Saving Seafood

Scientists Send Letter to Washington Legislature Urging Delay on Legislation to Ban Net Pens

March 1, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Four prominent scientists have sent a letter to the Washington State Legislature urging them to stop House Bill 2957, which “would essentially halt Atlantic salmon aquaculture in this state forever.”

The scientists include the former 40-year director of the Manchester, Washington, laboratory; two former directors of the national aquaculture program run by NOAA; a former Director of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center; and the former president of Stolt Sea Farms Washington, Inc.

“We call on our esteemed elected representatives to delay any decisions regarding the future of salmon farming in Washington until the scientific community, represented in this state by some of the world’s leading aquaculture and fisheries scientists and researchers in the fields of fish culture, genetics, nutrition, and fish behavior, has had an opportunity to present science in a clear and objective light—rather than in a climate fueled by fear and propaganda,” the letter states.

The authors offer to present research that responds to the legislature’s fears on four areas of concern for Atlantic salmon farms in the event of a pen failure or escape.

Interbreeding — the authors point out that interbreeding has been encouraged in a scientific setting, and all attempts for the past f40 years have been unsuccessful.

Competition for food — Peer-reviewed studies have shown convincingly that “captive” or pen-reared salmon have not learned how to “hunt” for food, simply because they are used to being fed on a regular timetable.

Competition for habitat —  Scientists to date have found no evidence of Atlantic salmon spawning on the West Coast of North America.

Disease transmission — the authors say “No example of disease transfer from farmed salmon to wild fish has ever been documented by any regulatory agency in the state of Washington.”

Finally, they strongly urge legislators to not “throw out the baby with the bathwater”—salmon farming—that is now producing millions of metric tons of nutritious salmon, worth billions of dollars, around the world.

The letter is signed by Linda Chaves, former Senior Advisory on Seafood and Industry Issues; Dr. John Forster, former president of Stolt Sea Farm; Dr. Robert Iwamoto, director of the office, management, and information at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA; and Dr. Conrad Mahnken, former NOAA National Aquaculture Coordinator, director of the NOAA Manchester Laboratory, and Washington Fish and Wildlife Commissioner.

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

MAFMC offering webinar on for-hire electronic reporting

March 1, 2018 — DOVER, Del. — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold a public webinar from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Friday, March 2, to help for-hire vessel operators prepare for upcoming electronic reporting requirements.

This webinar will be recorded and made available on the council’s website, www.mafmc.org, for later viewing for those who cannot attend. Beginning Monday, March 12, all vessels with federal charter or party permits for species managed by the mid-Atlantic council will be required to submit electronic vessel trip reports while on trips carrying passengers for hire. These reports must be submitted through a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-approved software application within 48 hours following the completion of a fishing trip.

This action only changes the required method of transmitting the reports and the submission date; the required data elements and all other existing reporting requirements will not change.

This regulation impacts any for-hire vessel holding federal charter or party permits for council-managed species, regardless of home port or fishing location. For more information about for-hire electronic reporting requirements, visit the For-Hire eVTR page at the website www.mafmc.org/for-hire-evtr/ or review the For-Hire eVTR Q&A summary at that website through the “For-Hire eVTR Q&A” link.

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

 

NOAA leader looks to cultivate culture of collaboration

March 1, 2018 — As debuts go, Mike Pentony’s first day on the job as the regional director for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office was a corker.

The federal government marked his ascension on Jan. 22 as only the federal government can — shutting down all but the most essential government services as a consequence of the usual congressional mumbley-peg.

“My first action was to come in and proceed with the orderly shutdown of government operations,” Pentony said recently during an interview in the corner office on the uppermost floor of GARFO headquarters in Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park.

The respite was short-lived. The shutdown lasted a day. When it was over, the 53-year-old Pentony began his new job in earnest as the leader of the regional agency that manages some of the most historically productive — and at times contentious — fisheries in the United States.

It is, as his successor John K. Bullard would attest, a monumental task, working on a canvas that stretches geographically along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to North Carolina and west to the Great Lakes.

