National Marine Fisheries Service Archives - Page 99 of 103

Overall US seafood exports down slightly from last year

December 19th, 2016 — Updated numbers from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) indicated that the United States is exporting slightly less seafood this year than in 2015, while imports have seen a small bump.

A dismal Alaska pink salmon season may have contributed to the decline in overall exports. NMFS figures said pink salmon exports plummeted from 102,010 metric tons (MT) from January to October 2015 to 34,065 MT in the first 10 months of 2016. The poor season prompted Alaskan lawmakers to seek federal disaster relief funding for fisherman who depend on pink salmon runs.

In the same 10-month period, sockeye exports held almost steady from 2015 to 2016, hovering around 39,000 MT, while Atlantic salmon exports nearly doubled to 10,342 MT. Exports of chinook salmon caught in the U.S. also shot up from just 572 MT to 3,775 MT this year. However, the U.S. saw salmon roe exports nearly halved from 13,097 MT in 2015 to 7,330 MT this year.

The top flatfish export, yellowfin sole, retained robust numbers with nearly 59,000 metric tons shipped internationally, up about 4,000 MT from last year. The country’s largest yellowfin sole fishery is in Alaska’s Bering Sea.

With some species shuffling, tuna exports enjoyed an overall bump in 2016. While skipjack and yellowfin exports saw a year-on-year decrease, albacore exports were up nearly 40 percent to 14,242 MT in 2016 with total tuna exports at 16,654 MT.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Comment Federal judge tosses another fisheries management rule

December 9th, 2016 — Federal judges keep smacking down the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s decisions.

For the second time in the last three months, a federal court has overturned a management decision made by the North Pacific council and enacted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS. The United States District Court of Washington overturned a 2011 decision relating to halibut quota shares harvested by hired skippers on Nov. 16.

Federal courts have overturned several council decisions in recent years. In September, a the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the council’s 2011 decision to remove Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound and Alaska Peninsula salmon fisheries from federal oversight.

In this case, the North Pacific council made a decision in 2011 regarding which halibut quota holders can use a hired skipper instead of being required to be on board the vessel. Due to the court’s ruling, NOAA will have to open that group back up after limiting it in 2011.

Julie Speegle, the NMFS Alaska Region spokesperson, said the agency will change the impacted halibut fishermen’s quota shares to reflect the court’s ruling and that the council itself will review the issue.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

D.B. PLESCHNER: Extremists manufacture anchovy ‘crisis’ where none exists

December 5th, 2016 — When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently reapproved the 2017 annual catch limit for the central stock of anchovy at 25,000 metric tons (mt), environmental extremists immediately cried foul.

Press releases with doomsday headlines claimed that the anchovy catch limit is now higher than the total population of fish in the sea. Environmentalists claim the anchovy resource has “collapsed” and the current catch limit is dangerously high.

But is the anchovy population really decimated, or are these alarmists simply manufacturing another anti-fishing crisis?

Their claims are based on a paper by Alec MacCall, pegging the central anchovy stock at about 18,000 mt. However, the paper analyzed egg and larval data collected over time in California Cooperative Fishery Investigations (CalCOFI) surveys, conducted in the Southern California Bight — and the conclusion is fundamentally flawed. Other scientists now acknowledge that the CalCOFI cruises do not cover the full range of anchovy, missing both Mexico and areas north of the CalCOFI survey track, as well as the nearshore, where a super-abundance of anchovy now reside, say fishermen.

The CalCOFI survey was designed to track sardine, not anchovy. It misses the nearshore biomass where age 0-1 anchovy live and huge schools of anchovy have been observed since 2013. But the MacCall analysis deliberately omitted nearshore egg-larval data. In addition, peak spawning for anchovy is February-March, but CalCOFI surveys run in January and April, as did the MacCall analysis, thus both captured only the tails of spawning.

Read the full op-ed at The Monterey Herald

Pacific Northwest fishing industry took big hit in 2015

November 1, 2016 — ILWACO, Washington — Demonstrating links between ocean health and the economy, the definitive annual federal report on U.S. fisheries released last week showed a plunge in some West Coast catches in 2015.

Washington state’s total commercial catch in 2015 was 363 million pounds valued at $274.2 million, a decline of 35 percent by volume and 23.5 percent by value from 2014, according to “Fisheries of the United States 2015,” published last week by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But all was not gloom and doom: For example, West Coast landings of shrimp and albacore tuna were up, despite the warmer and less-nutritious waters associated with the ocean heat wave dubbed the Blob. This patch of warm water off the Pacific Northwest began forming in 2013 and persisted for two years before temporarily dissipating.

Oregon’s commercial landings also were down, falling to about 195.5 million pounds last year, 33 percent less than in 2014. That catch was sold for $115.7 million, 26.6 percent less than 2014.

How ports compare

Ports on the U.S. Pacific mainland experienced downturns in 2015 compared to 2014.

The ports of Ilwaco and Chinook reported landings of 15 million pounds in 2015, down 44.5 percent from 2014 and less than half 2013’s total. Ilwaco/Chinook 2015 landings were the lowest since at least 2010 and dropped the ports out of the U.S. top-50 list.

Astoria was the mainland West Coast’s largest fishing port in 2015, with landings of 92 million pounds, down 24.6 percent from 2014. Westport was second, with 84 million pounds in 2015 landings, off 16 percent from 2014. Newport was in third place, with 65 million tons in 2015, 47.6 percent less than 2014.

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

Court backs seal protections on climate change grounds

October 25th, 2016 — A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Obama administration had the right to use climate change to justify federal protections for the bearded seal.

The ruling from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court ruling from 2014 and upheld the 2012 decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to designate the bearded seal as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The ruling is an important victory for the Obama administration and could help build a precedent of using climate change forecasts for decisions like species protections.

The case hinged on an argument from the oil industry and the state of Alaska that the NMFS relied on climate projections that were not reliable for the time period for which the agency used them.

“This case turns on one issue: When NMFS determines that a species that is not presently endangered will lose its habitat due to climate change by the end of the century, may NMFS list that species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act?” the appeals court asked in its ruling, answering in the affirmative.

Read the full story at The Hill

Climate Change Projections Can Be Used To List A Species As Threatened, US Court Rules

October 25th, 2016 — In a landmark ruling Monday, a U.S. appeals court said that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — a federal agency — had acted reasonably when it proposed to list certain populations of bearded seals in Alaska as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The decision, which reverses a 2014 ruling by a lower court, could pave the way for other species being accorded protections based on their vulnerability to projected changes in climate.

“This is a huge victory for bearded seals and shows the vital importance of the Endangered Species Act in protecting species threatened by climate change,” Kristen Monsell, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity — which had, in 2008, filed a petition to list the species as threatened, said in a statement. “This decision will give bearded seals a fighting chance while we work to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions melting their sea-ice habitat and keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground.”

The Pacific bearded seal is one of the two subspecies of bearded seals. Although it is currently listed as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Center for Biological Diversity and the NMFS estimate — based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — that the seals’ winter sea-ice habitat in the Bering and Okhotsk seas off Alaska and Russia would decline by at least 40 percent by 2050, and that the subspecies would be endangered by 2095.

Read the full story at the IBT Times

Hawaii’s Longline Fishermen Pushing To Catch More Tuna

October 18th, 2016 — Hawaii’s longline fishermen will be able to go after similar amounts of bigeye tuna next year under a policy passed last week by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

But some have their sights set on doubling or even tripling their annual catch limits through new quota-sharing agreements with Pacific Island territories that don’t currently fish commercially for ahi.

Before that can happen though, the fishermen will need to demonstrate that the species is no longer subject to overfishing and convince federal officials that the pending arrangements with Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands do not violate international agreements to conserve fish stocks.

“We are right at the level of overfishing,” said Jarad Makaiau, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We are right on the razor thin line.”

Wespac manages 1.5 million square miles of ocean in the Central and Western Pacific Ocean and advises the National Marine Fisheries Service on catch limits, endangered species mitigation and stock assessments.

Directed Atlantic Herring Fishery Closure for Management Area 1A

October 17th, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) projects the Atlantic herring fishery will catch approximately 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL by October 18, 2016. The Area 1A directed fishery will close effective 12:01 a.m. on October 18, 2016 and remain closed until further notice. Vessels that have entered port before 12:01 a.m. on October 18, 2016, may land and sell from that trip more than 2,000 pounds of herring from Area 1A.

Vessels participating in the herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program may continue to fish in Area 1A for the remainder of the fishing year, and land, subject to state landing restrictions, greater than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring provided they are on a declared herring RSA trip.

During a closure, vessels participating in other fisheries may retain and land an incidental catch of herring that does not exceed 2,000 pounds per trip or calendar day. In addition, directed herring vessels traveling through Area 1A must have all fishing gear stowed.

In accordance with the Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring, the fixed gear set-aside of 295 metric tons will continue to be available to fixed gear fishermen operating in Area 1A west of Cutler, Maine through December 31, 2016.

If you have any questions please contact Ashton Harp at aharp@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Fishermen Test Weaker Ropes So Whales Can Break Through Them

October 11th, 2016 — Last year, 61 whales were tangled up in fishing gear off the West Coast of the United States, according to data from the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

2015 was the worst year since tracking began in the early 1980s.

Fishing ropes can cut off circulation to the whale’s fins and can eventually lead to its death. It’s a growing problem across the globe. Warmer waters are forcing whales into different feeding grounds and successful conservation efforts are increasing the number of whales in the ocean, according to experts that track the issue.

In June, an 80-foot blue whale was found off the coast of Dana Point, California, listing in the water. The crew of Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari filmed the animal dragging 200 feet of rope and buoys from what appeared to be a crab pot.

But what if the problem could be solved with simple modifications to the gear that fishermen use?

Massachusetts lobsterman John Haviland got a grant from the state to test fishing ropes that break more easily under the weight of the animals.

Read the full story at WBUR

NEW JERSEY: Reefs could get special management zone status

October 6, 2016 — The 13 artificial reefs that sit outside of three miles on the New Jersey coastline could get a Special Management Zone designation.

The designation would allow for restrictive gear rules on the reefs that would limit the taking of fish to hook and line and spear only. It would prohibit commercial fisherman from the use of fixed pots or trap gear.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection petitioned the Mid-Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council to designate the 13 artificial reef sites as Special Management Zones last November.

That, of course, was preceded by a long, turf war between commercial and recreational fishermen on the reefs that culminated with the state’s artificial reef program being shut down in 2011.

A compromise was reached last year on the reefs in state waters where commercial fishermen were given access to portions of two existing reefs and a new square-mile reef was agreed to be constructed in state waters for use by recreational anglers.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press