Saving Seafood

Fishery Managers Begin Unsnarling Mess Left by Shutdown

January 29, 2019 — Federal fishing managers are beginning the process of determining how the nation’s harvest of wild fish has been impacted by the government shutdown.

The New England Fishery Management Council is meeting this week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The council is one of several charged by the feds with crafting fishing regulations and managing fisheries.

Members of the council said Tuesday their meeting this week will primarily be about determining how the 35-day federal shutdown has affected fishery management plans. The shutdown left the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mostly shuttered, and that halted the scientific work that managers rely on to write regulations.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Shutdown pushes Maine fishing community to the brink of crisis

January 29, 2019 — Terry Alexander has fished for 40 of his 57 years, catching groundfish in the winter and squid during the summer months, off New York and Rhode Island.

Throughout the 35-day federal shutdown that ended — perhaps temporarily — on Friday, the Cundy’s Harbor man and his four employees continued to head out on the “Jocka” to haul in groundfish such as cod, haddock, flounders and pollock. Alexander said the shutdown may have long-term consequences for him and for other Mainers who make their living fishing for groundfish.

“If they have another shutdown, it could be catastrophic for New England groundfishing,” he said by phone from a meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Alexander said a memo Monday from the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region regional administrator Michael Pentony about the backlog of work for federal regulators only added to that worry.

Pentony wrote that staff would focus on a significant backlog of time-critical work accumulated during the 35-day shutdown.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NOAA after shutdown: Priority getting fishermen back to work

January 29, 2019 — Furloughed NOAA Fisheries staffers returned to work Monday from the partial shutdown of the federal government and commenced the task of playing catchup as a new fishing season beckons.

In Gloucester, the furloughed workers, sent home 35 days ago, resumed their duties at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office on Great Republic Drive as Regional Administrator Mike Pentony acknowledged the shutdown’s impact on fishing stakeholders and set the overarching agenda moving forward.

“We will have three priorities as we ramp back up to full and normal operations: getting fishermen back to work; completing consultations so federally permitted projects in your communities can move forward; and ensuring that adequate monitoring and protections are in place for our protected resources,” Pentony said in a statement.

Pentony conceded the shutdown has left the agency behind schedule for completing several essential actions as the 2018 fishing season winds down and the May 1 start of the 2019 season moves closer.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Reminder: Closed Area 1 North Seasonal Closure for All Vessels Begins February 1

January 29, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On February 1, the Closed Area I (CAI) North seasonal closure goes into effect, through April 15. See below for map and coordinates.

The closure applies to all commercial and recreational vessels except:

Vessels that are transiting;

  • Vessels fishing with exempted gears (spears, rakes, diving gear, cast nets, tongs, harpoons, weirs, dip nets, stop nets, pound nets, pots and traps, purse seines, surfclam/quahog dredge gear, pelagic hook and line, pelagic longlines, or single pelagic gillnets);
  • Vessels participating in the mid-water trawl exempted fishery; and
  • Vessels fishing with scallop dredges.

 

Shutdown leaves NOAA behind schedule on East Coast fisheries management

January 29, 2019 — The administrator of a federal fisheries office says the government is behind schedule on actions related to oceans management because of the long shutdown.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is charged with regulating fishing and marine issues for the U.S. government. Michael Pentony, the administrator of its Greater Atlantic Region Fisheries Office, said Monday the office is “behind schedule on many, many critically important actions.”

Pentony said fishing boats haven’t been able to fish because they could not get permits. He said there also weren’t enough resources to fully monitor protected ocean resources. Some fisheries have also been unable to operate at full capacity.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Bangor Daily News

Government employees return to work, but concerns linger

January 28, 2019 — Monday morning 800,000 federal employees will return to work for the first time in 35 days after the longest government shutdown in history.

It all stems from the ongoing political dispute over a border wall.

On Friday a deal was struck to temporarily open the government for three weeks. Federal workers are uneasy about the future after already missing two paychecks.

For more than a month Anna Kagley has been ready to return to her job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s worked at the agency for three decades.

“I’m a little nervous after missing 30 plus days,” said Kagley.

The fishery biologist who lives in Everett works with Chinook salmon and is concerned the shutdown has harmed the agencies long term work.

“I’m concerned we’ll be missing the beginning of the pulse of the fish migrating for some of our monitoring projects,” said Kagley.

The mother of five and primary bread winner for her family says she still doesn’t know when she’s get her next paycheck.

Read the full story at KOMO News

Statement from the GARFO Regional Administrator on the Government Shutdown

January 28, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On behalf of all the staff here at GARFO, let me say how happy we are to be back to work! This has been a trying time for our staff, our families, and our communities. While we are thankful the shutdown is over and we’re able to get back to serving the American people, we are now coming to grips with the full effect and impact of the shutdown on the people, communities, industries, and resources we serve.

We recognize and understand this shutdown didn’t just affect our federal staff and contractors; it also had, and continues to have, significant impacts on many of our partners and stakeholders. Fishing vessels have been unable to fish because they couldn’t get permits or transfer quota; projects couldn’t move forward without the required consultations; and there were inadequate resources to fully monitor and assess our protected resources.

Several fisheries have not been able to operate at full capacity because we haven’t been able to finalize the regulations that would increase quotas or fully restore the expected specifications. Some of these actions are past due, and some are due very soon. Frankly, we are behind schedule on many, many critically important actions. While our dedicated staff would like to get everything done on time, we simply will not be able to. The impacts of a shutdown of this scope and duration cannot be remedied quickly.

We will have three priorities as we ramp back up to full and normal operations: Getting fishermen fishing; completing consultations so federally permitted projects in your communities can move forward; and ensuring that adequate monitoring and protections are in place for our protected resources.

What does this mean? At least initially, some actions will not be prioritized and, even for our highest priorities, it will take staff time to work through the significant backlog of time-critical work that has accumulated over the last month. We ask for your patience and understanding as we work as quickly as possible to address all the priority actions that would have been completed during the shutdown, and on the actions that are needed in the coming weeks.

We are in this together!

Respectfully,

Michael Pentony

Read the full statement here

Shutdown Affecting Whale Rescues

January 24, 2019 — Rescuers who respond to distressed whales and other marine animals say the federal government shutdown is making it more difficult to do their work.

A network of rescue groups in the U.S. works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to respond to marine mammals such as whales and seals when the animals are in trouble, such as when they are stranded on land or entangled in fishing gear. But the federal shutdown, which is entering its 33rd day on Wednesday, includes a shuttering of the NOAA operations the rescuers rely upon.

NOAA plays a role in preventing accidental whale deaths by doing things like tracking the animals, operating a hotline for mariners who find distressed whales and providing permits that allow the rescue groups to respond to emergencies. Those functions are disrupted or ground to a halt by the shutdown, and that’s bad news if whales need help, said Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston, which has a rescue operation.

“If it was very prolonged, then it would become problematic to respond to animals that are in the water,” LaCasse said. “And to be able to have a better handle on what is really going on.”

The shutdown is coming at a particularly dangerous time for the endangered North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 411, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a senior biologist with Whale and Dolphin Conservation of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The whales are under tight scrutiny right now because of recent years of high mortality and poor reproduction.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CapeCod.com

Federal court upholds ruling in anchovy catch-limit lawsuit

January 22, 2019 — A federal judge in California on Friday, 22 January, upheld her decision from last year that claimed NOAA Fisheries did not follow the law when it set the catch limit on an anchovy stock in the state.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh means the agency will need to set a new limit on the central population of northern anchovy. Environmental advocates argued federal officials kept that figure stationary since 2000 and used nearly 30-year-old data in setting it.

“This decision holds [NOAA Fisheries] to fundamental standards intended by Congress, which require the government to sustainably manage our nation’s fisheries for the benefit of both fishermen and dependent species,” said Mariel Combs, an Oceana attorney in a press release.

Oceana filed the suit in November 2016, a month after NOAA Fisheries maintained the 25,000 metric ton (MT) limit. The environmental organization, represented by Earthjustice is the suit, argued that the catch limit was based on a 1991 study that reported a biomass of more than 700,000 metric tons.

Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director for the California Wetfish Producers Association, told SeafoodSource she was disappointed in Koh’s ruling. She added, however, that the judge did not set a catch limit and ruled that the agency needs to use the best scientific data available to set its limits.

“In any case, there is general agreement, even from Oceana, that the anchovy population has exploded and available data now find the biomass at historic levels,” Steele said.

Steele also noted that members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council management team will be meeting soon to discuss the next steps in wake of the ruling.

Read the full story at Seafood Source