Saving Seafood

Agenda Released for NEFMC January 16 Meeting

January 6, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

 

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

9:00 a.m. Introductions and Announcements (Council Chairman Terry Stockwell)

9:05 Reports on Recent Activities Council Chairman and Executive Director, NOAA Regional Administrator (Greater Atlantic Region/GAR), NOAA General Counsel, Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council liaisons, and representatives of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, U.S. Coast Guard, and NOAA Enforcement

11:30 Sea Scallop Committee Report (Mary Beth Tooley)

Receive an update on the February sea scallop workshop being held to explore concerns about inshore scallop fishing in the Northeast

12:00 p.m. Open Period for Public Comments (Terry Stockwell)

Opportunity for the public to provide brief comments on issues relevant to Council business but not listed on this agenda for formal discussion (speakers are asked to sign up beforehand and limit remarks to between 3-5 minutes)

12:15 Lunch Break

1:30 Risk Policy Working Group Update (Mary Beth Tooley)

Receive an update on finalizing a “roadmap” that contains guidance on implementation of the NEFMC’s approved risk policy

2:00 Atlantic Herring Committee Report (Peter Kendall)

  • Review the development of Amendment 8 — the focus of the action is to establish long-term harvest strategies for Atlantic herring, including an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule that explicitly accounts for herring’s role in the ecosystem and the issue of localized depletion;
  • Discuss revising the Georges Bank haddock catch cap accountability measure through a framework adjustment to the Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP);
  • Discuss the use of portside data in river herring/shad catch cap monitoring

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

8:30 a.m. Overview of NOAA Fisheries Fishery Dependent Data Project (GAR staff)

Receive a report on the NOAA Fisheries data project prior to Council and public discussion on the topic

9:30 Observer Policy Committee Report (Terry Stockwell)

Select preferred alternatives among the omnibus elements in the Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Amendment and approve the associated draft Environmental Assessment for purposes of public review; the action will address standard cost responsibilities, framework provisions for IFM programs, service provider requirements, a prioritization process to allocate federal funding, and a monitoring set-aside option; the Council is expected to select preferred alternatives for the herring and mackerel alternatives at its April 2016 meeting

12:00 p.m. Lunch Break

1:15 Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) Report (Dr. Jake Kritzer)

Review SSC recommendations, if any, for a revised overfishing limit and an acceptable biological catch for witch flounder for fishing years 2016-2018; receive an update on additional topics discussed by the SSC at their January 20 meeting, as appropriate

2:00 Groundfish Committee Report (Frank Blount)

Take final action on the 2016-2018 fishery specifications for witch flounder (preliminary values were selected at the December 2015 Council meeting); receive a committee update on the development of measures to address the 2016 groundfish priorities, including potential changes to the at-sea monitoring program and the management process for recreational fishing

3:30 Review NOAA’s Draft Guidance for Conducting Catch Share Program Reviews (Council staff)

Review NOAA’s Catch Share Guidance document and review/approve NEFMC comments on the draft

Thursday, January 28, 2016

8:30 a.m. Small Mesh Multispecies Committee Report (Mark Gibson)

Review scoping comments for Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP and approve the range of issues to be addressed in the action; the major topic under consideration is the development of a limited access program for the small mesh fishery comprised of whiting (silver and offshore hake) and red hake

9:30 Presentation on the Northeast Region’s Revised Stock Assessment Process (Dr. Bill Karp, Science Director, NEFSC)

Discuss Northeast Regional Coordinating Council-recommended changes to the Stock Assessment Workshop/Stock Assessment Review Committee process

10:30 Other Business

View a PDF of the Meeting Agenda

MASSACHUSETTS: Northeast Seafood Coalition seeks support for monitoring plan

January 1, 2015 — The Northeast Seafood Coalition is seeking the city Fisheries Commission’s support for the New England Fishery Management Council’s recent vote to reduce the mandated level of at-sea monitoring for groundfish boats when the 2016 fishing season opens May 1.

Jackie Odell, NSC executive director, said she will make a formal request for a letter of support from the commission at its yet-to-be scheduled January meeting to begin building public and industry support for the actions the council took at its December meetings in Portland, Maine.

