Saving Seafood

Herring limits expanded to prolong catch of lobster bait

July 21, 2016 — An interstate fishing council has extended some of Maine’s emergency Atlantic herring restrictions to Massachusetts to try to close a loophole that threatened to derail the summer supply of lobster bait.

On Wednesday, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted 2-1 to cut the number of days that herring boats can land fish each week within its jurisdiction from five to two, with Maine and New Hampshire representatives voting in favor of the landing day reduction and Massachusetts voting against it. Under its emergency rules, Maine had already cut its landing days down to two in an attempt to prolong the availability of fresh herring throughout the lobster season, but boats that fished that area could still land for five days if they sailed to a Massachusetts port such as Gloucester.

Maine regulators are trying to balance the lobster industry’s demand for fresh bait now, when season is just beginning but offshore herring is in short supply, with its need for fresh bait through the end of summer, when the inshore summer herring quota is in danger of running out. While lobstermen don’t like a bait shortage at any time, the industry is supporting Maine’s herring restrictions to make sure there will still be fresh bait available when they need it most.

Maine regulators who lobbied on behalf of the regional rule change say one large boat that usually fished for menhaden has begun to fish heavily for herring and bring it to Gloucester. They argued that boat, which fishermen described as 160 feet long with a 50-foot seine, could undermine Maine’s efforts to stretch the 19,400 metric ton quota of herring that can be taken from Maine’s coastal waters through September, and punish Maine’s herring fleet, which has supported the state’s effort to balance the need to prolong the quota and still keep at least some herring coming in for lobstermen to bait their traps.

“Without constraints on the landing (in Massachusetts) we would not make it into August, much less September,” said Terry Stockwell of Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Section Modifies Area 1A’s Trimester 2 Landing Days

July 21, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commision:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts met via conference call on Wednesday July 20, 2016 to discuss Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) days out measures for Trimester 2 (June 1 to September 30). The call was initiated to discuss increased effort in the fishery and equitable fishing opportunities. As of July 18, 2016, 41.3% of the Area 1A Trimester 2 quota (19,480 mt) had been harvested.

Section members, with input from industry, modified the days out effort control measures for Area 1A Trimester 2 as follows:

July 24 through September 30: Vessels may land herring two (2) consecutive days a week until further notice. All other days are designated as days out of the fishery (e.g., vessels may not land herring).

· Vessels in the State of New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may land herring starting at 12:01 a.m. on Mondays up to 11:59 p.m. on Tuesdays.

· Vessels in the State of Maine may land herring starting at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays up to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Two landing days will become effective beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 24 and will remain in place until changed by additional notice.

UMass invention could cut fish monitoring costs

July 21, 2016 — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth have been awarded a patent for technology they say could reduce the costs of fishing vessel monitoring, a cost fisherman say threatens their livelihood, the school announced this week.

Dr. Brian Rothschild, the retired founding head of the UMass-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology, and graduate student Glenn Chamberlain said their on-board 3D camera system would reduce costs, ensure accuracy and expand the scope of what information could be collected.

“Broad-based and accurate counting of the fish being caught is critical to our collective efforts to sustain critical fish stocks and thus the commercial fishing industry,” Rothschild said in a statement. “We believe we have found a way to count the fish being caught in a relatively low-cost manner that will increase confidence among the federal regulators and the fishing industry.”

The camera system, which would cost about $500 to install on a vessel, utilizes stereo photogrammetry, a system used by meteorologists to collect information about tornadoes, to capture images of fish either on the deck or passing through a net, according to the university. Those images could then be analyzed to produce “a permanent record of each sampling tow or catch in the fishery and to determine the species and size composition of each tow,” the university said.

Last year, Hampton, New Hampshire, fisherman Dave Goethel and a fishing sector filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a mandate requiring them to carry at-sea monitors on their vessels and pay the cost of hosting those federal enforcement contractors. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors from itself to fishermen earlier this year.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Regulators look for solutions to lobster bait shortage

July 20, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishery managers will meet to discuss how to regulate the catch of a key lobster bait fish they say is at risk of heavy fishing.

Herring is the most popular bait fish for lobsters, and fishermen aren’t catching many far off New England. Regulators fear heavy herring fishing closer to shore will result in the fishery hitting its quota before the end of September.

Members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s herring board will meet Wednesday to discuss how to manage the rate of catch off states like Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Baltimore Sun

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Conference Call Scheduled for Wednesday, July 20 at 3:00 PM

July 18, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts will meet via conference call on Wednesday July 20, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. to discuss Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) days out measures for Trimester 2 (June 1 to September 30). The states are concerned the current rate of landings will result in the trimester quota being reached before September 30th. Fishermen and other interested parties are welcome to listen in and participate at the Chair’s discretion.

Current days out measure:

July 15 – September 30: Vessels may land herring 5 consecutive days a week until further notice. All other days are designated as days out of the fishery.

Join the conference call by dialing 1.888.394.8197 and entering the passcode 499811 when prompted.

Please contact Ashton Harp, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or aharp@asmfc.org for more information

East Coast fishermen spar with federal government over cost of at-sea monitors

July 14, 2016 — Every year, the federal government spends millions monitoring New England commercial fishermen to ensure they ply their timeless maritime trade in accordance with the law.

Now, a judge is set to rule on who should foot the bill for the on-board monitors: the government or the fishing boat owners. The East Coast fishermen say sticking them with the bill would be the “death knell” for their  industry and is illegal on the part of the federal government.

Fishermen of important New England food species such as cod and haddock will have to start paying the cost of at-sea monitors soon under new rules. Monitors — third-party workers hired to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations — collect data to help determine future fishing quotas and can cost about $18,000 a year, or $710 per voyage.

The Cause of Action Institute, a legal watchdog representing a group of East Coast fishermen, sued the federal government in December in U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., seeking to block the transfer of payments from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the fishermen.

“It is unlawful for NOAA to force struggling fishermen to pay for their own at-sea monitors,” said former federal judge Alfred Lechner, the institute’s president and CEO. “The significant costs of these regulations should be the responsibility of the government.”

The lawsuit was filed against the Department of Commerce on behalf of David Goethel, owner and operator of F/V Ellen Diane, a 44-foot trawler based in Hampton, N.H., and Northeast Fishery Sector 13, a nonprofit representing fishermen from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

It called the transfer of payments the “death knell for much of what remains of a once-thriving ground fish industry that has been decimated by burdensome federal overreach.”

“Fishing is my passion and it’s how I’ve made a living, but right now, I’m extremely fearful that I won’t be able to do what I love and provide for my family if I’m forced to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors,” Goethel said when the suit was filed last December.

Read the full story at Fox News

Fishermen vow to continue lawsuit about monitoring rules

June 27, 2016 — CONCORD, N.H. — Attorneys for fishermen who oppose a new cost imposed by regulators say they will continue with a federal lawsuit despite a recent concession by the federal government.

The lawsuit concerns the cost of at-sea fishing monitors, who are workers hired to collect data that inform catch quotas. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors from itself to fishermen earlier this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said recently that fishing trips on or after July 1 may be eligible for reimbursement of monitoring costs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

Fading Fishermen: A Historic Industry Faces A Warming World

June 27, 2016 — SEABROOK, N.H. — The cod isn’t just a fish to David Goethel. It’s his identity, his ticket to middle-class life, his link to a historic industry.

“I paid for my education, my wife’s education, my house, my kids’ education; my slice of America was paid for on cod,” said Goethel, a 30-year veteran of the Atlantic waters that once teemed with New England’s signature fish.

But on a chilly, windy Saturday in April, after 12 hours out in the Gulf of Maine, he has caught exactly two cod, and he feels far removed from the 1990s, when he could catch 2,000 pounds in a day.

His boat, the Ellen Diane, a 44-foot fishing trawler named for his wife, is the only vessel pulling into the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in Seabrook. Fifteen years ago, there might have been a half-dozen. He is carrying crates of silver hake, skates and flounder — all worth less than cod.

One of America’s oldest commercial industries, fishing along the coast of the Northeast still employs hundreds. But every month that goes by, those numbers fall. After centuries of weathering overfishing, pollution, foreign competition and increasing government regulation, the latest challenge is the one that’s doing them in: climate change.

Though no waters are immune to the ravages of climate change, the Gulf of Maine, a dent in the coastline from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, best illustrates the problem. The gulf, where fishermen have for centuries sought lobster, cod and other species that thrived in its cold waters, is now warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, scientists have said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press 

UNH research on horseshoe crabs reveals connection between water, spawning

June 24, 2016 — DURHAM, N.H. — It appears that horseshoe crab spawning is based more on water temperature than lunar cycles, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.

Researchers found that Atlantic horseshoe crabs in New Hampshire’s Great Bay Estuary time their annual spawning based on water temperature.

It was thought that the lunar cycle triggered spawning.

The study provides a first-of-its-kind look at the environmental factors that influence horseshoe crab spawning activity in the state and could pave the way for changes in how monitoring surveys are conducted on the East Coast.

“We wanted to establish a baseline for horseshoe crab populations in New Hampshire because it had never been done before,” said Helen Cheng, who led the research. “Knowing how a species behaves is important in managing their populations, so we needed to know more about horseshoe crab spawning behaviors for effective management.”

A decline in the horseshoe crab population could affect several fields.

In medicine, horseshoe crabs play an important role in eye research and surgical sutures and a component of their bright-blue blood is used in the pharmaceutical industry.

American eel and conch fisheries use them for bait, and several other species in the ecological food chain depend on them for survival.

Read the full story at WMUR

NOAA to reimburse fishermen 85 percent for at-sea monitoring costs

June 23, 2016 — HAMPTON, N.H. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will reimburse New England fishermen for 85 percent of the cost of at-sea monitors in 2016, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s office announced Wednesday.

NOAA is expected to launch a program July 1 through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission where fishermen will be reimbursed for costs they pay this year to the at-sea monitors, according to Shaheen’s office. Fishermen have said the costs, which began this year, are too much for them to pay and could sink their already weakened industry.

Shaheen’s staff said NOAA is paying for the reimbursement program through extra funds left over from the 2015 fiscal year and does not intend to cover costs for at-sea monitors in 2017.

At-sea monitors – third-party workers hired to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations – must join commercial fishermen on 10 percent of their trips and cost fishermen an estimated $700 per day, officials have said.

NOAA paid for at-sea monitoring until May 1 when it began mandating fishermen cover the cost. The agency has received pushback from the fishing industry and New England’s congressional delegates who say it is unfair for fishermen to fund their own policing.

NOAA officials said they were withholding comment until Thursday.

Shaheen, D-N.H., said Wednesday she is happy fishermen will get relief this year from the costs. She and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., have been vocal about their opposition to NOAA forcing fishermen to pay for the at-sea monitors.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald