Saving Seafood

Changing Ocean Topic Draws Record Crowd

March 30, 2016 — ROCKPORT, Maine — More than 350 fishermen and others attended a Maine Fishermen’s Forum session, March 3, that focused on the changes fishermen are seeing in the water.

The three-hour event featured a panel of nine speakers and a standing-room-only audience, one of the largest in the 41-year history of the forum. Topics ranged from water temperatures to migrating species. Participants ranged from fishermen with 50 years on the water to marine scientists with the latest data on a changed ocean in the Gulf of Maine. Organizers titled the event “Changing Oceans” and encouraged discussion to revolve around how fishermen might deal with a changing reality.

Cutler lobsterman, and one of the organizers of the program, Kristen Porter said, “We wanted to focus attention on what we can do about working in a changed ocean, rather than debate the causes and who is at fault.” Scientists presented data to verify what fishermen have reported seeing.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) scientist Andy Pershing said, “Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.”

Pershing said there has been a lot of variability in the weather since 1980 and the Gulf of Maine has been the most variable water body on the planet. Water temperatures warmed in 2012 and took off. And the Gulf of Maine is experiencing changes in air, salinity, and Gulf Stream currents as well, according to NOAA ecosystem data.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s Voice

NOAA Fisheries offering industry-related loans

March 30, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries is accepting applications from commercial fishermen and those in the aquaculture industry looking for a share of NOAA’s $100 million in lending authority designated for fiscal 2016.

The loans, which run from five to 25 years, have market-competitive interest rates.

Eligible applicants include those working in aquaculture, mariculture, shoreside fisheries facilities and commercial fishermen.

Potential uses for the funds among applicants from aquaculture, mariculture and shoreside fisheries facilities include purchasing an existing facility, improvements to an existing facility, new construction and reconstruction.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Northeast Seafood Coalition responds to erroneous statements on Cashes Ledge from Pew Charitable Trusts

The following was released by the Northeast Seafood Coalition:

March 29, 2016 – GLOUCESTER, Mass. – Earlier today, in a webinar releasing a new report regarding the environmental composition of Cashes Ledge, in response to Cape Cod Times reporter Doug Fraser’s question as to whether there is an imminent threat to Cashes Ledge, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Director of US Oceans, Northeast, Peter Baker stated:

“..the different areas – Cashes Ledge, the coral canyons, and the sea mounts – have different pressures on them, and different levels of imminent pressures that might be put on them. For instance Cashes Ledge, some of the council members, led by Terry Alexander, who is the president of the Associated Fisheries of Maine and was quoted in a press release last week, put up a motion just last year at the NEFMC to open Cashes Ledge once again to bottom trawling. The other guy, Vito Giacalone, who was quoted in that press release, at a public forum in Gloucester just last month, said that the fishing industry is eager to get in and catch the cod that are in Cashes Ledge. So, certainly the leaders of the groundfish industry have made it clear, recently, that they’re eager and working to get back in there and that at every available opportunity they’re going to try and open up Cashes to bottom trawling again. So I’d say, yes, absolutely, there’s an imminent threat to Cashes Ledge.”

The statement attributed to Vito Giacalone of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, and the description of the motion made by Councilmember Terry Alexander are factually inaccurate. There was never a motion or statement made proposing access to Cashes Ledge.

The problem is the terminology used.  “Cashes Ledge” is often used as verbal shorthand to refer to the large, 1400 square kilometer ‘Mortality Closure’ that includes Cashes Ledge and the surrounding areas and is an artifact of the old effort control system created to protect cod.

What we did say, and will maintain, is that once the old effort control system was replaced with a quota system, we want to be able to access the old mortality closures, including the Cashes Ledge Mortality Closure when such access is appropriate and scientifically justified. These portions of the Cashes Ledge Mortality Closure, despite the name, are not located on Cashes Ledge.

The Northeast Seafood Coalition proposed and supports the habitat management areas developed with government science, included in Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 which was adopted by the New England Fisheries Management Council last June, and are pending approval by NOAA.

We collaborated with the Associated Fisheries of Maine, and with the Fisheries Survival Fund, representing the limited access scallop fleet.  We did not develop our own habitat closed area on Cashes Ledge, but rather embraced the habitat management area developed via the government science.

This habitat area is significantly larger than Cashes Ledge itself, in fact, it completely engulfs Cashes Ledge, all of the kelp forest, and all of the areas displayed in the video and photographs circulated in recent months by proponents of a marine national monument. The protected area includes a surrounding buffer of hundreds of square miles.

We never would propose re-entering an area which we agreed to protect, and especially this area that encompasses Cashes Ledge.  It is simply untrue to say that we stated that we are “eager” to fish within the habitat management area on Cashes Ledge.

Did we say we want to preserve the ability to access portions of the mortality closure such as Cashes Basin and other basins that were not identified as important habitat areas by the science? Yes, we did say that.

We have no way of knowing whether Mr. Baker’s statement was made to intentionally mislead, or simply out of a lack of clear understanding regarding the difference between Cashes Ledge, the habitat management area surrounding Cashes Ledge, and the remaining portions of the previous mortality areas that were artifacts of the old system, but we state unequivocally that it is not true to say we ever proposed accessing the Cashes Ledge habitat management area.

Battle is on to preserve lobster shipments from Maine to Europe

March 29, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The lobster fishing and export industries and Maine’s congressional delegation are moving swiftly to pressure the European Union not to approve a Swedish proposal to list the American lobster as an invasive species.

Such a listing would effectively ban 28 member nations from importing live American lobster, also known as Maine lobster, from the United States and Canada, and could cost U.S. lobster fishermen and exporters $150 million a year, including about $10.6 million in Maine.

Maine’s congressional delegation sent letters Monday to Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, calling on them to protest the proposed change in EU trade rules that have worked around the globe for decades.

“We urge you to engage in immediate efforts to ensure the continuation of safe and responsible import of live Maine lobsters, consistent with the EU’s World Trade Organization obligations,” wrote Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin. “Since only a small number of Maine lobsters have been found in foreign waters, we believe regulators should take a more finely tuned approach before calling this an ‘invasion.’ ”

Read the full story at the Portland Herald Press

Mid-Atlantic Eyed for Marine Reserve, Monument

March 29, 2016 — WASHINGTON — With less than one year left in office, President Barack Obama is moving forward with plans to restrict fishing in two areas off the Atlantic Coast.

In February, the Mid-Atlantic Marine Fishery Council voted to name an off-shore area stretching from North Carolina to New York State the Frank J. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area.

Spanning 35,000 square miles, approximately the size of South Carolina, the area contains some 15 undersea canyons. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is expected to approve the name and the designation of the area as a marine reserve.

Once the reserve is officially established, bottom trawling within its boundaries will be banned as part of an effort to protect slow-growing, deep-water corals, which provide homes for numerous species.

Read the full story at The Heartland Institute

Changing Ocean Conditions Affect Quality of Prey for Atlantic Salmon, Other Species

March 29, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

Researchers have found that changes in ocean conditions in the Northwest Atlantic during the past 40 years have altered the food web, changing the quantity and quality of important prey species. These food-web changes are thought to have influenced the survival and abundance of Atlantic salmon and many other ecologically, commercially, and culturally important species.

“Salmon are a good barometer of what is happening in the marine ecosystem,” said Mark Renkawitz, a salmon researcher at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and lead author of a study on salmon foraging and the changing food web in the Northwest Atlantic published in Marine Ecology Progress Series. “They are like a canary in the coal mine. Dams and decreasing marine survival rates have been the primary drivers of the declines for many populations. In taking a closer look at the marine part of a salmon’s life, we found that changes in salmon diet may be a big factor.”

Atlantic salmon have a broad range, extending from the US and Portugal in the south to Canada and Russia in the north. After a freshwater phase, juveniles migrate to sea for a year or more, with North American and European salmon stocks congregating at common marine feeding areas like the waters off West Greenland during summer and fall. There, salmon feed on abundant and energy-rich prey such as capelin, a small forage fish. This diet promotes rapid growth and maturation, allowing salmon to undertake long migrations back to their natal rivers to spawn.

Changes in ocean conditions have significantly changed the quality of capelin, the primary prey for both North American and European origin Atlantic salmon feeding at West Greenland. Since the early 1970s, the North American portion of the stock complex at West Greenland has declined approximately 54 percent, and similar declines have been documented for the European stock complexes.

Read the release from NOAA

Traceability in seafood chain about money, not just ethics

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 28, 2016) — A coalition of environmentalists and seafood industry professionals is campaigning to make the case that traceability in the seafood industry is about success in the marketplace as much as it’s about ethics.

Ocean conservation group Oceana, based in Washington, D.C., has assembled the contingent of fishermen, processors, wholesalers and others to make the case that customers will pay a premium for verifiable seafood. They seek to link customers with the backstory of the product, such as where the fish was caught, whether it was sustainably harvested and when it was brought ashore.

The group includes representatives from more than a dozen businesses, including Virginia oyster farmers, a Boston seafood distributor and the fishmonger for a D.C. restaurant group. It is making its case as federal regulators consider tightening seafood importation standards.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Feds Propose Deep Cuts In Cod Quotas

March 28, 2016 — The new fishing year begins in May and federal regulators are seeking public comments for proposed catch limits for the region’s groundfish industry. The proposed regulations, particularly for Georges Bank cod, have southern New England fishermen worried.

The proposed rules include catch quotas for 20 groundfish species, including cod, haddock, and flounder. Jennifer Goebel, public affairs officer for the regional office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said quotas are based on stock assessments.

“This year the stock assessment for the Gulf of Maine cod showed a slight increase and so we were able to make some increases on that,” she said.

But the cod from Georges Bank, a popular fishing spot for Rhode Island fishermen, is severely depleted. Goebel said regulators are proposing a 62 percent cut from what fishermen were able to catch last year.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA considers major upgrades in Woods Hole

WOODS HOLE, Mass (March 28, 2016) — The old brick buildings, which lack central air conditioning, can be stifling in the summer and drafty in the winter. Most of the offices are cramped, sometimes forcing scientists to work in hallways and beside equipment as loud as circular saws. Their labs, built during the Kennedy administration, offer little space for serious research.

On the edge of Vineyard Sound, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the federal government’s oldest marine research facility and a pivotal player in the region’s fishing industry, is seeking a major overhaul, through long-deferred renovations or a new center elsewhere in the region.

In the coming weeks, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will decide whether it should spend tens of millions of dollars to modernize the aging research center, a renowned institution that has conducted fisheries research in Woods Hole since 1871.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Catch Share Programs Under Fire On Both Coasts

March 23, 2016 — This week, catch share management has come under fire on both the East and West Coasts, as articles in the New Bedford Standard-Times and Seafood News criticize key facets of regional catch share programs.

In New England, Massachusetts State Rep. Bill Straus writes about the side-effects of implementing catch shares in the New England groundfish fishery, calling the subsequent fleet consolidation “a government-created near monopoly.”

In Sacramento, Seafood News details how low quotas for critical “choke species” are preventing some boats from fishing for the entirety of 2016.

For nearly a decade, the Environmental Defense Fund’s ocean policy has been “to ensure that the world’s fisheries are restored back to health through the advancement and implementation of a transformational fisheries management approach known as catch shares.” In May 2009, while serving as Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the vice-chair of EDF’s board of trustees, enacted a national policy encouraging the consideration and use of catch shares.  Regarding its trustees, EDF notes on its website that “Fortune magazine called them one the most influential boards in the country.”

Excerpts from the two articles are provided below:

State Rep. Bill Straus: Impact of the Federal Fisheries Arrests in New Bedford

No one who supported the catch shares idea in 2009 can honestly say this concentration and its results are a surprise. The statements challenging this bad idea back then came locally from Dr. Brian Rothschild at UMass Dartmouth and many others; I added a cautionary word as well on the pages of this newspaper on June 24, 2009. It is frankly depressing to re-read this portion of what I said then about the coming catch shares program:

“Amendment 16 will send many fishermen and smaller ports to the sidelines; in other words, they will lose their jobs. There will be winners and losers, and the advocates of Amendment 16 have done little or nothing to point out that the system that is chosen for allocating catch shares will determine who will thrive in the new world of federal regulation and who will be abandoned.

“Amendment 16 will result in a concentration within the fleets of all ports; to think otherwise would be naive.”

In the coming weeks and months, more information on the way the industry runs will no doubt come to light and whether, as I believe, the catch shares system played a role in allowing the port economy to shift as it has. A discussion needs to start and soon for two reasons. First, the federal government at some point will no doubt have to consider whether serious permit holder violations have occurred such that revocation and some new system of permit availability for groundfish participants should be created. That is a major question, and it’s never too soon to get going on whether catch shares’ day (if there ever should have been one) has come and gone.

West Coast Catch Share Program Failure Keeps Vessel Off Fishing Grounds For 2016

Criticism that the West Coast catch shares program is underperforming came to the forefront recently at the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Sacramento.

West Coast trawlers have been operating in fear of a “disaster tow” or “lightning strike” of a choke species since the beginning of the individual quota program in 2011. And for the F/V Seeker, a disaster tow of 47,000 pounds of canary rockfish – a species at the time listed as overfished — in November 2015 will prevent it from fishing for all of 2016.

The Seeker’s misfortune is an extreme example of the program’s failure, particularly for those fishing in the non-whiting sector.

Jeff Lackey, who manages the vessel, testified to the PFMC the vessel is in a bind and already has made plans to fish in Alaska for most of 2016 and return to fishing off the West Coast in 2017. The Seeker fishes in both the non-whiting shoreside sector and in the whiting mothership sector.

The Seeker is a victim of several features of the current regulatory system in the West Coast individual quota program.

First, current vessel limits prohibit the Seeker from acquiring enough quota to solve its deficit.

Second, canary rockfish was listed as overfished for more than a decade but an assessment accepted by the council in 2015 shows canary rockfish has been rebuilt.

And third, the PFMC’s management process operates on a two-year cycle, with no way to change annual catch limits (ACLs) mid-cycle.

“[The F/V Seeker] is not the only one,” Pete Leipzig, director of the Fishermen’s Marketing Association, told the Council. Other trawlers have come up against vessel limits for other species that have prevented them from fishing for some time, but none have been confronted with the extremity of the Seeker’s situation.

The vessel limits were designed to prevent consolidation of the fleet. Bycatch of choke species have prevented many vessels from capturing target fish. Fear of a disaster tow — one so extreme that a quota pound deficit cannot be covered in the existing fishing year — has limited trading of quota as fishermen hoard these species to cover their fishing operations for the year.

The Seeker is a member of the Newport, OR based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. The organization proposed a solution to the Seeker’s problem: use an alternative compliance option that was eliminated during the development of the catch shares program. It would have been available for overly restrictive events, such as the Seeker’s, but still hold fishermen accountable. The council opted not to move forward with examining that option at this time.

This is the new reality of the West Coast individual quota program: rebuilding species will be encountered more frequently and fishermen could be held to conservative annual catch limits for a year or more if they experience an infrequent disaster tow and have insufficient quota to cover their deficit.

“As the regulations are currently written, any vessel that experiences the same situation would likely have to sit out of the shoreside trawl program for several years … This seems overly punitive and raises equity concerns,” Heather Mann, executive director of the MTC, wrote in a public comment letter to the council.