Saving Seafood

The information age is starting to transform fishing worldwide

April 14, 2022 — People in the world’s developed nations live in a post-industrial era, working mainly in service or knowledge industries. Manufacturers increasingly rely on sensors, robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning to replace human labor or make it more efficient. Farmers can monitor crop health via satellite and apply pesticides and fertilizers with drones.

Commercial fishing, one of the oldest industries in the world, is a stark exception. Industrial fishing, with factory ships and deep-sea trawlers that land thousands of tons of fish at a time, are still the dominant hunting mode in much of the world.

Fishing with data

Changes in behavior, technology and policy are occurring throughout the fishing industry. Here are some examples:

  • Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit, monitors and creates open-access visualizations of global fishing activity on the internet with a 72-hour delay. This transparency breakthrough has led to the arrest and conviction of owners and captains of boats fishing illegally.
  • The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability, an international business-to-business initiative, creates voluntary industry standards for seafood traceability. These standards are designed to help harmonize various systems that track seafood through the supply chain, so they all collect the same key information and rely on the same data sources. This information lets buyers know where their seafood comes from and whether it was produced sustainably.
  • Fishing boats in New Bedford, Massachusetts – the top U.S. fishing port, based on total catch value – are rigged with sensors to develop a Marine Data Bank that will give fishermen data on ocean temperature, salinity and oxygen levels. Linking this data to actual stock behavior and catch levels is expected to help fishermen target certain species and avoid unintentional bycatch.

The ocean’s restorative power

There is no shortage of gloomy information about how overfishing, along with other stresses like climate change, is affecting the world’s oceans. Nonetheless, I believe it bears emphasizing that over 78% of current marine fish landings come from biologically sustainable stocks, according to the United Nations. And overharvested fisheries often can rebound with smart management.

For example, the U.S. east coast scallop fishery, which was essentially defunct in the mid-1990s, is now a sustainable US$570 million a year industry.

Read the full story at The Conversation

Longtime New England council economist honored

April 14, 2022 — Lou Goodreau, a New England Fishery Management Council staffer who played a key role in its successful turnaround of the East Coast scallop fishery, was honored by the council for his 45-year career there.

Goodreau, an economist and information technology specialist, came on the council in March 1977 soon after it was formed under the original legislation now known as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

According to a statement from the council, Goodreau is the third longest-serving staff member among the nation’s eight regional councils. At the New England council he worked under four executive directors and two acting executive directors, with a hand in creating the council’s information and computer systems and key fishery management plans.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

‘There’s no fish that you can’t make delicious’

April 6, 2022 — Walking into Fearless Fish, a small market in Providence specializing in local seafood, is like walking into Tiffany’s. The showcases dazzle the eye.

There’s familiar fare, like Atlantic salmon, haddock, and sea scallops. There’s also a riveting range of fish that are relatively mysterious, curios like scup, butterfish, pollack, Acadian redfish, conger eel, and monkfish. While abundant in our waters, these so-called “underutilized” species — less known to New Englanders, less tasted, less in demand — are often exported to countries that apparently appreciate them much more than we do.

Most of the region’s Atlantic dogfish, for instance, goes to England for fish and chips. “It’s crazy,” said Chris Cronin, the chef at Union Flats Seafood in New Bedford, who prefers “unique” fish to the familiar. “Dogfish is pretty mild, slightly sweet with a flakey texture comparable to haddock. It takes on other flavors, and I like to serve it with citrus notes.”

Since Fearless Fish opened in early 2019, owner Stuart Meltzer’s main aim has been to try and broaden the consumer palate. “We want to help people become more confident, to try new fish,” he said one noontime, as mostly younger customers streamed through the door. The pandemic-driven interest in local foods has been good for sales, he noted, inspiring more daring in home kitchens. Skate piccata? Roasted mackerel with chimichurri? The store’s online recipes and cooking lessons help to demystify lesser-known fish, as does its disclosure of catch site and means. “Fluke, Pt. Judith, dragger.” “Monkfish, Gulf of Maine, dragger.”

“It’s important to me, and shared by customers, that the product is local,” said Meltzer.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

ANALYSIS: 2022 Scallop Season Expectations

April 5, 2022 — April 1, 2022  marks the opening of the 2022/2023 Atlantic sea scallop fishery that operates along the Atlantic coast from the Mid-Atlantic region, up to the U.S.-Canadian border. Framework Adjustment 34, which namely projects 34 million pounds of Atlantic sea scallops to be landed this season, was approved by New England Fishery Management Council back in December, and passed along to NOAA for final approval and implementation.

Harvest projections of 34 million pounds is a 15% reduction to the 40 million pounds projected last year, almost half of the 62.5 million pounds projected just three years ago in 2019, and the lowest level since 2014.

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

Scallop Research Set-Aside Program to Support 15 Projects for 2022-2023; Focus on Surveys, Scallop Biology, and More

March 16, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program will support 15 new projects under the 2022- 2023 award cycle. The awards are expected to generate $3.8 million to fund the research and $12.5 million to compensate industry partners who harvest the set-aside scallops. In order to determine the award amounts, sea scallop price was projected to average $15 per pound.

Six different institutions will lead the projects, partnering with fishermen, fishing businesses, and non-profit fishery research organizations.

The 2022-2023 RSA projects address research priorities identified by the New England Fishery Management Council in June 2021. The Council’s priorities focused on resource surveys, research on scallop biology and sea turtles, scallop recruitment supplementation, bycatch reduction, and gear research.

RSA-funded scallop surveys have been a long- standing priority and have become increasingly important in: (1) providing information that directly helps scientists determine the status and distribution of the resource; and (2) guiding the Council in making management decisions.

Read the full release from the NEFMC

BOEM looks at fishermen compensation — but not everyone wants it

February 24, 2022 — Recent detailed proposals from the Fisheries Survival Fund and Responsible Offshore Development Alliance – coalitions of the commercial fishing industry – and the American Clean Power Association representing the offshore wind industry, presented the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management priority lists for their industries’ coexistence.

Some of those recommendations distinguish between ‘mitigation’ – avoiding conflicts between wind development and fishing – and ‘compensation’ – paying to make up for fishermen being displaced from longtime fishing grounds.

Fishing advocates say BOEM should be following a “mitigation hierarchy” under the National Environmental Policy Act to “avoid, minimize, mitigate and compensate” for impacts of offshore wind development.

BOEM officials and wind energy advocates say that’s being done. As examples they point to modifications to the South Fork Wind project east of Montauk, N.Y., to preserve critical bottom habitat, and shifts in the New York Bight wind energy lease areas to reduce conflicts with the scallop fleet.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

New rules for scallop fishery scheduled to take effect April 1

February 24, 2022 — A Feb. 17 presentation on upcoming changes to Northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery management drew a number of New England fishermen to listen to scallop leaders from the New England Fishery Management Council and agencies of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The biggest change for scallop fishermen is that vessels fishing in Northern Gulf of Maine waters will be required to take industry-funded scallop (IFS) observers on board when selected to do so. Additionally, a portion of Stellwagen Bank in Massachusetts Bay will open for scallop fishing.

Hosted by the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, which is not holding its in-person annual conference this year, the webinar served to explain and answer questions on Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan and its regulatory framework.

That compliance framework is not yet completed but aims to meet Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan’s effective date of March 31. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) enacted Amendment 21 on Jan. 12 and is drafting Framework 34 to implement the changes.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

Maine’s most fertile scalloping grounds closed for season

February 23, 2022 — Maine’s most productive scallop fishing grounds are closed for the remaining weeks of the state’s fishing season.

Cobscook Bay is home to the most fertile scalloping waters in Maine. The Maine Department of Marine Resources typically closes scalloping grounds early to prevent overfishing. The department decided to close Cobscook for the season on Sunday.

Read the full story at the AP News

New England council considers leasing proposal for scallop fishery

February 18, 2022 — Dozens of permit-holders and vessel owners, some of whom manage large-scale commercial fishing operations, have backed amending regulations in New England’s scallop fishery to allow leasing — a proposal that concerns the New Bedford Port Authority, smaller fishing fleets and some shoreside businesses.

Current regulations in the limited access scallop fishery allow one permit per vessel, which entitles a vessel to a certain number of days at sea, as well as a given number of access area fishing trips. A leasing program could enable a permit-holder (and his or her vessel) to lease and fish additional days or trips from another permit.

Supporters of leasing say it will improve efficiency and cut operational costs in the scallop fishery, which brings hundreds of millions of dollars in landings to New Bedford annually. For example, permit-holders could retire old vessels and save on repair costs without losing allocations, or lease in the event a vessel breaks down.

But the New Bedford Port Authority, along with some of the city’s shoreside business and scallop fishermen, according to their attorney, cite concerns that leasing could lead to further consolidation of the fishery to the detriment of smaller fleets and businesses.

Though the Scallopers Campaign, which has recently led the effort behind leasing, has promulgated certain program ideas, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), would start with a blank slate and develop its own leasing program if it votes to proceed in September.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Light

NOAA Announces Proposed Management Measures For Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery for 2022 FY

February 17, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries announced the proposed management measures for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery for the 2022 fishing year (FY).

According to the Framework Adjustment 34 proposed rule in the Federal Register, the New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommend a scallop fishery Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) of 56.7 million lbs. (25,724 mt) for 2022 and 51.1 million lbs. (23,200 mt) for the 2023 FY.

Read the full story at Seafood News