Saving Seafood

NEFMC: January 30-31, 2018 meeting, Portsmouth, NH

January 23, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a two-day meeting from Tuesday, January 30 through Wednesday, January 31, 2018. The public is invited to listen-in via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION: Sheraton Harborside, 250 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801; Sheraton Harborside.

START TIME: The webinar will be activated at 8:00 a.m. each day.  However, please note that the meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday and 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday.  The webinar will end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST or shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8388599007058128899.

There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8321.

The access code is 767-546-787.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA: The agenda and all meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at:  https://www.nefmc.org/calendar/january-2018-council-meeting.

SPECIAL EVENT: In conjunction with the Council meeting, the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) will be hosting a vendor show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Harbor’s Edge Room at the same hotel. The show features 11 monitoring service providers:

  • Four that provide at-sea monitoring services and are involved with the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program; and
  • Seven that provide electronic monitoring

This event was organized by GARFO/NEFSC to help industry members familiarize themselves with available at-sea, electronic, and portside monitoring options that may be needed in the future under the Council’s Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring Amendment and, possibly, Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23 further down the road.

SPECIAL EVENT QUESTIONS: Anyone with questions about the vendor show should contact NEFSC’s Nichole Rossi at (508) 495-2128, Nichole.Rossi@noaa.gov. A flyer about the event is available at monitoring service providers.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK: A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available here.

Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.

 

NEFMC Rescheduling Notice: EBFM Management Strategy Review

January 22, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Due to the partial federal government shutdown, the 2018 Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management Strategy Review, which was intended to take place January 22-25, 2018, will be rescheduled.

This review is being hosted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which is subject to federal government shutdown restrictions.  Due to the uncertainty surrounding the length of the shutdown, travel for international peer review panel members has been cancelled.  Once the federal government is fully operational again, the science center will reschedule the review panel meeting and provide additional information.

The New England Fishery Management Council is aware that many of its stakeholders are interested in this event and were planning to attend in person or listen-in via the webinar broadcast.  For this reason, we are issuing this notice to inform you of these new developments and will post any additional updates on our own website at 2018 EBFM Strategy Review.

Learn more about the NEFMC’s meeting on EBFM here.

 

New England’s Newest Fishery Plan has Science at its Core

January 22, 2018 — New England’s fishery managers have released a sweeping new plan for managing the ocean ecosystems off New England’s coasts. Habitat Omnibus Amendment 2 has been fourteen years in the making and, as with any new fishing rule, it’s been controversial, with critics among the fishing industry and environmental advocates.

It has also been hailed as a groundbreaking application of ocean science.

The plan designates a number of areas in which fishing will be restricted in order to protect the physical structure of the seafloor. It’s all based on a model that synthesizes state-of-the-art maps and video surveys of the seafloor, the habitat preferences of individual species, and what’s known about the environmental impacts of different fishing gear.

With dozens of different species – from cod, to scallops, to lobsters – to consider, it’s an enormous juggling act. Michelle Bachmann, the lead fishery analyst for habitat with the New England Fishery Management Council, says that if there are critics on both sides, that probably means the Council has done its job. And she notes that no one is pretending this plan is either perfect or final.

Read the full story at WCAI

 

US cod catch could soon make a comeback, NOAA says

January 19, 2018 — Atlantic cod catch in the United States was recorded at an all-time historical low in 2016, but a rebound for the fishery may be on the horizon, according to officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Once a hallmark of New England’s commercial fishing sector, the Atlantic cod fishery has suffered plummeting catch volumes due to overfishing and environmental changes over recent years, The Associated Press reported, via The Bangor Daily News. However, cod stocks are showing some promising signs for the upcoming season, NOAA officials said, and quotas are on track to increase slightly in spring of 2018.

Cod fishermen in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank can expect a bump in their quotas come 1 May. That’s a step in the right direction, Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said.

“The quotas are so constraining that there’s not a lot of opportunity and interest in targeting cod,” Martens told the Associated Press. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”

Considered a “choke species” by fishermen, once cod quotas are reached, fishing must cease outright. As such, many fishermen have been avoiding cod altogether, the AP reported.

Recent marine analysis has indicated more abundance of cod in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, Jamie Cournane, groundfish plan coordinator with the New England Fishery Management Council, an arm of NOAA, told the AP. Such figures have prompted the council to propose doubling the commercial cod quota for both New England areas to nearly 3.9 million pounds, a move that’s still awaiting U.S. Department of Commerce approval, Cournane said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Michelle Malkin: Big Brother on America’s Fishing Boats

January 17, 2018 — Salt water. Seagulls. Striped bass.

My fondest childhood memories come from fishing with my dad on the creaky piers and slick jetties of the Jersey shore. The Atlantic Ocean is in my blood. So when fishing families in New England reached out to me for help spreading word about their economic and regulatory struggles, I immediately heeded their call.

Now these “forgotten men and women” of America hope that the Trump administration will listen. And act.

The plague on the commercial fishing industry isn’t “overfishing,” as environmental extremists and government officials claim. The real threats to Northeastern groundfishermen are self-perpetuating bureaucrats, armed with outdated junk science, who’ve manufactured a crisis that endangers a way of life older than the colonies themselves.

Hardworking crews and captains have the deepest stake in responsible fisheries management — it’s their past, present, and future — but federal paper-pushers monitor them ruthlessly like registered sex offenders.

Generations of schoolchildren have been brainwashed into believing that our seas have been depleted by greedy commercial fishermen. In the 1960s and ’70s, it is true, foreign factory trawlers from Russia and Japan pillaged coastal groundfish stocks. But after the domestic fishing industry regained control of our waters, stocks rebounded.

Reality, however, did not fit the agenda of scare-mongering environmentalists and regulators who need a perpetual crisis to justify their existence. To cure a manufactured “shortage” of bottom-dwelling groundfish, Washington micromanagers created a permanent thicket of regional fishery-management councils, designated fishing zones, annual catch limits, individual catch limits, and “observers” mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Even more frustrating for the fishing families who know the habitat best, the federal scientists’ trawler surveys for assessing stocks use faulty nets that vastly underestimate stock abundance.

Meghan Lapp, a lifelong fisherwoman and conservation biologist, points out that government surveyors use a “net that’s not the right size for the vessel.” This produces “a stock assessment that shows artificially low numbers,” she says. “The fishing does not match what the fishermen see on the water.”

Instead of fixing the science, top-down bureaucrats have cracked down on groundfishermen who fail to comply with impossible and unreasonable rules and regulations. The observer program, which was intended to provide biological data and research, was expanded administratively (not by Congress) to create “at-sea monitors” who act solely as enforcement agents.

Read the full story at the National Review 

 

Fisheries Survival Fund: Approval of OHA2 ‘Significant Step Forward’

January 17, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) decision to accept the majority of Omnibus Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2) is a significant step forward in balancing sustainable scallop fishing and environmental protection.

NMFS approved the New England Fishery Management Council’s well-documented recommendations for habitat closures in the Great South Channel and western Georges Bank. These closures will provide critical protections for species like Georges Bank cod, and will provide dramatically more protection for critical habitat than the nearly 20-year closures that they replace.

OHA2’s rebalancing of habitat management both allows for greater habitat protection and restores access to historically productive scallop grounds. It creates new opportunities for the successful scallop rotational management system, which has made the scallop fishery one of the most successful and sustainable fisheries over the last 20 years. Allowing new access to abundant areas such as these has also proven to be the best way to limit adverse environmental impacts from scallop fishing.

NMFS estimates these measures could contribute well over $100 million in scallop landings in the short-term for coastal fishing communities – news that FSF welcomes.

But the Council’s work is not done. NMFS rejected innovations in habitat management in the eastern portion of Georges Bank that would have allowed access to a portion of what is known as the “Northern Edge,” an area that contains some of the most historically rich scallop fishing areas in the world. Several generations of scallops have been born, lived, and died of old age since the last time fishing was permitted there.

According to its decision memo, NMFS appears to have been seeking more information on how habitat-friendly rotational scallop fishing can be implemented to benefit both fishermen and habitat. In the meantime, the outmoded 20-year-old closures remain in place, despite zero evidence that these closures have done anything to promote groundfish productivity. In fact, the evidence suggests they have stymied economic growth and prevented optimization of scallop management.

We are disappointed in the decision regarding eastern Georges Bank, but are hopeful we can take NMFS at its word that it is willing to work on refining a solution to restore Northern Edge access.

 

Nominations Sought for NEFMC

January 16, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is seeking nominees for upcoming open seats. The NEFMC is one of eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) in 1976, and is charged with conserving and managing fishery resources from three to 200 miles off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The MSA specifies that council nominees must be individuals “who, by reason of their occupational or other experience, scientific expertise, or training, are knowledgeable regarding the conservation and management, or the commercial or recreational harvest, of the fishery resources of the geographical area concerned.” Council members are directly involved in:

  • Developing and amending fishery management plans.
  • Selecting fishery management options.
  • Setting annual catch limits based on best available science.
  • Developing and implementing rebuilding plans.

The NEFMC manages: sea scallops, monkfish, Atlantic herring, skates, red crab, spiny dogfish, Atlantic salmon and groundfish** . Please note that the NEFMC does not manage summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, bluefish, striped bass or tautog.

MAINE
One obligatory (state) seat currently held by Terry Alexander of Harpswell, ME. Mr. McKenzie is completing his second of three possible consecutive 3-year terms.

MASSACHUSETTS
One obligatory seat currently held by Dr. John Quinn of New Bedford, MA. Dr. Quinn is completing his second of three possible consecutive 3-year terms.

Qualified individuals interested in being considered for nomination by the Governor to the Council should contact Samantha Andrews (617-626-1564, samantha.n.andrews@state.ma.us.) Nomination application kits will be made available upon request. All applications are due to DMF (c/o Samantha Andrews, 251 Causeway St, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114) by the end of day on Monday, February 12, 2018. As part of the application process, the Commonwealth will conduct an initial background review.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

 

Why New England’s cod catch is at an all-time low

January 15, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — America’s catch of cod is at an all-time low, but the fishery might finally experience a rebound in the coming fishing year.

Atlantic cod were once the backbone of New England’s commercial fishing fleet, but catch has plummeted in the wake of overfishing and environmental changes. The 2016 catch, which is the most recent to be fully tabulated, was the lowest in recorded history, according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But NOAA officials said there are some positive signs for the cod stock, and quotas are set to increase slightly this spring after years of heavy cutbacks. Fishermen seek cod in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank, and both areas are scheduled for quota bumps on May 1.

“The quotas are so constraining that there’s not a lot of opportunity and interest in targeting cod,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”

The U.S. cod fishery, based mostly in Massachusetts and Maine, brought in more than 100 million pounds (45.4 million kilograms) of fish per year in the early 1980s and bottomed out at 3.2 million pounds (1.45 million kilograms) in 2016. Scientists have blamed factors including years of heavy harvest and warming oceans for the collapse of the stock.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

 

Cape Cod Times: A landmark fisheries plan

January 15, 2018 — For seafood lovers, there’s nothing better than a lightly battered scallop, freshly harvested from the North Atlantic, and dipped in simmering butter. And now that federal regulators have agreed to open an area east of Nantucket, closed since the 1990s, fishermen could catch as much as $218 million worth of scallops this year, and $313 million over three years. Expect those fried scallop plates to cost less this summer.

The reopening of the sea bed is just one of the many beneficial outcomes of a new fisheries management plan that was nearly 15 years in the making. The landmark set of regulations opens a large swath of the region’s waters to fishing while maintaining other closures to protect vulnerable species. The plan uses science and the latest technology to decide which ocean areas are important for the critical life stages of fish and shellfish species and how to protect them.

Two decades ago, habitat closures were decided based on drawing a line around areas where fish were congregating. Now, with a model that compares the sea bed with the impact of fishing, regulators can make decisions that will help restore and protect fish stocks. The new plan also sets aside research areas to investigate the link between habitat and fish productivity.

“We think these are groundbreaking regulations,” said John Bullard, NOAA’s outgoing regional administrator, who issued the regulations as one of his last acts on the job. “It puts the focus on the quality of the habitat protected — not the quantity, or how many square miles were protected.”

Cape fishermen are pleased with at least two elements of the plan. They cheered the closing of a large part of the Great South Channel that runs between the Cape and Georges Bank because it is essential habitat for spawning cod and other fish species. State and federal surveys have found that the region’s cod population has plummeted by about 80 percent over the past decade. Closing this area will now help ensure the continued survival of species like Atlantic cod, haddock, and flounder for years to come.

Read the full opinion piece at the Cape Cod Times

 

Pentony steps into NOAA’s top Atlantic post with much underway

January 15, 2018 — Michael Pentony, John Bullard’s successor as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Greater Atlantic region, is a “straight shooter,” who works toward “yes,” and has a lot of experience on fisheries management issues, sources tell Undercurrent News.

NOAA ended months of speculation on Thursday when it announced that Pentony, a long-time NOAA staffer and also a one-time member of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) staff, was its pick to lead all fishery policy making in the 100,000 square mile long region that stretches from the state of Maine to Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, and the Great Lakes.

“Michael’s deep experience in every aspect of sustainable fisheries management, both commercial and recreational, positions him perfectly for this job. He is going to hit the ground running,” assured Chris Oliver, director of NOAA Fisheries, in a statement announcing the decision.

Bullard announced his retirement back in July, ending a nearly six-year rein in the region’s top spot, which comes with an office in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and beginning the agency’s search for a replacement. He said at the time that he had a long list of chores to complete before he could finish, most of which he took on during a recent flurry of activity at the agency.

However, Bullard left quite a few big matters for Pentony to finish up.

Pentony, who is set to assume his new role on January 22, enters his new job at the end of an eventful period, including the prosecution and sentencing of the owner of New England’s largest fishing operation, Carlos Rafael.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News