With the prospect of groundfishermen forced to assume the hefty cost of at-sea monitoring at some point within the first quarter of 2016, the council voted to reduce the level of mandated monitoring from approximately 24 percent of all groundfish trips to about 13 percent to help ease the additional financial burden looming on the horizon.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

New England States Schedule Hearings on the Public Hearing Document for Draft Amendment 3 to the Atlantic Herring FMP

New England states of Maine through Massachusetts have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on the Public Hearing Document for Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring. The dates, times, and locations of the scheduled hearings follow.

Maine Department of Marine Resources

Wednesday, January 6th at 1 p.m.

Marquardt Building

Conference Room 118

32 Blossom Lane

Augusta, ME

Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553

New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game

Tuesday, January 5th at 7 p.m.

Urban Forestry Center

45 Elwyn Road

Portsmouth, NH

Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

Tuesday, January 5th at 2 p.m.

Annisquam River Station

30 Emerson Avenue

Gloucester, MA

Contact: David Pierce at 617.626.1532 

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management

Monday, January 4th from 6 – 9 PM

University of Rhode Island Bay Campus

Corless Auditorium

South Ferry Road

Narragansett, RI

Contact: John Lake at 401.423.1942

Draft Amendment 3 was initiated to propose management measures in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) which reflect changes in the stock structure, integrate recent data into management decisions, and respond to changes in the fishery. The Public Hearing Document proposes (1) alternatives to the spawning monitoring program (protocol, default start dates, area boundaries, and length of the closure period); (2) removing the fixed gear set‐aside rollover provision, and (3) requiring a vessel’s fish hold to be emptied before leaving on a fishing trip.

Today’s rebuilt herring population is comprised of a broader range of age classes with older and larger fish compared to the population during overfished conditions. Analysis of more than a decade’s worth of data suggests larger herring spawn first and the timing of the start of spawning varies from year-to-year. Proposed alternatives to the current spawning monitoring program address inter-annual differences and provide additional measures to more adequately protect spawning fish in the areas where they spawn.

At the request of the fishing industry, the Public Hearing Document includes an option to adjust the fixed gear set-aside rollover provision. Currently, the set-aside of 295 mt is available to fixed gear fishermen through November 1, after which the remaining set-aside becomes available to the rest of the Area 1A fishery. The November 1 date was set because, typically, herring have migrated out of the Gulf of Maine by that time. Anecdotal evidence suggests herring are in the Gulf of Maine after November 1, therefore, fixed gear fishermen requested the set-aside be made available to them for the remainder of the calendar year.

Members of industry also suggested a requirement for fish holds to be empty of fish prior to trip departures. This provision would allow for full accountability and encourage less wasteful fishing practices by creating an incentive to catch herring which meet market demands. The New England Fishery Management Council included a complementary provision in its Framework Adjustment 4 to the Federal Atlantic Herring FMP.

Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Public Hearing Document either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The document is available here and can also be accessed on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on January 20, 2015 and should be forwarded to Ashton Harp, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at aharp@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Amendment 3). For more information, please contact Ashton Harp, at aharp@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

MASSACHUSETTS: Study eyes fish freed from hooks

December 24, 2015 — Researchers at the New England Aquarium, in conjunction with those from state agencies, are getting closer to releasing study results on the collateral impact of recreational haddock discards on the overall mortality rate of the species.

Dr. John Mandelman, director of research at the Boston-based aquarium, said the the field work for the study was completed in early November. He expects the New England Fishery Management Council, which helped fund the study, to complete vetting the analysis sometime early next spring.

The field work was performed with significant assistance from recreational fishing operators such as Gloucester-based Yankee Fleet and Seabrook, New Hampshire-based Eastman’s Docks Fishing Fleet.

“As with all studies, what we very much tried to do was to work as much as possible as part of a legitimate fishing effort, or what we call a fishery-dependent exercise” Mandelman said. “This was a really nice partnership.”

Mandelman said project researchers made about eight trips last spring aboard some of the Yankee Fleet’s larger party boats, focusing on observing how a full range of anglers — from novice to veteran — performed catch-and-release of haddock discards, while also charting catch gear, catch conditions, injuries to the fish, time out of water and sea temperatures.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NEFMC: Hosting Inshore Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishing Workshop, Feb 22-23

December 22, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC):

The New England Fishery Management Council will host a workshop on February 22-23, 2016 to explore concerns about inshore scallop fishing. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI.

Discussions will build on and contribute to ideas expressed in the Council’s May 2015 white paper on this issue. The Council has enlisted the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum (Fisheries Forum) to assist in developing the workshop agenda and facilitate discussions.

For more information, including background material and registration forms, see Sea Scallop Workshop, Feb 22-23, 2016. If you have questions, please contact Deirdre Boelke at dboelke@nefmc.org.

Scallop Industry Fights Early Access To Nantucket Lightship Area

December 22, 2015 – Last week, The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), represented by Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, wrote NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard, urging him to disapprove a December 3rd vote at the New England Fishery Management Council that would allow certain vessels early entry into the Nantucket Lightship area in violation of the principles of rotational closure system that has made the scallop fishery sustainable and profitable.

The vote would allow General Category scallopers access to the Nantucket Lightship area, and disallow access by Limited Access vessels. FSF says that allowing different access for different types of vessels in the scallop fleet violates laws, regulations, and the Atlantic Scallop Fishery Management Plan. FSF also argues that the vote failed to meet public notice requirements, failed to provide analysis of effects for public comment, and, as an allocation issue, requires an amendment of the Fisheries Management Plan.

Administrator Bullard himself spoke in opposition to the vote, stating “What I’m worried about is a motion like this … [takes] a chink out ofthis rotational closure and allows one group in early. And so next year, what’s the justification for someone to come in early, and the year after, what’s the rationale? And at what point do we not have the system that created the nation’s most profitable, most productive, most sustainable fishery? At what point do we look and say ‘it really isn’t a rotational closure system anymore, it’s a system where we decide who goes where at what time.'”

View the letter as a PDF

Off the hook – Researchers find mortality of cod caught and released off Gloucester is half of original estimate

December 21, 2015 — With cod at historically low population levels and commercial fishermen limited to landings that are just a fraction of what they once were, the recreational catch is now believed to account for as much as one-third of total landings of Gulf of Maine cod.

But recreational landings data was considerably poorer than the commercial data, which made it hard to estimate their true impact on the population or know the effectiveness of regulatory measures.

Solving the cod crisis will take a lot of research. Now, scientists are no longer restricted to their lab. As a recent study shows, creative thinking and technology can turn the ocean into a lab, and the results can be more precise and minimize the regulatory impact on fishermen.

A key missing piece in the puzzle was information on how many fish died after they were released by anglers. Lacking key data such as length and weight of released cod resulted in the assumption that 100 percent of those fish died. Missing data can lead to underestimating the population size, with overly strict regulations, said Michael Palmer, National Marine Fisheries Service research fishery biologist.

Researchers started collecting length and weight data in 2005 after regulators tightened reporting requirements for recreational fishermen. In 2011, a panel arrived at a consensus that 30 percent of cod released by anglers died. But Palmer was concerned that there were no directed studies, in the U.S. or internationally, to truth-test the estimate.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

 

NEMFC Newsletter, December 2015

December 17, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Framework Adjustment 27

At its early December meeting, the New England Council finalized its recommendations for Framework 27 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP. The action contains catch specifications for the 2016 and 2017 (default) fishing years.

Fishermen will receive allocations that are projected to result in landings of about 47 million pounds of scallops in 2016. Forty million pounds are allocated to the scallop limited access fleet. Of the remainder, about 4.5 million pounds are allocated to the limited access general category (LAGC) fishery which numbers about 100 active vessels, and about 800,000 pounds are reserved for the observer set-aside program.

Several other specifications are the same as fishing year 2015 — 1.25 million pounds for the research set-aside program, 70,000 pounds for vessels with Northern Gulf of Maine LAGC permits, and 50,000 pounds for vessels with incidental LAGC permits.

Compared to 2015, the approximately 340 active limited access vessels will be allocated slightly more days-at-sea (DAS) in open areas this year and the same level of effort in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area (Delmarva, Hudson Canyon and Elephant Trunk Areas are combined in this action).

The proposed allocations for limited access vessels, as approved by the Council, will be 34.55 open area days-at-sea (as opposed to 31 DAS in 2015) for full-time vessels and 51,000 pounds in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area. Part-time vessels will receive 13.82 days-at-sea and 20,400 pounds in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area.

After much discussion, the New England Council also would allow a portion of the total LAGC allocation to be taken from the northern part of the Nantucket Lightship Access Area. The maximum removal from this relatively small area is proposed at 300,000 pounds, or about 7% of the LAGC total allocation. The proposed action also prohibits any scallop vessel from undertaking research set-aside compensation trips in the Lightship Area. The LAGC fleet’s total allocation from the Mid-Atlantic Access Area is 1.2 million pounds. Both areas would be closed to these vessels once the fleetwide LAGC quota is reached.

View a PDF of the Newsletter

MAFMC Revises 2016 Spiny Dogfish Specifications

December 16, 2015 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has revised the spiny dogfish specifications that were previously recommended for the 2016 fishing year. During the December 2015 Council Meeting last week in Annapolis, Maryland, the Council approved a revised acceptable biological catch (ABC) limit of about 52 million pounds and a commercial quota of 40 million pounds. The revised commercial quota represents an increase of nearly 60% relative to the quota originally recommended for 2016. In addition, the Council approved ABCs of 51 million pounds for 2017 and 50 million pounds for 2018. 

At a previous meeting in October, the Council had recommended substantial reductions in spiny dogfish catch limits for 2016, including a 50% cut in the commercial quota, in response to the findings of the 2015 spiny dogfish stock assessment update. Although the update concluded that the stock was neither overfished nor subject to overfishing, the new estimate of stock biomass had decreased markedly. The Council’s recommendations would have reduced the commercial quota for spiny dogfish by 50% next year. 

However, the Council expressed concern that the spiny dogfish assessment update did not include any data from 2014 – the result of mechanical issues with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) trawl survey vessel – and requested that the SSC work with the NEFSC to evaluate alternative ABC-setting methods that could address this data gap. Three different methods for calculating spiny dogfish biomass were evaluated, and the SSC identified a Kalman filter as the best available approach for overcoming the missing data. 

Using the alternative approach, the SSC recommended ABCs that resulted in commercial quotas of approximately 40 million pounds for 2016, 39 million pounds for 2017, and 38 million pounds for 2018. This represents a 20% reduction in quotas from 2015 to 2016. However, landings have been below 50% of the commercial quotas for the last two full fishing years, and the reduced quota is unlikely to be constraining. 

After considering additional public comment during last week’s meeting, the Council accepted the SSC’s revised ABC recommendation and associated management measures. The New England Fishery Management Council also approved similar specifications at its December meeting for this jointly-managed species, and if approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the new measures will go into effect May 1, 2016.

Slight Increase in Days at Sea Voted for 2016 East Coast Scallop Fishery

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Editor’s View] by John Sackton — December 14, 2015 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted to recommend a slight increase in Days at Sea for the 2016 scallop fishery, from 31 days to 34.5 days.

At the same time, they left the allocation in the limited access areas to 51,000 lbs per vessel, the same as in 2015.

On paper this would lead to landings of about 47 million pounds, which is close to what was forecast initially for 2015 as well. However, 2015 landings are falling far short of that number.

The primary reason is the smaller size of scallops.  In the past five years, the average count sold on the New Bedford auction has mostly been in the 15 to 16 count per lb. range.  This year, industry sources say it is closer to 22 per lb.

The smaller scallops drastically cut into the fleet’s productivity because they are limited by number of fishing days, and by limits on crew size.  As a result, landings are down as much as 1/3 from preseason expectations.

Most observers do not expect a quick turnaround, and think 2016 landings will be similar or just slightly above those of 2015.

Graphic from New England Council Meeting showing Mean estimate of Scallop landings in Coming years.  (tons of meats)

However, the council’s biologists expect a bumper year crop the recruit to the fishery on both Georges Bank and the Mid-Atlantic, which will lead to sharply higher landings in a few years. 

Models suggest that landings will surpass 60,000 tons (132 million lbs of meats)  by 2019, if these young scallops survive.  That is 3 to 4 times current landings.

The council is also considering a change in the scallop fishing year to begin April 1st rather than March 1st.  There is a seasonal factor in scallops size, with the largest scallops caught more frequently in the April-July period. 

The days at sea and allocations have to be formally approved by NMFS to go into effect for 2016. 

This opinion piece originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.