, The Sun, Vermont Magazine, and Rhode Island Monthly, and won a 2013 national magazine award for the best photographic essay for Yankee Magazine. The photographs from his major projects have been selected for inclusion in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress.

For more information, please contact the Fishing Heritage Center at: info@fishingheritagecenter.org or call (508) 993-8894.

New Lobster Trap Technology Could Reduce Whale Entanglements

November 14, 2016 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — More and more whales are becoming snarled in fishing gear, often dying slow, painful deaths.

Two Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) engineers have invented a lobster trap device that they say could help whales avert entanglements and, at the same time, might allow currently restricted waters to be safely reopened for lobster fishing.

In New England’s offshore lobster fishery, long vertical ropes or “lines” connect the traps on the bottom to floats on the water’s surface, so fishermen can locate their trawls and drag them back up.

The new device is called the “on-call” buoy and floats near the bottom attached to lobster traps.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Moratorium on Northern Shrimp Commercial Fishing Maintained for 2017 Season

November 11th, 2016 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

In response to the depleted condition of the northern shrimp resource, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section extended the moratorium on commercial fishing for the 2017 fishing season. The Section also approved a 53 metric ton (mt) research set aside (RSA) to allow for the continued collection of much needed biological data.

The 2016 Stock Status Report for Gulf of Maine (GOM) Northern Shrimp indicates abundance and biomass indices for 2012–2016 are the lowest on record of the thirty-three year time series. Recruitment indices for the 2010–2015 year classes are also poor and include the three smallest year classes on record. As a result, the 2012–2016 indices of harvestable biomass are the lowest on record. Current harvestable biomass is almost entirely composed of the 2013 year class. 

“By increasing the 2017 RSA, which is above last year’s 22 mt quota and that recommended by the Technical Committee for 2017 (13.6 mt), the Section sought to strike a balance between providing limited fishing opportunities to the industry while collecting valuable data to allow for the continued monitoring of the northern shrimp resource,” stated Section Chair Dennis Abbott of New Hampshire. 

Recruitment of northern shrimp is related to both spawning biomass and ocean temperatures, with higher spawning biomass and colder temperatures producing stronger recruitment. Ocean temperatures in western GOM shrimp habitat have increased over the past decade and reached unprecedented highs within the past several years. This suggests an increasingly inhospitable environment for northern shrimp and the need for strong conservation efforts to help restore and maintain a fishable stock. The Northern Shrimp Technical Committee considers the stock to be in poor condition with limited prospects for the near future. The 2016 Stock Status Report is available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5823782c2016NorthernShrimpAssessment.pdf. 

To maintain the time series of data collected from northern shrimp commercial fishery catches, a cooperative winter sampling program was approved with a 53 mt RSA quota. This program allows for the continued collection of biological data (e.g. size composition, egg hatch timing) from GOM northern shrimp fishery catches in the absence of a directed fishery.  The RSA will include the participation of 10 trawlers (8 Maine trawlers, 1 Massachusetts trawler, and 1 New Hampshire trawler) and 5 trap fishermen, fishing for 8 weeks from mid-January to mid-March. The trawlers will have a maximum trip limit of 1,200 pounds per trip, with 1 trip per week, while the trappers will have a maximum possession limit of 500 pounds per week, with a 40 trap limit per vessel. Preference will be given to individuals in the lottery with double Nordmore grates and having history prior to the June 7, 2011 control date.

For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.             

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Tina Berger

Director of Communications

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N

Arlington, VA 22201

Safety training set in New Bedford for commercial fishermen

November 10th, 2016 — Fishing Partnership Support Services is once again bringing safety training for commercial fishermen to New Bedford.

The partnership will hold safety and survival training on Thursday, Nov. 17, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at the School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth, 706 S. Rodney French Boulevard.

The next day, Friday, Nov. 18, the partnership will offer drill conductor training at the same location from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A team of certified marine safety instructors will lead both programs, which are being offered to fishermen at no cost. The Coast Guard and the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership are supporting both events.

Topics to be covered during the first training include: on-board firefighting, man-overboard procedures, flooding and pump operations, flares and emergency positioning devices, survival suits, life raft equipment, helicopter hoist-and-rescue procedures and emergency aid.

Lunch will be provided to all participants, courtesy of Ocean Marine Insurance Agency. Cape VNA will offer free vaccines and health screenings during the lunch break.

