Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: URI, Commercial Fisheries Center combine to create apprentice program in commercial fishing

August 21, 2017 — POINT JUDITH, R.I. — In early July, a group of apprentices joined a pilot program designed to train new commercial fishermen and women. When the program ended 20 days later, not a single apprentice had dropped out.

“We were very pleased with that,” said Barbara Somers, a research associate at the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science who helped put the program together. “We started with 12 and we ended with 12.”

The program, funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was a joint initiative of URI and the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, a non-profit group representing nine fishing organizations. The goal was to produce skilled crews to replenish the declining ranks of the Rhode Island commercial fishery.

The course covered all aspects of fishing, from fish stock assessments to net-mending and engine repair. Most of the training took place on fishing vessels and at fishing-related businesses. Equipment and meals were provided, and everyone who completed the program received a $1,000 stipend. Participants were also introduced to Point Judith’s tightly-knit commercial fishing community, where many have already found jobs.

Marian Kach, 37, is one of two women who completed the program. She said she had learned about the course on Facebook and jumped at the opportunity.

“I’ve been into fishing for seven years, rod and reel, and I’ve always wanted to work on a dragger, but as a woman, it’s kind of hard to approach a bunch of people in a very different way of fishing, and I didn’t really know anybody down there,” she said.

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun

Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Applications for FY 2018

August 21, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

This year’s solicitation consists of 2 separate submission processes. All interested applicants must submit a 2 page Pre-Proposal to the FFO posted at www.Grants.gov found here: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=Saltonstall

Please note that under this one Full Funding Opportunity there are 2 competitive links. Please be sure to submit your pre-proposals to the “PRE PROPOSALS FY18 Saltonstall Kennedy” link prior to the date specified below.

Applicants interested in submitting a full applicantion after the pre-proposal review process must submit the full application through www.Grants.gov. Please be sure to submit your FULL Proposals to the “FULL Proposals FY18 Saltonstall Kennedy” link prior to the date specified below.

Pre-proposals are due October 10, 2017.
Full proposals are due January 8, 2018.
(a pre-proposal in advance of a full proposal is a requirement for this solicitation)

The goal of the SK program is to fund projects that address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries and practices, deal with the impacts of conservation and management measures and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable. The 2018 SK solicitation seeks applicants that fall into the following priorities:

  • Marine Aquaculture
  • Adapting to Environmental Changes and other Long-Term Impacts in Marine Ecosystems
  • Promotion, Development, and Marketing
  • Territorial Science

For additional information on how to apply go to this link:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mb/financial_services/skhome.htm

Fishermen See ‘Science in Action’ Aboard NOAA Survey Ship

August 18, 2017 — Each spring and early summer, scientists set out along the West Coast aboard NOAA vessel Reuben Lasker to survey coastal pelagic species, or CPS, which includes small schooling fish such as northern anchovy, Pacific sardine, and jack and Pacific mackerels.

This year, with the help of West Coast fishermen, the scientists tested a new approach to extend their reach into nearshore waters to improve the accuracy of the survey results. The collaboration involved the fishing vessel Lisa Marie, of Gig Harbor, Washington, and brought two commercial fishermen aboard Lasker for an inside look at NOAA Fisheries surveys that inform stock assessments and guide decisions on how many fish can be caught by West Coast fishermen.

The idea emerged years before when the then-Director of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California,  Cisco Werner, along with Deputy Director Kristen Koch and Fisheries Resources Division Director Gerard DiNardo, discussed the potential collaboration with Mike Okoniewski of Pacific Seafood and Diane Pleschner-Steele of the California Wetfish Producers Association.

Werner has since been named Chief Scientist of NOAA Fisheries.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires NOAA Fisheries to use the best available science to help managers set catch limits and prevent overfishing. Annual surveys, using echosounders to detect and measure the abundances of CPS populations off the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Canada’s Vancouver Island help fulfill this mandate. NOAA Fisheries also uses trawl catches, and fish-egg samples to help gauge fish reproduction and population trends.

“Acoustic-trawl surveys are our principal tool for monitoring the various species and determining how their abundances, distributions, and sizes are changing,” said David Demer, the Chief Scientist of the survey and leader of the Advanced Survey Technologies Group at Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla. “The surveys are very rigorous because they’re very important to our mission.”

Read the full story from NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center

NOAA Fisheries Approves Modifications to a Regulatory Exemption for Northeast Groundfish Sectors

August 18, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries has approved a modification to the sector small-mesh exemption area. This action was proposed in an interim final rule published on April 28, 2017.

Through this action, we are expanding the area of the existing small-mesh exemption for groundfish sectors to increase sectors’ opportunities to use the exemption and to better match the footprint of the exemption to the fishery.

The larger area should create new opportunities for sector vessels to use this exemption, which will increase the efficiency of sector vessels participating in both the groundfish fishery and small-mesh exempted fisheries in southern New England.

All reporting and gear requirements for the exemption remain the same.

We are excluding the southern windowpane accountability measure areas from the sector small-mesh exemption area to limit impacts to groundfish stocks.

For more information, please see the notice as filed in the Federal Register.

Stock assessment meeting erupts into lively talk between NOAA, fishermen

August 17, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Diagrams, life-like statues and pictures fill the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center to depict the history and future of the industry.

NOAA scientists and local fishermen filled the small building on Bethel Street on Wednesday night to discuss future stock assessments. The meeting, though, told another aspect in the story of the Port of New Bedford: the decades old tension that continues to exist between the groups.

“We all have to pull in the same direction,” Executive Director of New Bedford Seafood Consulting Jim Kendall said.

Instead a powerpoint presentation listing stock limits led to a discussion, which evolved into an argument and ended with two fishermen abruptly leaving. Russ Brown, director of the Population Dynamics Branch of NOAA, ended his presentation to meet with the fishermen outside. They spoke outside for 20 minutes before parting ways with a semblance of mutual respect.

“What we need to do is find common themes,” Brown said. “I’m a scientist. We want to find common themes within the science where we have questions and the industry has questions, and we can basically collaborate and pull in the same direction.”

Most of the discussion revolved around the methods in which NOAA is acquiring its data. Fishermen in attendance questioned the methods used by scientists to count groundfish. They also pointed out that years to correct a data point is too much time for an industry that continues to shrink.

“We understand that the management is affecting people and is having some serious consequences for our stakeholders who are depending on the resources,” Brown said. “We care about that, and we want to make sure the science is as accurate as it can be.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

NOAA Endorses Eating Small Haddock — But What About Cod?

August 17, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are giving their stamp of approval to eat small haddock.

In the July issue of the NOAA Fisheries Navigator, the government agency reports that smaller haddock does not necessarily mean an unhealthy stock. Looking at stats dating back to 1995, the size of the fish has been decreasing — but the population has been growing.

This trend is something that the organization has seen in the past. “A decline in the average size of Georges Bank haddock also happened in the mid-1960s when a larger number of haddock were born in 1963 and grew into the population,” the report reads. And according to their research, the size of the stock is large simply because the fish are “generally able to spawn before being harvested.” Data collected from Georges Bank haddock in 2015 revealed that 90% of the fish mature at age three. Commercial minimum size is 16 inches, which is generally a two to five year old fish. That means that most fish are able to spawn once or twice before being caught.

But the endorsement from NOAA still comes as a surprise to some. As Navigator magazine editor Kerry Hann notes in the September 2017 issue, the thumbs up to eat small haddock is a “somewhat peculiar statement from the U.S.-based organization tasked with providing science-based conservation and management for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, marine mammals, endangered species and their habitats.”

For Hann, it all goes back to 1992 when the cod industry was faced with a similar situation.

“Fewer larger, spawning-aged fish were being caught, leaving the dwindling cod populations made up of primarily small, juvenile fish,” Hann writes. “Many at the time concluded that a healthy cod population could not be made up of only small fish.”

So, what about cod today? That’s an upcoming discussion for “Cod — Building the Fishery of the Future,” a conference being held by the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation in November.

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

Sturgeon get a double boost in the Chesapeake Bay

August 17, 2017 — The endangered Atlantic sturgeon just got a double boost in Virginia as NOAA awarded federal funds to continue restoration efforts here and also designated the Chesapeake Bay “critical habitat” for the species.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries $378,666 for fiscal year 2018 to locate and characterize key sturgeon habitat within the bay’s river systems.

The award follows nearly $357,000 in FY2016 and more than $365,000 in FY2017 in what’s known as species recovery grants for Atlantic sturgeon.

And it’s part of $5.8 million in grants just awarded for endangered or threatened species in the greater Atlantic, from shellfish to whales.

“Helping these species recover means bringing partners to the table to tackle critical conservation challenges at the local level,” said Donna Wieting, director of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, in a statement.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

NOAA Fisheries Designates Critical Habitat for Atlantic Sturgeon

August 16, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries today designated critical habitat for Atlantic sturgeon–an important step to ensuring their recovery.

The critical habitat designation will require federal agencies to consult NOAA Fisheries if they operate or fund activities that may affect designated critical habitat in more than 3,968 miles of important coastal river habitat from Maine to Florida. Atlantic sturgeon was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2012 and is comprised of the threatened Gulf of Maine distinct population segment and the endangered New York Bight, Chesapeake Bay, Carolina, and South Atlantic distinct population segments.

The ESA requires that NOAA Fisheries designate critical habitat when a species is listed as threatened or endangered. Under the ESA, critical habitat is defined as specific areas within the geographical areas that are occupied by the species, that contain physical or biological features essential to the conservation of that species, and that may require special management considerations.

The designation of critical habitat does not include any new restrictions or management measures for recreational or commercial fishing operations, nor does it create any preserves or refuges. Instead, when a federal agency funds, authorizes, or carries out activities that may affect critical habitat, it must work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or minimize potential impacts to critical habitat. The activity of the federal agency may need to be modified to avoid destroying or adversely modifying the critical habitat.

“We look forward to working with our federal partners to reduce potential impacts to Atlantic sturgeon critical habitat,” said Samuel D. Rauch III, deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs at NOAA Fisheries. “Our focus now will be on providing guidance to federal agencies to help them carry out their actions efficiently and effectively while minimizing impacts to habitat that is critical to these endangered and threatened populations of sturgeon.”

Atlantic sturgeon are anadromous and use coastal and estuarine waters throughout their lives, and travel to rivers to spawn or lay their eggs. Unlike some anadromous fish, sturgeon do not die after spawning and will return to spawn multiple times. They can grow up to 14 feet long, weigh up to 800 pounds, and live up to 60 years.

Historically, Atlantic sturgeon inhabited approximately 38 rivers in the United States spanning from Maine to Florida. Scientists identified 35 of those as spawning rivers. Atlantic sturgeon can now be found in approximately 32 of these rivers, and spawn in at least 20 of them. Critical habitat areas in coastal rivers were identified based on physical and biological features, such as soil type in the river bed, water temperature and salinity, and underwater vegetation, that are essential to the conservation of Atlantic sturgeon, particularly for spawning and development.

Atlantic sturgeon were harvested heavily in the twentieth century, particularly for their eggs (or roe) used for caviar. Overfishing led to a decline in abundance of Atlantic sturgeon, and in 1998 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission issued a coast-wide moratorium on the harvest of Atlantic sturgeon, and NOAA Fisheries followed with a similar moratorium in federal waters.

More information on the critical habitat designation is available in the Federal Register notice and on our website.

MASSACHUSETTS: Marbleheader cleared in alleged fish smuggling plot

August 15, 2017 –A Marblehead businessman is asking the federal government to pay his attorney’s fees after being cleared of what he described as “being framed” by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Robert Kliss and his company North Atlantic Traders Ltd. was indicted in April, after a nearly five-year investigation. He was charged with smuggling, falsifying records and conspiracy.

In July, it took a jury only about an hour to clear him of all charges.

“This is a case the government never should have brought,” said Kliss’s Attorney Barry Pollack.

“I would have to say it was probably the most stressful thing I’ve very gone through,” Kliss said. “More so than an IRS audit and I’ve been through three.”

The Motion

In his motion for an award of attorney’s fees, which was filed in U.S. District Court Aug. 9, Pollack lays out all the ways the government’s case went wrong, including pressuring witnesses to, in some cases, exaggerate testimony and in one case invoke the Fifth Amendment.

Three cooperating witnesses pled guilty to a misdemeanor, “as the result of a hybrid charge and fact bargaining,” Pollack stated in his motion. “The government paid substantial consideration, in that respect, to each witness while pressuring him to provide testimony against Kliss.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence against the government’s case however was when Agent Shawn Eusebio testified that during the more than four-year active investigation, no one on the government’s team realized Kliss wasn’t even in the country during the time he was alleged to have created and filed false documents in Massachusetts. Kliss had been in British Columbia with his son.

“My evidence was my stamped passport along with my son’s,” Kliss said. “That’s how bad the investigators and (prosecuting) attorneys are.”

Read the full story at the Marblehead Reporter

Read a statement from Stephen Ouellette, an attorney for North Atlantic Traders, here

 

 

Request for Information: NOAA Fisheries Announces River Herring Status Review

August 15, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is initiating a new status review of alewife and blueback herring. In a status review, we evaluate the best scientific and commercial data available on the current status of the species. We use these reviews to determine whether listing under the Endangered Species Act is warranted.

Through this announcement, we are requesting submission of information on alewife and blueback herring rangewide, including any information on the status, threats, and recovery of the species that has become available since the previous listing determinations in 2013.

Please submit your information by October 16, 2017, either through the e-Rulemaking portal or by mail to:

Tara Trinko Lake

NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region

55 Great Republic Drive

Gloucester, MA 01930