Saving Seafood

Ramped-Up Efforts to Protect Mexican Fisheries Netting Results

June 2, 2017 — Criminal charges filed against a father-son duo accused of illegally importing sea cucumbers from Mexico for huge profit by selling the seafood delicacy for $17.5 million in Asia have highlighted the tension between keeping fishing sustainable and ensuring fishermen can maintain their livelihood off the ocean. Courthouse News took a deep dive into the current state of Mexican fisheries and found while some depleted fisheries have been restored in recent years, the stakes have been raised for those who make their living selling the prized delicacies.

Last week David Mayorquin and Ramon Torres Mayorquin were arraigned in San Diego’s federal court on charges related to the illegal trafficking of sea cucumbers through San Diego’s port of entry. The two owned and operated Arizona-based seafood company Blessings Inc. and had a legal permit to import the sea creatures – which are related to sea urchins and starfish.

But the Mayorquins skirted international rules on importing sea cucumbers, which allow them to be fished only in season. The animals must also be a certain size and caught in limited quantities to maintain the population in Mexican fisheries like the one in Yucatan where the sea cucumbers purchased by the family were allegedly poached from.

Since the U.S. Attorney’s Office began investigating illegal quantities of sea cucumbers coming through San Diego’s port of entry, the border city has seen a stark drop in imports of the sea creature: over 90 percent in the past three years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Science and Technology.

In 2013, more than 2.4 million pounds of sea cucumbers worth over $27 million crossed San Diego’s border from Mexico. By 2016, only 155,000 pounds of imported sea cucumbers worth $1.1 million was declared at San Diego’s port of entry, according to NOAA.

While enforcement efforts on both sides of the border appear to be deterring illegal poaching and overfishing of protected species such as sea cucumbers, the stakes are higher for those who stand to make millions off delicacies prized in Asian markets.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

New Comment Link for Proposed Recreational Catch Limits for Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock

June 2, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

Due to an administrative error, the comment link published in the Federal Register for the proposed groundfish recreational measures has changed.

Please submit your comments using the Regulations.gov online portal, which now matches the docket number listed in the ADDRESSES section of the Federal Register notice and will link you to all the supporting documents for this action.

If you already submitted comments using the previous link, you do not need to resubmit. Those comments have been registered.

You can also mail comments to: John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the Fishing Year 2017 Groundfish Recreational Measures.”

The comment period closes on June 9.

We apologize for the error.

For more information, read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel at 978-281-9175 or jennifer.goebel@noaa.gov

NOAA Revises Catch Limits for Black Sea Bass for 2017

June 2, 2017 — The catch limits for black sea bass have been revised for the remainder of 2017.

NOAA Fisheries has increased the commercial quota by 53 percent and the recreational harvest limit by 52 percent.

The revisions were based on new stock assessment information.

For planning purposes, fishery officials have also released the catch limit projections for 2018.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Sen. Luther Strange to Trump: Extend federal red snapper season

May 31, 2017 — U.S. Sen. Luther Strange joined a growing list of lawmakers on Wednesday requesting immediate action from President Donald Trump’s administration to extend this year’s recreational red snapper season.

Strange’s request comes on the eve of the beginning of the recreational season within federal waters. The season is scheduled to run from Thursday through Saturday, making it the shortest recreational season ever for red snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico’s federal waters.

Federal waters extend beyond the nine-nautical mile boundary that is currently controlled by the five Gulf states.

“Recreational red snapper fishing generates hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity every year in Alabama, and those who participate deserve to be able to enjoy their hobby for more than a mere three days each year,” said Strange in a statement posted on his Senate website. “I have urged the President to take action, and I look forward to working with him, as well as (Commerce) Secretary (Wilbur) Ross, to make sure that the voices of recreational anglers are heard.”

Read the full story at AL.com

Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, testifies before House Appropriations Committee

May 30, 2017 — Those watching Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross testify before the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies on the president’s budget request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 may at times have been able to anticipate his answers.

As the secretary fielded questions from worried Democrats regarding agencies and programs the White House proposed to eliminate or to drastically cut, his responses remained consistent. Whether answering queries about the elimination of the Sea Grant Program, the Minority Business Development Agency, or the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program, Secretary Ross was unwavering in his answer that tradeoffs had to be made to fund the administration’s priorities, “and with the big increases in defense and military and national security, cuts have to be made somewhere.”

Secretary Ross did highlight two areas of focus within NOAA: weather research and fisheries. He referenced the agency’s prioritization of weather research at the National Weather Service and the National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service. When Chairman John Culberson (TX-7) pressed the secretary on how he would reduce the $30 billion price tag for the three biggest weather satellite programs over the next 15 years, Secretary Ross shared the complexities of the issue, from the dangers of “catastrophic failure” to the need for forecast accuracy and reliability to bulk buys and problems in the private sector. He praised the agency, saying they had done “a pretty good job balancing all of these variables.”

