Saving Seafood

May Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Landings Largest Since May 2009

June 26, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service is reporting May 2018 Gulf of Mexico shrimp landings (all species, headless) of 16.281 million pounds compared to 14.585 million pounds in May 2017. This is the largest May total since 16.288 million pounds were landed in May 2009.

The Louisiana fishery led all Gulf states in May with landings totaling 10.369 million pounds. This is considerable since there hasn’t been a single production month in excess of 10 million pounds in that state since June 2014.

The cumulative total for the entire Gulf now stands at 28.14 million pounds; 2.1 million pounds or seven percent below the Jan-May 2017 total of 30.25 million pounds. The trend is still notable as landings in each of the last two months have exceeded the prior five-year average and the 2018 cumulative total stands 5.2 million pounds or 23 percent above the cumulative total of the prior five-year average.

As you would expect, ex-vessel prices are lower, especially for 21/25 and smaller count shrimp; and the Urner Barry markets have come under considerable pressure in recent sessions as seasonal production expands and where carryover inventory exists. Weakness is evident throughout the complex, but especially on 16/20 and smaller headless shell-on shrimp, and all-size PUD’s and P&D’s.

This story was originally published in Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

ASMFC Schedules Peer Review for Northern Shrimp Benchmark Stock Assessment for August 14-16, 2018

June 25, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Benchmark Stock Assessment will be peer-reviewed on August 14 – 16, 2018 at the Residence Inn Portland Downtown Waterfront, 145 Fore Street, Portland, Maine 04101. The assessment will evaluate the condition of the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp resource and inform management of the stock. The peer review is open to the public, except for any discussions of confidential data when the public will be asked to leave the room.

Confidential data (see NOTE below) are data such as commercial landings that can be identified down to an individual or single entity. Federal and state laws prohibit the disclosure of confidential data, and ASMFC abides by those laws. Each state and federal agency is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of its data and deciding who has access to its confidential data.  In the case of our stock assessments and peer reviews, all analysts and, if necessary, reviewers, have been granted permission by the appropriate agency to use and view confidential data. When the assessment team needs to show and discuss these data, observers to our stock assessment process are asked to leave the room to preserve confidentiality.

Additionally, the public and all other workshop participants will be asked to leave the room during the Peer Review Panel’s final deliberations.

For more information, please contact Patrick Campfield, Science Director, at pcampfield@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

NOTE: In determining what data are confidential, most agencies use the “rule of 3” for commercial catch and effort data. The “rule of 3” requires three separate contributors to fisheries data in order for the data to be considered non-confidential. This protects the identity of any single contributor. In some cases, annual summaries by state and species may still be confidential because only one or two dealers process the catch. Alternatively, if there is only one known harvester of a species in a state, the harvester’s identity is implicit and the data for that species from that state is confidential.

GEORGIA: State, local leaders request fishery disaster declaration

June 20, 2018 — Shrimping season is officially underway in Georgia and South Carolina.

As boaters are casting their nets, local and state leaders are calling on federal help to provide relief on the money lost due to winter weather. Chatham County Commission Chairman Al Scott and Congressman Buddy Carter have both sent letters to the U.S. Department of Commerce requesting a fishery declaration be declared for Coastal Georgia.

Winter was tough in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry this year, affecting water temperature. Before Tuesday, state waters have been closed since Jan. 15 to harvesting of brown, pink and white shrimp. Federal waters closed to shrimping back on Jan. 24. Since the water closures, shrimpers have not been able to make money by harvesting those specified shrimp.

According to Carter’s letter, the seafood industry in Georgia has an economic impact of more than $1 billion.

“The financial hardship that they have suffered as a result of the waters being closed has been substantial, and they need this financial relief, and that’s why I sent to letter to the Secretary of Commerce,” he said.

We spoke to one fisherman Tuesday who says this is a necessary lifeline.

“We’ve got two months of our fishery that’s gone and we have a very short period of time that we’re able to shrimp,” said George Gale, shrimp harvester.

Read the full story at WTOC

Shrimp rise as overall North Carolina commercial catch dips

June 18, 2018 — North Carolina officials say commercial fishing in the state declined by weight last year even as shrimp volume increased to a record high.

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries issued a release this month saying fishermen sold about 54 million pounds (24 million kg) of fish and shellfish to North Carolina dealers in 2017. That’s down about 9 percent from the previous year and below the five-year average.

But the $96.5 million estimated value of the catch was slightly higher than the previous year.

Biologists say the drop in volume is largely due to a decrease in hard blue crab landings by more than a quarter from the previous year.

Meanwhile, shrimp landings increased to the highest volume on record since the state began its current measurement program in 1994. The state reports that the value of the shrimp was nearly $30 million.

Read the full story at WRAL

Florida: Bob Jones Retires from the Southeastern Fisheries Association

June 7, 2018 — TALLAHASSEE, Fl. — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

After 54 years serving as the leader of the Southeastern Fisheries Association, Executive Director Bob Jones is retiring from SFA by the end of 2018. The SFA Board of Directors has begun the process to search for qualified candidates to be the next leader of the SFA organization. The SFA Board of Directors and Jones will continue to lead the organization during this transition.

The open and honest interaction Jones has had with all the seafood industry stakeholders gave credence to the impact Southeastern Fisheries Association has on saving the commercial fishing culture because of the importance of producing seafood for the United States of America.

SFA is responsible for establishing the Florida Seafood Marketing program in 1965. It is funded through a self-imposed fee on wholesale seafood dealers and fishermen. SFA won the legislative battle to keep king and Spanish mackerel available to the market and was the prime mover establishing the Tortugas shrimp nursery off Key West setting aside 3,000,000 acres where no trawling is allowed so juvenile shrimp can mature. SFA was a founding member of the Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation that managed over 200 projects assisting the industry. Jones was a 1976 original member of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. He served as vice-chairman 1976-1980 and chairman in 1981. He served on the US State Department’s Ocean Affairs Advisory Committee when the Magnuson-Stevens Act was created.

Jones plans to stay involved with the seafood industry in the area of food safety, consumer fraud and promoting equal access to the nation’s fisheries for non-fishermen, especially seniors.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank Bob for his open and honest interactions in the seafood industry over the past 54 years,” said Mr. Peter Jarvis, SFA President. “Under Bob’s leadership, SFA has maintained respect for seeking the truth and presenting the facts. We are deeply grateful to Bob for his contributions to the fishing industry and his love of the Rule of Law”.

For additional information, visit www.SFAonline.org

 

NOAA Fisheries: Fishing for White, Brown, and Pink Shrimp is Open Off Georgia in Federal Waters

May 21, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

WHAT/WHEN:

  • Federal waters adjacent to Georgia state waters are open to fishing for white, brown, and pink shrimp as of 4:15 p.m., local time, May 18, 2018.
  • Georgia state waters remain closed until the state determines an appropriate reopening date.

WHY THIS REOPENING IS HAPPENING: 

  • Georgia closed its state waters to all shrimping on January 15, 2018, due to a prolonged period of water temperatures at or below 9°C in the region.
  • Georgia requested NOAA Fisheries to close federal waters off Georgia. The federal closure was effective January 24, 2018.
  • The purpose of the closure was to protect the white shrimp spawning population.
  • Based on warming water temperatures and current projections provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, state fisheries officials determined the threat to overwintering shrimp has passed and requested that NOAA Fisheries open federal waters to trawling.
  • Georgia officials will continue to monitor the white shrimp population for the purposes of determining when it is appropriate to allow shrimp fishing to resume in state waters.

This bulletin provides only a summary of the existing regulations. Full regulations can be found in the  Federal Register.

 

North Carolina: Working group is confident it’s found ways to cut down on shrimp bycatch

May 15, 2018 — An industry work group will tell the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission on Thursday that it has found a way to modify nets to significantly reduce the bycatch of finfish and other species during shrimp trawling, one of the state’s largest fishing activities.

North Carolina has a long history of battling the bycatch of juvenile fish, sharks and turtles that a shrimp trawl can capture, in 1992 becoming the first state to require a bycatch reduction device. A 2009 study by N.C. Marine Fisheries biologist Kevin Brown found that more than 100 species were included in bycatch, with Atlantic croaker accounting for 25 percent and spot accounting for 7 percent.

“Bycatch has been an issue for a long time. It always seems like good things happen when people get together and start focusing on it,” said Scott Baker, a N.C. Sea Grant fisheries specialist who was part of the working group.

The Marine Fisheries Commission created the current 12-member working group — including six fishermen and four netmakers — in 2014 as part of its management plan for shrimp, giving them three years to find a way to reduce bycatch by an additional 40 percent beyond the federally mandated 30 percent. Now, the group will tell the commission, it has crafted four sets of gear that meet the target and is recommending the commission consider requiring shrimpers in the Pamlico Sound to use some of the devices.

“We’re basically twice (the reductions) the federal requirement are,” Brown said.

Read the full story at the Wilmington Star

 

North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission To Consider Changes To Shrimp Trawling Industry

May 15, 2018 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission plans to discuss and possibly vote on new gear requirements in the shrimp trawl fishery at their quarterly business meeting in New Bern on Wednesday and Thursday.

A three-year study identified four new gear configurations that reduce finfish bycatch by at least 40 percent.  The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries and N.C. Sea Grant worked with commercial fishermen and local net makers to test 14 different trawl net configurations.

“Each time that we met, they would define what gears to be tested and, you know, as the three-year process went on, we started seeing some devices that showed more promise and we started focusing our efforts on those type of devices.”

Kevin Brown, gear development biologist with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries says nearly 314,000 pounds of fish and shrimp were sampled during the study.

Read the full story at WTEB

 

World’s largest ‘dead zone’ discovered, and it’s not in the Gulf of Mexico

May 14, 2018 — The Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone is bigger than ever. Recent surveys put it at an enormous 8,776 square miles, large enough to cover New Jersey.

But another massive zone of low dissolved oxygen confirmed recently in the Arabian Sea is seven times larger. At 63,000 square miles — the size of Florida — it ranks as the world’s largest.

Scientists from the University of East Anglia of Norwich, England measured the dead zone, which sits in the Gulf of Oman south of Iran, with underwater robots. The area had been suspected of hosting a massive dead zone, but roving bands of pirates and the region’s volatile geopolitics made research difficult. The torpedo-shaped robots were able to slip in and do the measurements with ease, but they came back with very bad news.

“The Arabian Sea is the largest and thickest dead zone in the world,” said Bastien Queste, a marine biochemist and the study’s lead author. “But until now, no one really knew how bad the situation was because of piracy and conflicts in the area have made it too dangerous to collect data.”

Waters depleted of oxygen turn fish away and suffocate anything that can’t escape, including plants and slow-moving crabs and other shellfish.

“Of course all fish, marine plants and other animals need oxygen, so they can’t survive there,” Queste said. “It’s a real environmental problem with dire consequences for humans, too.”

In the Gulf of Mexico, the growing dead zone has had a big impact on commercial fisheries. Shrimp are harder to find and the oxygen-starved crustaceans are slow to grow, producing a smaller shrimp that fetches lower prices.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

ASMFC 2018 Spring Meeting Supplemental Materials Now Available

April 26, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Spring Meeting are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2018-spring-meeting for the following Boards/Sections (click on “Supplemental” following each relevant committee header to access the information). For ease of access, supplemental meeting materials have combined into one PDF – http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/2018SpringMeeting/SupplementalMaterialsCombined.pdf. NOTE: The Shad and River Herring Management Board, previously scheduled for May 1st (11:15 a.m. – Noon), has been cancelled. The Tautog Management Board will be meeting in its place (same date and time). The Tautog Board’s materials can be accessed through the Board link and is also in the combined supplemental materials file.

Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board jointly with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council –  Revised Draft Agenda and Meeting Overview; Summer Flounder Commercial Issues Amendment Draft Public Hearing Document; Draft Amendment to the FMP for Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass for Public Comment; Black Sea Bass Management Reform Initiative 

Bluefish Management Board jointly with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council – Draft Agenda

Tautog Management Board – Draft Agenda & Meeting Overview; Draft Proceedings from October 2017; Connecticut 2018 Commercial Measures

Atlantic Herring Section – Technical Committee Task List & Update on River Herring/Shad Catch Caps, Accountability Measures in the Mackerel Fishery, and Potential Impacts on Atlantic Herring

Northern Shrimp Section – Technical Committee Task List

Executive Committee –  Draft Meeting Summary from February 2018

American Lobster Management Board – Technical Committee Task List & Public Comment

Winter Flounder Management Board – Technical Committee Task List; Technical Committee Report on Proposed Aggregate Weekly Limits in the Commercial SNE/MA Fishery; Law Enforcement Committee Guidelines on the Enforceability of Fishery Management Measures

South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board – NOAA Southeast Regional Office Correspondence to ASMFC

As a reminder, Board meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning April  30th at 10 a.m. and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 2:15 p.m.) on Thursday, May 3rd. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board/section deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible. Please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1945339924799258370 to register.