Saving Seafood

Fisherman’s Perspective: Electronic Reporting Saves Time, Needs to Be Standardized Across Fisheries

December 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries caught up with Rick Bellavance over the summer to ask about his experiences using electronic reporting and electronic monitoring. He’s a charter fisherman out of Point Judith, Rhode Island and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council. This is the first of a two-part interview focusing on electronic reporting.

How did you get started in fishing?

I got my first boat when I was 10 years old, and would run around Narragansett Bay fishing for winter flounder, quahogs, and hardshell clams. When I was 22, I was hired by the fire department, and one of the other firefighters was a charter boat captain. He offered me a crew position on his charter boat, and I ended up working for him for seven seasons, and really learned the business. In 1996, my father and I went in together on the Priority Too and I started working for myself.

Why did you start using electronic reporting to submit your catch reports?

One of my good friends calls me a “closet data geek”—I’ve always been interested in my own data, always kept a logbook. Even as a teenager digging hard shell clams in Narragansett Bay, I meticulously maintained a log of what I caught and when I caught it. So I’ve always had an interest in data. But the real catalyst was when I received a “nastygram” from the Regional Office. It said that if I didn’t complete my vessel trip reports, I wasn’t going to be eligible to reapply for annual permit. So, I sat down in front of my wood stove in December after fishing all year and filled out a hundred vessel trip reports.

After that, I decided I was taking the family out to dinner because I had lost the desire to cook. At the restaurant, I watched the staff tap things on a computer and hand me a bill, and I thought, “I want that for fishing! It would be so much easier.” That’s when I started looking into it. I love it now. We do electronic vessel trip reports all the time, and it really is so much easier.

Read the full release here

Groundfish: NEFMC Approves Framework 59; Receives Progress Report on Amendment 23

December 17, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its early December meeting in Newport, RI, the New England Fishery Management Council approved Framework Adjustment 59 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. Among other provisions, the framework includes 2020-2022 specifications for 15 groundfish stocks in the Northeast multispecies complex, as well as total allowable catches (TACs) for three groundfish resources on Georges Bank that the U.S. shares with Canada.

Also on the groundfish end, the Council received:

  • A presentation from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) on the recent operational assessments for 14 groundfish stocks – the report and presentation are available here;
  • A report from the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) on the SSC’s overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations for groundfish stocks and Atlantic sea scallops – the presentation and related documents can be found here;

Read the full release here

Customers might have to shell out for scallops in 2020

December 16, 2019 — The good times of heavy shellfish hauls for the American scallop fishing industry are likely to continue into next year, though prices could rise for seafood lovers.

The industry has been experiencing strong years recently thanks to high demand from consumers and heavy catches from the fleet. U.S. scallops were worth $532.9 million to fishermen at the docks in 2018, the third most profitable year in recorded history.

The New England Fishery Management Council predicted Wednesday that new rules for the 2020-21 fishing season will yield about 52 million pounds of scallops. That would be a reduction of more than 10 million pounds from the current season, but still a strong number compared to the middle part of the decade.

The shellfish typically cost $20 to $25 per pound to consumers, who have had easy access to them at stores and restaurants. Members of the industry “see the 17% reduction in supply putting upward pressure on scallop prices,” said Peter Handy, president and chief executive officer of Bristol Seafood in Portland, Maine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Regional US council approves reducing Atlantic scallop harvest 17% in 2020

December 12, 2019 — The New England Fishery Management Council has approved changes that would allow US harvesters to land about 52.0 million pounds of Atlantic scallops in 2020, roughly 17% less than the 62.5m lbs projected in 2019, the NEFMC reports in a statement released Wednesday.

The projected ex-vessel value of the harvest is expected to be close to $487m.

Regardless, the changes, included in the NEFMC-approved Framework 32, continue to support a scallop harvest that will be “well above the historical average,” the NEFMC states adding:

“The resource, which is not overfished or subject to overfishing, is considered healthy.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NEFMC approves scallop framework, projects 52 million pounds in 2020

December 11, 2019 — The New England Fishery Management Council has approved Framework Adjustment 32 to the Atlantic Scallop Fishery Management Plan, giving the first look at what the 2020 scallop season in New England could look like.

The new specifications will most likely result in 52 million pounds of projected landings in 2020, lower than 2019’s projection of more than 62 million pounds. While lower than 2019, the projection is still higher than average, with an expected ex-vessel value of USD 487 million (EUR 438.9 million), according to a release from the council.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Scallops: NEFMC Approves Framework 32 for 2020 Fishing Year

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

On December 5 during its meeting in Newport, RI, the New England Fishery Management Council approved Framework Adjustment 32 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The framework includes specifications for the 2020 fishing year, default specifications for 2021, and measures to mitigate impacts on Georges Bank yellowtail flounder and northern windowpane flounder.

The new specifications are expected to result in roughly 52 million pounds of projected landings in 2020 with an estimated ex-vessel value of close to $487 million. Landings of this magnitude, while lower than the 2019 projection of roughly 62.5 million pounds, will remain well above the historical average.

The resource, which is not overfished or subject to overfishing, is considered healthy. Conservative management has greatly contributed to high fishery landings and revenues in recent years. Based on results from the 2019 scallop surveys, large scallops from the remarkably strong 2012 and 2013 year Full-time limited access scallopers will be allocated 24 open area days-at-sea and, as depicted in the map above, six access area trips in the 2020 fishing year, which begins on April 1. – New England Fishery Management Council graphic classes are expected to continue supporting the majority of fishing in rotational access areas in fishing year 2020.

Read the full release here

NOAA: Rafael’s misreported fish ‘disappeared’ at Whaling City auction

December 10, 2019 — A NOAA official has charged that if federal officials were not watching when Carlos Rafael offloaded fish at the Whaling City Display Auction, the catch simply “disappeared.”

“If there was no observer on the boat, no dockside monitor, no state environmental police, no NOAA law enforcement officer, the fish would just simply disappear,” NOAA Special Agent Troy Audyatis said, “Thousands upon thousands of fish would simply disappear.”

Audyatis made the charge at a Dec. 3 meeting of the New England Fisheries Management Council while making the presentation “Catching the Codfather,” and said the New Bedford display auction was the location where Rafael offloaded much of the thousands of pounds of fish that were either under or misreported.

“Any given day fish would just disappear. There’s fish that he sold [that] he didn’t report having available for sale to NOAA and he didn’t buy from a third party, but yet he sold thousands of pounds of fish that day,” Audyatis said.

If fishing boat owners don’t report their catch to NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), there is no way for the federal government to know how much of a given species is in the ocean. Federal regulations designed to save fish stocks are dependent on knowing how much of a species is present.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

US places further limitations on midwater trawlers catch of herring in New England

December 5, 2019 — As New England lobster harvesters struggle to keep up with the high cost of bait, due in large part to the short supply of Atlantic herring, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued further restrictions to protect the forage fish’s dwindling stocks.

As part of an amendment developed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) and approved Nov. 19 by NMFS, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, midwater trawling has been prohibited within 12 nautical miles of the coastline that runs from the US state of Maine to Rhode Island 20 miles off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, reports The Vineyard Gazette, a Massachusetts newspaper.

The change will give the herring a “buffer zone” to migrate without being pressured by commercial vessels but also allowing them to be eaten by other fish, aiding the health of the overall ecosystem, Janice Plante, the NEFMC’s public affairs officer, is quoted as saying.

Local fishermen, boards of selectmen, state legislators and environmental groups have been pushing for stronger management of the midwater trawl herring fishery for more than 20 years, according to the newspaper.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NEFMC Receives Skate, Herring, Dogfish, and EBFM Updates

December 5, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council began its December 3-5, 2019 meeting in Newport, RI by receiving numerous reports and updates from its own committees, as well as partner agencies. Here are a few highlights.

SKATES: The Council’s Skate Committee, Plan Development Team (PDT), and Advisory Panel (AP) continue to work on Amendment 5 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The amendment is being developed to consider creating limited access permits for the skate wing and/or skate bait fisheries. The PDT is working to provide data to help the the Skate Committee and AP better understand the fisheries and fishermen using the skate resource. In other skate news, the Council was informed that:

  • The 2019 Skate Annual Monitoring Report, which covers fishing year 2018, had been finalized; and
  • Framework Adjustment 8 to the FMP, which contains 2020-2021 specifications for the skate wing and bait fisheries, appeared to be on schedule for approval and implementation by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries) in time for the May 1 start of the 2020 fishing year.

Read the full release here

Learning More About Atlantic Halibut: Fishermen and Scientists Go “Under the Hood”

December 4, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A three-part study is underway to better understand life history, stock structure, and distribution of Atlantic halibut along the U.S. east coast. The study is being done by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NFSC) and The Cape Cod Fishermen’s Alliance with support from a Saltonstall-Kennedy grant developed by The Nature Conservancy.

Atlantic halibut was a reliable commercial fishery for nearly three centuries, but today is only commercially viable off the Canadian east coast. Commercial stocks in Canada appear to be increasing in recent years. The Canadian stock is fished on the southern Grand Banks and Scotian Shelf, extending to the northern edge of Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. U.S. fishermen targeting other species are seeing more Atlantic halibut and wonder if stocks may be returning to U.S. waters as well.

Fishermen in Cape Cod and researchers at the NFSC want to know basic life history, stock structure, and where Atlantic halibut go during the year and during their lifetimes. The NFSC is helping with the life history component, especially reproductive biology.

That part of the study is focused on three questions: When and where do halibut spawn? Is there one overall population in the region, or are there several populations?  And when do they mature?

“We would catch maybe 6 to 12 halibut a year in our scientific surveys during the last decade,” said Rich McBride, head of the NFSC’s Population Biology Branch. “That was not nearly enough for a study about the animal’s life history. We needed more samples than what we were catching.”

Two years ago the New England Fishery Management Council gave special permission for study participants to take up to six halibut per trip, exceeding the current trip limit of one.

The study needed 450 to 500 more samples from about 250 fish. Alliance members hit that target this year. They have provided about half the samples available for the study.

The Alliance, based in Chatham, Massachusetts worked with researchers to provide training to fishermen on collecting biological data. Fishermen learned how to gather samples from the heart, spleen, gonad (reproductive organ), earbones (for aging), and a fin clip. They recorded fishing location, the time, and the length and weight of the fish.

“When fishermen caught halibut in the course of a fishing trip, they would collect the samples,” explained George Maynard, research and policy coordinator for the Alliance. “Back on shore, I would collect the samples from the fishermen and bring them back to the lab for preservation and archiving. The tissue samples were all preserved and shipped to our collaborators in Canada for genetic analysis.”

Maynard prepared gonad samples and brought them to McBride at the NEFC for processing. McBride and his colleagues want to get an idea of each halibut’s maturity status.

“To get at those answers, we’re looking at developing eggs ‘under the hood,’ at the cellular level,” said McBride. “Having some sense of their current life history would be helpful as we move forward.”

“The next steps will be to combine these data with the length/weight and time of capture data from the fishermen, and aging data from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries,” said Maynard. “That will allow us to build a clearer picture of the size and age at which halibut reach maturity, and what time of year they spawn.”

The other two parts of the three-part study include a stock structure analysis using genetic samples led by the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology is leading a satellite-tagging effort to understand halibut habitat use and distribution.

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