Saving Seafood

Feds closing part of New England scallop fishery

May 2, 2018 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Federal regulators are closing a key scallop fishing area off of New England for nearly 11 months.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration says it is closing the northern Gulf of Maine to a class of fishermen who fish under a federal permit starting Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. The closure will last until March 31, 2019.

NOAA says the vessels will not be allowed to fish for, possess, or land scallops from the area, which is off of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The agency says regulations require that it closes the area once it projects that all of the quota has been harvested.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

 

ASMFC: Area 1A Trimester 2 Effort Controls and Meeting Notice

April 27, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set the effort control measures for the 2018 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) fishery as follows:

 Days Out of the Fishery
  • Vessels with a herring Category A permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 Area 1A fishery may land herring four (4) consecutive days a week. One landing per 24 hour period. Vessels are prohibited from landing or possessing herring caught from Area 1A during a day out of the fishery.
  • Landing days in New Hampshire and Massachusetts begin on Monday of each week at 12:01 a.m.
  • Landings days in Maine begin on Sunday of each week at 6:00 p.m.
  • Small mesh bottom trawl vessels with a herring Category C or D permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 fishery may land herring seven (7) consecutive days a week.
 Weekly Landing Limit
  • Vessels with a herring Category A permit may harvest up to 480,000 lbs (12 trucks) per harvester vessel, per week.
  • 80,000 lbs (2 trucks) out of the 480,000 lbs weekly limit can be transferred to a carrier vessel (see below).
 At-Sea Transfer and Carrier Restrictions
The following applies to harvester vessels with a herring Category A permit and carrier vessels landing herring caught in Area 1A to a Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts port.
  • A harvester vessel can transfer herring at-sea to another catcher vessel.
  • A harvester vessel is limited to making at-sea transfers to only one carrier vessel per week.
  • Carrier vessels are limited to receiving at-sea transfers from one catcher vessel per week and can land once per 24 hour period. A carrier vessel may land up to 80,000 lbs (2 trucks) per week. The carrier limit of 2 trucks is not in addition to the harvester weekly landing limit.
  • Carrier vessel: a vessel with no gear on board capable of catching or processing fish.
  • Harvester vessel: a vessel that is required to report the catch it has aboard as the harvesting vessel on the Federal Vessel Trip Report 
  • The initial Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (ACL) is 31,962 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for a carryover from 2016 and the research set-aside. The Section allocated 72.8% of the sub-ACL to Trimester 2 and 27.2% to Trimester 3. After incorporating the 295 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), the seasonal quotas are 21,192 mt for Trimester 2 and 7,918 mt for Trimester 3. 
  • These effort controls are projected to extend the Trimester 2 fishery through mid-September. Landings will be monitored closely and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when the trimester’s quota is projected to be reached.
  • The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort the following days.  
  • Tuesday, June 26 at 10:00 am
  • Tuesday, July 17 at 10:00 am
  • Wednesday, August 8 (time TBD)
  • To join the calls, please dial 888.585.9008 and enter conference room number 845-202-505 when prompted. 
  • The start date and time for the Area 1A Trimester 2 fishery is Sunday, June 3rd at 6:00 p.m. in Maine and Monday, June 4th at 12:01 a.m. in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. As a result, fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until June 3 or 4, 2018, depending on the state.  Please contact Megan Ware at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.

A PDF of the announcement can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/M18_38_AtlHerringDaysOutTri2_April2018.pdf.   

 

Fishermen, Environmentalists: Fight Over Monitors Not Over

April 6, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Commercial fishermen and environmental groups agree that a longstanding dispute over the future of at-sea monitoring is far from over, despite recent funding help from Congress.

The monitors are on-board workers who collect data to help inform fishing regulations. The federal government moved the cost of paying for them to fishermen in some Northeast fisheries in 2016.

Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said last month that a budget bill finalized by Congressional leaders included about $10 million to pay for the monitors. That means fishermen of valuable New England species such as cod, haddock and sole won’t have to pay for the monitors this year.

But fishing groups, and the environmentalists who watch them, say the government and industry need to work together on a long-term solution to make paying for monitoring sustainable. Fishermen say they can’t afford the cost themselves, as it can add around $700 per day to the cost of fishing.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at US News

 

Fisherman who sued feds thrilled about funding for monitoring

March 23, 2018 — HAMPTON, N.H. — A commercial fisherman who sued the federal government over at-sea monitoring costs was thrilled Thursday when it was announced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would fully fund the program under the omnibus government spending bill.

David Goethel, of Hampton, said he learned about the funding Wednesday.

“I’ve been sitting on this for 18 hours. I was like a cat that swallowed a canary. I didn’t want to spit out any feathers,” Goethel said Thursday afternoon.

NOAA used to pay at-sea monitoring fees but reduced contributions in recent years. Fishermen say their costs can be up to $700 per day.

Goethel’s wife, Ellen, said the news brought tears to her eyes.

“I can’t overstate enough how much this means to the fishermen of New England,” Ellen Goethel said.

The couple learned the news through an email from Erica Anhalt, a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH.

On Thursday morning, Shaheen issued a public statement.

“New Hampshire fishermen face enough daunting challenges — the last thing they need right now is to be further burdened with a costly regulatory fee,” said Shaheen.

Read the full story at the Union Leader

 

Protesters rally against Trump’s oil drilling plans

March 6, 2018 — CONCORD, Mass. — Dozens of protesters rallied in New Hampshire on Monday against a proposal by President Donald Trump’s administration to expand offshore drilling, saying it poses a grave threat to the state’s marine ecosystem and economy.

Protesters — some carrying signs that read “Stop Big Polluters” and “No Spill No Drill No Kill”– gathered outside a Concord hotel that was hosting an information session by federal officials to explain the process that could lead to drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf in the North Atlantic. The hearing is one of 23 the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is holding on drilling plans including one in Maine on Wednesday.

Tom Irwin, director of the Conservation Law Foundation of New Hampshire, told reporters before the protest that oil and gas drilling put fisheries, tourism and recreation at risk. He said ocean resources in New England support 250,000 jobs and $17.4 billion in economic activity.

“The last thing we need are more man-made threats to our oceans and New England’s natural resources heritage,” Irwin said. “The Trump administration’s proposal ignores the will of our coastal communities and millions of Americans who have voiced their opposition to offshore drilling.”

New Hampshire’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu oppose the proposal. Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, said he and a bipartisan group of lawmakers will seek to suspend House rules this week to introduce a resolution making it clear that state lawmakers also oppose it.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portsmouth Herald

 

Coastal leaders speak out against offshore oil drilling plans

Many states want to be left out of new oil leases entirely

February 23, 2018 — Politicians and fishing industry representatives from across the country have been speaking out against a proposal from the Department of Interior that would end an Obama-era ban and open up coastal states for offshore drilling operations.

“I find the whole thing to be really quite alarming,” said Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who requested an interview with the Providence Journal to speak out on the proposal. “This might happen if we don’t oppose it loudly enough.”

The New England Fishery Management Council voted to urge federal regulators to take the whole Atlantic coast out of consideration during its first meeting of 2018.

“Spills don’t happen all that often, but there clearly have been a number of cases that we all know about… where those activities have resulted in some significant impacts to our marine resources,” said Doug Grout, chief of New Hampshire’s Marine Division.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Northeast Fishery Managers Want East Coast To Remain Closed To Drilling

February 8, 2018 — Governor Chris Sununu says it looks unlikely new offshore drilling would affect New Hampshire, but regional fishery managers are still worried.

The U.S. Department of the Interior says it wants to open most of the nation’s coastline to new oil and gas leases. Sununu opposes drilling off New Hampshire’s Seacoast, and says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke assured him the North Atlantic won’t be high priority.

“They have to go through the public process and everything, so they couldn’t officially cut us off the list,” Sununu told reporters on a press call last week. “But it was clear that we were a low-target area for them and that our feelings on the matter would be strongly considered.”

Still, New England’s federal fishery management council says even surveying for oil and gas – let alone drilling and transporting it – could hurt the East Coast’s fishing industry.

The council got an update on offshore energy issues at their first meeting of 2018, last week in Portsmouth, and voted to urge federal regulators to take the whole Atlantic coast out of consideration.

Read the full story at New Hampshire Public Radio

 

Research shrimper: Trawls better every week

February 2, 2018 — There are days when Joe Jurek must feel the loneliness of the long-distance shrimper, a solitary figure in the Gulf of Maine as the only Massachusetts commercial fisherman allowed to harvest coveted northern shrimp from a fishery just entering its fifth year of closure.

Jurek, a Gloucester-based groundfisherman and the captain of the 42-foot FV Mystique Lady, has spent the past month executing weekly trawls for the sweet crustaceans that have disappeared from local fish markets while the fishery has been closed over dire concerns about the health of its shrimp stock.

Jurek is the Massachusetts representative in a two-state research set-aside program and is doing most of his fishing in the inshore vicinity of Cape Ann, Ipswich Bay and nearby Scantum Basin.

As with his counterpart in New Hampshire, Jurek is working with state and regional fishery regulators to collect samples and data that could help determine the future fate of the fishery.

Four weeks into his allotted 10-week fishing season that provides a total allowable catch of 13.3 metric tons for both vessels, Jurek offered a morsel of optimism, saying he has observed a slight increase in abundance from a year ago.

“It seems there are a little bit more this year, particularly around Massachusetts,” Jurek said Tuesday. “We’ve especially noticed more small shrimp.”

That could be good news for regulators, shrimpers, consumers — last year, Cape Ann northern shrimp lovers, led by Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, literally lined the dock with their own buckets waiting for Jurek to land his haul —  and of course, the shrimp, also known as Pandalus borealis.

For the past five years, regulators at the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission — which regulates the fishery — and the respective marine resources departments of Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire have wrung their hands over the plight of the northern shrimp.

The stock, through that period, has exhibited all-time lows in biomass, spawning and recruitment, leading to the closures and the establishment of the research set-asides (RSA).

‘Getting better every week’

Last year, Jurek joined one fisherman from New Hampshire and eight trawlers from Maine in the program that provided a total allowable catch of 53 metric tons, with each vessel allowed to catch up to 1,200 pounds of shrimp per trip.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Facing a Dying Industry, Two Young New Hampshire Fishermen Head Out Anyway

January 25, 2018 — It’s a feeling many in today’s economy can relate to: starting out in a career is just harder than it used to be.

One group that’s very familiar with that idea is commercial fishermen. In New Hampshire, dozens of boats used to head out every morning to fish for cod and haddock. Today that number is down to just a handful.

For our series The Balance, which looks at the cost of living in New Hampshire, Jason Moon tells us about two young fishermen who, in spite of the odds, are trying to live a vision of an iconic New England profession.

It wasn’t always Zach Griggs’ plan to become a fisherman. Along the way, he tried other things, too.

“I went to community college for a year-and-a-half and I realized I don’t like book-work.” says Griggs. “I realized I like working.”

But more than just working, Griggs realized he liked this kind of work. The way you get paid for exactly what you catch, the way each day is different.

“The sun rises every day but none of them are the same,” says Griggs. “It’s like, every day you haul the nets, it’s not going to be the same thing as you hauled yesterday. When I did dry wall, I knew I had screw every day and a screw-gun ‘bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.’ Miserable.”

Griggs is 28, but he’s already spent about 8 years in the fishing industry.

About four months ago, he decided to make a bet on staying in for even longer. He took out a loan and bought a boat, the Bridget Leigh. It’s a 44-foot white fishing boat that Griggs knows well. He’s been a deckhand on it for the past 6 years.

It should be an exciting moment – striking out on his own like this. But sitting in his new captain’s chair, Griggs sounds deflated.

“This is about what it’s good for, right here, right now, without permits,” says Griggs, “Sitting on it, hanging out. That’s pretty much all it’s been doing.”

Turns out, being a New Hampshire fisherman isn’t what it used to be.

On a recent night at the Rye Harbor, I met with Griggs and a couple of friends onboard the Bridget Leigh to talk about the state of New Hampshire’s fishery.

One of those friends is Lucas Raymond. At 25 years old, Raymond is New Hampshire’s youngest commercial fisherman. And like Griggs, he can’t imagine doing anything else.

Read the full story at NHPR

 

Nominations Sought for NEFMC

January 16, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is seeking nominees for upcoming open seats. The NEFMC is one of eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) in 1976, and is charged with conserving and managing fishery resources from three to 200 miles off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The MSA specifies that council nominees must be individuals “who, by reason of their occupational or other experience, scientific expertise, or training, are knowledgeable regarding the conservation and management, or the commercial or recreational harvest, of the fishery resources of the geographical area concerned.” Council members are directly involved in:

  • Developing and amending fishery management plans.
  • Selecting fishery management options.
  • Setting annual catch limits based on best available science.
  • Developing and implementing rebuilding plans.

The NEFMC manages: sea scallops, monkfish, Atlantic herring, skates, red crab, spiny dogfish, Atlantic salmon and groundfish** . Please note that the NEFMC does not manage summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, bluefish, striped bass or tautog.

MAINE
One obligatory (state) seat currently held by Terry Alexander of Harpswell, ME. Mr. McKenzie is completing his second of three possible consecutive 3-year terms.

MASSACHUSETTS
One obligatory seat currently held by Dr. John Quinn of New Bedford, MA. Dr. Quinn is completing his second of three possible consecutive 3-year terms.

Qualified individuals interested in being considered for nomination by the Governor to the Council should contact Samantha Andrews (617-626-1564, samantha.n.andrews@state.ma.us.) Nomination application kits will be made available upon request. All applications are due to DMF (c/o Samantha Andrews, 251 Causeway St, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114) by the end of day on Monday, February 12, 2018. As part of the application process, the Commonwealth will conduct an initial background review.

Read the full story at The Fisherman