Mr. Ross also highlighted the role of fisheries, saying he’s “obsessed with the problem that we have a $13 billion … trade deficit, in fish and fish product … so that’s one of the areas we’re going to be focusing very much on.” Representative Steven Palazzo (MS-4) raised a controversial issue, asking the secretary about the shortened three-day season for recreational red snapper fishers in Gulf waters. Secretary Ross pledged he would request the underlying data the agency used to make the decision and would work “to balance the needs of the recreational [fishers] with the needs of the commercial [fishers].”

Both sides of the aisle acknowledged the critical importance of the Department of Commerce to the U.S. How the department could continue to successfully function to support our nation’s economy, workforce, and national security with the cuts proposed in the president’s budget request remains an open question.

Read the full story at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership

Feds want to cut sport fishermen’s haddock catch, prohibit cod

May 31, 2017 — Tom Orrell was under the impression he’d entered the charter fishing business with his Gloucester-based Yankee Fleet. He didn’t know it came with such a large roller-coaster.

Up one incline, down the next, riding the rails of ever-changing regulation while plying the Atlantic in search of the fin fish and fishing experience his recreational fishing customers seek.

It doesn’t appear that 2017 is going to provide much solace.

Orrell and the rest of the Cape Ann for-hire charter fleet are bracing for a mid-season audible by NOAA Fisheries that could change the rules of the game right at the height of the season.

“It’s unreal,” Orrell said Wednesday. “It makes it very difficult to run a business.”

Citing recreational catch excesses in haddock and cod in the 2016 season, NOAA Fisheries seeks to enact measures to produce a 20 percent reduction in daily bag limits for haddock while taking away the solitary cod recreational anglers currently are allowed to catch and keep each day.

But the most significant impact on the recreational segment of the fishing industry could come in the fall, when charter owners have the Hobson’s choice of a four-week closure that includes the bountiful Labor Day weekend or a six-week closure that wipes out the last half of September and all of October.   

 “It’s not much of a choice,” Orrell said. “It’s like picking out your cleanest dirty shirt to go to work.”

Still, Orrell said, his preference would be to suffer through the later, longer closure rather than lose his Labor Day trips.

“Later on, the weather changes and it becomes more unpredictable and the pollock start moving in,” Orrell said. “And once you take the people off the boat, they don’t just turn around in the fall and come back fishing.”

NOAA Fisheries, which also is proposing a spring closing from March 1 through April 14, is seeking public comment on the proposed changes. An agency spokeswoman said they could be enacted as soon a late June or early July.

At its January meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to ask NOAA Fisheries to enact new measures on cod and haddock because preliminary 2016 data showed recreational anglers substantially exceeded the annual catch limit (ACL) for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: $185K in state Senate budget for industry-based cod survey

May 31, 2017 — The state Senate’s amended 2018 budget includes $185,000 to continue the industry-based cod survey that could help close the divide between commercial fishermen and regulatory scientists on the true state of the Gulf of Maine’s cod stock.

The survey funds now must survive the legislative conference committee formed to reconcile the differing budgets produced by the state Senate and House of Representatives before the final budget goes to Gov. Charlie Baker.

“This is really one of the rays of hope, that we can produce science that is credible and also acceptable to the people that have to live with it,” said Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, who, along with Assistant Majority Leader Mark Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, pushed to include the money in the Senate budget.

Tarr said the House budget contains only $125,000 to continue the industry-based survey.

“We’re significantly higher, but obviously we’re hoping to get the larger amount,” Tarr said. “The governor is a strong proponent of collaborative research, so I would say the likelihood is very strong that he will continue to support this program.”

Researchers from the state Division of Marine Fisheries, working on commercial fishing boats, recently completed the first year of the random-area survey that was funded with federal fishery disaster funds.

The goal of the survey, begun last year at the behest of Baker following his meetings with fishing stakeholders, was to produce “credible scientific information that could be accepted by fishermen, scientists and fisheries managers” and used in future NOAA Fisheries cod stock assessments.

As with many elements of commercial fisheries management, agreement between fishermen and regulatory scientists on the data used to generate cod assessments has been hard to come by.

The release in April of the preliminary results of the survey — appearing in a Boston Globe story — set off a firestorm among commercial fishermen and prompted some backtracking by the Baker administration.

The initial results, according to the Globe story, were in direct line with the dire assessments of NOAA Fisheries scientists about the imperiled state of the Gulf of Maine cod stock.

Fishing stakeholders were incensed.

“We’re appreciative and supportive of the state’s work and very much want the work to continue,” Vito Giacalone, policy director for the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, said at the time. “We’re not appreciative of the premature conclusions publicized by the scientists. It is this kind of scientific double standard that drives the loss of credibility of the science community in the eyes of industry.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Louisiana wants to give 150 anglers unlimited access to 25,000 pounds of red snapper

May 25, 2017 — Despite vehement opposition from recreational-fishing advocacy groups, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says it has worked up a pilot program that will award a significant portion of the state’s red snapper haul to select recreational anglers.

The department announced the plan in a Thursday afternoon press release, just one day after meeting with pro-recreational fishing groups and mentioning nothing about the program.

Under the pilot program, which would run in 2018 and 2019, a total of 150 anglers would be selected at random to receive 25,000 pounds of the recreational red snapper quota. Those anglers would not be subject to daily bag limits or season restrictions.

The structure would be similar to what exists in the commercial sector, where fishers have been awarded percentages of the overall commercial quota, and may harvest their red snapper at any time during the year. The system, called individual fishing quotas, has been panned by recreational-fishing organizations as well as good-government groups because it has set up so-called Sea Lords, who own quota and make hundreds of thousands of dollars on a public resource without ever leaving the dock.

Gov. John Bel Edwards lauded the department’s proposal.

“As a fisherman myself, that sounds like a lot better system than squeezing all of my red snapper fishing into June when there might be bad weather or when family obligations get in the way,” Edwards stated in the news release.

NOAA Fisheries announced last month the 2017 recreational red snapper season in federal waters would run three days, June 1-3. It’s the shortest federal red snapper season in history.

Read the full story at The Times-Picayune

Trump budget delivers body blows to Alaska fisheries

May 27, 2017 — The 2018 budget unveiled May 23 by the Trump administration is bad news for anything that swims in or near U.S. waters.

The Trump budget will cut $1.5 billion from the U.S. Commerce Department, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taking the hardest hit.

The NOAA budget for its National Marine Fisheries Service operations, research and facilities would be slashed by about $43 million, eliminating NOAA’s coastal research efforts as well as its Sea Grant program.

The Trump dump also includes pulling the budget from NOAA’s Coastal Zone Management Program and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, which targets recovery of West Coast and Alaska salmon runs.

Funding for management and enforcement of U.S. catch share programs, such as halibut, sablefish and Bering Sea crab, would be cut by $5 million.

Budgets for Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency Grants, Interjurisdictional Fisheries Grants, the Chesapeake Bay project, the Great Lakes Restoration Project and the National Estuary Program also would be eliminated.

Another $193 billion would be cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over 10 years. SNAP is a program used by more than 42 million needy Americans to supplement food purchases and often includes government-purchased seafood.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told McClatchy News that the Trump administration “looked at the budget process through the eyes of the people who were actually paying the bills.”

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

Senators Booker, Menendez Introduce Bill to Ban Seismic Testing in Atlantic

May 27, 2017 — U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-NJ), Bill Nelson, (D-Fla.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the “Atlantic Seismic Airgun Protection Act’’ a bill to ban oil, gas and methane hydrate-related seismic activities in the Atlantic Ocean. The bill will prohibit the use of seismic airgun blasting — a disruptive and potentially economically damaging method of surveying offshore oil and gas reserves — in the North Atlantic, Mid Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida.

“Offshore fossil fuel exploration of any kind in the Atlantic poses a direct and serious threat to New Jersey’s economy and environment. My colleagues and I will do everything in our power to protect our coastal communities and those who work in our fishing industry from the potentially disastrous effects of seismic blasting,” said Senator Booker. “Our bill makes it clear that when it comes to offshore oil exploration of any kind, the Atlantic and our coasts are off limits.”

“We are introducing this commonsense legislation because we have a responsibility to be good stewards of our environment, and allowing big oil to use seismic blasting methods that are incredibly disruptive to marine life is a total abdication of that responsibility,” said Senator Menendez. “New Jersey’s fishing industry supports tens of thousands of jobs, and the state is home to one of the largest saltwater recreational fishing industries in the nation. I will continue to fight for New Jersey’s clean coastal waters and rich ecosystems, our small businesses and fishermen who have built and sustained a thriving shore economy against all odds in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, and for all New Jerseyans who know the value of having a clean energy future.”

Booker has been an outspoken advocated for a ban on seismic airgun blasting and other harmful extraction efforts in the Atlantic. In Aug. 2015, Booker sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) urging a denial of four seismic survey applications for oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic Ocean. Last month, Booker spoke out against President Trump’s executive order on expediting off-shore drilling, pledging to fight the Administration’s efforts to erode coastal protections from off-shore drilling.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald