Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Offers Paperless Way to Receive Information about Fishing Regulations and Management Actions

December 1, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

This is an annual reminder that NOAA Fisheries offers you two ways to receive your fishery bulletins.  These bulletins contain fishing regulation information and are typically referred to as “the blue sheets.”

You may receive a copy of the bulletin two ways:

Electronic/E-mail:

To receive an on-line copy of the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fishery Bulletin, which explains current and proposed fishing regulations please visit  http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishbulletin.  You can unsubscribe at any time.

The electronic copy of the bulletin, sent via e-mail, will be delivered to you faster than a paper copy, is in color, features informational links, and reduces paper use.

Note: If you already receive electronic fishery bulletins via email, your subscription will not be affected and you do NOT need to sign up again now.

Text Message Notifications:

SIGN UP FOR TEXT MESSAGE ALERTS –

FIND OUT ABOUT IMMEDIATE OPENINGS AND CLOSURES

NOAA’s Text Message Alert Program allows you to receive important fishery related alerts via text message (SMS).

Text alerts you may receive include:

Immediate fishery openings and closures

Any significant changes to fishing regulations that happen quickly

Sign up for one or more of the following groups:

Gulf of Mexico Recreational Fisheries Related Alerts

  • Text GULFRECFISH to 888777

Gulf of Mexico Commercial Fisheries Related Alerts

  • Text GULFCOMMFISH to 888777

South Atlantic Recreational Fisheries Related Alerts

  • Text SATLRECFISH to 888777

South Atlantic Commercial Fisheries Related Alerts

  • Text SATLCOMMFISH to 888777

Caribbean Fisheries Related Alerts

  • Text CARIBFISH to 888777

Mail:

Note: If you already receive fishery bulletins in the mail, you still need to complete the attached survey notice and send it back to NOAA Fisheries.  If you do not send to the address below, you will not receive any bulletins in the mail.

This change will be EFFECTIVE January 2, 2017.

In an effort to better serve you, we want to update our records so the Southeast Fishery Bulletins you receive are of interest to you.

Please see below and let us know which regional specific bulletins you would like to receive.

Send your response to the following address:

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration

Southeast Regional Office, Sustainable Fisheries Division

263 13th Avenue South

Saint Petersburg, FL  33701

NOAA fishing head: Science, bycatch likely to remain focus under Trump administration

November 30, 2016 — SEATTLE — In a little over a month and a half, Eileen Sobeck will leave her job as the US’s top fishing regulator as the Obama administration appointee leaves to make way for leadership named by incoming president Donald Trump.

Since 2013, Sobeck, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) assistant administrator for fisheries, has led a team of over 4,800 federal employees, one of the major divisions of the  12,000-member agency of the Department of Commerce.

NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) regulates all US ocean fishing that takes place outside of the three-mile coastal limit that falls to the states. Its legal authority stems mainly from the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, but other laws also require it to protect marine mammals and endangered species.

In a recent interview with Undercurrent News, Sobeck said that despite the upcoming change in personnel, NMFS’s core objectives — to develop and maintain sustainable fisheries, to safeguard “protected resources, and to achieve “organizational excellence” through improved administration — will remain.

“We will always working on our science that’s needed to translate into management practices. I think we’re going to be focused on bycatch issues,” Sobeck, who will leave her post by Jan. 14, said. “We’ve beat the overfishing monster, but we still could be more efficient in maximizing targeted species and minimizing bycatch. That also goes for protected resource bycatch.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Oceana Files Legal Challenge to Northern Anchovy Catch Limit

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — November 29, 2016 — Last week, environmental group Oceana filed a lawsuit alleging that a recent National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) specification rule allows commercial fishing for northern anchovy at levels that threaten the anchovy population and the marine ecosystem. The complaint was filed against the NMFS, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the District Court of Northern California.

The specification rule in question, announced October 26, 2016 under the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan, set an annual catch limit (ACL) of 25,000 metric tons for the central subpopulation of anchovy. In its lawsuit, Oceana claims that the NMFS did not articulate the scientific basis for this ACL, did not base the ACL and related management measures on best available science, and did not explain how it would prevent overfishing and protect the West Coast marine ecosystem’s food web.

In doing so, Oceana claims that the rule violates the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint claims that the northern anchovy population has severely declined since 2009, and that northern anchovy are “one of the most important forage species” in the California marine ecosystem.

“The Fisheries Service’s actions and failures to act have harmed Oceana’s members’ interest in rebuilding and maintaining a healthy and sustainable population of northern anchovy and a healthy ocean ecosystem,” said the lawsuit, which was filed by lawyers from Earthjustice on Oceana’s behalf. “This harm will continue in the absence of action by the Court.”

