Saving Seafood

New criteria for Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish and Red Drum management

June 29, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries approved new criteria to inform Gulf of Mexico reef fish and red drum management, changing Amendments 48 and 5 for the respective fishery management plans.

Earlier this year NOAA Fisheries requested comments on new criteria used to inform Gulf of Mexico reef fish and red drum management. On March 2022, announcing the request, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council recommended these criteria changes for two amendments, Amendment 48 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico and Amendment 5 to the FMP for the Red Drum Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico (Amendments 48/5).

According to NOAA Fisheries, “Amendment 48 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico and Amendment 5 to the FMP for the Red Drum Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico (Amendments 48/5) were developed to establish or modify maximum sustainable yield (MSY) proxies, overfishing and overfished determination criteria called maximum fishing mortality thresholds (MFMTs), and minimum stock size thresholds (MSSTs), respectively, and optimum yield (OY) for some reef fish species and red drum.”

Plans and regulations are reviewed annually

The agency adds that “Status determination criteria are the MSY, MFMT, and MSST and are measurable and objective values or proxies that are used to determine if overfishing has occurred, or if the stock or stock complex is overfished. Overfishing means too many fish are being harvested from a population and overfished means that the population is too low.” Follow the link to download a Status Determination Criteria Infographic published by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ASMFC Schedules Red Drum Simulation Assessment Review Workshop for March 28 – 30, 2022

March 17, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Red Drum Simulation Assessment will be peer-reviewed from March 28-30, 2022. The Simulation Assessment will evaluate multiple candidate models using simulated data sets to identify the model best suited for tracking red drum population dynamics. Once a preferred model is identified, it will be used in future benchmark assessments to provide advice to the Sciaenids Fishery Management Board on red drum management. 

The Review Workshop is open to the public and will be held at the DoubleTree Brownstone Hotel, 1707 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, North Carolina. The Workshop agenda can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/RedDrumAssessmentReviewWorkshop.pdf.

The Simulation Assessment and Review Report will be considered by the Sciaenids Fishery Management Board in May 2022. For more information, please contact Tina Berger, Director of Communications, at tberger@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.  

 

Red Drum Simulation Assessment Data Workshop Scheduled for November 9-10 & 12-13, 2020

October 14, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

As the first step in the development of the next red drum benchmark stock assessment, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has scheduled a Data Workshop for November 9-10 & 12-13, 2020 to review and evaluate available data sets for use in the stock assessment. The Workshop will be held via webinar and is open to the public. The Workshop details and agenda can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/RedDrumSimulationAssmtDataWorkshopAgenda_Nov2020.pdf.

For more information, please contact Savannah Lewis, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at slewis@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

ASMFC Begins Preparations for Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment

August 27, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has begun work on the next Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and is requesting data from academia, member states, federal partners, non-governmental organizations, participating jurisdictions and stakeholders. A data workshop will occur in November 2020 with specific dates still to be determined.

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on catch per unit effort, tag-recapture data, biological samples (lengths, ages), and life history information (growth, maturity, natural mortality). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format with accompanying description of methods to Jeff Kipp, Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org by October 1, 2020.

For more information about the assessments or the submission and presentation of materials, please contact Savannah Lewis, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at slewis@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Redfish suffer deformities, heart problems from oil – even tiny amounts

September 22, 2017 — Even in trace amounts, oil can warp the spines, disfigure the faces and weaken the hearts of redfish larvae. That makes it difficult for young fish to swim, eat and grow into the 40-pounders that excite anglers.

The first comprehensive study of oil spill effects on the popular sport fish found that “micro-droplets” of oil, such as those that disperse after larger spills, cause skull and jaw deformities and can twist backbones upward, producing fish with awkward J-shaped bodies. Exposure to small amounts of oil reduced the cardiac functions of redfish by 70 percent, according to the study published this month in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

“Certainly, oil spills kill,” said Alexis Khursigara, a marine scientist with the University of Texas and the study’s lead author. “But sometimes those that survive can have complex deformities that can result in a delayed death because they’re not swimming well or fast enough, or they have a hard time capturing prey.”

More than 1 million of the fish, known as red drum, were caught in Louisiana waters last year, making it the second largest recreational catch after spotted seatrout, commonly called speckled trout. Commercial fishing for redfish was banned in Louisiana in the late 1980s to keep the species from becoming extinct, amid the Cajun food craze that was popularized nationally by legendary New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme’s blackened redfish dish. By 1988, only 2 percent of the fish were escaping capture to spawn offshore.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

March/April 2017 Issue of ASMFC Fisheries Focus Now Available

May 2, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has released the 14th report in its Habitat Management Series entitled, Atlantic Sciaenid Habitats: A Review of Utilization, Threats and Recommendations for Conservation, Management and Research. Prepared by ASMFC staff, sciaenid experts, and a subset of the Commission’s Habitat Committee, the report is the most comprehensive compilation of habitat information to date on Commission-managed and other common sciaenid species found throughout the Western Atlantic. These species include Atlantic croaker, black drum, red drum, spot, spotted seatrout, weakfish, northern kingfish, southern kingfish and Gulf kingfish. The report provides a habitat description for all stages of each species’ life cycle, their associated Essential Fish Habitats and Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (when applicable), threats and uncertainties to their habitats, and recommendations for habitat management and research. It was developed to serve as a resource for fisheries managers to use when amending existing fishery management plans.

Sciaenids are found throughout the Western Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Mexico, in shallow coastal waters and larger bays and estuaries, including their tributaries. They utilize a variety of habitats throughout their life stages, including estuaries, salt marshes, freshwater marshes, oyster reefs, sea grasses and mud banks/shores. Because of the way different species of sciaenids use various types of habitats throughout their life, several different habitats are key for maintaining healthy populations.

Read the full release here

ASMFC Releases Report on Sciaenid Fish Habitat

March 29, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

Arlington, Va. — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has released the 14th report in its Habitat Management Series entitled, Atlantic Sciaenid Habitats: A Review of Utilization, Threats and Recommendations for Conservation, Management and Research. Prepared by ASMFC staff, sciaenid experts, and a subset of the Commission’s Habitat Committee, the report is the most comprehensive compilation of habitat information to date on Commission-managed and other common sciaenid species found throughout the Western Atlantic. These species include Atlantic croaker, black drum, red drum, spot, spotted seatrout, weakfish, northern kingfish, southern kingfish and Gulf kingfish. The report provides a habitat description for all stages of each species’ life cycle, their associated Essential Fish Habitats and Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (when applicable), threats and uncertainties to their habitats, and recommendations for habitat management and research. It was developed to serve as a resource for fisheries managers to use when amending existing fishery management plan (FMPs).

Sciaenids are found throughout the Western Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Mexico, in shallow coastal waters and larger bays and estuaries, including their tributaries. They utilize a variety of habitats throughout their life stages, including estuaries, salt marshes, freshwater marshes, oyster reefs, sea grasses and mud banks/shores. Because of the way different species of sciaenids use various types of habitats throughout their life, several different habitats are key for maintaining healthy populations.

Estuarine habitats are particularly important to many sciaenids at every life stage. In the Mid-Atlantic Bight, as many as 14 species can be present in estuaries as larvae, juveniles, or adults over the course of a year. Weakfish, for example, use estuaries as primary spawning habitat, while Atlantic croaker and spot use them as nurseries and seasonal adult foraging grounds. Young sciaenids play important roles as both predators and prey in these habitats.

Temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen vary considerably in estuarine environments and these factors are known to affect sciaenid growth rates, spawning, and spatial and temporal distribution. As a group, sciaenids are habitat generalists rather than specialists and may therefore be relatively resilient to changes in environmental factors. However, Atlantic coast estuaries have been profoundly altered. Despite their ability to take advantage of a range of habitats, sciaenids are not immune to habitat degradation or suboptimal conditions, especially in the face of climate change. 

Increasingly dense human populations along our coastlines threaten the health of estuaries and coastal waters, including sciaenid habitats. Widespread development, beach renourishment, dredging, overfishing, coastal armoring, pollution, and other human impacts have significantly altered the physical and chemical environments of estuarine and marine waters. Changes in hydrologic processes and runoff characteristics can increase turbidity and sedimentation and decrease light transmittance, which may lead to the loss of submerged aquatic vegetation. Human-caused alterations to the estuarine environment have been linked to changes in hydrography and salinity regimes, as well as food web modification, which can eventually reduce the quality of habitat for sciaenids and other estuarine-dependent fish.

The Commission would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to the report: Jay Odell, Brian Boutin and Kate M. Wilke with The Nature Conservancy; Douglas H. Adams and Kent Smith with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; William Collier II, South Atlantic Fishery Management Council; Alison Deary, University of Southern Mississippi; James A. Johnson, Jr., North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality; Stephen R. Midway, Louisiana State University; January Murray, Georgia Department of Natural Resources; and Lisa N. Havel and Melissa W. Yuen, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The report is available online at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Habitat/HMS14_AtlanticSciaenidHabitats_Winter2017.pdf. Species-specific chapters are also available on the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, on the respective species pages (on the left navigation bar under Quick Links). For more information, please contact Lisa Havel, Habitat Coordinator, at LHavel@asmfc.org. 

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PR17-15

A PDF of the press release can be found at –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/58dc0346pr15AtlanticSciaenidHabitats_Release.pdf.

Atlantic Red Drum Stock Not Overfished

February 9, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The 2017 Red Drum Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report indicate overfishing is not occurring for red drum in either the northern (North Carolina-New Jersey) or southern (South Carolina-Florida) stocks. The assessment was unable to determine an overfished/not overfished status because population abundance could not be reliably estimated due to limited data for the older fish (ages 4+) that are not typically harvested due to the current fishery measures (slot-limits). The Board accepted the stock assessment and peer review report for management use. No management action was taken at this time since overfishing is not occurring.

The assessment estimates annual static spawning potential ratios (sSPR) measured against previously established reference points for red drum. Overfishing is occurring if the three-year average sSPR is less than a threshold of 30%, with a management target of 40% sSPR. sSPR is a measure of spawning stock biomass survival rates when fished at the current years fishing mortality rate relative to the spawning stock biomass survival rates if no fishing mortality was occurring. In 2013 (the last year for which data were available), the three-year (2011-2013) average sSPR was 43.8% for the northern stock and 53.5% for the southern stock, both above the target and threshold values.

Recruitment (age-1) has fluctuated around averages of 476,579 and 1.57 million fish in the northern and southern stocks, respectively. In more recent years, the largest recruitment occurred in 2012 for the northern stock and 2010 for the southern stock.

Commercial harvests occur only from the northern stock with landings showing considerable fluctuation throughout the catch time series, and peaking in 1999 and 2013. Most of the commercial landings are caught using gill nets and beach seines, with North Carolina typically contributing over 90% of annual commercial landings.

The recreational fishery contributes the majority of total harvest for both stocks, in part because states in the southern portion of the fishery reserve red drum harvest strictly for recreational anglers. Recreational harvest of the northern stock has fluctuated throughout the time series from 1989-2013, with a large increase in harvest in 2013. North Carolina is responsible for the majority of harvest. Discards from the northern stock have also fluctuated throughout the time series, though not always in conjunction with recreational harvest. Based on previous studies, an 8% mortality rate is assumed for recreational discards in both stocks. Recreational harvest of the southern stock has shown a general increase throughout the time series with the majority of harvest occurring in Florida. Discards from the southern stock generally increased throughout the time series, following similar fluctuations as recreational harvest.

A more detailed description of the stock assessment results is being developed and will available on the Commission’s website,www.asmfc.org, on the Red Drum page. The final assessment and peer review report is available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/589a2059RedDrumStockAssessment_PeerReviewReport_2017.pdf.

For more information on the stock assessment, please contact Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org; for more information on red drum management, please contact Michael Schmidtke, FMP Coordinator, at mschmidtke@asmfc.org.

Red Drum Stock Assessment Indicates Overfishing Not Occurring

February 7, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission:

The 2017 Red Drum Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report indicate overfishing is not occurring for red drum in either the northern (North Carolina-New Jersey) or southern (South Carolina-Florida) stocks. The assessment was unable to determine an overfished/not overfished status because population abundance could not be reliably estimated due to limited data for the older fish (ages 4+) that are not typically harvested due to the current fishery measures (slot-limits).  The Board accepted the stock assessment and peer review report for management use. No management action was taken at this time since overfishing is not occurring. 

The assessment estimates annual static spawning potential ratios (sSPR) measured against previously established reference points for red drum. Overfishing is occurring if the three-year average sSPR is less than a threshold of 30%, with a management target of 40% sSPR. sSPR is a measure of spawning stock biomass survival rates when fished at the current years fishing mortality rate relative to the spawning stock biomass survival rates if no fishing mortality was occurring. In 2013 (the last year for which data were available), the three-year (2011-2013) average sSPR was 43.8% for the northern stock and 53.5% for the southern stock, both above the target and threshold values.

Recruitment (age-1) has fluctuated around averages of 476,579 and 1.57 million fish in the northern and southern stocks, respectively. In more recent years, the largest recruitment occurred in 2012 for the northern stock and 2010 for the southern stock. 

Commercial harvests occur only from the northern stock with landings showing considerable fluctuation throughout the catch time series, and peaking in 1999 and 2013. Most of the commercial landings are caught using gill nets and beach seines, with North Carolina typically contributing over 90% of annual commercial landings.

The recreational fishery contributes the majority of total harvest for both stocks, in part because states in the southern portion of the fishery reserve red drum harvest strictly for recreational anglers. Recreational harvest of the northern stock has fluctuated throughout the time series from 1989-2013, with a large increase in harvest in 2013. North Carolina is responsible for the majority of harvest. Discards from the northern stock have also fluctuated throughout the time series, though not always in conjunction with recreational harvest. Based on previous studies, an 8% mortality rate is assumed for recreational discards in both stocks. Recreational harvest of the southern stock has shown a general increase throughout the time series with the majority of harvest occurring in Florida. Discards from the southern stock generally increased throughout the time series, following similar fluctuations as recreational harvest.

A more detailed description of the stock assessment results is being developed and will available on the Commission’s website,www.asmfc.org, on the Red Drum page. The final assessment and peer review report is available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/589a2059RedDrumStockAssessment_PeerReviewReport_2017.pdf.

For more information on the stock assessment, please contact Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org; for more information on red drum management, please contact Michael Schmidtke, FMP Coordinator, at mschmidtke@asmfc.org.

Puzzling out the red drum: Fish population surveys contradict each other

May 16, 2016 — The sought-after red drum might be severely overfished since 2010 in the Southeast but not the mid-Atlantic, according to the latest survey. Or the reverse might be true.

The problem is in the metrics: Just how do you count all the fish in the sea? That’s what a federal commission in charge of regulating the catch told its staff recently while not approving — yet — an assessment that would suggest the Southeast stock is in trouble again. Improve the metrics.

At stake is whether or how to tighten management, and potentially catch restrictions, on one of the most popular game fish in the Lowcountry.

The bottom line is that some sort of tighter management is expected to be mandated of that stock, said Robert Boyles, S.C. Department of Natural Resources deputy marine resources director and a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the federal group in charge of maintaining the fishery.

“The results basically suggest there are reasons to be concerned. The questions are how concerned should we be and what do we do about it,” he said.

Read the full story at The Post and Courier