Saving Seafood

Does fishing have a future in New England?

December 22, 2015 — Cod have been disappearing from the waters between Massachusetts and Maine, and shrimp populations are so depleted that the commercial shrimp season in the Gulf of Maine has been cancelled for the last three years.

At the same time, lobster are flourishing — alongside a host of species that have never before thrived in New England waters.

Why the wild ups and downs? One reason is that nearby waters are warming much faster than the rest of the ocean, making the environment newly unbearable for some longtime residents — and newly appealing for others. But overfishing has played a role as well, disrupting the balance of the watery ecosystem in unexpected ways.

It’s hard to predict where all this is headed, whether for individual species or local fishing communities. But it needn’t be a story of doom and gloom. These undersea changes may well dampen the prospects of the cod industry, but they will also bring new opportunities.

What’s happening in nearby waters?

Rapid and unusual warming.

Temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have been increasing faster than just about every other blue spot on the planet. According to a recent report in Science, Maine’s waters are in the top 0.1 percent when it comes to rapid warming.

While that team focused on the waters to the east and north of Massachusetts, that superwarm area they reported on actually extends significantly south, surrounding the Bay State.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Water, Power and Oceans: A Year in Review – Protecting and Promoting Fishing Access

December 21, 2015 — The following was released by the House Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans:

Through conducting oversight of the Obama Administration’s actions and through key marine resource management reforms, Subcommittee Republicans remain dedicated to preserving American’s access to our domestic offshore waters.

In June, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1335, the “Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act.” This bill, introduced by Rep. Don Young (AK-At Large), makes key reforms to the Magnuson- Stevens Act – the primary law regulating federal fisheries management. H.R. 1335 increases transparency in federal fisheries agency decisions, empowers regional decision-making, and improves recreational fishing data and access through requiring state data into federal assessments. The bill also ensures access to marine resources by affirming that the Magnuson-Stevens Act shall remain the ultimate authority over federal fisheries management even within the bounds of a Marine National Monument or Marine Sanctuary. Hundreds of organizations support the bill, which is pending in the Senate.

Despite National Park Service estimates on low fish availability, Chairman Bishop and his crew caught 48 fish in 70 minutes in Biscayne Bay, Florida. Source: House Natural Resources Republicans

Gaps in fisheries science and management decisions are not the only issues impacting access to marine resources. This past year alone, the Administration has entertained a series of executive actions and agency rules that inhibit fishing access, often without even securing the support of local entities or states.

This was apparent in June when the National Park Service released the final General Management Plan for Biscayne National Park in Florida, which included 10,502 acres in state waters that would be closed to all commercial and recreational fishing – despite opposition from the State of Florida and others. In August, the House Committees on Natural Resources and Small Business held a joint oversight field hearing in Homestead, Florida to review the plan.

Highlighted in this hearing was H.R. 3310, a bill introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL- 27) that aims to avoid future situations like the one in Biscayne National Park by preserving a state’s right to manage the lands and waters within their jurisdiction. The text of H.R. 3310 was incorporated into H.R. 2406 in October by an amendment offered by Rep. Amata Radewagen (American Samoa). A number of fisheries organizations supported the amendment and H.R. 3310. You can find more information about this amendment and the markup here.

The Administration is considering additional ideas to close off further access. In September, the Subcommittee held an oversight hearing on a proposal being considered by the Administration to create the first Marine National Monument in the Atlantic, off of the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. During this hearing, Subcommittee members heard of a September 15 Town Hall meeting hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which one witness characterized as a “charade,” as so few details regarding Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom the proposal  had been made public at that time. Full Committee Chairman Bishop and Subcommittee Chairman Fleming and others subsequently sent a letter to NOAA and the Council on Environmental Quality echoing bipartisan requests for additional information regarding the proposal as well as additional opportunities for local input. Three months after the Town Hall meeting, the Administration has yet to release any additional information, including coordinates or maps, of the designation under consideration.

Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom MacArthur and Chairman Rob Bishop in Long Island, New York. Source: House Natural Resources Republicans

The economic impacts of the potential Marine National Monument were also discussed at a December oversight field hearing in Long Island, New York, where the Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Lee Zeldin (NY-01) heard firsthand about the impacts of federal decision-making on public access and regional economies. This hearing highlighted the crucial reforms to federal fisheries management made by H.R. 1335 and the assurances that these provisions would give to the recreational and commercial fishing industries. Witnesses from the local commercial, recreational, and charter-for-hire industries expressed their support for reforms within the bill that increase transparency in federal decision-making and require greater incorporation of state and regional input.