But the geographical sweep pales in comparison to the scope and density of the regulations Pentony is charged with enforcing.

There is the crisis of cod in the Gulf of Maine, the alarming demise of the North Atlantic right whales, the malfeasance of cheaters such as New Bedford fishing kingpin Carlos Rafael and a myriad of other issues that affect every fishing community within his purview.

There is incessant wrangling over habitat protections, the usual tug-of-war between environmentalists and conservationists on one side and fishermen on the other. It is a drama with a disparate cast of characters and Pentony is convinced the only way to address extraordinarily intricate problems — usually requiring even more intricate responses — is by forging a collaborative spirit.

“I want to try to develop a culture, not just within GARFO and the agency, but within the region, both mid-Atlantic and New England, where we’re all partners with a collective goal of healthy fisheries and healthy fishing communities.” Pentony said. “The problems and challenges are so huge that we’re only stronger if we’re working together.”

He also understands, given the varying degrees of conflict that exist among fisheries stakeholders, that achieving that collaboration will be far more difficult than contemplating its benefits.

“There’s always going to be people that find it easier to stand outside the circle and throw stones than to get inside the circle and work,” Pentony said. “If they stand outside the circle and just shout about how everything is wrong, that generally doesn’t do much to solve the problem.”

Campaign of engagement

Pentony served under Bullard as assistant regional administrator for sustainable fisheries starting in 2014. He was asked what advice his predecessor gave him.

“He told me there are a lot of people cheering and hoping for your success,” Pentony said. “Not just me personally, but if I’m successful, then the regional office can be successful and the agency can be successful. And if you tie that success to our mission, then our success would mean healthy, sustainable fisheries, healthy and sustainable resources and healthy and sustainable fishing communities.”

Pentony made his fishery management bones as a staff member at the New England Fishery Management Council prior to joining NOAA Fisheries in 2002. That experience, he said, instilled in him a solid faith in the ability of the council system to ultimately arrive at the best decision once all implications are considered.

“I’ve been involved with the council process for 20 years,” Pentony said. “It’s not perfect. But I have a ton of respect for the work and effort council members put into being informed and working through what I think is unique in the federal regulatory process. We have this incredibly unique process that engages stakeholders.”

Pentony didn’t even wait for his first official day in the big chair to begin his own campaign of engagement.

The Friday before his official starting date, he traveled to the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in Seabrook, New Hampshire, to meet with David Goethel — a frequent critic of NOAA Fisheries — and other New Hampshire fishermen to give them a sense of how he plans to approach the job.

Later that day, he had lunch in Gloucester with Vito Giacalone and Jackie Odell of the Northeast Seafood Coalition. He’s also traveled to Maine to breakfast with Maggie Raymond of the Associated Fisheries of Maine and met with New Jersey fishing companies and processors while in the Garden State on personal business.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Massachusetts: NOAA’s ban suffocating shoreside industry in New Bedford

March 1, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The hits keep coming from NOAA’s groundfishing ban with financial losses spreading to businesses that support New Bedford’s fishing fleet.

“No one ever really paid attention to our shoreside businesses,” manager of Reidar’s Trawl Gear and Marine Supply Tor Bendiksen said. “We’re the last of the group. We all remember when there was companies like ours up and down this entire coast. The only reason that we’ve all survived in New Bedford is because we had not only groundfishing but we have the scallop industry to support us. But this one little incident with how important groundfish is has put us all to our knees.”

It’s been three months since NOAA installed a groundfishing ban on Sector IX, which halted operations of about 80 fishermen.

Though, the collateral damage of the ban extends beyond fishermen.

Virginia Martins, the president of Sector IX, also is the president of Bay Fuel, which has sold more than 1 million fewer gallons of gas this year compared to past sales.

John Reardon, also a board member and general manager at Hercules SLR, said sales of safety marine equipment is down 50 percent since the ban.

