Saving Seafood

Hardy eels are holding on in Rhode Island

April 25, 2016 — The American eel has been a valuable resource in Rhode Island for hundreds of years.

Narragansett tribal historian Lorén Spears tells a story about how her father-in-law and tribal elder, Robin Spears, used to fish for eels on the salt marshes.

“What they used to do to get the eels is they would walk through the eel grass at night, and the eels would actually stand up like fence posts and then you harvest the eels,” she said. “Then, you would roll them in Jonnycake meal when you were cooking them. The eels are unique, because they cross the land, which is why you could get them in the eel grass.”

The Narragansetts also used eel skins. “You could tan the skin and use as you would use a snakeskin, where it could be part of clothing or adornment,” she said.

Today in Rhode Island, eels are still eaten, but they are most often used as bait in the recreational fishery. Catch limits are 25 eels for individuals and 50 eels for large recreational fishing boats. The eels must be over 9 inches long.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

RHODE ISLAND: Fishermen-heavy crowd shows frustration with catch rules, monitoring costs at RI forum

April 14, 2016 — PROVIDENCE, RI — A forum on the sustainability of the commercial fishing industry revealed significant frustration in a fisherman-heavy crowd and a few suggestions for future changes, but little tangible optimism, Thursday night at Rhode Island College.

“Right now, there are more fish in the Atlantic Ocean than there was 20 or 30 years ago — we are just not allowed to catch them anymore,” said fisherman Mark Phillips, a New York native who has fished out of New Bedford for several decades.

Phillips and New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel, who sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in December over catch monitoring costs, were the two fishermen on the forum’s six-person panel.

They drew, by far, the most applause from the crowd throughout the event, as both reiterated industry-wide complaints about a regulatory environment that fishermen say is choking their viability.

The forum was titled, “Is Commercial Fishing Sustainable?” But Phillips said the real question, in his view, is whether fishermen and fishing communities are sustainable.

See the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Research Vessel Now Homeported in Newport

April 13, 2016 — NEWPORT, RI — Today marks the first day that the 209-foot research vessel Henry B. Bigelow is officially homeported here in Newport, marking a “victory for the Ocean State,” according to U.S. Sen. Jack Reed.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association fisheries research vessel has a primary objective of studying and monitoring Northeast Marine Fisheries throughout New England and has nets that trawl as deep as 6,000 feet.

The Bigelow collects data used for stock assessments that ultimately influences catch limits and fishing quotas as well as help scientists understand changes to the fishery.

Reed said that he has been lobbying for years for the ship to be homeported here in Rhode Island to save taxpayers money.

NOAA officials said that change is based on a study that included another vessel, the Okeanos Explorer, a deep sea exploration ship homeported at Quonset Point at the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown.

See the full story at the Newport Patch

Dedicated Man Helps Endangered Herring Complete Spawning Run

April 12, 2016 — When Bill McWha moved to Wakefield, RI, he expected to deliver packages for UPS. Instead, he found himself transporting tens of thousands of river herring en route to their spawning grounds on the Saugatucket River. According to National Geographic, McWha first visited the river in 2010 and saw thousands of river herring unable to pass the Main Street Dam. So, armed with only a net, he perched himself on a 14-foot board and scooped 10 to 15 fish at a time, then placed them back into the river above the dam.

Though many simply shook their heads, some curious passersby stopped to help. McWha and a dozen volunteers helped about 20,000 fish over the dam during the next three weeks. Since then, helping the herring on their spawning run has become an annual event in Wakefield. Every March and April, growing numbers of volunteers join McWha as he mounts a wooden platform and nets the fish.

McWha says that he felt terrible about the herring’s plight and knew that he had to help. To him, it was “a waste that these herring weren’t going to be able to spawn.”  McWha told National Geographic that he “felt an emotional connection to them, and just had to get them over the dam.”

McWha’s efforts expanded upstream in 2013, when volunteers used buckets to move fish beyond a second dam. In 2014, 75 volunteers, armed with only nets, helped an astonishing 72,000 fish navigate the Main Street Dam. Over the past year or so, however, efforts have slowed down as officials work on existing fish ladders, improving the run. McWha and his band of volunteers will be standing by to count fish and, if necessary, break out the nets and help fish over the dam.

See the full story at Field & Stream

Regulations call for fewer, bigger black bass on hook

April 12, 2016 — While the Massachusetts regulations for recreational fluke and scup remain unchanged for the upcoming 2016 fishing season, recreational anglers will have to adhere to smaller bag limits and minimum possession guidelines for black sea bass.

Massachusetts, which is part of a multi-state management plan for black sea bass administered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, must join Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey in the northern region in reducing its black sea bass harvest by 23 percent to adhere to the new management plan restrictions.

In Massachusetts, the 2016 black sea bass season will run May 21 to Aug. 31 and recreational fishermen will be limited to keeping five fish per day, with the minimum catch size set at 15 inches.

Those parameters are different from 2015, when the season ran May 23 to Aug. 27 and anglers were allowed to keep eight black sea bass per day as long as they met or exceeded the minimum possession size of 14 inches.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Sale of sea scallops to fund research on loggerhead turtles

April 12, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Organizations in five states will receive more than $15 million for marine science research projects funded by the sale of sea scallops.

One of the projects seeks to understand the impacts of sea scallop fishing on loggerhead sea turtles through the use of satellite tagging. Coonamessett Farm Foundation Inc. of Falmouth, Massachusetts, is the lead investigating organization on that effort.

Recipients of the grants are located in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia. They range from universities and educational organizations to commercial fishing businesses.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Virginian-Pilot

RHODE ISLAND: Challenges facing commercial fishing industry topic of forum at RIC

April 11, 2016 — Is commercial fishing sustainable?

A panel of government regulators, scientists, environmental advocates and fishermen will try to answer that and other questions about the future of one of New England’s most iconic and important industries at a forum this Thursday.

The event, which is free and open to the public, runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sapinsley Hall in the Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts at Rhode Island College. It is being presented by The Providence Journal, Rhode Island College, Leadership Rhode Island and Mystic Aquarium.

The forum comes at a time when the fishing industry is confronted with a host of challenges.

See the full story at The Providence Journal 

2016-2017 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Recommended Awards Announced

April 7, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the New England Fishery Management Council are pleased to announce that 15 research projects have been selected for support from the 2016 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) program. The projects address the council’s research priorities for the nation’s highest-valued single species commercial fishery.

Twenty-five researchers from nine different organizations will be awarded 2016-2017 research grants valued at $15.6 million. These projects are funded by proceeds from selling a portion of the annual sea scallop quota “set aside” for this purpose. Award recipients are located in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia and include universities, non-profit research and education organizations, and commercial fishing vessels and businesses.

Research set-aside programs are unique to federal fisheries in the northeast region. Under RSA programs, no federal funds are provided to support the research. Selected projects receive allocations “set-aside” within established quotas for this purpose under the particular fishery management plan. Successful applicants partner with the fishing industry to harvest their set aside award to generate funds for the research. There are active research set-aside programs for Atlantic sea scallops, Atlantic herring, and monkfish.

The New England Fishery Management Council established the sea scallop RSA program to address research that will support management of the scallop resource. The Council sets the research priorities and researchers compete for funding through a federal grant competition managed by NOAA Fisheries. All of the funds derived from quota sales are used to support research and compensate industry partners. NOAA Fisheries does not retain or use any of these funds.

This year, more than 30 proposals were received for consideration. Six of these are two-year projects. Proposals were evaluated and ranked for technical merit and responsiveness to Council research priorities.

Ten projects will address the Council’s highest research priorities, including intensive and broad-scale resource surveys, bycatch reduction, scallop meat quality, and scallop area management. Five projects focus on other Council priorities, such as sea scallop biology and productivity, habitat impact research, and reducing the risk of sea turtle interactions with the scallop fishery.

Proposals underwent a two-stage review – one for technical merit and one for responsiveness to management priorities.

Proposals for sea scallop surveys were evaluated and ranked by a technical panel that looked at merit as well as how the work met recommendations from a recent peer review of all sea scallop survey methods used in the region. All other proposals were each evaluated for technical merit by three subject matter experts. Each technical reviewer submitted scores and comments on each proposal. A management panel made recommendations on priority projects, based on current management priorities.
The technical review scores, in conjunction with recommendations from the management panelists, are the basis for RSA survey funding decisions.

Sea Scallop Resource Surveys Recommended for Funding

These surveys, combined with the annual NOAA Fisheries sea scallop survey, will provide a comprehensive picture of the scallop resource by the end of this summer. The data collected are expected to support the Council’s area management decisions for 2017 and beyond.

Arnie’s Fisheries Inc. will conduct an optical survey of the Elephant Trunk Access Area using the HabCam V3 instrument system, looking at scallop numbers, sizes, and density in order to generate harvestable biomass estimates.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) will conduct a fine-scale dredge survey of the Mid-Atlantic sea scallop resource from the Virginia/North Carolina border to Block Island, Rhode Island. VIMS will also conduct high-resolution abundance and distribution surveys in and around the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area, and in Georges Bank Closed Area II and the surrounding area to the south, where secondary objectives include finfish bycatch species composition and catch rates; scallop product quality and disease research; and commercial and survey scallop dredge performance.

The Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, as part of their habitat research on the northern part of Georges Bank, will conduct a high resolution HabCam survey to support near-term scallop area management decisions of this area that is undergoing considerable management changes. Lund’s Fisheries are co-principal investigators.

As requested by the New England Fishery Management Council, the survey technical review panel not only considered technical merit, but also the results of a recent peer review when evaluating proposals for sea scallop surveys. That review, conducted in 2015 by the Center for Independent Experts, examined all of the primary survey methods for assessing sea scallop abundance in the region, several of which are supported through the scallop RSA program. The technical panel ensured that proposals were responsive to the peer review findings.

Bycatch Mitigation Projects

For the fifth year, UMASS Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology will use their award to support a yellowtail flounder bycatch avoidance system.To address low allocations of yellowtail flounder in the scallop fishery, these researchers will work with the limited-access and general category scallop fleets to deploy the bycatch avoidance system in fishing grounds on Georges Bank and in southern New England.

Reducing bycatch through scallop dredge gear modifications is the focus of two projects proposed by the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. The Foundation plans to design and test gear designed to reduce flatfish bycatch through modification to the dredge bag, and the use of a modified flounder sweep attached to the dredge bail, filming interactions to monitor the effectiveness of the gear modifications.

The Coonamessett Farm Foundation will also continue its seasonal bycatch survey on Georges Bank, collecting information on yellowtail flounder bycatch rates and other bycatch species relative to scallop meat yield. Data will also be used to evaluate sea scallop health and meat quality, provide maturity data for several flounder species, estimate the prevalence of a potentially significant parasite in yellowtail flounder, and examine lobsters for shell disease while also collecting biological data.

For the eighth Coonamessett Farm will tag up to 30 loggerhead sea turtles with water activated tags. They will also observe sea turtle behavior using a remotely operated vehicle, take biological samples, and collect length and weight measurements. This work provides information on sea turtle distribution and behavior in the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England, where there is overlap between sea scallop fishing activity and turtle distribution. Co-principle investigators include Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, and Roger Williams University.

Sea Scallop Biology, Meat Quality, and Productivity Projects

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will study sea scallop age structure and growth rates over time. Under a separate grant, VIMS will develop a framework for mark-recapture studies to estimate natural mortality, growth and movement of scallops and the effects of scallop density on those factors.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth campus investigating scallop meat quality will focus on how the infection that causes “gray meat” in sea scallops is transmitted.

Researchers at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, with colleagues at Rutgers University, will study how a nematode parasite affects scallop meat quality and provide insight into how industry and management can assess and predict impacts to the scallop stock and meat quality.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will demonstrate the feasibility of a seeding program to enhance and stabilize scallop recruitment while documenting the factors that affect seed survival.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will investigate the impact of scallop fishing in habitat management areas using the REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle.

For more information about these recommended awards and the Scallop RSA Program, please contact Ryan Silva (ryan.silva@noaa.gov, 978-281-9326), or Cheryl Corbett (cheryl.corbett@noaa.gov, 508-495-2070).

To learn more about work funded through the Sea Scallop RSA program, or through the NEFSC Northeast Cooperative Research Program, use our searchable project list.

2016-2017 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Projects 1

Project Organization Principal Investigators * Set-Aside Award
based on $12 per pound
R=research
C=compensation fishing
T=total budget
Optimizing the Georges Bank Scallop Fishery by Maximizing Meat Yield and Minimizing Bycatch Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Carl Huntsberger, Jasper Leavitt, Rachel Simpson, Liese Siemann (CFF)
David Rudders (VIMS)
Heidi Henninger (AOLA)
Roxanna Smolowitz (RWU)		 R-$498,573
C-$1,495,719
T-$1,994,292
166,191 lb of scallops
Development of Ecosystem Friendly Scallop Dredge Bags: Tools for Long-Term Sustainability Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Farrell Davis
Christopher Parkins
Melissa Campbell		 R-$394,050
C-$1,182,150
T-$1,576,200146,350 lb of scallops
A Modified Flounder Sweep for Flatfish Bycatch Reduction in the LAGC Scallop Fishery Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Christopher Parkins
Farrell Davis		 R-$92,380
C-$277,140
T-$369,52030,793 lb of scallops
Understanding Impacts of the Sea Scallop Fishery on Loggerhead Sea Turtles Through Satellite Tagging Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Samir Patel
Shea Miller		 R-$223,014.50
C-$669,044
T-$892,058.5074,338 lb of scallops
Drivers of Dispersal and Retention in Recently Seeded Sea Scallops Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Shea Miller
Liese Siemann
Jasper Leavitt		 R-$270,032
C-$810,096
T-$1,080,12890,011 lb of scallops
Optical Survey of the Scallop Resource in the Elephant Trunk Scallop Access Area – Year 2 Arnie’s Fisheries, Inc. Richard Taylor R-$146,635
C-$439,905
T-$586,54048,878 lb of scallops
Transmission of Apicomplexan Infection and Development of Gray Meat in Atlantic Sea Scallops Placopecten magellanicus (2 Years) University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Jennifer Koop
Susan Inglis		 R-$179,140
C-$460,646
T-$639,78653,315 lb of scallops
Scallop Fishery Bycatch Avoidance System 2016 University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Steve Cadrin R-$87,500
C-$225,000
T-$312,50026,041 lb of scallops
A Cooperative High Precision Dredge Survey to Assess the Mid-Atlantic Sea Scallop Resource Area (2 Years) Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders
Sally Roman
Robert Fisher		 R-$395,870
C-$1,583,478
T-$1,979,346164,946 lb of scallops
An Assessment of Sea Scallop Abundance and Distribution in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area and Surrounds (2 Years) Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders
Sally Roman		 R-$178,389
C-$713,556
T-$891,94574,329 lb of scallops
An Investigation into the Scallop Parasite Outbreak on the Mid-Atlantic Shelf: Transmission Pathways, Spatio-Temporal Variation of Infection, and Consequences to Marketability (2 Years) Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders (VIMS)
David Bushek
Daphne Munroe, Robert Fisher, Eleanor Bochenek (Rutgers University)		 R-$231,628
C-$713,794
T-$945,42278,785 lb of scallops
An Assessment of Sea Scallop Abundance and Distribution in Georges Bank Closed Area II and Surrounds Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders R-$89,643
C-$358,572
T-$448,21537,351 lb of scallops
Scallop Mark-Recapture to Estimate Density Dependent Natural Mortality and Growth Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders
John Hoenig		 R-$148,571
C-$445,713
T-$ 594,28449,524 lbs. of scallops
Age Structure and Growth Rate in the Sea Scallop Placopecten magellanicus (2 Years)  Virginia Institute of Marine Science Roger Mann
David Rudders		 R-$202,512
C-$411,161
T-$613,67351,139 lb of scallops
Impact of Disturbance on Habitat Recovery in Habitat Management Areas on George’s Bank (2 Years) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Scott Gallager
Mike Purcell (WHOI)
Wayne Reichle
Jeff Kaelin (Lund’s Fisheries)		 R-$666,486
C-$1,999,458
T-$2,665,944222,162 lb of scallops

Total $ 15,589,853
1 CFF – Coonamessett Farm Foundation
VIMS – Virginia Institute of Marine Science
AOLA – Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association
RWU – Roger Williams University
WHOI – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

 

Counting fish from the air

March 31, 2016 — This week, I was reminded of the outstanding Atlantic menhaden management program we have in Narragansett Bay. Monday night, George Purmont, a spotter pilot commissioned by the Marine Fisheries Division of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), spoke about his work of counting schools of Atlantic menhaden (pogies) from the air in Narragansett Bay.

At a R.I. Saltwater Anglers Association meeting, Purmont said, “When the amount of Atlantic menhaden in the Bay goes above the threshold, the Bay is open to commercial harvesting. When it falls below the threshold, the Bay is closed to Atlantic menhaden fishing.”

The program is one of the most sophisticated and effective programs of its type in the nation. Purmont said, “Flights once or twice a week give fish managers at DEM good information to manage the fishery.” The program works well for recreational fishermen to protect this forage fish, as well as for the commercial fishery, allowing the Bay to be fished when there is an abundance of fish in the Bay.

Read the full story at The Warwick Beacon

Feds Propose Deep Cuts In Cod Quotas

March 28, 2016 — The new fishing year begins in May and federal regulators are seeking public comments for proposed catch limits for the region’s groundfish industry. The proposed regulations, particularly for Georges Bank cod, have southern New England fishermen worried.

The proposed rules include catch quotas for 20 groundfish species, including cod, haddock, and flounder. Jennifer Goebel, public affairs officer for the regional office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said quotas are based on stock assessments.

“This year the stock assessment for the Gulf of Maine cod showed a slight increase and so we were able to make some increases on that,” she said.

But the cod from Georges Bank, a popular fishing spot for Rhode Island fishermen, is severely depleted. Goebel said regulators are proposing a 62 percent cut from what fishermen were able to catch last year.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio