Saving Seafood

Recreational cod fishing to stay shut down in Gulf of Maine

February 2, 2018 — Fishing managers are recommending that cod remain off limits to recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Maine.

Cod were once harvested in colossal numbers from New England waters, but the population has collapsed in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere. The New England Fishery Management Council is calling on the federal government to maintain a year-round ban on possession of Gulf of Maine cod by recreational fishermen.

Commercial fishermen are still allowed to catch cod in the Gulf of Maine, though quotas for the fish are so low that many try to avoid the fish altogether. Cod are widely used to make fish and chips.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Greenwich Time

 

Regulators vote to protect more corals in Atlantic

February 1, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council has approved a deep-sea coral protection amendment that will close a wide swath of the continental slope and canyons south of Georges Bank to almost all bottom-tending fishing gear in waters deeper than 600 meters.

The omnibus deep-sea coral amendment, approved by the council Tuesday, will protect 25,153 square miles of deep sea corals and was hailed by conservationists and environmentalists despite the fact that their alternative proposal would have protected even more area off the coast of New England.

“Today’s action is a strong step toward coral conservation, however it was unfortunate that the council did not select the stronger option that was available to them,” Gib Brogan, Oceana’s fisheries campaign manager, said in a statement. “The council missed the opportunity to approve a plan that would have truly stopped the expansion of current fishing and would have protected more corals.”

The deep-sea coral amendment, which requires NOAA Fisheries review and approval, covers 75 percent of the known corals within the designated area, 75 percent of the area’s most suitable habitat for soft corals and 85 percent of the area’s canyon slopes pitched at greater than 30 degrees.

It protects four seamounts and 20 deep-sea canyons.

If approved by NOAA Fisheries, the designated protection areas will be closed to all bottom-tending gear, including mobile gear such as trawls and dredges and all fixed gear such as traps and gillnets.

The lone exception, approved by the council, allows the Atlantic deep-sea red crab pot fishery to continue harvesting in the area.

Fishermen, however, will be able to continue fishing with bottom-tending gear from the Massachusetts coast to the designated protected areas, unless they are in areas already restricted by regulations apart from the coral amendment.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Education key to electronic reporting, monitoring systems

February 1, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In a perfect world, Steve Kennelly sees the New England Fishery transitioning to electronic reporting within the next year.

“There’s no reason why that group can’t be formed pretty soon,” the director of IC Independent Consulting said.

The next step would be implementing electronic monitoring within 3 to 4 years.

“It’s silly to talk anywhere beyond five years out” because of how fast technology continues to evolve, Kennelly said.

The New England Fishery Management Council, which concluded two days of meetings on Wednesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, resides in an imperfect world, though.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE PRESENTATION.

Some of the research presented by Kennelly and Mark Hager, of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, was based on establishing electronic reporting and monitoring from scratch. That wouldn’t entirely be the case as some fisheries and vessels are using or testing the electronic systems.

“A KISS approach – keep it simple – didn’t happen,” Kennelly said.

In gathering their research, Kennelly and Hager interviewed 79 fishermen during the last two months of 2017. Of the 79 people they spoke with, 21 were fishermen, 30 were staff from the National Marine Fishery Service and 10 were representatives from fishermen’s associations.

The discussions provided positive and negative notions about electronic systems, which Kennelly and Hager discussed in depth, however, they also revealed a lack of understanding, in their opinion.

Kennelly said some interviews were prefaced by 15 to 20 minutes of explaining the difference between electronic reporting and monitoring as well as what each could provide.

“It’s not because people are being misinformed, they’re just not as aware,” Kennelly said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

NEFMC Recommends 2018 Recreational Measures for Cod/Haddock and Revised Charter/Party Control Date

February 1, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council yesterday asked the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to take three actions related to the recreational groundfish fishery, covering both the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.

First, the Council voted to recommend that NMFS – also called NOAA Fisheries – implement “status quo” management measures for Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock for fishing year 2018, unless the Commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to allow private recreational anglers to retain one Gulf of Maine cod per trip in fishing year 2018. The status quo measures, which were supported by the Council’s Recreational Advisory Panel and Groundfish Committee, are:

  • Gulf of Maine cod – zero possession year-round; and
  • Gulf of Maine haddock – a 12-fish bag limit, 17 inch minimum size, a March 1 through April 14 haddock closed season, and a September 17 through October 31 haddock closed season.

If Massachusetts does not prohibit possession of Gulf of Maine cod by private anglers, then the Council recommends that NMFS implement split measures for the recreational fishery as follows.

  • Gulf of Maine cod:
    • o zero possession year round;
  • Gulf of Maine haddock:
    • o For Hire Fleet – a 10-fish bag limit, 17 inch minimum size, and two haddock closed seasons: (a) March 1-April 14, and (b) September 17-October 31. o Private Anglers – a 12-fish bag limit, 17 inch minimum size, and three haddock closed seasons: (a) March 1-April 14; (b) May 1-31; and (c) September 17- October 31.

Second, for Georges Bank cod, the Council voted to recommend that NMFS implement a 10-fish bag limit for private, charter, and party boat anglers with an increase in the minimum size from 22 inches up to 24 inches.

In addition, at its December 2017 meeting, the Council finalized Framework Adjustment 57 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, which contains a temporary administrative measure to allow NMFS’s Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator to adjust the recreational measures for Georges Bank cod for fishing years 2018 and 2019.

Framework 57 includes annual catch limits (ACLs) for the 2018 groundfish fishing year, which begins May 1. If approved by NMFS, the sub-ACLs for the recreational fishery will be:

  • Gulf of Maine cod – 220 metric tons (mt); and
  • Gulf of Maine haddock – 3,358 mt.

The limiting factor in the recreational fishery is the cod sub-ACL. Analyses indicate that recreational fishermen will not come near harvesting the full Gulf of Maine haddock sub-ACL. The overwhelming challenge in this fishery is catching haddock while avoiding cod.

The Council makes recommendations to NMFS about recreational measures, but NMFS makes the final determination.

Charter/Party Fishery Control Date

Third, the Council requested that NMFS publish a revised control date for the charter/party groundfish fishery. The current control date is March 30, 2006. The new control date will be the actual day NMFS publishes a notice in the Federal Register, which may not occur for several weeks.

The Council agreed that it was important to “refresh” the control date, which will make it a more useful marker in determining activity in the fishery.

During its December meeting, the Council agreed to investigate whether limited entry should be adopted for the charter/party fishery. This item is one of the Council’s multi-year groundfish priorities. Given this intent, the Council supported asking NMFS to publish a new control date.

Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23 – Fishery Dependent Data Working Group

The Council received a quick progress report on Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23. The Groundfish Committee is expected to present a range of potential alternatives at the April Council meeting. The amendment is aimed at improving monitoring of both landings and discards in the commercial fishery.

The Council also received a brief update on the Executive Committee’s recommendations for convening a Fishery Dependent Data Working Group. The group’s charge is to discuss how fishery dependent data can be used to inform stock abundance. The Council agreed in December that establishing a working group would be a 2018 groundfish priority.

During its January 26 meeting, the Executive Committee determined that the group would consist of six scientists, two industry members, and two Council or NMFS staff members. Of the six scientists:

  • Two will come from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center;
  • Two others will be nominated by the science center; and
  • Two will be nominated by the New England Council.

To view the release in its entirety click here.

 

Fishing Managers: Oil Drilling in Atlantic is a Bad Idea

January 31, 2018 — Northeast fishing managers say offshore drilling for oil and gas off of New England and the mid-Atlantic states could jeopardize marine life and industries.

The New England Fishery Management Council agreed to send a letter to the federal Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management on Tuesday calling for the exclusion of East Coast waters from oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf region. The council reports to the federal government and its recommendation applies from Maine to North Carolina.

Read the full story at Maine Public 

 

New England fishing panel votes to protect more sea corals

January 31, 2018 — New England fishing officials approved a proposal Tuesday aimed at protecting large swaths of deep-sea corals in the Atlantic from harmful fishing gear.

The New England Fishery Management Council approved the protection of deep-sea corals located in more than 25,000 square-miles located south of Georges Bank, an area that includes four seamounts and 20 deep-sea canyons, said Janice Plante, a spokeswoman for the council.

The council, which met in Portsmouth, N.H., is charged with managing fishery resources from 3 to 200 miles off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

If the measure is implemented, the entire zone would be closed to nearly all bottom-tending fishing gear, which includes trawls, dredges, traps, and gillnets, with one exception. The council allowed an exemption for the Atlantic deep-sea red crab pot fishery, said Plante.

The council had already adopted coral protection zones for the Gulf of Maine last June.

Now, the National Marine Fisheries Service will review the proposed coral protection zones in the Gulf of Maine and the area south of Georges Bank. The service still has to approve and implement the coral protection proposal, a process that could take several months.

“Given the ecological importance and vulnerability of corals, the overarching objective of this amendment is to identify and protect deep-sea corals in the New England region,” said Plante in a statement. “The council’s desire is to balance coral conservation with commercial fishing usage of coral management zones.”

The moves would help “freeze the footprint of destructive fishing as well as protect deep-sea coral areas from current fishing efforts,” according to a statement from the conservation group Oceana.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

NEFMC Initiates Skate Framework Adjustment 6; Discusses Industry-Funded Monitoring and Research Steering

January 31, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council today initiated Framework Adjustment 6 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan to consider alternatives for prolonging the skate wing fishery. The intent of this action is to better utilize total allowable landings and keep the fishery open as long as possible. The Council agreed to take this step at the request of industry. Many skate fishermen approached the Council during its December 2017 meeting asking that the framework be a 2018 priority.

The Skate Plan Development Team – with considerable input and guidance from the Skate Committee and Advisory Panel – will work over the next few months to analyze possession limit alternatives and other approaches that would help meet the framework’s goals and objectives. The Council will receive a progress report at its April meeting in Mystic, CT. Final action will occur either in April or June with the intent of having new measures in place during the second half of the 2018 fishing year, which ends April 30, 2019.

Industry-Funded Monitoring

The Council also received an update from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) on an electronic Skates captured during a cooperative research trip. – Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) photo monitoring (EM) project that GARFO and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) conducted from August 2016 to January 2018 aboard 11 midwater trawl vessels participating in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries. An estimated 1,000 hours of EM footage was collected on 126 herring trips, and 32 of those trips also were monitored by at-sea observers. The project was designed to evaluate whether or not electronic monitoring is an effective tool for tracking catch, discards, and slippage events on midwater trawl vessels involved in these fisheries.

In April 2017, the Council took final action on an Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Amendment that contains alternatives for potentially allowing EM and portside sampling as monitoring options for the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery. Mackerel is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Council, which has not acted yet on this amendment. The proposed rule for the New England Council’s action is being developed by NMFS and has a target implementation date of fall 2018.

Once the amendment is in place, herring fishermen will need to pay a substantial portion of the costs associated with monitoring the fishery, as implied in the term “industry-funded monitoring.” NMFS’s final report and recommendations resulting from the EM project will be presented to the Council at its April 17- 19 meeting.

Herring industry members also are interested in learning whether or not these new tools can be more cost effective than at-sea monitoring.

Setting Research Priorities

Based on recommendations from its Research Steering Committee (RSC), the Council endorsed several improvements to its research priority-setting process. It also provided guidance on improving the format for listing and tracking the priorities.

  • The Council agreed that plan development teams should continue to have the lead in developing and updating research needs. The RSC and Scientific and Statistical Committee will review research priorities before the Council is asked to approve them. The RSC will take the lead in tracking whether or not research needs are being met.
  • The Council, as a first step, also supported using a spreadsheet rather than a Word document to list research priorities. However, it directed the Research Steering Committee to explore the feasibility of developing a searchable database as a longer-term goal.
  • The Council endorsed the use of a more informative labeling system to describe research priorities that includes:
    • A description/rationale for the work;
    • A priority category label such as near-term, long-term/strategic, or urgent/immediate;
    • An indication of the fishery management plan and/or species the work applies to;
    • An indication of whether or not the priority is included on other lists such as the research setaside program or stock assessment data collection; and
    • The research status, indicating whether or not the work is underway or has been completed.

In related actions, the Council agreed to: (1) ask the Council Coordination Committee to urge NMFS to require anyone applying for national research program funding to indicate if and how their proposals would meet a regional fishery management council research priority in addition to national priorities; and (2) add, as a Council research priority, a more thorough evaluation of methods to reduce seabed impacts by ground cables used in trawl fisheries.

The Council also received a short briefing from its Research Steering Committee on the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Northeast Cooperative Research Program activities, as well as and an overview of recent management reviews conducted for three completed projects. These were:

(1) the Seasonal Scallop Bycatch Survey;

(2) the River Herring Bycatch Avoidance project; and

(3) Effects of Fishing on Herring Aggregations.

View the release in its entirety by clicking here.

 

NEFMC Takes Final Action on Deep-Sea Coral Amendment; Comments on Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling in North Atlantic

January 31, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has taken final action on its Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and voted to submit the document to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for review and approval.

In June of 2017, the Council adopted coral protection zones for the Gulf of Maine. Yesterday, at its meeting in Portsmouth, NH, the Council, after extensive debate, approved a 600-meter minimum depth “broad zone” for the continental slope and canyons south of Georges Bank. Once the amendment is implemented, this zone – with one exception – will be closed to all bottom-tending gear, meaning both mobile gear such as trawls and dredges and fixed gear such as traps and gillnets. The Council approved an exemption for the Atlantic deep-sea red crab pot fishery.

The 600-meter minimum depth broad zone, known as Option 6 in the Coral Amendment, was the Council’s preferred alternative for the continental slope and canyons prior to public hearings. However, the Council postponed final action last June in order to consider an additional proposal put forward by environmental groups. Known as Option 7, the new proposal covered more bottom and included shallower depths, ranging between 300 meters and 550 meters. Option 7 would have prohibited mobile bottom-tending gear but not fixed gear.

The Council’s Habitat Plan Development Team, using trawl vessel monitoring system data to identify fishing grounds, edited the Option 7 boundary to reduce economic impacts.

Before making a final determination, the Council considered extensive analyses of:

  • Option 6, the 600-meter minimum zone
  • Option 7 as revised, the 300-meter to 550-meter zone
  • Option 6/7 combined with Option 7 for mobile bottom-tending gear and Option 6 for all bottom-tending gear. An exemption for the deep-sea red crab pot fishery was considered for all options.

In the end, the Council selected the 600-meter broad zone, which encompasses 25,153 square miles. This option, which also was recommended by the Habitat Committee and Advisory Panel, covers: 75% of the known coral within the zone; 75% of the areas highly or very highly suitable as habitat for soft corals; and 85% of the areas with slopes greater than 30°. It also has lower economic impacts on fishermen using mobile bottom-tending gear.

Gulf of Maine 

Here’s a recap of what the Council approved last June for the Gulf of Maine:

  • Outer Schoodic Ridge and Mt. Desert Rock – The Council adopted a discrete coral protection zone for each of these areas where mobile bottom-tending gear (trawls and dredges) will be prohibited. Other types of fishing gear will be allowed, including lobster traps/pots.
  • Jordan Basin DHRA – The Council designated a Dedicated Habitat Research Area in Jordan Basin on/around the 114 fathom bump site, which encompasses roughly 40 square miles. This designation is meant to focus attention on the coral habitats at this site. The Council believes additional research on corals and fishing gear impacts should be directed here. No fishing restrictions are proposed at this time.

The Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment also specifies that anyone conducting research activities in coral zones would be required to obtain a letter of acknowledgement from NMFS’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office.

Once the amendment is implemented, changes to the following provisions will be allowable through framework adjustments: (1) adding, revising, or removing coral protection zones; (2) changing fishing restrictions; and (3) adopting or changing special fishery programs.

Offshore and Oil Gas Drilling 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is soliciting comments through March 9, 2018 on its Draft National 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which includes the North and Mid-Atlantic Planning Areas. The Council agreed to send a letter to BOEM recommending exclusion of these two areas from the five-year plan because oil and gas exploration and extraction activities in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf involve inappropriate risks that “may harm living marine resources and the communities that depend on them.” The draft plan proposes lease sales in 2021 and 2023 for the North Atlantic area and in 2020, 2022, and 2024 for the Mid-Atlantic area.

The New England Council previously submitted oil and gas development comments to BOEM and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on June 29, 2017 and August 15, 2017. In the August letter and reiterated in this next letter, the Council broke down its concerns into five categories, which involve the following:

  • Direct displacement of fishing activities due to survey or extraction activities in offshore environments;
  • Harm to sensitive, deep-water benthic habitats, including deep-sea corals, due to extraction activities;
  • Negative impacts on living marine resources due to highdecibel sounds emitted during seismic gas surveys and drilling operations, including potential harm to some of the 28 species managed by the New England Council;
  • Negative impacts to nearshore fish habitats due to infrastructure development needed to support an Atlantic oil and gas industry; and
  • Risks associated with leaks and spills resulting from oil and gas extraction and transport.

The Council also supported developing a report to spatially document the value of fisheries on the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf. The report will be used when developing future comments related to both renewable and non-renewable offshore energy.

More Information

View the release in its entirety here.

 

NOAA to monitor 15 percent of fish trips

January 29, 2018 — Groundfishermen can expect to have at-sea monitors aboard 15 percent of all sector trips in 2018, representing a very slight decline from the groundfish sector coverage rates in place for the current fishing season.

The question now is whether NOAA Fisheries will find money to reimburse groundfishermen for their at-sea monitoring costs as the agency has in the past two seasons.

In 2017, NOAA reimbursed groundfishermen for 60 percent of their at-sea monitoring expenses — estimated at about $710 per day per vessel — which was down significantly from the 85 percent reimbursement provided fishermen in 2016, the first year the industry was responsible for funding at-sea monitoring.

“We await the enactment of a final Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations bill to determine what funding may be available for the upcoming fishing season,” NOAA Fisheries said in the statement announcing the 2018 at-sea monitoring targets.

The 2018 at-sea monitoring target, established by using at-sea monitoring data from the past three full groundfishing seasons, represents a 1 percent decline from 2017 levels of 16 percent of all groundfish sector trips and a 1 percent increase over the percentage of 2016 sector trips.

“The total monitoring coverage, ultimately, should provide confidence that the overall catch estimate is accurate enough to ensure that sector fishing activities are consistent (with federal national standards) to prevent overfishing while achieving on a continuing basis optimum yield from the fishery,” according to NOAA Fisheries’ summary of the analysis used to set the coverage rate.

Some sector trips are excluded from the new coverage target rate.

“Those using gillnets with 10-inch or greater mesh in Southern New England and Inshore Georges Bank are excluded from the ASM requirement due to their low catch of groundfish species,” NOAA Fisheries said. “This further reduces the portion of sector trips subject to industry-funded monitoring and better focuses monitoring resources.”

The New England Fishery Management Council is scheduled to discuss industry-funded, at-sea monitoring on Tuesday, the first day of its two-day meetings next week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Protection of Atlantic corals up for debate, approval

January 29, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — A federal panel is revisiting a proposal to offer new protections to deep-sea corals in the Atlantic Ocean.

The New England Fishery Management Council has been working on coral protections in the waters off New England for several years. The council approved protections in the Gulf of Maine in June, but held off on voting on protections for an area south of Georges Bank so it could get more information.

The council is meeting to again consider southern protections on Tuesday. If approved, the council could send the complete plan on to the federal Department of Commerce for implementation.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Haven Register