Saving Seafood

Regulators to allow banned fishermen to sell quota

July 20, 2018 — In a long-awaited decision that could have a significant impact on New Bedford, federal regulators said Thursday they will allow fishermen who had been banned from operating to sell their quota to other vessels, a move that city officials hope will boost the local economy.

Last fall, in an unprecedented punishment, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration banned 60 fishing permit-holders in the New Bedford area from allowing their boats to sail, after the owner of many of those vessels failed to account for the fish they caught and pleaded guilty to orchestrating a major fraud.

That decision resulted in the forced docking of 22 groundfishing boats operated by Carlos Rafael, a disgraced New Bedford fishing mogul known as “The Codfather.”

Many of the boats’ captains and crews, who collectively held a quota of 20 million pounds — or roughly 10 percent — of the region’s cod, flounder, and other bottom-dwelling species, have been out of work since November. The ban has also hurt many related businesses in New Bedford that supplied the vessels with rope, fuel, ice, and other fishing necessities.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Commercial Closure for Snowy Grouper in South Atlantic Federal Waters on July 24, 2018

July 20, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

WHAT/WHEN:

  • The commercial harvest of snowy grouper in federal waters of the South Atlantic will close at 12:01 a.m., local time, on July 24, 2018. During the commercial closure, all sale or purchase of snowy grouper is prohibited, and harvest or possession of snowy grouper in or from federal waters is limited to the recreational bag and possession limits while the recreational sector is open.

WHY THIS CLOSURE IS HAPPENING:

  • The 2018 commercial catch limit is 144,315 pounds gutted weight, or 170,291 pounds whole weight. Commercial landings are projected to reach the commercial catch limit. According to the accountability measure, harvest should close to prevent the catch limit from being exceeded.

AFTER THE CLOSURE:

  • The closure applies in both state and federal waters for vessels that have a federal commercial permit for South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper.
  • The prohibition on sale or purchase during a closure for snowy grouper does not apply to fish that were harvested, landed ashore, and sold prior to 12:01 a.m. on July 24, 2018, and were held in cold storage by a dealer or processor.
  • The 2019 commercial fishing season for snowy grouper in the South Atlantic will open on January 1, 2019, with a catch limit of 153,935 pounds gutted weight, or 181,644 pounds whole weight.

This bulletin provides only a summary of the existing regulations. Full regulations can be found in the Federal Register at https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=383bc195ccbeab4fd6bec1c24905df34&node=sp50.12.622.i&rgn=div6#se50.12.622_1193

NOAA Lifts Groundfishing Ban on Northeast Sector IX Vessels; Will Issue Interim Rule

July 19, 2018 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Tomorrow, NOAA is scheduled to publish an interim final rule that “determines the quota overages that Northeast Fishery Sector IX is responsible for paying back, allocates annual catch entitlements to Northeast Fishery Sectors VII and IX for the 2018 fishing year, approves a new lease-only operations plan for Northeast Fishery Sector IX, and approves a substantive amendment to Northeast Fishery Sector VII operations plan,” in the Federal Register. When the rule is published, the supporting documentation, including the approved operations plans, will also be available. NOAA Fisheries will accept comments for 30 days and reserves the right to change the rule based on comments and/or new information.

The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Massachusetts has reported that, “Nearly eight months to the day after NOAA closed groundfishing for Carlos Rafael vessels, the agency lifted the ban on Thursday that had put at least 80 fishermen out of work.”

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren issued the following statement: “This plan allows our fishing families and business to get back to work. One man committed criminal actions and he’s justifiably in jail, but a lot of innocent people and businesses paid a price for his fraud. Finally, the industry can now move forward and I will continue to do everything to help fishermen and their way of life that embodies the Massachusetts spirit.”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey issued the following statement: “NOAA’s actions mean that our impacted New Bedford fishermen will be able to get back in the water. I am glad that fishing sectors IX and VII finally have a path forward to restore the important balance between sustainable fishing and fishermen’s livelihoods. I will continue to monitor this situation to ensure continued progress and a fair resolution so we can ensure that our Massachusetts fishermen and fishing-related businesses thrive.”

“It’s finally happening,” U.S. Rep. Bill Keating said. “We’re happy. It’s something that we’ve been doing everything in our power to encourage and to affect a swift resolution.”

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell issued the following statement: “NOAA’s long-awaited decision to approve sector operation plans and allow limited groundfish operations to resume is an important first step and welcome relief to many New Bedford fishing families and waterfront businesses impacted by the closures of Sectors 7 and 9. I applaud all those industry leaders and elected officials who worked with the City and the Port Authority to constructively engage NOAA and highlight the economic consequences of the closure on innocent parties. Our focus now will be to advocate for the timely conclusion of the remaining civil enforcement case against Carlos Rafael and the transfer of his vessels and permits to third parties in the Port of New Bedford. Only then can we move past lease-only arrangements and return to normal groundfishing operations and management.”

Read more coverage at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Read the full interim rule here

 

THE SALEM NEWS: Fisheries act is a chance to build trust

July 19, 2018 — There’s a little something for everyone to hate in the House’s proposed renewal of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Commercial fishermen feel it gives too much to recreational fishermen and environmentalists. Recreational fishermen say it goes too easy on their commercial counterparts, and the environmental lobby says the measure, which passed the House last week along largely partisan lines, will undo years of progress in restoring fish stocks.

We are left with what we have had for decades — a pitched battle among competing interests, with no end in sight. Congress must do better to help guarantee that the science behind management decisions is sound and easily understandable.

The act has been controversial since it went into effect in 1976, as the crisis in the nation’s fishing industry reached its peak. The measure established a 200-mile fishing limit off the American coastline, banned foreign factory trawlers and set up regional councils to oversee the rebuilding of depleted fish stocks. The law was modified and reauthorized in 1986, 1996 and 2006.

The most recent attempt to update the law would give the regional councils more flexibility in managing fish stocks, and not tie conservation plans so closely to stock surveys and other research carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at The Salem News

NOAA Fisheries Propose Northeast Skate Catch Limit Increase

July 18, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries is accepting public comment on its proposed catch and landing limits for Northeast skate.

The federal government is looking to increase the catch limit for the 2018-19 fishing year by almost 1 percent from 2017 to over 69 million pounds.

Skate is used for both food and bait.

NOAA is accepting public comment on its Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan through August 6.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

NORTH CAROLINA: Oyster Sanctuary receives funding further expansion

July 18, 2018 — The Swan Island Oyster Sanctuary project has wrapped up its second phase and has received funding for a third phase in their expansion.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced a recommendation of $950,000 to go towards the third phase of the sanctuary’s restoration, a contribution that will be matched by the state through the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

According to Erin Fleckenstein, coastal scientist and regional manager for the North Carolina Coastal Foundation, the project leaders requested $1.5 million from NOAA and thus $1.5 from the state, as NOAA had stipulated that the state must match its own contribution.

“It’s slightly less but it’s still a great contribution towards our goals,” Fleckenstein said.

Swan Island is home to the largest oyster restoration project in the state, according to Fleckenstein. North Carolina is home to 10-to-50 percent of the historic population of the vulnerable eastern oyster, compared to the one-to-10 percent of historic population present in Chesapeake Bay. But this is still low, a problem the sanctuary creators are hoping to change.

Read the full story at The Daily News

Low prices have arrived in New Bedford but where are the big scallops?

July 18, 2018 — The seafood fortune tellers got a lot of things right about the 2018 Atlantic sea scallop season, including a dramatic decline in prices for the largest sizes.

From April 1 through June 30, the first three months of the season, buyers paid an average of $10.13 for U-10 scallops at the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), the  seafood auction house in New Bedford, Massachusetts, BASE reports. That’s a 29% decline from the $14.37 paid for such scallops during the first three months of the 2017 season.

U-12s, meanwhile, went for $9.16 during the most recent three-month period, 37% less than the $14.58 paid during the same period in 2017, according to BASE.