Read the full legal complaint as a PDF

Idea to cut NASA’s role in climate science could be major loss for Maine, scientists say

November 29, 2016 — Maine scientists are decrying the assertion by a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump that the new administration will eliminate or dramatically scale back NASA’s climate research.

The scientists say the elimination of the agency’s earth science programs would be catastrophic for climate science research in Maine, impairing their ability to detect and analyze effects on fisheries, forests and agriculture. Maine is a hub of climate research – especially as it relates to the oceans – and the work relies on data collected by NASA satellites and processed by the agency’s experts.

“If we lose these data sets and capabilities, that will be a major loss to us being able to monitor and track changes here in Maine and in other areas that impact us,” said Andrew Thomas, a professor of oceanography at the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences, which receives more than one-sixth of its research funds from NASA. “Basically, you’re chopping off one of your arms and saying, ‘Carry on.’ ” The school’s Satellite Data Lab is using NASA data to analyze effects of melting ice in the Gulf of Alaska and to monitor marine algae production in the California Current.

Bob Walker, a former Pennsylvania congressman who serves as Trump’s space policy adviser, said in interviews last week that the administration would realign NASA’s budget, prioritizing exploration of “deep space” over space-based observations of Earth, which he has previously characterized as “politically correct environmental monitoring.” Earth observations would instead be made by the National Science Foundation or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two much smaller agencies with little experience or expertise in space-based climate monitoring.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

JIM HUTCHINSON JR: WILL ANGRY ANGLERS RESPOND TO FLUKE FIASCO?

November 28th, 2016 — Seriously, reading any further is just going to make you incredibly angry.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this, the coastwide quota for summer flounder (fluke) in 2017 is expected to be cut by about 40%. That means a shorter season, lower bag, an increase in size limits, or any combination of the three.

Pardon my French, but I told you that you’d be pissed!

The question is, what are you – what are we going to do about it?

NOAA Fisheries recently announced that their July 2016 summer flounder assessment shows continued overfishing and a fluke stock biomass in decline; in response, the federal government proposes a 30% reduction from catch limits previously implemented for the 2017 season, along with a 16% reduction from current 2018 allocations.

Because the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) showed gross overharvest in the recreational sector in 2016, that means we’re officially “overfishing” the fluke stock. That’s not to say the stock is in trouble, but because MRIP showed anglers caught too many fish this past summer, we now have a summer flounder stock that is experiencing statutory overfishing.

Read the full story at The Fisherman 

ALASKA: The next generation of ocean specialists

November 28, 2016 — Alaska’s university system is ramping up programs to train the next generations of fishery and ocean specialists — and plenty of jobs await.

Since 1987, the College of Fisheries and Ocean Science, or CFOS, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has offered undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fisheries Science, complete with paid internships to help prepare them for positions in the state’s largest industry.

“It’s a degree path preparing students for what I call fish squeezers — they’re going to go to work for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, or NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or some other type of agency where they’re going to be primarily out doing field work, traditional fish biologist types,” said Trent Sutton, a Professor of Fisheries Biology and Associate Dean of Academics.

Due to student interest, the college broadened the fisheries degree this fall to include ocean sciences, and opened more oceanography and marine biology classes to undergraduate students. The new degree combo program attracted 53 students, Sutton said.

The college also is a center for ocean acidification studies, which is a big student draw.

“You hear all the concerns regarding climate change and marine mammals and fisheries and sea ice — all of those garner interest from students because there are job opportunities down the road to deal with these issues,” Sutton explained.

The CFOS also is the only school in the nation to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in fisheries for students interested in seafood sciences and technology, and marine policy. Another focus of the B.A. track is in rural and community development where students can get the degree at home.

“A student in Bethel or Dillingham can stay home and take 100 percent of their courses either through video conferences or online or by some other distance delivery technology. They can get a degree that is tied to fisheries and it will help them have a good career and become leaders in their communities,” Sutton said.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce 

Remote and Vast, Our New Marine Monuments Are Difficult to Protect

November 23, 2016 — Unable to constantly patrol the waters, fishery enforcement agencies need new methods and technologies for monitoring [marine monument] areas.

Just west of the Hawaiian Islands sits one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. In August, President Obama tripled the size of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which now stretches across 582,578 square miles of ocean, an area nearly four times the size of California. The monument is home to colorful coral reefs teeming with marine life and encompasses rocky outcrops where some 5.5 million birds, including the Laysan Duck and Short-tailed Albatross, breed every year.

More than 5,000 miles east of the warm Pacific waters of Hawaii, in the frigid northern Atlantic Ocean, sits the 4,913-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which Obama designated in September. There, 130 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, underwater ravines deeper than the Grand Canyon contain cold-water coral reefs, among the world’s most delicate ecosystems, and the water’s surface serves as the winter home of Maine’s Atlantic Puffins.

The monuments are major victories for environmentalists—with a swipe of his pen, the President banned all commercial fishing within the monuments’ boundaries and outlawed all gas and oil exploration. Protecting marine life in both oceans will ultimately support fisheries and provide refuge for wildlife adapting to a changing climate.

But it’s one thing to designate a monument, and it’s quite another to actually enforce the promised protections. The two new monuments are vast and remote, and authorities already struggle to detect illegal activity in marine protected areas that are smaller and closer to land. In 1997 and 2004, nets and other commercial fishing gear were uncovered in the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of North Carolina. Even worse, evidence of fishing with explosives, bleach, and even cyanide has been found in the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.

That the new monuments are so large and located in such distant waters presents an even bigger challenge for the federal agencies responsible for their monitoring. Ideally, crewed vessels would police the areas, says Lisa Symons, resource protection coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. A physical presence would deter illegal fishing or mining and allow authorities to arrest or capture violating vessels. But this is almost impossible considering the locations of the new monuments—offshore and hundreds of miles from cities, towns, or villages.

Read the full story at Audubon

New Program Gives Vet Foothold in Fisheries

November 22, 2016 — Barney Boyer’s first few months as a NOAA Fisheries intern have been busy. He has assisted with tracking the return of salmon and forage fish to the Elwha River estuary, surveyed Puget Sound ocean conditions, and begun studying the invasion of non-native fish in the Snohomish River.

Boyer is the first military veteran to take an internship with NOAA Fisheries through a new partnership between Washington’s The next link/button will exit from NWFSC web site Department of Veterans Affairs and The next link/button will exit from NWFSC web site Veterans Conservation Corps, NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region, the The next link/button will exit from NWFSC web site NOAA Restoration Center and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC). Boyer is based at the NWFSC’s Mukilteo Research Station, near Everett, where he is assisting with several research projects, including one that may include him as co-author of a peer-reviewed paper.

“It’s really turned out to be an amazing experience so far,” Boyer said. “Every day here is an interesting experience, and I’m learning all the time.”

Casey Rice, director of the Mukilteo Research Station until his unexpected passing earlier this year, was a key advocate of hosting veterans at Mukilteo.

“Casey wanted this to happen and his colleagues have assumed the task of moving it forward,” said John Floberg of the NOAA Restoration Center, who helped coordinate the program. “It’s Casey’s legacy that veterans are now contributing to research at Mukilteo.”

Read the full story at the Fishing Wire

New England 2017 scallop plan likely to mean landings of 47.5m pounds

November 22, 2016 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has approved an Atlantic sea scallop fishery management plan for 2017, which maintains landings at a comparable level to 2016, it said.

The framework establishes specifications for the 2017 fishing year, and sets default specifications for 2018.

All told, estimated landings for 2017 are put at 47.5 million pounds, NEFMC said. So far this fishing year — March to October — the fishery has caught around 33m pounds, Dvora Hart, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Undercurrent News.

She estimated that by the end of the fishing year, on Feb. 28, fishers will have caught a total of around 40m pounds for 2016. Hence, the NEFMC’s projection suggests an increase of 18.7%.

The NEFMC, meanwhile, told Undercurrent that “many factors go into these calculations, but once all of the adjustments and deductions are made, the council’s projections indicate that landings in the end will be very similar — not exactly the same, but in the same general ballpark”.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Governor Bentley Announces $63 Million for Gulf Restoration Projects in Alabama

November 16, 2016 — MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Governor Robert Bentley on Tuesday announced the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has approved more than $63 million for six Alabama projects that address high-priority conservation needs, including the acquisition and restoration of significant coastal habitats in key focal areas, and the continuation of fisheries monitoring.

“One of Alabama’s greatest natural treasures is its gulf coast, and it’s vital that we continue to provide the necessary funds to ensure our coastline is restored from the devastation caused by the 2010 oil spill,” Governor Bentley said. “This $63 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will support long-term recovery efforts and provide for future efforts to return wildlife populations to their normal levels. I appreciate the efforts of our local, state and federal partners who are working so hard on the continuing resurgence of the Alabama Gulf Coast.”

In 2013, a U.S. District Court approved two plea agreements resolving certain criminal charges against BP and Transocean related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The funds announced Tuesday are the fourth installment from NFWF’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (GEBF). A total of $356 million will be paid into the Gulf Fund over a five-year period for conservation projects in the State of Alabama.

The number of awards from the GEBF in the state of Alabama now stands at 19, with a total value of more than $115 million. All projects were selected for funding following extensive consultation with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read the full story from WLTZ