Saving Seafood

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section Selects Final Measures for Amendment 3 and Recommends Final Approval by the Commission

September 1, 2017 — Portland, ME – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section (Section) selected final measures for Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp and recommended Commission approval of the Amendment at its next Business Session meeting, likely in October in Norfolk, VA. The Amendment is designed to improve management of the northern shrimp resource in the event the fishery reopens (the fishery has been under moratorium since 2014). Specifically, the Amendment refines the FMP objectives and provides the flexibility to use the best available information to define the status of the stock and set the total allowable catch (TAC). Furthermore, the Amendment implements a state-specific allocation program to better manage effort in the fishery; 80% of the annual TAC will be allocated to Maine, 10% to New Hampshire, and 10% to Massachusetts. Fishermen with a trap landings history will continue to operate under gear-specific allocations (i.e., 87% of the state-specific quota will be allocated to the trawl fishery, and 13% to the trap fishery), however, the Section anticipates exploring alternative measures through the adaptive management process that would allow states to modify allocation between gear types on an annual basis. The Section also has the discretion to roll over unused quota from the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts to Maine by a date determined during annual specifications.

Additionally, the Amendment strengthens catch and landings reporting requirements to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported, and requires shrimp-directed trawl vessels to use either a double-Nordmore or compound grate system (both designed to minimize the catch of small, presumably male, shrimp). Other changes include the implementation of accountability measures (i.e., penalties if states exceed their quota), specification of a maximum fishing season length, and formalizing fishery-dependent monitoring requirements.

The Section will meet November 29 (location to be determined) to review the 2017 stock status report and set specifications for the 2018 fishing season. For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Hurricane Harvey’s impact on regional seafood sector still being determined

August 30, 2017 — Hurricane Harvey has caused significant damage in Southeast Texas, but experts in the shrimp industry don’t believe there will be a long-term impact on the United States’ Gulf of Mexico shrimp industry.

However, some Houston-area seafood companies suffered damage from the storm and overall losses in Texas could total USD 100 billion (EUR 83.6 billion).

Rockport, Texas-based Global Blue Technologies, a shrimp farm and hatchery, was still assessing the damage to its facilities on Tuesday and SeafoodSource will provide an update soon.

AkerBiomarine’s krill oil plant in Houston suffered minor leaks due to heavy rain, but did not sustain damage, according to a statement the company provided to SeafoodSource.

“Due to severe weather conditions, we did a controlled shutdown of our Houston manufacturing plant on Friday, securing all assets and the site. The top priority in this situation is always the safety of our employees and their families,” AkerBioMarine said.

On Tuesday, the plant was still shut down.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section to Meet August 31st in Portland, ME to Consider Approval of Amendment 3

August 23, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet on August 31st from 1 – 3:30 PM at the Westin Portland Harborview, Winslow Homer Ballroom, 157 High Street, Portland, ME (Tel: 207.775.2411). The Section will be reviewing submitted public comment and considering final action on Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp.

While the fishery is currently under a moratorium, the Amendment considers measures to improve management of the northern shrimp resource in the event the fishery reopens. Proposed options include state-by-state allocations and accountability measures to better manage effort in the fishery. The Draft Amendment also explores the mandatory use of size sorting grate systems to minimize harvest of small (presumably male) shrimp, as well as reporting measures to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported. 

If approved by the Section, the Amendment will be forwarded to the Commission’s Business Session for final approval in October at the Commission’s Annual Meeting.

Meeting materials for the Section meeting can be accessed at  http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/NShrimpSectionMtgMaterials_Aug2017.pdf.

A PDF version of the press release can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/599da091pr38NShrimpSectionMtg_Aug2017.pdf.

Maine fishermen, scientists combine forces with goal to save shrimp fishery

A new Fisheries Management Plan has been created for the fishery that has been closed since 2014.

August 21, 2017 — For more than 20 years, Dana Hammond made close to half his annual income shrimping. But his shrimping profits began to dwindle in 2013. That season, regulators were alarmed by the lack of shrimp biomass in the Gulf of Maine, and the amount he was allowed to catch was cut 72 percent. The fishery was closed entirely in 2014. It hasn’t reopened since and Hammond, who fishes out of Portland on his boat the Nicole Leigh, has been trying to make up the deficit from his other main source of income, groundfishing.

But Hammond isn’t ready to let shrimping go. It’s an ideal winter fishery for him, allowing him to stay close to shore during rough and cold weather. He’s so vested in the future of the fishery that this summer he went to sea with the Northeast Fisheries scientists who conduct the annual summer survey, the main source of data that determines the status of the fishery every year.

“I didn’t get paid,” Hammond said. “I went anyway because I want to make sure they are doing stuff right.”

Hammond’s goal is to help the scientists be better fishermen – the more they catch, the more likely it is his fishery will reopen. Or better put, the more shrimp the survey finds, the better chance it is that there will be another season for Maine shrimpers. The survey concluded earlier in August and though its findings won’t be available until late October, it is the key to determining whether Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide at its meeting in early to mid-December whether to reopen the fishery for the tiny Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) in 2018.

In the event that the fishery does reopen, it will likely follow different rules. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has, with the cooperation and input of local fishermen, developed a new Fisheries Management Plan, updated in consideration of the recent problems in the shrimp fishery. That plan, known as Amendment 3 will be finalized at a meeting in Portland on Aug. 31.

Typically, putting the regulatory side of a fishery in contact with those who do the fishing entails some tension, distrust even, the kind that can make for a combative relationship. The people who make their living on the water don’t want to be told what to do and how to do it, especially not by people who came up in the world of petri dishes and test tubes, not traps and trawls.

But as the Northern shrimp fishery faces the most extreme challenge in a history that spans nearly a century, the relationship between shrimpers and scientists has become, cautiously, more collaborative. The more so the better, from the perspective of fisheries biologist Peter Chase, who oversees the annual survey for the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center. He’s used to getting a lot of questions about the survey as soon as he comes ashore in summer – starting with, “did you see a lot of shrimp?” Moreover, he understands the frustrations of the fishermen. Some of them “have been vocal about complaining about our survey,” he said. “Others have been really helpful.” Like Hammond.

“It shouldn’t be an us-versus-them thing here,” Chase said. “I don’t want to put anyone out of business.”

“We want to be in this together,” he added. “This is research that I am hoping will show that the resource is coming back.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

NORTH CAROLINA: Festival aims to promote and save shrimp industry

August 14, 2017 — SNEADS FERRY, N.C. — The Sneads Ferry community hosted its 47th annual Shrimp Festival this weekend.

The festival started as a way to promote the thriving shrimp industry in our state. However, in recent years, it’s become more of an effort to save the declining industry.

Recently proposed regulations, including how many days a week they can work, what time of day they can work, and how big their nets can be, have many shrimpers fearful for the future and the impact it will have on their livelihood.

Read and watch the full story at Spectrum News

Warming Waters Bring New Marine Species to NC, But Chase Away Some Familiar Ones

Bull sharks and lion fish are among the species becoming more common in North Carolina, while black sea bass and other fish are getting harder to find.

August 8, 2017 — A big reason reason North Carolina is seeing so much change in its marine species is because the state has an unusual variety of them, said Sara Mirabilio, a researcher and fisheries extension specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant.

Near Cape Hatteras, the cold Labrador Current comes down from the Arctic, and the warm Gulf Stream flows up from the Gulf of Mexico.

“We are at the northernmost range for southern species and the southernmost range for northern species,” she said. “So climate change at the boundaries will show the most impact.”

In many ways climate change is unfolding as the slowest of slow-motion disasters. But fish can move quickly and for long distances when spurred by relatively small changes in water temperature.

Lately they have moved so quickly that fisheries regulations are lagging, and tensions are rising between commercial fishermen based where the fish used to be, and those where the fish have moved.

On a recent day, Mike Ireland’s 99-foot trawler “Sharon Nicole” was docked behind a seafood wholesaler in the Hobucken community east of New Bern, just off the Pamlico Sound.

Shrimp season was under way, but he and his crew were repairing one of the massive, powered winches that haul in their nets. It was an especially crucial one, because it reels in the small net they drag to locate fish.

“This is probably the most important tool on the boat,” Ireland said. “With this little sample net you can really pinpoint where they’re at.”

Read and listen to the full story at WUNC

Senators add shrimp to seafood import monitoring program implementation plan

July 28, 2017 — Efforts to include shrimp in the Seafood Import Monitoring Program when it takes effect Jan. 1 of next year advanced in Congress on Thursday, the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) said in a release.

Senate appropriations committee chairman Thad Cochran and commerce, justice and science appropriations subcommittee chairman Richard Shelby added language to the FY2018 commerce, justice and science subcommittee bill to ensure that shrimp is fully integrated into the program on the same timeline as other species, the association said.

Previously, shrimp was expected to be phased in at a later date than majority of other priority species, which have a mandatory compliance date of Jan. 1.

David Veal, ASPA executive director, commended the decision. He said Cochran and Shelby showed they care about the survival of the US shrimp industry and continued economic opportunity and job growth of coastal communities.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

LOUISIANA: 2017 spring shrimp season to close July 14

July 10, 2017 — The 2017 spring inshore shrimp season will be closing Friday, July 14, 2017, according to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents.

Officials say the closure will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, July 14th. The closure will be from the Louisiana/Mississippi state line westward to the eastern shore of the Mississippi River and from Freshwater Bayou canal westward to the Louisiana/Texas state line. The exceptions will be in the following fresh water areas:

Lake Pontchartrain, Chef Menteur and Rigolets Passes, Lake Borgne, the Louisiana portion of Mississippi Sound, and the open waters of Breton and Chandeleur Sounds.

All out of state waters seaward of the Inside/ Outside shrimp line will remain open. (see photo for exact areas that will remain open)

Agents say that the decision to close these waters was made to protect these developing shrimp and provide opportunity for growth to larger and more marketable sizes. The areas that remain open will continue to be monitored and will close when the presence of smaller white shrimp make it biologically inappropriate to remain open.

LDWF would also like to remind shrimpers that there is a possession count on saltwater white shrimp taken in either inside or outside (offshore) waters of Louisiana of 100 count (whole shrimp per pound).

Read the full story at KATC

Hearing on new shrimp rules draws tiny crowd

June 15, 2017 — Fishermen barely outnumbered representatives of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission last Thursday at a public hearing in City Hall on proposed rule changes that would reshape shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine.

Three fishermen — John Williams and Ricky Trundy, both of Stonington, and James West of Sorrento — offered comments on a proposed amendment to the ASMFC fisheries management plan for northern shrimp. Department of Marine Resources External Affairs Director Terry Stockwell and Resource Management Coordinator Trisha Cheney dutifully recorded those comments on behalf of the ASMFC.

Stockwell serves as DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher’s representative on the multi-state fisheries management group. He plans to retire at the end of the month after 21 years at DMR and Cheney will assume his role.

Although a somewhat larger crowd was on hand for a hearing the previous evening in Augusta, the sparse audience reflected the state of the fishery from Downeast waters. It also is a reflection of the fact that there has been no commercial shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine since ASMFC shortened the season in 2013 and imposed a complete fishing moratorium before the 2014 season.

For more than a decade, ASMFC managed the fishery by establishing a total allowable catch (TAC) for the entire fishery based on assessments of the size and reproductive success of the shrimp resource that was adjusted annually. As the shrimp resource declined, so did the TAC — and the fishery.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

North Carolina fishing fight moves inland

June 7, 2017 — The long-running battle between commercial and recreational fishermen moved Tuesday to Raleigh, where both sides and lawmakers parried with their poles and nets over a proposal to put more regulations on commercial fishing along the North Carolina coast.

House Bill 867 puts fisheries conservation and management at the core of the state Marine Fisheries Commission’s duties. It also eliminates the concept of a “sustainable harvest” by commercial fishermen and says fishing stock must be managed scientifically to ensure species aren’t overfished.

“Strike the word ‘conservation’ and replace it with ‘allocation,'” Glen Skinner, a Carteret County commercial fisherman, told members of the House Committee on Wildlife Resources. “This is about reallocating resources from one to the next.”

“This is not about conservation,” said Pam Morris, president of Carteret Catch, which promotes local seafood and fishermen. “This is a power grab by some to further control fisheries.”

“Environment produces my fish, not regulations,” said Terry Pratt, president of the Albemarle Fishermen’s Association.

The commercial side disputed the notion that fish stocks along the coast are declining, with state Rep.

Beverly Boswell, R-Dare, pointing to a record shrimp harvest in recent years.

Read the full story at WRAL 5