NMFS Archives - Page 20 of 110

NMFS plans for first federal offshore aquaculture zones

August 26, 2020 — Unfazed by a recent setback in federal appeals court, the National Marine Fisheries Service is moving ahead on planning “aquaculture opportunity areas” in federal waters off southern California and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Still in the very early stages, the planning process will evaluate the potential in those regions and map out what NMFS planners envision as clusters of three to five fish farming operations. The gulf and Pacific coast areas were selected “based on the already available spatial analysis data and current industry interest in developing sustainable aquaculture operations in the region,” according to agency officials.

“Naming these areas is a big step forward,” said NMFS administrator Chris Oliver in announcing the move toward implementing the Trump administration’s May executive order on promoting U.S. seafood industry development. “The creation of Aquaculture Opportunity Areas will foster the U.S. aquaculture industry as a needed complement to our wild capture fisheries. This type of proactive work creates opportunities for aquaculture farmers and maintains our commitment to environmental stewardship.”

The long-range plan calls for 10 development areas around the coasts that would support finfish, shellfish, seaweed and combinations of those maricultures. NMFS officials say they will “use scientific analysis and public engagement

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 25, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service must designate protected critical habitats for green sea turtles by June 30, 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement this week.

The agencies will likely consider proposing protections for beaches where green turtles nest in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as offshore oceanic habitat in the Southeast and on the West Coast, according to the agreement. These critical habitats designations don’t prohibit development, but they require that any project that’s permitted by a federal agency must minimize harm to these special areas.

“We’re thrilled that these imperiled creatures will finally get the habitat protections required by the Endangered Species Act,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Green sea turtle recovery has come a long way, but the fight’s not over yet.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Judge won’t close offshore lobster area; grants NMFS more time for whale analysis

August 21, 2020 — A federal judge granted the National Marine Fisheries Service a May 31, 2021 deadline to produce new biological opinion on the Northeast lobster fishery and northern right whale, following up on his earlier ruling that the agency had violated the Endangered Species Act with a 2014 opinion.

But in his new decision issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg granted NMFS the nine-month grace period it had requested, rather than a Jan. 31, 2021 deadline sought by environmental groups that had sued the agency.

Boasberg also decided against ordering an immediate halt to the use of vertical lines for lobster gear in an area traversed by right whales south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket – a ‘Southern New England Restricted Area,’ about the size of Connecticut, proposed by plaintiffs including the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation Law Foundation.

In a 31-page memorandum of opinion, the District of Columbia judge laid out his reasoning, and recognized the difficulties NMFS faces in resolving the right whale issues. But he included a stern warning to the agency and to make progress.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 21, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

Federal judge gives NOAA time to craft new whale rules

August 21, 2020 — A federal district court judge, in a decision issued on Aug. 19, gave the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) nine more months to craft new rules to protect endangered right whales from entanglement in lobster fishing gear.

Judge James E. Boasberg also denied a request by conservation organizations for an immediate ban on lobster fishing in a vast area of the ocean south of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

In April, Boasberg ruled that NMFS violated the federal Endangered Species Act in 2014 when it adopted new rules governing the lobster fishery by failing to adequately consider the risk that endangered right whales could be seriously injured or killed if they become entangled in the vertical end lines that connect lobster traps on the sea floor to marker buoys on the surface. The judge vacated the NMFS “biological opinion” required by the Endangered Species Act, which supported continuation of the lobster fishery. Two weeks ago, the court heard arguments on what should be done to remedy the situation.

The conservation organizations that originally filed the lawsuit in 2018 asked the court to give NMFS a Jan. 31 deadline to adopt a new biological opinion and to order an immediate end to lobster fishing in a vast area of southern New England waters. NMFS and several intervenors representing various segments of the lobster industry in Maine and Massachusetts asked for the court to delay its order vacating the biological opinion until May 31, 2021.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Rhode Island touts its ‘calamari comeback’ in Democratic convention

August 20, 2020 — Squid made up most of the 48 million pounds landed at Point Judith, R.I., during 2018, a year when the port brought in $64 million, according to the latest National Marine Fisheries Service statistics.

So when the covid-19 pandemic shut down restaurants around the country – and with them most demand for fried calamari, the ubiquitous casual-dining appetizer – the Rhode Island seafood industry took a huge hit.

But fishermen and their supporters in state government regrouped, with a new licensing system to allow fishermen to sell directly to customers as “our restaurant and fishing industry have been decimated” by the lockdowns, state Democratic Party chairman Joe McNamara told the national television audience during the Tuesday evening broadcast of the national Democratic presidential convention.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fisheries Survival Fund Questions NOAA Over Decision to Reinstate Observers, But Cancel Surveys

August 17, 2020 — Why are fishery surveys being canceled but at-sea-observers being reinstated? That’s the tough question that the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) is asking. FSF submitted a letter to NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver on August 13, just one day before the resumption of observer programs in the Northeast region.

“As you know, FSF represents the significant majority of full-time Limited Access permit holders in the Atlantic scallop fishery,” the letter reads. “Our members are home-ported along the Atlantic Coast from Massachusetts through North Carolina. The scallop industry recognizes the value of observers, as well as the difficulty of decisions NMFS is confronting during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, FSF still does not understand why NMFS cancelled unique fishery-independent surveys critical to resource management yet is reinstating less critical fishery-dependent data collected by observers when other options (VTRs, vessel tracking, and electronic monitoring) are available.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

Mid-Atlantic council calls for extending observer waiver through 2020

August 17, 2020 — On the eve of NMFS resuming at-sea observer coverage, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council asked the agency to again extend its covid-19 waiver on deploying observers in the Greater Atlantic region.

“Given the continued transmission of the covid-19 virus, we do not believe the observer program can be safely operated at this time,” wrote council chairman Michael Luisi in an Aug. 13 letter to NMFS regional director Michael Pentony and Jon Hare, science and research director at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control, when we last communicated on this issue (June 23, 2020), the 7-day new case average was under 30,000 new cases per day. On August 11, 2020, the national 7-day average of new cases was over 52,000 new cases per day,” the letter states.

“Given the ongoing community transmission of the virus and the particularly high risk of transmission in the close quarters onboard a vessel, we believe that deploying observers on fishing vessels at this time poses an unwarranted risk to fishermen, observers, and associated communities.”

Council members talked about that concern during their online August meeting this week and approved a recommendation to extend the observer and monitor waiver on permitted commercial fishing vessels through Dec. 31.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Praise for Reduction in Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishing Capacity Reduction Buyback Loan

August 14, 2020 — Politicians are praising the recent news that NOAA Fisheries has reduced the outstanding principal balance on the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishing Capacity Reduction Buyback Loan. The loan has been reduced by nearly $6 million.

In 2000 the West Coast groundfish fishery was declared an economic disaster. In response, Congress authorized a $46 million buyout to reduce overcapacity. $36 million in funds was provided in the form of a loan that the remaining fishing vessels agreed to repay based on a 3.5%-5% fee on ex-vessel revenue over 30 years. Interest started accruing in March 2004, but NMFS did not implement a repayment system until September 2005. Vessels could not make any loan repayments during this time, which added $3.8 million in interest. And now, because of that error, those remaining vessels now owe over $13 million more than they would have if NMFS had immediately implemented a repayment system. The Pacific Coast groundfish industry has made payments of more than $34 million towards the loan, but as of December 2019 still owed $22.4 million.

Read the full story at Seafood News

It’s nice to share: NMFS, Mid-Atlantic council propose more flounder quota for states

August 14, 2020 — With the East Coast summer flounder stock on an upswing, more states could share when the annual commercial quota can be raised above 9.55 million pounds, under a proposal by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and NMFS.

Amendment 21 to the council’s summer flounder management plan “would change the state-by-state commercial quota allocations when the coastwide quota exceeds 9.55 million pounds,” according to a rulemaking notice from NMFS in the Aug. 12 federal Register.

“When the coastwide quota is 9.55 million pounds or less, the quota would be distributed according to the current allocations,” held mostly by North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey and Rhode Island, under historic allocation splits that date back to 1993, the notice explains.

Now, with the flounder biomass and the fishery in good shape, fishermen and their state governments have been pressing to share the benefits.

Under the proposed amendment, “in years when the coastwide quota exceeds 9.55 million pounds, any additional quota, beyond this threshold, would be distributed in equal shares to all states except Maine, Delaware, and New Hampshire, which would split 1 percent of the additional quota,” the notice states.

Read the full story at National Fisherman