Saving Seafood

Atlantic surf clam stocks continue to shift up the coast

November 7, 2018 — The surf clam fishery — typically centered from the Mid-Atlantic states to northern New Jersey — continues to shift northward. Over time, the distribution shows increased landings in southern New England and Georges Bank. Southern New England and Long Island are productive for ocean quahogs.

Quota for both fisheries has been the same for 15 years, and set at levels higher than demand since the mid-2000s. Fishermen, for the past decade, have come shy of reaching quota, harvesting between 86 percent in 2008 down to 64 percent in 2017.

“The industry has asked the council to maintain the quotas at those levels due to anticipated market demand,” said José Montañez, fishery management specialist with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

The 2018 commercial quota for surf clams is 3.4 million bushels. For ocean quahog, Maine quota is set at 100,000 bushels and other states have a quota of 5.33 million bushels. As of late September, 44 percent of the surf clam quota and 36 percent of the quahog quota had been harvested, on pace with previous years.

Average ex-vessel price was $13.90 per bushel in 2017. The total ex-vessel value of 2017’s federal surf clam harvest hit about $31 million, the same as in 2016. In 2017, $23 million worth of ocean quahogs were recorded. It appears that 2018 values will look similar.

Bekah Angoff, of the boutique Boston-based Pangea Shellfish ships surf clams to consumers throughout U.S. and Canada. The wholesale cost is $2.50-$3 per pound, with seasonal variation, and one clam/pound including shell and meat.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Ocean Shock: Fish Flee for Cooler Waters, Upending Lives in US South

November 7, 2018 — This is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them.

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” drifts from Karroll Tillett’s workshop, a wooden shed about half a mile from where he was born.

Tillett, known as “Frog” to everyone here, has lived most of his 75 years on the water, much of it chasing summer flounder. But the chasing got harder and harder, and now he spends his time making nets for other fishermen at his workshop, at the end of a dirt path next to his ex-wife’s house.

The house is on CB Daniels Sr. Road, one of several named after two of the fishing clans that have held sway for decades in this small coastal town. Besides CB Daniels Sr. Road, there’s ER Daniels Road and just plain Daniels Road. In Frog’s family, there’s Tink Tillett Road and Rondal Tillett Road.

Once upon a time, these fishing families were pioneers. In the 1970s and 1980s, they built summer flounder into a major catch for the region. The 15 brothers and sisters of the Daniels clan parlayed the business into a multinational fishing company, and three years ago they sold it to a Canadian outfit for tens of millions of dollars.

But for Frog Tillett and almost everyone else in these parts, there’s not much money to be made fishing offshore here anymore.

Forty years ago, Tillett fished for summer flounder in December and January in waters near Wanchese, then followed the fish north as the weather warmed. In recent years, however, fewer summer flounder have traveled as far south in the winter, and the most productive area has shifted north, closer to Martha’s Vineyard and the southern shore of Long Island.

Reuters has spent more than a year scouring decades of maritime temperature readings, fishery records and other little-used data to create a portrait of the planet’s hidden climate disruption — in the rarely explored depths of the seas that cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. The reporting has come to a disturbing conclusion: Marine life is facing an epic dislocation.

Read the full story from Reuters at Voice of America

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker urges Interior: Keep NY turbines out of prime fishing grounds

November 5, 2018 — Gov. Charlie Baker wrote to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on Thursday to ask him to consider eliminating the highest-priority fishing areas from future leases for offshore wind, particularly in the New York Bight, a heavily fished area south of Long Island.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has begun evaluating potential locations in the New York Bight for wind.

“Some of the areas under consideration for leasing represent very productive and high-value grounds for fishermen from Massachusetts and other states,” Baker said in the letter.

He cited an assessment of fish landings earlier this year by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils that calculated the value of fishing within the proposed areas at more than $344 million from 2012 to 2016.

“Views of the fishing industry must be valued, which has been fundamental to the successful process in Massachusetts,” he said.

New Bedford fishermen and city officials expressed serious concerns about the New York locations in a meeting with BOEM in September. At the time, vessel owner Eric Hansen said 40 to 50 percent of the scalloping grounds fished by New Bedford scallopers are within that area.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fight for New Fluke Quota in New York

October 26, 2018 — For many years, commercial fishermen in New York have complained about the inequities they faced in the numbers­­­ of summer flounder they could land (as well as other popular species), when compared to other states along the East Coast. The fight has gone on for nearly 30 years and continues to this day.

In April, the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council approved a summer flounder commercial issues draft amendment that rejected a motion by New York representatives to add provisions that would more adequately address the state-by-state quota inequity in the fluke fishery. Once again, the council and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission solicited public comment on the draft amendment, which ended last week. While a decision has yet to be made, it’s very clear that frustration abounds concerning an imbalance between many on land and those who work on the water.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has called for two additional options in the summer flounder commercial issues draft amendment — to negotiate new state quota shares of summer flounder and to include a coast-wide quota and management of summer flounder.