The Subcommittee has also held hearings on specific bills aimed at regional fisheries issues in 2015. During a July 23 legislative hearing, the Subcommittee heard from fishermen, tribes, and the Administration about two necessary bills introduced by Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (WA-3) to preserve fishing access on the west coast: H.R. 564, the Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act of 2015, and H.R. 2168, the Dungeness Crab Management Act. To assist the recovery of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed salmon in the Columbia River watershed and to protect tribal ceremonial, subsistence and commercial fisheries, H.R. 564 authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to issue expedited permits authorizing states and tribes to lethally take non-ESA listed sea lions under certain conditions. Fishermen and tribal leaders testified that this additional authority was necessary as sea lions have inhabited the lower Columbia River and have been ravaging ESA listed species of chinook, steelhead, coho, and chum salmon. During this hearing, the Subcommittee also heard unanimous support from the panel of witnesses for H.R. 2168, a bill to make permanent the long standing tri-state (Washington, Oregon and California) Dungeness crab management authority in place since 1980. H.R. 2168 passed the House of Representatives on October 6 and is pending in the Senate.

Sea Lion eating ESA listed Salmon in the Lower Columbia River. Source: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

The Subcommittee also held a hearing on H.R. 3094. As introduced by Rep. Garret Graves (LA-06) and others, the bill transfers the management authority of the red snapper fishery in federal waters from NOAA to a new authority comprised of a representative of each of the five Gulf of Mexico States in response to concerns over federal accountability, decisionmaking and access. The Subcommittee heard from a wide array of witnesses representing different user groups, including States, recreational industry, commercial and charter fishermen, and restaurants.

View a PDF of the newsletter

Tuna fisherman teams up with engineers to build ‘Zombait’ robotic lure

December 21, 2015 — Two years ago over Christmas dinner, Maine tuna fisherman Rink Varian aired a favorite gripe: The tuna he caught vastly preferred live bait fish, but he almost never had enough of the little critters on hand. What if someone built a device that could re-animate dead bait fish into effective lures?

Varian’s musings fell on deaf ears season after season, but this time he snagged a partner. Engineer Matthew Borowski, Varian’s family friend, decided to team up with the fisherman build such a device.

This month, a version of the tool Varian dreamed up is finally on sale. It’s called ‘Zombait’ and looks like a giant crayon with a tail. Place it in the mouth of a thawed-out bait fish, toss it in water, and voila, the wriggling electronics inside the fish create the illusion that it’s come alive.

Along the way, Varian and Borowski reeled in Boston project designer Jessy Cusack to join the project and started a company in Medford — Magurobotics — to manufacture the device and sell to recreational and commercial fishermen.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Governor, delegation appeal to Obama for fishing safety money

December 21, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD — The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation has co-signed a letter to President Barack Obama by Gov. Charlie Baker, appealing for the fishing safety money promised in legislation two years ago but never released.

The Fishing Safety Training Grants Program and Fishing Safety Research Grant Program were supposed to get $3 million each to target the safety issues that make commercial fishing the most dangerous job in the nation.

“Every day in Massachusetts, our fishermen perform the harrowing tasks at sea that have made their industry a vital part of our heritage as well as our economy,” said Baker in a statement. “These modest investments by the federal government would not only equip them with new life-saving technologies, but also make good fiscal sense through the reduction of costly search-and-rescue missions.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Governor Baker, Federal Delegation Urge President Obama to Fund Protections for Northeast Fishing Industry

December 21, 2015 – The following was released from the Office of Governor Charlie Baker:

In a letter sent to President Barack Obama, Governor Charlie Baker and the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation petitioned funding for the Fishing Safety Training Grants Program and Fishing Safety Research Grant Program as part of the president’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget. In the letter, Governor Baker and the delegation make the case for $6 million in matching federal funds to support the safety and survival of commercial fisherman, who perform the deadliest job in the country based on the rate of on-the-job fatalities.

“Every day in Massachusetts, our fishermen perform the harrowing tasks at sea that have made their industry a vital part of our heritage as well as our economy,” said Governor Baker. “These modest investments by the federal government would not only equip them with new life-saving technologies, but also make good fiscal sense through the reduction of costly search-and-rescue missions.” 

“Fishing families greatly appreciate that Governor Baker and the entire Massachusetts delegation are making the safety of fishermen a priority,” said J.J. Bartlett, President of Fishing Partnership Support Services. “For too long, fishermen have been forced to work without access to the information and training necessary to do their jobs safely. Access to these essential grant funds will save lives and reduce the number of risky and costly search-and-rescue missions.”

In 2015, new rules under the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 (CGGA) took effect and require commercial fishing vessels operating beyond three nautical miles to be outfitted with an updated safety and survival training program. Prior to this change, similar regulations only applied to vessels operating outside of 13 nautical miles. To date, Congress has not funded the two grant programs set aside to help absorb ancillary costs to fishing families associated with this change. 

Authorization of $3 million for both the training and research grant programs has been extended through Fiscal Year 2017, but funds have yet to be appropriated. If approved, non-federal grant applicants such as the Fishing Partnerships Support Services are prepared to provide matching funds for New England with the goal of training one hundred percent of Massachusetts fishermen within 10 years. 

The letter points to conclusive evidence that these trainings save lives, including the nation’s largest decrease in on-the-job fatalities among Alaskan fisherman between 1986 and 2012. Additionally, the letter states that preventing just one search and rescue operation – often $200,000 per day or more than $1.5 million in multiday searches by the U.S. Coast Guard – would more than pay for the cost of running the training program in New England for an entire year.

View a PDF of the letter

Gov. Baker, Mass. Congressional delegation urge Obama to fund fishing safety programs

December 21, 2015 — Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and the state’s congressional delegation are urging President Barack Obama to include funding for fishing safety training and safety research grant programs in his next federal budget.

In a Dec. 18 letter to Obama, Baker and the entire Massachusetts delegation pointed out that, based on U.S. Department of Labor statistics compiled by Bloomberg Business, Nnortheast groundfishermen are 37 times more likely to die on the job than police officers and 171 times more likely to die on the job than the average U.S. worker.

“If our school teachers died on the job at the same rate as our fishermen in Massachusetts, we would lose 400 public school teachers each year,” they wrote to the president.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Off the hook – Researchers find mortality of cod caught and released off Gloucester is half of original estimate

December 21, 2015 — With cod at historically low population levels and commercial fishermen limited to landings that are just a fraction of what they once were, the recreational catch is now believed to account for as much as one-third of total landings of Gulf of Maine cod.

But recreational landings data was considerably poorer than the commercial data, which made it hard to estimate their true impact on the population or know the effectiveness of regulatory measures.

Solving the cod crisis will take a lot of research. Now, scientists are no longer restricted to their lab. As a recent study shows, creative thinking and technology can turn the ocean into a lab, and the results can be more precise and minimize the regulatory impact on fishermen.

A key missing piece in the puzzle was information on how many fish died after they were released by anglers. Lacking key data such as length and weight of released cod resulted in the assumption that 100 percent of those fish died. Missing data can lead to underestimating the population size, with overly strict regulations, said Michael Palmer, National Marine Fisheries Service research fishery biologist.

Researchers started collecting length and weight data in 2005 after regulators tightened reporting requirements for recreational fishermen. In 2011, a panel arrived at a consensus that 30 percent of cod released by anglers died. But Palmer was concerned that there were no directed studies, in the U.S. or internationally, to truth-test the estimate.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New herring fishing rules to come before fishermen

December 14, 2015 — Interstate regulators will hold hearings for fishermen in Gloucester and throughout New England about a plan to amend some of the rules for Atlantic herring fishing.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is soliciting comments about the amended rules. The proposal includes alternatives to the current spawning monitoring program and changes to the requirements about a boat’s condition before it leaves on a fishing trip.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

How whaling logs from the 1800s might help us solve climate change

December 16, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Maritime historians, climate scientists and ordinary citizens are coming together on a project to study the logbooks of 19th-century whaling ships to better understand modern-day climate change and Arctic weather patterns.

Whaling ships kept meticulous daily logbooks of weather conditions during their often yearslong voyages searching the globe for whales, valued for their light-giving oil, said Michael Dyer, senior maritime historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is supplying much of the data.

Some logs include information about life on board, such as sailors falling overboard, or being disciplined for stealing or other transgressions, and of course, notations whenever whales are spotted. More important for this project, they include precise longitude and latitude measurements, weather conditions, the presence of icebergs and the edge of the ice shelf.

“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

The project, called Old Weather: Whaling, is led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whaling museum is transcribing and digitizing its own logbooks, as well as original data sources from the Nantucket Historical Association, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, and the New Bedford Free Public Library.“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Post

 

Cause of Action’s Stephen Schwartz Discusses At-Sea Monitoring Lawsuit on WBSM

December 16, 2015 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Last Saturday, December 12, on the Ken Pittman Show on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Cause of Action Counselor Stephen Schwartz, discussed a lawsuit that the organization filed against NOAA for their at-sea monitoring program. During the interview, Mr. Schwartz explained that the federal requirement that fishermen fund at-sea-monitors is overly intrusive and too burdensome for the fishing industry.

“The federal government is making a huge imposition even when top agencies and regional administrators agree that fishermen can’t afford to fund the observers, and more than half of them would go out of business,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz said that most federal observers do not have the same expertise that fishermen do – fishermen who have made their living on New England waters often in inclement conditions – and present a danger to the fishermen by taking up space on the boats, and preventing them from efficiently collecting data on fish stocks.

“If fishermen were left to their own devices, they would actually protect fish stocks and be more productive,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz and Cause of Action are arguing that NOAA does not have the power to require that the industry fund the observer program, and that the principles of constitutional law involved have the potential to restructure fishing industry regulations in order to not place the burden solely on fishermen.

Listen to the interview here