Saving Seafood

Scientists, fishermen plot ways to prevent whale entanglements

May 25, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Nette Leverman was reading from a sheaf of papers she held in her hand, detailing the interactions between whales and fishermen in Greenland, where she is a population biologist.

Humpback, minke, fin and bowhead whales were getting caught in fishing line and nets in the waters off the country’s coast. It’s a familiar refrain, heard over and over Monday, the first day of a four-day international workshop on large whale entanglements.

“We’ve known for decades about this problem, yet solutions to it remain elusive,” said Tim Werner, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, and one of the workshop’s organizers.

Governments and fishermen around the world are feeling the strain from an increasing numbers of whales being snared in fishing gear as some whale species rebound and as the amount of gear in the water increases for fishing, aquaculture and other uses.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Interstate fishing regulators will meet to discuss what New England’s shuttered coldwater shrimp industry should look like if it reopens

May 23, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Interstate fishing regulators will meet to discuss what New England’s shuttered coldwater shrimp industry should look like if it reopens.

The little pink shrimp were popular as a grocery store item and with restaurants until regulators shut the fishery down in 2013. Scientists say warming ocean temperatures have made New England waters inhospitable for shrimp.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet in Portsmouth on June 3 to discuss how much participation the fishery might be able to sustain if it reopens.

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

Four rescued miles off Plum Island

May 23, 2016 — NEWBURYPORT, Mass. — Four fishermen were rescued roughly 28 miles off Plum Island on Saturday afternoon after their 25-foot Wellfleet capsized.

The boat was righted by a TowBoat U.S. crew and brought back to its port of origin in Rye, N.H. No one was injured, according to a U.S. Coast Guard official.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Northern Shrimp Section Meeting Scheduled for June 3 in Portsmouth, NH

May 20, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet on June 3, 2016 from 9:30 – 11:30 AM at the Portsmouth Public Library, Levenson Community Meeting Room, 175 Parrott Avenue, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At the meeting, the Section will discuss resuming development of Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp, which had been initiated to address effort in the event the fishery reopens. As part of the discussion, the Section will review a summary of Maine’s industry meetings on addressing over-capacity in the fishery. The Section will also be presented an analysis by the Plan Development Team regarding limited entry.

The meeting is open to the public; limited public comment will be allowed at the discretion of the Section Chair. The draft agenda and meeting materials can be found here. For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org.

Documentary focuses on decline of fishery

May 18, 2016 — New Hampshire Public Television is set to debut its fishing documentary, “Saving New England Fisheries,” on Thursday. As with the subject it covers, the documentary raises far more questions than it answers.

The bullet points of the hour-long documentary, which was produced in conjunction with New Hampshire Sea Grant, are familiar to any fisherman, fishing family or fishing stakeholder on Cape Ann.

The documentary, which debuts Thursday night at 9, is scheduled to air five more times within the next week on New Hampshire Public Television. It is also scheduled to air on WGBH in Boston on Friday at 9 p.m., as well as being available for online viewing beginning Friday.

The producers of “Saving New England Fisheries” touch on the history of the Northeast multispecies groundfishery and the demise of some species — most notably the iconic cod — against the forces of fishing and climate change.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

No ruling yet in at-sea monitoring lawsuit

May 17, 2016 — There still has been no decision in the federal lawsuit brought by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel and his Northeast Fishing Sector 13 to bar NOAA Fisheries from making permit holders pay for at-sea monitoring.

The last significant acts of the case, which was filed Dec. 9 in U.S. District Court in Concord, New Hampshire, occurred in early March, when both sides filed motions for summary judgment with U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Laplante.

Laplante took those motions for summary judgment under advisement. Then, except for a few incidents of legal housekeeping, there has been nothing but judicial silence.

Neither side in the dispute agreed to speak on the record Monday regarding the extensive delay or what it could mean to the case’s ultimate outcome.

“We believe that the hearing went well,” Alfred Lechner Jr., president and chief executive officer of Cause of Action Institute — which is providing legal guidance to Goethel in the case — said in a statement. “Our clients were provided the opportunity to tell their story and outline how these regulations impact their business and are making it difficult for fishermen in New England to earn a living. The judge listened to what they had to say.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

‘Saving New England Fisheries’ to air on New Hampshire Public Television

May 16, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, NH — The documentary “Saving New England Fisheries” was premiered during a screening on Friday night at the Sheraton in Portsmouth.

The hourlong special, created for New Hampshire Public Television, is hosted by Willem Lange. It traces the history of groundfishing in the Gulf of Maine, and balances the work scientists are doing to conserve natural resources against the need for commercial fishermen to make a living from the ocean.

One of the fishermen featured in the film is David Goethel, owner of the 44-foot fishing trawler Ellen Diane out of Hampton. Goethel is suing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over its at-sea monitoring program in federal court. He said that he has had to pay for in-person monitors since March, at the cost of approximately $700 per trip.

The government used to cover that cost.

Read the full story at the Manchester Union Leader

Filming starts soon for New Hampshire Fish and Game reality show

May 13, 2016 — New Hampshire conservation officers and wildlife biologists are gearing up to be the focus of a reality TV show, while a similar program in Maine winds down amid questions of whether the filming contributed to controversial poaching raids in 2014.

“We are scheduled to begin filming later this month – we have not determined an exact start date – and will continue through spring, summer and fall,” said Maj. John Wimsatt, assistant chief of law enforcement for the Fish and Game Department.

Filming will be done by Engel Entertainment of New York City, the production company behind North Woods Law, a long-running program on the Animal Planet channel about the Maine Warden Service.

Steven Engel, the company’s president, said that while Animal Planet had not signed a contract to continue the show with a New Hampshire angle, he was confident it would be broadcast.

Read the full story at the Concord Monitor

Atlantic herring rules change proposed

May 9, 2016 — Portsmouth, N.H. — Rules for Atlantic herring are being proposed by New Hampshire Fish and Game to help sustain the populations.

The rules are proposed to get New Hampshire into compliance with Amendment 3 to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for Atlantic herring.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is a deliberative body that coordinates the conservation and management of the 15 Atlantic coast states’ shared near-shore fishery resources for sustainable use.

Read the full story at WMUR

ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board Approves Draft Addendum I for Public Comment

May 5, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Comission:

Alexandria, VA – The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved Draft Addendum I to Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Menhaden for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes modifying the FMP’s bycatch allowance provision. Specifically, it considers allowing two licensed individuals to harvest up to 12,000 pounds of menhaden bycatch when working from the same vessel fishing stationary, multi-species gear – limited to one vessel trip per day. Bycatch represents less than 2% of the total coastwide landings.

The practice of two permitted fishermen working together from the same vessel to harvest Atlantic menhaden primarily occurs in the Chesapeake Bay pound net fishery.  This practice enables the fishermen to pool resources for fuel and crew.  However, the practice is currently constrained by the FMP’s bycatch allowance provision, which includes a 6,000 pound/vessel/day limit. The Draft Addendum seeks comment on whether the provision should be revised to accommodate the interests of fixed-gear fishermen who work together, as authorized by the states and jurisdictions in which they fish.

The intent of Draft Addendum I is to add flexibility to one element of the bycatch allowance provision while the Board prepares to address menhaden management more comprehensively through the development of Draft Amendment 3 to the FMP over the next two years. A subsequent press release on the public hearing schedule and Draft Addendum I availability will be distributed once state hearings have been scheduled.

In a separate action, the Board extended the episodic event set aside program until the finalization of Amendment 3. It also conditionally approved a request from New York to be added as an eligible state.  The program reserves 1% of the coastwide total allowable catch to be used by New England states in areas and times when menhaden occur in higher abundance than normal.  Rhode Island opted into the program in 2014 and 2015, and harvested a portion of the set aside each year.  As a result of the Board’s decision to extend the program, the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut remain eligible to participate in the program in 2016.

New York is currently reporting unusually large amounts of menhaden in the Peconic Bay estuary, raising the potential for more large fish kills, similar to last year, as the waters warm.  New York sought Board approval to participate in the episodic event set aside program so fishermen can harvest a portion of the large build-up of menhaden in the Peconic Bay estuary to mitigate the impacts of additional fish kills. The Board approved the request subject to a one million pound harvest cap under the episodic event set aside.