Saving Seafood

NOAA will cover groundfishing at-sea monitoring

August 15, 2018 — NOAA announced Tuesday that it will fully reimburse at-sea monitoring costs for Northeast groundfish sector vessels for the 2018 fishing year.

The reimbursements will extend to the 2017 fishing year at an additional 25 percent, raising the total reimbursement to 85 percent for last year.

“Effective at-sea monitoring is essential to the success and sustainability of this fishery,” Jon Hare, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said in a statement.. “This $10.3 million increase from Congress for groundfish at-sea monitoring provides additional economic stability for the sector vessels.”

In the past, NOAA has funded or subsidized the costs of monitoring, however, 2017, marked the first year funding wasn’t available to cover the full costs, the agency said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA to pay fishermen’s at-sea monitoring costs

August 15, 2018 — Commercial groundfishermen will not have to pay any at-sea monitoring costs in the current fishing year and will be reimbursed for an additional 25 percent of their 2017 fishing trips that included monitor coverage, NOAA Fisheries said Tuesday.

The expanded at-sea monitor funding, fueled by an additional $10.3 million secured by New Hampshire’s U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the current federal budget, means fishing vessels in the Northeast Multispecies groundfishery are eligible to be reimbursed for about 85 percent of their 2017 trips with at-sea monitors aboard.

“Effective at-sea monitoring is essential to the success and sustainability of this fishery,” Jon Hare, the director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center said in a statement. “This $10.3 million increase from Congress for groundfish at-sea monitoring provides additional economic stability for the sector vessels.”

The additional $10.3 million was part a $22.5 million appropriation to NOAA to fund both at-sea monitoring and court-mandated bycatch reporting requirements.

The increased funding will relieve commercial fishermen of a significant financial burden — estimated at $710 per day for boats with monitors — for at least this fishing year. It also halts — at least for now — NOAA Fisheries’ strategy of increasingly shifting the costs of at-sea monitors onto fishermen until industry bears the full cost of monitor coverage.

“This is very welcome money and good news all the way around,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition. “It’s a lot for groundfishermen to pay for, especially as quotas decline and they lose access to key stocks.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

An Ailing Orca Was Given Medication in the Wild for the First Time Ever

August 13, 2018 — A team of experts injected an ailing orca calf with a dose of antibiotics, in a medical intervention that’s never been tried before on a wild killer whale.

A team of biologists from NOAA Fisheries, Vancouver Aquarium, and other institutions have been tracking the three-year-old orca, named J50, or Scarlet, for weeks. They’re not entirely sure what’s wrong with her, but she’s dangerously underweight and often lethargic. Scarlet is a member of the J-Pod, a group of about 76 critically endangered southern resident orcas, or killer whales. Maintaining the life of each pod member, females especially, is crucially important, hence the extraordinary and unprecedented measure to administer medication.

Yesterday, Vancouver’s head veterinarian, Martin Haulena, managed to visually inspect Scarlet from a boat near Washington state’s San Juan Island. With the help of his team, Haulena administered a dose of antibiotics at close range using a dart, as AP reports. It’s the first time that a killer whale has been given medication while living in the wild, the CBC reports.

“Response teams reached J-Pod in Canadian waters and followed them into U.S. waters near San Juan Island. While very skinny and small, J50/Scarlet kept up well with her mother and siblings,” explained NOAA Fisheries in a press release. “Vancouver Aquarium’s veterinarian and the team conducted a visual assessment, obtained a breath sample that will help assess any infection, and administered antibiotics through a dart.”

Other orcas in Scarlet’s pod are not malnourished, so food shortage is not considered the problem.

Read the full story at Gizmodo

DAVID BERNHARDT: At Interior, we’re ready to bring the Endangered Species Act up to date

August 13, 2018 — A modern vision of conservation is one that uses federalism, public-private partnerships and market-based solutions to achieve sound stewardship. These approaches, combined with sensible regulations and the best available science, will achieve the greatest good in the longest term.

Last month, the Trump administration took this approach to bringing our government’s implementation of the Endangered Species Act into the 21st century. We asked ourselves how we can enhance conservation of our most imperiled wildlife while delivering good government for our citizens. We found room for improvement in the administration of the act.

When Congress created the Endangered Species Act, it built a tiered classification for our most at-risk wildlife, designing different protections for “endangered” and “threatened” species. The act was designed to give endangered species the most stringent protections while affording federal agencies the authority to tailor special rules for lower-risk, threatened species on a case-by-case basis.

It may surprise most Americans, however, that the highest level of protection is often applied, regardless of the classification, through application of a “blanket rule.” The use of this rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service automatically elevates protections for threatened species to the same level as those given to endangered species.

But automatically treating the threatened species as endangered places unnecessary regulatory burden on our citizens without additional benefit to the species. The blanket rule reflexively prohibits known habitat management practices, such as selective forest thinning and water management, that might ultimately benefit a threatened species.

Read the full opinion piece at The Washington Post

Georgia DNR Announces Red Snapper Reporting Program

August 9, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS –Disagreements regarding stock assessments for red snapper drives a significant amount of debate on whether the fishery should be open, how long it should be open and limits that should be imposed. However, the state Department of Natural Resources is advising recreational fishermen to participate in a data collection project that is in concert with NOAA Fisheries.

During discussion in March at the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting on Jekyll Island, Bill Kelly of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association emphasized the need for better data.

“We’ve got the (harvest) allocation that we think needs to be revisited on an annual basis — it’s easy enough to do with the data inputs nowadays, and then the second would be more frequent spot assessments on commercially important species, or economically important species, whether it’s the commercial sector or the recreational,” Kelly said.

To assist in better data collection, DNR advised different ways anglers can help develop “current information on the age, size and growth of red snapper in the population.”

One way is to discard red snapper carcasses in freezer chests along the coast. To draw in participants, DNR is offering a $50 Academy Sports gift card that will be awarded at random to two people. Also, folks can document their red snapper fishing trips through the smartphone app MyFishCount, or go to MyFishCount.com, and fill out a survey.

Along with these methods, state Coastal Resources Division staff will be on hand at boat ramps to interview people on their catch. For people who are releasing red snapper back into the water, CRD partnered with Yamaha and FishSmart to provide free descending devices that rapidly reintroduce the fish back to the depth they were caught, in an attempt to improve survival.

“Anglers have an opportunity to be citizen scientists by providing red snapper data,” Carolyn Belcher, CRD chief of Marine Fisheries, said in a statement. “During the last mini-season, with the help of anglers, CRD biologists examined 122 carcasses ranging in age from 1-to-19 years, with approximately 95 percent younger than 14. Data collected during 2018 will be combined with that from other South Atlantic states for future population assessments.”

Red snapper fishing is open in federal waters Aug. 10-12, and Aug. 17-19, with recreational fishermen limited to one fish per day with no size restriction. Freezer coolers are in place at Two-Way Fish Camp, 250 Ricefield Way, in Brunswick; Morningstar Marina, 206 Marina Dr. on St. Simons Island; and St. Simons Fishing Club, 1000 Arthur J. Moore Dr., on St. Simons Island.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

US buyers paying more for seafood in 2018

August 9, 2018 — The value of U.S. seafood imports increased significantly for the first six months of the year, while volume dropped slightly, according to new data from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The overall value of seafood purchased by U.S. buyers spiked from around USD 10.4 billion (EUR 8.95 billion) for the first six months of 2017 to around USD 10.9 billion (EUR 9.4 billion) during the same timeframe in 2018, NMFS found. Meanwhile, the overall volume of imported seafood declined from 1.374 kilos last year to 1.371 kilos during the first six months of 2018.

Fresh Atlantic salmon, along with shelf-stable, fresh, and frozen tuna, were among the biggest gainers in dollar value.

The value of fresh farmed Atlantic salmon fillets spiked from around USD 486 million (EUR 418 million) for the first six months of 2017 to around USD 527 million (EUR 454 million) in 2018.

