Saving Seafood

Maine fisherman acquitted of overfishing elver quota by 1/100th of a pound

June 26, 2019 — Henry Bear is the former representative in the Maine Legislature for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. Three years ago the now-63-year-old tribal leader was issued a summons for overfishing his elver quota by 1/100th of a pound. Elvers are immature American eels, Anguilla rostrata, that ascend Maine rivers in the spring. The elver fishery is big money with the little eels selling for around a $1,000 a pound.

Overfishing elvers is a criminal offense in Maine. When a politically active Native American gets summoned for 1/100thof a pound over his elver quota, the equivalent of getting a criminal speeding ticket for going 50.5 miles per hour in a 50-mile-per-hour speed zone, it raises questions.

“They call this a test case,” says Bear. “I call it a political hatchet job.” Bear asserts that the Department of Marine Resources staff reviewed the charges and decided to press the case, against the recommendation of state assistant attorney general of Waldo County, William Entwisle.

The charges against him led Bear, who is currently studying law at the University of Maine, to investigate the grounds of the state’s authority in light of several treaties, particularly the 1776 Treaty of Watertown, which was signed by his ancestor, Ambrose Bear. While the states of Maine and Massachusetts agree the treaty has not been extinguished in any way, Maine has long asserted that the Implementing Act of the 1980 Land Claims Settlement Act brought tribal fisheries under state jurisdiction. But Bear has uncovered evidence that indicates the Implementing Act was never properly enacted, possibly putting Maine’s Indian land claims back on the table.

“I calculated we’re talking about $20 billion, based on the current value of the land,” says Bear.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Minimum-Size North Carolina Catch Rules Narrowly Clear House

June 20, 2019 — North Carolina‘s significant commercial and recreational marine fish species all would be subject to minimum-length catch thresholds in legislation that cleared one General Assembly chamber.

Thursday’s 58-47 House vote didn’t fall along party lines, as members were split on whether such restrictions would revive or decimate further declining fish stocks.

A 1997 law required state regulators to adopt fisheries management plans to discourage overfishing, but proposal supporters questioned their effectiveness. Bill sponsor Rep. Larry Yarborough of Person County called the minimum-size requirement a common-sense way to ensure more fish mature and reproduce.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

The Beyond Meat of Fish Is Coming

June 13, 2019 — Salmon has become the guinea pig of the seas when it comes to using technology to supplement falling fish populations. Now it’s moved onto land—and into the laboratory.

The fatty orange fish was the second-most-consumed seafood in the U.S. in 2017, after shrimp, and per capita consumption increased 11 percent, to 2.41 pounds per person, from the prior year, according to the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group. Globally, demand for salmon has skyrocketed, along with that for all fish, fueling overfishing and threatening supply.

Industrial-scale salmon farming, once seen as a solution, has its own problems. Massive stocks of smaller fish are depleted to feed farmed salmon, and parasites flourish in salmon pens where farmers use pesticides, contributing to pollution and ecosystem destruction. Sea lice have infested farms in Norway and Scotland in recent years, and a deadly algae bloom killed salmon in Chile, a top farmed-salmon producer. Farmed fish sometimes escape, too, contaminating nearby wild salmon.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Pacific fisheries ministers push for WCPFC reforms

June 11, 2019 — Fisheries ministers in the Pacific said while stocks of bigeye, yellowfin, albacore, and skipjack tuna are all to be in a healthy condition in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, there should be no room for complacency on management measures as it could “lead to increased commercial pressure on those fisheries.”

The Parties to the Nauru Agreement is made up of the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Tokelau, which collectively maintain a purse-seine vessel day scheme (VDS). According to a communique signed by the ministers at the end of the annual PNA meeting in Palau on 30 May, all tuna stocks in the region are at healthy levels.

Scientists with the Pacific Community or SPC has earlier reported that Western and Central Pacific tuna stocks are healthy compared to other stocks in other oceanic regions due to the conservation measures implemented by PNA. The total annual tuna catch in PNA waters is around 1.6 million metric tons, including about 50 percent of the world’s supply of skipjack tuna. About half of the total tuna catch from PNA waters, or about 790,000 metric tons, is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

“Ministers welcomed the scientific advice that all major tuna stocks in PNA waters were reported as healthy and none were assessed as overfished or subject to overfishing,” the announcement stated.

However, the PNA statement said maintaining healthy tuna stocks is only possible with a continued effort to strengthen regional management of the fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Atlantic Herring: NEFMC Approves Framework 6 with 2019-2021 Specs

June 11, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved Framework Adjustment 6 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which contains 2019-2021 specifications for the fishery and a new overfishing definition for herring that is more consistent with the 2018 benchmark stock assessment.

The Council took several steps during its April meeting that helped guide the development of Framework 6. Here at its June meeting in So. Portland, ME, the Council made three additional decisions to complete the package:

  • Overfishing Limit (OFL) and Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC): The Council voted to set OFL and ABC based on the ABC control rule that’s proposed in Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring FMP while using the original projections made by its Scientific and Statistical Committee. This was referred to as “Alternative 2 Original” in the draft framework.

Read the full release here

Film Details Impact Of The Loss Of The ‘Sacred Cod’

May 29, 2019 — In the early 17th century, English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold gave Cape Cod its name due to the abundant cod fish he saw in its waters.

Throughout history, the cod has played a crucial role in feeding various peoples, from explorers on ships such as the Vikings, to Basques, to Europeans, to early settlers of the Cape. They all lived on cod, whether it was fresh, salted or frozen. Author Mark Kurlansky, in his 1998 book “Cod,” dubs the cod “the fish that changed the world.”

Yet now this essential fish is endangered, as detailed in the film “Sacred Cod: The Fight for the Future of America’s Oldest Fishery.” The culprits? Climate change, government policies and overfishing.

“Overfishing was just part of the problem with cod,” David Abel, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for the Boston Globe, said in an email interview. Abel reported, wrote, directed and co-produced the film, which will be screened at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on Saturday, June 1 at 10 a.m. as part of its Sustainability Series. “Climate change also has played a significant role in making it much harder for a species that had been overfished for generations to bounce back. Cod can only thrive in a narrow band of temperatures.”

As well as Abel, the 2016 independent film is the work of Steve Liss, for 25 years a photographer for Time magazine, and Andy Laub, founder of As It Happens Creative. The 65-minute film has won five awards and was broadcast around the world in 2017.

In a nutshell, the story is this. The cod fishery has collapsed in New England, specifically in the Gulf of Maine, which is warming at an alarming rate due to climate change. In November 2014, when the government learned that the population of cod was only 3 or 4 percent of what is needed to sustain a healthy population, cod fishing was banned in the region. This led to an outcry from fishermen whose livelihoods were threatened.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Chronicle

NOAA Fisheries Announces 2019-2021 Spiny Dogfish Specifications

May 14, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We are approving and implementing the final 2019 and projected 2020-2021 specifications for the spiny dogfish fishery, as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils.

The specifications for the 2019 spiny dogfish fishery are a 46-percent reduction from fishing year 2018 to ensure overfishing does not occur. However, these quotas are projected to increase in 2020 and 2021 as the spiny dogfish biomass is expected to increase and the risk of overfishing declines. Below is a summary of the specifications. All other fishery management measures, including the 6,000-lb federal trip limit, will remain unchanged for fishing years 2019-2021.

For more details read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin posted on our website.

In Indonesia, bigger catches for a fishing village protecting its mangroves

May 3, 2019 — The phone signal comes and goes and the electricity grid has yet to reach this patch of jungle on the west coast of Borneo. The quickest way into the village of Sungai Nibung is by boat through the rivers. (Sungai means “river” in Indonesian.) You arrive at a small dock put up by fishermen, onto which shrimp catches are pulled from nets and sorted by size.

Tauke, a fisherman descended from pioneer Chinese traders, concentrates as he keeps count of the incoming shrimp. “These large ones are Class A,” Tauke tells Mongabay, his eyes fixed on a calculator. “If you want smaller ones we also have them further in.”

For years, weak law enforcement and low public awareness meant environmentally dangerous practices were commonly employed in global fisheries. Here in western Borneo, fishermen often bombed, poisoned and netted catches indiscriminately. Closer to shore, mangroves were ripped up for aquaculture, and much of the tree cover inland converted to plantations.

A consequence of overfishing and depletion of the habitat on which fisheries stocks rely is both a dwindling catch and declining incomes. But local and national government reforms, combined with customary traditions and ambitious NGO programs, are beginning to address the problem.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Chinese-led supply constraints to drive global seafood prices up by 25 percent

May 2, 2019 — The rising global demand for seafood and a projected slowdown in the growth of fisheries and aquaculture production, particularly by China – the world’s leading provider of these products – will lead to a decade of higher prices, anticipates the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In 2016, total fish production reached an all-time high of 171 million metric tons (MT), with wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture providing 53 percent and 47 percent respectively. Of the total, 88 percent or 151 million MT was utilized for direct human consumption. Capture fisheries production accounted for 90.9 million MT, while aquaculture supplied 80 million MT. Although the contribution of farmed species to human consumption is higher than that of wild-caught fish.

Based on the assumption of higher demand and technological improvements, the overall production is expected to continue to expand, reaching 201 million MT by 2030. While this would represent a growth of 18 percent or 30 million MT over 2016, it amounts to an annual growth rate of just 1 percent for the 2016-2030 period, compared with 2.3 percent for 2003-2016.

By 2030, the FAO expects capture fisheries production to reach about 91 million MT, only 1 percent more than in 2016. It foresees that factors influencing this limited growth will include a 17 percent decrease of capture fisheries in China due to the implementation of new policies, which it reckons will be compensated for by increased catches in a number of other regions. In this regard, it believes there will be higher landings from fishing areas where stocks of certain species are recovering due to improved management, as well as increased catches in waters of the few countries where there are underfished resources, as well as where new fishing opportunities exist or where fisheries management measures are less restrictive.

In addition, the FAO believes there’ll be enhanced use of fisheries production, including reduced onboard discards, waste, and losses as driven by legislation or higher market fish prices. But it also acknowledges that in some years, the El Niño phenomenon can be expected to reduce catches in South America, especially for anchoveta, resulting in an overall decrease of world capture fisheries production of about 2 percent in those years.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishery commission takes step toward reducing striped bass harvest by 17% in Chesapeake, along Atlantic coast

May 1, 2019 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said Wednesday it will require new restrictions on striped bass next year, amid overfishing of the species known in the Chesapeake as rockfish.

The panel, which regulates a striped bass fishery that spans from Maine to North Carolina, launched a study of how a variety of conservation measures could reduce fish deaths by 17 percent. That includes reducing the number of fish that are caught and also the number that die from hook wounds after being caught and released.

Measures states from Maine to North Carolina will be asked to consider include:

  • New limits on the minimum size of fish that can legally be caught;
  • Possible new rules establishing “slot” limits on striped bass fishing, meaning only fish larger than an undetermined minimum size and smaller than 40 inches long can be legally caught;
  • Closure of some portions of striped bass fishing season; and,
  • Requirement that special equipment known as circle hooks be used coastwide while fishing with live bait. (The circle hooks already are required in Maryland.)

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun