Saving Seafood

EDF to NOAA: Get multiple buyers for Carlos Rafael’s assets, more monitoring

March 19, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jim Kendall chuckled as he attempted to grasp the words to describe a letter crafted by the Environmental Defense Fund, which it sent to NOAA on Thursday.

When the words finally came to him, the former fisherman and current executive director of New Bedford Seafood Consulting disagreed with most of the three pages of content.

“They go and paint Carlos (Rafael’s) whole fleet with a scarlet letter, really,” Kendall said.

The letter pitches two strategies to NOAA in handling the permits and punishment linked to Rafael, who is serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison for falsely labeling fishing quota.

EDF suggests that NOAA should require multiple buyers of Rafael’s assets and require monitoring of his vessels while also establishing funding for the monitoring.

Kendall disagrees and said requiring monitoring works against EDF’s first request of stipulating multiple buyers.

“Who’s going to pay for it? If you were to buy one of these boots, now you’re saddled with this additional obligation?” Kendall said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

2018 scallop surprise: Despite larger harvest, currency rates could flatten US supply

March 19, 2018 — You heard it right. Despite massive scallop harvests coming in the US and Japan in 2018, it’s very possible that Americans won’t see any kind of a bump in the availability of what many consider their favorite mollusk, suggests Peter Handy, the president and CEO of Bristol Seafoods.

Handy, a well-known seafood market analyst, laid out his bold theory in a presentation just before Seafood Expo North America 2018, in Boston, and in a subsequent interview with Undercurrent News. His 25-year-old Portland, Maine-based company handles 6 million lbs of seafood annually, including a large number of Atlantic deep-sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus).

“Just like you hear [the automobile manufacturer] Ford talk about how the price of metal is going to affect their production costs, seafood is the same way for us,” he said.

Handy doesn’t doubt there will be more scallops worldwide in 2018.

Based on strong surveys and thanks to the decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to open up previously closed areas and strong surveys off the coast of New England,  US scallop harvesters are looking forward to their largest harvest in 14 years – 27,216 metric tons – when their season starts April 1.

The harvest represents the continuation of a trend that Handy credits US conservation policy for. Scallop landings are up 300% since 1995, he noted.

Simultaneously, Japan is predicted to see a major boost in production of Pacific sea scallops (Patinopecten yessoensis) as beds off the coast of Hokkaido in the Sea of Okhotsk recover from weather disasters. As Undercurrent reported earlier, the area is looking at increasing its harvest from the 205,000t of scallops landed in 2017 to 260,000t in 2018.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Don Cuddy: Reidar’s — like others — part of Sector IX collateral damage

March 19, 2018 — It was just before Thanksgiving that NOAA shut down Sector IX after Carlos Rafael had been found guilty and sent to jail and, three months later, none of the boats or crews from the sector are any closer to going back to work. “There has been a lot of talking but not much action,” Tor Bendiksen told me. A number of suggestions have been out forward about how to resolve the issue but there is a notable absence of leadership, and throwing local business owners under the bus because one of their customers gamed the system is rough justice, to say the least.

Tor is now on the board of Sector IX and earns his living in the family business, Reidar’s Trawl-Scallop Gear and Marine Supply. It was started by his father, Reidar Bendiksen in 1986 on the Fairhaven side and its reputation for excellence extends the length of the Eastern seaboard. This family, like the fishing families of Sector IX, who like the rest of us have mortgages, monthly bills and kids in college, deserves more from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“A business like ours relies on revenue coming in all the time. Usually you get paid sixty days after the job. So when you lose the December, January and February billing because the draggers aren’t going it’s a problem because you are relying on that constant turnover. We operate on small margins so it takes a lot of volume to actually make a profit. Now we’re scraping just to keep up with the bills.” They have to order the net-making gear and supplies they need months in advance and their suppliers are not going to wait months for payment so they are drawing on their reserves to keep going, he said.

The scallop season begins April 1 this year and some work is now coming into the shop from the scallop fleet. “But they won’t pay us until May,” he said. The winter fishing season has now passed the sector boats by and all of the shoreside businesses that service the groundfish fleet have taken a hit. “Essentially we all have a share of the fish in Sector IX. We get paid when the boats come in, sort of like in the whaling days,” Tor said. The continued closure of Sector IX is causing far more damage on the waterfront than is being acknowledged or reported, he believes.

With a new fishing season set to open in May, and with it a new allocation of quota, the sensible option now is to allow these boats to go fishing under the direction of the new board of directors in Sector IX. NMFS taking so much time to actually do something to resolve this serves no one.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

NOAA: Commercial Closure for the Golden Tilefish Longline Component in South Atlantic Federal Waters on March 25, 2018

March 19, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

WHAT/WHEN:

The commercial longline component for golden tilefish in federal waters of the South Atlantic will close at 12:01 a.m., local time, on March 25, 2018. The closure applies to longline endorsement holders for golden tilefish.

