Saving Seafood

Gulf shrimp season ends Monday

May 11, 2016 — The Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season for both Texas and federal waters ends 30 minutes after sunset Monday, May 15.

The closure happens every year and typically will go until July 15, although the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department have discretion in setting the reopening date based on sound biological data.

The data includes mean lengths of the shrimp and percent of shrimp in samples caught using a bag seine as well as ebb tidal flow.

The Texas closure applies to Gulf waters from the coast out 9 nautical miles.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has announced federal waters out to 200 nautical miles also will be closed to shrimping to conform to the Texas closure.

This year, officials hope the closure will give brown shrimp, which dominate the spring season, time to grow to 112 millimeters in length.

They were measured at 55 millimeters in length in April, said Mark Fisher, science director at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The average catch this season was 1,235 shrimp per hectare. One hectare is 2.47 acres. This is below the 20-year average of 1,319 shrimp per hectare.

Fisher said shrimp are less valuable today than they were 20 years ago.

“Shrimp prices are low because the market is dominated by imported, farm-raised shrimp.

Read the full article at the Victoria Advocate 

Trump administration moves to protect endangered sharks

May 10, 2017 — The Trump administration is adding new shark species to the Endangered Species List.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) said Tuesday it will add daggernose sharks, striped smooth-hound sharks, spiny angel sharks and Argentine angel sharks to the list.

The NMFS is also moving to list Brazilian guitarfish as endangered species, while the narrownose smooth-hound shark will be listed as a threatened species, according to the agency.

Though the NMFS is moving to protect these sharks and guitarfish, the agency cannot designate a critical habitat, which would serve as somewhat of a “safe zone,” because the endangered and threatened populations of these species live outside of U.S. jurisdiction.

The shark and guitarfish protections stem from a 2013 petition from WildEarth Guardians. Two years later, the Obama administration proposed to add these species to the Endangered Species List.

Read the full story at The Hill

ALABAMA: Orange Beach blasts red snapper restrictions: ‘Detrimental to our economic interest’

May 10, 2017 — The Orange Beach City Council endorsed a plea to federal officials on Tuesday for an immediate lengthening of the 2017 red snapper season that’s presently capped at a shortest-ever three days.

The council’s vote took place during a special meeting and after two city leaders — City Councilman Jeff Boyd and Mayor Tony Kennon – criticized the federal involvement in limiting a recreational activity that they claim is responsible for “hundreds of millions of dollars” in annual economic activity in coastal Alabama.

“This is detrimental to our economic interest and well-being of our citizens,” said Kennon.

Added Boyd: “Guests are canceling reservations, people are not purchasing boats, not buying second homes … they see no hope in the future of Gulf of Mexico fishing.”

Read the full story at AL.com

NMFS OKs new electronic fisheries monitoring system

May 10, 2017 — The Pacific Fishery Management Council on April 27 recommended new regulations governing the use of electronic equipment to monitor at-sea discards of target, non-target and prohibited fish for certain West Coast groundfish fisheries. If approved by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), this will mark the culmination of a four-year process to develop and implement regulations for electronic monitoring system use in these fisheries.

“For many fishing operations, electronic monitoring will provide a more cost-effective way to meet 100 percent monitoring requirements. This will allow fishermen the flexibility to choose the monitoring method that makes the most sense for them while maintaining full accountability,” Council Member Dorothy Lowman said in a press release.

Under the council’s catch share program, every vessel must carry a human observer to help monitor catch that is allocated to each vessel owner, including discards that happen at sea. Each owner has a share of the total catch allocation and the program requires that each vessel have “quota pounds” to cover its catch of nearly all groundfish species. The catch share program relies on at-sea monitoring to ensure that discards are accurately identified with an estimated weight so that vessel quotas are properly tracked.

However, fishermen must pay as much as $500 per day for an observer, and must schedule deployment of an observer when a vessel is ready to fish. The electronic monitoring program is expected to increase flexibility while reducing operating costs for fishermen.

An electronic monitoring system collects video images of fishing activity with cameras, uses gear sensors to trigger recording and monitor use, and includes a Global Positioning System to collect location data. It then stores this information on a computer hard drive for review at a later date at a mainland facility, where a person reviews the video to monitor the fishing activity. Under the West Coast electronic monitoring program, the video images will be used to verify the species and amount of discarded fish that is recorded in a fisherman’s logbook.

Read the full story at The Daily Astorian

HANK SOULE: Rafael: Punishment should fit the crimes

May 9, 2017 — New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael has now pleaded guilty to a suite of felonies including tax evasion, smuggling fish to shore and cash offshore, false federal reporting, and evading quotas. The Justice Department has worked up a plea deal including four years in prison and seizure of some boats and permits. That suffices for the cash-related crimes, and thanks goes to law enforcement for their long, hard work and the penalties imposed. But it’s not enough.

Rafael has a multi-decadal history of lawbreaking. In 2016 the Boston Globe reported, “Rafael has a history of crime related to his business. He served a six-month prison term for tax evasion in the 1980s and was charged with price-fixing in 1994, though he was acquitted in that case, according to court records. He was also convicted of making false statements on landing slips for commercial fishing vessels in 2000 and was sentenced to probation, according to court records.”

That’s not the half of it. The National Maine Fisheries Service has record of 20 separate admitted violations over the last two decades involving Rafael’s vessels and corporations. They include sub-legal net mesh sizes, missing fishing day declarations and under-counting, quota violations, false reporting, and concealing illicit catch. The boats and scams varied but they all have one common thread: The name “Rafael” stamped on the corporate documentation.

It is no stretch to stipulate that this record, along with the recent case at hand, constitutes prima-facie evidence of repeated, willful, and egregious criminal activity on the part of Rafael. These violations caused unknown harm to fishery resources — by statute, property of the people of the United States — and to all the law-abiding fishermen who have suffered under increasingly stringent regulations (or been forced out of the business entirely). The question at hand is: How to protect the victims and environment alike from this serial offender?

Here’s the rest of the story: In addition to the 13 vessels and permits to be seized, Rafael has another eight vessels and 25 permits still enrolled in the groundfishery. The government has not proposed to restrict those vessels in any way. There are no known sanctions on the offending captains. No additional monitoring of those vessels is planned. In other words: It’s pretty much business as usual, and for Rafael while the loss of those 13 vessels is unfortunate, it’s just one of the costs of engaging in smuggling.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

Other New England Groundfish Sectors Demand Equitable Distribution of Rafael Permits

May 8, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Sustainable Harvest Sector, one of the fishery cooperatives authorized by the New England Fishery Management Council, has called again for NMFS to redistribute Carlos Rafael’s fishing permits to the entire industry, by returning the catch history to the entire region.  Below is a statement from the Board of this Sector, making the case as to why NMFS should act in this manner. [Saving Seafood Editor’s Note: The Board of this Sector consists of Frank Patania, Anthony Fernandes, Phil Ruhle, Jr., Maggie Raymond, James Odlin, Marshall Alexander]

They also rightly state that any geographic preference, such as permanently awarding a portion of quota to New Bedford, requires an extensive public consultation and rulemaking, as such geographic allocations are outlawed under Magnuson except in very special and specific cases.

Fair and Just Compensation in the Case of Carlos Rafael

As Carlos Rafael’s criminal case of money laundering and fishery fraud winds toward closure, the National Marine Fisheries Service must confirm how to re-allocate Rafael’s fish harvesting privileges.  The government plans to seize thirteen vessels and fishing permits. That still leaves Rafael with dozens more boats and permits to continue operating, and many fishermen believe he should be expelled from the fishery entirely.  But whether it’s thirteen permits seized or the three dozen he owns, each one has some amount of fishing rights ‘attached’ to it which must be re-allocated.

The New England Fishery Management Council is the primary federal body which controls quota allocation, and it already has a re-allocation mechanism in place.  Several years ago, the Council voted that the harvesting rights attached to any permit surrendered to the government would be proportionally redistributed to all remaining permits in the fishery.

Though the Council perhaps did not envision a seizure of this magnitude, the mechanism actually works quite well here.  Carlos Rafael has a long history of breaking a myriad of fishing rules, including quota-busting, violations of fishing time limits, closed area incursions, and false catch reporting to the government.  The nearly twenty publicly available settlement agreements with the government follow a timeworn, repeat pattern: A violation, followed by a negotiated fine which is just the cost of doing business in a criminal enterprise.

Rafael stole from every other fisherman in New England.   Over the last five years, his boats poached fish from waters off Downeast Maine to the Rhode Island coast.  While everyone else was suffering under severe cuts to their allowable catch of cod and flounder, Rafael simply decided those cuts didn’t apply to him, and smuggled the fish ashore anyway.

So the Council’s re-allocation mechanism rewards those who play by the rules.  If offers some relief to fishermen working under stringent catch limits which might be a bit higher if not for Rafael and his complicit captains.   It buttresses the logic that as the crimes were committed throughout the region, relief should be distributed throughout the region as well.

The City of New Bedford believes Rafael’s thirteen permits should be confiscated, then locked to that port in perpetuity.  This is an understandable position but is morally bereft.   Locking the quota to that port denies redress to the vast majority of Rafael’s victims.  The City of New Bedford has only benefitted from Rafael’s continuous criminal acts.  It is unseemly to enjoy those benefits for twenty years then, once the scam is exposed, seize them for all time.

New Bedford is by far the nation’s richest fishing port and has been for at least a decade, landing $300-$400 million of seafood annually. In contrast, the entire New England groundfishery is presently worth $60 million.  It is a vibrant and diverse waterfront which will not, by the Mayor’s own admission, succumb to Rafael’s misdeeds.  And New Bedford will benefit from the Council’s mechanism, via quota re-allocation to other boats already based in that port.  Everybody gains.

Neither the governing Council, nor the National Marine Fisheries Service which implements the Council’s policy directives, has ever contemplated restricting quota even to the New England states, never mind individual cities.  Changes of that magnitude take years to develop and mountains of public input – which the Council already conducted, as part of its fishery management plan.  The redistribution mechanism is already in place, it has passed legal muster, and – particularly in this case – it is just.

Board of Directors

The Sustainable Harvest Sector

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

SEAN HORGAN: Fate of Raphael’s permits being debated

May 8, 2017 — As we have mentioned several times in the past, they don’t seem to brook a whole lot of foolishness up in Maine, particularly when it comes to cheating in the commercial fishing business.

So, it wasn’t really surprising when the Gloucester Daily Times received —  ran — a letter last week from Maggie Raymond, the highly respected executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine, with her take on what should happen to convicted scammer Carlos Rafael’s surrendered groundfishing permits.

“For law-abiding fishermen, this day is long overdue,” Raymond wrote. “While other fishermen were complying with steep reductions in fishing quotas, Rafael decided those rules didn’t apply to him. Rafael’s violations set back groundfish rebuilding requirements, and forced others to compete with his illegal activity on the fishing grounds and in the market.”

But Raymond wasn’t done there. She followed by offering a solution for the distribution of Rafael’s still-to-be-decided permit forfeitures. It’s one sure to make New Bedford Mayor Jon F. Mitchell choke on his Wheaties.

“Rafael’s history is so egregious that the National Marine Fisheries Service is obliged to cancel all his groundfish permits and fishing privileges,” she wrote. “Existing regulations describe a process for redistributing the fishing privileges from cancelled permits to all other permit holders in the fishery — and this is precisely the process that should be followed in this case.”

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times

Three Contenders Emerge to Lead Fisheries Service

May 5, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS [E&E News] — A former Louisiana official, an Alaskan fishery manager and a Sea Grant program director are reportedly in the running to head the National Marine Fisheries Service.

NMFS — an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — oversees fishing regulations, endangered species listings and fisheries research. It is headed by an assistant administrator for fisheries, a position that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross can fill without Senate confirmation.

It’s unclear when Ross — or the White House — will make that decision. But three names have popped up as contenders, according to several sources inside and outside the agency: Robert Barham, Chris Oliver and LaDon Swann.

Barham was once Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries secretary, Oliver heads the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and Swann is the director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Fishermen are split in their support.

Robert Barham

Barham served as wildlife and fisheries secretary under former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R). Some recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico — as well as the shrimp and menhaden industry — recently sent letters to Ross emphasizing Barham’s Louisiana experience and his identity as a hunter and fisherman.

“We have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Barham over the years and … it is evident that he possesses the management ability and understanding of the nuances of maintaining sustainable fish populations, while maximizing their economic value,” wrote officials from Omega Protein Corp. and other companies that harvest menhaden, a tiny forage fish used in fish oil.

Some Gulf of Mexico anglers have also tried to propel Barham to the NMFS spot, with the hope that he will come down on their side in the controversy over red snapper quotas. The debate has made its way to Capitol Hill, with some Republicans newly enraged by this year’s three-day recreational fishing season.

In a Facebook post shared among anglers, fisherman Steve Hoyland Jr. provided a form letter to send to Ross that praised Barham’s ability to “manage the public’s fish and wildlife resources in a manner that balances conservation and access.”

“If Robert Barham could get this position, it would totally change how our fishery is managed,” Hoyland wrote in one post. “THIS MAN IS ON OUR SIDE!!! We need him in this seat.”

Barnum’s tenure at the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries was marred after auditors found questionable spending between 2010 and 2015. A report from the state legislative auditor found, among other things, that the department spent some Gulf oil spill recovery money on boats, cameras, iPads, clothing and “an abundance of fishing and water sports equipment.”

The money was part of $10.5 million BP PLC provided for a seafood safety program to test fish. According to the Associated Press, Barnum has said the program came in under budget and properly tested fish. He has also emphasized that it wasn’t a taxpayer-funded program.

Chris Oliver

Oliver is the longtime executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is based in Anchorage, Alaska. Commercial and charter boat fishermen have endorsed him as an experienced leader, with groups from New England, the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico sending letters of support to the Commerce Department.

Most recently, the Gulf Seafood Institute, the Louisiana Restaurant Association, the Charter Fisherman’s Association and similar groups wrote in an April letter to Ross that Oliver “has proven to be a motivated and talented leader with a passion for bridging divides among diverse fishing interest in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.”

Oliver has helmed the fishery council for 16 years. In an interview with the Alaska Journal of Commerce earlier this year, he said he would be “inclined” to take the NMFS job if asked.

“There’s no guarantee … that I would say yes if they offered it to me,” he told the newspaper. “But I’ve got a lot of people who’ve expended a lot of effort, and my understanding is I’ve got a pretty strong backing from our congressional delegation.”

Oliver began at the council in 1990 as a plan coordinator. He is from Texas and worked on Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery management issues, according to his biography on the council’s website. He has advocated for a more regional approach to fishery management.

Several council decisions in recent years have been reversed by the courts. Last year, for example, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2011 decision to remove an Alaskan salmon fishery from federal oversight. Fishing groups won a lawsuit in 2012 to overturn the council’s fishing closures to protect Steller sea lions.

LaDon Swann

Swann directs one of 33 Sea Grant programs President Trump has proposed eliminating, citing its primary benefit to “industry and state and local stakeholders.”

Congress appears unlikely to follow through with that suggestion; an omnibus spending package slated to pass this week preserves the popular program. And Swann — who has also worked at the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program — is reportedly the pick of some Alabama lawmakers who see him as a good fit for NMFS.

In his position at Sea Grant, Swann must help coastal communities become resilient without stirring up debate about climate change. He recently told ProPublica that the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is “a neutral broker of science information” that is there to give communities the data — not persuade them of the link between climate change and coastal hazards.

Swann is also a recreational fisherman. A 2015 al.com article detailed his record-breaking catch of a 94-pound cubera snapper.

Swann, who has a master’s in fisheries biology and a Ph.D. in curriculum, is also former president of the United States Aquaculture Society. In recent years, NMFS has attempted to promote sustainable aquaculture as a way forward for the increasing demands for seafood.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

MAGGIE RAYMOND: ‘Codfather’ should lose all his permits

May 3, 2017 — Carlos Rafael’s environmental crime spree, spanning two decades, will finally come to an end. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of falsifying fish catch reports, conspiracy and tax evasion. He will serve at least four years in jail and will forfeit millions of dollars in fishing assets. For law abiding fishermen, this day is long overdue.

While other fishermen were complying with steep reductions in fishing quotas, Carlos Rafael decided those rules didn’t apply to him. His violations set back groundfish rebuilding requirements, and forced others to compete with his illegal activity on the fishing grounds and in the market. He has harmed the entire groundfish industry, and fishermen from Maine to New York deserve to be compensated.

Read the full letter at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Zinke Signs Offshore Energy Orders, Protesters March

May 2, 2017 — U.S. Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke signed two secretarial orders relating to offshore energy development at this week’s Offshore Technology Conference (#OTC2017) in Houston.

The first order, Secretarial Order 3550, implements President Donald Trump’s Executive Order signed last Friday and directs the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to develop a new five-year plan for oil and gas exploration in offshore waters. The order calls for full consideration to be given to leasing the OCS offshore Alaska, mid- and south-Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. It also directs BOEM to work with the Department of Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service to expedite authorization requests for seismic surveys, particularly for new or resubmitted permitting applications in the Atlantic to understand the extent of America’s energy potential.

The Secretary’s order directs prompt completion of the Notice to Lessees No. 2016-N01 dated September 12, 2016 and ceases all activities to promulgate the proposed “Offshore Air Quality Control, Reporting, and Compliance Rule.” It also directs BOEM and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to review a host of other rules and report progress within 21 days.

The second, Secretarial Order 3551, establishes a new position – Counselor to the Secretary for Energy Policy – to coordinate the Interior Department’s energy portfolio that spans nine of the Department’s ten bureaus.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive