Saving Seafood

Alaska’s seafood marketing agency expands its reach

December 1, 2017 — On a domestic and international scale, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute expanded its reach over the past year to promote domestic and overseas sales of wild Alaska seafood, and educate the industry on seafood technical issues.

In presentations Nov. 28, at the start of ASMI’s three-day All Hands meeting in Anchorage, some 200 participants heard progress reports on these and other related issues, including ASMI’s sustainability program.

Fisheries market researcher Andy Wick, presenting for the McDowell Group in Juneau, noted that the cumulative first wholesale value of wild Alaska seafood from 1959 through 2016 totaled $170 billion, equal to the value of all major professional sports teams in North America.

Eighty percent of the state’s commercial seafood harvests from 2011 through 2015 was in high volume groundfish, including Pollock and cod, while salmon garnered on average 15 percent of the catch, halibut and black cod 1 percent, and crab 1 percent.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Rafael Arrest Shines Light on Fishing System

December 1, 2017 — Dozens of New Bedford-based commercial fishing boats were ordered to stop fishing last week in the wake of the federal prosecution of fishing magnate Carlos Rafael, known as The Codfather, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, cash smuggling, and falsifying records and misidentifying and mislabeling fish to avoid fishing quotas.

Members of the dwindling Vineyard fishing community who have been watching the proceedings say the tale is a sad commentary on the state of the industry and highlights flaws in its regulation.

“It’s a symptom of poor policy,” said Wes Brighton, a Vineyard fisherman and one of the only Islanders to hold a federal commercial groundfishing permit. Mr. Brighton fishes for lobster, conch, monkfish, and some cod from his boat Martha Elizabeth.

The system creates an imbalance, he said, giving independently-owned family fishing businesses little access to the fisheries and allowing larger corporations the ability to consolidate fishing permits and quota.

Mr. Rafael was arrested and charged in February 2016 after an undercover investigation. According to the government, federal agents posed as organized crime figures interested in buying his fishing business. For about four years, the Department of Justice said, Mr. Rafael lied to the government about the quantity and species of fish his boats in an effort to evade the strict federal quotas that are designed to protect the sustainability of certain fish species.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

 

Alaska: As council looks to public for Cook Inlet salmon plan, UCIDA stays wary

November 30, 2017 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking for input from Cook Inlet fishermen on how it should develop a management plan for the area’s salmon fisheries.

The federal council, which regulates fisheries in the federal waters between 3 and 200 nautical miles offshore, is currently working on an amendment to the fishery management plan for Cook Inlet’s salmon fisheries. The process is likely to take multiple years of meetings and the council members decided to form a Salmon Committee that includes stakeholders in the fishery to keep the public in the loop on it.

Specifically, the council members are looking for ideas from the public on how the committee will work, according an announcement sent out Tuesday. That can include any fishermen on the salmon stocks of Cook Inlet.

“To develop a scope of work for the Salmon Committee, the council is soliciting written proposals from the public to help the council identify specific, required, conservation and management measures for the Salmon Committee to evaluate relevant to the development of options for a fishery management plan amendment,” the announcement states.

Read the full story at the Peninsula Clarion

 

SCeMFiS Announces Funding for Two Research Projects Impacting Fisheries Management

November 27, 2017 — CAPE MAY, N.J. — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS) has allocated $26,467 in funding for two research projects during the Fall IAB Meeting held October 31-November 1, 2017 in Cape May, New Jersey. The awards span the broad mission of the SCeMFiS and include research on marine mammals and continued funding for the omnibus stock assessment proposal for Atlantic herring.

Funded projects are as follows:

  • Independent Advisory Team for Marine Mammal Assessments – Phase V – this team addresses uncertainties in slow growing marine mammal populations and the interactions between marine mammals and fishing operations. PI: Paula Moreno, USM
  • Stock Assessment Team – stock assessment teams provide external support to NMFS for benchmark assessment working groups with a focus in 2018 on the Atlantic herring. PI: Steve Cadrin, UMass Dartmouth

This fall marked a trend to include industry sponsorship of social events and hold meetings close to prospective new members in an effort to attract and showcase research projects. The Cape May oceanfront provided a beautiful venue for the Fall IAB Meeting. Lund’s Fisheries Inc. and Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Inc. graciously provided food, beverages and evening social events on the Cape May Whale Watcher as well as Cold Spring Village/Brewery and The Grange Restaurant.

Jeff Reichle, President of Lund’s Fisheries, Inc. commented, “It was an honor to host the Fall IAB Meeting of SCeMFiS in the port of Cape May. The fishing industry in New Jersey, both commercial and recreational, has a huge impact on our coastal communities and we are very pleased to be part of this science based organization focused on cooperative research with NMFS and other fisheries management bodies to ensure that we have healthy, sustainable fisheries now and in the future.”

The Industry Advisory Board of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS), supported by the National Science Foundation I/UCRC Program, provides research related to major challenges in fisheries management and brings participants from industry, government, and other organizations in need of science-based solutions into contact with academic scientists capable of providing that expertise.

The SCeMFiS Industry Advisory Board is composed of members from the shellfish and commercial finfish industries and the NMFS-Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The organizational structure provided by the Center permits members to control the science agenda in exchange for financial support under the sponsorship of the NSF.

For a list of the SCeMFiS research projects already underway, please click the following link, http://scemfis.org/research.html. The Industry Advisory Board will review each of its funded projects at its next meeting to be held April 24 & 25 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

 

Bristol Bay red king crab quota caught

November 24, 2017 — The Bristol Bay red king crab season finished up last week when the entire allowable catch was harvested.

“The Bristol Bay Red King Crab fishery went fairly well,” said Miranda Westphal, the area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Dutch Harbor. “A little slower than we would like to have seen, but they wrapped up with a total catch of 6.59 million pounds. So they caught all of the catch that was available for the season.”

Before the season opened on October 15, ADF&G and the National Marine Fisheries Service completed an analysis of the 2017 NMFS trawl survey results for Bristol Bay red king crab.

Read the full story at KDLG

 

Plan to change New England ocean stewardship up for debate

November 24, 2017 — The federal government is close to enacting new rules about New England ocean habitat that could mean dramatic changes for the way it manages the marine environment and fisheries.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has been working on the rules for some 13 years and recently made them public. They would change the way the government manages the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England waters, which are critical pieces of ocean for rare whales, unique underwater canyons and commercial fishermen.

The new rules would affect the way highly valuable species such as scallops and haddock are harvested, in part because it would alter protections that prohibit fishing for species in parts of the ocean. The proposal states that its goal is to minimize “adverse effects of fishing on essential fish habitat.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

New England Council Supports Regional Administrator’s Action to Enforce Groundfish Sector IX Operations Plan

November 21, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fisheries Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council supports today’s announcement by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) that it will be enforcing groundfish sector rules and the Northeast Fishery Sector IX operations plan.

Under Amendment 16 to the Council’s groundfish plan, GARFO’s regional administrator has authority to withdraw approval of a sector at any time he or she, after consulting with the New England Council, determines that: (1) sector participants are not complying with the requirements of an approved operations plan; or (2) “continuation of the operations plan will undermine achievement of fishing mortality objectives” of the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.

Regional Administrator Bullard consulted with the Council on two occasions – first during the Council’s June meeting in Portland, ME and then again during the September meeting in Gloucester, MA. On September 27, the Council voted to request that “GARFO immediately enforce sector regulations and the Sector IX operations plan.”

“We asked them to enforce the rule, and that’s what they’re doing,” said Council Executive Director Tom Nies. “Since 2004, the Council has emphasized repeatedly that sectors are responsible for monitoring their catch and enforcing sector provisions. Sector IX failed to comply with its own enforcement provisions when its president admitted to reporting violations.”

NMFS published an interim final rule on April 28, 2017 stating it had “provisionally approved” the Sector IX operations plan for 2017 and 2018, along with the annual catch entitlement (ACE) allocated to the sector for 2017.

Carlos Rafael, who was president of the sector at that time, pleaded guilty on March 30 to falsely reporting catch information for 13 vessels operating under the sector. However, since the Rafael case was under litigation when NMFS published the interim final rule approving all of the region’s 19 sectors and their operations plans, the agency stated its intention to take “additional action” if warranted for Sector IX following settlement of Rafael’s criminal case.

Rafael was sentenced September 25 in U.S. District Court in Boston to 46 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines. On October 11, he was further ordered to forfeit his interests in four vessels and their associated permits.

GARFO’s announcement today withdrawing approval of the Sector IX operations plans means that vessels enrolled in Sector IX are prohibited from: (1) fishing on a sector trip and harvesting sector ACE; (2) fishing on a common pool trip; or (3) joining another sector.

However, the action does not reallocate the ACE to other sectors or to the common pool. NMFS is continuing to analyze the extent of the sector’s ACE overages based on the misreporting of catch information for several stocks. The agency stated, “Any accountability measures, such as assessing and deducting ACE overages incurred by the sector, (will) be determined in a future action.”

“For the future success of the sector system, fishermen and the public must be confident that sectors will adhere to management provisions.”

– New England Fishery Management Council in a September 29, 2017 letter to GARFO Regional Administrator John Bullard seeking immediate enforcement of sector regulations and the Sector IX operations plan

Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.

 

NOAA Fisheries Withdraws the Northeast Fishing Sector IX Operations Plan

November 20, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

Through an Interim Final Rule filed this morning, NOAA Fisheries withdraws approval of the 2017 and 2018 Northeast Fishery Sector IX operations plan. The Regional Administrator determined that the sector and its participants have not complied with the requirements of their approved operations plan, and that the continuation of the Sector IX operations plan will undermine achievement of the conservation and management objectives of the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. This action follows the guilty plea and sentencing of Mr. Carlos Rafael, a major participant in Sector IX, who admitted to falsely reporting catch information.

Any Sector IX vessels that are currently at-sea on a groundfish trip must return to port immediately, and are allowed to offload and sell their catch. After that, vessels that are eligible to fish under other permits, without declaring a sector trip or using a multispecies day-at-sea, can continue to do so during the 2017 fishing year. Sector participants may not declare a sector trip or use a multispecies day-at-sea for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year. Sector IX may not lease in or out any groundfish allocation.

Read the rule as filed this morning in the Federal Register.

The comment period for this interim final rule closes on December 20.

You may submit comments on this document via the Federal eRulemaking Portal beginning November 22 or by sending them to John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the Interim Final Rule to Withdraw Approval of NEFS 9.”

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-9175

Learn more about NOAA at their site here.

 

Oceana hopes shark study will help reduce bycatches

November 17, 2017 — Between 63 million and 273m sharks are caught and killed every year, often as unintentional bycatch victims, the NGO Oceana said. But the conservation group hopes the use of technology demonstrated in a study released Thursday will help reduce that number, maybe leading to emergency hot spot fishing area closures or gear changes.

For more than three months in 2016, between June and September, Neil Hammerschlag, a professor at the University of Miami, and Austin Gallagher, a researcher at Beneath the Waves, another NGO, monitored the movements in the Atlantic Ocean — from the New England to the North Carolina coasts — of 10 blue sharks tagged with satellite tracking devices, according to an executive summary of the report.

Two of the sharks came in close proximity — within one kilometer– of likely fishing activity on no less than four occasions, the researchers found when they overlaid their movements with that of the more than 60,000 vessels tracked by Global Fishing Watch.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

VIRGINIA: Endangered sturgeon’s return to James River could be hurdle for industry

Dominion seeking federal permit to ‘take’ protected fish after dead ones found in power plant’s water intake

November 17, 2017 — In the James River south of Richmond, endangered Atlantic sturgeon have become so common that observant spring and fall boaters are nearly guaranteed to see one breach. It’s hard to miss — a 6– or 7-foot fish exploding out of the water, as if shot from a cannon, wiggling for a split second in midair, then belly-flopping back into the river with a theatrical splash.

Long-lived and enormous — in its 60-year lifespan it can grow to 14 feet and weigh as much as 800 pounds — the Atlantic sturgeon was harvested to the brink of extinction in the late 1800s. But after a century of marginal existence, this prehistoric-looking fish, with its flat snout and rows of bony plates covering its back, is staging a steady but still fragile comeback in the Chesapeake Bay.

The sturgeon’s increased presence could complicate matters for industrial facilities that draw water from that same stretch of river. In one case, it already has.

After finding two dead sturgeon larvae and one adult in its water intake system in the fall of 2015, Dominion Virginia Power’s Chesterfield Power Station began seeking an “incidental take” permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which would allow the company to continue operating despite a potential impact to the endangered fish. In its application for the permit, Dominion estimated that up to 846 sturgeon larvae and maybe two adult fish per year could be trapped or killed in the intakes over the next decade.

The fisheries service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will determine in the coming months whether to grant Dominion’s Chesterfield plant a federal permit under an Endangered Species Act provision that allows private entities to “take” a given number of an endangered or threatened species in the process of conducting otherwise lawful operations.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal