Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Announces Closure of Directed Atlantic Herring Fishery in Management Area 3

June 4, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

At 00:01 hours on June 6, 2020, the directed herring fishery in Management Area 3 will close and a 2,000 lb herring possession limit per trip or calendar day will become effective for Management Area 3 (Figure 1) through December 31, 2020. Under the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, when 92 percent of the Herring Management Area 3 catch limit is projected to be harvested, the directed fishery is closed and no person may, or attempt to, fish for, possess, transfer, receive, land, or sell more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or per calendar day in or from Area 3 for the remainder of the fishing year from a vessel issued and holding a valid federal herring permit.

This action also prohibits federally permitted dealers from purchasing, possessing, receiving, selling, bartering, trading or transferring, or attempting to purchase, possess, receive, sell, barter, trade, or transfer more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or calendar day from Management Area 3 through 24:00 local time, December 31, 2020, unless it is from a vessel that enters port before 00:01 local time on June 6, 2020.

For more information read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or our bulletin.

Read the full release here

2020 Species Recovery Grant Awardees Announced

June 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries is announcing the award of $6.5 million in funding to states and tribes through its Species Recovery Grant Program. These grants promote the recovery of species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

States and tribes play an essential role in conserving and recovering species. Threatened or endangered species under NOAA Fisheries’ jurisdiction may spend all or part of their lifecycle in state waters. Successfully conserving these species depends largely on working cooperatively with states and tribes. This year’s funding support our state and tribal partners in a range of activities, such as:

  • Designing and testing new fishing gear to reduce or remove significant sources of mortality and injury.
  • Assessing and monitoring species presence, status, and movement, and collecting genetic information to improve understanding of population distribution, foraging ecology and habitat use, population structure, and restoration efforts.
  • Engaging the public in conservation of Endangered Species Act-listed species.

In the Greater Atlantic Region the funding will support one new award and the continuation of seven multi-year projects that were approved in prior grant cycles.

Read our web story to learn more or visit the complete descriptions of funded projects to states and Tribes.

Autonomous Vehicles Help Scientists Estimate Fish Abundance While Protecting Human Health and Safety

June 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists are capitalizing on existing technological capabilities and partnerships to collect fisheries data. This will help fill the information gap resulting from the cancellation of FY20 ship-based surveys due to the COVID-19 pandemic. NOAA Fisheries plans to use autonomous surface vehicles to collect some critically needed data to support management of the nation’s largest commercial fishery for Alaska pollock.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures,” said Alex De Robertis, NOAA Fisheries fisheries biologist and project lead for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “We knew there was a possibility that surveys may be cancelled this year, so we worked on a contingency plan to collect some data just in case. We were able to capitalize on our previous experience working closely with Saildrone and NOAA Research’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory to get things off the ground quickly.”

This effort supports NOAA’s broader strategy to expand the use of emerging science and technologies including unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and ‘omics to advance ocean research. NOAA released its strategy in February.

“The Alaska Fisheries Science Center has been engaged in research and development efforts to test new technologies to both improve our operating efficiencies and enable us to quickly respond when situations like this arise,” said Robert Foy, Alaska Fisheries Science Center Director. “Providing the best available science to support management decisions is at the heart of our mission to ensure the health of marine ecosystems while supporting sustainable commercial and recreational fisheries and strong local economies.”

Read the full release here

NOAA Taking Emergency Action to Reduce Economic Harm to Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery

June 1, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries announced on Friday a temporary rule that will extend portions of the fishing year 2019 carryover provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan into the fishing year 2020. According to the government agency this is an emergency action that is necessary to provide the scallop fleet the opportunity to land allocations that may have gone unharvested. The hope is that this temporary rule will reduce economic harm to the scallop fishery caused by COVID-19.

The temporary rule goes into effect on June 1 and was brought on by a request from the New England Fishery Management Council during their April 15 meeting. During that meeting the Council requested that all 2019 access area carryover pounds, as well as unharvested RSA compensation pounds from fishing year 2019, be available for harvest for 180 days in fishing year 2020. The council also requested that the NLS-Wests remain an access area during the fishing year 2020, and that all LAGC IFQ vessels be allowed to roll forward all unharvested quota from fishing year 2019 for 180 days into fishing year 2020.

Read the full story at Seafood News

NOAA Fisheries Announces Correction to Framework Adjustment 8 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan

June 1, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a correction to the final rule of Framework Adjustment 8 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan originally published on April 27, 2020. A minor error in the body of the original rule listed the new barndoor skate wing possession limits in Season 2 as 1,025 lb (465 kg), which was the old limit. This has been corrected to the accurate, increased limit of 1,250 lb (567 kg).

These values were correct in the proposed rule and the regulatory text of the final action, so this rule simply corrects the minor error in the text of the body of the Federal Register notice. This action does not make any changes to the regulatory text, specifications, or management measures.

For more details, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register. You can also find the original final rule for Framework 8 in the Federal Register.

New Modeling Approach Provides Valuable Insights into the Important and Complex Role of Environmental Variables in Juvenile Fish Survival

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Variation in the productivity and sustainability of fish resources is determined, in part, by large changes in juvenile fish production from year to year. This is defined as “recruitment.” Fisheries oceanographers and fish stock assessment scientists have been trying to better understand and predict this variation for more than 100 years.

“We are seeing a lot of changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem. With analytical tools like this, we should be able to quickly identify factors affecting juvenile fish survival in a given year to generate reliable estimates of future productivity. This may help resource managers to more effectively target their management efforts,” said Jim Thorson, Habitat Ecological Processes Research Program Lead, Alaska Fisheries Science Center and lead author for the paper.

For the first time, scientists glimpsed how ocean temperature in different parts of Alaska’s Bering Sea may have influenced juvenile fish survival over the past three decades. They also gained valuable insights into how it may be affected under warmer ocean conditions in the future.

This unique approach combines oceanographic data collected from research surveys (1982-2018) with recruitment data into a single model. It also incorporated end-of-century projections of bottom and sea surface temperatures for the eastern Bering Sea. Scientists then used global climate models to develop regional-scale projections.

The authors see this an important step to understand the complex relationship between fish stock production and long-term climate processes. The ongoing collection of biological and environmental data will help to further improve these predictions.

Read the full release here

American Lobster, Sea Scallops Habitat Could Shift Off the Northeast

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Researchers have projected significant changes in the habitat of commercially important American lobster and sea scallops on the Northeast U.S. continental shelf. They used a suite of models to estimate how species will react as waters warm. The researchers suggest that American lobster will move further offshore and sea scallops will shift to the north in the coming decades.

Findings from the study were published recently in Diversity and Distributions. They pose fishery management challenges as the changes can move stocks into and out of fixed management areas. Habitats within current management areas will also experience changes — some will show species increases, others decreases, and still others no change.

“Changes in stock distribution affect where fish and shellfish can be caught and who has access to them over time,” said Vincent Saba, a fishery biologist in the Ecosystems Dynamics and Assessment Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study. “American lobster and sea scallop are two of the most economically valuable single-species fisheries in the entire United States. They are also important to the economic and cultural well-being of coastal communities in the Northeast. Any changes to their distribution and abundance will have major impacts,” he said.

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Announces a Temporary Rule for Emergency Action to Extend Portions of the Fishing Year 2019 Carryover Provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a temporary rule to extend portions of the fishing year 2019 carryover provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan into fishing year 2020. At the request of the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries is taking emergency action to implement these measures.

This action:

  • Allows limited access general category individual fishing quota vessels to carryover all fishing year 2019 unharvested quota into fishing year 2020.
  • Allows any access area carryover pounds and unharvested research set-aside compensation pounds from fishing year 2019 to be available for harvest through August 31, 2020.
  • Extends the time period vessels may utilize their 2019 access area allocation in the Nantucket Lightship-West through August 31, 2020, and then close the area on September 1, 2020, in order to minimize unwanted bycatch.

Extending these carryover provisions further into fishing year 2020 will give vessels more flexibility: to harvest some carryover that would otherwise be lost (~5.2 million lb fleet-wide) to land this allocation at the opportune time, and to avoid unnecessary adverse economic impacts. Extending these carryover provisions will not cause any annual catch limits to be exceeded in the scallop fishery. The measures in this temporary rule are effective for 180 days, but the rule may be extended for an additional 186, if necessary.

Read the temporary rule as filed in the Federal Register, and the permit holder bulletin posted on our website.

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Rule: Framework 59 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We are seeking public comment on an action that would set or adjust catch limits for groundfish stocks for the 2020 fishing year (May 1, 2020 – April 30, 2021), including the three stocks managed jointly with Canada. These revised catch limits are based upon the results of stock assessments conducted in 2019.

Framework 59 would also adjust the allocations of the total quota between the commercial and recreational fishery for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock. The proportion of quota allocated to the recreational fishery would increase from 33.7% to 37.5% for Gulf of Maine cod, and would increase from 27.5% to 33.9% for Gulf of Maine haddock.

Read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register, and submit your comments through the online portal. Comments are due by June 15, 2020.

Observer Coverage in Greater Atlantic Region to Resume July 1

May 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is extending the waiver granted to vessels with Greater Atlantic Region fishing permits to carry human observers or at-sea monitors through June 30, 2020. This action is authorized by 50 CFR 648.11, which provides the Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator authority to waive observer requirements, and is also consistent with the criteria described in the agency’s emergency rule on observer waivers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We intend to begin redeploying observers and at-sea monitors on vessels fishing in northeast fisheries on July 1. During the month of June, we will continue to work with regional observer and at-sea monitoring service providers to finalize their observer redeployment plans, conduct outreach with industry, and finalize internal programs and policies that will support the safe and effective redeployment of observers and at-sea monitors in the region.

Observers and at-sea monitors are an essential component of commercial fishing operations and provide critical information that is necessary to keep fisheries open and to provide sustainable seafood to our nation during this time. We will continue to monitor all local public health notifications, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for updates. We are committed to protecting the public health and ensuring the safety of fishermen, observers, and others, while fulfilling our mission to maintain our nation’s seafood supply and conserving marine life.

As has been done throughout the rest of the country, it is the intent of NOAA Fisheries to begin redeploying observers as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so. While we intend to begin redeploying observers on July 1, we recognize that this public health crisis continues to evolve and changing conditions may warrant re-evaluating these plans. Should our plans regarding re-deploying observers and at-sea monitors change, we will announce any changes as soon as practicable.