Saving Seafood

Feds holding the line on monkfishing rules for now

May 5, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal fishing regulators say the rules for harvesting monkfish are staying the same for now.

Monkfish are bottom-dwelling fish that resemble sea monsters and are prized by some chefs. They are fished commercially along the East Coast and are a popular item at fish markets and restaurants.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have not been changes to monkfish possession limits for 2017.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Virginian-Pilot

Monkfish Permit Holders: No Changes to Monkfish Posession Limits for Now

May 4, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We would like to remind monkfish permit holders that there have not been any changes to the monkfish possession limits for 2017.

We have not yet published a proposed rule soliciting public comment on Framework Adjustment 10 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan. If approved, Framework 10 would increase several possession limits.

We anticipate the proposed rule will be filing soon, and will announce when the proposed and final rules are published.

Commercial fishing representative discusses new South Fork Wind Farm with Richard Rose on CBS New York

January 31st, 2016 — On January 25th, the Long Island Power Authority approved the South Fork Wind Farm, a new wind development off the coast of Long Island. On January 30th, Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, sat down with Richard Rose on CBS New York to discuss the adverse impact the new project would have on local fish and fishermen.

Located 30 miles southeast of Montauk, New York, the South Fork Wind Farm will cost $740 million to construct the wind farm that will stretch over a 15 square mile area. In the interview Ms. Brady noted that the project would come at the expense of the many nearby fisheries, including the “most healthy stock of cod in the Northeast,” fluke, scallops, monkfish, and over 30 other different species of fish.  

Specifically, Ms. Brady cited the threat to local fish stocks from a construction process known as “pile driving,” which emits a loud sound that injures, and can kill, nearby fish and marine mammals. In addition, the process plows six feet beneath the ocean floor, dispersing sediment and killing larvae as a result of a large increase in pressure.

“Pile driving kills anything with a swim bladder within three-quarters of a mile. When you puncture a swim bladder, you don’t float, you sink,” Ms. Brady said. “If you’re at the bottom of the ocean because you’re a ground fish to begin with you’re not going to be coming up.”

Ms. Brady continued that these fishing areas would be very difficult for local fishermen to replace.

“Fishermen go to the areas where fish are, specifically based on temperature and bait. And as a result, during certain times of the year they move offshore and onshore,” Ms. Brady clarified in the interview.

Ms. Brady also took issue with the lack of consultation with the commercial fishing industry before approval of the wind farm. She explained that wind farm proponents failed to reach out to the commercial fishing industry to assess areas of economic importance or high environmental sensitivity that should be excluded from the wind farm area.

As fishing vessels often have difficulty navigating the wind turbine array, a return to the area can be problematic.

“The reality is we as fishermen depend upon the fish, not only for this generation but for generations in the future,” Brady said. “We, more than anyone else, know what goes on underneath the waterline because we are the ones who follow the fish and catch them in providing food for the nation.”

Watch the full interview at CBS New York

Some of Earth’s oldest creatures are now protected off the Jersey Shore

December 15, 2016 — To preserve some of the oldest living creatures on Earth, the federal government announced Wednesday that it had created an enormous protected area off the coast of New Jersey to protect deep-sea corals and other hidden ecological treasures.

At more than 40,000 square miles (the size of Virginia), the Frank R. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area includes about a dozen deep-water chasms, including the fabled Hudson Canyon. The area begins more than 70 miles offshore and parallels the coast from Long Island to North Carolina. Lautenberg, the U.S. senator from New Jersey who died in 2013, championed several deepwater species.

The agreement was hashed out by several stakeholders including NOAA Mid-Atlantic Fisheries, fishermen  and marine scientists.

Cold-water corals live hundreds of meters under the water. Until the fishing industry started harvesting using bottom trawling, the creatures were undisturbed for millennia. Commercial fishermen using “canyon busters,” however, have raked the world’s sea floors to harvest mackerel, monkfish and squid. The equipment boosts fisheries production but also topples and destroys the fragile coral. What survives can take centuries, even thousands of years, to bounce back. As a result, species that depend on the coral for their habitats — spider crabs, the bizarre rhinochimera, and scores of other rarely seen animals — are also left unprotected and imperiled.

Read the full story at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Fishermen to be allowed to catch more monkfish next year

November 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Fishermen will likely be allowed to catch more monkfish next year.

Monkfish are a species of bottom-dwelling fish that are a popular item at restaurants and seafood markets. The regulatory New England Fishery Management Council has approved rules for the fishery that will allow fishermen to bring ashore more than 15,000 metric tons of the fish next year.

Fishermen have typically caught between 7,000 and 10,000 metric tons of monkfish annually since 2009.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the News & Observer

Monkfish Specifications Expected to Rise in FY 2017-2019

November 15, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Monkfish total allowable landing (TAL) limits for the 2017-2019 fishing years are on track to increase under Framework Adjustment 10 to the federal Monkfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). So are: (1) days-at sea allocations and trip limits for the Southern Fishery Management Area; and (2) incidental catch limits for monkfish C and D permit holders working under groundfish days-at-sea in the Northern Management Area.

The New England Fishery Management Council approved the framework today at its meeting in Newport, RI. The Mid-Atlantic Council, which jointly manages monkfish, is scheduled to take action at its Dec. 12-15 meeting in Baltimore, MD. The National Marine Fisheries Service must approve the framework before the new days-at-sea allocations and trip limits can be implemented.

The New England Council adopted the following allocations for days-at-sea:

  • Northern Fishery Management Area: status quo, 45 monkfish days-at-sea; and
  • Southern Fishery Management Area: 37 monkfish days, a 15% increase from 32.

Monkfish days-at-sea allocations have not been restricting fishing effort in the northern area, where the majority of fishermen catch monkfish while groundfish fishing. Therefore, the Council decided to leave monkfish days-atsea at status quo in the north – 45 days – and instead raise the incidental landing limit for Category C and D monkfish permit holders working under a groundfish day-at-sea. The Council took this step to help northern area fishermen better utilize the available TAL. In 2015, for example, only 71% of the TAL was harvested in the north.

Read the full release as a PDF here

Changes could come to East Coast monkfish business

September 30, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishing regulators are working on a new plan to manage the monkfish fishery on the East Coast.

Monkfish are bottom-dwelling fish that are fished commercially and are a popular menu item in seafood restaurants. The New England Fishery Management Council has initiated a plan to create new fishing specifications for the fish for the next three years.

A spokeswoman says the council’s monkfish committee will work this fall on specifications for the fishery. Rules will be approved in November. The rules could also remain status quo.

Fishermen catch monkfish from Maine to North Carolina, though most are brought ashore in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Journal

New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee to Continue Working on Three-Year Monkfish Specs

September 22, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council today initiated a framework adjustment to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan to develop 2017-2019 fishing year specifications for both the Northern and Southern Fishery Management Areas. The Monkfish Committee will continue to work this fall on specifications and any other needed measures for the fishery. The Monkfish Plan Development Team (PDT) will conduct the necessary days-at-sea and trip limit analyses. The Council is scheduled to approve the framework with final specifications during its Nov. 15-17 meeting in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) has recommended “status quo” area-specific acceptable biological catches (ABCs) and overfishing limits (OFLs) for 2017-2019 as follows in metric tons (mt):

  • Northern Area ABC – 7,592 mt
  • Northern Area OFL – 17,805 mt
  • Southern Area ABC – 12,316 mt
  • Southern Area OFL – 23,204 mt

The SSC reviewed the new 2016 index- based operational stock assessment for monkfish before making these recommendations, which followed PDT advice.

The full range of specifications will include area-based caps on total allowable landings (TALs), days-at-sea allocations, and trip limits.

Under current monkfish regulations, the northern and southern ABCs are reduced by 13.5% and 6.5% respectively to account for “management uncertainty.” The PDT will analyze a lower deduction of 3% in both areas since TALs have not been reached in recent years. The Council is striving to maximize fishing opportunities in both areas while simultaneously providing adequate stock protection.

On a related note, Northeast Fisheries Science Center surveys – namely the scallop survey and fall bottom trawl survey – signaled “an above average recruitment event” in 2015 for monkfish. While the news is welcoming, the SSC cautioned that it was “unclear as to whether this large recruitment event would transfer into the fishable population.”

The Monkfish PDT will closely monitor the progress of the 2015 recruitment event and report back to the Monkfish Committee and Council when additional information is available.

The Council’s Monkfish Advisory Panel will meet Oct. 12 and the Monkfish Committee will meet Oct. 18 to continue discussing the framework. Meeting details will be announced in the near future.

See the full release here

Is Dogfish the New Cod in New England?

August 15, 2016 — On a wind-tossed autumn morning off the Cape Cod coast, the aft deck of Doug Feeney’s 36-foot fishing boat, the Noah, is buried beneath a squirming, slimy, shin-deep layer of sharks.

The Noah’s hauler growls under the weight of the 300-hook long line emerging from the froth-tipped Atlantic. The reek of gasoline mingles with salt. A procession of small gray sharks, each pierced neatly through the jaw by a steel hook, materializes from the depths. Feeney, a lean fisherman whose goatee and hoop earrings lend him a vaguely piratical mien, yanks the sharks from the line with the steady rhythm of an assembly-line worker. A drained cup of coffee perches on the dashboard; James Taylor warbles on the radio.

“Twenty-five years ago we’d catch 10,000 pounds of these things every day,” Feeney shouts over the roar of the engines and “Fire and Rain.” “We’d just throw ’em back over the side.”

Like many Chatham fishermen, Feeney is a jack-of-all-trades. He gillnets monkfish in early spring, he trolls for bluefin tuna in late fall. But no species occupies more of his energy than the spiny dogfish, the dachshund-size shark now piling up on the Noah’s deck. Though the word “shark” conjures visions of the toothsome great white, spiny dogfish, the most common shark in the world, bears little resemblance to Jaws. For starters, it rarely grows more than 4 feet long. White freckles dot its slate-colored back and its green eyes glow with an eerie feline light. Stroked head to tail, its skin is almost velvety to the touch.

What Squalus acanthias lacks in fierceness, it makes up for in abundance. From Florida to Maine, populations are flourishing, so much so that the annual quota—the total weight that fishermen are allowed to catch—has increased every year from 2008 to 2015, cresting at a whopping 50 million pounds before dipping to 40 million this year. Such bounty stands in stark contrast to the grim status of Massachusetts’ most iconic fish, the cod, so depleted that quotas have sunk below a meager one million pounds. With the cod industry in a state of collapse, dogfish represent perhaps the best hope for struggling local fishermen. “These guys have been through so many cuts,” says Tobey Curtis, a fisheries policy analyst with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “When we have success, we want to be able to pay them back.”

Read the full story at Boston Magazine

NEFMC SSC Meeting Live Streaming Information

August 5, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet on Wednesday, August 10, 2016.  The public is invited to participate via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION:  Hilton Garden Inn, Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman Street.  Hotel information is available here.

START TIME:  9:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting will be available here.

There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (914) 614-3221.

The access code is 960-909-979.

Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will develop overfishing levels (OFLs) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations for (1) Georges Bank yellowtail flounder for fishing year 2017; (2) monkfish for fishing years 2017-2019; and (3) Atlantic deep-sea red crab for fishing years 2017-2019.  The SSC also may take up other business as necessary.

MATERIALS:  Meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at SSC Aug. 10, 2016 meeting.