Bendiksen, a Sector IX board member, said sales at Reidar’s are down 30 percent. Reidar’s, which employs 14 people, manufactures fishing nets. In the past, a fisherman’s net would be in his shop at least once a week. Since November, they’ve done three total.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Senate candidate Geoff Diehl talks with SouthCoast fishing industry

February 28, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Geoff Diehl cruised around the Port of New Bedford in an RV Tuesday that maneuvered in and out of small entrances and exits. The red, white, and blue mobile home featured the slogan of the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, “The Real Diehl,” as he looked to learn the reality of the fishing industry in the area.

“If I’m going to be voting on any legislation that affects any industry,” Diehl said, “I better darn well be listening to the people who work in that field.”

Diehl made four stops in the area, which began with Mayor Jon Mitchell and concluded with a meeting with three members on the board of Sector 9 as well as the sector’s lawyer.

He spoke with the sector for more than a half hour as the members provided details of ban installed by NOAA that’s prevented about 80 fishermen from groundfishing since November.

“This thing that happened here showed how tragic it is for the support businesses,” Tor Bendiksen, manager of Reidar’s Trawl Gear and Marine Supply, said.

Diehl questioned what incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Warren has done to facilitate discussions between NOAA. The sector said it’s only met with U.S Rep. Bill Keating’s office, while it’s incurred challenges trying to meet with the Warren and Sen. Ed Markey.

“This is one of the most important industries in Massachusetts,” Diehl said before promising to look into the issue immediately.

Following Diehl’s meeting with Mitchell, the current state representative serving Plymouth’s 7th District stopped at New England Marine Engineering and Supply Inc. There, he spoke with President Paul Nosworthy, who emphasized that fishermen aren’t destroying the ocean.

“They’re blaming it all on the fishermen,” Nosworthy said. “But when you stop and you think about what the chemical companies and the sewer treatment guys, what they’re putting in the ocean is killing, literally killing (marine life).”

From North Front Street in New Bedford, Diehl crossed the the port and even waited in a bridge closure delay before discussing commercial fishing with Patrick Hughes II at Blue Harvest Fisheries in Fairhaven.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

New England Council adopts coral protection plan

February 28, 2018 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — After years of debate, the New England Fishery Management Council last month took final action on new rules aimed at protecting deep-sea coral from damage by fishing gear.

Meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., the council adopted its Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and voted to submit the document to the National Marine Fisheries Service for review and approval.

Last June, the council adopted three coral protection zones in the Gulf of Maine. They are the area around Outer Schoodic Ridge southeast of the Schoodic Peninsula, the area around Mount Desert Rock, and the Jordan Basic Dedicated Habitat Research Area. This zone is roughly 40 square miles and located 50 miles offshore where the sea floor rises in a “bump” to a depth of about 208 meters or about 682 feet.

At its January meeting, the council approved a 600-meter (1,969-foot) minimum depth “broad zone” for the continental slope and canyons south of Georges Bank. Once the NMFS accepts the amendment, this entire zone — with one exception — will be closed to all fishing with any kind of bottom-tending gear, including both mobile equipment such as trawls or dredges dragged behind a boat and fixed gear such as traps, pots and gillnets. The council exempted gear used in the small but growing the Atlantic deep-sea red crab fishery.

The 600-meter minimum depth broad zone was one of several options considered by the council during its deliberations, Known as “Option 6” in the Coral Amendment, it was the council’s preferred alternative for protecting the continental slope and canyons prior to extensive public hearings last year. The council postponed taking final action last June so it could consider a proposal put forward by a coalition of environmental groups.

Known as “Option 7,” that proposal covered more of the ocean bottom, including shallower areas with depths ranging between 300 meters (984 feet) and 550 meters (1,804 feet). It, too, would have banned mobile gear but not fixed gear.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Alaska: Sullivan offers legislators six reasons for optimism

February 27, 2018 — In his final reason for optimism, Sullivan echoed Alaska’s official slogan and said the state can be “a land of the future” with high technology investment.

He said that as a member of the committee in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he has been seeking ways to move NOAA facilities and employees to Alaska.

Currently, many of NOAA’s Alaska offices — including the National Marine Fisheries Service region for the state — are found in Washington and Oregon. The City and Borough of Juneau has long sought to transfer some or all of those offices to the capital city.

“As for science, we have so much potential to be a vibrant hub of research, but the federal government needs to be a better partner,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan concluded his remarks by urging the Legislature to act on its opportunity.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

 

Atlantic mackerel fishery will be restricted rest of year

February 27, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — The East Coast mackerel fishery will face new restrictions because fishermen have exceeded their limit for two other species.

Fishermen bring Atlantic mackerel to shore from Maine to North Carolina. The fishermen are given a limit to the amount of river herring and shad they are also allowed to catch.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says mackerel fishermen are close enough to that limit that restrictions are kicking in. The fishermen will be prohibited from fishing more than 20,000 pounds of Atlantic mackerel per trip for the remainder of the calendar year.

The restrictions go into effect on Tuesday morning.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Virginian-Pilot

NOAA unveils details of Trusted Trader Program

February 27, 2018 — The public has less than a month to supply comments on U.S. government proposal to streamline the reporting process for participants in the Seafood Import Monitoring Program.

Last month, NOAA Fisheries unveiled a draft rule regarding the creation of a Commerce Trusted Trader Program, a voluntary effort that seeks to reduce costs for both industry and the government. The first public meeting regarding the proposal took place on 15 February.

Public comments, which can be submitted at the Regulations.gov website, must be submitted by 19 March.

John Henderschedt, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection, said the public comment period also gives key stakeholders an opportunity to learn more about the proposed rule.

Henderschedt said NOAA officials planned for a Trusted Trader concept when SIMP was first announced. However, the agency needed to develop the SIMP framework first before delving into the specifics of the Trusted Trader program.

Companies that participate in the Trusted Trader Program still would be required to maintain the traceability records – from the time of harvest to the time it reaches the U.S. – on all seafood products listed under SIMP.

In general terms, the Trusted Trader Program will run similar to the PreCheck initiative offered to frequent travelers by the Transportation Security Administration, with a couple of exceptions. First, seafood importers will have to adhere to the SIMP regulations and incorporate them into their standard operating procedures.

Second, the participating companies will be required to hire a third-party firm to audit their records annually to ensure they’re maintaining compliance with SIMP. If the Trusted Trader Program becomes reality, companies could lose their status if audits indicate they’re not abiding by the regulations.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Zero Dollars for Marine Mammals?

February 27, 2018 — The future of marine mammals is at risk in U.S. waters. President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 would eliminate the Marine Mammal Commission. With an annual operating budget of $3.4 million, which comes to just over one penny per American per year, the Marine Mammal Commission has for 45 years been assiduously developing science and policy to protect seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, dugongs and walruses. Through the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Congress charged the commission with providing independent oversight of marine mammal conservation policies and programs being carried out by federal regulatory agencies. Obviously, with a proposed budget of zero dollars, it would be impossible to execute the federally mandated objectives of fostering sustainable fisheries (through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act [MSA]) and protecting endangered species (through the Endangered Species Act [ESA]).

Marine mammals are more than just lovable creatures. They are important components of productive marine and coastal ecosystems that overall generate $97 billion of the gross domestic product. Whales function as ecosystem engineers by cycling vital nutrients between deeper and surface waters in the oceans. Without this nutrient cycling, oceans would produce less plankton and phytoplankton, which would eventually mean less fish. Also, through complex food-web interactions, marine mammals help to regulate fish populations. For example, marine-mammal–eating killer whales (often called “transient” killer whales) will eat seals, a common predator of pelagic fish—enabling fish populations to stay high. This kind of interaction is called a trophic cascade and is very common in marine ecosystems.

Serving as an independent oversight body, the commission has the critical task of assessing the scientific validity and effectiveness of research conducted to meet the federal mandates of the MMPA, ESA and MSA. If we as a country can’t even protect the charismatic species, I worry for all the less adorable parts of nature. So we need to draw a line in the sand. In this era of “fake news,” maintaining this entity to guard against encroachments to science-based policymaking on is more valuable than ever.

Read the full story at the Scientific American