April 15, 2020 — The West Coast groundfish fleet has been pushing for relief from onboard fishery observers and shoreside catch monitors due to the coronavirus, but NMFS’ message to the fleet: No.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council met via webinar last week and one of the major points of contention was observers on fishing vessels in this era of COVID-19 that includes stay at home and social distancing orders.
April 15, 2020 — Last week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council unanimously voted (with National Marine Fisheries Service abstaining) to send a letter to NMFS requesting a blanket waiver for observer coverage in all West Coast fisheries with Federal observers, as well as catch monitors in the groundfish IFQ shoreside monitoring program. The letter was sent today. The Council requests that the waiver remain in place as long as the shelter in place orders are in effect for Washington, Oregon, and California.
“In light of the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout the U.S. since [waiving observer coverage in some situations], the uncertain rate of infection in in many areas, and especially of new information on asymptomatic transmission of the virus, we urge you to now adopt stronger, more proactive protections for public health and the safety of fishermen, observers, and others with whom they have contact,” the letter states. “In particular, the Council requests that NMFS temporarily suspend federally authorized at-sea observer coverage in all West Coast fisheries (including at-sea sectors) and trawl catch share program shoreside catch monitors.”
April 15, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council met April 5-10, 2020 via RingCentral webinar. The April 2020 Council Meeting Decision Summary Document contains the highlights of significant decisions made during that meeting. Results of agenda items that do not reach a level of highlight significance are typically not described in the Decision Summary Document.
April 14, 2020 — Fishermen are looking at a reduced ocean salmon season this spring because of low salmon returns. But the industry is also hoping to buy time for seafood markets that are reeling from the impact of the coronavirus.
The industry has had to shift how it does business and many are still adapting as local restrictions due to the pandemic shutter usual seafood outlets.
The markets are slow now, but they may reinvent themselves, said Michael Burner, the deputy director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council. “There is still a demand for seafood,” he said.
The council recently adopted ocean salmon season recommendations for commercial and recreational fishermen for most of the Pacific coast, which include “some very restrictive seasons,” according to Phil Anderson, the council’s chairman.
April 13, 2020 — Sardine landings off the coast of the US state of California will stay the same in 2020 if harvesters catch all they are permitted under the limits recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), the California Wetfish Producers Association (CWPA) reports.
Despite concerns expressed by environmental groups, the PFMC this week approved repeating the 4,000 metric ton catch target of 2019 in the new season, which begins on July 1, 2020 and ends June 30, 2021, according to a press release from CWPA. A meeting and vote on the matter was held via webinar as a result of COVID-19 concerns.
The decision still requires approval and publication in the Federal Register by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
April 13, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast and achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast. Due to the COVID-19 social distancing requirements, all meetings associated with the decision were held via webinar for the first time in the Council’s history.
The recommendations will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 6, 2020.
“This year’s package includes some very restrictive seasons in both commercial and recreational fisheries along much of the coast. Uncertainties associated with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on markets, angler effort, and critical catch sampling, coupled with low Chinook and coho forecasts, made structuring the fisheries even more challenging this year,” said Council Chair Phil Anderson.
The Council heard reports from commercial, recreational, and tribal representatives about the challenges created by the pandemic, including difficulties in selling seafood to reduced markets, recreational fishery closures to protect public health, needed access to traditional food sources for tribal communities, and the inability to plan for the near future.
April 8, 2020 — The following was released by the California Wetfish Producers Association:
“One thing everyone agrees on is the need to improve the sardine stock assessment,” stated Marc Gorelnik, vice chair of the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Conducting the meeting via webinar due to COVID-19 concerns, the Council approved management measures for Pacific sardines for the season July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, after considering reports from its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), CPS Management Team and Advisory Subpanel and the public. Environmental groups pleaded for more precaution and much lower harvest limits, arguing that the stock assessment indicates that the stock is at low and declining levels, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) declared the northern sardine subpopulation as ‘overfished’ in 2019, so the Council must develop a rebuilding plan. However, the Council supported the recommendations of the SSC, management team and advisory subpanel, in light of the fact that the biomass estimate remained essentially the same as last year. So, they approved an Annual Catch Target of 4,000 metric tons for all uses, as in 2019.
“We greatly appreciate the expressions of concern from the management team and advisory subpanel, and the Council’s action based on those concerns,” said Diane Pleschner-Steele, Executive Director of the California Wetfish Producers Association (CWPA). “We thank the Council for hearing us,” she continued, adding, “This conflict is between what fishermen say is out there, based on what they see, and what biologists say, based on insufficient science.” Both fishermen and independent scientific surveys have documented sardine recruitment and growing abundance since 2015. The problem is that NOAA’s sardine acoustic trawl surveys have not seen it, and those surveys have largely driven the stock assessments in recent years.
The 2020 stock assessment reported no evidence of recruitment, but the model used to predict biomass has not updated the age data from the fishery since 2015, because the directed fishery has been closed since that time. To resolve this Catch-22, CWPA submitted an application for an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Council unanimously supported this effort, along with the 2020 management measures.
If approved by NMFS, this EFP will allow CWPA to coordinate a closely controlled directed fishing effort to capture sardine schools throughout the year. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has agreed to sample and age all the landings and provide that data for the next stock assessment.
Another thorny problem that California fishermen are facing is the current scientific assumption that all sardines found in water temperatures above about 62 degrees F are deemed to be ‘southern’ stock sardines that have migrated up from Mexico. Thus, these fish are subtracted from the ‘northern’ sardine stock assessment. This assumption and current management policy have frustrated fishermen, especially in Southern California, because all catches are deducted from the ‘northern’ sardine harvest limit.
This issue, and many more, arose during the Council’s sardine discussion. Environmental groups are now asking the Council to revise the entire management structure to provide more forage for other species. These groups discount the mounting evidence of recruitment and abundance, and ignore the fact that the fishery for the entire CPS complex, including sardine, amounts to less than two percent of the key forage pool, which also includes other forage species. Moreover, scientists widely acknowledge that environmental forcing drives the abundance of sardines and other CPS; these stocks rise and fall based on Mother Nature’s whims, with negligible impact from fishing.
This discussion will likely continue at future Council meetings, as environmental groups campaign to further reduce fishery catches for sardines and other CPS. Meanwhile, CWPA and California sardine fishermen, as well as sardine fishermen in the Pacific Northwest, are committed to conduct the research necessary to improve the sardine stock assessment. If the ‘northern’ sardine stock assessment accurately reflected the abundance of sardines reported by fishermen virtually yearlong (in water temperatures below 62 degrees F), northern sardines would not be considered ‘overfished.’
California fishermen and processors are grateful that the Council considered the issues and uncertainties raised and combined scientific underpinning with practicality and common sense. Balance is a key mandate of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Council and NMFS are required to consider the needs of fishing communities, not just biology, in developing rebuilding plans. The future of California’s historic wetfish industry hangs in the balance.
April 8, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council will convene an online meeting of its Habitat Committee (HC) and Salmon Technical Team. This online meeting is open to the public and will be held Tuesday, May 12, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, or until business for the day has been completed.
Please see the Habitat Committee and Salmon Technical Team online meeting notice on the Council’s website for participation details and the purpose of the meeting.
For further information:
April 7, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council will convene an online meeting of its Groundfish and Coastal Pelagic Species Subcommitteees of the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC). This online meeting will be open to the public and will be held Tuesday, April 21, 2020, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, or until business for the day has been completed.
Please see the Groundfish and CPS SSC Subcommittee online meeting notice on the Council’s website for participation details.
For further information:
April 6, 2020 — Local fishermen and women have faced rough seas and disappointing catches, but even they were unprepared for the shelter in place order which has collapsed seafood markets.
Though larger fisheries are somewhat better equipped to weather this storm, fishermen on small commercial fishing boats say they are scrambling to adjust their business models — from how they catch to where they sell — to stay afloat.
At a recent fisheries management meeting, officials with Oceana, an international nonprofit that advocates for sea life, reported talk about this being an unprecedented time “with significant challenges at every level,” noting that “We have lost global and local markets.”
This week local crab and salmon fisherman David Toriumi has been fileting black cod in his fish buyers’ warehouse. “I’m taking on any work that I can,” said Toriumi. Despite fishermen classifying as essential workers, the uncertainty of recent weeks leaves him fearful that he will not be able to pay his bills.