Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Announces Red Snapper Will Remain Closed in South Atlantic Federal Waters in 2016

May 20, 2016 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council: 

NOAA Fisheries announces red snapper will remain closed to commercial and recreational fishing in South Atlantic federal waters in 2016. Red snapper remains closed as the total number of red snapper removed from the population in 2015 exceeded the allowable catch level.

In 2013, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council developed, and NOAA Fisheries implemented, a standardized process that specifies harvest may only occur in a given year if total removals (landings plus dead discards) in the previous year were less than the number allowed for population rebuilding. The total removals allowable for 2015 were 114,000 fish. After evaluating landings and discard information for 2015, NOAA Fisheries determined the estimates of total removals were 276,729 fish; therefore, the fishery remains closed in 2016.

NOAA Fisheries will utilize the same process identified by the South Atlantic Council to determine if the fishery can sustain a 2017 season.

For additional sources of information, including Frequently Asked Questions, details of the standardized process, and the report of 2015 estimates of red snapper total removals in the South Atlantic Region, please go here.

NOAA: Dungeness crab in peril from acidification

May 19, 2016 — The Dungeness crab fishery could decline West Coastwide, a new study has found, threatening a fishing industry worth nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year.

Scientists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle found that pH levels likely in West Coast waters by 2100 at current rates of greenhouse-gas pollution would hurt the survivability of crab larvae.

Increasing ocean acidification is predicted to harm a wide range of sea life unable to properly form calcium carbonate shells as the pH drops. Now scientists at the NOAA’s Northwest Fishery Science Center of Seattle also have learned that animals with chitin shells — specifically Dungeness crabs — are affected, because the change in water chemistry affects their metabolism.

Carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, is pumped into the atmosphere primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Levels of atmospheric C02 have been steadily rising since the Industrial Revolution in 1750 and today are higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years — and predicted to go higher.

When carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water it lowers the pH. By simulating the conditions in tanks of seawater at pH levels likely to occur in West Coast waters with rising greenhouse gas pollution, scientists were able to detect both a slower hatch of crab larvae, and poorer survival by the year 2100.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

Global fisheries: Benefits, trade-offs of alternative approaches to recovering depleted fisheries

May 18, 2016 — The dangers for the world’s seas and oceans are many — from climate change and warming waters to overfishing related to the needs of growing world populations. As a major 2015 paper in the journal Science noted, extinction of many species is a looming reality, given the current decline in quality of aquatic ecosystems. The perils for large marine mammals, sharks and other large fish are well known to the public. But there are many other dangers. For example, the rapid rate of ocean acidification, which appears to be unprecedented in Earth’s history, threatens to decimate shellfish populations.

Of course, debates about overfishing and sustainable management practices rage in virtually every fishery across the world. These policy debates are seldom simple to resolve and involve complex tradeoffs: Traditional fishing rights versus government regulation; short-term profits versus longer-term sustainable growth; local population food needs versus larger ecological and stewardship concerns. Organizations such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations keep statistics on the state of fisheries and their relative health. The FAO’s annual The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture provides a comprehensive overview. For U.S. reporters and editors covering these issues on the nation’s coasts, it is worth getting to know some of the long and complex policy and regulatory history in this area, which for nearly four decades has been governed by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Read the full story at Journalist’s Resource

SAFMC News: Council Staff Presenting on Citizen Science Initiative on May 25 Webinar for the NOAA FIsheries QUEST program

May 17, 2016 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

DATE: May 25, 2016

TIME: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

As part of the webinar series for the NOAA Fisheries QUEST program, the public is invited to join South Atlantic Fishery Management Council staff as they discuss the Council’s new Citizen Science Initiative.

The presentation will highlight current data challenges in the South Atlantic region; examples of how researchers, resource managers, and fishermen can partner to enhance existing data collection, research, and monitoring efforts; and program recommendations developed by the recent Council-hosted Citizen Science Program Design workshop.

No ruling yet in at-sea monitoring lawsuit

May 17, 2016 — There still has been no decision in the federal lawsuit brought by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel and his Northeast Fishing Sector 13 to bar NOAA Fisheries from making permit holders pay for at-sea monitoring.

The last significant acts of the case, which was filed Dec. 9 in U.S. District Court in Concord, New Hampshire, occurred in early March, when both sides filed motions for summary judgment with U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Laplante.

Laplante took those motions for summary judgment under advisement. Then, except for a few incidents of legal housekeeping, there has been nothing but judicial silence.

Neither side in the dispute agreed to speak on the record Monday regarding the extensive delay or what it could mean to the case’s ultimate outcome.

“We believe that the hearing went well,” Alfred Lechner Jr., president and chief executive officer of Cause of Action Institute — which is providing legal guidance to Goethel in the case — said in a statement. “Our clients were provided the opportunity to tell their story and outline how these regulations impact their business and are making it difficult for fishermen in New England to earn a living. The judge listened to what they had to say.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

At House hearing, witness described federal ocean management as a “black hole”

May 17, 2016 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Today, Meghan Lapp, the Fisheries Liaison for Seafreeze Ltd, criticized what she described as an opaque and “top down” ocean management process at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans, titled “The Implications of President Obama’s National Ocean Policy”.

In her testimony, Ms. Lapp – whose company, Seafreeze, is the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen fish on the East Coast – described the difficulties she faced dealing with ocean planning agencies, specifically the Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB). Her testimony detailed how the RPB appeared committed to establishing new environmental protections at all costs, without sufficient regard to their potential impact on fishing communities. 

“It was very apparent from the discussion that the push was to get the RPB Plan done at all costs by 2016,” she said.

Ms. Lapp also highlighted how new regulatory processes have frequently excluded stakeholder engagement – with a prominent example being the potential designation of deep sea canyons as marine national monuments.

“No one at NOAA could tell me how long the comment period would remain open. Neither could anyone at the agency inform me how or why this discussion was initiated, if there was any specific process being followed, who would be reviewing our comments, who would be presenting them, and to whom.”

Ms. Lapp summed up the opaque nature of the process as such: “It was like a black hole; we had no idea what was going on.”

Read Ms. Lapp’s full testimony here

 

‘Codfather’ pleads not guilty to fish conspiracy

May 13, 2016 — New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Worcester to conspiracy, lying to NOAA Fisheries about the exact species of fish he landed through a four-year span, and illegally smuggling cash out of the country.

Rafael, know widely as “The Codfather,” remains free on the $1 million bond set after his February arrest for conspiracy and submitting falsified records. The arrests of Rafael and his bookkeeper Debra Messier capped an undercover sting operation by federal authorities, some of whom posed as Russian mobsters looking to buy his business.

The 64-year-old Rafael, who appeared before Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy, controls one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the United States and has been a powerful force in Northeast commercial fishing circles through his ownership of 32 fishing vessels and a block of 44 federal fishing permits with a value estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Key Scallop Fishing Area in Maine to Be Closed for 9 Months

May 13, 2016 — Federal regulators are shutting down scallop fishing in the northern Gulf of Maine, which is one of the most important harvesting areas for the shellfish.

Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that fishermen have reached their quota for the area and it will be closed starting Friday. The closure of the area to federally permitted scallop boats will last until next Feb. 28.

The closure is the first of its kind since the current quota system was implemented in 2008, New England Fishery Management Council analyst Deirdre Boelke said. She said it’s unlikely to have a dramatic impact on the availability or price of scallops nationally.

Read the full story at ABC News

Survey delay might hurt fish population research

May 12, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story published today by the Boston Globe.

NEWPORT, R.I. – Even before mechanics found deeply pitted bearings near crankshafts in its generators, problems that could have led to catastrophic engine failure, the Henry B. Bigelow was running more than a month behind.

Now, the government research vessel is embarking on its annual spring voyage later than ever before, a delay that could have serious consequences for scientists’ ability to assess the health of some of the 52 fish stocks they survey, from the waters off North Carolina to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of Maine.

Fish migrate and change their feeding patterns as waters warm, which might make it difficult for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists to compare this spring’s survey of fish populations with previous counts.

The prospect of skewed data could complicate efforts for policy makers to set proper quotas, potentially leading either to overfishing or unnecessarily strict catch limits.

“I worry that this will create statistical noise and more uncertainty,” said Gary Shepherd, a fishery biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, where he and other scientists recommend quotas based on what the Bigelow catches, along with other data.

As the waters warm, some of the fish, such as herring, migrate out of the survey area and into the region’s rivers. Other species, such as squid, which are short-lived, might not survive in representative numbers through June, when the Bigelow is now scheduled to finish its survey.

“If the survey had started at its normal time, it would have found squid on the continental shelf,” said Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, a Washington-based group that represents the fishing industry. “But now it won’t because the survey doesn’t sample Nantucket Sound.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Prosecutors in Rafael case: Carlos Seafood’s transaction reports didn’t match up

May 11, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The FV Hera II, a boat that prosecutors said fishing fleet owner Carlos Rafael owned through a shell corporation, reported catching 4,595 pounds of haddock on Jan. 25, then selling it to Rafael’s Carlos Seafood business, a registered dealer, according to the indictment of Rafael that was unsealed Monday.

Carlos Seafood also recorded acquiring 840 pounds of American plaice, or “dabs,” from the Hera II that day, prosecutors said.

But here’s the rub: Records of Carlos Seafood’s third-party sales Jan. 25, according to the indictment, cite about 200 pounds of haddock and 5,200 pounds of dabs.

In other words, prosecutors allege, a lot of the fish caught by the Hera II on Jan. 25 and reported as “haddock” actually were dabs, which are subject to stricter regulatory quotas. Those quotas are administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and limit how much of certain species commercial fishermen can catch.

Catching more of a protected species than allowed can bring significant value on the black market.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times