Saving Seafood

Lost NOAA Camera Proves Federal Scallop Surveys Should Not Rely on Just One Vessel or Piece of Equipment

May 24, 2016 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

WASHINGTON — The loss of a key piece of scallop survey equipment demonstrates the need for an overhaul of how the federal government assesses the species. The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents the majority of the limited access scallop fleet, calls for reforms to how scallop surveys are conducted to prevent such an incident from derailing surveys in the future.

For the past several years, the New England Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) has chartered the Research Vessel (R/V) Hugh R. Sharp to conduct the Federal scallop survey. NEFSC employees work with the crew of the vessel to conduct dredge surveys and tow the HabCam IV habitat camera to take photos of the ocean bottom. Because the R/V Hugh R. Sharp is part of a university consortium, it must be chartered at significant expense and is only available for a limited number of days.

Last Thursday, May 19, 2016, while on the current scallop survey, the NEFSC crew lost the HabCam when it separated from the vessel. According to initial reports, it was inadvertently driven into the side of a known and charted shipwreck while being operated by a volunteer, losing at least a week of valuable sea time. Several knowledgeable sources have suggested that there could be as much as $100,000 in damage. Accordingly, the researchers must return to port to acquire a remote operated vehicle, which they will use to attempt to find the lost HabCam.

FSF has argued for years that the R/V Hugh R. Sharp is too expensive, and the federal survey should not rely on just one vessel or piece of equipment. FSF has urged the NEFSC to charter commercial fishing vessels at a fraction of the cost of the R/V Hugh R. Sharp. It would thus be able to survey more locations at the same cost, and no longer be reliant on one vessel and one piece of equipment.

The HabCam is an expensive piece of equipment. If the researchers do not find the HabCam, the cost of replacement and an incomplete Federal scallop survey will significantly impact the scallop fishery. Even if the researchers do find the HabCam, valuable days at sea will be wasted, leading to a reduction in the amount of seabed that the survey will be able to sample. This is likely to produce less accurate assessments of the scallop population.

Read the release here

Atlantic Scallop Survey Halted Due to Lost HABCAM; Recovery Planned

May 23, 2016 — The following is from an email distributed this afternoon by the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center on behalf of Dr. Bill Karp:

“The R/V Hugh R. Sharp was underway on Friday, May 20 conducting the NEFSC Atlantic sea scallop survey about 75 nm southeast of the entrance to Delaware Bay in 80 meters of water when the survey instrument known as the HABCAM separated from the tow cable and the vessel. We are planning several approaches for recovery, and those efforts should get underway on Wednesday May 25.  The surveying was occurring around a charted wreck, that of the Bow Mariner, and it appears likely the tow cable snagged on it, although this is not yet confirmed.”

“Despite this set-back, we expect to complete most of the planned work, which involves both a dredge and the HABCAM.  If we are unable to use a HABCAM, the gap is most likely to be in HABCAM coverage for the Mid-Atlantic.  We are working now to ensure that dredge sampling is unaffected and to maximize what we can capture using a recovered and repaired HABCAM 4, and/or another HABCAM.”

Cape scallop fishermen cash in on grounds closer to home

May 23, 2016 — HARWICH PORT, Mass. — The scalloping was pretty poor north of Provincetown last month for the crew of Aidan’s Pride; they towed their dredge for hours just to get a hundred pounds.

So the Wellfleet scallop vessel, owned by Aidan Lapierre and captained by Sean Gray, was heading south to Maryland about three weeks ago, hoping for a more bountiful harvest, when it broke an outrigger in rough water transiting the Cape Cod Canal.

It turned out to be a fortunate break, as the delay lasted just long enough that they were still around when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries office in Gloucester approved a plan May 3 to open a scallop-rich spot around 70 miles southeast of Saquatucket Harbor where Aidan’s Pride was tied up Thursday.

Catches in near-shore areas petered out over the past few years for members of what is known as the general category scallop fleet, smaller vessels around 40 feet in length that are only allowed to land 600 pounds of scallop meats a day. They were not able to harvest their allotted quota and petitioned NOAA and the New England Fishery Management Council to open a portion of the so-called Nantucket Lightship closed area exclusively to them because their vessels are not suited to the long trip to prime scalloping grounds on Georges Bank. In addition, the profits from the relatively small amount of scallops they were allowed to catch would quickly be eaten up by fuel costs.

Their only alternative: head south to the Mid-Atlantic.

But a window of opportunity opened after scientific surveys of the Nantucket Lightship area showed there weren’t enough mature scallops available to open it this year. Members of what is known as the limited access fleet — vessels 80 to more than 100 feet long which harvest as much as 17,000 pounds a day and are responsible for 95 percent of the scallop catch — wanted it kept closed to everyone.

“We chose not to go in there because the science said it wasn’t ready,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the Fisheries Survival Fund, which has many of the limited access fleet as members.

“We wanted the scallops to be larger, to get the maximum yield,” he said.

Since 2001, scallops have been managed under a rotational scheme much like letting a field lie fallow. Sampling is done to determine whether an area has enough large scallops to be opened to fishing. Areas with a lot of seed or immature scallops remain closed until they grow large enough for harvest.

It’s an approach that works but allowing someone into an area before it’s ready violates that management principle, Minkiewicz said. Scallopers faced with only being able to land 600 pounds would likely sort through the catch, discarding smaller animals in favor of the large ones that fetched higher prices, he said.

“They’re human,” he said. “We don’t blame them for it, but they will kill a lot more scallops than 300,000 pounds.”

Kevin Stokesbury, principal investigator at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s sea scallop research program, is also opposed to letting general category boats into the Lightship area, saying the dredge would likely kill a lot of small scallops. Surveys and studies by UMass Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology showed a small amount of growth actually doubled the amount of meat available. He agreed with Minkiewicz’s argument that killing off large numbers of young scallops, even if limited by a relatively small quota, could significantly affect future harvests in the area.

“While 300,000 pounds of harvest is not a lot compared to the biomass there, how many small scallops will you have to sort through to get to the few large ones?” he said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NOAA Fisheries Announces Red Snapper Will Remain Closed in South Atlantic Federal Waters in 2016

May 20, 2016 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council: 

NOAA Fisheries announces red snapper will remain closed to commercial and recreational fishing in South Atlantic federal waters in 2016. Red snapper remains closed as the total number of red snapper removed from the population in 2015 exceeded the allowable catch level.

In 2013, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council developed, and NOAA Fisheries implemented, a standardized process that specifies harvest may only occur in a given year if total removals (landings plus dead discards) in the previous year were less than the number allowed for population rebuilding. The total removals allowable for 2015 were 114,000 fish. After evaluating landings and discard information for 2015, NOAA Fisheries determined the estimates of total removals were 276,729 fish; therefore, the fishery remains closed in 2016.

NOAA Fisheries will utilize the same process identified by the South Atlantic Council to determine if the fishery can sustain a 2017 season.

For additional sources of information, including Frequently Asked Questions, details of the standardized process, and the report of 2015 estimates of red snapper total removals in the South Atlantic Region, please go here.

NOAA: Dungeness crab in peril from acidification

May 19, 2016 — The Dungeness crab fishery could decline West Coastwide, a new study has found, threatening a fishing industry worth nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year.

Scientists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle found that pH levels likely in West Coast waters by 2100 at current rates of greenhouse-gas pollution would hurt the survivability of crab larvae.

Increasing ocean acidification is predicted to harm a wide range of sea life unable to properly form calcium carbonate shells as the pH drops. Now scientists at the NOAA’s Northwest Fishery Science Center of Seattle also have learned that animals with chitin shells — specifically Dungeness crabs — are affected, because the change in water chemistry affects their metabolism.

Carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, is pumped into the atmosphere primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Levels of atmospheric C02 have been steadily rising since the Industrial Revolution in 1750 and today are higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years — and predicted to go higher.

When carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water it lowers the pH. By simulating the conditions in tanks of seawater at pH levels likely to occur in West Coast waters with rising greenhouse gas pollution, scientists were able to detect both a slower hatch of crab larvae, and poorer survival by the year 2100.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

‘Codfather’ pleads not guilty to fish conspiracy

May 13, 2016 — New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Worcester to conspiracy, lying to NOAA Fisheries about the exact species of fish he landed through a four-year span, and illegally smuggling cash out of the country.

Rafael, know widely as “The Codfather,” remains free on the $1 million bond set after his February arrest for conspiracy and submitting falsified records. The arrests of Rafael and his bookkeeper Debra Messier capped an undercover sting operation by federal authorities, some of whom posed as Russian mobsters looking to buy his business.

The 64-year-old Rafael, who appeared before Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy, controls one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the United States and has been a powerful force in Northeast commercial fishing circles through his ownership of 32 fishing vessels and a block of 44 federal fishing permits with a value estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Survey delay might hurt fish population research

May 12, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story published today by the Boston Globe.

NEWPORT, R.I. – Even before mechanics found deeply pitted bearings near crankshafts in its generators, problems that could have led to catastrophic engine failure, the Henry B. Bigelow was running more than a month behind.

Now, the government research vessel is embarking on its annual spring voyage later than ever before, a delay that could have serious consequences for scientists’ ability to assess the health of some of the 52 fish stocks they survey, from the waters off North Carolina to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of Maine.

Fish migrate and change their feeding patterns as waters warm, which might make it difficult for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists to compare this spring’s survey of fish populations with previous counts.

The prospect of skewed data could complicate efforts for policy makers to set proper quotas, potentially leading either to overfishing or unnecessarily strict catch limits.

“I worry that this will create statistical noise and more uncertainty,” said Gary Shepherd, a fishery biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, where he and other scientists recommend quotas based on what the Bigelow catches, along with other data.

As the waters warm, some of the fish, such as herring, migrate out of the survey area and into the region’s rivers. Other species, such as squid, which are short-lived, might not survive in representative numbers through June, when the Bigelow is now scheduled to finish its survey.

“If the survey had started at its normal time, it would have found squid on the continental shelf,” said Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, a Washington-based group that represents the fishing industry. “But now it won’t because the survey doesn’t sample Nantucket Sound.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Prosecutors in Rafael case: Carlos Seafood’s transaction reports didn’t match up

May 11, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The FV Hera II, a boat that prosecutors said fishing fleet owner Carlos Rafael owned through a shell corporation, reported catching 4,595 pounds of haddock on Jan. 25, then selling it to Rafael’s Carlos Seafood business, a registered dealer, according to the indictment of Rafael that was unsealed Monday.

Carlos Seafood also recorded acquiring 840 pounds of American plaice, or “dabs,” from the Hera II that day, prosecutors said.

But here’s the rub: Records of Carlos Seafood’s third-party sales Jan. 25, according to the indictment, cite about 200 pounds of haddock and 5,200 pounds of dabs.

In other words, prosecutors allege, a lot of the fish caught by the Hera II on Jan. 25 and reported as “haddock” actually were dabs, which are subject to stricter regulatory quotas. Those quotas are administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and limit how much of certain species commercial fishermen can catch.

Catching more of a protected species than allowed can bring significant value on the black market.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

CAPE COD TIMES: Promoting sustainability

May 10, 2016 — At the sustainable fisheries conference held at Rhode Island College last month, audience members were asked questions about the ocean, fisheries, and management that were tabulated and presented on the spot. Unscientific, yes, but very interesting.

A question of whether the groundfish fishery is sustainable was asked of the audience before and after the conference, and the results suggest that some opinions changed — for the positive — by the two hours of discussion.

When asked who would best regulate the fishery, the answer showed the thoughts of those in the audience based on biases and attitudes, but there is only one answer to that question. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, passed by Congress and administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the fishery’s manager, and that won’t change.

One very important part of that manager’s charge is ensuring both conservation and economic goals are considered in its management.

One policy tool for those goals is at-sea monitoring, which aims to provide accurate data on what is caught and what is thrown back. Accurate assessments support effective management and more successful fishing. It has been a point of contention for several years, as the cost of monitoring is to be borne by the industry, not the regulator. Cost aside, monitoring can help fishermen.

Read the full editorial at the Cape Cod Times

Puget Sound salmon fishing effectively closed after stalemate between state and tribal fisheries

May 9, 2016 — For the first time in 30 years, state and tribal fishery managers failed to develop a joint plan for the 2016-17 Puget Sound salmon fishing season, effectively closing all of Puget Sound and some lakes and rivers.

“The door remains open (for more discussions with the tribes),” said Ron Warren, the state Fish and Wildlife salmon policy manager. “The tribes and (state) in different ways offered packages that met the conservation objectives, but we couldn’t reach agreement on them.”

This left many — an estimated 200,000 anglers held Puget Sound salmon licenses during the 2014-15 fishing season — questioning what led to this unprecedented situation.

During a meeting April 27 in Fife — around 60 representatives from state, tribal, NOAA Fisheries and officials from the offices of the governor and attorney general — plans were laid out for additional cuts needed to reach an agreement.

State fishery managers offered an alternative proposal for sport fisheries, with a 50 percent harvest cut on an expected poor Puyallup River return of 353 wild chinook and 3,708 hatchery fish.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times