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Fisheries Innovation Fund 2017 Request for Proposals

May 1, 2017 — The following was released by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation:

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is excited to announce the Fisheries Innovation Fund 2017 Request for Proposals.

To view the RFP and to learn more about the program and application process, please visit the Fisheries Innovation Fund website.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will be hosting a webinar Tuesday, May 9 from 3-4 pm ET to discuss program priorities outlined in the RFP with interested applicants.

Please share this opportunity with others who may be interested.

The deadline for pre-proposal submissions is Thursday, May 25.

Questions? Contact Melanie Sturm at 202-595-2438 or melanie.sturm@nfwf.org

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford among crowd staking claim to Carlos Rafael’s permits

May 1, 2017 — Before Carlos Rafael uttered the word “guilty” last month, the judge made the New Bedford fishing mogul aware of the possibility of forfeiting his assets, which means permits, too.

About two months remain before Rafael’s sentencing date, but cities and states have started to acknowledge that possibility as well.

Rebeiro, along with Council President Joseph Lopes and Ward 5 Councilor Kerry Winterson introduced a written motion Thursday night “requesting that the Committee on Internal Affairs meet with Attorney General Maura Healey and NOAA to discuss how current owners and mariners operating in New Bedford have the first right of refusal to acquire licenses to be auctioned as result of the plea agreement in the case of The United States vs. Carlos Rafael …”

The case cited has yet to be completed despite Rafael’s plea agreement. Sentencing is scheduled for June 27.

On March 30 in U.S. District Court in Boston, Rafael pleaded guilty to 28 counts including falsifying fishing quotas, false labeling, conspiracy and tax evasion.

If Rafael had been convicted of false labeling, he could have been subjected to the forfeiture of all vessels and other equipment used in the offenses, the indictment said, which listed 13 boats.

However, during the Rafael’s plea agreement hearing, his lawyer William Kettlewell said, “We have reserved the right … to challenge the proportionality of the assets” that could potentially be seized.

Kettlewell didn’t return multiple requests for comment on Rafael’s permits.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Not Just a Boys’ Club: Women Hooking Into Fishing Industry

April 28, 2017 — “At the beginning of my fishing career, all the world told me that the trade was for men,” says Chrifa Nimri, “but now all my colleagues respect and call me captain.”

The 69-year-old Tunisian fisherwoman is one of a very small female minority in a very male-dominated profession – commercial fishing.

Around the world, the dangerous work of hauling in the catch at sea is overwhelmingly performed by men. But if you expand the definition of fishing to include processers and marketers of seafood, workers in small-scale and artisanal fisheries, and collectors of clams and other shellfish, women account for a substantial part of the global industry.

Sara Skamser has worked in or around commercial fishing for nearly her entire adult life. In her early 20s, she arrived on the Oregon coast and collected her first paychecks salmon fishing and crabbing in local waters. Then Skamser asked for jobs on bigger boats home-ported in Newport — better pay and bigger adventure and all. But, she recalls, none of those skippers would hire her.

“No. They said no.” She mimics them. “’Uh, I know you could do the job. Gosh, you’re probably stronger than me. Uhhh, but I don’t think my wife would like it.’ Or, ‘Uhhh. I would feel terrible if you got hurt on my boat.'”

Read the full story at Voice of America

Mass Die-Off of Whales in Atlantic Is Being Investigated

April 28, 2017 — Humpback whales have been dying in extraordinary numbers along the Eastern Seaboard since the beginning of last year. Marine biologists have a term for it — an “unusual mortality event” — but they have no firm idea why it is happening.

Forty-one whales have died in the past 15 months along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Maine. In a news conference on Thursday, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries said that they had not identified the underlying reason for the mass death, but that 10 of the whales are known to have been killed by collisions with ships.

The agency is starting a broad inquiry into the deaths.

These whales “have evidence of blunt force trauma, or large propeller cuts,” said Deborah Fauquier, a veterinary medical officer at the agency’s Office of Protected Resources. These collisions with ships were “acute events,” Dr. Fauquier said, and were being treated as the “proximate cause of death.”

Dr. Fauquier said that the number of whale strandings was “alarming,” and that she hoped the investigation might give a sense of what kind of threat this presents to this population of humpback whales and those around the world.

Read the full story at the New York Times

NOAA investigates ‘unusual’ whale deaths

April 27, 2017 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries says the deaths of 41 humpback whales dating back to last year in the waters between North Carolina and Maine will have “a focused, expert investigation into the cause.”

NOAA made the announcement Wednesday, noting that the deaths constitute an “unusual mortality event.” Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, an unusual mortality event is defined as “a stranding that is unexpected; involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population; and demands immediate response.”

NOAA is expected to release more information on the investigation Thursday.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Despite recovery, humpback whales still suffer from ship strikes

April 27, 2017 — Decades after most countries retired their harpoons, whales still face threats from fishermen, ships, and coastal pollution. But one species that seemed to have overcome these challenges was Megaptera novaeangliae, better known as the humpback whale.

Heavily hunted by the early 20th century, an international whaling moratorium and protection under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) gave humpbacks the breathing space they needed to recover.

From 1986 to 2008, the whales’ numbers rose to 60,000 worldwide, and their status on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s “Red List” improved from “Endangered” to “Least Concern.” By last September, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that nine of the 14 distinct humpback populations no longer warranted ESA protection. Last year, one was even spotted in the Hudson River.

But a study published Tuesday in the journal Marine Mammal Science puts an asterisk on this progress. Close to shore, ship collisions threaten several species of whales, and these strikes may be greatly underreported for one humpback population in the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at the Christian Science Monitor

Seven Gulf Groups Endorse Chris Oliver for Asst. NOAA Administrator

April 27, 2017 — The Gulf Seafood Institute joined six other Gulf of Mexico seafood industry organizations in endorsing Texas-native turned North Pacific Fishery Management Council Executive Director Chris Oliver for the open position of Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries.

In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Jr., the fleet of Gulf supporters called Oliver “a motivated and talented leader with a passion for bridging divides among diverse fishing interests. Those qualities would benefit the “notoriously complex” environment in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf-based groups to endorse Oliver include:  Alabama Charter Fishermen’s Association (Orange Beach, AL), Charter Fishermen’s Association (Corpus Christi, TX), Clearwater Marine Association (Clearwater, FL),  Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance (Galveston, TX), Louisiana Restaurant Association (Metairie, LA),  Southeastern Fisheries Association (Tallahassee, FL) and The Gulf Seafood Institute, (New Orleans, LA).

“Federal fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico…involve a host of competing user groups, including our hardworking commercial harvesters, professional charter boat operators, a growing private angling community, and of course, a skyrocketing tourism and consumer economy dependent on the long-term health of them all,” the letter stated.

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute

How many fish are really in the ocean? Some congressmen think federal fisheries can do a better job of finding out

April 26, 2017 — Two years ago, fisheries authorities threw the brakes on catching cobia, a popular game fish and a favorite of recreational fishermen from Florida to Maryland.

Suddenly, anglers could catch fewer fish – and sometimes none at all.

But the reasons for the new rules, it turned out, were flawed.

Now some congressmen hope to enact a new law changing the way saltwater fish stocks are managed. With better use of data, they say, will come better decisions.

“It’s a fairly archaic system,” said Rob Wittman, R-Va., one of the bill’s sponsors. “And there’s a lot of consternation about the lack of good data being used to make decisions that affect watermen.”

Current law calls for rebuilding fish stocks and preventing overfishing. But of the 538 species managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there is data for only 180. And the congressmen contend the information is either wrong or outdated.

NOAA does not comment on proposed legislation, according to John Ewald, the agency’s public affairs officer for fisheries.

He pointed to a National Academy of Sciences study that reported NOAA has made “impressive progress” in its data-collection efforts.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

NOAA Publishes Proposal for Forage Species Limits

April 26, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries has published a proposed rule for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Unmanaged Forage Fish Omnibus Amendment. This amendment would implement an annual landing limit, possession limits, and permitting and reporting requirements for certain previously unmanaged forage species and species groups within Mid-Atlantic Federal waters. The purpose of this action is to prevent the development of new, and the expansion of existing, commercial fisheries on certain forage species until the Council has adequate opportunity and information to evaluate the potential impacts of forage fish harvest on existing fisheries, fishing communities, and the marine ecosystem.

Comments will be accepted through May 30, 2017. Please see the Proposed Rule for details and instructions for submitting comments.

Additional background information about the amendment may be found on the Council’s website at http://www.mafmc.org/actions/unmanaged-forage.

For further information, contact Douglas Christel, NMFS Fishery Policy Analyst, 978-281-9141, douglas.christel@noaa.gov, fax 978-281-9135.

BREN SMITH, SEAN BARRETT, AND PAUL GREENBERG: What Trump’s Budget Means for the Filet-O-Fish

April 25, 2017 — Consider the pollock.

It is the most voluminously caught fish in the United States, accounting for a quarter of everything Americans catch. As such it is the major bulwark against the United States’ multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit — the second-largest deficit in our trade portfolio, after crude oil. And it is, today, the main component in the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, or the “fish delight,” as Donald Trump likes to call it.

Now consider the president’s budget for the people who make his preferred sandwich possible.

If Congress seriously entertains the White House’s suggestions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — a popular target for conservatives, who see it primarily as a source of pesky climate-change research — and the National Marine Fisheries Service it oversees will lose 17 percent of its funding. This despite Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’s desire to “try to figure how we can become much more self-sufficient in fishing and perhaps even a net exporter.”

As the three of us consider this statement, a common wry fisherman’s response comes to our lips: Yeah, good luck with that, buddy.

Because of repeated sacrifices made by American fishermen working with NOAA over the past 40 years, the United States now has the most robust and well-managed wild fisheries in the world. Federal observers oversee 80 percent of the large trawlers fishing for pollock, ensuring that this largest of fisheries maintains an impeccable set of management tools.

But in spite of all of our success, only around 9 percent of the seafood available in American markets comes from American fishermen. In fact, the last traditional fishing communities in the United States are fighting for their very existence. Fair-trade local fishermen remain unable to compete in our domestic marketplace, which is overwhelmed and flooded with cheap, untraceable imported seafood.

Read the full opinion piece at the New York Times