Saving Seafood

Longer season threatens red snapper, group contends

But area anglers question the conservation group’s findings.

July 31, 2017 — A federal decision to extend the recreational fishing season for Gulf of Mexico red snapper this summer is likely to lead to overfishing, conservation group says.

The extended season, now under way, could allow anglers to take up to three times as much snapper as legally allowed under scientifically sound catch limits, according to an analysis of fishery data by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Pew analyzed estimated red snapper catch rates and projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service and concluded that total 2017 landings in the Gulf by all fishermen will probably exceed legally allowed amounts by at least 37 percent.

“That’s a disturbing scenario for a species that plummeted to low population levels from overfishing in the 1990s,” Holly Binns, Pew’s director of U.S. Oceans Southeast, wrote Thursday in a report on the findings. “Gulf red snapper have been recovering thanks to federally mandated, science-based catch limits and court-ordered measures to prevent catching the fish faster than they can reproduce, but that progress is now in jeopardy.”

Louisiana and other Gulf Coast anglers won a 39-day red snapper season that started June 16 and is expected to run through Labor Day. Recreational fishermen can catch red snapper Fridays through Sundays through Sept. 4 in federal waters off Louisiana; state waters were closed to the fish as part of the deal.

Read the full story at Houma Today

NH fisherman takes $700-a-day mandate to have federal agent aboard to Supreme Court

July 31, 2017 — HAMPTON, N.H. — A commercial fisherman who is suing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over its at-sea monitoring program is hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his case on its merits.

David Goethel, of Hampton, who filed his original suit against the federal government in 2015, has been joined in his efforts by the Northeast Fisheries Sector 13. They represent fishermen from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

Cause of Action Institute, a nonprofit oversight group advocating for economic freedom and individual opportunity in Washington, D.C., is funding the lawsuit. Goethel said their support is evening the playing field for small commercial fishermen who are being forced to pay about $700 per day for at-sea monitors under current regulations.

“We simply just don’t have the money to play in these arenas,” Goethel said Friday.

Lawyers submitted their petition to the Supreme Court earlier this month. It calls for the court to reverse rulings about a 30-day statute of limitations for challenges, but at its heart, Goethel is asking for the case to be heard on its merits.

Goethel said he believes it is illegal for NOAA to require commercial fishermen to pay for at-sea monitors, when NOAA mandates them. NOAA has paid for the monitors on and off in the past, when they can find the money, Goethel said.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader

NOAA Fisheries Announces Extension of Voluntary Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

July 31, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone south of Nantucket, MA has been extended and enlarged to protected an aggregation of four right whales sighted in this area on July 28, 2017.

Mariners, please avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the area.

Nantucket, MA zone coordinates:

  • 41 33 N
  • 40 54 N
  • 070 35 W
  • 069 42 W

This voluntary speed restriction zone is in effect through August 12.

Find out more about all the dynamic and seasonal management areas where speed is restricted.

Learn more about how to reduce vessels strikes of whales.

You can also get recent right whale sightings and the latest acoustic detections of right whales in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston shipping lanes. Or, download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone.

Remember that approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law. Please report all right whale sightings to 866-755-NOAA (6622)

NOAA Fisheries says no more cod fishing for fun

July 31, 2017 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Federal regulators had some bad news for New England’s recreational saltwater fishermen this week.

NOAA Fisheries announced new management measures for the recreational cod and haddock fisheries in the Gulf of Maine.

Effective Thursday, July 27, the regulators banned all recreational cod fishing in the waters between Cape Cod and the Canadian border known as the Gulf of Maine Regulated Mesh Area.

The ban applies to possession of any cod by recreational fishermen.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

MASSACHUSETTS: Improving the science is key

Gov. Baker pledges support for new studies, research on fishing industry

July 31, 2017 — Governor Charlie Baker says more and stronger data will help Gloucester fishermen push back against federal fisheries regulations they believe are unwarranted and which, they claim, are in some cases based on inaccurate government data.

Citing scientific data as key to reviving not only Gloucester’s, but also the state’s fishing industry, Baker told a roomful of fishermen and their supporters Thursday that he will continue to support their push for new studies and other research. He also hailed the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition for its focus on those needs.

“We’re very proud of you and all that you are doing to improve the science,” Baker told up to 300 people gathered for the coalition’s annual fundraiser at The Gloucester House. The benefit, which was expected to raise up to $50,000 for the fishing industry policy and advocacy organization, carried a theme of “Know fish, better science.”

“We look forward to working with you, and we are committed to advocating for you,” the governor added, noting that the coalition continues to push for a greater role for fishermen in government trawl studies and other research used to craft fishing quotas on cod and other groundfish. “We respect the work you do, and we look to working with you and for you long into the future.”

