Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Trawlers catching “unheard of” amounts of shrimp off Corolla

January 14, 2019 — South of the Virginia border, the shores off Corolla have become an Outer Banks hot spot to catch winter shrimp.

Trawlers have clustered there within 3 miles of shore in recent weeks, each bringing in as much as 20,000 pounds of the delicacy per trip.

Last week, the “Capt. Ralph” hauled in 30,000 pounds, the most ever for the crew, said Ashley O’Neal, manager of O’Neal’s Sea Harvest.

In the past, 12,000 pounds was a good catch no matter where it came from, he said.

“This 30,000-pound stuff is unheard of,” O’Neal said. “We are seeing a lot of shrimp.”

In 2016, North Carolina shrimpers harvested a record 13.2 million pounds, worth $28.2 million. It was a 45 percent increase over the previous year, according to state statistics. The record fell again in 2017 with a harvest of 13.9 million pounds worth $29.6 million. The 10-year average is just short of 8 million pounds. Most of the catch comes from estuaries like the Pamlico Sound.

Shrimp consumption in the United States reached a new record in 2017 at 4.4 pounds a person per year, making it America’s favorite seafood, according to NOAA Fisheries. More than 90 percent of what’s eaten in the U.S. comes from foreign markets raised on farms.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

New England fishermen worry that wind turbines could impact their catch

December 26, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — East Coast fishermen are turning a wary eye toward an emerging upstart: the offshore wind industry.

In New Bedford, fishermen dread the possibility of navigating a forest of turbines as they make their way to the fishing grounds that have made it the nation’s most lucrative fishing port for 17 years running.

The state envisions hundreds of wind turbines spinning off the city’s shores in about a decade, enough to power more than 1 million homes.

‘‘You ever see a radar picture of a wind farm? It’s just one big blob, basically,’’ said Eric Hansen, 56, a New Bedford scallop boat owner whose family has been in the business for generations. ‘‘Transit through it will be next to impossible, especially in heavy wind and fog.’’

Off New York’s Long Island, an organization representing East Coast scallopers has sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to try to halt a proposal for a nearly 200-turbine wind farm. Commercial fishermen in Maryland’s Ocean City and North Carolina’s Outer Banks have also sounded the alarm about losing access to fishing grounds.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

 

On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, A Preview Of What Might Be In Store For Mass. Barrier Beaches

August 9, 2017 — The first truly global disaster resulting from climate change may come from rising sea levels.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change has projected sea level rise of 1 to 3 feet by the end of the century, and more recent estimates by NASA and other scientists have projected a rise of up to 8 feet.

In Massachusetts, the rising sea will mean more frequent flooding, more severe storms, and dramatic change.

It’s a problem we will share with every coastal community on every continent. A bit farther down the Atlantic Coast, there’s a place that’s on a faster track to where we too may be headed.

‘These Beaches Are Doomed’

Leonardo Da Vinci wrote that “water is the driving force of all nature.”

Fascinated by great storms and terrible floods, DaVinci would have loved the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Nearly 200 miles of low-lying, shifting sand islands link into a high energy system of waves and storms.

“These beaches are doomed,” says Orrin Pilkey, a professor at Duke University and an octogenarian prophet. “The buildings are doomed too.”

Traveling through a shanty town of triple-decker McMansions on stilts, motels and condos too close to the sea, we stop in the town of Nags Head. Pilkey predicts catastrophe in vacationland.

“The future is one of retreat,” Pilkey says. “It’s the only way to save the beach. It’s the only way to save the buildings.”

Read and listen to the full story at WBUR

Sharks have been a major disruption for fishermen off the Outer Banks this year

June 24, 2017 — Sharks are chomping the catch of the day.

Fishing off the Outer Banks has been great this year, especially with big hauls of tuna. But boat captains are losing up to 20 fish a day to the opportunistic predators.

Able to smell, hear or sense the struggling fish from miles away, sharks come like a pack of wolves. In some cases, anglers are reeling in nothing but the head.

“You can’t even get a fish to the boat,” said Jack Graham, first mate on the Fintastic, a charter boat based at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. “You get a bite and look back and there’s just a big cloud of blood.”

Sharks are taking the catch along with thousands of dollars in fishing gear, he said.

Captains could bring in their boats with the tuna limit by midmorning if not for sharks gobbling the catch, said Carey Foster, mate on the Smoker, also docked at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.

“The last couple of weeks, they’ve been horrible,” he said.

State fishing summaries include reports of sharks preying almost exclusively on tuna catches.

“This is the highest bite rate I’ve seen in 27 years,” said Brian Melott, a port agent for the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. “These bites ain’t small either.”

Melott surveys anglers and collects catch measurements and other data as part of an ongoing fisheries census.

The two primary species attacking are dusky and sandbar sharks, Graham said. Dusky sharks grow up to 14 feet long and are known for their powerful jaws. Sandbar sharks can reach about 8 feet.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

North Carolina’s sharks are attacking fish and leaving them half eaten

April 4, 2017 — The recent spate of shark attacks off the coast of the Carolinas isn’t just hurting the plans of beach enthusiasts as North Carolina fishermen in the Outer Banks have started to be affected as well.

The apparent increase of sharks in the area is hitting fisherman where it hurts most – their wallets.

Sharks in the area have been feasting on the local fish population and leaving a trail of half-eaten carcasses behind in their wake.

These partially-devoured fish have been a problem for weeks for off-shore fishermen, according to NewsChannel 3.

Fisherman Glen Hopkins said: “It’s really heart wrenching when you catch a $1,000 fish, and you can’t get it to the boat.  It’s nothing but a chunk of mangled up meat. Some sets we don’t get a fish back. We might catch 25 or 30 heads. Pieces where everything is gone. It’s literally costing thousands and thousands out of my pocket.”

Another fisherman, Britton Shackelford, said the predators ‘are just following the boat’ and he sometimes sees thousands of sharks when he is out on the water.

He added: ‘At least two-thirds of your catch is going to be eaten before it ever gets to the boat.’

Read the full story at the Daily Mail

Can North Carolina’s Local Seafood Movement Help Save its Fishermen?

November 16, 2016 — North Carolina’s commercial fishermen—who work primarily in independent, small-scale operations—landed 66 million pounds of fish last year, but rather than ending up on North Carolina plates, the majority was whisked out of state to markets where it could fetch a higher price.

“I think more New Yorkers eat North Carolina seafood than North Carolinians,” says Ann Simpson, who grew up in a small town on the coast and currently directs North Carolina Catch, a partnership of smaller organizations working to strengthen the state’s local seafood economy.

To fill the void created by the export of its catch, North Carolina—like most states—ships in seafood from abroad. Today, around 90 percent of the seafood Americans eat has been imported from places like China, Thailand, Canada, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Ecuador, and the average fish travels more than 5,400 miles between the landing dock and point of sale.

“People come to the coast looking for fresh seafood, and for the most part, they’re getting seafood from halfway around the world, which they’re eating in a local setting,” says Noelle Boucquey, assistant professor of environmental studies at Eckerd College, who studied North Carolina’s fisheries while at Duke University. Patronize a vendor at the Outer Banks Seafood Festival in Nags Head, and you’ll face the same conundrum.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

Frustrated fishermen meet with new North Carolina fisheries director

August 11, 2016 — MANTEO, N.C. — About 50 exasperated, even angry, commercial fishermen gathered Monday to meet the new director of the North Carolina agency that governs how these watermen make a living.

They came to the Dare County offices from towns east and west of the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, ranging from Hatteras Village to Elizabeth City. They came to voice frustrations and ask questions about what they believe are unfair and arbitrary regulations that shrink their livelihood.

Southern flounder harvest restrictions and sea turtle conservation efforts were sore points.

Sea turtles are best with “taters and onions,” said Sharon Peele Kennedy, a member of the Board of Directors for NC Catch, a group that advocates for local fishing and seafood.

This fight is old for fishermen on the Outer Banks, but their opponent has a new face: Braxton Davis, who in April became director of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and the Division of Coastal Management after the last director resigned.

In his new job, the watermen demanded he at least listen, tell the truth and be willing to make what they call common-sense changes in the rules that prevent them from setting their nets.

For the most part, the men spoke in thick coastal accents, each carried a three-day growth of beard, and had arms and faces weathered and brown. A few women in the audience were equally adamant about the cause. The language was occasionally salty.

But they came with data, documents and experience to buttress their arguments.

“We are the science,” a veteran waterman said. “We’re your biggest environmentalists.”

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot

North Carolina Marine Fisheries Director to meet with area fishermen

July 20, 2016 — Dr. Braxton Davis, the newly appointed director of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Division, will be on the Outer Banks on Monday, Aug. 8 for an open meeting with interested recreational and commercial fishermen from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Dare County Administration Building in Manteo.

North Carolina Watermen United invited Davis with the intention of introducing the new director to some of the fishermen from this part of the state.

Read the full story at the Outer Banks Sentinel

N.C. Marine Fisheries Director to meet with area fishermen

July 20, 2016 — Dr. Braxton Davis, the newly appointed director of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Division, will be on the Outer Banks on Monday, Aug. 8 for an open meeting with interested recreational and commercial fishermen from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Dare County Administration Building in Manteo.

North Carolina Watermen United invited Davis with the intention of introducing the new director to some of the fishermen from this part of the state.

Davis was appointed Marine Fisheries Division director in mid-April by N.C. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Donald van der Vaart. Currently Davis also is director of the state’s Division of Coastal Management. He began his tenure in September 2011 after serving as policy director for the South Carolina coastal program. He holds a Doctorate in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from Florida International University and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia.

Read the full story at the Outer Banks Sentinel

Could invasive lionfish end up in Chesapeake Bay?

December 29, 2015 — Few fish are as lovely as the lionfish. Few are as venomous.

A frilly, colorful native of the clear tropical waters and reefs of the South Pacific and Indian oceans, the lionfish has been a favorite of aquarium hobbyists for years.

In the Atlantic, however, it was unknown.

Then in the 1980s genetic researchers believe a handful of hobbyists in Florida, perhaps thinking it a kindness, released their aquarium pets into the wild ocean.

At that point, the lionfish proved they aren’t just lovely and venomous — they also breed like rabbits on Viagra. Ravenous eaters, they gobble up any smaller fish they spot and easily displace native species. And because nothing in this part of the Atlantic recognizes them as prey, their population has exploded into a serious and unfortunate marine invasion.

“It’s gotten really bad,” said Richard Brill, fishery biologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point.

“There’ve been some efforts in Florida and some parts of the Caribbean to get people to eat them. And there’s been some efforts — and this is pretty crazy — but groups of recreational spear fishermen have been spearing them and then feeding what they catch to sharks, trying to convince the local shark population to eat these things.”

The hardy little invaders have established year-round populations from the Gulf of Mexico to the Outer Banks. They’ve been spotted in warmer months as far north as Massachusetts, although they can’t survive the northern winters.

Read the full story at the Hampton Roads Daily Press