Saving Seafood

Texas fishing industry finally gets COVID-19 stimulus

January 29, 2021 — The Texas fishing industry is about to get a long-awaited $9 million that Congress allocated way back in March 2020.

Commercial fishing experienced “broad declines” as COVID-19 ravaged the country, according an analysis by NOAA Fisheries. Data shows that revenue among Gulf Coast and southeast fisheries fell sharply between February and June as the pandemic slowed the economy.

The $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which Congress passed in March, allocated $300 million for the fishing industry in coastal states. Texas was allocated $9 million, or 3 percent.

Read the full story at The Houston Chronicle

NOAA Fisheries Announces Weekly For-Hire Reporting Webinars

January 29, 2021 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

KEY MESSAGE:

NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Regional Office will host weekly question and answer webinar sessions to assist participants with program information and compliance.

WHEN:

The webinars are scheduled for Tuesday evenings from 6:00 PM–7:00 PM, EST, from February 2, 2021, to March 30, 2021.

To register for the webinars and access the additional information, such as tool-kits and instructional videos, go to: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/recreational-fishing-data/southeast-hire-electronic-reporting-program.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Program staff and software vendor representatives will participate in these webinars to answer questions and resolve issues users identify. These webinars are for anyone with an interest in the Southeast Electronic For-Hire Program and specifically, any captain, owner, or lessee running a headboat or charter trip on a boat with any of the following permits: Atlantic coastal migratory pelagics, Atlantic dolphin wahoo, South Atlantic snapper grouper, Gulf of Mexico reef fish, and Gulf Of Mexico coastal migratory pelagics.

NOAA Fisheries implemented the new Southeast For-Hire Electronic Reporting Program in January 2021. This program will provide more timely catch, effort, and discard information from federally-permitted for-hire vessels, to be used in future fish population assessments and management evaluations.

Please call our customer service hotline with any questions (available from 8:00-4:30, EST) at 1-833-707-1632 or email us at ser.electronicreporting@noaa.gov.

Please know that NOAA Fisheries is here to help, and we respect your time and business operations. We look forward to working with you during the implementation phase of this new program. Our goals are to provide each fisherman with excellent customer service, improve for-hire data collection, and reduce the amount of time you spend reporting so you can focus more time on your customers.

This bulletin serves as a Small Entity Compliance Guide, complying with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.

Massachusetts passes new right whale protections

January 29, 2021 — The state’s Marine Fisheries Commission passed regulations Thursday that it hopes will dramatically reduce the risk to highly endangered right whales from lobster pot and gillnet buoy lines.

The state plan is intended to dovetail with a federal plan from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reduce the risk of entanglement in fishing lines by 60%. The administration released its plan for public comment last month.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries estimated that the new measures will make gear entanglements in state waters 76% less likely for whales.

“Massachusetts stepped up to the plate today and did something significant for North Atlantic right whales,” said Gib Brogan, a senior campaign manager for the marine conservation organization Oceana. “By reducing the risk of entanglement in fishing gear, which is a leading cause of death for this species, Massachusetts set its lobster industry apart today and showed itself as a leader in ocean conservation and responsible lobster fishing.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Commercial Gillnet Harvest of King Mackerel in Federal Waters of the Gulf of Mexico Southern Zone Closed on January 28, 2021

January 28, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

WHAT/WHEN:

  • Commercial gillnet harvest of king mackerel in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico Southern Zone closed at 12 p.m., local time, on January 28, 2021.
  • Commercial king mackerel gillnet harvest will reopen at 6:00 a.m., (local time) on January 18, 2022.
  • The Gulf of Mexico Southern Zone includes federal waters off Collier and Monroe Counties, Florida (see map).

WHY THIS CLOSURE IS HAPPENING:

  • The 2020/2021 commercial gillnet quota is 575,400 pounds.
  • Updated landings data indicate that commercial gillnet harvest of king mackerel has reached its quota.
  • In accordance with the regulations, NOAA Fisheries is required to close this component of the fishery when the quota has been met or projected to be met. The closure is needed to prevent overfishing (too many fish being harvested).

DURING THE CLOSURE:

  • No person aboard a vessel with a commercial king mackerel permit with a gillnet endorsement may fish for king mackerel using a run-around gillnet in the closed zone after 12 p.m., local time, on January 28, 2021.
  • The operator of a vessel that has been issued a federal commercial king mackerel permit with a gillnet endorsement and who is landing king mackerel for sale must have harvested, landed ashore, and sold before 12 p.m., local time, January 28, 2021.
  • No person aboard a vessel possessing a gillnet with a stretched-mesh size of 4.75 inches (12.1 cm) or larger, may fish for or possess king mackerel in this zone during the closure.
  • Sale or purchase of gillnet harvested king mackerel in or from federal waters in the Southern Zone after January 28, 2021 is prohibited.
  • The prohibition on sale or purchase does not apply to trade in king mackerel that were harvested by gillnet, landed ashore, and sold before 12 p.m., local time, January 28, 2021, and were held in cold storage by a dealer or processor.
  • The hook-and-line component of the fishery remains open in this zone at this time. Therefore, only king mackerel caught by hook-and-line in this zone may be purchased, bartered, traded, or sold after 12 p.m., local time, on January 28, 2021.
  • A vessel for which a king mackerel gillnet endorsement has been issued may not retain king mackerel for sale in or from federal waters harvested with any other gear.
  • Persons aboard commercial vessels with a federal king mackerel permit may fish for and retain the recreational bag and possession limit of king mackerel during the open recreational season, even if commercial fishing for this species is closed in this zone or others.