Imports of fresh farmed Atlantic salmon from Chile more than doubled it figures, rising from around USD 15 million (EUR 13 million) in 2017 to USD 32 million (EUR 28 million) this year.

The value of frozen NSPF tuna fillets skyrocketed from around USD 157 million (EUR 135 million) in the first six month of 2017 to USD 180.8 million (EUR 156 million) from January to June this year. The value of fresh yellowfin tuna fillets rose from USD 79.6 million (EUR 68 million) last year to 83.3 million (EUR 72 million) in 2018.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

VIRGINIA: Menhaden landings pacing below disputed cap

August 8, 2018 — Chesapeake Bay landings of menhaden are coming in at a pace well below a controversial cap imposed by an interstate fisheries commission, Virginia Marine Resources Commissioner Steven Bowman said.

As of the end of June, landings for the so-called reduction fishery came in at 24,000 metric tons, Bowman told the management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) this week.

He said that meant landings this year would almost certainly come in below the 51,000-ton cap the interstate commission imposed last year — a cut of more than 40 percent that the General Assembly balked at adopting.

Bowman, joined by Maryland’s director of fisheries, asked the board to hold off declaring that Virginia was not in compliance with the cap because the General Assembly had not written the 51,000-ton limit into state law.

That finding, if adopted by the commission and accepted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, could shut down the menhaden fishery, which employs about 300 people working on Omega Protein’s fishing boats and its processing plant in Reedville, on the Northern Neck. While the cap applies only to menhaden caught by the big “purse seine” vessels Omega operates to catch fish to be processed for oil and fish meal, board members said a finding of noncompliance could shut down the bait fishery, in which smaller operators use a different technique to catch fish used by crabbers and in commercial fin-fisheries

Instead, Bowman and Blazer proposed that the commission find Virginia out of compliance if landings this year actually exceeded 51,000 tons.

That effort failed, but the board decided to delay until February acting on an alternative declaring Virginia out of compliance.

Omega spokesman Ben Landry said he believed the menhaden board’s decision to delay acting reflected commissioners’ new-found concern, underlined by NOAA’s Lynch, about the scientific basis for the cap.

“We have no intention of blowing past the 51,000,” he said. “But it’s an artificial number … our concern is flexibility; if there are storms out in the ocean, we’d like to be able to come into the bay.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

Vets ready for rare efforts to save ailing endangered orca

August 8, 2018 — Experts are preparing rare emergency efforts to administer antibiotics or feed live salmon to try to save a young emaciated orca that’s part of a critically endangered pod of killer whales.

But veterinarians haven’t spotted the 3½-year-old female killer whale in several days. They are waiting for her to show up again in Washington state waters so they can zip out on a boat to do a health assessment, said Teri Rowles, marine mammal health and stranding coordinator for NOAA Fisheries.

The whale known as J50 is underweight and may have an infection.

“It is very possible that she has succumbed at this point and that we may never see her again,” Rowles told reporters Tuesday. “We are hopeful that there’s still a chance that we will be able to assist her with medical treatment to give her enough time to get nourishment and treat infections, if indeed that is what is causing her decline.”

The orca, which was last seen Friday, is part of an endangered population that has dwindled to just 75 whales. Another female orca from the group that spends time in U.S. Northwest waters attracted global attention as the grieving animal tried to keep her dead baby afloat.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Gloucester fishing documentary wins film prize; Screenings planned along Mass., NH seacoasts

August 6, 2018 –Filmmaker David Wittkower knew he had to do something or his commercial fishing documentary “Dead in the Water” might indeed be dead in the water.

Following eight months of showings throughout Massachusetts and other parts of coastal New England, Wittkower’s film, which traces the erosion of the once-proud Gloucester groundfish fleet, was largely rejected by most of the film festivals the director tried to enter.

The over-arching criticism was that the film lacked balance, failing to properly include the perspective of federal fishing regulators — most specifically the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries — and environmentalists as the counterpoint to the already powerful message of an industry in trouble.

Wittkower, who produced the film with former Gloucester Mayor John Bell and Angela Sanfilippo of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, also received feedback that the film — at 80 minutes — was just too long to be easily included in the lineups of films assembled by the various festivals.

So Wittkower, originally from Rockport, went to work. He shortened the film from 80 minutes to one hour and added additional perspective from the regulatory and environmental camps.

Read the full story at The Eagle-Tribune

Florida Congressman’s Billfish Legislation Would Take a Toll on Western Pacific Commercial Industry

August 6, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A freshman Florida Congressman’s bill is expected to have dire repercussions thousands of miles away in the Western Pacific — and to American consumers.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council said consumers may soon be deprived of sustainably harvested domestic marlin products if President Trump sign legislation to prohibit interstate commerce of billfish (not including swordfish) landed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The bill, introduced by Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., passed the House on June 26 and the Senate on July 30 and is now headed to the president.

“It is upsetting, in this era of tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the $12 billion U.S. seafood trade deficit, that highly monitored U.S. Pacific Island fishing and seafood communities may suffer hardship should this legislation become law,” Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds said in a press release.

Under current law, billfish caught by U.S. vessels that are landed in Hawaii or other U.S. Pacific Islands may be sold to markets on the U.S. mainland. More than 550,000 pounds of American-caught billfish landed in the Pacific Islands are annually marketed in the continental U.S. The billfish was worth approximately $830,000 in 2017 dockside value. When the dockside value is expanded through wholesale and retail markets, the estimated annual value is approximately $2.5 million.

The commercial harvest of Atlantic billfish has been prohibited in the United Sates since 1988 because several Atlantic billfish species are overfished and/or subject to overfishing (e.g., blue marlin, white marlin and East Atlantic sailfish). By contrast, Pacific and Western Pacific billfish populations are not overfished nor subject to overfishing, with the exception of striped marlin, due to international fishing, the Council said in the statement. A Billfish Certificate of Eligibility (COE) is required to accompany billfish to any dealer or processor who subsequently receives or possesses the billfish. The COE documents the vessel, homeport, port of offloading and date of offloading and ensures the fish is not from the Atlantic or foreign fisheries.

NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Chris Oliver said in December 2017 he has “full confidence in these existing management processes to sustainably manage billfish populations.”

Congresswomen Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii; Madeleine Z. Bordallo, D-Guam; and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, R-American Samoa, in an Additional Views statement on H.R. 4528, said the legislation “will negatively impact the livelihoods of fishermen in Hawaii, Guam and the Pacific Insular Areas by closing off the only off-island market for U.S.-caught billfish.” Acknowledging that several Atlantic billfish species are subject to overfishing, the Congresswomen said, “We support needed-conservation efforts in the Atlantic, but do not believe that Pacific fisheries need to be targeted in order to achieve these goals.”

The Council and Pacific Island lawmakers also have the support of Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

In a June 5 letter to the Council, Ross said, “We believe the legislation would not advance the conservation of billfish significantly, and would block a small amount of sustainably harvested domestic product from entering commerce on the U.S. mainland.”

However, Soto’s bill demonstrates the sportfishing industry’s influence in the Southeastern U.S. and furthers the divide between sport and commercial fishermen that has become prevalent in some regions of the country. The bill, titled the Billfish Conservation Act, was supported by primarily sportfishing interests including the American Sportfishing Association, Coastal Conservation Association, Center for Sportfishing Policy, and more.

“We’re grateful to have received overwhelming congressional and external support for our legislation to help protect sharks and billfish,” Soto said in a statement. “These creatures are fundamental to recreational fishing in parts of Florida, but they are often exploited by commercial fishing, that’s why we must do our part to protect them.”

NMFS estimates the United States imports more than 80 percent of the seafood consumed in the nation (www.fishwatch.gov/sustainable-seafood/the-global-picture), the Council said. According to NMFS data, the United States imported more than 6 billion pounds of seafood valued at more than $21.5 billion in 2017, which is more imported seafood than at any point in the nation’s history.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.