Data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicate that just 516,840 (7%) of the roughly 7.6 million pounds sold at the auction between April 1 and June 30 were U-10s — the size designation for the largest scallops, meaning it would take 10 to fill a standard-size bucket. During the most recent period studied — the first 11 days of July — an average of $9.71/lb was paid for the 89,864 lbs of U-10s sold on the auction floor, all from the region known as Closed Area 1, according to the NOAA data.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Trump’s big reorg plan gets a second and third look

July 17, 2018 — Senators this week will scrutinize the Trump administration’s extremely ambitious government reorganization plan that would amplify the Interior Department’s clout.

Some lawmakers are already applauding the general idea, though key reorganization details remain lacking, including potential costs, savings, job losses, relocations, office closures and timelines.

The Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries would merge within Interior under the plan. This, too, is an old idea. President Obama proposed something similar in 2012, using familiar-sounding language

“The Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in salt water,” Obama said at the time. “No business or nonprofit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations. … It has to change.”

It didn’t change.

The plan would also merge the Energy Department’s applied energy offices on renewables, nuclear and fossil energy into one “Office of Energy Innovation.” The White House also wants to establish a new “Office of Energy Resources and Economic Strategy.”

House members did not mention or raise questions about the energy- and environment-related moves during last month’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on reorganization.

Those moves, though, will face the heat at Thursday’s hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, whose members have already blasted a proposal to privatize power marketing administrations.

Read the full story at E&E News

MADELEINE FENDERSON & JASON GOLDSTEIN: Taking action to curb climate change could throw lifeline to Maine lobsters

July 16, 2018 — As most Maine residents are well aware by now, climate change does not bode well for our fisheries in the Gulf of Maine. For decades, the American lobster has been the hero of our commercial fishing industry – its fame, sustainability, market value and sweet taste have made it the success it is today. In 2017, the American lobster accounted for 76.2 percent of the total value of our state revenue from fisheries, which boasted a hefty $433.7 million. But what exactly is going to happen to the Maine lobster as our coastal waters increase in temperature, and what will this mean for our state?

Contrary to popular belief, our local crustaceans will not pack up and move north to Canada. Additionally, they will not die all at once when the sea hits a certain temperature. Like humans, lobsters have a specific range of temperatures they can survive in, and once the temperature reaches a threshold, these animals face some challenges. If humans consistently lived in environments too hot for us, our bodies would have stress reactions, and some of our bodily functions, like our immune or reproductive systems, may not work as efficiently. The same may apply to lobsters.

This question – could climate change affect the productivity by which lobsters reproduce? – is being answered in part at the Wells National Estuary Research Reserve, one of 29 nationally funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-supported reserves dedicated to coastal research, education and stewardship.

Researchers at the Wells Reserve laboratory are working to determine to what extent shell disease (a topical bacterial infection that erodes shell, also known as shell rot) influences how many eggs female lobsters can successfully carry and maintain. Last summer, I had the privilege of working as a research intern, through the NOAA Five Colleges Program, to work specifically on this ground-breaking project with Jason Goldstein, the research director at the reserve.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Entangled whale spotted off Cape Cod in October is freed from nets in N.Y.

July 16, 2018 — A young humpback whale that had been tangled up in fishing nets since October was finally freed Wednesday, after responders found the animal in New York Harbor and successfully cut away the rope, officials said.

The whale was first spotted near Cape Cod in October, with gillnet fishing gear, including ropes and small floats, wrapped around its upper jaw, according to a Thursday statement from Provincetown’s Center for Coastal Studies.

Teams quickly responded but were only partially successful in cutting away the ropes, and a “tight wrap of line” was still firmly wound around the whale’s jaw, eye, and blowhole, according to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“If left alone, the animal had no chance,” NOAA Whale Disentanglement Coordinator David Morin said in the statement. “The whale would have died a slow and painful death. Even in response, the tight wrap left such a small area — about a foot or two wide — that we could cut.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe