Saving Seafood

Habitat: NEFMC Discusses GSC HMA Research, Offshore Energy, New Model

June 11, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council covered a wide range of habitat-related issues during its June meeting in So. Portland, ME. These fell into three categories.

  • Great South Channel Habitat Management Area (HMA) Research Planning: This work is a follow-up to the Council’s Clam Dredge Framework, which was approved in December 2018 and is currently under review by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries). The framework proposes to allow hydraulic clam dredge and mussel dredge fishing within three exemption areas of the HMA, and it also proposes to create two large research-only areas to investigate whether surfclam and mussel dredging could occur within the areas without harming sensitive habitat.
  • Offshore Wind Updates: The Council received an overview of the status of offshore wind development in the Northeast region.

Read the full release here

Patchwork of policies holding back US aquaculture industry growth

June 7, 2019 — The 47th United States-Japan Natural Resources Scientific Symposium “Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment” will be held November 12 to 15, 2019, in Okinawa, Japan. It will be the last year for the three-year theme, “Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment.”

The symposium is part of a regular collaboration between NOAA Fisheries and the Japanese Fisheries Research and Education Agency, organized through the U.S.-Japan Natural Resources (UJNR) Aquaculture Panel. The panel is an annual meeting framework that allows scientists to share research results, new technology, and approaches to sustainable seafood farming. Last year’s meeting took place in Mystic, Connecticut, U.S.A.

Mike Rust, a NOAA Fisheries scientist and the U.S. chair of the UJNR Aquaculture Panel, told SeafoodSource the exchanges represented an important path to improving the state of U.S. domestic aquaculture.

“The learning opportunities are tremendous on a number of fronts. The United States is behind in both the scale of marine aquaculture and the science and technology effort to support a sustainable industry. This partnership gives U.S. researchers a chance to understand where Japan is going in aquaculture and learn from Japan’s experience,” Rust said. “The low-hanging fruit in some ways is to look around the world to see where other people are on the technical side.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Measures to Rebuild the Atlantic Mackerel Stock

June 7, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Framework Adjustment 13 to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan would establish a five-year rebuilding plan for Atlantic mackerel, set 2019-2021 specifications, modify closure triggers to slow the commercial fishery when harvest approaches the annual quota, and update the river herring and shad catch cap in the Atlantic mackerel fishery.

For details, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register. Supporting analysis for this rule is available on the Council’s website.

Comments are due July 8, 2019.

To submit comments online, please use the e-rulemaking portal, or send comments by regular mail to Michael Pentony, Regional Administrator, NOAA Fisheries, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA, 01930. Please mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the Proposed Rule for Atlantic Mackerel Framework 13.”

Read the full release here

Environmental groups file federal suit to stop California longline fishery

June 6, 2019 — Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, 6 June, claiming it used a “backdoor maneuver” to permit a new longline fishery off the California coast.

In a statement, the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network said NOAA Fisheries did not comply with the Endangered Species Act when it approved the longline fishery last month. The fishery will consist of two fishing vessels utilizing lines with numerous hooks that stretch for miles to catch tuna and swordfish.

The groups fear endangered species such as Pacific leatherback turtles will end up caught in some of the hooks and potentially die from the interaction. Scientists believe those leatherbacks could become extinct within two decades.

“The failure of the Fisheries Service to comply with environmental laws in issuing the Permit diminishes leatherback sea turtles’ slim chance to defy predictions of extinction,” the complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, states.

Officials issued the permit even though NOAA Fisheries banned longlines 15 years ago.

“This is basically the same fishery the agency outlawed 15 years ago, and the same agency is using a backdoor maneuver to get the fishery reopened,” Turtle Island Restoration Network Executive Director Todd Steiner said in a statement.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

2019 Southeastern Bering Sea Shelf Bottom Trawl Survey Gets Underway

May 30, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On May 31 the Southeastern Bering Sea Bottom Trawl Survey will depart Dutch Harbor to collect data on the distribution and abundance of crab, groundfish, and other bottom-dwelling species in the southeastern Bering Sea. These data are used to estimate population abundances to manage commercially important species in Alaska. NOAA Fisheries has conducted this survey annually since 1975.

As we did last year, we intend to provide regular updates on water temperatures collected near the seafloor at all of our survey stations. When we conduct surveys for fish and other species, we also collect information about the environment in which they live — their habitat. For fish and other species water temperature is important. It affects their spawning, access to food, and growth rates.

We had another unusually warm winter and expect to see a reduction in the cold pool. The cold pool is a natural, thermal barrier created by melting winter sea ice. It tends to separate Arctic species, usually found in the northern Bering Sea, from commercially important pollock, Pacific cod and other species, typically found in the southeastern Bering Sea. Last year after a similar warm winter, a partial survey of the northern Bering Sea was conducted. Large numbers of pollock were found there.

Once scientists complete this year’s survey of the southeastern Bering Sea, they will move northward to conduct a full survey of the northern Bering Sea bottom-dwelling community. Additional surveys are planned in the northern Bering Sea using surface trawls and hydro-acoustics to monitor key components of the marine ecosystem and environmental conditions. Be sure to check back here for regular updates on ocean temperatures collected during the Bering Sea bottom trawl surveys.

The southeastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey will be conducted from approximately May 31 to August 2.  The northern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey will be conducted from about August 3 to 25.

Read the full release here

Red tide could wipe out a generation of stone crabs

May 28, 2019 — Red tide algae can take a toll on the future of the stone crab industry, Mote Marine Laboratory researchers discovered.

Intense concentrations of the toxic red algae potentially can wipe out a generation of stone crabs, Mote scientists reported this week.

The loss could be cataclysmic to Florida’s seafood industry. The health of stone crabs is commercially valuable to the health of Florida’s economy.

More than 105 million pounds of stone crabs were harvested between 1996-2016 and is ranked fifth by the National Marine Fisheries Service among the commercially harvested Florida seafood. Pink shrimp ranks number one. Nationwide, Florida’s seafood industry ranked 11th in the United States, producing more than 87 million pounds of seafood harvested in 2016 and with a dockside value of $237 million, Marine Fisheries reported.

Mote scientists are trying to help figure out why the stone crab catch in Southwest Florida has seen a 25 percent decrease since 2000, and trying to determine the influence of red tide could be a key.

High concentrations of Florida red tide — Karenia brevis — caused 100 percent mortality in stone crab larvae in a four-day study, Mote reported in a press release. Medium concentrations had a 30 percent mortality rate, and many of the surviving larvae had impaired swimming behavior.

Read the full story at the Englewood Sun

Adak Groups, NOAA, and Secretary of Commerce Ross Appeal Decision to Rescind Amendment 113

May 22, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — On Friday the City of Adak, its regional development groups, and the Aleut Corporation filed an appeal to reverse a March 21 decision that vacated Amendment 113. Yesterday Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the National Marine Fisheries Service joined the Aleut groups to appeal the decision from three months ago.

That ruling was in response to a challenge from the Groundfish Forum to the Secretary of Commerce asserting that Amendment 113 did not meet the standards in the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Defendant-intervenors in that challenge were the City of Adak and the City of Atka, along with the Adak Community Development Corporation, the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association (APICDA), and the Aleut Corporation.

The May 17 filing by the Adak groups opens a 14-day window for other parties to join the appeal. Briefs from all appealers will be filed later this summer, likely before the end of June.

AM113 included a set-aside of Pacific cod for the plants in Adak and Atka. Golden Harvest Alaska Seafoods, the plant based in Adak, has relied on deliveries of Pacific cod in recent years as a significant part of their annual revenue.

“The Aleutian Islands Pacific cod landed over a few short weeks in February and March has become the economic engine that sustains the local economy and allows Golden Harvest Alaska Seafoods to invest in new products and markets and the development of year round fisheries for the Adak community,” said Steve Minor for Golden Harvest.

“Golden Harvest serves a variety of federal and state water harvesters and species — including pot boats, longliners, trawlers and jiggers operating in the crab, halibut and sablefish fisheries,” Minor said.

“The loss of Amendment 113 puts all of these shore-based fleets and fisheries at risk.”

In the March 21 decision, the judge noted that “Although the Court finds that the Service did not exceed its statutory authority in imposing a harvest set-aside with an onshore delivery requirement, it nonetheless determines that the Service failed to demonstrate that the amendment satisfied the requisite standards for such regulatory measures set forth by the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“Accordingly, and for the reasons explained below, Plaintiffs’ motion will be granted, and Defendants’ and Intervenors’ motions will be denied,” US District Judge Timothy Kelly wrote.

Kelly asked NOAA Fisheries to reconsider the amendment with some guidance on where changes were needed.

That process, or the work begun within the North Pacific Council addressing the Pacific cod set-aside, will not be done by January 2020, when the plant would be begin taking deliveries for the new season.

Minor noted that at least one of the original plaintiffs in the Groundfish Forum challenge has decided to join the appeal and that “several other entities” are in discussions on filing amicus briefs.

The North Pacific Council will hear a discussion paper at their June meeting, which will include a status report on Amendment 113 litigation, a description of the Council’s December 2018 revision to Amendment 113, and a summary of AI Pacific cod fishery conditions since the implementation of Amendment 113 in November 2016.

The discussion paper will also identify potential regulatory approaches that could be used to provide opportunities for trawl catcher vessels harvesting Pacific cod in the AI delivering to AI shoreplants.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: NOAA fixes proposed haddock rules

May 20, 2019 — Gulf of Maine haddock: NOAA Fisheries is recommending an increase in the daily bag limit to 15 from 12 in 2018, with the minimum size remaining at 17 inches. The recommendation for the open season is May 1 to Feb. 29 and April 15-30;

Gulf of Maine cod: NOAA Fisheries is recommending partially reopening the fishery that has been closed for several years to all fishing by allowing recreational fishermen to catch one GOM cod per day during the limited seasons of Sept. 15-30 and April 15-30. The recommended minimum size is 21 inches.

Georges Bank cod: NOAA Fisheries is recommending a status quo daily bag limit of 10, but with the proposed 2019 minimum size shrinking two inches to 21 inches. The fishery would be open to recreational fishing all year.

Interesting negotiating tactics

You know how it is with bosses and employees. They don’t always get along, but Forrest Broyles may have taken employer-employee animus to a new level.

Broyles, from the Hawaiian island of Kauai, has pleaded no contest in court “after telling police he was under the influence of a hallucinogenic when he used a machete to wreak havoc on his former boss’ home because of a fish dispute,” according to story by the Associated Press.

Broyles was angry at his boss, claiming he didn’t get his share of the choke ahi they caught together. So, on Dec. 3, while cruising at altitude on the hallucinogenic brew of ayahuasca (apparently a local favorite along the Amazon River), Broyles broke into his ex-boss’ abode and made his case in high-charged fashion.

“Broyles ex-boss told police he was at home watching football with his wife when he heard a horn honking and then a loud bang,” according to the report. “He then heard glass shattering from his front door and saw Broyles headed to the living area carrying a machete.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Fisheries Revises 2019 Summer Flounder Specifications

May 16, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, we are announcing increases to the summer flounder catch and landings limits for the 2019 fishing year in response to new information from a benchmark stock assessment.

Final assessment results became available to managers in February 2019. The assessment included the incorporation of revised Marine Recreational Information Program estimates of recreational catch, which has an important impact on estimated spawning stock biomass for summer flounder. The assessment determined that the summer flounder stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring, enabling us to increase catch and landing limits for 2019 .

Read the full release here