The drill conductor training prepares and certifies fishermen to conduct emergency drills at sea, as federal regulations require monthly drills on commercial fishing boats operating farther than three nautical miles from shore. Emergency situations addressed in this training include: man overboard, fire, damage control and abandon ship.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times 

Maine’s shrimp fishery to remain shut down in 2017

November 10, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — New England’s shuttered shrimp fishery will not be allowed to reopen this winter.

An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided on Thursday that it will keep the fishery closed because of concerns about poor reproduction in a warming ocean.

The fishery has been shut down since 2013. It was mostly based in Maine when it was open, though some fishermen brought the shrimp ashore in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WLNE

Police: Man swept out to sea while fishing in Gloucester

November 9th, 2016 — A man was swept out to sea Tuesday afternoon while fishing near Rafes Chasm in Gloucester, police said in a statement. Multiple agencies are engaged in a search for the man.

Around 3 p.m., a man called 911 and told police he was fishing with another man when a large wave crashed into them, sending the other man into the water.

A search and rescue effort, involving Gloucester police and fire, state police, Massachusetts Environmental Police, U.S. Coast Guard, and Gloucester Harbor Master, is underway to locate the Boston man, who is in his 30s.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

Falmouth researchers discover new information about whale songs

November 7, 2016 — A group of Falmouth-based researchers has gained new insight into the songs of the humpback whale.

When a whale sings, physical vibrations can be felt around the animal. A team of researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that these vibrations, known as particle velocity, can be felt much farther away than originally thought.

“Particle velocity is kind of the long bass that you feel when a car is approaching you. You can hear the sound far away, but you can also feel the vibration,” said Aran Mooney, a Woods Hole biologist. “But sound doesn’t travel as well in air as it does in water.”

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters, the Woods Hole team detailed their findings from studying a group of humpback whales off the coast of Maui. Mooney said they measured vibrations from about 200 meters away from the whales, but believe they could be felt as far as one kilometer away.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

MAINE: Regional Ocean Plan Likely to Be Approved by Thanksgiving

November 4, 2016 — The Northeast Ocean Plan will be the first coordinated ocean strategy of its kind in the country when it is adopted by the National Ocean Council. That is likely to happen before Thanksgiving.

The Ocean Plan will not create new laws, regulations or penalties, but it will increase oversight of the area between the high-tide zone to 200 miles out to sea while coordinating 140 federal laws that regulate ocean activities in the Northeast.

That sounds overwhelming. It isn’t. The heart of the new plan is an easy-to-use data mapping tool that shows which laws apply to an activity or location and which agencies oversee them. Different uses, habitats, shipping lanes, infrastructure and more can be layered on one map to identify jurisdiction and potential conflicts.

The regional plan was developed in response to the 2010 Executive Order on Ocean Policy which requires better coastal and ocean management. Members from six Northeastern states, ten federal agencies, ten tribes and the New England Fisheries Management Council formed the Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB) to help craft it.

The goal is to coordinate planning based on regional information, even as the ocean environment and marine uses change. Improving and understanding marine life and habitats and ecosystem-based management are important guiding principles.

The Northeast states, which already have a history of working together on fisheries issues, started work on the ocean plan in 2012. The final draft was released for review October 19, making the Northeast Region the first in the country to complete a regional plan.

The Northeast RPB sought public and scientific input through hundreds of informal gatherings and public meetings over the past four years while drafting the plan. Part of their research included going to fishing wharves and small towns to get input. Planners incorporated the public comments and their responses into the final plan.

If the Northeast Ocean Plan is approved later this month as expected, implementation will soon follow. The Northeast Ocean Data Portal, which allows instant mapping of different ocean values and uses based on peer-reviewed data, makes it easy to identify where interests overlap and which agency has jurisdiction.

Read the full story at The Free Press Online 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fish catch most valuable in U.S.

November 4, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – Citing 2015 landings worth $322 million, for the 16th year in a row the city held the top-value title nationwide for its fishing catch, according to NOAA Fisheries. The top ranking was thanks largely to scallops, SouthCoastToday.com reported Oct. 28.

New Bedford’s catch was 124 million pounds, good for 11th in the country.

“We’re reaping the benefits of good, cooperative science, and solid relationships between the regulators, the fishermen and the scientists,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director for the city’s Harbor Development Commission.

The annual catch reports, released by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, showed New Bedford’s catch dipped by about 11 percent last year, falling to 124 million pounds in 2015 from 140 million in 2014. The 2013 catch totaled 130 million pounds.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News