Saving Seafood

Herring fishing in Gulf of Maine to shut down for about 2 months

August 9, 2021 — Commercial fishing for herring will all but shut down in the inshore Gulf of Maine for about two months to help conserve the species.

Atlantic herring are an important bait fish that are harvested extensively off New England. The fishery has been limited by new restrictions in recent years because of concerns about the health of the fish’s population.

Interstate regulators said herring fishing will essentially be shut down in inshore areas off Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire until Sept. 30. They said that’s because fishermen are approaching their limits for the quota of the fish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Fishery Moves to Zero Landing Days for Season 1 on August 3, 2021

August 2, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) Atlantic herring fishery is projected to have harvested 92% of the Season 1 (June 1 – September 30) allocation by August 3, 2021. Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, August 3, 2021, the Area 1A fishery will move to zero landing days through September 30, 2021, as specified in Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring.

Vessels participating in other fisheries may not possess more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip per day harvested from Area 1A. In addition, all vessels traveling through Area 1A must have all seine and mid-water trawl gear stowed.

Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are expected to reconvene in September via conference call to set effort controls for the 2021 Area 1A fishery for Season 2 (October 1 – December 31). An announcement will be issued once the meeting is scheduled.

For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or efranke@asmfc.org.

The announcement can be found athttp://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerringSeason1ZeroLandings_08_2021.pdf

2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Management Workshops

July 30, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The New Hampshire Sea Grant, New England Fishery Management Council, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center will be hosting a workshop series focusing on the management implications of restructuring Atlantic cod stocks from August 12 – September 20.

This five-part series will focus on the management implications of a potential split in Atlantic cod stocks into five distinct biological stocks, instead of the two that are currently managed. These workshops follow up on the previous series that focused on the science behind the decision and draws from the 2020 report by the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group.

Presentations by technical experts will be followed by an open public discussion ensuring information is available to best inform the cod stock assessment process.

Registration is required to participate.

Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes Now Available

July 20, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On June 17, 2021, NOAA Fisheries along with partners, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, released the Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes.

Prior to pervasive dam construction in the late 18th and early 19th century, diadromous fish were abundant in the Merrimack River watershed including American shad, river herring (alewife and blueback herring), sturgeon (Atlantic and shortnose), American eel, striped bass, Atlantic salmon, and sea lamprey. The present day abundance of diadromous species remains a small percentage of historical levels. Restoration efforts during the past 40 years have improved the habitat and connectivity conditions resulting in a modest increase in diadromous fish abundance.

The purpose of the Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes is to create a framework to balance diadromous fish restoration efforts with other water resource uses and ecosystem services in the Merrimack River watershed.

To read the complete plan visit the website and search for Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes.

Questions?

Ben German, NOAA Fisheries, 978-281-9353

Ben Gahagan, MA Division of Marine Fisheries, 978-282-03038 ext 140

Marion Larson, MA Division of Fish and Game, 857-303-0239

Matt Carpenter, NH Fish and Game Department, 603-271-2612

Laurie Munroe, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 413-588-1005

Sen. Shaheen Backs Plan To Split Offshore Wind Lease Revenue Among Coastal States

June 25, 2021 — A new bill backed by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) would share the revenue from offshore wind development with coastal states like New Hampshire.

The bill proposes new uses for revenue generated by the sale of leases that allow developers to build wind farms in federal waters.

The federal government has sold hundreds of millions in offshore wind leases. Right now, the money goes back to the U.S. Treasury.

This plan would send half of it to states that are adjacent to approved wind projects. They could use the money for coastal resilience and climate change adaptation projects, fisheries research and conservation work.

Most of the remaining revenue would go to a similar existing grant program for coastal and Great Lakes communities.

Read the full story at New Hampshire Public Radio

As Offshore Wind Industry Nears New Hampshire, Potential New Workers Show Interest

June 3, 2021 — New Hampshire colleges, trade workers and policy makers have high hopes for job growth in the Northeast’s burgeoning offshore wind industry, even if we’re still years away from wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.

That was a major focus of a roundtable on wind industry development at the Port of New Hampshire in Portsmouth Tuesday, with Congressman Chris Pappas, the League of Conservation Voters and members of New Hampshire’s offshore wind commission.

Pappas, a Democrat, sits on the House Infrastructure committee and said he hopes to see an intersection between President Biden’s $2-trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal and his goal of permitting 30 gigawatts of U.S. offshore wind by 2030, as part of his climate change plans.

“While we do need to be talking about our roads and bridges, the conversation can’t stop there,” Pappas said. “It’s got to involve our port infrastructure … and we need to be thinking about the kind of renewable energy development that people here are hungry for. And we’ve got a solution that is just off our coastline.”

Read the full story at New Hampshire Public Radio

UNH scientists aim to solve a million dollar problem for aquaculture industry

May 25, 2021 — A pesky little jellyfish-like animal is causing major problems—and major costs—for aquaculture everywhere by choosing to permanently live on aquafarming equipment, reducing production sustainability. However, new research from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station in the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture sheds light on possible ways to dissuade these animals at early, larval stage from calling aquaculture production systems home.

The research is vital to NH’s oyster-dominated aquaculture industry, in which the number of farms grew faster than any other state—a 229 percent increase— from 2013 to 2018, according to the U.S. Census of Aquaculture.

New Hampshire had nearly $1 million in sales from aquaculture in 2018. Globally, more than 50 percent of all human-consumed seafood is produced by aquaculture—the farming of fish, mollusks, aquatic plants, and other products. The global economic impact of aquaculture is greater than $31 billion. When post-harvest operations data are included, it is estimated that one in two workers in the sector is a woman.

Read the full story at Foster’s Daily Democrat

2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Workshops

May 25, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The New Hampshire Sea Grant, New England Fishery Management Council, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center will be hosting a series of workshops on Atlantic cod from June 1-July 1.

This four-part series will focus on the science driving the decision to split Atlantic cod stocks into five distinct biological stocks, instead of the two that are currently managed. Stemming from the 2020 report by the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group, this series will focus on the current science and management approaches to this fishery.

Presentations by technical experts will be followed by an open public discussion ensuring information is available to best inform the cod stock assessment process. There will be a follow-up series on the management implications of this split.

Registration is required to participate.

Seacoast Leaders And Commerce Secretary Talk Visa Workers, COVID Funding, Climate Change

April 27, 2021 — Seacoast tourism and business leaders want federal officials to approve more foreign visa workers and economic aid to support what they hope will be a busy summer on the tail end of the pandemic.

They spoke at a roundtable Monday in Hampton Beach with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Raimondo, the former governor of Rhode Island, was on her first official trip as U.S. Commerce Secretary. She asked what the Seacoast wants out of the latest round of pandemic stimulus money and President Biden’s proposed jobs and infrastructure plan.

New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association CEO Mike Somers said he’s optimistic for any small tourism businesses that made it this far through the pandemic. But he said continued federal support – for visa workers and other aid – will be crucial in the next few months.

To lower emissions and mitigate the warming trend, Raimondo said she’s confident the nation can scale up offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine without hurting the region’s fisheries.

She was asked about it by David Goethel, a Seabrook-based commercial fisherman and member of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a fisheries advocacy group with concerns about wind growth.

Raimondo said she was proud of how Rhode Island worked with its fishing industry to build what’s currently the nation’s only utility-scale wind farm, Block Island Wind.

“They were super anxious, as you are, about what would happen to fish migration patterns when you put the turbines in the middle of the ocean,” she said. “It worked out because we listened to them and we really looked hard at all the data.”

Read the full story at New Hampshire Public Radio

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting Scheduled for April 22, 2021

April 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on April 22, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., to discuss days out measures for the 2021 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishing season. Days out measures can include specification of the number of consecutive landings days, weekly landings limits, and restrictions on at-sea transfers. The webinar and call information is included below:

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting
April 22, 2021
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/916881365. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (224) 501-3412 and enter access code 916-881-365 when prompted. The webinar will start at 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.

Federally-permitted Herring Category A vessels must declare into the Area 1A fishery at least 45 days prior to the start of the fishing season. Small-mesh bottom trawl vessels with a federal Herring Category C or D permit must declare into the Area 1A fishery by June 1, 2021. States will send additional correspondence regarding the notification procedure.

The 2021 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 1,391 metric tons (mt). After adjusting for the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), the Area 1A sub-ACL is 1,252 mt. There is no research-set-aside for 2021 because the participants in the RSA program will not continue their RSA project in 2021.

In October 2020, the Board established the following seasonal allocations for the 2021 Area 1A sub-ACL: 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per day harvested from Area 1A until June 1, 2021.

Please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 or efranke@asmfc.org for more information.

A copy of the meeting announcement can be found at: http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerringApr2021DaysOutMeetingNotice.pdf