Saving Seafood

Center For Biological Diversity Takes Aim at California Dungeness Fishery With New Petition

November 15, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Center for Biological Diversity is attacking the California Dungeness Crab fishery again — this time under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

A petition, co-signed by the Turtle Island Restoration Network, asks the National Marine Fisheries Service to designate the California crab fishery as a Category 1 fishery under the Marine Mammal Protection Act because of its rising injuries to humpback, blue, killer and gray whales, the Center said in a press release. Moving the fishery into the top category of concern would prioritize state and federal resources to help protect whales along the West Coast, the statement also said.

But the press release fails to note the petition itself goes much deeper. The Center focuses on the Central American breeding population of humpback whales — which feed primarily in California waters.

CBD cites an estimated average of 1.35 mortalities per year between 2011-2015. The Center also references the potential biological removal (PBR) of 0.8 in the stock assessment is below the estimated mortalities.

“This shows that the California Dungeness crab pot fishery – and not the
Oregon or Washington Dungeness crab pot fishery – primarily impacts the Central America [distinct population segment]. Without additional information, all interactions of the California Dungeness crab pot
fishery should be assigned to the Central America DPS,” the center says in the petition.

However, the years cited do not include the most recent seasons, when fewer whales were entangled.

Furthermore, the Center requests NOAA add blue whales; the offshore stock of killer whales; and the endangered Western North Pacific population of gray whales — of which three of seven tagged whales have been documented on the West Coast — to the list of marine mammals injured or killed in the California crab fishery.

A 2017-18 Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) report, a pilot program put together by the California Dungeness Crab Fishing gear Working Group, identifies four priority factors that evaluate elevated risk of whale entanglements: crab season delay, forage/ocean conditions, whale concentrations and rate of entanglements. The report uses established data sources and the expertise of the working group members to determine entanglement risks.

The Working Group determined the whale concentration risk level is moderate; rate of entanglements risk is low; the chance of a season delay is low; and whale forage and ocean conditions risk level also is low.

The Central California crab season opened today, although some smaller vessels may be holding off for better weather.

“We are excited with the on-time opening of our local Dungeness crab season,” Angela Cincotta, with Alioto-Lazio Fish Company, said this morning. “We pray that all of our fishermen stay safe while the weather bats them about the sea. We are thankful for their commitment to our industry and their respect of the oceans.”

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Feds seek comment on southern New England lobstering changes

November 15, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Federal fishing regulators are soliciting public comments about possible changes to lobster fishing in southern New England.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking the feedback about changes that could include restricting the number of lobster traps or permits an individual or a business would be allowed to own.

The agency says it’s considering changes to the lobster fishery because of the “continued poor condition of the southern New England lobster stock.” It says not enough young lobsters are being born in the area because of environmental factors and fishing.

Read the following story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

 

Feds might add more fisheries to turtle protection program

November 14, 2017 — CAPE MAY, N.J. — Federal fishing regulators are considering requiring more commercial fishermen to assist with a program that seeks to protect sea turtles.

The National Marine Fisheries Service requires observers to be placed on fishing boats in some fisheries to collect data that help with minimization of harm to turtles. The service says it wants to include a group of mid-Atlantic fisheries to the program next year because of the need to collect more data about accidental catch of sea turtles.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WSOCTV

 

LED Lights Show Promise for Decreasing Salmon Bycatch in West Coast Whiting Fishery

November 10, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Light-emitting diodes – LEDs – are proving effective for lowering bycatch in fisheries besides West Coast pink shrimp.

A study by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center shows that LEDs are very effective in directing Chinook salmon to escape windows in Pacific hake trawl nets, according to a statement from the National Marine Fisheries Service. Chinook salmon bycatch in the hake fishery, the largest groundfish fishery on the West Coast, can be an issue; if too many Chinook salmon are caught, management measures may be implemented to conserve salmon stocks.

NMFS requested an Endangered Species Act Section 7 re-consultation on the take of salmon species in the West Coast groundfish fishery in 2013. Now, four years later, the biological opinion or “BiOp” and accompanying incidental take statement is scheduled to be completed in December.

However, avoiding salmon bycatch is an ongoing issue for the whiting fishery and the midwater rockfish fishery. The use of LEDs on the nets, similar to how they are used in the pink shrimp fishery to channel eulachon smelt out escape holes, may prove useful in the future. The LEDs researchers and fishermen used for this project were developed for use on longlines, designed for rugged use in the ocean environment.

The development of efficient, cost-effective LED technology has led to a growing list of innovative residential and industrial applications, according to the statement from NMFS. With NOAA Fisheries’ Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program funding, researchers found LEDs can play an important role in productive and sustainable fisheries as well.

Data show that Chinook salmon are much more likely to exit the nets where lights are placed—86 percent of escaped salmon used the well-lit, LED-framed openings. While further research is underway, the data suggest the LEDs can increase the salmon’s escapement overall, NMFS said.

Mark Lomeli, a researcher at the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, said the challenge was to develop a salmon excluder design to lower incidental salmon bycatch. He and other researchers worked with fishermen to use two sets of large, open escape windows that allowed salmon to swim out.

“Our data and video observations indicate that at deeper, darker depths where trawl nets go, light from the LEDs are enhancing the salmon’s ability to perceive the escape areas and the areas outside the nets,” Lomeli said in the NMFS report.

The key to keeping hake in and guide Chinook out is fish behavior. Salmon are stronger swimmers and can escape. By the time the whiting get to part of the net where the excluders are positioned, they are too fatigued to swim out.

Researchers said the technology could also be adapted for other fisheries, such as for reducing salmon bycatch in the Alaska pollock fishery.

“Many fishermen are aware of this technology now and use it if they think Chinook bycatch will be an issue,” Lomeli was quoted as saying in the statement. “It’s easy to use, relatively cheap, and widely available. You can easily clip the lights to the webbing of the net around the escape openings. With these research results in hand, the lights are on the shelf for them when they need them. We think these LEDs are low-hanging fruit for contributing to the recovery of this species, and can also play an important role in the stability of this fishery.”

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Under threat of lawsuit, Maine lobstermen say Canada is failing to protect right whales

November 1, 2017 — A record number of right whale killings this summer has put environmental groups on the offensive, potentially leading to stricter regulations for Maine lobstermen, even as most of the animals turn up dead in Canadian waters.

A group of environmental organizations has notified federal officials they intend to sue if regulatory agencies fail to better protect the endangered species, following what’s believed to be one of the deadliest summers for North Atlantic right whales in centuries.

Maine lobstermen fear that a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service could result in more costly restrictions on how they fish, even though none of the 16 right whale deaths have been directly linked to the American lobster fishery. Twelve of the whale deaths occurred in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, where that country’s snow crab fishery has been cited by experts as a likely factor in several of the deaths.

The remaining four were found off Cape Cod.

With this year’s deaths, the total population of North Atlantic right whales is estimated at fewer than 450.

Early this month, the four environmental organizations sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Chris Oliver, head of the federal fisheries service, saying that federal regulators are violating the Endangered Species Act by not doing more to protect North Atlantic right whales. The groups specifically called on regulators to determine whether additional restrictions should be placed on the American lobster fishery in order to prevent whales from getting entangled in lobster gear.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

No salmon return to Canada river, bringing New England fears

October 30, 2017 — A conservation group’s discovery that no wild Atlantic salmon have returned to a key river in New Brunswick is prompting concern for the fish’s population health in the U.S. and eastern Canada.

The New Brunswick-based Atlantic Salmon Federation has been monitoring the Magaguadavic River for the Canadian government since 1992. The group says this year is the first time since then that no wild salmon have returned to the river to spawn.

Atlantic salmon were once abundant in rivers of New England and eastern Canada, but they’re now endangered or have disappeared in parts of both areas. The U.S.’s National Marine Fisheries Service is in the midst of reviewing the Gulf of Maine’s population, which is listed endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

About 900 wild salmon entered the river to spawn in 1983, and the fact that none returned this year is bad news for the fish’s population in Maine and Canada, said Neville Crabbe, spokesman for the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

“It means for the Magaguadavic River, whatever wild salmon that existed there are now extinct,” Crabbe said. “It affects the good work being done on all the rivers.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Cape Cod fishermen push for action on habitat protection

October 25, 2017 — CHATHAM, Mass. —  The concept of fish habitat is pretty simple. Fish, like people, need a place where they can find food and shelter to thrive.

Part of managing fisheries is identifying and protecting that habitat. But the ocean is a big place and a difficult environment to do analysis. Politically, it’s also fractious terrain as fishermen worry about the balance between conservation and being shut out of traditional and productive fishing grounds.

And so, it took 14 years for the New England Fishery Management to craft regulations protecting fish habitat, passing Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 in June of 2015. But after over two years of review by the council and the National Marine Fisheries Service, it still hasn’t been implemented, and Cape scallop fishermen are worried they may lose hundreds of millions of dollars worth of scallops that will perish before they get permission, under the habitat amendment, to enter closed areas and get them.

“It’s a desert with scallops,” said Seth Rolbein, director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust, describing what he said is sandy bottom 50 miles east of Cape Cod in an area closed to fishing since 1994. Bottom surveys, including video surveying, have shown it is loaded with scallops that should be harvested before they die within the next year or two.

“These are older, mature scallops,” Rolbein said. “If we let them go moribund we will have destroyed an important economic resource.”

The New England council estimated fishermen would gain $218 million in income in 2018 and $313 million in the first three years, largely from access to this mother lode of scallops.

Provincetown fisherman Beau Gribbin said many of these scallops are 8 years old, they die off at 10, and the meat becomes less desirable after eight years.

Gribbin employs six people to run two boats out of Provincetown. He scallops from December to July and then goes lobstering for the rest of the year. He owns a portion of the overall scallop quota and has to stop scalloping when it is caught. Although it would take him 12-14 hours each way to travel 84 miles to the closed area, he could catch his daily quota of 600 pounds in just a couple of hours because they are so plentiful. It can take 12 hours to do that in other areas and cause more damage to the bottom habitat used by fish and other species.

Plus, it helps him market and plan his fishing year if he knows he will be able to catch his daily quota each day.

“The time is now to harvest them,” said Andrew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents many of the large New Bedford scallop vessels. These large vessels, known as limited access scallopers, have much higher catch limits, in the tens of thousands of pounds per trip, while the smaller boats in the 40- to 50-foot range and known as general category scallop vessels are limited to 600 pounds per day.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times 

 

 

Right whale deaths called ‘apocalyptic’

October 23, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, MASS. — Whale scholars, lobstermen, conservationists and government officials converged Sunday in Nova Scotia to save right whales.

“Everybody is running out of adjectives,” Defenders of Wildlife attorney Jane Davenport said of the death of 12 North Atlantic right whales since June in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and another three off the U.S., totaling 3 percent of the total population. “It’s apocalyptic. It really is.”

At the annual North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium meeting in Halifax, right whale researchers released their latest population tally of 451 for 2016, typically counted with a year’s lag. But it’s easy to see where next year’s number is headed given the 15 known deaths and only five known births, said consortium chairman Mark Baumgartner, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist.

“2017 will be another year of decline,” Baumgartner said.

In early October, the Defenders of Wildlife and three other conservation groups sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for failure to protect North Atlantic right whales from fishing gear entanglement, believed by researchers to be one of two primary right whale killers, along with ship strikes.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Rule for Northeast Skate

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

NOAA Fisheries seeks public comment on a proposed rule to modify the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan.

Framework 4 would alter effort controls and possession limits to help reduce the risk of the skate bait fishery closing down as it did in fishing year 2016. Several measures are proposed to de-couple the skate wing and bait accountability measures, control catch, and provide a more consistent supply of skate bait to the lobster fishery. We propose to:

  • Reduce the Season 3 (November through April) bait skate possession limit from 25,000 lb to 12,000 lb;
  • Reduce the Season 3 bait skate in-season possession limit reduction threshold trigger from 90 to 80 percent;
  • Establish an 8,000-lb incidental possession limit for skate bait when a seasonal threshold trigger is reached; and,
  • Close the skate bait fishery when 100 percent of the quota is projected to be harvested.

To get all the details on these proposed management measures, read the proposed rule as published in theFederal Register today and the background documents available on the Regs.gov website.

We are accepting comments through November 6.

Please submit comments either through the online e-rulemaking portal or by mailing your comments to: John Bullard, Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA, 01930.

Please mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the Proposed Rule for Skates Framework 4.”

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel at 978-281-9175 or jennifer.goebel@noaa.gov.

NOAA Precedents in NE have led to Compete Revocation of All Permits in Major Fisheries Fraud Cases

October 20, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — What happens next with Carlos Rafael’s fishing permits for all 13 vessels, including those that were not forfeited under the courts order, will be determined in a civil proceeding by NOAA with an administrative law judge.

The criminal proceeding led to forfeit of 34 permits.  NOAA will have to address what will be done with these.  But the remaining nine vessels owned by Rafael have dozens, perhaps over 100 individual fishing permits.  If NOAA revokes these permits in an administrative proceeding, the value of the vessels themselves will fall substantially.

Prior precedent, and a full review of NOAA enforcement actions in 2012 by a Special Master, Charles Swartwood, suggests that NOAA is fully entitled to permanently revoke all fishing permits associated with the 13 vessels where Carlos Rafael has pled guilty to deliberately falsifying catch records.

Prior to Rafael, the largest fisheries fraud case in New England involved James and Peter Spalt.

In 1995 NOAA charged that the two brothers directed the illegal fishing on the five vessels they owned, purchased the illegally harvested fish and scallops through their fish dealership, and then continued to hide the illegal activity by routinely falsifying the mandatory reports they submitted to federal fisheries authorities.

Altogether six companies, five vessels and 12 individual vessel captains were involved in the scheme.

NOAA sought more than $5 million in civil penalties, and the complete revocation of all fish permits.  This was a civil case, without a criminal component.

The administrative law judge upheld a combined civil penalty of $4,325,000. and revoked the dealer permit of Cape Spray Fisheries, and ALL federal fishing permits of the five vessels involved in the scheme.

The Spalt brothers appealed the case to the NOAA administrator, who upheld the decision.

They then appealed to the US District Court, and his lawyers filed complaints that NOAA enforcement violated the Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments of the United States Constitution of Liberty Food Corporation, Cape Spray Fisheries, and James, Kristen, and Peter Spalt.

The case was finally settled prior to a final judgement by the US district attorney’s office in 1998.  The settlements stipulated first, that Atlantic Spray Corporation and Hudson Corporation would surrender all of their federal vessel permits and sell the vessels involved to pay a settlement.  A second settlement involving seizure of scallops stipulated that they also agreed to cease all federal and state fishing permits on all their corporations and vessels, including the latent permits owned by Albatross Corporation and Dutchman Corporation. The Spalts also relinquished their federal operator permits and must cease commercial fishing entirely in state and federal waters

The settlement did lead to a substantial reduction in the administrative fine, from NOAA’s final offer of $2.5 million to about $1.5 million, but NOAA’s proceeds from the sale of seized scallops were retained as well.

Thirty months after signing the Settlement Agreement, the Spalts requested to re-enter the federal fisheries. However, NOAA declined to grant the Spalts a federal operator’s permit. The Spalts later sought relief in the United States District Court concerning the above provision. In the end, the Court held that NOAA’s denial of the Spalt’s fishing permit applications did not violate the terms of the Settlement Agreement.

The validity of this enforcement action was reviewed as part of a thorough investigation into NOAA fisheries enforcement in the Northeast by the Dept. of Commerce in 2012.  The investigation involved the appointment of a special master, who reviewed all of NOAA’s enforcement actions in the Northeast.

In the review, the special master found a number of cases where NOAA unfairly pursued aggressive sanctions for fisheries violations, and also found that the enforcement branch operated what amounted to a slush fund with some of the fines and penalties assessed.

Yet in regards to the case against the Spaltz brothers, and in particular the full seizure of fishing permits and the denial of the right to get a federal fishing permit in the future, the special master found NOAA had acted appropriately.

He said “Based on an evaluation of the totality of the circumstances and evidence in this case, I cannot find by clear and convincing evidence that NOAA exercised broad and powerful enforcement authority that prejudiced the outcome, in any respect, or unfairly forced a settlement.“

The arguments by NOAA in this case were very similar to the arguments used against Rafael’s violations, in that the complete disregard for reporting and illegally taking species against a quota undermined the operations of the entire New England fishery.

The major difference between the 1990’s case and the case against Carlos Rafael is that a new management scheme is in place that allocates quota to specific coops and vessels.  This has resulted in a premium value on certain choke species so that when Rafael illegally misreported his take of these ‘choke’ species, he gained an economic advantage over other fishermen who were forced to cease fishing.

In the 1990’s, the damage was to the regulation of the entire fishery, but without reference to the economic harm the Spaltz’s illegal activity did to other harvesters.

On review, the full revocation of the permits in that case was upheld through various US court proceedings, NOAA administrative proceedings, and a review by a special master who investigated possible overreach by NOAA enforcement.  At no time did a competent authority assert that the full revocation of the fishing permits was excessive, undeserved, or without merit.

On balance, NOAA has a stronger case this time for a complete revocation of permits.  Once again, failure to do so under its administrative powers will cripple NOAA’s ability to enforce fishery management rules in New England.

This story original appeared on Seafood News, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.