Saving Seafood

Researchers asks commercial fishermen to take part in economic survey

February 6, 2020 — This week, commercial fishermen will be receiving surveys in the mail, aimed to see impacts NC fishing has on the economy.

“Prior studies focused on sport/ recreational fishing in our area of the state. This would be the first study to do all commercial fishing across all of North Carolina,” explained Dr. Chris Dumas, a professor of economics and environmental sciences at UNCW and the survey project leader.

NC Sea Grant, NC State University, UNCW, and Appalachian State University are working with the NC Division of Marine Fisheries to carry out the survey.

This survey is funded by the fishermen themselves through the the North Carolina Commercial Fishing Fund.

Read the full story at WECT

NORTH CAROLINA: Three new Sea Grant projects could have local impact

February 3, 2020 — As of Feb. 1, a new batch of research projects are underway through the N.C. Sea Grant. The research and education organization, headquartered at N.C. State in Raleigh, facilitates funding for projects up and down the coast, and considers those that will be of importance to the whole state, said Katie Mosher, spokeswoman for N.C. SeaGrant.

Among the ten new projects for 2020-2022, a few could have special importance to Southeastern North Carolina. Here are some of the questions that researchers are trying to answer.

Blue Crabs and Climate

Jessie Jarvis, a coastal plant ecologist at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, is the lead researcher taking a closer look at one way that North Carolina, which is a transition zone between temperate and tropical climates, could be affected by changing temperatures. Jarvis’ research interests include underwater grasses, or submerged aquatic vegetation. It’s predicted that subtropical vegetation species will increase their range into local waters, and the potential impacts are unknown, especially for important species such as blue crabs. She plans to look at different vegetation meadow types and how they may impact different species, which could inform how these fisheries are managed and conserved.

Read the full story at Star News

New Research to Examine Economic Impacts of North Carolina Commercial Fisheries

October 25, 2019 — Imagine a vessel gliding through coastal waters, heading for Wanchese in Dare County. Upon arrival, the captain, mate and team at the fish house hustle to unload the day’s catch: baskets of blue crab.

North Carolina’s most harvested commercial species by pound, the blue crab will be sold in nearby seafood markets or trucked to farm-to-table restaurants in Raleigh or Charlotte. Other days, depending on market demands, it may be packed on ice, bound for New York, Boston or Washington, DC.

North Carolina’s commercial fishing industry is a complex economic puzzle with many pieces. In 2017, $97 million of wild-caught fish and shellfish were landed, over $16 million to Wanchese alone.

“These fisheries support local communities by providing important sources of employment, business income and food,” explains Jane Harrison, North Carolina Sea Grant’s coastal economist.

Harrison is leading a new research project to consider commercial fisheries’ impacts on state and local economies. The one-year study, which includes partners at three universities, is funded by the N.C. Commercial Fishing Resource Fund. The fund is jointly overseen by the Marine Fisheries Commission’s Commercial Resource Fund Committee and the Funding Committee for the N.C. Commercial Fishing Resource Fund.

Read the full story at The Island Free Press

New device to be tested off Outer Banks could help save sharks from commercial fishing all over the world

October 17, 2019 — An Outer Banks fisherman next summer will test a device about the size of a spark plug that could save rare sharks.

The waterproof gadget with a transistor inside would be connected just above the hooks on a long line used for commercial harvesting of species such as tuna and swordfish. It would emit an electric pulse that drives sharks away from the baited hook.

“If this works it will be huge,” said Outer Banks fisherman Charlie Locke. “It could benefit fisheries all over the world.”

Sharks swarm the waters around the Outer Banks with many species spawning and giving birth here.

Hungry sharks gobble chunks from large tunas on commercial fishing lines. Charter boat anglers often reel in nothing but a fish head after a shark has bitten off the rest.

“We already know there is a healthy population here,” Locke said.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Sea Grant Research Could Help Commercial Fishers Keep Sharks off Gear

October 4, 2019 — North Carolina Sea Grant is collaborating on a new project to keep sharks away from commercial fishing gear. A team from NC State University, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Indiana University-South Bend are partnering with the private sector to pilot test a device that deters the predators.

“Several sharks are overfished or are experiencing overfishing on the U.S. East Coast,” says Sara Mirabilio, a fisheries extension specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant, a statewide program based at NC State University. “Populations of scalloped hammerhead, dusky, sandbar and blacknose sharks all could benefit from an effective deterrent from commercial fishing gear.” Most often, sharks are caught unintentionally in a fishery that is targeting other fish, she explains. This is referred to as bycatch.

The project is one of three announced today by the National Sea Grant College Program to better understand highly migratory species, such as sharks, along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Mirabilio and colleagues, including Richard Brill at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Peter Bushnell at Indiana University-South Bend, are testing a state-of-the-art electronic device that could help conserve species of sharks whose populations fishery managers are trying to rebuild. Unlike other fish, sharks possess an electrosensory system that equips them to detect close-range movements of predators or prey.

Read the full story at Island Free Press

North Carolina: Oyster Restoration Partners Detail Progress

May 22, 2018 — MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — A little more than 30 visited the state port here Monday for a glimpse of the construction of a large-scale oyster restoration project.

Representatives from the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, North Carolina Sea Grant, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other partners were joined by the media and citizens for the behind-the-scenes tour of the port.

The port is the staging area for year two of the three-year Swan Island Oyster Sanctuary project that’s part of the Sen. Jean Preston Oyster Sanctuary Network, a system of oyster sanctuaries. In March, 25,000 tons of granite were delivered to the port for the project.

The Swan Island Oyster Sanctuary in Pamlico Sound near the mouth of the Neuse River is the largest project of the federation’s 50 Million Oyster Initiative, which aims to restore 50 acres of oyster reef by 2020. In the first year of the project, 15 acres were built. Ten more acres are expected to be added this year.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

 

Warming Waters Bring New Marine Species to NC, But Chase Away Some Familiar Ones

Bull sharks and lion fish are among the species becoming more common in North Carolina, while black sea bass and other fish are getting harder to find.

August 8, 2017 — A big reason reason North Carolina is seeing so much change in its marine species is because the state has an unusual variety of them, said Sara Mirabilio, a researcher and fisheries extension specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant.

Near Cape Hatteras, the cold Labrador Current comes down from the Arctic, and the warm Gulf Stream flows up from the Gulf of Mexico.

“We are at the northernmost range for southern species and the southernmost range for northern species,” she said. “So climate change at the boundaries will show the most impact.”

In many ways climate change is unfolding as the slowest of slow-motion disasters. But fish can move quickly and for long distances when spurred by relatively small changes in water temperature.

Lately they have moved so quickly that fisheries regulations are lagging, and tensions are rising between commercial fishermen based where the fish used to be, and those where the fish have moved.

On a recent day, Mike Ireland’s 99-foot trawler “Sharon Nicole” was docked behind a seafood wholesaler in the Hobucken community east of New Bern, just off the Pamlico Sound.

Shrimp season was under way, but he and his crew were repairing one of the massive, powered winches that haul in their nets. It was an especially crucial one, because it reels in the small net they drag to locate fish.

“This is probably the most important tool on the boat,” Ireland said. “With this little sample net you can really pinpoint where they’re at.”

Read and listen to the full story at WUNC

ASMFC Releases Atlantic Menhaden Socioeconomic Report

June 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission releases the report, “Socioeconomic Analysis of the Atlantic Menhaden Commercial Bait and Reduction Fishery,” which characterizes coastwide commercial menhaden fisheries, including bait and reduction sectors and the fishing communities they support. The report’s findings will be used to inform the Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board as it considers potential management changes to menhaden commercial bait and reduction fisheries through Draft Amendment 3. Additionally, information from the report will be incorporated into the socioeconomic section of Draft Amendment 3, which is scheduled to be released for public comment in August.

In March 2016, the Commission awarded a grant to the research team of Dr. John Whitehead of Appalachian State University and Dr. Jane Harrison from North Carolina Sea Grant to conduct a socioeconomic study of Atlantic menhaden commercial fisheries. Over the past year, the team has collected and analyzed data to describe the coastwide commercial fisheries. The team interviewed stakeholders and conducted industry surveys to characterize participation in the menhaden fishery, vessel and gear characteristics, as well as identify substitute products, subsidies, and other sources of employment. Interview and survey data also provided information on recent market changes, state-quota impacts, and fishing communities. In addition, a public opinion internet survey was conducted, involving over 2,000 respondents from Maine, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. A secondary data analysis was conducted using Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program data on pounds landed, ex-vessel revenues, and trips. An economic impact analysis was also performed to evaluate the effects of varying levels of quota on both the bait and reduction sectors.

Some of the report’s primary findings include:

  • Interviews and surveys of commercial fishermen and other industry members found many agreed demand for menhaden bait, oil, and meal had increased in recent years.
  • The public survey used hypothetical quota variations, with associated changes in fisheries revenue, jobs, and ecosystem services. Survey results indicated a willingness to trade-off some amounts of fisheries revenue in exchange for improvements in ecosystem services; however, willingness was influenced by the respondents’ attitudes and characteristics (i.e. perceptions about the importance of menhaden as bait for recreational/commercial fishing, as a contributor to their state’s economy, as a source of food for predators, etc.)
  • Analysis of historic landings data found prices for menhaden were negatively related to landings levels, but the relationship was small and insignificant in some instances. This suggests quota reductions might reduce commercial fishery revenues, as decreases in landings are not fully compensated by higher prices.
  • Analysis of the economic impacts of quota changes indicated increases and decreases in total allowable catch corresponded to income and employment increases and decreases, and these effects were concentrated in New Jersey and Virginia.

 The full report can be found on the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Atlantic%20Menhaden/ASMFC_MenhadenSocioeconomicReport_June2017.pdf. For more information, please contact Shanna Madsen, Fisheries Science Coordinator, at smadsen@asmfc.orgor 703.842.0740.

NCFA: Workshop Meets to Address Bycatch in North Carolina Shrimp Trawl Fishery

January 13, 2017 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

A workgroup formed by the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission in 2015 to investigate ways to further reduce bycatch in shrimp trawls met recently in New Bern. The industry work group is a collaborative effort that consists of staff from the Division of Marine Fisheries, N.C. Sea Grant, fishing vessel owners, net makers and a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The meeting recently held at the Riverfront Convention Center in New Bern follows the second year of a three year project, and is showing some very promising results.

The goal set by the Marine Fisheries Commission for the workgroup was set at 40% reduction in finfish bycatch.

Of the devices that were tested, the device achieving the highest reduction in the previous year was further modified for year two, resulting in a 54.5% reduction of finfish bycatch and a 52.2% reduction in bycatch of all types.

It was noted that none of the sampling for the project was done by extrapolation, but by sampling the entire contents of over 180 tows.

The meeting was held while a Petition for Rulemaking, filed by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation and the Southern Environmental Law Center, is being considered by the Marine Fisheries Commission. If the proposed regulations were enacted as proposed by the petitioners, there would be severe restrictions to shrimping in North Carolina.

“In the many years that I’ve been involved with representing the state’s commercial fishermen, there is no one issue that we’ve spent more time on than reducing bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery”, said Jerry Schill, President of the North Carolina Fisheries Association. “Further, there is no one issue where we’ve had more success than reducing that bycatch. However, with their goal of eliminating shrimp trawling in our state, the onslaught continues. It will not abate until they’re successful”.

The public meeting to address the petition will be held on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at the Riverfront Convention Center in New Bern, NC, beginning at 12:30pm.

ME, NJ, and VA Atlantic Menhaden Harvester and Dealer Survey Participants Sought for Socioeconomic Study

September 2, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Arlington, Va. — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission awarded funding to a research team headed by Dr. John Whitehead of Appalachian State University and Dr. Jane Harrison from North Carolina Sea Grant to conduct a socioeconomic study of Atlantic menhaden commercial fisheries. The study is intended to characterize the coastwide commercial fisheries, including bait and reduction sectors and the fishing communities they support.

The principal investigators have sent survey announcements to fishermen and bait dealers in Maine, New Jersey, and Virginia. Virginia fishery participants will receive postcards announcing the surveys while Maine and New Jersey participants will receive an email announcement. Reminders will be sent throughout August and early September. Participation in this survey is highly encouraged, as the data from this study will be used in the development of Draft Amendment 3 to the Atlantic Menhaden Fishery Management Plan in 2017 and subsequent management decisions. The deadline for responding to this survey is September 15.

The full proposal can be found here. For more information, please contact Dr. Jane Harrison, North Carolina Sea Grant, at jane_harrison@ncsu.edu or 919.513.0122.