Saving Seafood

Scientists Say Black Sea Bass Behavior Could Be Affected by Offshore Wind

October 1, 2018 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Scientists from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center say that offshore wind energy construction could affect the behavior of Black Sea Bass.

Black Sea Bass live up and down the east coast from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, providing a significant ecological and economic importance.

The fish are also attracted to structurally complex habitats, often found around rocky reefs, mussel beds, cobble and rock fields, and artificial habitats like shipwrecks.

Scientists, commercial and recreational fisherman have expressed their concerns about how the sounds that come with the development of offshore wind energy overlapping with the natural habitats of Black Sea Bass.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

 

Financing aquaculture: The cash is there, but information is lacking

July 18, 2018 — Finance can “drive change on the water,” according to Neil Sims at Kampachi Worldwide Holdings. But for aquaculture projects, it’s still hard to come by.

Speaking at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Barcelona, Spain in June, Sims told the story of his company. He said it took 10 years to raise enough funds to initiate his marine aquaculture project in Hawaii. There was a temptation to put one pen out while he raised the rest of the cash.

“But that would be throwing money down the rat hole,” he said. “In mariculture you need scale, you need to have the cash together.”

There’s plenty of money waiting to invest in aquaculture, according to Trip O’Shea, vice president at New York, U.S.A.-based investment house Encourage Capital. But first the sector needs to offer would-be investors data and models to profitability.

“There are several pillars of sustainable development but where is financial sustainability on the list? Otherwise how do we get it off the ground?” he said. “We need a set of principles for aquaculture investment, so that investors can quickly understand what to benchmark to. Right now there are so many metrics quoted. We have to compare apples to apples.”

O’Shea cited feed conversion ratios as an example.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Announces Recreational Rules for Summer Flounder, Black Sea Bass & Scup

June 1, 2018 — HYANNIS, Mass. — NOAA Fisheries has announced the 2018 recreational rules for summer flounder, black sea bass and scup.

Federal officials are continuing “conservation equivalency” for summer flounder and have waived the recreational bag limit, minimum fish size and fishing season for the fishery. Fishermen are subject to regulations set by the state where the fish land.

Read the full story at Cape Cod

ASMFC: April/May 2018 issue of Fisheries Focus Now Available

June 1, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The April/May 2018  issue of Fisheries Focus is now available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5b103db7FishFocusAprilMay2018.pdf.

Upcoming Meetings

page 2

From the Executive
Director’s Desk 

Black Sea Bass: Seeking Solutions through Compromise

page 3

Species Profile

Atlantic Sturgeon

page 4

Fishery Management Actions 

Atlantic Menhaden

Black Drum

Black Sea Bass

page 6

Science Highlight

ASMFC Habitat Committee Revisits 20-Year Policy on Submerged Aquatic Vegetation

page 7

On the Legislative Front

page 8

Comings & Goings

page 9

Proposed Management Action

American Eel

page 11

In the News: Maine’s Elver Fishery Shuts Down

page 11

ACCSP Update

FY19 Proposals Due June 11

ACCSP Releases 2017 Annual Report

page 13

Employees of the Quarter Named

page 14

 

Massachusetts awarded $10K for local seafood marketing campaign

May 29, 2018 — DEERFIELD, Mass. — The state has awarded $10,000 to a local seafood marketing campaign.

Our Wicked Fish in Deerfield said the funding will help them get more restaurants and consumers access to the state’s local seafood.

Our Wicked Fish is a non-profit organization that connect restaurants and residents with New England’s local seafood.

Our Wicked Fish Founder Amanda Davis told 22News the money will fund evaluations of restaurants in Massachusetts that offer local seafood.

They will also determine whether the restaurants have access to red fish, hake, the black sea bass and other underutilized fish.

Read the full story at WWLP

 

Your dinner might be swimming North thanks to climate change, Rutgers study says

May 18, 2018 — Climate change is making oceans warmer and the fish are taking flight.

And that could have a big impact on New Jersey’s $7.9 billion fishing industry according to a new Rutgers-led study published Wednesday.

Aquatic life has a narrow tolerance for temperature range, so as the water heats up species populations are shifting northward to find suitable habitat according to Malin Pinksy, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor in Rutgers’ Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources.

By 2100, the Atlantic’s temperature off the Jersey Shore could rise to levels currently seen in Virginia. That could lead to species like black sea bass and summer flounder, both staples of New Jersey’s fishing industry, leaving the area and being replaced by more southern species like Atlantic Croaker.

Pinsky said the most dramatic example of a shifting fishery is the Atlantic Cod. The species could lose 90 percent of its habitat in U.S. waters by 2100 in a worst case scenario.

Read the full story at NJ

 

As Gulf of Maine warms, will black sea bass make up for declines in lobster?

May 15, 2018 — The Gulf of Maine’s warming waters could mean that new fisheries are coming to Maine.

The Bangor Daily News reported that many lobster fishermen, concerned about a possible drop-off in the lobster resource, are looking at other species like Jonah crab and black sea bass. In 2016, fishermen in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island together earned $2.38 million from their black sea bass fishery.

If Maine were to develop a black sea bass fishery, she said, fishermen could use techniques and equipment that are very similar to what they use now to catch lobster, which would help with the transition, Marissa McMahan, a senior fisheries scientist for the environmental science nonprofit Manomet, told the BDN.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

 

Long Island fishermen object to black sea bass quota deal

May 10, 2018 — Fishermen critical of a recent deal to ease black-sea bass regulations demanded further state action at a fisheries meeting Tuesday, but officials said the interstate agreement was the best they could get this year.

Around a dozen angry party- and charter-boat captains attended a meeting of the Marine Resources Advisory Council in Setauket Tuesday night to raise objections to the deal, which effectively nixed a planned 12 percent reduction in the state’s recreational black sea bass quota this year. They and a supporting lawmaker cited a more lenient quota for competing New Jersey fishermen, saying anglers would favor the Garden State given its earlier season open and ability to keep more fish at a smaller size.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s original order would have pushed New York’s season opening to July, but a deal brokered by the state and led by Jim Gilmore, the commission’s chairman and head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s marine division, resulted in a season that will instead open on June 23 – four days earlier than last year.

Read the full story at Newsday

 

New York: Fisheries commission repeals cuts to black sea bass quota

May 4, 2018 — An interstate fisheries commission voted Thursday to reverse a planned reduction to New York’s 2018 quota for locally-abundant black sea bass.

New York recreational anglers could have faced a 12 percent decrease in the allowable catch for black sea bass this year under a federal mandate. The season also would not have started until July.

But in response to an appeal filed by New York and other states, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission instead voted Thursday to extend the fishing season by four days, a commission manager said.

New York’s black sea bass season will open on June 23, compared with June 27 last year, according to Caitlin Starks, fishery management plan coordinator for black sea bass at the commission.

Reaction to the vote was mixed.

Joe Tangel, captain of the King Cod charter boat in Moriches, said the new quota still leaves New York fishermen at a disadvantage to New Jersey, where anglers can keep smaller fish and more of them — up to 15 fish a day in November at 12.5 to 13 inches or larger.

Read the full story at Newsday

ASMFC: Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board Revises Northern Region Recreational Management Measures

May 3, 2018 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

Upon the direction of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program (ISFMP) Policy Board, the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board (Board) approved revised 2018 recreational measures for the Northern Region states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York (see Table 1). Further, the Board initiated new management action for the 2019 black sea bass recreational fishery and tasked the Plan Development Team to develop a white paper to consider the impacts of changes in black sea bass abundance and distribution to the management of commercial and recreational fisheries.

This action is taken in response to a Northern Region state appeal of the approved 2018 recreational measures under Addendum XXX. The appeal argued the Board’s action under Addendum XXX incorrectly applied technical data and was inconsistent with the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan. After reviewing the appeal, Commission Leadership agreed there was adequate justification to bring portions of the appeal forward to the ISFMP Policy Board.

During the ISFMP Policy Board’s deliberations regarding consideration of the appeal, a potential management program for the 2018 black sea bass recreational fishery was presented to replace the allocations specified in Addendum XXX. The revised management program was developed to meet the needs of the Northern Region without impacting the remaining states, while still constraining harvest to the 2018 recreational harvest limit of 3.66 million pounds.

View the release in its entirety here.