“The state-by-state quotas created by the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Department of Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, are based upon faulty and incomplete collection data, which discriminate against commercial fishermen in the State of New York,” Mr. Thiele said in an Oct. 15 statement.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

 

ASMFC Spiny Dogfish Board Sets Quotas for 201 9-2021 Fishing Seasons

October 25, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Spiny Dogfish Management Board approved the following coastwide commercial quotas for the 2019-2021 fishing seasons (May 1-April 30): 20,522,832 pounds for 2019/2020; 23,194,835 pounds for 202/2021, and 27,421,096 pounds for 2021/2022 (state-specific allocations are provided in table below). The quotas are consistent with the measures recommended to NOAA Fisheries by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The Board also established a 6,000 pound commercial trip limit for the northern region states of Maine through Connecticut, while New York through North Carolina have the ability to set state-specific trip limits based on the needs of their fisheries. The Commission’s actions are final and apply to state waters (0-3 miles from shore). The Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils will forward their recommendations for federal waters (3 –200 miles from shore) to NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Administrator for final approval.

The quotas are based on the 2018 Stock Assessment Update, which indicates that while the population is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring, biomass has declined, requiring an approximate 46% reduction in the 2019-2020 quota to ensure that overfishing does not occur. The next benchmark stock assessment is currently scheduled for completion in 2021.

For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

MAFMC to Host Workshop Addressing Law-Enforcement Issues in For-Hire Fisheries

October 11, 2018 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will host a workshop November 13-14 (Law Enforcement/ For-Hire Workshop) to identify issues related to law enforcement in for-hire fisheries and sale by recreational anglers of tilefish and tuna and to develop potential solutions. Specifically, the workshop will address:

  1. Operator versus angler (client) responsibility for fisheries violations that occur on for-hire vessels and law enforcement options for addressing these.
  2. Issues related to the sale of fish by private recreational anglers (particularly golden tilefish and tunas) focusing on the need for vessels selling fish to comply with U.S. Coast Guard requirements and/or Federal permits that allow for the sale of fish.

Recommendations coming from this workshop will be presented during the Council’s December meeting for formal discussion. Operators of for-hire vessels and private vessels fishing for tuna or tilefish along the Atlantic who may have encountered these issues may want to participate. State and federal fisheries law enforcement, as well as operators of for-hire vessels and private vessels fishing for tuna or tilefish along the Atlantic who may have encountered these issues, may want to participate.

The workshop is open to the public and free to attend but pre-registration is requested to ensure adequate meeting facilities. For more information and to register, visit http://www.mafmc.org/workshop/law-enforcement-for-hire-workshop.

Questions? Contact Andrew Loftus, (410) 295-5997, aloftus@andrewloftus.com.

US mid-Atlantic fishery votes to increase Illex squid catch

October 5, 2018 — The US’s Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted on Oct. 3 to increase the acceptable biological catch (ABC) for Illex squid to 26,000 metric tons in 2019 and 2020, an increase of 8% over the 24,000t per year limit previously set for 2018-2020.

The council said it made the decision to raise the ABC after reviewing recommendations from its Scientific and Statistical Committee, which reviewed recent catch and survey information. It noted the recent “rapid pace of landings”, which forced the fishery to be closed on August 15, 2018 — a month earlier than the year before — due to 95% of the annual catch limit being landed.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Mid-Atlantic Council Votes to Increase Illex Squid Quota

October 4, 2018 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Today the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to increase the Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) for Illex squid by 2,000 metric tons (mt) for 2019 and 2020 after reviewing recommendations from its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC). This is an increase of approximately 8% above the ABC originally approved by the Council.

In 2017, the Council established a 24,000 mt ABC for 2018, 2019, and 2020. However, the rapid pace of landings in 2017 and 2018 suggests that Illex squid have been highly available to the U.S. fishery during these years, despite several prior years of low landings. The fishery closed September 15th in 2017 and August 15th in 2018. Given the fishery’s recent performance, the Council asked its SSC earlier this year to consider whether changes to the 2019 and 2020 ABC are warranted. The SSC reviewed recent catch and survey information and endorsed a revised ABC of 26,000 mt.

If approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), this revised ABC will result in a domestic annual harvest (DAH) of 24,824.8 mt after accounting for discards. NMFS would then seek to close the fishery at 95% of that quota.

The Council also agreed to develop a working group to investigate new data collection and analysis to support setting Illex ABCs in the future.

For additional information about squid management, contact Jason Didden – jdidden@mafmc.org.

Web Version / PDF Version

October 2018 MAFMC Meeting Agenda, Briefing Materials, and Webinar Information

September 17, 2018 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The public is invited to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s meeting to be held October 1-4, 2018 in Cape May, NJ. The meeting will be held at Congress Hall (200 Congress Place, Cape May, NJ 08204, Telephone 609-884-8421).

Meeting Materials: Briefing documents will be posted at http://ww.mafmc.org/briefing/october-2018 as they become available.

Public Comments: Written comments must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 19 to be included in the Council meeting briefing book. Comments received after this deadline but before 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 27 will be posted as “supplemental materials” on the Council meeting web page. After that date, all comments must be submitted using an online comment form available at available at http://www.mafmc.org/public-comment.

Webinar: For online access to the meeting, enter as a guest at: http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/october2018.

Agenda: Click here to view a detailed meeting agenda.

Request for Proposals For a Study to Document the Distribution of Surfclams in the US Northwest Atlantic

September 11, 2018 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid‐Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) seeks a highly-qualified contractor to document the distributions of Spisula solidissima similis and Spisula solidissima solidissima in the nearshore waters of the US Northwest Atlantic. This study should involve an examination of the extent of genetic and reproductive isolation among areas sampled for these species.

Please review the Request for Proposals for complete details and instructions for proposal submission.

Proposals are due by October 31, 2018.