Saving Seafood

Oyster aquaculture limits disease in wild oyster populations

December 17, 2018 — A fisheries researcher at the University of Rhode Island has found that oyster aquaculture operations can limit the spread of disease among wild populations of oysters. The findings are contrary to long-held beliefs that diseases are often spread from farmed populations to wild populations.

“The very act of aquaculture has positive effects on wild populations of oysters,” said Tal Ben-Horin, a postdoctoral fellow at the URI Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences. “The established way of thinking is that disease spreads from aquaculture, but in fact aquaculture may limit disease in nearby wild populations.”

Working with colleagues at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Rutgers University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Ben-Horin integrated data from previous studies into mathematical models to examine the interactions between farmed oysters, wild oysters and the common oyster disease Dermo.

Read the full story from the University of Rhode Island at Phys.org

As climate change sends fish to colder waters, some boats follow

December 14, 2018 — Flipping through his captain’s log, Larry Colangelo looks at the water temperatures off Atlantic City’s coast this past summer. Unusually warm 70- and 80-degree days are jotted down inside the record-keeping book he’s had for nearly two decades.

For $800 a day, he takes tourists and professional anglers alike onto his 31-foot ship. But in recent years, he said, certain fish have become more challenging to catch and keep.

Climate change and outdated regulations are partially to blame, researchers say, and it’s affecting some local fishermen in drastic ways.

“I only know what I see, and what I see is that the water definitely seems to be warmer… We have to work a little harder now,” said Colangelo, who owns a charter boat docked at Kammerman’s Marina in Atlantic City.

A November report in the ICES Journal of Marine Science looked at how fishermen are reacting to the migration of fish north as the ocean’s temperature gradually increases. It reports dramatic shifts in the distances large, commercial Atlantic Coast fishing operations have been traveling over the past 20 years.

But for some commercial fishers in South Jersey, it’s been business as usual.

Dotted with outdoor seafood restaurants, Cape May’s commercial fishing industry brought in $85 million in 2016. The city boasts one of the largest local fishing markets in the country.

Jeff Reichle, president of Lunds Fisheries in Cape May, said his 19-boat fleet has been buying permits off North Carolina and Virginia for decades.

In recent years, he said he’s noticed more summer flounder and sea bass near Connecticut and Massachusetts, but said his boats continue to travel along the entire coast both to maximize the number of fish caught and due to higher quotas in Virginia and North Carolina.

“You follow the fish where they go,” Reichle said. “This is why boats float and have propellers.”

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

 

NEW JERSEY: LoBiondo joins bipartisan group opposing Atlantic Ocean seismic testing

December 10, 2018 — U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo has joined 92 other House members from both parties in opposing the Trump administration’s decision to allow seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean.

Critics say the constant barrage of compressed air blasts used to find gas and oil deposits under the sea floor harms marine mammals and other sea life.

LoBiondo, R-2nd, said Friday he had signed a letter sent to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, asking them not to issue final permits.

“Seismic testing is a prelude to drilling for oil and natural gas,” said LoBiondo, a longtime foe of drilling in the Atlantic.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

New England Shellfish Harvest OK’d, With More Monitoring

December 10, 2018 — A regulatory board is allowing shellfish harvesting in a key management area off of New England, though more monitoring of the fishery will now apply.

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new measures to allow the harvest of surfclams within the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area. The council says mussel fishermen will also be able to operate in the new areas.

The council says it wants fishermen and researchers to work together to get a better idea of where surfclams can be harvested without disturbing sensitive undersea habitat.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

US fishing interests concerned over seismic air gun blasting in Atlantic Ocean

December 10, 2018 — A decision by NOAA Fisheries to issue five permits for seismic air gun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean has drawn sharp criticism from business and environmental leaders who fear the blasts could be harmful for fish and other marine wildlife.

The blasting will be used to conduct surveys that will provide data to oil and gas industry businesses, who may then seek to conduct offshore drilling in federal waters between Cape May, New Jersey and Cape Canaveral, Florida. President Trump opened the door for such exploration in an executive order last year.

“The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has responsibility for permitting geophysical surveys, and makes decisions about energy development in the waters of the outer continental shelf,” NOAA Fisheries said in a press release.

Observers will be aboard survey vessels and will notify operators if a protected species comes near the air guns. Shutdowns will be mandatory when certain species are seen.

However, opponents to the plan fear the blasts, which they claim can impact marine life thousands of miles away, will still be detrimental to marine life and those whose livelihoods depends on fishing. The Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast said it represents 42,000 business and 500,000 fishing families along the Atlantic coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Movement grows to establish seafood ‘gleaning’ program in N.J.

December 3, 2018 — The Cape May County Board of Freeholders is the latest legislative body to support a program that would allow the New Jersey fishing industry to donate discarded seafood to food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens.

Known as gleaning, the growing movement seeks to increase food security and reduce food waste by utilizing the approximately 20 percent of seafood that is discarded by United States fisheries annually for consumption.

“We in Cape May County are proud to support this initiative,” said Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton. “The fishing industry is so important to our economy, and at the end of the day this can help people who are in real need.”

Read the full story at WHYY

Opponents Say Seismic Tests Could Lead To Atlantic Oil Drilling, Harming Right Whales

December 3, 2018 — The Trump administration has approved a first step toward offshore oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic coast.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued permits Friday for five private companies to conduct offshore seismic tests from New Jersey to Florida.

The tests fire acoustic pulses into the sea floor in search of oil and gas deposits.

Such tests haven’t occurred in the Atlantic as part of hydrocarbon exploration since around the 1980s, according to federal officials, though academic seismic tests have happened more recently.

These permits, which were denied under the Obama administration in 2017, will allow the companies to disturb protected marine mammals during their surveys.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

Wind “Stakeholder” Group Meets In NJ

November 30, 2018 — While it appears that actual invitations weren’t sent to many stakeholders in the fishing community – certainly not by way of public email blast or general notification – the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is expected to meet with local “stakeholders” starting December 4 regarding wind farm development off the Jersey Shore.

Despite a noticeable lack of outreach and often restrictive holiday season planning, BPU will hold three Public Stakeholder Meetings in early December focused on Governor Murphy’s offshore wind goals and the BPU’s solicitation for 1,100 MW of offshore wind capacity.

A tip by Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) executive director Greg DiDomenico (who said he “stumbled across the announcement by accident”) reveals how BPU staff, members of the NJ Offshore Wind Interagency Taskforce, offshore wind developers, and environmental non-government organizations (NGO’s) are expected to meet three times in December to review the State’s process for developing offshore wind.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

House passes US Coast Guard bill with Jones Act exemption for America’s Finest

November 29, 2018 — The US House of Representatives has passed a US Coast Guard reauthorization bill that includes provisions allowing Alaska’s Amendment 80 fleet to finally gain the use of one of its newest vessels while also protecting shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico from being fined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for cleaning off their decks.

The Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, S. 140, was passed by a unanimous voice vote late Tuesday, moving the two-year, $10 billion bill named after a retiring New Jersey congressman to president Donald Trump’s desk for a signature. The action happened with just a few weeks to spare in the 115th Congress.

The legislation passed the US Senate back on Nov. 14 by a 94-6 tally, as reported by Undercurrent News.

Included in S. 140 is a long-anticipated Jones Act waiver for America’s Finest, a 264-foot catcher-processor built by Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes, Washington, for Kirkland, Washington-based Fishermen’s Finest at a cost of about $75 million. More than 7% of the ship’s hull contains steel from the Netherlands, which violates the Jones Act requirement that US fishing vessels be made of no more than 1.5% foreign steel.

The provision, which allows Fishermen’s Finest to use the vessel to replace American No. 1, a 39-year-old, 160-foot vessel, was fought for by senator Maria Cantwell and representative Rick Larsen, both Washington state Democrats, with cooperation from senator Dan Sullivan and representative Don Young, both Alaska Republicans

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Bill banning shark fin sales advances in New Jersey legislature

November 27, 2018 — A bill banning the sale of shark fins in New Jersey waters has advanced in the state legislature.

On Monday, the Senate Energy and Environment Committee unanimously passed bill S2905, which prohibits the possession and sale of shark fins. Sponsored by Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D., Burlington), the bill is meant to prevent New Jersey from contributing to the international shark fin trade.

Shark finning, seen in some Asian countries, is a practice in which fishermen pull sharks out of the water, slice their fins off and discard them back into the sea alive but unable to swim. The fins are used to make shark-fin soup, a Chinese delicacy.

“The goal is not to interfere with legal shark fishing but to not participate in the importation of shark fins that disregard where or how the fins were obtained,” said Alea Couch, policy coordinator for the assemblyman.

Environmental groups say it has contributed to a decline in the shark population over last few decades. According to estimates published in the Marine Policy Journal, 100 million sharks are killed each year.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City