Baker, who has consistently sided with fishermen in their questioning of the accuracy of government catch data, made his latest visit to Gloucester two weeks after the announcement that John Bullard, NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic regional administrator for the past five years, is retiring in January.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

What’s next for Carlos Rafael?

July 31, 2017 — The “Codfather” quashed any hopes for high courtroom drama when he pleaded guilty in March to falsifying fish quotas, false labeling of fish species, conspiracy and tax evasion, 28 counts in all.

The real action is behind the scenes, as federal and defense attorneys wrestle over the fate of New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael’s fishing empire, said to be one of the largest groundfish fleets in the nation.

It’s something Cape fishermen, and fishermen all over New England, are debating and watching closely.

“I’ve said before, there is no place in fishing for Mr. Rafael. If that’s part of the global solution (the larger deal being worked out between NOAA and Rafael’s attorneys) every fisherman I’ve spoken to up and down the coast feels that’s a good outcome,” said John Pappalardo, chief executive officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance and a member and former chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council. Many fishermen want the courts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make an example of Rafael and send a message that illegal fishing practices won’t be tolerated.

They are also interested in what happens to the money collected in fines and forfeitures and the fate of the many fishery permits and quota controlled by Rafael.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NOAA Fisheries Announces Common Pool Area Closure for Georges Bank Cod

July 28, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We are closing the Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area for Georges Bank cod to common pool vessels fishing on a groundfish trip with trawl, sink gillnet, and longline/hook gear for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31, 2017.

The closure is effective today, July 28, 2017, at 0845 hours. The area will reopen at the beginning of Trimester 2, on September 1, 2017.

The closure applies to the following statistical areas: 521, 522, 525, and 561. See map below.

If you have crossed the vessel monitoring system demarcation line prior to 0845 hours on July 28, and are currently at sea on a groundfish trip, you may complete your trip in all or part of the closed area. If you have set gillnet gear prior to July 28, 2017, you may complete your trip to retrieve that gear.

We are required to close this area because the common pool fishery is projected to have caught 90 percent of its Trimester 1 Total Allowable Catch for GB cod. This closure is intended to prevent an overage of the common pool’s quota for this stock.

For more details, read the notice (pdf) as filed in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin available on our website.

NOAA Reminds Boaters to Watch Out for Whales

July 28, 2017 — WASHINGTON — NOAA Fisheries is reminding boaters to keep a close eye out for feeding and traveling whales, along with following safe viewing guidelines.

During the summer whales are feeding on small schooling fish and zooplankton in coastal areas around New England.

Vessels should stay at least 100 feet away from humpback, fin, sei and minke whales and 500 feet away from critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“Increased whale activity in areas off Northern New England are coinciding with summer boat traffic. We want to remind boaters of ways to prevent accidental interactions with whales, which can be fatal to the whales and cause damage to boats,” says Jeff Ray, the deputy special agent in charge for NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

This small, lowly sponge from Alaska may have special powers: curing cancer

July 28, 2017 — An obscure Alaska sea sponge, unknown to science until about a decade ago, shows promise as a tool to help patients fight pancreatic cancer, a notoriously deadly and hard-to-treat disease, researchers say.

The sponge, first spotted in 2005 on the floor of the eastern Gulf of Alaska off Baranof Island, holds unusual molecules that target and kill pancreatic cancer cells in the laboratory.

The Alaska sponge now shows more promise as pancreatic-cancer fighter than any of the other sea sponges or plants, marine creatures and bacteria that Mark Hamann of the Medical University of South Carolina and Fred Valeriote of the Henry Ford Cancer Institute in Detroit have examined over the past two decades.

“This is certainly, for us, the best and most exciting looking candidate for the control of pancreatic cancer that we’ve come across in that 20-year period,” Hamann said in a teleconference with reporters Wednesday hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, which is collaborating in the research.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to control and spreads rapidly to nearby parts of the body, according to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The pancreas is a part of the digestive system, secreting hormones that enable the body to process sugars.

The Alaska sponge was discovered by Bob Stone, a NOAA Fisheries biologist conducting an ocean-floor survey of coral habitat that fishery managers were interested in protecting.

It immediately stood out for its green color, contrasting with the browns common to Southeast Alaska sea sponges, said Stone, who was in the submersible vessel doing the survey. It looked like a sponge from the faraway Aleutians, he said.

“The second I saw it, I thought I should collect it,” he said.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

NOAA Fisheries Announces 2017 Recreational Measures for Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock

July 27, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces recreational measures for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year.

These measures are effective immediately.

Gulf of Maine Cod:

No Possession

Gulf of Maine Haddock:

Minimum size: 17 inches

Daily limit: 12 fish per angler per day

Open Seasons: May 1-September 16; November 1-February 28; April 15-30

Read the final rule as published in the Federal Register, and the permit holder letter posted on our website.