Saving Seafood

North Carolina Marine Fisheries to consider contentious shrimping proposal

February 16, 2017 — For centuries, shrimping has been central to North Carolina’s coastal economy, a practice two conservation groups are asking the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission to curb in order to protect vulnerable juvenile fish that are often collected along with shrimp.

The commission is expected to vote Thursday on the petition, which would limit how, when and where shrimpers could operate. Brought by the N.C. Wildlife Federation and the Southern Environmental Law Center, the petition includes particularly contentious provisions such as limiting the time a trawl can stay in the water to 45 minutes and reducing the days shrimpers can operate to three per week on inner waterways, including the Intracoastal Waterway and the state’s extensive sounds.

“The amount of finfish bycatch in the North Carolina shrimp trawl fishery is unsustainably high, and the negative impact of shrimp trawl bycatch is felt coast wide,” N.C. Wildlife Federation CEO Tim Gestwicki wrote in his petition to the commission.

Read the full story at Star News Online

JESS H. HAWKINS III AND ALLYN POWELL: NO: Shrimping hasn’t reduced fish stocks

February 15, 2017 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission will be voting on a petition submitted by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation on Feb. 16 in Wilmington that will significantly impact our state’s shrimping industry, negatively affect our seafood restaurants and consumers and eliminate jobs.

The petition claims that shrimping has resulted in declines of populations of at least three types of fish, spot, Atlantic croaker and weakfish, that current fishing practices are unsustainable and proposes many unnecessary rules on shrimp trawling, the main manner that shrimp are caught in the United States. Simply and clearly, the petition lacks scientific evidence that attributes shrimp bycatch to declines in spot, croaker and weakfish.

While shrimpers do catch small fish, called bycatch, there is no proof scientifically that shrimp trawl bycatch has an impact on populations of spot, croaker and weakfish. In fact, independent fisheries experts have found that croaker are not in a state of decline, and that fishing is not negatively affecting weakfish populations. Instead natural factors, not fishing mortality, are responsible for coastwide declines in weakfish.

Read the full opinion piece at The News & Observer

NORTH CAROLINA: Marine Fisheries meetings planned for Feb. 15-16

February 8, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission will meet over two days instead of the usual three for its Feb. 15-16 meeting in Wilmington, and time for public comment will be included.

At the meeting at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, 301 N. Water St., the business sessions will start at noon Feb. 15 and at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. Among items on the agenda is the N.C. Wildlife Federation petition for rulemaking regarding shrimp trawling season, along with potential cobia management measures and decisions on hard clam and oyster management.

Public comment will be heard at 3 p.m. Feb. 15. First to speak will be members of the public who signed up to speak about the petition during a Jan. 17 meeting but did not get to speak before time ran out. Afterward, anyone from the public may speak on fisheries-related topics.

Deliberation and voting on the petition is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. A complete agenda can be found at http://bit.ly/2k3WCat.

Up to 200 visitors may listen to a webcast and view presentations at http://bit.ly/2kP9gcU. An audio file will be posted after the meeting.

Sandy Semans Ross: OBX Catch responds to proposed shrimping rule

February 2, 2017 — Outer Banks Catch executive director Sandy Semans Ross presented the group’s position on the proposal by the N.C. Wildlife Federation that could result in major changes to the state’s commercial trawling industry.

Outer Banks Catch is a non-profit group focused on providing fact-based education to consumers about the commercial fishing industry and communities, and the habitat and water quality needed to maintain a robust fishery.

With that mission comes a responsibility to correct erroneous statements whether made in the press or, such as in this case, in petitions for rule-making before the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission.

The petition filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation is based on the work of Jack Travelstead, an employee of the Coastal Conservation Association, and former N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries director, Louis Daniel, now contracted with NCWF.

Read the full opinion piece at The Outer Banks Voice.

Price spikes for jumbo shrimp blamed on Gulf of Mexico dead zone

January 30, 2017 — Every spring and summer when the low-oxygen dead zone forms off Louisiana’s coastline, the price of jumbo shrimp briefly spikes, affecting Gulf of Mexico fishers, consumers and seafood markets, according to a new study published Monday (Jan. 30) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And the price for smaller shrimp generally falls.

The positive effect of the price increase on jumbo shrimp for Gulf commercial shrimpers are fleeting, however. That’s because the rise often triggers increased imports of large shrimp from foreign producers, including farm-raised shrimp, which quickly drive down prices.

Read the full story at The New Orleans Times-Picayune

New England effort to research declining shrimp is underway

January 29, 2017 — Portland, Maine — A group of fishermen selected to help study New England’s declining commercial species of shrimp is beginning its work.

The states of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire tapped eight shrimp trawlers and five shrimp trappers to collect shrimp to provide biological data about the fishery.

 The fishery has been shut down for four years in a row, and scientists say the Northern shrimp species has been hit hard by warming waters.

Fishing regulators say some of the trawlers began their work in the middle of January. The trappers and some more of the trawlers are scheduled to begin during the week that starts on Monday.

Read the full story at The Daily Progress

FDA, EPA Release Final Fish Consumption Advice

January 24, 2017 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have issued final advice regarding fish consumption, with the aim of helping pregnant women and those of childbearing years, along with breastfeeding mothers and parents of young children, make better choices about healthy and safe-to-eat fish, including shellfish.

To simplify the selection process, the agencies have created a reference chart (pictured) that sorts 62 types of fish into three categories: “Best choices” (two to three weekly servings recommended), “Good choices” (one weekly serving), and “Fish to Avoid.” According to FDA and EPA, “Best Choices” fish make up almost 90 percent of fish consumed in the United States.

An FDA analysis of fish consumption data discovered that half of pregnant women surveyed ate fewer than 2 ounces a week, much less than the recommended amount. Because the nutritional advantages of fish consumption are key to healthy development during pregnancy and early childhood, the agencies are advising two to three weekly servings of lower-mercury fish for pregnant women and women who may become pregnant, or 8 to 12 ounces. However, since all fish contain at least traces of mercury, which can be harmful to the brain and nervous system after prolonged exposure, the maximum level of consumption recommended in the final advice is still the previously recommended weekly level of 12 ounces, consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

For adults, a usual serving is 4 ounces of fish, measured before cooking, while serving sizes for children should be smaller and adjusted by age and total calorie needs. The agencies recommend that children eat fish once or twice weekly, chosen from a variety of species.

Read the full story at the Progressive Grocer

SOUTHEASTERN FISHERIES ASSOCIATION: Eat More Sustainable Seafood for Health and Taste Benefits

January 20, 2017 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA):

SFA President Peter Jarvis Says: “Eat More Sustainable Seafood for Health and Taste Benefits”

WASHINGTON — Soon after he’s sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump will dine on Maine lobster, Gulf shrimp, and Seven Hills Angus beef, to name a few dishes.

These foods are all on the menu for the inaugural luncheon, a long-standing tradition in which the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies hosts a meal for the president and vice president at the Capitol following the inaugural address.

The committee organized its first luncheon in 1953, when lawmakers welcomed President Dwight Eisenhower for creamed chicken, baked ham and potato puffs in the Capitol’s Old Senate Chamber.

Dishes, consumed between toasts, gift presentations and speeches, often encompass foods from the home states of the new leaders, though Trump’s menu owes heavily to California, not his home state of New York or Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s state of Indiana.

President Barack Obama’s 2013 luncheon boasted a menu of steamed lobster, grilled bison and apple pie.

Trump’s, which will be held in the Statuary Hall, will feature three courses.

The first, Maine lobster and Gulf shrimp with saffron sauce and peanut crumble, will be accompanied by a J. Lohr 2013 Arroyo Vista Chardonnay.

The Gulf shrimp may be a tribute to Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located and which the President-elect has called his “second home.”

Read the original story at CNN

NORTH CAROLINA: Hearing on proposed fishing limits draws a thousand

January 19, 2017 — Commercial fishermen, biologists, conservationists and seafood consumers came out in force Tuesday in New Bern to stop proposed regulations that would restrict commercial fishing in North Carolina’s sounds and estuaries.

Several shrimp boats traveled up the Neuse River and anchored off Union Point Park for Tuesday’s meeting at New Bern Riverfront Convention Center, a meeting that drew about a thousand people, most of them opposed to a petition from the nonprofit N.C. Wildlife Federation to restrict commercial fishing in North Carolina.

Committees of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission voted at the end of the 7½-hour meeting to recommend denying the petition that would have restricted the number of days commercial fishermen could fish in special secondary nursery areas to three a week (four days per week in the ocean); reduce headrope length on shrimp trawlers to 90 feet from 220 feet in internal coastal waters and 110 feet in the ocean; and calls for a mesh size study on fishing nets to limit the harvest of juvenile Atlantic croaker and spot.

Supporters of the petition said the restrictions were an attempt to increase the bounty of shrimp, croaker and spot by giving juveniles a chance to mature and reproduce for one generation instead of being lost in the bycatch, which generally are fish not targeted by commercial fishermen that nevertheless are caught up in nets.

However, opponents to the petition said there was no science to the studies that looked at the fish populations from 1981 to 2015. Despite the declining numbers of stock being presented, shrimpers said last year was the best catch they could remember and the stock was not declining.

Read the full story at the New Bern Sun Journal

NORTH CAROLINA: Fisheries committees vote against further regulations

January 18, 2017 — NEW BERN, N.C. — Five North Carolina fisheries committees have rejected a proposal to further regulate shrimp trawling after a public meeting that ended with 60 people waiting to speak.

The Sun Journal of New Bern reports (http://bit.ly/2jZDKVo) the committees voted Tuesday to recommend that the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission deny the request from the state Wildlife Federation for more regulations.

The nonprofit conservation group’s petition wanted to reduce the number of days shrimp trawlers could fish, how much they could fish and where they could trawl in North Carolina waters.

So many people spoke against the petition that the chairman of the panel had to stop the public hearing while 60 people were still signed up to speak.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the News & Record