Saving Seafood

Locals wary of changes to whiting plan

November 21, 2016 — It didn’t take long for the Gloucester Fisheries Commission to oppose the proposals being developed at the New England Fishery Management Council that would introduce limited access to the historically open-access whiting fishery.

A mere two days after the NEFMC received its first look at the proposals being generated by its whiting advisory panel and whiting committee, Gloucester commission members raised concerns over the impact the proposals could have on the city’s whiting fleet — particularly the small boats.

“We should not allow any other species to go under limited access,” said commission member Angela Sanfilippo, also the president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association. “This is a healthy stock and I am totally against limited access.”

Sanfilippo’s views were echoed by member Joe Orlando and Chairman Mark Ring.

The three proposals to potentially limit access to the fishery are contained in Amendment 22 currently being developed by the council. The council’s whiting committee hopes to furnish a more finished product at the council’s next meeting in late January.

The city fisheries commission, however, wasn’t waiting around for the council staff’s final analysis. It voted 6-0 to oppose any attempts to limit access to Ipswich Bay for the local whiting fleet.

The three proposals, being developed by the NEFMC’s whiting advisory panel and whiting committee, essentially offer potential eligibility parameters for future access into the fishery.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishermen to be allowed to catch more monkfish next year

November 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Fishermen will likely be allowed to catch more monkfish next year.

Monkfish are a species of bottom-dwelling fish that are a popular item at restaurants and seafood markets. The regulatory New England Fishery Management Council has approved rules for the fishery that will allow fishermen to bring ashore more than 15,000 metric tons of the fish next year.

Fishermen have typically caught between 7,000 and 10,000 metric tons of monkfish annually since 2009.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the News & Observer

US Scallop Catches Likely Stable for 2017 after NE Council Approves Plan

November 18, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The New England Fishery Management Council opted for stability in the scallop fishery for 2017, approving a plan that slightly reduces fishing pressure in open areas, and provides for one more trip to the rotational closed areas.

The spatial management of the scallop resource has made the fishery behave similar to a limited access fishery.  In 2016 scallopers were allowed three trips to closed areas, with a set trip limit.

In 2017, they will be allowed 4 trips to closed areas at 18,000 lbs per trip, and the open areas will be managed by a days at sea regime where each license holder gets 30 days at sea.

The net result is stability in the fishery, with landings expected to be around 47 million lbs.  This compares to 46.9 million pounds projected for the current fishing year.

The 2016 projections represent a 30% increase from the 36 million pounds landed in 2015.

The outlook for 2018 is also for continued stability.

“We’re happy. It’s a valuable fishery right now,” said Jimmy Wotton, a Maine scallop fisherman. “People are starting to recognize it’s a top quality product, and they are willing to pay for it.”

Scallops continue to be a popular item even at historically high prices.  Even with the increase in landings, prices are only slightly lower than they were a year ago.  Dry 10-20 scallops – a premium product – are quoted by Urner Barry at $14.79 compared to $15.13 in November 2015.

Treated or processed scallops are sold at much lower prices.  10-20 processed scallops in November were selling for $9.35, more than $1.00 less than the $10.50 price a year ago.  The increasing price spread between dry and processed scallops shows that the increased supply has mostly affected prices at the lower end of the market.

“We’ve certainly seen prices at the auction have been strong,” said Jonathon Peros, a scallop plan coordinator with the New England Fishery Management Council.

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

Advisory panel releases 3 proposals for whiting

November 18, 2016 — The New England Fishery Management Council, meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, this week, got an advance peek at three proposals that ultimately could limit access to the small-mesh multispecies fishery that includes whiting.

The three proposals, generated by the council’s whiting advisory panel and the whiting committee, will serve to provide the council with a fuller slate of alternatives, said Andrew Applegate, the council’s senior fishery analyst for small mesh multispecies.

Applegate stressed the analysis of the three proposals by the whiting plan development team is in the very early stages.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but we hope to present the council with something sometime next January,” Applegate said.

The initial discussion on the three proposals, Applegate said, “is just to update the council on our progress.”

The whiting fishery currently is an open-access fishery. The proposals to potentially limit access to the fishery are contained in Amendment 22 currently being developed by the council for the 2017 fishing season.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New England Fishery Management Council Approves Scallop Framework 28 with 2017-2018 Specs

November 17, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council yesterday approved Framework Adjustment 28 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The framework establishes specifications for the 2017 fishing year and sets default specifications for 2018.

If the framework is approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), full-time limited access scallop vessels in 2017 will be allowed to make four 18,000-pound “scallop access area” trips – one into the Nantucket Lightship Access Area, one into the Closed Area II Access Area, and two into the Mid-Atlantic Access Area (MAAA) with the option of making one of those Mid-Atlantic trips in the newly created Elephant Truck “Flex” Access Area (light green in chart). The Elephant Trunk Flex Area will be subject to a seasonal July 1-Sept. 30 closure. Part-time limited access vessels will be allowed to make two 14,400- pound trips into the available access areas, one of which must be in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area.

The Council approved a 2017 Northern Gulf of Maine TAC of 95,000 pounds, up from 70,000 pounds in 2016. However, the 2017 TAC will need to be adjusted to account for a 2016 overage. As a result, the Northern Gulf of Maine quota that will be available to the fishery on March 1, 2017 likely will be on the order of 75,000 pounds.

Framework 28 initially proposed to allocate 29.18 “open area” days-at-sea to full-time limited access vessels. Under the 13-month proration schedule and the automatic reduction that allows vessels to steam off of the days-at-sea clock south of Cape May, full-time vessels will be allocated 30.41 open-area days. Part-time vessels will be allocated 12.16 days-at-sea under the prorated schedule, up from the initial 11.67 allocation that resulted for a 12-month fishing year.

The Council agreed to base these allocations on spatial management – an approach that uses projected landings – under the existing allocation split between the two components of the fishery:

  • 94.5% for the limited access component of the fishery; and
  • 5.5% for the limited access general category individual fishing quota(IFQ) component.

For 2017, this means the IFQ fishery will be allocated 2.43 million pounds – prorated for 13 months at 2.49 million pounds – and 5.5% of the access area allocations. These trips will be equally distributed across all access areas, but the Closed Area II trips, which are a long haul for some general category boats, will be prorated 50% to the Nantucket Lightship area and 50% to the Mid-Atlantic/Elephant Trunk Flex Access Area, which are easier to steam to.

Also as part of Framework Adjustment 28 to the scallop plan, the Council agreed to:

  • Limit research set-aside compensation fishing to the Mid-Atlantic Access Area and open areas, excluding the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area;
  • Restrict the possession of shell stock inshore of the days-at-sea demarcation line north of 42° 20’ N latitude to 50 US bushels, as is already the case south of the line;
  • Adopt 2018 default specifications equivalent to 75% of the 2017 open area days-at-sea allocations for full-time vessels with one 18,000-pound Mid-Atlantic Access Area trip. The limited access general category IFQ component will receive 75% of the 2017 quota allocation, access area trips equivalent to 5.5% of the default access area allocation.

Groundfish Actions Impacting Scallopers

During its Groundfish Committee report, the Council addressed two issues that impact the Atlantic sea scallop fishery:

    • Northern Windowpane Flounder – The Council voted to develop a Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank northern windowpane flounder sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) for the scallop fishery under Framework Adjustment 56 to the groundfish plan. The sub-ACL will be a fixed percentage based on the 90th percentile of 2005-2014 scallop catch rates of northern windowpane. Under this formula, the scallop fishery will be allocated 21% of the total acceptable biological catch for this stock, which then will be reduced by 7% to account for uncertainty to determine the scallop fishery’s sub-ACL. The scallop fishery currently is not subject to a sub-ACL or accountability measures for northern windowpane, so this step represents a change for scallopers, assuming the action is approved by NMFS. The Council will be developing accountability measures for northern windowpane for fishing year 2018.
    • Accountability Measures (AMs) – The Council also voted to temporarily modify the existing AM policy for the scallop fishery for a two-year period so that accountability measures only will apply when the scallop fishery exceeds its sub-ACL for a groundfish stock and the overall ACL for that stock is also exceeded. The Council approved this temporary modification for both the George Bank yellowtail flounder and northern windowpane flounder stocks. Under current regulations, AMs also are triggered when the scallop fishery exceeds its sub-ACL by 50% and the overall ACL is exceeded. This new change removes the 50% trigger for the 2017 and 2018 fishing years.

Atlantic Herring Framework 5 and Amendment 8 Take Shape

November 17, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council today discussed two actions related to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan.

  • Amendment 8: The Council looked over the draft goals and agenda for its second Atlantic Herring Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) Workshop (see blue box). MSE incorporates more public input and technical analyses upfront before alternatives are selected. The approach is being used to establish an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule for the Atlantic herring fishery under Amendment 8 that: (1) may explicitly account for herring’s role in the ecosystem; and (2) deals with biological and ecological requirements of the herring resource itself. The amendment also contains a set of still- evolving alternatives to address potential localized depletion and user conflicts in the herring fishery.
  • Framework Adjustment 5: The Council received an overview of the range of alternatives under consideration to modify the Georges Bank haddock accountability measures (AMs) that apply to the herring midwater trawl fishery. The Herring Plan Development Team will conduct additional analyses on the alternatives, and the Council is scheduled to take final action during its January meeting

The herring/haddock issue is being addressed through two channels – one groundfish action and one herring action.

The Council voted yesterday to increase the herring midwater trawl fishery’s Georges Bank haddock sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) from 1% to 1.5% through Framework 56 to the groundfish plan.

Herring Framework 5, on the other hand, is the vehicle being used to potentially modify the AMs to help keep the midwater trawl herring fishery from exceeding the haddock sub-ACL. The range of alternatives includes two options for implementing a “proactive” AM closure in addition to maintaining the existing “reactive” AM closure.

The reactive AM requires a shutdown of all green and red areas in the charts below to directed herring midwater trawl fishing – for the remainder of the groundfish fishing year – once the haddock sub-ACL is caught. Framework 5 proposes a proactive approach that would prevent midwater trawl fishing in Closed Areas I and II – either with or without a 15-nautical-mile buffer around the red areas – under three possible seasons: (a) a year-round proactive closure; (b) a May-October proactive closure; or (c) a June-August proactive closure.

The premise is that a seasonal proactive closure of Closed Areas I and II would help keep the midwater trawl fishery within its Georges Bank haddock sub-ACL and prevent a closure of the entire green/red area, which defines the reactive Georges Bank Haddock AM Area. In 2015, the reactive AM was triggered, and the whole AM area was closed to herring midwater trawling from Oct. 22, 2015 through April 30, 2016.

Framework 5 contains other alternatives, including one to seasonally split the Georges Bank haddock sub- ACL so that 80% of the quota is released on May 1 and then 20% is released on Nov. 1 to support a winter herring/mackerel fishery. Copies of the draft alternatives and other herring materials can be found at: http://www.nefmc.org/library/atlantic-herring-committee-november-2016.

Scallop Fishermen will be Allowed to Catch More Next Year

November 17, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – The federal government plans to allow scallop fishermen to catch more shellfish next year as consumer demand grows.

The New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday approved rules for the fishing year that begins spring 2017. The rules are expected to yield about 47 million pounds of scallops.

The decision represents a slight increase from this year’s rules, which are expected to allow fishermen to catch 46.9 million pounds of scallops. That was a 30 percent increase from the 36 million pounds of scallops fishermen landed in 2015.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Maine Public Radio

Regulators to Discuss Localized Depletion of Herring

November 16, 2016 — CHATHAM, Mass. – The New England Fishery Management Council will meet in Newport, Rhode Island tomorrow and an organization that supports local fishermen will push for a buffer zone to move midwater trawlers further off shore.

The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is looking to move the large herring trawlers at least 50 miles from the Cape and Islands to protect the ecosystem and small-boat coastal fisheries.

The management council will discuss ways to address “localized depletion” in the herring fishery, which is a key source of food for whales and larger fish.

“Our concern is that they are depleting the forage species that we need for tuna, stripers, cod, haddock, dogfish, the whales – all of that stuff is the food chain and they are sucking up the lower end of it,” said Bruce Peters, an Orleans fisherman from the vessel Marilyn S.

Current regulations allow for the midwater trawlers to fish beyond three miles from shore from Provincetown past the Islands.

A vessel tracking program showed about a half dozen trawlers about three or four miles off the Coast of Orleans and Eastham along the back side of the Cape earlier this week.

“They have huge boats. They can go to Georges Bank. They can go offshore. They can fish herring pretty much anywhere,” Peters said. “Our small-boat fleets are 30 to 40-foot boats. We don’t have the luxury of being to go way, way offshore like that.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

New England Fishery Management Council Previews Deep-Sea Coral Amendment Analysis; Addresses Marine National Monument Overlap Issues

November 16, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council received a briefing yesterday from its Habitat Committee regarding preliminary Deep-Sea Coral Amendment analyses covering: (1) potential impacts of fishing activity on corals; and (2) available fishery effort and revenue data.

The Council also made two decisions related to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which President Obama established on Sept. 15, 2016 using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Although the President designated the monument, his proclamation directed the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, to manage the activities and species within the area under the provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and other federal laws.

In an Oct. 21 letter to the Council, John Bullard, head of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, asked the Council to amend its fishery management plans to “reflect the action of the President and implement the appropriate fishing regulations for the Marine National Monument.”

The Council discussed the request and decided not to develop its own amendment since it did not designate the monument. This means the Commerce Department will fulfill the President’s charge through a secretarial amendment.

Bullard said public hearings would be held under the secretarial action and any proposed amendments would be sent to both the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils for “consideration and comment.”

The Council also debated a motion it had postponed during its September meeting to move all proposals in the Deep-Sea Coral Amendment that overlap with the Marine National Monument to the “considered but rejected” portion of the amendment.

After considerable debate, the Council voted to keep the overlapping alternatives in place for further consideration and analysis, noting that it was important to move forward with the coral protection process it had begun before the monument was designated.

Regarding the current list of alternatives in the coral amendment, the Council did vote to add an additional option to the mix.

For background, the Council is proposing to protect corals through the development of two types of coral zones – discrete areas and broad areas, which are defined as follows.

  • “Discrete Areas” designate narrowly defined coral zones in the Gulf of Maine, for single canyons, and on individual seamounts; and
  • “Broad Areas” designate a coral zone along the entire shelf-slope region between the US/Canada Exclusive Economic Zone boundary and the New England/Mid-Atlantic Council boundary.

Broad zones are meant to prevent the expansion of fishing effort into additional deep-water habitats. The Council is considering various minimum depth contours for defining these zones.

The Council further debated whether to continue developing potential lobster trap/pot restrictions in the inshore Gulf of Maine coral zones, which are offshore the state of Maine’s waters near the Outer Schoodic Ridge area and west of Mt. Desert Rock.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources and Maine lobstermen requested that the Council provide an exemption for lobster and crab fishing within these zones, arguing that the inshore lobster fishery in this area is the primary economic driver for two Downeast Maine coastal counties encompassing at least 15 harbors.

The Council acknowledged the importance of these coral zone areas to the lobster fishery but was not prepared to completely eliminate lobster gear restrictions from consideration at this stage of the amendment process. Instead, it will continue to develop inshore Gulf of Maine coral zone alternatives that may restrict these gears but will include an option to exempt lobster trap/pot fishing.

New England Fishery Management Council Approves Skate Limited Access Scoping Document; Hears Progress Report on Whiting Amendment 22 Analyses

November 15, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During discussions that addressed two of the last remaining open access fisheries in the region, the New England Fishery Management Council today:

  • Approved a scoping document for Amendment 5 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to consider limited access in both the skate bait and non-bait fisheries; and
  • Received a progress report on Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP, which will include alternatives to limit access to small-mesh multispecies.

The skate complex is made up of seven species: barndoor, clearnose, little, rosette, smooth, thorny, and winter skates. The bait fishery primarily targets little skate, along with a small percentage of juvenile winter skate, while the non-bait fishery primarily targets adult winter skate for the wing market.
Control dates already are in place for both fisheries – July 30, 2009 for the bait fishery and March 31, 2014 for the non-bait fishery. The Council asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to publish the control dates after skate fishermen expressed concern that unrestrained increases in fishing effort by new entrants

Advancing to the next step of the process, the Council is now preparing to conduct scoping hearings early in the new year to give the public an opportunity to raise concerns or make suggestions about the range of alternatives for Skate Amendment 5. The purpose of the amendment is to consider developing a limited access program for the skate bait and non-bait fisheries, potentially with qualification criteria, permit conditions and categories, and other related measures.

Whiting Limited Access Under Consideration in Amendment 22

The Council also received a progress report on Amendment 22, which contains alternatives to potentially limit access to the small-mesh multispecies fishery. Participants in this fishery target red hake, silver hake, and offshore hake. Silver and offshore hake typically are referred to as “whiting.”

The Council held five scoping hearings in December 2015 to solicit initial input on the amendment and now is developing qualification criteria alternatives using a preliminary analysis of fleet history. The Whiting Plan Development Team (PDT), Whiting Advisory Panel, and Whiting Committee still have a considerable amount of work to do before the Council can select alternatives for the draft amendment that will be taken to public hearing. However, the Council took an early look at three alternatives that the PDT will begin to analyze. Two use a five-year, 2008-2012 qualification period – up to the Nov. 28 cutoff for the control date – and one uses a 1996-2012 qualification period. Each alternative has a high- and low-level permit status, potentially having different possession limits. As a first cut, the Whiting Committee identified three sets of qualification criteria representing the cumulative poundage (all five years combined) needed to qualify under the proposals:

  • First Alternative – 500,000 pounds for the high level permit and 100,000 pounds for the low level permit under the 2008-2012 qualification period;
  • Second Alternative – 1,000,000 pounds for the high level permit and 20,000 pounds for the low level permit under the 2008-2012 qualification period; and
  • Third Alternative – 1,000,000 pounds for the high level permit and 200,000 pounds for the low level permit using the 1996-2012 period.