August 17, 2018 — A research project led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is underway off the coast of Alaska.
The Beaufort Shelf Break Ecology Cruise will combine oceanography, biology and fisheries science to learn more about the shelf’s nutrient rich waters.
Researchers will measure ocean temperatures and currents, collect plankton and fish and use sonar systems to look at fish distribution and what they are eating.
August 15, 2018 — NOAA announced Tuesday that it will fully reimburse at-sea monitoring costs for Northeast groundfish sector vessels for the 2018 fishing year.
The reimbursements will extend to the 2017 fishing year at an additional 25 percent, raising the total reimbursement to 85 percent for last year.
“Effective at-sea monitoring is essential to the success and sustainability of this fishery,” Jon Hare, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said in a statement.. “This $10.3 million increase from Congress for groundfish at-sea monitoring provides additional economic stability for the sector vessels.”
In the past, NOAA has funded or subsidized the costs of monitoring, however, 2017, marked the first year funding wasn’t available to cover the full costs, the agency said.
August 15, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council is asking fishermen and their cooperative research partners who participate in the Atlantic Sea Scallop, Atlantic Herring, and/or Monkfish Research Set Aside (RSA) Programs to take an online survey and provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of these programs and pass along any suggestions for improvement. Other stakeholders who have an interest or role in RSA programs also are encouraged to take the survey.
The survey is part of the Council’s comprehensive review of RSA programs, which is being conducted by a six member review panel that includes two representatives each from: the New England Council; the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, NOAA Fisheries) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO); and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). A representative from the Mid-Atlantic Council staff also sits on the review panel as an observer.
Take the online survey here
August 15, 2018 — Commercial groundfishermen will not have to pay any at-sea monitoring costs in the current fishing year and will be reimbursed for an additional 25 percent of their 2017 fishing trips that included monitor coverage, NOAA Fisheries said Tuesday.
The expanded at-sea monitor funding, fueled by an additional $10.3 million secured by New Hampshire’s U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the current federal budget, means fishing vessels in the Northeast Multispecies groundfishery are eligible to be reimbursed for about 85 percent of their 2017 trips with at-sea monitors aboard.
“Effective at-sea monitoring is essential to the success and sustainability of this fishery,” Jon Hare, the director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center said in a statement. “This $10.3 million increase from Congress for groundfish at-sea monitoring provides additional economic stability for the sector vessels.”
The additional $10.3 million was part a $22.5 million appropriation to NOAA to fund both at-sea monitoring and court-mandated bycatch reporting requirements.
The increased funding will relieve commercial fishermen of a significant financial burden — estimated at $710 per day for boats with monitors — for at least this fishing year. It also halts — at least for now — NOAA Fisheries’ strategy of increasingly shifting the costs of at-sea monitors onto fishermen until industry bears the full cost of monitor coverage.
“This is very welcome money and good news all the way around,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition. “It’s a lot for groundfishermen to pay for, especially as quotas decline and they lose access to key stocks.”
July 5, 2018 — Officials with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center are gearing up for their 20thannual ‘U.S-Canada Trans-boundary Resource Assessment Committee Meeting’ where scientists from each country will update the status of various Eastern Georges Bank fish species.
During the assessment, research survey and fishery catch data will be used to build a current picture of population sizes, numbers of young fish coming into the population, the amount of fish removed through harvests, and more.
U.S. scientists will also present some new work that evaluates how much variation there is in area swept by the trawl gear used in federal research surveys, and how this affects survey results for the TRAC species.
February 15, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries has updated the online method for groundfishermen to notify regulators of upcoming fishing trips, saying it should help even the playing field in the selection of vessels for observer coverage.
The system, known as PTNS for pre-trip notification system, specifically was redesigned to address the inflexibility of the current notification system and make it easier for fishermen to adapt to changes in monitoring requirements, according to regulators.
The new system, which has taken a technical team more than a year to develop, is set to go online in late April, in time for the May 1 opening of the 2018 fishing season, NOAA Fisheries said.
“We are thrilled to launch this update,” Jon Hare, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said in announcing the update. “This is a big step in the right direction.”
Under current management regulations, Northeast groundfishermen must notify NOAA Fisheries in advance of any commercial fishing trip to enable regulators to schedule at-sea monitor coverage across the fleet. The notifications can be made online, by email and by phone.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
January 31, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council today initiated Framework Adjustment 6 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan to consider alternatives for prolonging the skate wing fishery. The intent of this action is to better utilize total allowable landings and keep the fishery open as long as possible. The Council agreed to take this step at the request of industry. Many skate fishermen approached the Council during its December 2017 meeting asking that the framework be a 2018 priority.
The Skate Plan Development Team – with considerable input and guidance from the Skate Committee and Advisory Panel – will work over the next few months to analyze possession limit alternatives and other approaches that would help meet the framework’s goals and objectives. The Council will receive a progress report at its April meeting in Mystic, CT. Final action will occur either in April or June with the intent of having new measures in place during the second half of the 2018 fishing year, which ends April 30, 2019.
Industry-Funded Monitoring
The Council also received an update from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) on an electronic Skates captured during a cooperative research trip. – Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) photo monitoring (EM) project that GARFO and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) conducted from August 2016 to January 2018 aboard 11 midwater trawl vessels participating in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries. An estimated 1,000 hours of EM footage was collected on 126 herring trips, and 32 of those trips also were monitored by at-sea observers. The project was designed to evaluate whether or not electronic monitoring is an effective tool for tracking catch, discards, and slippage events on midwater trawl vessels involved in these fisheries.
In April 2017, the Council took final action on an Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Amendment that contains alternatives for potentially allowing EM and portside sampling as monitoring options for the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery. Mackerel is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Council, which has not acted yet on this amendment. The proposed rule for the New England Council’s action is being developed by NMFS and has a target implementation date of fall 2018.
Once the amendment is in place, herring fishermen will need to pay a substantial portion of the costs associated with monitoring the fishery, as implied in the term “industry-funded monitoring.” NMFS’s final report and recommendations resulting from the EM project will be presented to the Council at its April 17- 19 meeting.
Herring industry members also are interested in learning whether or not these new tools can be more cost effective than at-sea monitoring.
Setting Research Priorities
Based on recommendations from its Research Steering Committee (RSC), the Council endorsed several improvements to its research priority-setting process. It also provided guidance on improving the format for listing and tracking the priorities.
In related actions, the Council agreed to: (1) ask the Council Coordination Committee to urge NMFS to require anyone applying for national research program funding to indicate if and how their proposals would meet a regional fishery management council research priority in addition to national priorities; and (2) add, as a Council research priority, a more thorough evaluation of methods to reduce seabed impacts by ground cables used in trawl fisheries.
The Council also received a short briefing from its Research Steering Committee on the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Northeast Cooperative Research Program activities, as well as and an overview of recent management reviews conducted for three completed projects. These were:
(1) the Seasonal Scallop Bycatch Survey;
(2) the River Herring Bycatch Avoidance project; and
(3) Effects of Fishing on Herring Aggregations.
View the release in its entirety by clicking here.
January 23, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council kicks off its 2018 calendar with meetings in New Hampshire on the final two days of January that will include discussions on its deep-sea coral amendment and industry-funded at-sea monitoring.
The latter, however, will come with a twist.
The discussion on mandated industry-funded monitoring, set as the second agenda item for the first day of meetings on Jan. 30, is expected to include an update on electronic monitoring projects aboard midwater trawl vessels in the region’s herring and mackerel fisheries.
On the same day in the hotel, NOAA Fisheries — with the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center — will hold a free monitoring service provider vendor show to give fishermen and stakeholders the opportunity to meet and question vendors providing monitoring services.
“This is a great opportunity for herring and groundfish fishermen in particular to interact one-on-one with all of these providers,” said Janice Plante, a council spokeswoman.
Herring fishermen, she said, will be subject to new monitoring requirements under the industry-funded monitoring omnibus amendment and groundfishermen may see new monitoring requirements in the groundfish monitoring amendment currently before the council.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
January 23, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a two-day meeting from Tuesday, January 30 through Wednesday, January 31, 2018. The public is invited to listen-in via webinar or telephone. Here are the details.
MEETING LOCATION: Sheraton Harborside, 250 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801; Sheraton Harborside.
START TIME: The webinar will be activated at 8:00 a.m. each day. However, please note that the meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday and 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. The webinar will end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST or shortly after the Council adjourns each day.
WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8388599007058128899.
There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.
CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8321.
The access code is 767-546-787. Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.
AGENDA: The agenda and all meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at: https://www.nefmc.org/calendar/january-2018-council-meeting.
SPECIAL EVENT: In conjunction with the Council meeting, the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) will be hosting a vendor show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Harbor’s Edge Room at the same hotel. The show features 11 monitoring service providers:
This event was organized by GARFO/NEFSC to help industry members familiarize themselves with available at-sea, electronic, and portside monitoring options that may be needed in the future under the Council’s Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring Amendment and, possibly, Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23 further down the road.
SPECIAL EVENT QUESTIONS: Anyone with questions about the vendor show should contact NEFSC’s Nichole Rossi at (508) 495-2128, Nichole.Rossi@noaa.gov. A flyer about the event is available at monitoring service providers.
THREE MEETING OUTLOOK: A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available here.
Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.
January 22, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
Due to the partial federal government shutdown, the 2018 Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management Strategy Review, which was intended to take place January 22-25, 2018, will be rescheduled.
This review is being hosted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which is subject to federal government shutdown restrictions. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the length of the shutdown, travel for international peer review panel members has been cancelled. Once the federal government is fully operational again, the science center will reschedule the review panel meeting and provide additional information.
The New England Fishery Management Council is aware that many of its stakeholders are interested in this event and were planning to attend in person or listen-in via the webinar broadcast. For this reason, we are issuing this notice to inform you of these new developments and will post any additional updates on our own website at 2018 EBFM Strategy Review.
Learn more about the NEFMC’s meeting on EBFM here.