Saving Seafood

Southeastern Fisheries Association: Who Gets the Fish Now?

May 17, 2018 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

The American Sportfishing Association and other anti-commercial fishing groups told Congress that anglers only get 3% of the fish. They lie!

From the Virginia/North Carolina border through the Florida Keys, see how many pounds of fish are allotted for the non-fishermen? 

SEE HOW MANY POUNDS OF FISH ARE ALLOTTED FOR THE SPORT-FISHERMEN?

Is it legal to take so much fish away from non-fishing citizens?

National marine manufacturers, foreign outboard motor, gear, electronic companies and anglers clubs are pushing to privatize federal fish resources exclusively for sport fishing.

The following data is derived from NOAA’s listing of the Allowable Catch Levels (ACLs) for each of the following species. View the source material in its entirety here.

WHO GETS THE FISH NOW?

FISH Species #’s Non-fishing Consumers (Commercial) Anglers
Atlantic Spade Fish 150,552 661,926
Bar Jack 13,228 49,021
Black Grouper 96,884 165,750
Blueline Tile 87,251 87,277
Cobia NY to GA 50,000 620,000
Cobia East FL(Gulf) 70,000 860,000
Deepwater Complex 131,628 38,628
Dolphin 1,534,485 13,810,361
Gag grouper 335,188 348,194
Golden Tile 313,310 2,187 (Number of Fish)
Grey Trigger 312,324 404,675
Grunts 217,903 618,122
Hog Fish NC-GA 23,456 988 (Number of fish)
Hog Fish FLK-EFL 4,524 18,617 (Number of fish)
Jacks 189,422 267,799
Mutton 104,231 768,857
Porgies 36,348 106,914
Red Grouper 343,200 436,800
Red Snapper 0 0
Scamp 219,375 1,169,308
Shallow Grouper 55,542 48,648
Snapper (Exclud. R Snapper) 344,575 1,169,308
Snowy Grouper 144,315 4,983 (Number of Fish)
Vermillion Snapper 862,290 406,080
Wahoo 70,542 1,724,418
Wreckfish 385,985 20,315
Black Seabass 755,724 1,001,177
Greater Amberjack 769,388 1,167,837
King Mackerel 5,900,000 10,900,000
Spanish Mackerel 3,330,000 2,727,000
Yellow Tail Snaper 1,596,510 1,440,990
Total Allocations 17,912,450 40,000,785

 

NOAA report: Number of overfished stocks in U.S. reaches all time low

May 17, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The number of domestic fish stocks listed as overfished has reached an all-time low, with three species of West Coast rockfish rebuilt to sustainable levels, according to the 2017 Status of U.S. Fisheries report to Congress. The number of stocks on the overfishing list also remained near all-time lows, an encouraging indicator that the U.S. fishery management system is achieving its long-term sustainability goals.

“Ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks provides two key benefits for the American people,” said Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “First, it strengthens the value of U.S. fisheries’ contribution to the economy, which in 2015 exceeded $208 billion dollars. Second, it supports the communities and marine ecosystems that depend on healthy fisheries.”

Three West Coast stocks were rebuilt to target levels in 2017, bringing the total number of rebuilt U.S. marine fish stocks to 44 since 2000:

  • Bocaccio
  • Darkblotched rockfish
  • Pacific ocean perch

The overfishing list at the end of 2017 included 30 stocks, and the overfished list included 35 stocks. Overall, 91 percent of U.S marine fish stocks are not subject to overfishing and 87 percent are not overfished.  A stock is on the overfishing list when the harvest rate – a direct result of fishing activities – is too high. A stock is on the overfished list when the population size of a stock is too low, whether because of fishing or other causes, such as environmental changes.

Six stocks were removed from the overfishing list:

  • Sailfish – Western Atlantic
  • Blue king crab – Pribilof Islands
  • Puerto Rico Wrasses Complex
  • Coho salmon – Puget Sound: Hood Canal
  • Winter flounder – Georges Bank
  • Witch flounder – Northwestern Atlantic Coast (due to significant scientific uncertainty, the status of this stock cannot be determined following a 2017 assessment)

Six stocks came off the overfished list:

  • Yelloweye rockfish – Pacific Coast
  • Winter flounder – Georges Bank
  • Gray triggerfish – Gulf of Mexico
  • Red snapper – Gulf of Mexico
  • Pacific ocean perch – Pacific Coast
  • Bluefin tuna – Western Atlantic (due to significant scientific uncertainty, the status of this stock cannot be determined following a 2017 assessment)

“Rebuilding stocks to fully utilize our fisheries is one way NOAA can reduce our nation’s seafood deficit,” said Oliver. “We look forward to exploring innovative approaches to fisheries management and working with our partners to ensure America’s fisheries remain the world’s most sustainable.”

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and our other social media channels.

 

SMAST Receives Scallop Awards to Fund Drop Camera Surveys

May 17, 2018 — The NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) are pleased to announce 15 projects have been selected for funding through the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program, including three projects proposed by the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) in New Bedford.

“The Scallop RSA Program truly has become one of the flagships of the scallop fishery,” said New England Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn. “The collaborative efforts that take place at sea between fishermen and researchers go a long way toward enhancing our understanding of what’s happening with the resource. The results of this RSA work funnel back to the Council and support stock assessments. Without a doubt, the Scallop RSA Program helps us better manage our extremely valuable scallop fishery.”

Projects will address research priorities established by the NEFMC, with particular focus on resource surveys. The awards are expected to generate more than $12 million; $3 million to fund research, and $9 million to compensate industry partners that harvest set-aside quota.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Northeast squid fishermen, processors optimistic about steady markets

May 16, 2018 — The northeast longfin (loligo) squid fishery runs year-round, with the commercial harvest typically peaking in spring and fall. The shortfin (illex) squid season typically gains traction from May and runs into the fall, with catch largely related to feeding and spawning migration and market conditions.

Ex-vessel price for longfin varies from year to year and is driven by fresh market demand instead of freezer demand.

“It depends on the run, but fishermen get around $1.40 per pound, or higher, if the fresh market is hot,” said Eric Reid, general manager of the Rhode Island processor Seafreeze Shoreside. “That price doesn’t seem to want to go anywhere. The fishery is driven by the processor price, which is strong.”

NOAA approved new squid specifications for the 2018-20 fishing years. The annual quota for shortfin was set at 50.52 million pounds, and the longfin quota is similar at 50.56 million pounds.

“Currently, weather is determining the catch more than anything,” said Reid. “Fishing has not been spectacular yet, but we’ve been severely constrained for the past month or so. It’s weather dependent, but there are signs that the fish are around.”

“Right now, the domestic market demand is extremely good in the short term,” said Reid. “Once we get into our spring fishery, a lot more vessels are involved, and they are closer to the shore, so we will see how that impacts things.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Scallop RSA Program: NEFMC and NOAA Announce 15 Awards Selected for 2018-2019 funding

May 16, 2018 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

 

The New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) are pleased to announce that 15 projects have been selected for 2018-2019 funding through the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program.

“The Scallop RSA Program truly has become one of the flagships of the scallop fishery,” said New England Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn. “The collaborative efforts that take place at sea between fishermen and researchers go a long way toward enhancing our understanding of what’s happening with the resource. The results of this RSA work funnel back to the Council and support stock assessments. Without a doubt, the RSA program helps us better manage our – Virginia Institute of Marine Science photo extremely valuable scallop fishery.”

Projects will address research priorities established by the Council, with a particular focus on resource surveys. The awards are expected to generate more than $12 million: $3 million to fund research; and $9 million to compensate industry partners who harvest set-aside quota

“We are excited to be able to work with the New England Fishery Management Council, industry, and scientists to fund sea scallop science through the Research Set-Aside Program,” said NEFSC Science and Research Director Dr. Jon Hare. “The projects funded support surveys, bycatch mitigation, and biological studies, all with the purpose of improving the information used in the management of the sea scallop resource.”

The New England Council established the Sea Scallop RSA Program to address research questions that support management of the scallop resource. The Council sets the research priorities and researchers compete for funding through a federal grant competition managed by NOAA Fisheries.

No federal funds are provided to support the research. Instead, projects are awarded pounds of scallops, which have been “set aside” from the annual fishery quota for this purpose. Successful applicants partner with the fishing industry to harvest their set-aside award to generate funds for the research. There are active research set-aside programs for Atlantic sea scallops, Atlantic herring, and monkfish.

2018-2019 Scallop RSA Award Summary

The awards fall into three categories: scallop surveys (dredge, drop camera, and HabCam); bycatch mitigation; and sea scallop biology.

Scallop Surveys

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) received new awards to conduct dredge surveys in Closed Area I, Closed Area II, and the Nantucket Lightship. Under an existing award from last year, VIMS also will conduct a dredge survey of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. As part of ongoing efforts to better understand scallop survey dredge performance, VIMS investigators received an award to evaluate the hydrodynamic characteristics of both lined and unlined survey dredges in the largest flume tank in the world, located in St. John’s, Newfoundland at Memorial University’s Marine Institute.

The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) received three awards to conduct surveys using a drop-camera array. Through these awards, researchers plan to conduct high-resolution surveys of the Nantucket Lightship, Closed Area I, Great South Channel, and select portions of the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will conduct Habitat Camera Mapping System (HabCam) optical surveys throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight and on the northern flank of Georges Bank. In addition to these surveys, researchers will continue to evaluate dredge effects on habitat and habitat recovery in the Closed Area II Habitat Area of Particular Concern. Coonamessett Farm Foundation will conduct a HabCam survey of the Nantucket Lightship and Southern Flank of Georges Bank.

Bycatch Mitigation

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will continue its seasonal survey on Georges Bank, collecting information on bycatch rates for yellowtail flounder and other species relative to scallop meat yield. These data also will be used to evaluate sea scallop health and meat quality, biological questions about several flounder species, and to examine lobsters for shell disease.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will continue its loggerhead sea turtle tagging program, receiving funds to tag up to 20 loggerheads with water activated tags. Tag data will be used to evaluate spatial and temporal overlap between loggerhead sea turtles and the scallop fishery.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation also will be testing a dredge twine-top cover net in an attempt to quantify dredge selectivity characteristics.

Sea Scallop Biology

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will investigate sea scallop density-dependence factors that may be affecting growth, mortality, and reproduction of scallops in the Nantucket Lightship and Elephant Trunk areas. In addition, VIMS will conduct a pilot study to extend the current stock assessment model to better account for sea scallop ages with a particular focus on the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Nantucket Lightship areas.

WHOI will receive support to determine if a gonadosomatic index (GSI) can be calculated from Light Field 3D images of shucked scallops collected during fishing operations. The GSI is used to assess maturity and spawning events in many species of fish and shellfish, including scallops. If successful, this could improve the ability to collect and quantify scallop maturation and spawning data during the course of routine fishery sampling procedures.

The 2018-2019 award listings can be found on the Northeast Fisheries Science Center website at: https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/news/scallop-rsa-2018-2019/.

RSA award announcements and answers to “frequently asked questions” also are available at https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/rsa_program.html.

Visit the New England Council’s scallop webpage: https://www.nefmc.org/management-plans/scallops.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Report slams faulty NOAA probe of observer deaths

May 15, 2018 — A review team today released a long-awaited report that criticizes NOAA Fisheries for not doing enough to investigate the unusual deaths of three fisheries observers, saying in one case there had been “an information vacuum.”

While all three observers were lost in the line of duty, the causes of their deaths remain inconclusive, and the agency should have done more with other federal agencies to determine what went wrong, the 545-page report concluded.

“While aware that NOAA Fisheries is not an investigative agency, and that jurisdictional and geographical issues were very complex in two of the three cases, the review team believes that more could have been done in cooperation with other agencies involved to pursue more comprehensive and transparent closure of these tragic incidents,” the report said.

Members of an external review team that conducted the study found during field visits that many observers were not even aware that three of their colleagues had died in a single year.

“It remains troubling that three observers … were lost in the line of duty over the space of a year, yet there has to date been no official closure or systematic analysis of lessons learned with respect to any of them,” the report said.

The observers are assigned to fishing vessels, collecting data and making sure fishermen follow federal rules. NOAA has roughly 900 observers and at-sea monitors, who have college degrees and are professionally trained.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission To Consider Changes To Shrimp Trawling Industry

May 15, 2018 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission plans to discuss and possibly vote on new gear requirements in the shrimp trawl fishery at their quarterly business meeting in New Bern on Wednesday and Thursday.

A three-year study identified four new gear configurations that reduce finfish bycatch by at least 40 percent.  The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries and N.C. Sea Grant worked with commercial fishermen and local net makers to test 14 different trawl net configurations.

“Each time that we met, they would define what gears to be tested and, you know, as the three-year process went on, we started seeing some devices that showed more promise and we started focusing our efforts on those type of devices.”

Kevin Brown, gear development biologist with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries says nearly 314,000 pounds of fish and shrimp were sampled during the study.

Read the full story at WTEB

 

Senate Should Confirm Barry Myers to Lead NOAA

May 14, 2018 — NOAA – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – needs its leader! President Trump nominated Barry Lee Myers, the CEO of AccuWeather, to the post in mid-October. The Senate Commerce Committee has twice advanced Myers’ nomination to the full Senate. All that’s needed to fill this important job is a majority vote on the Senate floor, which both Democrats and Republicans expect to happen. Unfortunately, partisan politics keeps getting in the way, delaying the vote.

Why is moving this along important? The Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season begins June 1; tornado season has already started. In the first few days of May alone, 18 tornadoes were reported in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. In addition, 117 severe storms ravaged the Plains. The experienced professionals at NOAA can deal with the daily challenges of severe weather. But bigger decisions to carry out congressionally mandated improvements in hurricane and tornado forecasting require the authority of a Senate-confirmed nominee. As does putting a new hurricane-hunter plane into operation and prioritizing seasonal forecasts for farmers and ranchers. The nation also has a huge seafood trade imbalance that needs the attention of top NOAA leadership.

Few people are as qualified to head NOAA as Barry Myers. He has successfully headed a large, complex, science-based organization that is one of the country’s – and the world’s – leading creators and distributors of weather forecasts, data and scientific information. In other words, Myers is a veteran executive in the areas in which NOAA operates.

Myers also has worked for more than 30 years to make NOAA a better, stronger and more transparent organization. He helped establish the American Weather Enterprise, which combines the resources of NOAA, academic and research institutions, and America’s private-sector weather companies. The federal government works with industry leaders including Myers to distribute weather data free of charge to the American people. In fact, Myers has been repeatedly honored for helping to bring to the nation these major advancements, making the U.S. the envy of the world in how it provides weather information to its citizens.

Senate offices have received more than 60 letters from individuals and organizations supporting his confirmation, including strong backing from the past four leaders of the U. S. National Weather Service who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations. In addition, the seafood industry has overwhelmingly advocated his confirmation with letters of support from seafood processors and others in the fisheries industry ranging from ship captains to sport fishermen.

Members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities consider Myers’ experience at the helm of a family-based business to be a special asset for his role at NOAA. They recognize this connection as a skill set no other leader of NOAA has had. Many American seafood-harvesting and processing companies are multi-generational, family-based businesses and his understanding of them is unique. While individuals with impressive scientific credentials have led NOAA in the past, the coalition believes Myers brings to the agency much-needed leadership, vision and managerial skills.

Read the full op-ed at Real Clear Politics

New Bedford Standard-Times: groundfishermen need to get back to work

May 14, 2018 — It was a bittersweet start to the fishing season on May 1.

Bittersweet because much of New Bedford’s already battered groundfish fleet could not go to sea.

Nearly 60 permits in Sectors VII and IX did not receive quota allocations from NOAA. The federal government withheld their quota because of overages accumulated by fleet owner Carlos Rafael when he admitted last year that he had falsified the numbers of fish he had taken, substituting valuable species subject to quotas for ones that were not so.

Rafael is in prison now but the results of his misdeeds continue to be paid by the community that made him rich. About 80 fishermen have been out of work since November when NOAA first instituted its groundfish ban for the sector in which Rafael perpetuated his fraud. Shoreside businesses, including the ones that manufacture nets and ice and repair boats, have also been greatly affected by the cut to New Bedford’s groundfish effort.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Federal delegation ‘solidly behind’ New Bedford in fishing fight

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Prior to a town hall-style meeting in New Bedford on Saturday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren quietly gathered with fellow senator Ed Markey and Congressman William Keating in the Wharfinger Building on Pier 3. Inside, the three legislators sat for more than an hour, listening to representatives of the fishing community relay their present and future concerns facing the industry.

About 80 fishermen out of New Bedford have been unable to fish or lease their quotas since NOAA shut down Sector IX in November. The shutdown remains in effect until the feds can estimate how much quota convicted “Codfather” Carlos Rafael depleted in his overfishing scheme.

Massachusetts’ two senators have been all but crucified for what many see as inaction on the Sector IX closure. Following Saturday’s meeting, Senator Warren told WBSM News what appears to some as inaction is, in fact, a more tactful approach in discussions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“There are a lot of steps to go through to get Sector IX back up,” said Warren. “And NOAA seems committed to move forward on those. Senator Markey and I are pushing. We don’t want to turn this into politics. We want to facilitate this. We want to make it move forward.”

“But we have made it very clear that both of us and Congressman Keating are deeply committed to getting a fast process so that the innocent people that have been harmed by what’s happened here can get back out on the water and fish,” she said.

Read the full story at WBSM