April 19, 2016 — Sustainability has been a constant concern within the omega-3s industry. While questions remain, the general consensus is that the fisheries that supply most of the world’s servings of long chain fatty acids are in good condition and are well managed.
VIRGINIA: Local clergy to bless the fishing fleet May 1
April 14, 2016 — A boat parade with commercial fishing boats, powerboats, sailboats, excursion craft, kayaks and rowboats will float up Cockrell’s Creek, to the ceremony site, reported Bob Bolger. All boaters in the area are invited to participate in the parade beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Capt. Linwood Bowis will lead the procession aboard the Chesapeake Breeze, followed by the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum’s Elva C.; a Virginia Resources Commission patrol boat, and Smith Point Sea Rescue 1. Omega Protein will be represented by the Rappahannock, captained by Leo Robbins.
The boat parade will begin at the mouth of Cockrell’s Creek and the Great Wicomico River, said Bolger.
The Rev. James B. Godwin will be the keynote speaker. The Rev. Godwin has served as the pastor of United Methodist churches in North Carolina and Virginia. He retired from Trinity UMC in Alexandria.
William and Mary biologist uses fish mouth to design a better filter
April 11, 2016 — For years, when biologist Laurie Sanderson peered into the mouths of filter-feeding fish, what she saw was a puzzle.
How did such fish, from the foot-long menhaden to the 42-foot whale shark, manage to filter tiny food particles so naturally, so efficiently from the water flowing into their mouths and out again?
The answer wasn’t a simple dead-end sieve, like a coffee filter or colander, which ichthyologists assumed for centuries. In fact, Sanderson says, some textbooks still get that wrong.
No, what the professor at the College of William and Mary, her colleagues and students have teased out by studying the filter-feeding paddlefish and basking shark is that they have a complex mouth architecture — with a series of bone ridges or gill arches that have the marvelous ability to form vortices or eddies in the fluid flow. Those vortices serve to separate and collect tiny food bits before the filtered water is expelled.
MARYLAND: Oyster study bill advances despite watermen objections
April 5, 2016 — State fisheries managers use science-backed information to determine how many striped bass, blue crabs and menhaden can be caught each season without damaging the overall health of each species.
But not the Chesapeake Bay’s oysters.
A bill passed by the Maryland Senate and pending before the House would require University of Maryland scientists to establish harvest limits that ensure a sustainable catch for years to come. Representatives of the seafood industry are branding the measure as costly and unnecessary.
The bill’s supporters, however, say Maryland’s oyster population is being overfished, pointing to estimates that it is 1 percent of its historic size.
“We’ve learned the hard way that nature, especially with these oysters, is not inexhaustible,” said Bill Goldsborough, a fisheries scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “So this attitude, this disregard for science, led to the depletion of this valuable resource and the unstable boom-and-bust pattern of fishery that we see today.”
Maryland’s oyster haul plummeted from an all-time high of 15 million bushels in the 1880s to 26,000 bushels in 2004. After surpassing 100,000 for several years, the total harvest rocketed above 300,000 in 2013 and 2014. Researchers attribute the jump to hearty reproduction in 2010 and 2012.
The size of oyster catch this season, which officially ended Thursday, is expected to be lower again, reflecting poorer reproduction in subsequent years.
Counting fish from the air
March 31, 2016 — This week, I was reminded of the outstanding Atlantic menhaden management program we have in Narragansett Bay. Monday night, George Purmont, a spotter pilot commissioned by the Marine Fisheries Division of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), spoke about his work of counting schools of Atlantic menhaden (pogies) from the air in Narragansett Bay.
At a R.I. Saltwater Anglers Association meeting, Purmont said, “When the amount of Atlantic menhaden in the Bay goes above the threshold, the Bay is open to commercial harvesting. When it falls below the threshold, the Bay is closed to Atlantic menhaden fishing.”
The program is one of the most sophisticated and effective programs of its type in the nation. Purmont said, “Flights once or twice a week give fish managers at DEM good information to manage the fishery.” The program works well for recreational fishermen to protect this forage fish, as well as for the commercial fishery, allowing the Bay to be fished when there is an abundance of fish in the Bay.
