Saving Seafood

Plan to Establish Aquaculture in Offshore Waters Challenged by U.S. Conservation/Environmental Groups

New Orleans, LA — February 17, 2016 — Center for Food Safety has filed a new lawsuit challenging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) new federal regulations permitting, for the first time, industrial aquaculture offshore in U.S. federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The plaintiff coalition CFS is representing in the case make up a broad array of significant interests in the Gulf of Mexico, including commercial, economic, recreational, and conservation purposes: the Gulf Fishermen’s Association; Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance; Charter Fishermen’s Association; Destin Charter Boat Association; Clearwater Marine Association; Alabama Charter Fishing Association; Fish for America, USA, Inc.; Florida Wildlife Federation; Gulf Restoration Network; Recirculating Farms Coalition; and Food & Water Watch.

“Offshore industrial aquaculture will cause irreparable harm to the Gulf ecosystems and coastal communities,” said George Kimbrell, senior attorney for CFS and counsel for the plaintiffs. “We need to better manage and protect our native fisheries, not adopt destructive industrial food practices that put them at risk. This lawsuit, brought by a range of concerned stakeholders, aims to halt these shortsighted plans.”

“Our intention in being a part of this lawsuit is to not only help protect our members and commercial fishermen but to also help protect the fishing and non fishing public who depend on the wild fish stocks from damage that may occur from a numerous amount of various dangers from farm raising fish in open ocean pens in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Glen Brooks of the Gulf Fishermen’s Association.

The questionable federal permitting scheme, more than ten years in the making, is NOAA’s attempt to do an end-run around the United States Congress: multiple national bills that would have allowed and regulated industrial aquaculture never made it into law in the past decade. In an effort to push offshore aquaculture forward without a new law permitting it, NOAA exceeded its authority to regulate fishing under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and now plans to permit offshore aquaculture as a “fishing” activity.

Read the full story from The Fishing Wire

This could explain all those strange happenings in Alaska’s waters

February 16, 2016 — New research is shedding light on how far toxic algae blooms have spread in Alaska, and surprised scientists are saying this is just the beginning.

A study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest fisheries center found domoic acid and saxitoxin – algae-produced neurotoxins that are deadly in high doses — in 13 marine mammal species across Alaska, including as far north as the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Researchers say the study is just the latest piece of evidence that warming ocean temperatures are allowing these blooms to stretch into Arctic ecosystems, threatening marine life and the communities who rely on the sea to survive.

“The waters are warming, the sea ice is melting, and we are getting more light in those waters,” said Kathi Lefebvre, NOAA Fisheries research scientist. “Those conditions, without a doubt, are more favorable for algal growth. With that comes harmful algae.”

Read the full story from The Washington Post

NOAA Cuts Monitor Days for Massachusetts Lobstermen

February 16, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries has recalibrated its method for determining the requisite sea days of observer coverage for lobster boats, resulting in decreased coverage for Massachusetts-based lobstermen and increased coverage for those based in Maine in the final quarter of this fishing season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, responding to criticisms from Bay State lobstermen, re-allotted the number of sea-days after expanding the pool of vessels eligible for observer coverage to include all federally permitted lobster boats rather than just those holding limited-use, multi-species permits that require the filing of vessel trip reports (VTRs).

The result is that for the final quarter of the 2015 fishing season (Jan. 1 to March 31), Massachusetts lobstermen will have six sea-days of mandated observer coverage, down from the previously scheduled 18. Maine lobstermen, however, will see their mandated sea-days of observer coverage rise to 33 from the originally scheduled 14 in the same period.

The modified methodology also means that New Hampshire and Rhode Island lobstermen will have one day of mandated observer coverage respectively in the final quarter of the 2015, down from the previously scheduled five for New Hampshire and four for Rhode Island.

Amy Martins, manager of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP) that provides the observer coverage for lobster boats, said the new method for determining observer coverage will continue into the 2016 fishing season that begins May 1.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Imported Fish Must Bring Their Papers

February 15, 2016 — The Obama administration has proposed new rules that would require seafood importers to better record the who, what, when, where and how of the fish they bring into the country.

“Traceability is a key tool for combating illicit activities that threaten valuable natural resources, increase global food security risk and disadvantage law-abiding fishermen and seafood producers,” said Kathryn D. Sullivan, administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The proposed rules would apply only to seafood at “high risk” for poaching and fraud, such as blue crab, red snapper and shrimp, but officials want eventually to expand them to all imported seafood.

The rules would mandate catch data along a chain of custody, from the point of harvest to entry into the United States. The idea is to eliminate the import of seafood poached from ocean reserves, and the substitution of different species for more expensive fish.

President Barack Obama directed his administration in June 2014 to develop solutions to fight illegal fishing and seafood fraud — challenges that exacerbate the problem of dwindling fish populations. A federal task force issued draft rules that December.

The final proposed rules fall short of “bait to plate” — tracing seafood all the way to the point of sale to the U.S. consumer — the approach favored by many local officials, conservationists and members of the industry to cut down on domestic repackaging fraud.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Fishermen, NOAA to talk whiting changes at workshop

February 11, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries will hold an informational workshop next week in Gloucester that could serve as the first step in potentially acceding to the requests of local fishermen to modify the access and fishing schedule in the exempted whiting areas.

The meeting is open to fishermen and potential research partners and is scheduled for Thursday from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional offices in the Blackburn Industrial Park.

“We’re really viewing this as the first part of the discussion,” said Mike Ruccio, a supervising fishery policy analyst at NOAA Fisheries. “We want to try to gather everybody together in one place and tackle this a little more holistically.”

Local fishermen, led by longtime fisherman Sam Novello, have been working for more than a year to convince NOAA to change the permitted gear and expand the access and fishing season for the whiting exempted areas — most notably the Small Mesh Gear Area 1 in Ipswich Bay.

Currently, that area is open for whiting fishing from July 15 to Nov. 15. Novello and other Cape Ann fishermen would like to see that fishing season expanded to open earlier and close later.

Ruccio said the workshop will provide an overview of the fishery, including the whiting exemption programs and the extent of regional Director John K. Bullard’s authority to make the changes sought by fishermen.

He said the workshop also will include discussions on possible bycatch and stock assessment issues, as well as identifying potential funding sources and research projects necessary to produce the data that ultimately would be used to determine if the changes sought are even feasible.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

Ocean study demands new approach to fishery regulation

February 11, 2016 — Complexity is the confounding principle in the process of fishery regulation. It has led to confusion, acrimony, litigation and fear among the myriad stakeholders in the Northeast Multi-Species Fishery.

A study released last week by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole tackles complexity in a way that should empower regulators who are trying to balance conservation and economic goals, keeping the fishery profitable and preparing for an uncertain, changing ocean environment.

Regulators — the New England Fishery Management Council in the Northeast fishery — have been spinning their wheels until recently trying to respond to data about fish landings and species biomass without information that accurately depicts the changing environment.

Fish landings and biomass provide irreplaceable data for regulators to include in their decisions, but without scientific measurements on aspects of the broader environment — ocean temperatures, currents, salinity, acidity — it becomes less likely that prescriptions will be effective, and impossible to construct policies with any reach beyond a season or two of fishing. In other words, for fishing regulations to achieve intended goals, regulators cannot ignore the oceanic imbalance that has brought dramatic and rapid changes; their disruption of species’ behavior and biology is far beyond the limits of certainty, beyond the limits of traditional regulation.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard Times

Court battle continues over at-sea monitoring

February 10, 2016 — The federal lawsuit filed by a New Hampshire fisherman to block NOAA Fisheries’ plan to shift the cost of at-sea monitoring to groundfish permit holders has devolved, at least for now, into a paper fight.

Lawyers for plaintiff David Goethel, captain of the Ellen Diane out of Hampton, N.H., have filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Joseph J. Laplante for an expedited hearing on the merits of the case. Federal lawyers have countered with a motion to dismiss the case outright.

Laplante, sitting in Concord, N.H., has yet to rule on either motion.

In late January, Laplante denied a motion by Goethel’s lawyers for a preliminary injunction that would have immediately halted federal plans to shift the costs of at-sea monitoring to the groundfish boats, thereby helping stave off the impending economic carnage the shift is expected to visit on the already reeling fleet.

“Given that preliminary injunctive relief is not available, plaintiffs request that the court proceed to the merits at its earliest convenience,” Goethel’s lawyers wrote in their motion. “This case remains urgent, with a ‘substantial, largely unrebutted’ risk of ‘potentially disastrous financial impact’ impending in a matter of weeks.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it expects to run out of money for the at-sea monitoring around March 1. Groundfish fishing sectors have been instructed to begin negotiating with monitoring contractors to directly provide the service for the remainder of the 2015 fishing season and the 2016 fishing season that is set to begin May 1.

The question, however, is at what cost. The currently accepted estimate for the cost of groundfish monitors is about $710 per day per vessel, though some fishing sectors around New Bedford have said they were able to negotiate a better price from observer contractors.

Gloucester-based fishing sectors have declined to give specifics about their negotiations with the providers of observer coverage.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NOAA Issues Climate Warning for Scallops

February 9, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — “Sea scallops have a high vulnerability ranking,” reads a Feb. 3 announcement from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which operates in Woods Hole under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Negative impacts are estimated for many of the iconic species in the ecosystem including Atlantic sea scallop, Atlantic cod and Atlantic mackerel.”

The NOAA study, formally known as the Northeast Climate Vulnerability Assessment, said Atlantic sea scallops have “limited mobility and high sensitivity to the ocean acidification that will be more pronounced as water temperatures warm.”

Water temperatures in Buzzards Bay have risen 4 degrees over the past two decades, for example, according to a recent study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

Scallops are vital to New Bedford’s fishing industry. NOAA Fisheries announced last October that New Bedford, for the 15th year in a row, was the No. 1 port in the country in terms of dollar value of its catch. Much of that value, which totaled $329 million in 2014, comes from scallops.

The money has big local impacts. Eastern Fisheries captain Christopher Audette, for example, told visitors at an annual buyers’ tour in March 2014 that deck hands on his scallop boat had taken home more than $200,000 in 2013 — and that he had made even more than that.

Harbor Development Commissioner Richard Canastra, who has been instrumental to the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction since 1984, said this week that the scallop industry — and stock — continues to boom in New Bedford.

“The biomass has been increasing over the last 10 years, and there is no sign of it depleting because of the warmer waters,” Canastra said. “They’re talking a few degrees, and that’s not going to make much of a difference in terms of scallop population.”

Chad McGuire, associate professor of environmental policy at UMass Dartmouth, said that while the NOAA findings are not a surprise, they could be another “warning signal” for the industry.

“This study suggests that if you care about one of the largest economic drivers for this region, then you need to care about climate change,” said McGuire, whose work includes fishery management and climate change issues.

“We should be worried that this could greatly affect how many scallops we’re taking in the future,” he added.

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard-Times

Proposed Rule – 1st Phase of a U.S. Seafood Traceability Program to Combat IUU Fishing Products & Seafood Fraud

February 9, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA

Today, NOAA Fisheries is publishing the proposed rule to establish the first phase of a seafood traceability program through the collection or retention of data regarding the harvest, landing, and chain of custody of certain fish and fish products imported into the United States that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and seafood fraud. It is important to note that there will be no new reporting requirements for domestic landings of wild-caught seafood. Similar information for domestically harvested seafood is already reported under numerous state and federal regulatory requirements.

Establishing a traceability program is a key tool for ensuring these illicit activities are prevented from entering U.S. Commerce and helping combat them in the complex system of international seafood trade.

This proposed rule is designed to build on existing resources and processes—maximizing effectiveness and efficiency, while minimizing impacts on the fishing and seafood trade community. To achieve these objectives, NOAA Fisheries is encouraging detailed comments from the fishing and seafood industry, conservation community, and other interested stakeholders engaged with sustainable seafood. Additionally, we have scheduled two webinar conference calls in February and an in-person public meeting on March 7, at the Seafood Expo N. America in Boston to provide opportunities for anyone to ask questions.

Studies aim to restore habitat of imperiled Northwest fish

February 8, 2016 — BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Scientists in the Pacific Northwest are studying more than a dozen watersheds to develop templates on habitat restoration that could be used in similar streams to bolster struggling fish populations.

The federal government lists 28 populations of salmon and steelhead on the West Coast that need protections due to low numbers despite spending millions of dollars every year on restoration efforts.

 The studies aim to make those efforts more successful. They focus on 17 watersheds in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern California and British Columbia and examine the benefit of everything from dam removal to building artificial beaver dams in tributaries.

Creating templates for habitat restoration could save time and money by using strategies known to produce good results in similar habitats in the region, said George Pess, a research fisheries biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The overall goal is to learn enough to be smart about our restoration,” he said, noting that the studies will offer recommendations to private, tribal and government entities but won’t produce any legally binding regulations.

 

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Houston Chronicle