Saving Seafood

Red snapper confusion has some seeing red

June 10, 2016 — Next week, expect to hear more talk about confounding math methods than the first time our schoolchildren introduced us adults to Common Core. Then expect to hear that many anglers turned as red in the face as the scales on the red snapper they will again be told they can’t keep when fishing in federal waters.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet in Cocoa Beach for week-long meetings to discuss management of some of the more than 100 species of important food fish and popular game fish it is responsible for handling.

The bulk of the focus during next week’s meetings will be on the red snapper, a fish that is very important to three sectors with very different goals. Red snapper grow large, fight hard, fetch a good price at the market, and have a critical role in the ecosystem of the coral reefs located on the sea floor from North Carolina to Florida’s Treasure Coast.

Commercial fishermen working out of ports from Sebastian and Port Canaveral to the Outer Banks would love to target red snapper year round. Charter boat operators in that same zone are stinging ever since the National Marine Fisheries Service put a halt to red snapper harvest in 2010. Recreational anglers who fish a day or two on the weekend aren’t allowed to take any home for dinner, either.

But next week, the entire world that revolves around the red snapper will have a chance to read and hear the latest data on this prized and valuable resource. The long-awaited red snapper stock assessment was completed in April and peer reviewed in May, so it will be debuted to the world Tuesday and Wednesday.

Read the full story at TC Palm

Small fishing boat plays big role in aviators’ rescue

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Three fisherman came to the rescue of Naval aviators off the coast of North Carolina Thursday morning. Something went wrong during a Navy training mission and two F/A-18F Super Hornets crashed into the water below. 

All four of the aviators on board survived, and a recreational boat made a big difference in the immediate moments after the crash.

10 On Your Side’s Liz Kilmer spoke exclusively to Rob Schutrumpf, one of the men on the “Pammy,” who came to the rescue.

“There was something that looked like a wing or a tail burning and that’s kind of what clued us in to where they were before the helicopter got here,” he said.

Read the full story at WAVY

NORTH CAROLINA: Herring on the comeback?

May 24, 2016 — For generations, local anglers visited places such as the legendary Vaughan’s Creek on the Hertford-Northampton County line in search of a historic staple of life- herring.

Those boney fish, which migrate annually in the late winter and early spring to spawn before returning to their traditional salty habitat, graced the tables of local residents, as well as around the world. They were often a major source of food – salted and preserved – over the harsh, cold winter months, long before there were such conveniences as supermarkets.

By the turn of the 21st century, the once plentiful herring were threatened by overfishing. North Carolina Wildlife and Fisheries officials attempted to control the herring population by restricting the annual catch. However, by 2007, the state basically shut down herring harvest in hopes that their numbers would eventually rebound.

Now, nine years later, local fisherman strongly believe that the herring population has improved to the point to allow the state to take a serious look at lifting its moratorium. However, there seems to be some discrepancy between what the local fishermen and state wildlife officials have observed in the way of numbers.

Last week, local fishermen attended Board of Commissioner meetings in both Northampton and Hertford counties, seeking resolutions from those local leaders to ask the state to end the herring fishing ban.

Roger Cofield represented the Concerned Citizens of Northampton County for the Restoration of Historical Herring Fishing at the Commissioners’ May 16 meeting in Jackson.

Read the full story at the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald 

Commercial fishermen: Net ban would destroy N.C. seafood industry

May 23, 2016 — A state House bill first introduced 16 years ago has been resurrected that would ban the use of large trawling nets in state waters, a move that the commercial fishing industry says could destroy the livelihood for most North Carolina fishermen.

New Bern native Billy Richardson, D­-Cumberland, filed a bill that would let voters decide whether to outlaw gill and certain other nets in all state coastal waters. If the N.C. General Assembly supports House Bill 1122, the binding referendum would be on the November election ballot.

“It would be the end of North Carolina’s (commercial) fishery,” said Wayne Dunbar, a waterman for nearly 40 years, located in Pamlico County’s Paradise Shores on Lower Broad Creek, leading into the Pamlico Sound. “People that don’t fish wouldn’t get North Carolina seafood.”

Dunbar said this time of the year most of the fishermen trawl inland waters for speckled trout, flounder, spot, croakers and menhaden. On a typical day, he will go out in his small boat with 300 yards of net and fill a fish box with about 300 pounds of seafood.

Dunbar, who studied fish and wildlife management at Wayne Community College, said a net ban also would be devastating to the crab industry, the largest of the state’s fisheries.

The bait includes menhaden and other fish caught in nets.

Read the full story at the New Bern Sun Journal

Atlantic red snapper closure extended through 2016

May 20, 2016 — Local anglers won’t be allowed to keep red snapper this year after federal fishery regulators announced Thursday they will keep the fish closed to harvesting, part of the government’s years-long and controversial plan to increase the species’ abundance.

The closure applies to red snapper caught in federal waters from Florida to North Carolina, a vast area ranging from 3 to 200 miles offshore where virtually all red snapper in the Atlantic Ocean are caught.

Red snapper have been strictly regulated since 2010 after a study by the federal government found that the species had been overfished for decades to dangerously low levels.

Read the full story at the Florida Times-Union

North Carolina votes to keep cobia season open

May 20, 2016 — The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to keep its state-waters cobia fishery open past a federally-ordered June 20 closing, putting the state in non-compliance with the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council.

But the commission made several drastic changes to size and bag limits, and severely cut the number of days that recreational anglers could keep the coveted species.

From May 23 to Sept. 30, charter boats will be able to fish every day with a four-fish limit per boat, with each fish measuring at least 37 inches. Pier and surf anglers also can fish every day, with one 37-inch minimum fish per person per day.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot

Fishing forecast: Decision looms on whether to shut down cobia fishing

May 19, 2016 — Yes, it is starting to sound like a broken record. But the stakes are too high to not talk about cobia before an incredibly important meeting Tuesday at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in Newport News.

The commission that afternoon will decide whether or not it will comply with federally ordered rules that will shut down cobia fishing along the East Coast on June 20.

North Carolina’s fisheries managers meet today and Friday to decide whether that state will go non-compliant. Should Carolina do so, the feds most likely would make the coastal closing date earlier.

The thing is, cobia in the two states are almost exclusively caught in state waters inside three miles. In the past, state agencies usually have adopted federal water rules in fear of suffering paybacks from the feds. But not always.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot

Hatchery Is Breeding Better Oysters To Boost North Carolina Aquaculture

May 16, 2016 — To feed a hungry world, it’s no longer enough to catch wild seafood. Many fisheries are in decline because of overfishing, environmental stresses or both, and human demand for protein has never been greater. That means aquaculture has to be a growing part of the world’s food supply. Here in North Carolina, it’s also an essential component in growing the economies of our coastal communities.

A case in point is the state’s oyster fishery, which once supplied much of the East Coast, but now can’t even meet demand from within North Carolina. Our state is working hard to emulate our neighbors to the north, who through state-sponsored shellfish research hatcheries have bred a better oyster, able to thrive in Chesapeake Bay and other Virginia waters.

In 2011, North Carolina began supporting a hatchery, right here on the CREST Research Park in Wilmington. UNC Wilmington faculty researchers and student workers are using selective breeding techniques, supplemented by some high-tech genetic research, to develop new strains of oysters to suit our state’s waters. The hatchery is also working with scallops, which are more challenging to grow but more lucrative to sell, as well as sunray Venus clams. But oysters are its primary product.

A recent comparison of oyster cultivation in North Carolina and Virginia, conducted by the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, showed that in 2005, the two states were roughly even, each producing roughly a quarter-million dollars’ worth of farmed oysters. But while Virginia’s production exploded, reaching almost $10 million in just seven years, our state’s aquaculture operations barely doubled their output.

Read the full story at Wilmington Biz

Livelihoods on the line: The impact of the fishing industry on eastern North Carolina

May 13, 2016 — MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — Everywhere you go in eastern North Carolina, you’ll see signs of fresh seafood and folks selling local catch at reasonable prices.

The question is, how hard is it for those fishermen whose lives depend on the waters of North Carolina?

“This community has always depended on the water and the fish for their livelihoods,” said Capt. Bill Dillon of Beagle Charters in Morehead City.

Eastern North Carolina is home to some of the largest seafood festivals, fishing tournament and tourism dollars in the state. Those who work in the fishing industry say their livelihoods are on the line.

“They’re not only on the line, I mean people’s livelihoods have changed and been shut down because of it,” said charter mate Michael Tickle.

Read and watch the full story at WNCT

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