ASMFC February/March Issue of Fisheries Focus Now Available
March 25, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Management Comission:
The February/March issue of ASMFC Fisheries Focus is now available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/56f557b0FishFocusFebMarch2016.pdf.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
ASMFC 2016 Spring Meeting Preliminary Agenda
page 1
Upcoming Meetings
page 2
From the Executive Director’s Desk
A New Initiative: ASMFC Kicks-off Socioeconomic Study on Atlantic Menhaden Commercial Fisheries
page 3
Species Profile
Northern Shrimp
page 4
Science Highlight
Larval Fish and Climate Change Research in National Estuarine Research Reserves
page 8
ACCSP
GARFO Authorizes eTrips/ Mobile for Use in Electronic Trip Reporting
ACCSP Seeks Your Feedback on Ways to Improve SAFIS
ACCSP Happenings
page 10
On the Legislative Front
page 11
ASMFC Releases 2015 Annual Report
page 11
ASMFC Comings & Goings
page 12
Past issues of Fisheries Focus can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/search/%20/%20/Fishery-Focus.
MISSISSIPPI: ‘Nobody wants a menhaden’ mayor tells supervisors
March 21, 2016 — PASCAGOULA — Moss Point Mayor Billy Broomfield defended his city’s major industry, Omega Protein, to Jackson County supervisors on Monday.
He said the menhaden fishery would be hard hit if the county follows through with plans to ask the state to restrict menhaden fishing in the Mississippi Sound to one mile off the Jackson County coast. Harrison and Hancock counties already do that.
The restriction is in part to stop by-catch and overfishing.
Study eyes fisheries for menhaden— a key forage fish
March 21, 2016 — Gloucester, Mass. — Interstate fishing managers will commission a study of the commercial fisheries for Atlantic menhaden, an important forage fish that is caught all along the East Coast.
Menhaden are an important bait fish and are also caught for use as fish oil and fish meal. States from Maine to Florida have been the site of commercial fisheries for menhaden in the past ten years.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The San Francisco Chronicle
Menhaden Fisheries Coalition releases ‘Atlantic Menhaden: Fishing by the Numbers’
March 16, 2016 (Menhaden Fisheries Coalition) — The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:
While prominent environmental groups have claimed for years that the menhaden fishery has harvested too many menhaden, a thorough analysis from the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition shows that the number of fish being caught is a small fraction of the coastwide population.
Between 2004-2013, the fishery only harvested an average of 6.4 percent of the overall menhaden population. This leaves over 93% of menhaden left in the ecosystem as forage for birds, fish and other sea creatures. Menhaden fishing mortality, which hit an all-time low in the last assessment, is dwarfed by natural mortality, which accounts for predation and mortality from other causes outside of the fishery.
The analysis, “The Fate of an Atlantic Menhaden Year Class,” and accompanying infographic, “Atlantic Menhaden: Fishing by the Numbers,” is based on the catch data included in the 2015 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Atlantic menhaden stock assessment. Also examined in the analysis is the age of menhaden that are caught by the fishery. The fishery specifically does not target juvenile menhaden-those most likely to serve as forage-and the oldest fish-those that are the most fertile spawners. This harvest approach is reflected in the catch data: the fishery overwhelmingly catches menhaden between the ages of 2 and 3, and the catch for juvenile and older menhaden is negligible.
These estimates, along with the 2015 assessment’s headline findings that menhaden are not experiencing overfishing nor are they being overfished, further confirm the sustainability of the fishery. With such a small percentage of the menhaden population actually going to harvest, as well as other positive indicators for stock health, it is clear that current menhaden management is safeguarding the health and the future of the species.
For more information on the results of the analysis, please review the infographic below. For more information on how these estimates were calculated, read “The Fate of an Atlantic Menhaden Year Class.”
ASMFC Initiates Socioeconomic Study on Atlantic Menhaden Commercial Fisheries
Arlington, VA – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has awarded funding to a research team headed by Dr. John Whitehead of Appalachian State University and Dr. Jane Harrison from North Carolina Sea Grant to conduct a socioeconomic study of Atlantic menhaden commercial fisheries. The study is intended to characterize the coastwide commercial fisheries, including bait and reduction sectors and the fishing communities they support.
“We are excited for this opportunity to provide the Commission with these critical data which will characterize the socioeconomic dimensions of menhaden fisheries stakeholders to help managers better understand management impacts,” stated Dr. Harrison.
The principle objective of the study is to analyze data from participants in the Atlantic menhaden commercial industry. The Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery industry converts menhaden into fishmeal and fish oil, while the bait fishery industry supports other commercial (e.g. American lobster, blue crab) and recreational fisheries (e.g. striped bass, bluefish). Case studies along the Atlantic coast will link the harvesting, processing, and distribution sectors across the supply chain. Information on landing trends, industry participation, and social leadership and organizations will also be analyzed. Over the next month, ASMFC staff will be working with the research team to identify and reach out to fishery participants.
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