Saving Seafood

GEORGIA: More right whales spotted off area coast

December 4, 2019 — North Atlantic right whale migration is underway, just in time for Whale Week in Savannah.

Since the first right whale of the season was spotted by fishermen Nov. 23 off Mayport, Fla., biologists have confirmed that sighting plus sightings of four more potential right whale moms.

Only about 400 North Atlantic right whales remain. Deaths, mainly from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, have outpaced births of these bus-sized creatures recently. Biologists have recorded 30 right whale deaths over the last three years and only 12 births.

“We’re going backwards here,” said Barb Zoodsma, right whale biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

That first known arrival from the feeding grounds off new England and Canada to the Georgia/Florida calving grounds was a 19-year-old female nicknamed Harmonia. Records indicate she last gave birth in 2016.

Other whales spotted include “Naevus,” who was seen off Ossabaw Island. “Harmony,” “Arpeggio,” and “Slalom” were spotted off South Carolina.

Read the full story at the Savannah Morning News

NOAA, Coast Guard: More regs needed in wake of Rafael ’s fraud

December 4, 2019 — Representatives from NOAA and the US Coast Guard are using Carlos Rafael’s case as evidence that more regulations and oversight are necessary in the groundfishing industry.

NOAA Special Agent Troy Audyatis explained to a crowd gathered at the New England Fishery Management Council Meeting on Tuesday how NOAA worked with other agencies to catch the so-called Codfather and said, “We need to prevent something like this from ever repeating itself down the road.”

Rafael was sentenced to 46-months in federal prison for falsifying fishing quota, cash smuggling, and tax evasion in a criminal case, and was ordered to pay a $3 million penalty to address the federal government’s civil claims against him which included counts of misreporting and underreporting his groundfish catch.

Audyatis said if there wasn’t an observer, who collects data from U.S. commercial fishing and processing vessels for NOAA, on Rafael’s vessels or a dock-side officer “thousands upon thousands of fish would simply disappear” without being reported.

One of the reasons Audyatis gave for Rafael being able to misreport and underreport was the vertical integration of Rafael’s business.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Concludes 2019 Northeast Fall Ecosystem Monitoring

December 5, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries has wrapped up its 2019 Northeast fall ecosystem monitoring survey.

Researchers aboard the NOAA vessel Gordon Gunter sampled 117 stations along the U.S. East Coast.

Data collected during the cruise helps researchers understand and predict seasonal and yearly changes in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean ecosystem and its fisheries.

Due to weather conditions about 75 percent of the cruise objectives were accomplished, including complete coverage of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England regions, and 97 percent of Georges Bank.

There was reduced coverage in the northern survey area, including just 22 percent in the Gulf of Maine and no coverage of the Scotian Shelf.

Long-term sampling on the cruise includes the use of “bongo” net tows. The fine-mesh nets are attached to side-by-side aluminum rings. The nets get their name for resembling bongo drums when deployed.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Alaska’s northern rock sole another climate change winner

December 3, 2019 — Count Alaska’s northern rock sole among the fish species that appear to have more promise as water temperatures continue to increase as a result of climate change, Alaska TV station KTUU reports.

Using biomass data collected from 1982 through 2014 as well as wind and temperature data, Dan Cooper, a fish biologist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and his team have determined that the flatfish species has higher reproductive success in warmer years, according to the NBC affiliate.

Though its females grow to a size of up to 27 inches in length and males up to 19 inches, northern rock sole is harvested significantly less than pollock and Pacific cod, in Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council set the acceptable biological catch for the fish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands at 143,000 metric tons for 2020, yet in 2018 only 60% of the total allowable catch was harvested, the news service noted.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

F/V Darana R Hosts NOAA Fisheries Scientists During Fall Survey

December 3, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A dozen scientists and staff members from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center visited the 90-foot F/V Darana R in Point Judith, Rhode Island on October 3. The stop was a port call in the midst of the fall NorthEast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP) survey off the coast of Rhode Island.

Science Center staff learned about the vessel, its equipment, and the survey.  After some discussions in port, most stayed aboard as the vessel headed out to sea to sort fish from two tows made during an afternoon demonstration.

This was a great opportunity for staff from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center to get out to sea for a few hours to see how they conduct the NEAMAP survey, and have a chance for Virginia Institute for Marine Science (VIMS) and Northeast Fisheries Science Center researchers to talk with each other and with the captain and crew about their operation. They are proud of it, and we appreciate their willingness to have us aboard,” said Anna Mercer, chief of the science center’s Cooperative Research Branch.

Each fall since 2006 the NEAMAP inshore trawl survey team has worked southward from Rhode Island toward Cape Hatteras, sampling juvenile and adult fish from dawn until dusk during four legs.

Read the full release here

Sustainable Management Means We Can Have Our Tuna and Eat It Too

December 3, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Bluefin tuna is often used as a poster species for the impacts of overfishing. But we have good news for seafood lovers eyeing bluefin sashimi at their local sushi restaurant: U.S.-caught Atlantic bluefin tuna is a sustainable food choice.

Bluefin tuna are some of the most valuable fish in the Atlantic. In 2017 alone, U.S. commercial fishermen generated an estimated $9.6 million in revenue from harvesting bluefin. That year, fishermen earned an estimated $6.45 for every pound of bluefin they harvested–more than any other Atlantic tuna.

That value may sound low to those who’ve read about bluefin selling for millions or watched popular fishing shows touting higher prices for this species. As with any product, the value of bluefin will fluctuate with demand, quantity, and quality. Commercial marketing and traditions like celebrating the first bluefin purchased each year can also drive up prices in limited situations. But the million-dollar price tags occasionally reported are far from the norm. In fact, the median value a bluefin tuna in 2018 was just over $2,000.

Atlantic bluefin tuna are also a coveted recreational species that support millions of dollars in economic value each year. A 2015 study conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences analyzed recreational anglers’ willingness to pay for bluefin tuna trips. The results showed that the private boat bluefin tuna fishery had an estimated value of $14 million that year.

Read the full release here

Researchers to explore pre-permitting approach to aquaculture in New England

December 2, 2019 — The labyrinthine process of obtaining the proper permits to establish fish farms in federal waters has been frequently cited as a major obstacle to the advancement of the U.S. aquaculture sector.

Currently, an application to start an aquaculture operation in federal waters is reviewed by a plethora of federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA Fisheries, and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with a collection of state agencies if the proposed site is located near state waters. The long review process is often cited as being too complex and costly, according to Hauke Kite-Powell, a research specialist at the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ASMFC Seeks Proposals for Regional Pilot Projects in Support of Sustainable Aquaculture: Proposals Due January 15, 2020

December 2, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission), in partnership with the NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture, is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), seeking marine aquaculture pilot projects focused on sustainable aquatic farming techniques and regional business practices to grow U.S. domestic seafood. The geographic scope of the proposed projects is the U.S. East Coast states from Maine to Florida. The primary location of the proposed projects must be in the marine/estuarine environment. Examples of the types of pilot projects being sought through the RFP follow:

  • Research and development related to the production and distribution of shellfish seed stock.
  • Finfish, shellfish (other than oyster*), and seaweed farming systems, especially for those species new to aquaculture in the region or that use novel production systems.
  • Identification and development of Aquaculture Development Zones with pre-planning and pre-permitting for a range of aquaculture activities.
  • Resolution of issues (e.g., enforcement, water quality, public trust concerns or impacts) related to open water finfish farming in state waters.
  • Business incubators
  • Regional market and economic impact studies

NOAA Fisheries, through the Commission, is making available $625,000 for the funding period of July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Individual proposals should not exceed $200,000 or be less than $50,000. It is anticipated that approximately 4-6 projects will be funded. Eligible applicants include researchers at U.S. academic institutions, research laboratories, forprofit companies/firms, nonprofits, and state agencies. Applicants seeking to apply to the RFP must submit, as a single file, an electronic proposal by email no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on January 15, 2020. Please see the RFP for complete proposal details, qualifying requirements, and submission instructions. The RFP is available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/RFPs/ASMFC2020PilotAquacultureRFP_Nov2019.pdf.

Read the full release here

A crisis in the water is decimating this once-booming fishing town

November 29, 2019 — His ancestors were Portuguese colonialists who settled on this otherworldly stretch of coast, wedged between a vast desert and the southern Atlantic. They came looking for the one thing this barren region had in abundance: fish.

By the time Mario Carceija Santos was getting into the fishing business half a century later, in the 1990s, Angola had won independence and the town of Tombwa was thriving. There were 20 fish factories strung along the bay, a constellation of churches and schools, a cinema hall built in art deco, and, in the central plaza, massive drying racks for the tons upon tons of fish hauled out of the sea.

Since then, Tombwa’s fortunes have plummeted; Santos’s factory is one of just two remaining. The cinema hall is shuttered. Kids run around town barefoot instead of going to school. The central plaza is overgrown by weeds, its statue of a proud fisherman covered in bird droppings.

Sea temperatures off the Angolan coast have warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius — and possibly more — in the past century, according to a Washington Post analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

In recent years, multiple studies have identified the waters along Tombwa’s coast in particular as a fast-warming hot spot: In one independent analysis of satellite-based NOAA data, temperatures have risen nearly 2 degrees Celsius since 1982. That is more than three times the global average rate of ocean warming.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Carlos Rafael Inks $25 Million Deal with Blue Harvest Fisheries

November 29, 2019 — The highly-anticipated forced sell-off of “Codfather” Carlos Rafael’s fishing fleet appears to be near completion, only months after the convicted criminal unloaded his scallop boats.

Undercurrent News reports that Blue Harvest Fisheries has inked a $25 million deal to buy at least 35 vessels and skiffs from Rafael along with their permits and fishing quotas. Blue Harvest maintains fleets in Fairhaven and in Newport News, Virginia. It is backed by Bregal Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm.

The pending deal with Blue Harvest – which still must survive a “right of first refusal” where other harvesters could step forward – comes as Rafael remains behind bars.

Rafael was arrested in 2016 following a federal sting, and was convicted on 28 criminal counts in 2017. Rafael admitted to raking in illegal profits and gaming the system by mislabeling 700,000 pounds of harvested fish over four years. He also illegally avoided paying taxes. Rafael was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison. To settle a separate civil suit with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he was forced to sell his fishing fleet, pay $3 million in penalties, and never engage in the world of commercial fishing again.

Read the full story at WBSM