Southern New England Archives - Page 2 of 3

Warmer waters bring new rules for lobster fishermen

May 11, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — New restrictions are coming to southern New England’s lobster fishery in an attempt to save the area’s population of the crustaceans, which has dwindled as waters have warmed.

An arm of the interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted on Tuesday to pursue new management measures to try to slow the decline of lobsters in the area. Management tools will include changes to legal harvesting size, reductions to the number of traps and seasonal closures to fishing areas.

The board’s move was “a recognition that climate change and warming water temperatures play an increasingly role in lobster stocks, especially in southern New England,” said Tina Berger, a spokeswoman for the commission.

The board’s goal, approved on Tuesday, is to increase egg production in the area by five percent. Decreasing the amount of fishing pressure will give the lobsters a better chance to reproduce, scientists working for the commission have said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Sentinel & Enterprise

Could Trump undo New England national monuments?

November 14, 2016 — Opponents of new national monuments in Maine’s North Woods and off coastal New England are asking whether Donald Trump could reverse those decisions as part of his campaign pledge to overturn President Obama’s executive orders.

Although preliminary, the discussions illustrate how Trump’s election is already affecting debate on conservation and environmental issues.

President-elect Trump vowed repeatedly during his campaign to repeal the Obama policies he viewed as executive overreach. Trump often made those comments in relation to issues such as immigration, foreign policy or environmental regulation.

Fishermen opposed to Obama’s designation of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater ecosystem off the coast of southern New England – known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument – also are exploring their options, whether through Trump or the Republican-controlled Congress.

“In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, I would say there is a lot of talk about what can be done,” said Robert Vanasse, executive director of the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, which represents fishing organizations and businesses. Vanasse classified the discussions as “informal conversations,” but added: “Clearly the companies and fishermen that have been economically damaged by the actions of the Obama administration are thinking about what in this new (political) environment – president, House and Senate – might be possible.”

Obama designated Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument on Sept. 15, protecting an underwater mountain range that is home to many rare and endangered species.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

ASMFC lobster board tackles fishery issues

November 8, 2016 — BAR HARBOR, Maine — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s lobster board adopted no new policies affecting Maine lobstermen during its annual meeting in Bar Harbor at the end of October, but the group did discuss future options for trip reporting, crab bycatch and improving the lobster stock in Southern New England.

The board relies on data from dealer and harvester reporting to make management decisions.

“The technical committee (which provides scientific advice to the management board) highlighted data deficiencies in federal waters,” Fishery Management Plan coordinator Megan Ware said.

Most state fishery departments conduct their own lobster surveys, such as the Department of Marine Resources settlement survey, ventless trap survey and sea sampling program. But each state is different.

“States are collecting a variety of this information, but it’s not uniform,” Ware said.

Offshore waters — beyond the three-mile limit — have become an increasingly important part of the fishery and they are outside the scope of the state programs.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

NILS STOLPE: Why is the summer flounder quota being reduced 50 percent in two years (with another major reduction for the following year)?

October 20, 2016 — Summer flounder, also known as fluke, support recreational and commercial fisheries that are among the most important in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. They have been a mainstay of recreational fishermen either from their own boats or on for-hire vessels, support a large directed commercial fishery, their incidental harvest is important in other fisheries and they are near the top of the list of must-have meals for summer visits to the shore. Hundreds of party and charter boats depend on them for all or for part of their annual incomes, thousands of private boats seek them out every summer, and much of the business bait and tackle shops do every year depends on the fishery. Hundreds of commercial fishing boats target them or take them incidentally in other fisheries.

To say that the summer flounder fishery is important to tens of thousands of people from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras would be an understatement. The fishery is more important to both recreational and commercial fishermen than any other in the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England.

“By 2010 the fishing mortality on summer flounder had declined to its lowest level in at least 30 years, and summer flounder stock biomass was the highest since the stock assessments began in the 1960s” (from The summer flounder chronicles II: new science, new controversy, 2001–2010, M. Terciero, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Dec 2011).

But in a memo dated 25 July 2016, the Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), wrote “the revised understanding of the stock status produced by the assessment update indicates reductions in the estimates of SSB, and increases in the estimates of annual Fs.” So 5 years after declaring that the summer flounder stock was at its highest level in half a century the managers decided fishing mortality was greater that it had been thought to be and that there were fewer summer flounder than was previously estimated.

Following a quota cut for both recreational and commercial fishermen of 27% for the 2016 fishing year it was decided that a 31% cut was necessary in 2017. That’s a 50% reduction in landings in two years.

The NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, MA conducts annual bottom trawl surveys in the spring and the fall that have been continuous since 1963. They are designed to give a relative measure of the abundance of the various species caught. The chart on the right shows that there has been nothing particularly dramatic going on with the summer flounder in either the spring or autumn survey, seemingly nothing that would warrant such draconian quota cuts (note that beginning in 2009 a new survey vessel was employed, resulting in higher absolute catches).

With the quota reduction in 2017, commercial summer flounder landings are going to be at their lowest point since 1974. From 1950 to 2014 annual commercial landings averaged 7,200 metric tons. The 2017 quota will be one third of that. In the words of the head of NMFS in 2011 ”in 1976, federal management of marine fisheries was virtually non-existent. With the exception of state managed waters, federal activities were limited to supporting a patchwork of fishery specific treaties governing international waters, which at that time existed only 12 miles off our nation’s coasts.” In twenty-three of the twenty-six years between 1950 and 1976, pre-Magnuson years with no significant management of summer flounder, commercial landings were higher than they will be in 2017, which will be the fortieth year of intensive management of the fishery. This management has involved annual surveys, at least 100 meetings (usually involving at least a dozen people and usually held at coastal resorts or conference centers) and over 8,000 pages (either dealing with summer flounder alone or in combination with sea bass and scup, which are all included in the same management plan) of reports, calculations, charts and tables, memos, meeting notices and on and on.

Kind of makes you wonder what’s going on with summer flounder management, doesn’t it?

Interstate lobster conservation plan up for key vote soon

October 20, 2016 — BAR HARBOR, Maine — Interstate fishing managers will vote next week on whether to send a proposal to try to rebuild the southern New England lobster population out for public comment.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has been working on new management measures to try to preserve lobsters in the waters of southern New England.

The commission is meeting on Oct. 27 in Bar Harbor, Maine, to decide whether to send the management proposal to the public for consideration.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

CFRF Black Sea Bass Research Fleet

August 24, 2016 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation:

On September 1^st., the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF), in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM), will launch a one-year pilot project to develop a cost-effective method to collect critically needed fishery dependent data on black sea bass (Centropristis striata) in the Southern New England and Mid-Atlantic Bight region. The project will be approached collaboratively by a team of commercial and recreational fishermen and fisheries scientists and managers, and will involve eight months of black sea bass catch and discard characterization from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. The Black Sea Bass Research Fleet will involve eight fishing vessels from a variety of gear types, including trawl, lobster/crab trap, gillnet, and hook and line, in collecting biological black sea bass data as part of routine fishing practices. Participant fishermen will use a specialized tablet app to efficiently and accurately record biological information about black sea bass catch and bycatch throughout the year. The results from the proposed project will help to fill existing data gaps for the northern Atlantic black sea bass, which is an essential first step in developing a management plan that reflects the current state of the black sea bass resource.

The CFRF will be soliciting applications from fishing vessels based in Rhode Island to participate in the Black Sea Bass Research Fleet in September 2016. More information about the project, including application materials, will be available on the CFRF website here.

The CFRF looks forward to getting the Black Sea Bass Research Fleet up and running!

ASMFC American Lobster Board Identifies Management Goal and Options for Draft Addendum XXV to Address Southern New England Stock Declines

August 8, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Lobster Management Board approved development of Draft Addendum XXV to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster. The Draft Addendum seeks to respond to the depleted condition of the SNE stock while preserving a functional portion of the lobster fishery in this area. The document will present a suite of management measures to increase egg production and lower fishing mortality through a combination of management tools including lobster size and escape vent changes, season closures, and trap limits and reductions.

The Draft Addendum responds to the results of the 2015 American lobster benchmark stock assessment which found the SNE stock severely depleted and undergoing recruitment failure with poor prospects of recovery. Declines in population abundance were most pronounced in the inshore portion of the stock where environmental conditions have remained unfavorable to lobsters since the late 1990s. Despite fleet attrition, stock declines have continued. These declines are largely in response to adverse environmental conditions including increasing water temperatures over the last 15 years combined with continued fishing mortality.

Declines in in the offshore portion of the fishery were evident as well though not as severe. However, the offshore portion of the SNE stock likely depends on nearshore larval settlement and offshore migration as the source of recruits (e.g., young of the year lobsters). Therefore, the offshore component is expected to see eventual declines as well.

The Draft Addendum will include a suite of management options aimed to increase egg production from zero to 60%. In its discussion of the stock, the Board agreed the addendum is an initial response to the 2015 stock assessment and stock status will continue to be reviewed. The Draft Addendum will be presented for Board review and possible approval for public comment at the Commission’s Annual Meeting in late October. For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

NOAA Fisheries Releases Draft Northeast Climate Science Action Plan

June 22, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking comments on a draft plan to help guide our approach to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information and to reduce impacts and increase resilience of fish stocks, fishing-dependent communities, and protected species. As part of its efforts to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information, NOAA Fisheries has released a draft climate science action plan for the U.S. Northeast. It outlines a strategy and specific actions for increasing understanding of, preparing for, and responding to climate change effects on the region’s ocean species — including marine and anadromous fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds — and the people that depend on them.

The draft action plan was developed to meet the growing demand for information to better prepare for and respond to climate-related impacts. Ultimately, this information will be used to develop science-based strategies to sustain our marine resources and human communities that depend on them during this time of changing climate. Each NOAA Fisheries’ region will have a climate science action plan that helps implement the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy.

“Our science center is studying how climate variability is affecting fishery species and marine communities in the region,” said Bill Karp, Director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Warming oceans, rising seas, and ocean acidification are affecting marine life and also disrupting fisheries and local economies. We hope this plan will help us provide the kind of information needed to support actions that will ensure sustainable fisheries and coastal communities in this time of great change.”

The Northeast region includes waters that extend from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to the western end of the Scotian Shelf, the Mid-Atlantic Bight, Southern New England, Georges Bank, and the Gulf of Maine. These waters are among the fastest warming in the world’s oceans, a result of both human-caused climate change and natural climate variability. Fish, shellfish, marine mammal, and sea turtle populations are already responding to this changing environment, which is also affecting habitats that these species use, predator-prey relationships, and competition in the ecosystem. Human communities that depend on the function and health of this ecosystem are also feeling the effects.

“With water in the Gulf of Maine warming at a significant pace, understanding how environmental changes are affecting our species is critical to planning for a sustainable fisheries future,” said John Bullard, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region. NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center collects, analyzes and provides scientific information necessary to fulfill the agency’s mission to sustain marine species in watersheds, estuaries and the coastal ocean. The NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Office ensures effective science-based management of these resources to achieve the same goals. The Northeast Regional Climate Action Plan focuses on present climate variability and future climate change in this large marine ecosystem.

“This plan builds on the work already underway in the region to address climate change,” said Jon Hare, of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the plan. “For instance, we’ve been leaders in long-term monitoring needed to explain change, linking stock assessment and climate models, and working toward an ecosystem-based understanding of sub-regions like Georges Bank. We are also providing biannual and annual state-of-the-ecosystem reports to federal fishery managers to support their efforts to implement fishery management in a more holistic way, accounting for ecosystem factors as well as the biology of the fish.”

The core elements of the Northeast Regional Action Plan include developing new multispecies models that incorporate environmental terms such as temperature and ocean acidification, conducting work to better understand how climate change is forcing change in species distribution and habitat use, initiating a Northeast Climate Science Strategy Steering Group, cooperative research with the fishing industry, and integrating social science into ecosystem assessments in order to better account for human dimensions.

Designed to increase the production, delivery, and use of climate-related information, the plan will guide efforts to provide timely information to managers to reduce impacts and increase resilience of fisheries, protected species and coastal communities.

If you have questions about the plan, please contact jon.hare@noaa.gov. Written comments can be submitted via email to nmfs.gar.nerap@noaa.gov by July 29, 2016.

See the release at NOAA

Changing ecosystem, disease challenge lobster industry

June 14, 2016 — In the past decade, the Gulf of Maine has seen an increase in the number of lobsters and a higher demand for lobsters in international markets, which have translated into a boom for Maine’s lobster industry. Recently, however, there have been concerns about what effect a changing climate and disease threats may have on the lobster population off the coast of the state.

As water temperatures rose in the Atlantic off the coast of southern New England and Maine, lobster landings off the coast of Maine rose from under 40 million pounds in 1981 to 140 million in 2013, according to data from Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

By contrast, landings in southern New England went from just over 20 million pounds in 1997, to less than 5 million pounds in 2013.

That change in population is both a boon and a benefit to the lobster economy Down East.

“In New England, we’re sort of straddling the adverse and the positive effects, if you will, of a warming climate,” said Richard Wahle, a marine researcher at the University of Maine. “The fishery has all but collapsed in southern New England, whereas not too much farther north, just into the Gulf of Maine, we’re seeing record abundance of lobsters.

“Things have just really taken off in the past 10-15 years” in the eastern part of Maine, Wahle continued.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Fishermen, Scientists Collaborate to Collect Climate Data

May 23, 2016 — Fishermen plying the waters off the southern New England coast have noticed significant changes in recent years. Though generations of commercial fishermen have made their livings on these highly productive waters, now, they say, they are experiencing the impacts of climate change.

“The water is warming up, and we see different species around than we used to,” says Kevin Jones, captain of the F/V Heather Lynn, which operates out of Point Judith, Rhode Island.

To help understand the ongoing changes in their slice of the ocean, Jones and other fishermen in the region are now part of a fleet gathering much-needed climate data for scientists through a partnership with the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

“There has been a lack of consistent measurements in this region, particularly across the continental shelf south of Rhode Island,” says Glen Gawarkiewicz, a physical oceanographer at WHOI and principal investigator on the project. “In order to understand the changes in ocean conditions and how those changes impact ecosystems and the people who depend on them, we need to collect more data, more often.”

The Shelf Research Fleet Project began in 2014 with that goal in mind. The fleet is made up of commercial fishing vessels that are fishing in or transiting through the study area throughout the year.

Read and watch the full story at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute