Saving Seafood

Managers consider catch quotas for still-closed shrimp fishery

March 15 — Regulators are set to finalize the draft amendment for managing northern shrimp and it appears limiting entry will not be part of the new management strategy for the beleaguered Gulf of Maine fishery.

“Limited access has been used in a number of fisheries along the Atlantic coast to control effort while maintaining access by harvesters who have demonstrated a history in the fishery,” states the draft of management Amendment 3 regulators will consider when they convene Thursday in Portland, Maine. “However, during the scoping process for Amendment 3, the (northern shrimp) section decided not to pursue limited entry as a means of controlling effort and stabilizing the fishery.”

Instead, the northern shrimp section, which manages the the Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery under the mandate of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, will consider management options such as restricting fishing effort with hard state-specific total allowable catch quotas, as well as instituting mandatory gear and more-timely reporting requirements.

Of course, none of that really matters until regulators can re-open the fishery. It is dominated by Maine shrimpers but also populated by fishermen from Massachusetts and New Hampshire — many of them groundfishermen and lobstermen using the northern shrimp as a secondary fishery.

The Gulf of Maine, already home to a cod fishery in crisis, recently entered its fourth consecutive season closed to northern shrimp fishing.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section to Meet March 16, 2017: Meeting Materials Now Available

March 9, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet on March 16, 2017 from 10 AM – 12:30 PM at the Westin Portland Harborview, 157 High Street, Portland, Maine 04101. Phone: 207.775.2411. At the meeting, the Section will review and consider approval of Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp for public comment.  The materials for the meeting are available here.  The combined document includes a draft agenda; Draft Amendment 3 for Public Comment; a PDT Memo on Plan Goals and Objectives; the 2018 Benchmark Stock Assessment Terms of Reference and Timeline; and a Memo on Northern Shrimp Stock Assessment Subcommittee Membership. If Draft Amendment 3 is approved for public comment, the Commission will issue a press release on the document’s availability for public comment as well as the details of state hearings to gather public input.

For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Trains 15,000 Shrimp and Tilapia Farmers Asia, South Pacific

March 7, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership wrapped up a major aquaculture training program in Indonesia, Thailand, and China that instructed thousands of shrimp and tilapia farmers with modern training designed to improve the industry in these regions.

Organizers initially expected the project to attract 12,500 farmers. But by the December 31, 2016 finishing date, more than 15,000 farmers in all three countries had participated in the training.

“This project has exceeded expectations because of the hard work of many committed partners to deliver improvements based on a detailed, local understanding of what farmers want,” said Anton Immink, SFP’s Aquaculture Director. “We recognize there is still a long way to go for many of these farmers, but we encourage others to actively engage in the improvements needed.”

The program, funded with the support of Walmart Foundation and IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative – has led to improvements in environmental and disease management across shrimp and tilapia farms in all three countries.

Ir. Rizal, head of the aquaculture unit of the Provincial Office of Marine and Fishery Affairs in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, said, “This training helped us improve the knowledge of traditional farmers in West Kalimantan to practice better farming. With better farming we hope that farmers can improve their shrimp and fish harvest.”

Training topics included: Better aquaculture practices; better post-harvest practices; better business management; group formation and management; value of zonal management; Code of Good Practice in Aquaculture; ecological farming, health management, and market outlook.

Sally Ananya, Director of The Food School, one of the partners in Thailand, said “The focus on smaller-scale producers and the specific inclusion of women in the training has been particularly valuable, as the contribution of these groups is often overlooked in projects aiming at improvements in shrimp farming.”

For some farmers, including Chareon Yongstar of Thailand, the training served as an eye-opener.

“I have learned so many practical best practices that I can apply at my farms,” he said. “But more importantly, the experience has raised more questions and made me realize how much more I don’t know. I hope there is a continuation of this program.”

SFP will continue to work closely with the international buyers to understand how these producers fit into existing supplies or how some of them can continue the improvements they have started to become part of the international supply chain.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

MASSACHUSETTS: Shrimp lovers lining up for local catch

March 2, 2017 — Joe Jurek knew his catch would be popular. He just didn’t know how popular.

Jurek, a Gloucester-based groundfisherman who specializes in yellow-tail flounder on most fishing days, now holds the rarified position as the only Massachusetts fisherman allowed to fish for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine.

His tenure as shrimper-in-residence will last only two more weeks, much to the dismay of local northern shrimp lovers — including Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken — who literally have trooped down to the dock with buckets to try to buy the cold-water delicacies. The local shrimp have disappeared from seafood retail shops in the last four years the shrimp fishery has been closed.

“Once people found out about it, it was like a bunch of seagulls,” said Romeo Theken, who along with a couple other dozen friends put in an order for about 230 pounds of the small, sweet shrimp. “Now people know the process, that they have to sign in at the auction and buy it through a seafood dealer.”

Jurek said he’s averaging 350 to 400 pounds of the shrimp per fishing day, which he lands at the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange at an average off-the-boat price of about $6.50 a pound.

Jurek, owner and skipper of the 42-foot FV Mystique Lady, is the lone Massachusetts participant in the eight-week Gulf of Maine winter shrimp sampling program. The study also includes eight trawlers from Maine and one from New Hampshire.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Impact of shrimping regulations felt far and wide along North Carolina coast

March 1, 2017 — For months at a time, fisherman Dennis Aultman lives on his boat, the “Bertie P,” where he said he spends his time trawling along places like the “the Pamlico Sound and out off of the beach off of Ocracoke and Kitty Hawk.”

He’s just one of hundreds of North Carolina fishermen who said any changes to the industry would affect their livelihoods.

The N.C. Wildlife Federation introduced a petition last November to the state Division of Marine Fisheries that adds new regulations on shrimpers.

“I don’t understand why they want to shut us down,” said Aultman. “It creates jobs for a lot of people other than just us.”

But David Knight of the N.C. Wildlife Federation said the organization sees the regulations as a necessity.

“Those that are saying this is about banning shrimp trawling in North Carolina are incorrect,” said Knight. “That statement is untrue. If you look at our petition and read it closely, we want there to be more restriction on these nursery areas.”

Read the full story at WNCT 9

NORTH CAROLINA: Shrimp Trawling Proposal Moves Forward

February 28, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission voted February 16th to grant a petition for rulemaking and began drafting rules to implement it. If adopted, the rules will limit shrimp trawling in most North Carolina waters.

According to the Division of Marine Fisheries, shrimp are the second most economically important fishery in North Carolina.  In communities like Englehard, Lowland, Hobucken and Down East Carteret County, many commercial fishermen make their living trawling for shrimp in the Pamlico Sound.  That’s why a petition to reclassify most internal waters is a contentious topic right now.

At a public hearing last Thursday in Wilmington, the North Carolina Fisheries Commission voted 5-3 to grant a petition for rulemaking that if adopted would limit shrimp trawling in most North Carolina waters.  Proponents say the changes would greatly reduce bycatch and help bolster populations of commercially valuable finfish.  Those against the measure say it will raise the price of locally caught shrimp and could decimate the shrimping industry in North Carolina.  Jerry Schill is the President of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, a nonprofit organization that lobbies local, state and federal policymakers on behalf of commercial fishermen.

“It was not surprising to us but it was very disappointing after you come off an advisory committee meeting in New Bern where the five advisory committees votes overwhelmingly to recommend that the Commission reject the petition or deny the petition.  And they went ahead and accepted it anyway which was very disappointing.”

The petition, submitted on November 2nd by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and modified on January 12th asks the commission to designate all coastal fishing waters not otherwise designated as nursery areas (including the Atlantic Ocean out to three miles from shore) as special secondary nursery areas.  It also seeks to establish clear criteria for the opening of shrimp season and define the type of gear and how and when gear may be used in special secondary nursery areas during shrimp season.  Since the meeting, advisor with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation David Knight says he’s received a positive response from people who feel the recommendations are a step the right direction.

Read the full story at Public Radio East

NORTH CAROLINA: Tale of two sides: Opponents, backers of shrimp trawling petition weigh in

February 23, 2017 — NEW BERN, N.C. — A fishing industry advocacy group said the proposed state regulations in a recently approved petition could sink shrimp trawling in North Carolina, but a recreational fishermen’s environmental nonprofit thinks shrimping will just need to change.

Representatives from the N.C. Fisheries Association, a nonprofit industry group that advocates for the state seafood industry, and the North Carolina branch of the Coastal Conservation Association, an interstate nonprofit dedicated to protecting the coastal environment, spoke Tuesday to a crowd of about 84 people at the regular meeting of the Coastal Carolina Taxpayer’s Association at the Stanly Hall Ballroom. The association invited them to provide their opinions on the petition for rulemaking approved Thursday by the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission.

Jerry Schill, NCFA executive director, said the association thinks the proposed special secondary nursery areas are the biggest problem with the petition’s proposed rules.

“The people who created this petition, they don’t understand the history of the (shrimp trawl bycatch) issue,” he said. “The fishing industry created nursery areas in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the term ‘bycatch’ came up.  Now we have turtle excluder devices in shrimp trawls and sea turtles have rebounded. Finfish bycatch is still an issue, but bycatch reduction devices are being used.”

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

New Rules Could Be Coming to Shuttered Maine Shrimp Fishery

February 23, 2017 — Interstate regulators are holding a pair of meetings to determine how to manage New England’s depleted shrimp fishery in the future.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has been considering new ways to manage Northern shrimp, which have declined as waters have warmed. The fishery is currently shut down.

Regulators are looking at ways to manage the fishery when and if it reopens. They are considering options such as state-by-state quotas, mandating different types of gear and adding new reporting methods.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Northern Shrimp Data Workshop Scheduled for April 5-7, 2017 in Portland, ME

February 22, 2017 — The following has been released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

The Northern Shrimp Data Workshop will be conducted April 5-7, 2017 at the Westin Portland Harborview in Portland, Maine. The Data Workshop is the first in a series of workshops to develop the next shrimp benchmark stock assessment. The assessment will evaluate the health of the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp population and inform management of this species. The Workshop is open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room. 

For data sets to be considered at the workshop, data must be sent in with accompanying methods description to Max Appelman (mappelman@asmfc.org) by March 17, 2017. All available data will be reviewed and vetted by members of the Northern Shrimp Stock Assessment Subcommittee for possible use in the assessment.  

The benchmark stock assessment will be peer reviewed in April 2018. For more information on submission and presentation of materials at the Data Workshop, or attending the Data Workshop, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.               

NORTH CAROLINA: Debate intensifies over new shrimping proposal

February 22, 2017 — Proposed shrimping regulations was once again at the center of debate in New Bern Tuesday night.

A meeting, hosted by the Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association, aimed at providing people in attendance arguments for, and against, the petition.

The petition would create stricter regulations on those fishing for shrimp. It would limit trawling to 3 days a week, increase the size of fish-eyes to reduce bycatch, and limit where trawling could take place.

It would also put significant restrictions on shrimping in the Pamlico Sound.

Those supporting the petition said it is needed to protect shrimp populations, as many fish species have declined in North Carolina waters.

“A lot of things will have to be looked at. Will the petition stand as written? I doubt it,” said Donald Willis, VP of the North Carolina Coastal Conservation Association.

Read the full story at WNCT 9