Saving Seafood

NOAA to reduce monitoring in new season

April 29, 2016 — In a victory for groundfishermen, NOAA will significantly reduce at-sea monitoring coverage for Northeast multispecies groundfish vessels in the season that begins Sunday.

NOAA, according to the final rule filed Friday in the Federal Register, will cut monitoring to 14 percent of all vessel trips in 2016, down from about 24 percent in 2015.

The reduction was welcomed by fishermen, particularly following recent federal policy changes leaving permit holders on the hook for the cost of at-sea monitoring. It was a disappointment for conservationists and environmental groups, who were seeking more coverage, not less.

The new rule, known as Framework 55, is expected to be formally published Monday, but will go into effect at the start of the 2016 fishing season on May 1.

“Fishermen appreciate the changes and the evolution of the at-sea monitoring program,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which strongly advocated for the adjustments to the monitoring program. “We think what they’ve done is prudent and responsible.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Puget Sound Crisis Brings Salmon Fishing Closure

April 29, 2016 — SEATTLE — All salmon fishing in Puget Sound will close on May 1 unless federal officials issue last-minute permits.

State and tribal fisheries managers failed to reach an agreement Wednesday for this year’s Puget Sound fishing season, which runs from May 1 to April 30, 2017.

“We had one last round of negotiations in hopes of ensuring salmon seasons in Puget Sound this year,” Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Jim Unsworth said in a statement. “Regrettably, we could not agree on fisheries that were acceptable to both parties.”

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

Monitoring The Catch Aboard Groundfishing Vessels

April 22, 2016 — While the feds used to pay for [at-sea] monitors, as of March 1st, fishermen have had to start footing the roughly $700-per-day cost.

John Bullard is Regional Administrator for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fishery Office in Gloucester. His agency uses input from fishermen and scientists to set quotas and other regulations for the industry.

“It’s not that we wanted the industry to pay,” Bullard said. “We understand the hardship that the groundfish industry is under, believe me.”

Bullard explained that NOAA covered the costs of at-sea monitors for as long as it could. But that money is now gone. And he said the industry has had plenty of warning.

“We’ve been saying to industry, ‘You guys are gonna have to pay for this…not because we want you to, but because the money’s gonna run out.’ So this hasn’t been a sudden thing,” said Bullard.

Most groundfishermen now must scramble to come up with ways to pay for at-sea monitors. Meanwhile, others are trying another option: electronic monitoring with video cameras.

Read and listen to the full story at WCAI

Feds continue to discuss potential new regulations for turtle excluder devices

April 22, 2016 — The federal government is considering new requirements and regulations for turtle excluder devices to reduce sea turtle bycatch in shrimp fisheries.

Michael Barnett, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said it has been documented that there are an abundance of turtles in the Gulf of Mexico in the same areas and at the same times that skimmer trawl fisheries operate.

Through the use of TEDs and protecting nesting sites, turtle populations have had a “dramatic increase,” Barnett said. However, with a number of catches being seen in skimmer trawls, it is necessary for NOAA to look into rules regarding bycatch in skimmers.

Notably from the data already collecting, Barnett said, is that the turtles being seen in the bycatch were small, young turtles that could have passed through the 4-inch bar spacing of standard TEDs.

Read the full story at Houma Today

10 fish stocks added to NOAA’s overfishing list in US

April 22, 2016 — Three stocks of Chinook salmon, one of Coho salmon and two flounder stocks have been added to the overfishing list produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the organization that regulates U.S. fishing reported in its 2015 Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries.

Still, the number of fish stocks in U.S. waters subject to overfishing is near an all-time low, according to Alan Risenhoover, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

“The partnerships forged over past 40 years under the Magnuson-Stevens Act have resulted in the number of overfished stocks remaining near all-time lows and additional stocks are rebuilding,” Risenhoover said. “Through its stakeholder-driven process, the U.S. will continue to be a global leader in managing its stocks sustainably.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

CONNECTICUT: Murphy secures more federal funds for Milford fisheries lab

April 22, 2016 — MILFORD, Conn. — U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said that a subcommittee’s appropriations bill approved Thursday includes more than $20 million in federal funds for Long Island Sound programs, and $200 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has a research lab in Milford.

Murphy is a member of the appropriations subcommittee of the U.S. Senate committee on Commerce, Science, Justice, and Related Agencies. The funding, in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, “would support critical aquaculture research and improve regulatory permitting that supports over 700 local jobs and helps to improve the health of Long Island Sound,” Murphy said.

The Milford Lab is one of just two NOAA labs nationwide supporting aquaculture research, he said. The subcommittee bill “includes language addressing concerns around staffing changes and funding cuts at Milford Lab,” Murphy said in a prepared statement.

Read the full story at the Stamford Advocate

MARK PHILLIPS: Who will pay for electronic monitoring?

April 21, 2016 — The Nature Conservancy a 6.5 BILLION dollar ENGO (2014 IRS 990) has put forward a paper seeking Electronic Monitoring on groundfish boats by May 1, 2017. If people recall The Nature Conservancy said very little about the BP oil spill.

NOAA and it’s environmental partners are bound and determined to force paid monitoring and eventually EMS on the fishermen. The last EMS study was delayed and delayed so that NOAA’s partners could put out misinformation about costs. And when the report did come out it substantially underestimates costs by assuming the average groundfish trip is 1.5 days when in reality my sector’s average trip is 6-10 days which is 4 to 7 times greater in duration.

The report also underestimates the number of hauls, claiming the average trip has five haul backs when in fact we are looking at between 40 to 60 hauls per trip, an underestimation by a factor of 10.

Read the full opinion piece at the Center for Sustainable Fisheries

Populations of salmon, flounder added to overfishing list

April 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government has added several populations of economically important food fish, including stocks of salmon and flounder, to its list of fish stocks that are being subjected to overfishing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that three regional populations of Chinook salmon and one regional population each of Coho salmon, summer flounder, yellowtail flounder and winter flounder are suffering from overfishing.

NOAA produces an annual update of its list of fish that are either subject to overfishing or have been overfished to the point where populations are too low. The report informs conservation and management efforts.

Overall, the number of fish on the “overfishing” list climbed from 26 to 28, and the number on the “overfished” list rose from 37 to 38.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times

More than 3 million pounds of fishing gear removed from United States waterways and coastlines

April 15, 2016 — The Fishing for Energy partnership announced that more than three million pounds of old fishing gear and marine debris have been removed from United States waterways and coastlines since 2008 and converted into clean, renewable energy. Fishing for Energy, a partnership between the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), Washington, D.C., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, Washington D.C., Covanta, Morristown, New Jersey and Schnitzer Steel Industries, Portland, Oregon, has successfully worked with local commercial fishermen and ports to collect and responsibly dispose of thousands of abandoned fishing traps and other unwanted gear.

“Together, with the help of fishermen in over 49 communities across the nation, we are ensuring retired gear is disposed of properly and not ‘fishing’ longer than intended. Proper disposal of fishing gear can help minimize impacts that lost or abandoned nets, lines and traps can have on our natural resources and our economy,” says Nancy Wallace, director of the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

Read the full story at Recycling Today