November 5, 2018 — Fishery managers are seeking feedback on potential changes to New England’s long-shuttered shrimp fishery if it ever reopens.
Shrimp fishing has been shut down off Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire since 2013. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering changes to the way it allocates quota in the fishery.
The commission’s holding public hearings in Augusta, Maine, on Monday and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.
October 31, 2018 — A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty to giving false information in an effort to get fishery disaster relief funds following Hurricane Sandy.
Prosecutors say 56-year-old Dave Bardzik, of Ossipee, submitted several false and/or altered records to the state Fish and Game Department in 2015 in an attempt to qualify for the funds.
Investigators noted discrepancies between the 2015 submission and previous records Bardzik had completed. He admitted that he created the records because he would otherwise not have qualified for funds.
Required criteria included that “for hire” vessels, like Bardzik’s, must have taken at least 15 trips in three of the previous four years in which at least one New England groundfish species was harvested.
October 26, 2018 — Researchers in New Hampshire have received federal funding to create an offshore aquaculture program that will be used to recruit fishermen in northern New England interested in raising steelhead trout and blue mussels.
Officials from the University of New Hampshire – which manages the state’s Sea Grant program – along with the state’s federal leaders announced the USD 747,673 (EUR 655,574) award last week. The grant was given to UNH for its new aquaculture program called “AquaFort.” It involves the hatching of rainbow trout in freshwater, and after eight months of development, the fish are transferred to the sea and become known as steelheads.
The university already has permits for the AquaFort site, which will be located less than two miles south of the Isle of Shoals.
“Warming ocean temperatures and invasive species have caused a decline in sea creatures such as blue mussels and steelhead trout, which has negatively impacted New Hampshire fishermen and the seafood industry,” U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) said in a statement. “By increasing seafood production through aquaculture training for fishermen and farmers, this federal grant to the University of New Hampshire will help expand economic opportunity on the Seacoast.”
The New Hampshire initiative was one of 22 projects that earned 2018 Aquaculture Research Awards grants by NOAA Sea Grant. All of the endeavors receiving a total of USD 11 million (EUR 9.6 million) will work on their projects over the next two to three years. Awardees must also receive a 50 percent match in funds from non-federal sources.
The Rhode Island Sea Grant program received USD 745,815 (EUR 654,052) to develop an online training initiative for entry-level workers that’s designed to improve worker safety and hone the skills necessary to get and keep a job in aquaculture. The training program will include a “train-the-trainer” aspect that could lead to a national deployment.
October 24, 2018 — The following was released by The White House:
“An ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, restrictions has cost our country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, countless American factories, and devastated many industries.”
REAL RESULTS: President Trump’s efforts to cut burdensome and unnecessary red tape are bringing real change and delivering real results for Americans.
October 23, 2018 — Years ago I helped a friend of a friend with a backyard aquaponics system – in which plants are grown in water rather than soil and fish live in the water. I was entranced.
It seemed almost magical, with the poop from the fish feeding the plants to create both vegetables and animal protein in one small space. I figured such systems would soon start replacing gardens among the geekier subsets of the back-to-the-land crowd, becoming a real part of the local food movement.
Nope.
I’m not sure what happened to the system I saw, but I know that aquaponics has never caught on even though the related field of aquaculture, which grows fish or shellfish without the plants, is doing pretty well.
A new project at UNH wants to change that, and maybe turn this fish-and-veggies idea into something that can support a real business in New England.
How? They’re going to science the heck out of it.
“I’m here as a fancy plumber,” said Todd Guerdat, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering, who is leading the project at UNH’s Kingman Research Farm in Madbury. He said seven graduate students are involved in the research at the moment: “They’re the facility managers, they understand the biology, physics, engineering, physiology, and all the other factors that go into it.”
In New Hampshire as in many places, he said, aquaponics systems are built on rules of thumb, at best. If a system fails or if costs go through the roof, it’s not clear why because there’s limited understanding of what’s actually going on with inputs like fish food and outputs like the harvest and the waste.
“The tough part of aquaponics, as opposed to poultry or dairy farming, is that we don’t have nutrient balances established,” Guerdat said. “We don’t have a functional model that says: this is how you can do it … and make money. Send your kids to college.”
October 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic herring Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine, and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Atlantic States marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board (previously Atlantic Herring Section) approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure.
Eight samples of female herring were collected to evaluate spawning condition. Based on the analysis of the samples, the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area will be closed starting at 12:00 a.m. on October 26, 2018 extending through 11:59 p.m. on November 22, 2018. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area during this time and must have all fishing gear stowed when transiting through the area. An incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip/calendar day applies to vessels in non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area.
The Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area includes all waters bounded by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine coasts, and 43° 30’ N and 70° 00’ W.
Please contact Megan Ware at 703.842.0740 or mware@asmfc.org for more information.
A copy of the announcement can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/MA_NHSpawningClosure_Oct2018.pdf.
October 16, 2018 — Interstate fishing managers are holding a pair of public hearings about the future of the New England shrimp fishery, which continues to look bleak.
The shrimp fishery has been shut down since 2013 and the shrimp have been largely unavailable to the public. A new analysis of the shrimp stock says they remain depleted and threatened by warming waters.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is hosting the hearings on Nov. 5 in Augusta, Maine, and Nov. 6 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. An arm of the commission is set to vote on whether to reopen the fishery late in the month.
October 16, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Maine and New Hampshire have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum I to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp. The details of those hearings follow.
Maine Department of Marine Resources
Monday, November 5, 2018 at 4 PM
Maine Department of Marine Resources
Conference Room #118
32 Blossom Lane
Augusta, Maine
Contact: Nicholas Popoff at 207.624.6554
New Hampshire Fish and Game
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 7 PM
Urban Forestry Center
45 Elwyn Road
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095
The Draft Addendum proposes providing states the authority to allocate their state-specific quota between gear types in the event the fishery reopens. The Draft Addendum is available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/NShrimpDraftAddendumI_PublicComment.pdf and can also be accessed on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org ) under Public Input.
Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on Draft Addendum I either by attending a public hearing or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 5 PM on November 7, 2018 and should be forwarded to Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA, 22201; 703.842.07401 (fax); or comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Northern Shrimp).
The Section and its Advisory Panel will be meeting November 15-16, 2018. At this meeting, the Section will consider final action on Addendum I and set 2019 specifications. Information regarding the date and location of the November meeting will be provided, when available, in a subsequent press release.
For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740
October 11, 2018 — A regulatory board says New England’s shrimp population remains depleted years after the fishery for the species was shut down.
Fishermen in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts used to harvest Northern shrimp in the winter, but regulators shut the fishery down in 2013 amid concerns about low population and warming waters.
An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says it has reviewed a new assessment of the shrimp population that says there are far fewer of the crustaceans off of New England than there used to be. The commission says the rising temperatures of the Gulf of Maine are a threat to the shrimp.
October 11, 2018 — An underwater cable proposed by offshore energy company Vineyard Wind will pose less of a threat to marine resources if it makes landfall at a Centerville beach instead of traveling through Lewis Bay, according to state fisheries officials.
“To avoid and minimize marine resource impacts, Covell’s Beach is a better choice,” Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce wrote in a letter last week to Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton.
The Oct. 3 letter reviews new information contained in a 1,111-page supplemental draft environmental impact report that Vineyard Wind filed in August with the Energy and Environmental Affairs. The supplemental report follows up on an earlier draft issued in April, and includes more detailed information about two possible landing sites for the 800-megawatt cable that will connect the company’s turbines southwest of Martha’s Vineyard with the electrical grid: New Hampshire Avenue in West Yarmouth and at Covell Beach in Centerville.
Although the company’s initial filings — including the supplemental report — listed New Hampshire Avenue as its preferred landing site, a host community agreement signed by Vineyard Wind and the town of Barnstable last week stipulates that Covell Beach is now the preferred site.
Beaton is chairman of the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board, which will decide where the cable comes onshore after considering reliability, environmental impacts and costs, according to its website. The board began a monthlong hearing on the issue last week, and is expected to announce its decision in April.
Because the decision on where to site the cable rests with the board, Vineyard Wind is still pursuing both locations.
Bringing the cable onshore at New Hampshire Avenue could pose a threat to numerous marine resources, according to Pierce’s letter.
“New Hampshire Avenue, within Lewis Bay, will potentially impact shellfish beds, a depuration area, bay scallop habitat, and a mooring field,” the letter says. A depuration area is a location used to cleanse or purify seafood.