Saving Seafood

NOAA closes areas to protect whales

March 20, 2018 — As NOAA Fisheries continues to address the rising peril to whales in coastal waters stretching from New England to Florida, it is reminding local fishermen of current or impending gear closures off Massachusetts.

The closures, primarily around Cape Cod and in Cape Cod Bay, are part of NOAA Fisheries’ Atlantic large whale take reduction plan developed to provide increased protection to several species of whales — particularly the endangered North Atlantic right whales whose population continues to plummet.

Some of the gear closures impact trap and pot fishermen, while other impact gillnetters.

The closures have been greatly enlarged as part of a 2015 amendment to the large whale take reduction plan, according to Mike Asaro, the Gloucester-based marine mammal and sea turtle branch chief for NOAA Fisheries.

“The Cape Cod Bay closure has been greatly expanded northward and out beyond the outer Cape toward Nantucket,” Asaro said.

The closest closure to Cape Ann is the Massachusetts Restricted Area that encircles Cape Cod, with its northwest corner approaching the southern end of Cape Ann. The area is closed to all trap and pot fishing until April 30.

The Great South Channel restricted area, which sits to the east and southeast of Cape Cod, will be closed to all trap and pot fishing from April 30 until June 30. The Great South Channel also will be closed to all gillnetting during the same time.

Gillnetters also will be prohibited from fishing in the Cape Cod Bay restricted area until May 15.

Asaro said the closures are just one element in NOAA Fisheries’ strategy for mitigating dangers to the whales from gear and other man-made obstacles in the ocean’s waters.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

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