Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Cowhide? Lobstermen looking at bait alternatives

July 25, 2016 — Gloucester is Massachusetts’ No. 1 lobster port when it comes to landings, with Rockport in the No. 3 spot.

And when it comes to bait to catch the shellfish, local lobstermen usually use herring.

But the Massachusetts herring fishery will be restricted in an attempt to mitigate a shortage of the bait fish that threatens the lobster fishery.

So, lobstermen are looking further afield to tempt lobsters’ palates and into their traps.

Gerry O’Neill, who owns the two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour, says while fresh herring may be in shorter supply on Cape Ann than in the past, he has frozen fish ready to go at Cape Seafoods on the Jodrey State Fish Pier.

Joey Ciaramitaro of Capt. Joe & Sons, a lobster dealer on East Main Street, says many of the lobstermen who sell their catch to his company are already using alternative baits.

“They’re using cowhides and stuff,” he said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NOAA Recommends $9 Million in Funding for Community-based Habitat Restoration

July 25, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA is recommending $9 million in funding for 17 coastal and marine habitat restoration projects for its 2016 Community-based Restoration Program, as part of agency efforts to support healthy ecosystems and resilient coastal communities.

The recommended projects, in 10 states and territories, range from coral reef restoration in Florida to fish passage improvements in California. In the Greater Atlantic region, there are four recommended projects in Massachusetts, one in Maine, and one in Maryland.

This year’s projects will restore habitat for a variety of coastal and marine species, including three of NOAA Fisheries’ highly at-risk “Species in the Spotlight” – Atlantic salmon, Central California Coast coho, and Sacramento River winter-run Chinook. Projects will also concentrate on habitat improvement in two of NOAA’s Habitat Focus Areas – Puerto Rico’s Culebra Island, and West Hawaii – where agency and partner efforts can come together to yield community and environmental benefits.

“These restoration projects are a win-win for the environment and surrounding communities,” said Pat Montanio, director of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation. “When we make smart investments in habitat restoration, we not only help sustain fisheries and recover protected resources, we also use these projects to provide additional benefits, like protecting coastal communities from flooding and erosion, and boosting local economies through increased recreational opportunities.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Community-based Restoration Program, which was established in 1996 and authorized under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006. Since the program’s beginning, NOAA has provided more than $140 million to implement more than 2,000 habitat restoration projects, all through strong partnerships with more than 2,500 organizations. Through the program and the Magnuson-Stevens Act, NOAA and its partners are helping to create healthy habitats and resilient fish populations in the United States.

At this point in the selection process, the application approval and obligation of funds is not final. Each of the 17 applications is being “recommended” and is not a guarantee of funding. Final approval is subject to funding availability as well as final review and approval by both the NOAA Grants Management Division and Department of Commerce Federal Assistance Law Division. Applicants should expect to receive formal notification of award approval by October 1.

Details about the 17 projects recommended for funding are available on the NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation website.

Massachusetts fishing restricted amid lobster bait crunch

July 22, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — The Massachusetts herring fishery will be restricted in an attempt to mitigate a shortage of bait fish that threatens the lobster fishery.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has voted to cut the number of days that herring boats can bring the fish ashore from five to two. The changes are in effect from Sunday to Sept. 30.

Maine cut its herring days down to two earlier in the season. Regulators say that reducing the number of days will prevent the fishery from catching its entire quota too quickly.

The problem is that fishermen aren’t catching herring far out at sea, which has increased pressure in inshore waters.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Globe

Herring limits expanded to prolong catch of lobster bait

July 21, 2016 — An interstate fishing council has extended some of Maine’s emergency Atlantic herring restrictions to Massachusetts to try to close a loophole that threatened to derail the summer supply of lobster bait.

On Wednesday, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted 2-1 to cut the number of days that herring boats can land fish each week within its jurisdiction from five to two, with Maine and New Hampshire representatives voting in favor of the landing day reduction and Massachusetts voting against it. Under its emergency rules, Maine had already cut its landing days down to two in an attempt to prolong the availability of fresh herring throughout the lobster season, but boats that fished that area could still land for five days if they sailed to a Massachusetts port such as Gloucester.

Maine regulators are trying to balance the lobster industry’s demand for fresh bait now, when season is just beginning but offshore herring is in short supply, with its need for fresh bait through the end of summer, when the inshore summer herring quota is in danger of running out. While lobstermen don’t like a bait shortage at any time, the industry is supporting Maine’s herring restrictions to make sure there will still be fresh bait available when they need it most.

Maine regulators who lobbied on behalf of the regional rule change say one large boat that usually fished for menhaden has begun to fish heavily for herring and bring it to Gloucester. They argued that boat, which fishermen described as 160 feet long with a 50-foot seine, could undermine Maine’s efforts to stretch the 19,400 metric ton quota of herring that can be taken from Maine’s coastal waters through September, and punish Maine’s herring fleet, which has supported the state’s effort to balance the need to prolong the quota and still keep at least some herring coming in for lobstermen to bait their traps.

“Without constraints on the landing (in Massachusetts) we would not make it into August, much less September,” said Terry Stockwell of Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Section Modifies Area 1A’s Trimester 2 Landing Days

July 21, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commision:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts met via conference call on Wednesday July 20, 2016 to discuss Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) days out measures for Trimester 2 (June 1 to September 30). The call was initiated to discuss increased effort in the fishery and equitable fishing opportunities. As of July 18, 2016, 41.3% of the Area 1A Trimester 2 quota (19,480 mt) had been harvested.

Section members, with input from industry, modified the days out effort control measures for Area 1A Trimester 2 as follows:

July 24 through September 30: Vessels may land herring two (2) consecutive days a week until further notice. All other days are designated as days out of the fishery (e.g., vessels may not land herring).

· Vessels in the State of New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may land herring starting at 12:01 a.m. on Mondays up to 11:59 p.m. on Tuesdays.

· Vessels in the State of Maine may land herring starting at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays up to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Two landing days will become effective beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 24 and will remain in place until changed by additional notice.

UMass invention could cut fish monitoring costs

July 21, 2016 — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth have been awarded a patent for technology they say could reduce the costs of fishing vessel monitoring, a cost fisherman say threatens their livelihood, the school announced this week.

Dr. Brian Rothschild, the retired founding head of the UMass-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology, and graduate student Glenn Chamberlain said their on-board 3D camera system would reduce costs, ensure accuracy and expand the scope of what information could be collected.

“Broad-based and accurate counting of the fish being caught is critical to our collective efforts to sustain critical fish stocks and thus the commercial fishing industry,” Rothschild said in a statement. “We believe we have found a way to count the fish being caught in a relatively low-cost manner that will increase confidence among the federal regulators and the fishing industry.”

The camera system, which would cost about $500 to install on a vessel, utilizes stereo photogrammetry, a system used by meteorologists to collect information about tornadoes, to capture images of fish either on the deck or passing through a net, according to the university. Those images could then be analyzed to produce “a permanent record of each sampling tow or catch in the fishery and to determine the species and size composition of each tow,” the university said.

Last year, Hampton, New Hampshire, fisherman Dave Goethel and a fishing sector filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a mandate requiring them to carry at-sea monitors on their vessels and pay the cost of hosting those federal enforcement contractors. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors from itself to fishermen earlier this year.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Regulators look for solutions to lobster bait shortage

July 20, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishery managers will meet to discuss how to regulate the catch of a key lobster bait fish they say is at risk of heavy fishing.

Herring is the most popular bait fish for lobsters, and fishermen aren’t catching many far off New England. Regulators fear heavy herring fishing closer to shore will result in the fishery hitting its quota before the end of September.

Members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s herring board will meet Wednesday to discuss how to manage the rate of catch off states like Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Baltimore Sun

Coast Guard responds to grounded fishing vessel off Woods Hole

July 19, 2016 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — The Coast Guard responded to a grounded fishing vessel in Woods Hole Pass near Woods Hole on Monday.

At approximately 11:45 a.m., Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England received a VHF-FM Channel 16 radio call from the 67-foot stern trawler fishing vessel, Hope & Sydney, that they were hard aground in Woods Hole Pass. 

Minutes after receiving the call, a 45-foot Coast Guard rescue boat from Station Woods Hole was launched and members of the Buzzards Bay Marine Task Force were notified.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Project will record oral histories of the local fishing industry

July 18, 2016 –NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center has received a prestigious Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress to support a year-long effort to document shore-side workers in New Bedford and Fairhaven, center officials said,

The center received support for “Workers on the New Bedford Waterfront.” Folklorist and Director Laura Orleans, working with anthropologists, Madeleine Hall-Arber and Corinn Williams, oral historian, Fred Calabretta and photographer, Phil Mello will conduct a large ethnographic field project interviewing approximately 60 shore-side workers involved in the local commercial fishing industry.

The project will focus on recording oral histories about rarely documented occupational skills, knowledge, and trades including: marine electronics and engine repair; fish processing, packing, and trucking; the design and manufacture of fishing gear; work in ice plants and on fuel barges; offloading of fish and scallops; the seafood auction, settlement houses; and shipyard work, the center said in a news release.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Counting cod: New trawl survey aims to determine status of iconic fish

July 18, 2016 — SCITUATE, Mass. — The coastline had melted into a gray slurry, its shapes barely visible through intermittent rain and mist, when the Miss Emily made her first of two scheduled tows last week about seven miles off this South Shore port.

Despite the weather, the waters remained sedate as the 55-foot gillnetter, skippered by owner Capt. Kevin Norton, steamed at about three knots for 30 minutes, its net set at 36 fathoms, or about 216 feet.

Its target? What else? The iconic, oft-debated and oft-elusive cod.

“It will be interesting to see what we come up with today,” Norton said as he feathered the Miss Emily through the harbor and out into open waters. “Usually, at this time of year, there’s nothing really here because the water has begun to warm and the fish already have moved further out.”

On this day, as he has all summer, Norton was not fishing so much for himself as he was for the people of the commonwealth, by way of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries.

While most of what came on deck from his nets would be his to sell, the primary mission of the trip was to assist the state agency with its ongoing industry-based trawl survey, which aims to help determine the true status of the Gulf of Maine cod stock.

“This whole survey is designed with cod in mind,” said Micah Dean, a research scientist at DMF. “There’s never been a fishing-industry trawl survey in June or July, so this should give us a new perspective.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times