Saving Seafood

Gulf Congressional Delegation Teams for Big Win for Gulf Reef Fish Accountability in 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act

December 19, 2015 — The Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act heading to the White House for a Presidential signature includes $10 million for Gulf of Mexico fisheries data collection, stock assessments and research due to the tireless efforts led by Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby, Chairman of the Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, and Florida’s 13th District Representative David Jolly, who sits on the House’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science.

Additionally, the bill directs NOAA to count fish on artificial reefs and offshore energy exploration infrastructure, and incorporate those counts into future stock assessments and management decisions for reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico.  It provides continued support for electronic monitoring and reporting to collect real-time data that is more economical and efficient than current management processes. According to Senator Shelby, who authored the provisions for red snapper in the legislation, the 2016 omnibus provides up to $5 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Sea Grant College program to support external research and development through its network of academic institutions for a red snapper tagging study in the Gulf of Mexico.  In addition, it provides $5 million for independent, non-NOAA stock assessments for Gulf reef fish, including red snapper.

“Commercial and recreational anglers across the Gulf Coast depend on the red snapper fishery, which is not only a key economic driver, but also integral to their way of life,” Senator Shelby told Gulf Seafood News. “That is why I pushed to include common-sense reforms in this year’s omnibus bill to ensure that both commercial and recreational fishermen have increased access to the red snapper population in the Gulf.”

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood Institute

URI researchers to study climate change effect on fisheries

December 19, 2015 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Rhode Island have been awarded a federal grant to study the effects of climate change on Atlantic fisheries.

The state’s congressional delegation says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving the researchers $227,850.

Jeremy Collie, at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, is leading the team. Scientists are participating from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory, located on URI’s Bay Campus.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC6 News

 

Costs for at-sea monitors will force many fishermen out of business.

December 18, 2015 — The following was released by the Center for Sustainable Fisheries:

The Center for Sustainable Fisheries fully supports the lawsuit filed in New Hampshire last week by Cause of Action. The Washington-based watchdog group, which focuses its attention on government overreach, is suing the federal government on behalf of our commercial fishermen in New England.

The case is crystal clear. It stems from the high cost for at-sea monitors and the insistence, by NOAA’s intransigent National Marine Fisheries Service, that fishermen must now foot the bill for monitors because the agency has run out of money. This is simply outrageous. The regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service is former New Bedford mayor John Bullard.

Beginning January 1, fishermen who are required to bring monitors on groundfish trips will be billed an estimated $710 daily for their services, an expense previously borne by our government regulators. This mandate comes down at a time that the groundfishery in New England has been declared a disaster, with landings and revenue down and fewer boats fishing. To now burden struggling fishermen with what is undoubtedly a function of government is simply unjust. Furthermore, NOAA has conducted its own study on the costs of monitoring and concluded that upwards of 60 percent of active groundfish vessels would be rendered unprofitable if forced to pay for at-sea monitors. ‘Unprofitable’ in this case meaning fishermen going out of business; deprived not only of income but a way of life.

The plaintiffs in this important case are Dave Goethel, a CSF board member and owner of the Ellen Diane, a 44-foot dayboat out of Hampton, N.H., along with Northeast Fishery Sector XIII, comprising thirty-two East Coast fishermen and managed by John Haran in New Bedford. The controversial issue has been simmering for some time. It is now in the hands of the judiciary. In arguing the case Cause of Action will present a number of legal arguments, primarily that NOAA has no authority to compel funding. It does not take a legal scholar to see which way this case should be resolved. Let us hope that justice will prevail.

View a PDF of the release

How whaling logs from the 1800s might help us solve climate change

December 16, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Maritime historians, climate scientists and ordinary citizens are coming together on a project to study the logbooks of 19th-century whaling ships to better understand modern-day climate change and Arctic weather patterns.

Whaling ships kept meticulous daily logbooks of weather conditions during their often yearslong voyages searching the globe for whales, valued for their light-giving oil, said Michael Dyer, senior maritime historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is supplying much of the data.

Some logs include information about life on board, such as sailors falling overboard, or being disciplined for stealing or other transgressions, and of course, notations whenever whales are spotted. More important for this project, they include precise longitude and latitude measurements, weather conditions, the presence of icebergs and the edge of the ice shelf.

“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

The project, called Old Weather: Whaling, is led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whaling museum is transcribing and digitizing its own logbooks, as well as original data sources from the Nantucket Historical Association, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, and the New Bedford Free Public Library.“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Post

 

Cause of Action’s Stephen Schwartz Discusses At-Sea Monitoring Lawsuit on WBSM

December 16, 2015 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Last Saturday, December 12, on the Ken Pittman Show on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Cause of Action Counselor Stephen Schwartz, discussed a lawsuit that the organization filed against NOAA for their at-sea monitoring program. During the interview, Mr. Schwartz explained that the federal requirement that fishermen fund at-sea-monitors is overly intrusive and too burdensome for the fishing industry.

“The federal government is making a huge imposition even when top agencies and regional administrators agree that fishermen can’t afford to fund the observers, and more than half of them would go out of business,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz said that most federal observers do not have the same expertise that fishermen do – fishermen who have made their living on New England waters often in inclement conditions – and present a danger to the fishermen by taking up space on the boats, and preventing them from efficiently collecting data on fish stocks.

“If fishermen were left to their own devices, they would actually protect fish stocks and be more productive,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz and Cause of Action are arguing that NOAA does not have the power to require that the industry fund the observer program, and that the principles of constitutional law involved have the potential to restructure fishing industry regulations in order to not place the burden solely on fishermen.

Listen to the interview here

Gulf of Maine Research Institute to study fishing communities’ climate vulnerability

December 16, 2015 (AP) — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland will get $1.3 million in federal money to investigate fishing communities’ vulnerability to climate change in the Northeast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the award Tuesday. Researchers from the institute will examine ecological, social and economic impacts of climate change on fishing communities.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Portland Press Herald

Gulf Seafood Institute’s President Harlon Pearce Appointed to NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee

December 15, 2015 — Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker has appointed Gulf Seafood Institute’s President Harlon Pearce, along with three other new advisors, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. The Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee (MAFAC) advises the Secretary on all living marine resource matters currently the responsibility of the Department of Commerce.

According to NOAA, the expertise of MAFAC members is used to evaluate and recommend priorities and needed changes in national programs and policies, including the periodic reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. The members represent a wide spectrum of fishing, aquaculture, protected resources, environmental, academic, tribal, state, consumer, and other related national interests from across the U.S., and ensure the nation’s living marine resource policies and programs meet the needs of these stakeholders.

As owner and operator of Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans, a seafood processing and distribution company, Pearce has more than 46 years of experience in the seafood industry.  He has been an advocate for developing strong and viable seafood industries, a “go to” source for the media and seafood events, and a guest speaker and lecturer.

A tireless spokesperson for Gulf seafood, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Gulf Seafood Institute, which advocates on behalf of the entire Gulf seafood community. Pearce previously served for nine years as the Louisiana Representative on Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council and for 11-years was Chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, a tenure which spanned both the devastating hurricane season of 2005 and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute

 

NOAA Awards Funding for Research Projects to Study Climate Impacts on Fish and Fisheries

December 15, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Seven projects to increase understanding and response to climate-related impacts on living marine resources

Following release of the  NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy, today the agency announced $5 million in new research funding to study the impacts of climate change on fish and fisheries of the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem. The funds, which will be distributed over the next two to three years, will support seven new projects designed to increase our understanding of how climate change can affect fish stocks, fisheries, and the communities that depend on them for their livelihood.

“Warmer coastal and ocean waters and ocean acidification are already affecting our nation’s fisheries,” said NOAA Fisheries chief science advisor Richard Merrick, Ph.D. “NOAA is working to ensure the resilience of healthy, productive fisheries that are essential to U.S. coastal communities. Sustainable fisheries create jobs, stabilize coastal economies, enhance commerce, and help to meet the growing demand for seafood.” 

NOAA Research’s Climate Program Office and NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology funded the projects through a competitive process and include collaborations between NOAA and academic scientists. In addition, these projects support the Administration’s Priority Agenda for Enhancing the Climate Resiliency of America’s Natural Resources.

Six projects support research to understand and respond to climate impacts on fish and fisheries in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem and the seventh will support a workshop focused on ecosystem tipping points in the North Pacific.

More details on the listed projects can be found on the following web pages:

NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology

NOAA Research Climate Program Office

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Would-be mussel farmers fishing for project money

December 14, 2015 — The aquaculture project Salem State University marine research scientists hope might ultimately produce acres of mussels in a stretch of deep, open waters off the coast of Cape Ann has received the necessary permits to proceed.

Now all the project managers need is … what else? Money.

Mark R. Fregeau, a SSU marine biology professor, said the project he is managing with SSU colleague and collaborator Ted Maney has been green-lighted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and will begin in earnest once they raise about $75,000 needed to begin laying the initial long lines upon which the mussels will grow.

The mussel aquaculture — or more simply, farm — will be located in federal waters, about 81/2 miles due east of Good Harbor Beach, at a site the researchers believe will provide the perfect environment for a deep-water mussel aquaculture that would be the first of its kind in the U.S.

“We’ve been authorized to put out a couple of (experimental) lines and see how they work and what issues might arise,” Fregeau said. “The reality is that until we actually get into the water, we don’t know exactly what we’ll be dealing with. So, it will be rolled out in phases, a couple lines at a time, and that will give us the opportunity to report back to the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA.”

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

New England council votes to increase scallop catch allowance for 2016

December 11, 2015 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has elected to increase fishing days at sea for the 2016/17 scallop season.

Total landings are projected to increase on the 2015/16 season, to around 47 million pounds, NEFMC told Undercurrent News.

The council chose its final preferred recommendations for ‘framework 27’, the sea scallop management plan, at its December meeting.

Days at sea have been recommended at slightly higher levels for next year — 34.55 compared to 31, per full-time vessel, this year, while the level of catch from access areas is the same as in 2015: 51,000 pounds per full-time vessel, or about 17 million pounds in total.

All limited access trips were assigned to the Mid-Atlantic access areas. The general category individual fishing quota increased from about 3m pounds this year to about 4.5m pounds.

If approved, they will be allowed to take about 1.5m pounds of that total from access areas, mostly the Mid-Atlantic access area, and around 300,000 pounds were made available from the northern part of Nantucket Lightship.

These remain recommendations; they still need to be approved. The National Marine Fisheries Service will publish a proposed rule in several months with what it plans to implement, before taking public comment and then publishing a final rule.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News