Saving Seafood

NEFMC Calendar: Here’s the June 2020 AP and Committee Meeting Lineup – Join Our Webinars

June 3, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has scheduled several advisory panel (AP) and committee meetings during the first three weeks of June to address actions related to Atlantic herring, Atlantic sea scallops, groundfish, whiting/red hake, research priorities, and ecosystem-based fishery management. All meetings will be conducted by webinar. The results will be discussed by the full Council when it convenes June 23-25, 2020, also by webinar. Here’s the June lineup.

WHITING/RED HAKE – Thursday, June 4: The Council’s Whiting Committee and Whiting AP will meet jointly to discuss proposed alternatives for rebuilding southern red hake, as well as other issues.

Read the full release here

NOAA Taking Emergency Action to Reduce Economic Harm to Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery

June 1, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries announced on Friday a temporary rule that will extend portions of the fishing year 2019 carryover provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan into the fishing year 2020. According to the government agency this is an emergency action that is necessary to provide the scallop fleet the opportunity to land allocations that may have gone unharvested. The hope is that this temporary rule will reduce economic harm to the scallop fishery caused by COVID-19.

The temporary rule goes into effect on June 1 and was brought on by a request from the New England Fishery Management Council during their April 15 meeting. During that meeting the Council requested that all 2019 access area carryover pounds, as well as unharvested RSA compensation pounds from fishing year 2019, be available for harvest for 180 days in fishing year 2020. The council also requested that the NLS-Wests remain an access area during the fishing year 2020, and that all LAGC IFQ vessels be allowed to roll forward all unharvested quota from fishing year 2019 for 180 days into fishing year 2020.

Read the full story at Seafood News

NOAA Fisheries Announces a Temporary Rule for Emergency Action to Extend Portions of the Fishing Year 2019 Carryover Provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a temporary rule to extend portions of the fishing year 2019 carryover provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan into fishing year 2020. At the request of the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries is taking emergency action to implement these measures.

This action:

  • Allows limited access general category individual fishing quota vessels to carryover all fishing year 2019 unharvested quota into fishing year 2020.
  • Allows any access area carryover pounds and unharvested research set-aside compensation pounds from fishing year 2019 to be available for harvest through August 31, 2020.
  • Extends the time period vessels may utilize their 2019 access area allocation in the Nantucket Lightship-West through August 31, 2020, and then close the area on September 1, 2020, in order to minimize unwanted bycatch.

Extending these carryover provisions further into fishing year 2020 will give vessels more flexibility: to harvest some carryover that would otherwise be lost (~5.2 million lb fleet-wide) to land this allocation at the opportune time, and to avoid unnecessary adverse economic impacts. Extending these carryover provisions will not cause any annual catch limits to be exceeded in the scallop fishery. The measures in this temporary rule are effective for 180 days, but the rule may be extended for an additional 186, if necessary.

Read the temporary rule as filed in the Federal Register, and the permit holder bulletin posted on our website.

NEFMC SSC – Listen Live – Thursday, June 4, 2020 – Research Priorities

May 26, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet via webinar on Thursday, June 4, 2020.  The public is invited to listen live.  Here are the details.

START TIME:  10:00 a.m.
 
WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.
 
CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (415) 655-0060.  The access code is 374-434-055.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.
 
AGENDA:  The SSC will meet to:
  • Review the New England Council’s 2020-2024 research priorities, including updates identified by the Council’s committees and plan development teams, and provide recommendations on the suggested revisions;
  • Receive a presentation on the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Peer Review report; and
  • Discuss other business as necessary.
COMMENTS:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Friday, May 29, 2020.  Address comments to Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn or Executive Director Tom Nies and email them to comments@nefmc.org.  Additional information is available in the meeting notice.
 
MATERIALS:  All documents for this meeting will be posted on the SSC meeting webpage.
 
QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492 ext. 101, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Fishing monitors not required through May 30; draft rule hearing Thursday

May 20, 2020 — Meanwhile, the New England Fishery Management Council is hosting a webinar public hearing on its draft groundfish monitoring amendment and has extended the public comment deadline to the end of June.

The council, which voted in April to postpone final action on draft Amendment 23 beyond its June meeting, will hold the webinar public hearing Thursday, May 21. One hearing was held May 12. If approved, the council would work with new NOAA to implement the new monitoring rules.