WHY THIS CLOSURE IS HAPPENING:

  • On January 2, 2018, a final temporary rule implemented interim measures to temporarily reduce the total catch limit for golden tilefish from 558,036 to 323,000 pounds gutted weight. The total catch limit applies to hook-and-line and longline components for the commercial sector as well as the recreational sector.
  • The interim measures are effective through July 1, 2018, and NOAA Fisheries is evaluating extending the interim measures for up to an additional 186 days.
  • The 2018 commercial catch limit for the golden tilefish longlinecomponent is now 234,982 pounds gutted weight. Commercial landings information indicates that the commercial catch limit for the longline component will be met by at 12:01 a.m., local time, on March 25, 2018, and harvest therefore should be closed.

DURING AND AFTER THE CLOSURE:

  • The commercial longline component closure applies in both state and federal waters for vessels that have longline endorsement for golden tilefish.
  • During the closure, vessels with a golden tilefish longline endorsement are not eligible to commercially harvest golden tilefish using hook-and line gear and are limited to the recreational bag and possession limits when the recreational sector is open.
  • Vessels that do not have longline endorsements, but have South Atlantic snapper-grouper unlimited permits, may harvest golden tilefish commercially until the hook-and-line quota is reached.

The prohibition on sale or purchase during the closure does not apply to fish that were harvested, landed ashore, and sold prior to 12:01 a.m., local time, on March 25, 2018, and were held in cold storage by a dealer or processor.

Read the regulations in their entirety here.

 

Pacific Heat Wave Known As ‘The Blob’ Appears To Be In Retreat

March 16, 2018 — Ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest seem to be returning to normal after a three-year spike in water temperature.

It’s promising long-term news for fishermen who are looking ahead in the short term to yet another year of low salmon returns.

A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outlined the latest ocean observations for the organization that sets salmon catch limits off the West Coast. The Pacific Fishery Management Council will set those limits in early April.

The extended marine heatwave of the past few years has been nicknamed “the Blob.”

“The high pressure system over the North Pacific basically got stalled out and stuck there. And so the ocean warmed up about 6 degrees Fahrenheit,” NOAA’s Toby Garfield said.

Then a strong El Niño came through that reinforced these conditions.

“There have been a number of these events, these marine heat waves, that have occurred in the North Pacific. But the one we had in ’13, ’14, ’15 was the by far the largest in the record going back 45 years,” Garfield said.

And the effect on sea life was serious. Whales, sea lions and seabirds starved because the warm water didn’t support tiny nutrition-rich plankton called copepods at the base of the food chain.

Within the past year, the El Niño effect has dissipated, and other longer-term climate cycles are shifting back toward a more average level.

Read the full story at OPB

 

Alaska Gov. calls for Pacific cod disaster declaration

March 16, 2018 — Alaska’s Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott signed a letter last week asking the federal government to declare the 2018 Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska a disaster.

This year’s Pacific cod quota was reduced by 80 percent from 2017 — from 64,442 metric tons in 2017 to 13,096 metric tons — in response to a declining stock.

In October, a NMFS survey reported a 71 percent decline in Pacific cod abundance in the gulf since 2015 and an 83 percent decline since 2013.

According to the letter, that deep cut to the quota is expected to be accompanied by revenue drop of 81 to 83 percent of the most recent five-year average.

“Throughout the Gulf of Alaska, direct impacts will be felt by vessel owners and operators, crew and fish processors, as well as support industries that sell fuel, supplies and groceries. Local governments will feel the impact to their economic base, and the state of Alaska will see a decline in fishery-related tax revenue,” reads the letter. “We believe these impacts are severe enough to warrant this request for fishery disaster declaration for this area.”

Barbara Blake, senior adviser to Walker and Mallott, told Alaska Public Media that crossing that 80 percent threshold makes the fishery eligible for a disaster declaration and that the request will go to the secretary of commerce for a decision.

“How we’ve seen this come about in the past is that request goes in along with other natural disasters, and that’s how we end up getting the appropriations for that, is they roll it into natural disasters like hurricane relief and things of that nature,” said Blake.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Lawsuit aimed at protecting humpback whales filed against Trump administration

March 16, 2018 — Several conservation groups have joined together to file a lawsuit that claims the Trump administration has failed to protect humpback whales from fishing gear, ship strikes and oil spills.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation announced Thursday they have sued the Trump Administration for “failing to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean.” The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court in San Francisco.

The nonprofit groups hope the lawsuit will force the National Marine Fisheries Service to follow the Endangered Species Act’s requirement to designate critical habitat within one year of listing a species as threatened or endangered, and not authorize actions that would damage that habitat, according to a release.

Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered and a third as threatened in September 2016.

“The federal government needs to protect critical humpback habitat that’s prone to oil spills and dangerously dense with fishing gear and ship traffic,” Catherine Kilduff, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “These whales need urgent action, not more delays.”

Read the full story at the Orange County Register

 

States: US government to rewrite 2 endangered species rules

March 16, 2018 — NEW ORLEANS — The Trump administration will rewrite rules governing how to choose areas considered critical to endangered species to settle a lawsuit brought by 20 states and four trade groups, according to state attorneys general.

The endangered species director for an environmental nonprofit says that’s terrible news. Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity says the administration has “shown nothing but hostility toward endangered species.”

The attorneys general for Alabama and Louisiana said in news releases Thursday that the administration made the agreement Thursday to settle a lawsuit brought by 20 states and four national trade groups, challenging two changes made in 2016.

According to the lawsuit, the rules are now so vague that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service “could declare desert land as critical habitat for a fish and then prevent the construction of a highway through those desert lands, under the theory that it would prevent the future formation of a stream that might one day support the species.”

A spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife referred a request for comment to the U.S. Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to phoned and emailed queries. A NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman did not immediately respond Thursday.

“We are encouraged that the Trump administration has agreed to revisit these rules, which threaten property owners’ rights to use any land that the federal government could dream that an endangered species might ever inhabit,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in his news release. “These Obama-era rules were not only wildly unreasonable, but contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the Endangered Species Act.”

Greenwald said, “Their case didn’t have a leg to stand on.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

 

Western Pacific council hopes to build up aquaculture around US-controlled islands

March 16, 2018 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRMC) took initial action on March 15 to establish an aquaculture management program for the exclusive economic zone of the US Pacific islands.

“Supplementing the harvest of domestic fisheries with cultured product would help the United States meet consumers’ growing demand for seafood and may reduce the dependence on seafood imports,” said Kitty Simonds, the council’s executive director.

The aquaculture plan would establish a regional permitting process and provide a comprehensive framework to regulate activities so as to protect wild fish stocks and fisheries. Requirements would include a federal permit that is renewable and transferable, an aquaculture operations plan, prohibition areas, allowable species, and record-keeping and reporting.

The council is expected to take final action on the plan during its next meeting, scheduled for June 12 to 15, 2018, in Honolulu, Hawaii, pending completion of a programmatic environmental impact statement by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments for an Application for an Exempted Fishing Permit to Test Trap Targeting of Lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Federal Waters

March 16, 2018 — The following was release by NOAA Fisheries:

KEY MESSAGE:

NOAA Fisheries is accepting comments on an application for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) from Salty Bones Fisheries. The applicant proposes to test various spiny lobster traps and a fish aggregation device based, non-containment purse trap to harvest lionfish from in Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) and South Atlantic federal waters. Sampling is proposed to occur during the spiny lobster closed season (April 1 through July 31). This study intends to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of the various trap designs for targeting lionfish while limiting bycatch, and adverse effects to protected species and habitat. The research would also derive biological life history information to improve lionfish control. In addition, the project would provide information on potential ecological and economic benefits of a lionfish fishery. These results provide the opportunity to gain industry support and provide management information on the use of traps as a viable lionfish harvest gear in the Gulf and South Atlantic. Only lionfish would be harvested under this EFP.

HOW TO COMMENT ON THE APPLICATIONS:
The comment period is open now through April 2, 2018. You may submit comments by electronic submission or by postal mail. Comments sent by any other method (such as e-mail), to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NOAA Fisheries.

Application information: 

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/gulf_fisheries/LOA_and_EFP/index.html

Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal.

  1. Go to  https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=NOAA-NMFS-2018-0013 
  2. Click the “Comment Now!” icon, complete the required fields.
  3. Enter or attach your comments.

Mail: Submit written comments to Kelli O’Donnell, NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Regional Office, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

Program Concepts

  • Sampling would occur in two regions off the lower Florida Keys in the Gulf and South Atlantic, up to four times per month in each region during the Florida spiny lobster closed season, April 1 through July 31.
  • Spiny lobster trap designs would include all wire traps, in addition to wood and wire traps.  In year 1 and 2 1,000 of each design in the Gulf and 500 of each design in the South Atlantic, would be deployed for a total of up to 3,000 total traps. All traps would have modified funnel dimensions and would be deployed at depths from 65-300 ft.
  • Vessels would also deploy up to 15 purse traps in year 1 (all 15 could be fished in Gulf or South Atlantic or the 15 could be divided between the two regions) and up to 120 total in year 2 (80 in Gulf and 40 in South Atlantic). All traps would be deployed at depths from 65-300 ft.
  • Data to be collected per trip would include: gear configuration and fishing effort data (e.g., date and time of deployment and retrieval, latitude, longitude, and water depth of each deployed trawl, bait type used); soak time per area for each trawl; alternative weight and trawl configurations used in different sea states and conditions; trap loss and movement from original set position; protected species interactions; bycatch species, amount, and disposition; and lionfish catch data for each trap type.
  • Only lionfish would be harvested.

NOAA Fisheries finds this application warrants further consideration, and is seeking public comment on the application. A final decision on issuance of the EFP will depend on NOAA Fisheries’ review of public comments received, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s recommendations, consultations with the affected states, and the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as a determination that it is consistent with all applicable laws.

Access this and other Fishery Bulletins from NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office by clicking here.