Saving Seafood

ASMFC 77th Annual Meeting Preliminary Agenda and Public Comment Guidelines

September 7, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 77th Annual Meeting will be held October 21-25, 2018 at The Roosevelt Hotel, Madison Avenue @ 45th Street, New York, NY. All of the business meetings scheduled during this week (with the exception of closed sessions) are open to the public, free of charge. However, if you plan on attending any of the Annual Meeting social events, please help us prepare for these events by registering early (see below for more details). Please note the preliminary agenda is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided in the Preliminary Agenda which follows.

Senator Phil Boyle, Jim Gilmore and Emerson Hasbrouck have been working for quite a while now on the meeting details and are looking forward to welcoming you all to New York. The Roosevelt is an historic old hotel located in midtown Manhattan, and the site of the Commission’s first (and 10 of the next 16) annual meetings!  You can easily walk to the theatre district, Times Square and the famed New York diamond district.  The subway is right across the street from the hotel in Grand Central Station and you can get anywhere in the city on the subway.

ACCOMODATIONS: A block of rooms is being held at The Roosevelt Hotel.  Cindy Robertson (crobertson@asmfc.org) will make Commissioner/Proxy reservations and will contact you regarding the details of your accommodations. Please notify Cindy of any changes to your travel plans that will impact your hotel reservations (including late arrivals), otherwise you will incur no-show penalties. We greatly appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

For all other attendees, please make your reservations by calling 888.833.3969 as soon as possible and identify Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to obtain the negotiated room rate of $288.00 sgl/dbl plus tax. Hotel reservations must be made before September 24, 2018.   Room availability will not be guaranteed beyond this date.  Please be aware that you must guarantee your room reservation with a major credit card or one night’s advance payment and you must notify the hotel of any cancellation prior to 72 hours before arrival or you will be billed one night’s room plus tax. If you have any problems regarding accommodations, please contact Cindy at 703.842.0740 or crobertson@asmfc.org. 

GETTING TO NEW YORK: New York is serviced by three airports: La Guardia, J.F. Kennedy and Newark Airports. Probably the best option would be the Super Shuttle, with rates between $20-$30 each way for a shared ride (800.258.3826 or www.supershuttle.com). Amtrak offers an extensive schedule of trains to Penn Station daily. I would strongly advise against driving into the city as parking is very expensive (parking is approximately $75/day at offsite garage) and you won’t need your car once in the city! If you choose to drive, you can take the passenger ferry from Port Imperial/Weehawken to midtown (www.nywaterway.com). Port Imperial Terminal is located directly across from the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and operates 7 days a week and all day between Port Imperial in Weehawken, NJ and Midtown/W. 39 St.  Free connecting shuttle bus service is available to and from the Midtown terminal. The indoor parking garages at Port Imperial offer secure parking and are located directly across from the ferry terminal.  Rates vary based on duration.

REGISTRATION:  The meeting registration fee is $200/per participant and $150/per spouse or guest if you register by October 15, 2018. After October 15th and in New York the fees will be $225 and $175, respectively. The registration fee covers the Sunday and Monday night receptions, the Tuesday night dinner, and the Wednesday Hart Award Luncheon, as well as event materials. Payment is not required until you arrive at the meeting; however, we ask that you please assist us in planning for the meeting by registering as soon as possible. You may register by submitting the attached registration form by email to lhartman@asmfc.org, fax (703.842.0741) or US mail to 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA 22201. Once you have registered, payment can be made in several ways (1) check, cash or credit card at the ASMFC Registration Desk at the Annual Meeting; (2) credit card by calling Lisa Hartman at 703.842.0744; or (3) mail a check to ASMFC (address above).

The preliminary agenda is available on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2018-annual-meeting; the final agenda and meeting materials will be available on October 10th.

Fish populations could rise in warming climate with better management

August 30, 2018 — Better management of fisheries and fishing rights around the world could increase profits and leave more fish in the sea as long as measures to meet climate obligations are taken, new research has found.

Even if temperatures rise by as much as 4C above pre-industrial levels – in the upper range of current forecasts – the damaging effects on fishing can be reduced through improving how stocks are fished and managed.

Governments are meeting from 4 September in New York for the first round of talks on a new global treaty of the high seas, which would aim to conserve overfished stocks and make access to key fisheries more equitable. Any agreement is likely to take several years to negotiateand longer to come into force, but scientists say there is no time to be lost, given the magnitude of the threat to the world’s marine ecosystems.

Climate change is already causing the movement of some species as their traditional habitats grow warmer, and overfishing is wreaking heavy damage on stocks. However, by adapting fisheries management to a warming climate, and instituting better systems such as monitoring of fleets, the global catch can be increased despite these factors, according to the paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

“This is a positive message amid the doom and gloom,” said Kristin Kleisner, one of the authors of the study and a senior scientist at the US Environmental Defense Fund. “We can control how we manage our fisheries. We will have severe effects [from climate change] but this shows what we can do as humans to control that.”

Read the full story The Guardian

JON MITCHELL: New York Wind Farms Could Harm Fishing Industry

August 30, 2018 — The city is continuing progress in developing the offshore wind industry without adversely affecting the commercial fishing industry. Mayor Jon Mitchell says we’ll see more activity in the area within the coming months.

However, in his weekly appearance on WBSM, the mayor voiced his concerns with proposed offshore wind farms that are proposed in the waters off New York and New Jersey

Mayor Mitchell said that those waters are much more heavily fished by New Bedford-based vessels than the wind farm areas off Massachusetts. He said that if those proposed wind developments become a reality, it will have a very adverse effect on the local fishing industry.

Read the full story at WBSM

New York to study climate change impact on oceans, oysters

August 27, 2018 — As New York’s oyster industry makes a comeback, the state is gearing up to study how changes in ocean chemistry caused by man-made climate change might threaten oysters and the rest of New York’s multi-billion dollar marine industry.

About a third of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed into the oceans, where it is converted into carbonic acid. This is causing a gradual, steady increase in ocean acidity levels, which are now about 30 percent higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Rising acidity levels are a threat to oysters, clams, corals and other aquatic creatures that make shells, since this increase also causes a decline in carbonate ions, which are a critical chemical building block of shell formation.

Last week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced creation of a 14-member task force to examine ocean acidification, which is a consequence of past and ongoing emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said it will “ensure that the best available science is used to assess and respond to this emerging threat to our coastal waters and fisheries.” He said marine resources support the jobs of about 350,000 state residents.

“Ocean acidification has a dramatic effect on species such as shell fish, including oysters and clams, as well as corals and even plankton. It puts the entire food chain at risk from plankton to whales,” said Chris Thorncroft, chairman of the University at UAlbany Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences.

Read the full story at The Albany Times-Union

Fishing vessel catches fire at sea, crewmembers rescued

August 27, 2017 — Three fishing vessels rescued the crew of the Rose Marie, a 77-foot stern trawler, which caught fire at sea Thursday, Coast Guard officials said.

Crewmembers from the fishing vessel Alexis Martina radioed watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England about 1 p.m., reporting the Rose Marie was on fire, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Nicole J. Groll.

The crew abandoned ship into a life raft, she said. The Rose Marie was about 65 miles east of Chatham when the fire started between noon and 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Seven Seas, another fishing vessel that was nearby, rescued the four crewmembers from their life raft, she said.

The crew transferred to the fishing vessel Gabby G, which has a homeport of Montauk, N.Y., and awaited the arrival of a private tug, she said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Sturgeon, scallops and wind turbines

August 24, 2018 — Offshore wind energy companies are contending with many of the same environmental issues as other maritime industries in U.S. waters, and on a compressed timeline.

Pumped up by state policies encouraging renewable energy, and the Trump administration’s big buy-in to promote new domestic energy production, a dozen federal wind energy leases are already approved off the East Coast, and construction and operation plans for two projects are under review.

Deepwater Wind could have turbines on its South Fork Wind Farm off the east end of Long Island, N.Y., operational in 2020. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says developers have plans for 8.5 gigawatts capacity of offshore wind power, with construction picking up pace through the 2020s.

Renewable energy advocates hail this as a train coming down the track. Fishermen want scientists’ help to at least slow it down.

“We’re really hoping to partner with the scientific community in this process,” lawyer Anne Hawkins told an audience at the American Fisheries Society annual meeting in Atlantic City, N.J., this week.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

US government sues New York seafood processor

August 24, 2018 — The United States government is trying to permanently stop a New York-based seafood processor from preparing and distributing its fish balls and other products.

At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal complaint against Brooklyn, New York-based Foo Yuan Food Products Company, alleging that the seafood company failed to adequately control the risk of Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes growth and toxin formation in susceptible fish and fishery products.

The complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Foo Yuan Food Products, Owner and President Hsing Chang, and Secretary Susan Chang from preparing and distributing adulterated seafood products in violation of federal law.

Foo Yuan prepares, packs, and distributes refrigerated and frozen ready-to-eat fish balls, fried fish cakes, and fried fish balls.

“When food processors ignore federal laws concerning the preparation of food, they subject the public to serious health risks,” said Attorney Richard P. Donoghue, in a statement. “The Department of Justice has asked the Court to stop the defendants from processing, packaging or distributing any more food until they establish that they can comply with federal laws and regulations designed to avert those health risks.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NEW YORK: LI farmers and fishermen outline problems for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

August 20, 2018 — Long Island farmers and fishermen on Saturday outlined many complicated and pressing problems to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Their to-do list included: cleansing polluted bays by reconnecting them to the sea, obtaining an emergency permit to use a banned pesticide, policing counterfeit seafood, and securing seasonal workers despite an immigration crackdown.

Gillibrand, who stands for election in the fall and who might have presidential aspirations, vowed to “elevate” many concerns aired at a panel she convened that was hosted by the Ammerman campus of Suffolk County Community College in Selden.

To Bob Nolan, a New York Farm Bureau director, who described the labor shortage, she pledged to “take a good look” at the temporary worker program.

Read the full story at Newsday

NEW YORK: East Hampton Town Trustees Hear from Public on South Fork Wind Farm

August 16, 2018 — Residents, both for and against a proposal by Deepwater Wind to secure an easement from the East Hampton Town Trustees to land a power cable in Wainscott for the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, attended Monday’s trustees meeting with some calling on the board to consider the big-picture ramifications of global warming. Others questioned whether the project would solve the energy demands of the peak summer season on the South Fork.

Deepwater Wind has proposed a 15-turbine wind farm, roughly 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. The company has a contract with the Long Island Power Authority to supply it with power from the wind farm beginning in 2022. It has already secured its lease for the sea floor from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), although it still needs to go through a permitting process with BOEM and the Public Service Commission before it can begin construction.

While both the town board and town trustees in East Hampton have said they will petition to be a part of that review process, in terms of approvals, Deepwater Wind as of now has sought easements from trustees to land its power cable off Beach Lane in Wainscott and one from the town board asking to run the cable under town-owned roads to a power substation off Cove Hollow Road in Wainscott. Deepwater Wind has offered more than $8 million in community benefits in return for the easements and the town board voted, 3-2, in July to hire counsel to draft an agreement with Deepwater Wind. The trustees have yet to take a formal vote on any potential agreement with the company.

Read the full story at the Sag Harbor Express

New York clammer gets deferred-prosecution deal in fisheries case

August 16, 2018 — A Northport clammer who was the first Long Islander to challenge at trial charges growing out of the federal government’s ongoing fisheries probe has accepted a deferred-prosecution agreement that could see his case dismissed in a year.

Thomas Kokell, a former commercial trawler-boat captain, was indicted in 2016 on four counts of mail fraud, conspiracy and filing false fishing reports in connection with an alleged scheme to illegally harvest nearly 200,000 pounds of fluke in 2011 and 2012. The fish were valued at nearly $400,000.

Kokell was released Tuesday on his own recognizance after a court appearance in which the deal was approved by a federal judge, according to federal court documents and Kokell’s attorney. He will not enter a plea and the charges will be dismissed, avoiding prison time and fines, if he “avoids future misconduct” over the next year, according to his attorney Peter Smith and court documents.

The company affiliated with his fishing operation, however, will pay a fine of $5,000, according to Smith and the documents. Other fishermen caught up in the federal probe have seen several years of prison time and fines over $900,000.

Read the full story at Newsday