Read the full release here

Outgoing NOAA leaders see ‘solid progress that helps commercial and recreational fishing industries’

January 28, 2021 — As our tenure in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ends, we want to share the progress our agency team has accomplished. Working with the National Marine Fisheries Service leadership, we sought to increase fishing opportunities, reduce unnecessary burdens, expand market access, and continue to improve the status of fish stocks. As NOAA transitions to a new political leadership team, it is important to build upon the achievements of these past four years, and continue to support the commercial and recreational fishing sectors:

Advance fisheries conservation.

NOAA continued to make significant progress working with fishermen to improve the status of U.S. fish stocks. Two additional fish stocks were rebuilt last year, making a total of 47 fish stocks rebuilt since 2000. The overfishing list dropped to 22 stocks, setting an all-time low. Ninety-three percent of the stocks managed by NOAA are not subject to overfishing and 81 percent are not overfished.

Cooperate with the regional fishery management councils to reduce regulatory burden.

A total of 62 deregulatory actions were finalized between fiscal years 2017 and 2020, saving fishermen over $50 million per year. More importantly, there are approximately 30 deregulatory actions currently in the pipeline within NOAA fisheries. Further, under section 4 of Executive Order 13921, Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, NOAA fisheries is required to review and add new deregulatory actions to its agenda that are recommended by the councils, and report annually for the next 3 years on their status.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA wants monitors on 40% of groundfish trips

January 28, 2021 — NOAA Fisheries has established a monitoring coverage target that would deploy at-sea monitors aboard 40% of all groundfish sector trips in the Northeast in the upcoming 2021 fishing year, the agency announced Tuesday.

The 2021 ASM coverage target represents a 25% increase from the 32% monitoring coverage target in the 2020 fishing year for the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery.

“Consistent with the requirement to monitor sector operations and to reliably estimate overall catch to the extent practical, the coverage target level will be 40%,” NOAA Fisheries stated in its bulletin  announcing the coverage target.

At-sea monitoring coverage levels for Northeast sector groundfish vessels was one of the more tumultuous issues of the 2020 fishing season because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the monitoring program and the New England Fishery Management Council’s approval of Amendment 23 that set future at-sea monitoring coverage target rates for the fishery.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MAINE: Lobstermen react to proposed NOAA rule

January 27, 2021 — At what cost does saving the North Atlantic right whale come?

A Jan. 20 public meeting on the latest proposal to reduce the risk of whale entanglements in fishing lines focused on northern and eastern Maine lobster fishing. The virtual meeting continued discussions between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and lobstermen that began in 2019. The Maine Department of Marine Resources submitted its own risk-reduction proposal in January 2020 that NOAA said did not fully meet its goals.

At this latest meeting, local lobstermen echoed similar concerns they aired when discussions started two years ago: NOAA is relying on incomplete and outdated data, and fishermen are not seeing right whales in Maine waters. NOAA scientists agree that more data would be useful.

“We don’t have a lot of recent data to let us know that they’re not still going there,” said Colleen Coogan, a NOAA biologist who is part of its whale Take Reduction Team (TRT). “Maine has been working pretty aggressively trying to get more data.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Major Refresh Orients our Fishery Monitoring and Research Division Toward the Future

January 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Staff involved with cooperative research and fishery monitoring at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center interact daily with the fishing industry. It’s a challenging job, and an essential one: scientists and fishermen working together in areas of mutual interest improves fisheries science and management.

It’s little wonder that managing the many moving parts of this effort requires constant assessment and adaptation. The most recent effort is a major one that has resulted in a new internal structure to improve operations and maximize resources.

The ultimate goal is to ensure accurate representation of fishing activity.

“Improving integration of our efforts, modernizing our systems, and making the data we collect even more useful will enable us to have increased confidence in our science, take some of the burden off the industry, and make it easier for fishermen to access information,” said Amanda McCarty, chief of the center’s Fishery Monitoring and Research Division, which includes the fishery monitoring and cooperative research efforts.

Read the full release here

New Slow Zone East of Boston to Protect Right Whales

January 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a new Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction) to protect right whales.

On January 25, 2021, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Stellwagen Bank Slocum buoy acoustically detected the presence of right whales 35nm East of Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Slow Zone is in effect through February 9, 2021. 

Mariners, please go around this slow zone or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

42 47 N
42 07 N
069 51 W
070 46 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

Major Reorganization Improves NEFSC Fishery Monitoring and Research

January 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A new internal structure within the NEFSC’s Fishery Monitoring and Research Division  is a major overhaul intended to improve operations and maximize resources.

The ultimate goal is to ensure accurate representation of fishing activity.

While the basic tasking is the same, separating work into four branches allows better accountability and expansion of existing capability.

Four organizational groups, rather than two, are now responsible for:

  • Fisheries observer program
  • Fisheries observer training and trip data
  • Data and information systems management and development
  • Cooperative research.

Read all about the “new” Fishery Monitoring and Research Division here.

Read the full release here