Thursday’s session is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and individuals may register through a link on the council’s website, nefmc.org.

More information on Amendment 23 and proposed changes to monitoring can be found at https://bit.ly/2zN4vcR

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Industry Spoke and We Listened: Communications Effort Focuses on Groundfish Monitoring and Amendment 23 Development

May 20, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries collaboratively manages U.S. fisheries with fishery management councils, fisheries commissions, and state partners. The New England Fishery Management Council is developing Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. Through this amendment, the Council is evaluating the current groundfish monitoring program and considering changes to improve the monitoring system. Early discussions during the development of Amendment 23 revealed that industry members wanted more information about our current monitoring system. The groundfish monitoring system is complex, and since the at-sea monitoring program is industry-funded, changes to this program have implications for the industry. Communication is key to our work and we always strive to do a better job communicating about our programs and systems. The development of this amendment presents an opportunity for us to improve understanding about our monitoring programs. We can also help industry and other stakeholders engage in the development of Amendment 23.

Creating a Plan to Improve Communication about Monitoring and Amendment 23

In 2018, we contracted with a team of public outreach specialists from Vision Planning and Consulting, LLC (VPC). They helped us develop a strategic communications plan to improve the way we communicate about groundfish monitoring and Amendment 23. We developed the plan to ensure that members of the industry, particularly those who may not always participate in Council meetings, have the information they need to engage meaningfully in the management process.

Read the full release here

Great South Channel Habitat Management Area

May 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces three exemption areas within the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area where dredge fishing for surfclams or mussels will be allowed.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) created the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area (HMA) as part of its Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2, which prohibited the use of all mobile bottom-tending fishing gear in the area. The HMA contains complex benthic habitat that is important for juvenile cod and other groundfish species, but also susceptible to the impacts of fishing.

This action allows the surfclam fishery to operate hydraulic dredge gear year-round in two small areas (McBlair and Fishing Rip) and seasonally in a third area (Old South) within the HMA. Mussel dredge fishing is also allowed in these exemption areas. These exemption areas were chosen to allow relatively limited access to some historical surfclam fishing grounds, while protecting the majority of the HMA. The three exemption areas total only 6.9 percent of the total area of the HMA, and do not include areas most clearly identified as containing complex and vulnerable habitats.

You can read the final rule as filed in the Federal Register.

Scallop RSA Share Day: Tune in on May 19th to Learn More about Industry-Funded Research

May 15, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will be hosting a Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program Share Day on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 via webinar beginning at 9:00 a.m. The event will feature updates and preliminary findings from projects recently funded through the RSA program. The presentations will benefit the Scallop Plan Development Team and Scallop Advisory Panel in making recommendations to the Scallop Committee and full Council for future research priority setting for this program. In addition, all scallopers and other stakeholders may be interested in hearing about how RSA projects enhance management of the fishery and address critical resource, gear, bycatch, and survey issues.

The Council annually “sets aside” 1.25 million pounds of scallop meats that can be used to support research in the fishery. The Council then determines research priorities. NOAA Fisheries manages the RSA competition and administers the program.

Read the full release here

Scallop sales following seafood trend: Big drop in foodservice, but surge in retail

May 13, 2020 — The scallop market in the U.S. has largely mirrored the trends seen in virtually every other seafood category, according to information shared by Bristol Seafood.

The information came via an industry webinar the company hosted in order to provide an update on how scallops have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Bristol regularly releases a “factbook” covering what to expect in the coming year, but the pandemic had understandably rendered a portion of that information obsolete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Executive order calls for reducing aquaculture regs

May 12, 2020 — Around the same time last week that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released $300 million in coronavirus aid to the seafood industry, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth.”

The major reasons given to issue the executive order were familiar objectives of the administration: reduce our dependence on imported seafood by decreasing the regulatory burden on fishermen and the aquaculture, while creating a level playing field with other countries.

“The Fisheries Survival Fund has long supported efforts to revise and streamline unnecessary regulations, an effort that is more important now than ever,” spokesman John Cooke wrote in a statement.

Trump ordered each of the country’s regional fishery management councils to submit a prioritized list of recommended actions to reduce regulatory burdens on fishermen and increase production within six months. But the Trump administration already asked NOAA and the New England Fishery Management Council three years ago to develop a list of unnecessary and duplicative regulations, which has already been submitted, and it may be much harder to find the regulatory fat this time around.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times