Saving Seafood

Sen. Whitehouse Mentions RI Fishermen During Pruitt Hearings

January 19, 2017 — WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse quizzed President-elect Trump’s nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency about his support for Rhode Island fishermen.

During Senate hearins today, Whitehouse asked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt if “he would support the fishing and aquaculture industries in the face of climate change, and whether he would protect Rhode Islanders from out-of-state polluters.”

“As we discussed when you and I met, the oceans off our Ocean State are warming due to fossil fuel-driven climate change,” said Whitehouse. “It is crashing our fisheries, like lobster and winter flounder, and making earning a living harder for our fishermen. I see nothing in your career to give those fishermen any confidence that you will care one bit for their well-being, and not just the well-being of the fossil fuel industry.”

Read the full story at Patch Narragansett

New rules for New England shrimp fishing might go to public

January 17, 2017 — The public might soon have a chance to comment on potential new fishing rules that could help bring New England’s shrimp back into markets.

Northern shrimp were once a popular seafood, but the commercial fishing industry for them has been shut down since the stock collapsed in 2013.

Interstate regulators are working on new rules about how to manage the fishery if it does eventually reopen.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says options include state-by-state allocations and the mandatory use of certain kinds of gear to prevent harvest of young shrimp.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

RHODE ISLAND: Forum focuses on future of fishing industry

January 16, 2017 — More than 50 fishermen, educators and other community members attended the fifth workshop of Resilient Fisheries RI, dubbed “Fostering a New Generation of RI Fishermen,” at the Contemporary Theatre Company in Wakefield Monday.

Sarah Schumann, project coordinator for Resilient Fisheries RI, told the attendees that while the project began last year with a focus on environmental change and uncertainty, it grew to encompass other areas.

“Usually when people think about environmental change, they think about what the fish are doing … but it’s just as much about people, the fishermen,” she said.

Through roughly 50 interviews conducted in 2016, Schumann said she noticed a trend – the lack of young people in the fishing industry. She demonstrated this through a crowd participation exercise, which showed approximately half of the fishermen on hand were over 50, while only eight were under 40 and four were under 30.

In comments from fishermen, many spoke of the high cost of obtaining licenses and tough regulations, as well as generational gaps. One young lobsterman said the startup costs are often prohibitive for those beginning in the industry. Joe Raposa, a third-generation fisherman, instead asserted “a lot of the younger generation doesn’t know how to work or want to work.”

Josh Bird, who had worked in the corporate world for some time and came back to the fishing industry, spoke of the impact of technology on younger generations. He also said many students are not exposed to fishing and other similar career paths.

“I’ve got a 14-year-old son and it’s hard to have him outside, never mind being out on the water, he’s kind of glued to technology,” he said. “Schools, they don’t really encourage you to do that track. Even when I was in high school in the ’90s, the track was kind of like ‘Oh, well we don’t have any shop classes, we don’t have anything like that.’ It’s almost like a fear mongering thing, where if you don’t jump on board with that stuff now you’re going to get left behind.”

Another issue highlighted was Rhode Island’s licensing rules. John Kourtesis told the crowd he would be training his son to fish.

“If he wanted to buy a boat, he could go to Massachusetts, jump on it, and be the owner and the captain and start his own business,” Kourtesis said. “But in Rhode Island, you can go buy a boat and bring it back to Newport or Point Judith, and you can’t land anything because they license the person in this state, not the boat.

Read the full story at The Independent 

RHODE ISLAND: Workshop series prepares Rhode Island’s fishing industry to thrive in an era of uncertainty

January 5, 2016 — The following was released by the Resilient Fisheries RI project:

The Resilient Fisheries RI project is an effort to jump-start a learning and advocacy process among Rhode Island’s commercial fisheries to deal with adapting to environmental change and other uncertainties. The project will host four workshops in January for fishermen and shore-side seafood industry participants:

Fostering a new generation of RI fishermen

Mon, January 9, 2017

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST

The Contemporary Theater Company

327 Main Street, South Kingstown, RI 02879

A key ingredient in fishing industry resilience is the industry’s ability to replenish itself over time. But the average age of Rhode Island fishermen is going up, and access to licensing, training, and financing is more limited for today’s young fishermen than it was a generation ago. At this workshop, we’ll hear from several young fishermen in RI who have embraced fishing as a career: their personal experiences, barriers they’ve observed, and hopes and dreams for the future of the industry. Then we’ll listen to a panel of advocates from RI fisheries as well as other states and industries who are working to reduce barriers to young people: Dave Ghiglioti/Jeff Grant (RI Shellfishermen’s Association), Hannah Heimbuch (Alaska’s Next Generation of Fishermen project), and Tess Brown Lavoie (Young Farmer Network of Southeast New England and Land for Good). We’ll wrap up with a discussion of potential pathways for increasing participation and access for young people in commercial fisheries. Snacks will be served and a cash bar is available. Audience: fishermen, prospective fishermen, educators, policy makers, food system advocates. A complete agenda for the workshop can be found here.

Focus on Seaweed

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST

Rhode Island Natural History Survey

Bldg.14, URI East Farm, Rte. 108, South Kingstown

RI’s commercial fishermen have been noticing changes in the make-up and abundance of our local seaweed communities, with implications for fishing and fish stocks. These include periodic outbreaks of nuisance seaweed like Heterosiphonia japonica that clog fishing nets and decreases in estuarine populations of brown seaweeds like rockweed and kelp. At this workshop, fishermen will have a chance to exchange observations with seaweed reseracher Lindsay Green from the URI Department of Biology. We’ll talk about what research is available to shed light on these changes, and what sorts of monitoring could be done in the future to understand them better. Snacks will be served. Audience: commercial fishermen and shore-side businesses.

Measuring Fishing Industry Vulnerability and Resilience

Monday, January 23, 2017

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST

Bristol Maritime Center

127 Thames St. Bristol

The response of fishing communities to environmental change is conditioned on many social and economic factors. In this workshop, NOAA social scientist Lisa Colburn will present the results of a recent study to gauge the socio-economic vulnerability to climate change of Rhode Island and other East Coast fishing ports. Snacks will be served. Audience: commercial fishermen and shore-side businesses.

Focus on squid

Monday, January 30, 2017

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST

Above Superior Trawl

55 State St. Narragansett

Squid is one of Rhode Island’s most important fisheries. This workshop will be led by Owen Nichols from the Center for Coastal Studies, based in Provincetown. Owen’s research along with Chatham weir fishermen focuses on the responses of squid to temperature, oxygen, wind, and other factors. At this workshop, Owen will reveal what he and the fishermen are finding, and how it relates to the science and management of squid in a changing climate. Snacks will be served. Audience: commercial fishermen and shore-side businesses.

More information about the project can be obtained by e-mailing Sarah Schumann (project coordinator) at schumannsarah@gmail.com or at www.resilientfisheriesRI.org

Selling shark fins now banned in Rhode Island

January 3, 2017 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Selling shark fins is now banned in Rhode Island as it is in Massachusetts.

A law took effect Sunday that makes it a crime to own or sell a shark fin unless it’s used for scientific research or in preparing a shark for ordinary consumption.

Rhode Island became the 11th state to ban shark fin sales when Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo signed legislation into law in June. Hawaii was the first in 2010. Massachusetts banned the sales in 2014.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted in August to approve a new rule that allows fishermen to bring smooth dogfish, a type of shark, to land with fins removed, as long as their total retained catch is at least 25 percent smooth dogfish.

The rule change better incorporates the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 into management of the dogfish, staff with the fisheries commission said. Dogfish are harvested from Rhode Island to North Carolina, and are among the many shark species that fishermen bring to land in states from Maine to Texas.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

RHODE ISLAND: Fishing community shares thoughts on menhaden

December 30, 2016 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which manages many of the saltwater species we fish in Rhode Island that travel the east coast, held an Atlantic menhaden public hearing Monday at the URI Bay Campus.

The hearing addressed a Public Information Document (PID) that aims to incorporate ecosystem-based management strategies to manage Atlantic menhaden. The PID serves as a predecessor to an amendment (Amendment 3) to the Atlantic menhaden Fishery Management Plan scheduled to be developed next year. About 30 recreational and commercial fishermen, fish processors, environmental groups (like Save the Bay) and fish managers attended the hearing. Two main issues were discussed at the hearing. The first issue was the use of ecosystem-based management strategies to determine stock status and allowable catch limits. The second issue addressed landing timeframes, which would be used to determine allocation of quota.

Recreational anglers up and down the east coast have claimed that fishing for striped bass and other game fish is off when the quantity of Atlantic menhaden (a forage fish for striped bass) is down. Additionally, Atlantic menhaden are filter feeders, with each fish processing thousands of gallons of water filtering out plankton to help prevent algae blooms. The Atlantic menhaden Fishery Management Plan will be the first ASMFC plan that utilizes ecosystem-based management in this fashion.

Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze, Ltd., North Kingstown (the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen fish on the East Coast) and a member of the ASMFC Atlantic menhaden Advisory Panel, said “Historically, Rhode Island has landed a lot more fish than the allocation reflects.” George Allen, representing the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (a recreational fishing association that represents 30 different fishing organizations with 7,500 members), said, “Currently, one state (Virginia) takes 85 percent of the catch because of the Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery. This is inequitable for the rest of the coastal states.”

Most in attendance were in agreement that the Atlantic menhaden allocation in the northeast states, and specifically Rhode Island, should be enhanced to more accurately reflect historical catch over a longer period of time, including the time period when landings were high due to active processing plants in the northern states. So, instead of using average landings between 2009 and 2011, many at the meeting were advocating for a longer time-series average, extending to include years prior to 2009 such as 1985, when more accurate bait fishery landings data became available.

Read the full story at the Cranston Herald

Fish Seek Cooler Waters, Leaving Some Fishermen’s Nets Empty

POINT JUDITH, R.I. — There was a time when whiting were plentiful in the waters of Rhode Island Sound, and Christopher Brown pulled the fish into his long stern trawler by the bucketful.

“We used to come right here and catch two, three, four thousand pounds a day, sometimes 10,” he said, sitting at the wheel of the Proud Mary — a 44-footer named, he said, after his wife, not the Creedence Clearwater Revival song — as it cruised out to sea.

But like many other fish on the Atlantic Coast, whiting have moved north, seeking cooler waters as ocean temperatures have risen, and they are now filling the nets of fishermen farther up the coast.

Studies have found that two-thirds of marine species in the Northeast United States have shifted or extended their range as a result of ocean warming, migrating northward or outward into deeper and cooler water.

Lobster, once a staple in southern New England, have decamped to Maine. Black sea bass, scup, yellowtail flounder, mackerel, herring and monkfish, to name just a few species, have all moved to accommodate changing temperatures.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Mercury Levels in Gulf of Maine Tuna on the Decline

December 29, 2016 — There’s some good news for sushi lovers. A new report finds that over an 8-year period, mercury levels in Gulf of Maine tuna declined 2 percent a year — a decline that parallels reductions in mercury pollution from Midwest coal-fired power plants.

Two years ago, Dr. Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at Stony Brook University in New York, had a bit of luck — he found out that a colleague had established a collection of 1,300 western Atlantic bluefin taken from the Gulf of Maine between 2004 and 2012.

“They were frozen, wasn’t the entire fish, just about a pound from each fish or so. And then my colleagues and I in New York dissected out muscle tissue from each sample and analyzed it to determine the mercury content of each fish,” he says.

And as they created a timeline for mercury content for each year, taking into account the age and size of each fish sampled, a clear picture emerged.

“There was a fairly steady decline for all ages of fish, and the decline rate was approximately 2 percent per year, which doesn’t sound all that dramatic, but over 10 years it’s about 20 percent. Over two decades its about 40 percent,” Fisher says.

Most mercury pollution in this region originates from coal-fired plants in the Midwest, drifting east on the prevailing winds to drop on the coast and coastal waters. In response to regulatory and industry efforts, and to market forces, those emissions happen to have been declining by about 2 percent a year.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio 

REVISED: States Seek Input on 2017 Recreational Summer Flounder Fishery Management

December 27, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board announces the availability of Draft Addendum XXVIII for public comment. The document, which was approved by the Board in early December, presents a suite of management approaches, including regional options, to achieve the 2017 recreational harvest limit (RHL). The Atlantic coastal states of Massachusetts through North Carolina have scheduled public hearings to gather public comment.  The details of those scheduled hearings follow:

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

January 11, 2017 at 6 PM

Bourne Community Center, Room # 1

239 Main Street

Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts

Contact: Nichola Meserve at 617.626.1531

Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife

January 12, 2017; 6:00 PM
University of Rhode Island Bay Campus

Corliss Auditorium South Ferry Road

Narragansett, Rhode Island
Contact: Robert Ballou at 401.222.4700 ext. 4420

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

January 10, 2017 at 7 PM

CT DEEP Boating Education Center

333 Ferry Road

Old Lyme, Connecticut

Contact: David Simpson at 860.434.6043

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

January 9, 2017 at 6:30 PM

Bureau of Marine Resources

205 North Belle Mead Road, Suite 1

East Setauket, New York

Contact: Steve Heins at 631.444.0435

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

January 5, 2017 at 6:30 PM

Galloway Township Branch Library

306 East Jimmie Leeds Rd

Galloway, New Jersey

Contact: Tom Baum at 609.748.2020

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

January 17, 2017 at 6 PM

DNREC Auditorium

89 Kings Highway

Dover, Delaware

Contact: John Clark at 302.739.9914

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

January 3, 2017 at 6 PM

Ocean Pines Library

11107 Cathell Road

Berlin, Maryland

Contact: Steve Doctor at 410.213.1531

Virginia Marine Resources Commission

January 12, 2017 at 6 PM
2600 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor

Newport News, Virginia
Contact:  Robert O’Reilly at 757.247.2247

North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

January, 9, 2017 at 6 PM
NC Marine Fisheries, Central District Office

5285 US Highway 70 West

Morehead City, North Carolina
Contact: Chris Batsavage at 252 808-8009

 

Draft Addendum XXVIII was initiated to consider alternative management approaches for the 2017 recreational summer flounder fisheries, while also seeking to address needed reductions due to a decrease in the coastwide RHL in 2017. In August, the Board and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a 30% reduction in the 2017 coastwide RHL relative to 2016. This action was taken in response to the 2016 Stock Assessment Update which found fishing mortality was higher in recent years and population estimates were lower than previously projected.

Changes in summer flounder distribution, abundance and availability have created problems under the static state-by-state allocations, with overages often occurring. In response, states would implement regulations to reduce harvest, resulting in differing regulations between neighboring states. In 2014, the Board shifted away from traditional state-by-state allocations to a regional approach for managing summer flounder recreational fisheries.  A benefit of the regional approach is it provides the states the flexibility to share allocations. The intent is to set regulations that account for shifting distribution, abundance and availability while providing stability and greater regulatory consistency among neighboring states, and enabling the states to meet but not exceed the coastwide RHL.

Anglers and interested stakeholders are encouraged to provide input on Draft Addendum XXVIII either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum can be obtained here or via the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5 PM (EST) on January 19, 2017 and should be forwarded to Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org (Subject line: Summer Flounder Draft Addendum XXVIII).

The Board will review submitted public comment and consider final action on the Draft Addendum at the Commission’s Winter Meeting in February 2017.  For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

See the full Draft Addendum at the ASMFC 

Rhode Island quota for menhaden the focus of debate

December 27, 2016 — About 30 recreational and commercial fishermen, fish processors, environmental groups (like Save the Bay) and fish managers attended Monday’s public hearing on Atlantic menhaden at the URI Bay Campus held by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The two main issues at the hearing were the use of ecosystem-based management strategies to determine stock status and allowable catch limits, and landing time frames, which would be used to determine allocation of quota.

The Atlantic menhaden plan will be the first ASMFC plan that utilizes ecosystem-based management in this fashion.

Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze, Ltd., North Kingstown (the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen fish on the East Coast) and a member of the ASMFC Atlantic menhaden Advisory Panel, said “Historically, Rhode Island has landed a lot more fish than the allocation reflects.” George Allen, representing the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (a recreational fishing association with 7,500 members), said, “Currently one state (Virginia) takes 85 percent of the catch because of the Atlantic menhaden reduction fishery. This is inequitable for the rest of the coastal states.”

Most in attendance agreed that the Atlantic menhaden allocation in the Northeast states, and specifically Rhode Island, should be enhanced to more accurately reflect historical catch over a longer period of time including the time period when landings were high due to active processing plants in the northern states. So instead of using average landings between 2009 and 2011, many at the meeting were advocating for a longer time-series average extending to include years prior to 2009 such as 1985 when more accurate bait fishery landings data became available.

However, there was much disagreement in the room when it came to determining ecological reference points in estimating how many fish would be allowed to be taken out of the water. A representative from Save the Bay said, “Atlantic menhaden have great ecological value for Narragansett Bay and we advocate for existing guidelines for forage fish species until menhaden-specific ecological reference points (ERPs) are developed by the ASMFC’s Biological and Ecological Reference Point (BERP) workgroup.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal