July 29, 2020 — A bipartisan bill that would eliminate the use of drift gillnets to catch swordfish and thresher sharks in Pacific Ocean waters within five years passed the U.S. Senate last week.
Senate Bill 906 passed by voice vote in the chamber on Thursday, 23 July. It now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has until the end of the year to consider the legislation.
July 14, 2020 — When it comes to Hawaii’s homegrown food sustainability, farming operations usually come to mind. But beyond farm aid, fish aid can’t be forgotten. That’s particularly true in Hawaii, the source of coveted quality catches such as tuna, billfish (swordfish and marlin), and open-ocean fish (mahimahi, ono and opah).
Just as farmers have been hard-hit by the months-long pandemic shutdown, so, too, have fishers and related operations. The shuttering of restaurants, seafood markets and other fish outlets have left some vessels inactive in Honolulu Harbor for 3-1/2 months, with about half of the workforce laid off. The COVID-19 lockdown has caused a 50% reduction in revenue for Hawaii longline vessels over the last four months, totaling losses of more than $20 million so far.
July 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center have initiated a review of essential fish habitat (EFH) provisions in the Pacific Coast Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). This call for data and information is intended to support the review.
The HMS FMP, its EFH provisions, and maps can be found on the Council’s HMS webpage, under “Key Documents”. The HMS FMP includes the following species:
Fishery management plans are required to identify and describe EFH for each life stage and species, identify and minimize impacts from fishing and non-fishing activities, and identify research needs, among other requirements. A complete description of EFH provisions to be included in FMPs can be found in the EFH regulatory guidance at 50 CFR§600.815(a). Information and data should be relevant to:
Information and data sources can include published scientific literature, unpublished scientific reports, information from interested parties, and previously unavailable or inaccessible data.
Information relevant to the HMS EFH review should be submitted to Nicole Nasby-Lucas (nicole.nasby-lucas@noaa.gov) no later than Monday July 13th, 2020. For further information, please contact Kerry Griffin (kerry.griffin@noaa.gov).
April 23, 2020 — A Fort Pierce commercial fishing wholesaler has begun selling freshly caught seafood directly from its boats, docked on the northwest side of the North Causeway.
Walk-up customers can buy fresh snapper, swordfish and yellowfin tuna at discounted rates as long as supplies last each day.
It’s how Day Boat Seafood LLC is adjusting to a drop in demand caused by closed restaurants and fewer dinners being sold by those that remain open for takeout or delivery, said managing partner Scott Taylor.
“Fortunately, we did see some grocery store chains step up to buy more domestically caught seafood, since imported seafood sources have not been able to deliver product,” said Taylor. About 80-90% of seafood bought in the U.S. comes from other countries, he said.
Such effects of the coronavirus pandemic on marine businesses are what a University of Florida research branch is trying to learn about through a new survey open until May 15.
March 31, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Today, NOAA Fisheries announced measures that provide more fishing opportunities for vessels targeting Atlantic swordfish and some tuna species. We will continue under these measures to protect bluefin tuna from overfishing.
The changes give fishermen using pelagic longlines access to new fishing areas originally closed to reduce the number of bluefin caught unintentionally. Under the new rules, longline fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico are also required to use weak hooks only when bluefin tuna are spawning. This means they are only required to use them January through June rather than year-round.
Regardless of where or when they fish, longline fishermen are still not allowed to target bluefin tuna. They can keep some caught unintentionally, but they have to stay within their individual allocation of the U.S. bluefin quota. This allows them to fish for economically valuable species like swordfish and other tunas while protecting bluefin.
The measures are in part a response to the success of the Individual Bluefin Quota (IBQ) Program in reducing bluefin bycatch. We also designed the measures to help reverse a trend of underharvesting the U.S. swordfish quota.
“The success of the IBQ Program has allowed us to simplify and streamline Atlantic HMS management,” said Randy Blankinship, who leads the group responsible for managing Atlantic bluefin in the United States. “With this rule, we are optimizing fishing opportunities for pelagic longline fishermen while continuing to manage and conserve bluefin tuna through the IBQ program and other management measures.”
March 30, 2020 — West Coast industry concerns about taking observers out on vessels or having catch monitors dockside at processing plants due to the risk of COVID-19 is not a concern, according to the NMFS West Coast Region. Unlike Alaska, where travel restrictions make obtaining observer coverage difficult, the West Coast has no such restrictions — yet.
The National Marine Fisheries Service issued an emergency action last week to provide the authority, on a case-by-case basis, to waive observer coverage, some training, and other program requirements while meeting conservation needs and providing an ongoing supply of fish to markets, the agency said in a public notice Friday. A NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator, Office Director, or Science Center Director has the ability to waive observer requirements in three specific circumstances, after consulting with observer providers.
January 23, 2020 — After being grounded since last March, the Hawaii swordfish fishery reported its first landings of the season on Friday, 17 January.
Pacific Business News reported that “The Lady Luck” arrived at Pier 38 Friday morning with about 30,000 tons of swordfish. Within hours, the catch hit the auction floor.
January 22, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
In November, NOAA Fisheries released the findings of two studies on the economic impact of recreational fisheries targeting Atlantic highly migratory species. When combined with other NOAA Fisheries research, these reveal that HMS recreational fishing contributes an estimated $510 million to the U.S. economy each year.
Atlantic tunas, sharks, billfish, and swordfish—together known as HMS—are popular targets for anglers. In 2018, we issued more than 20,000 HMS angling permits to fishermen living across the country. There were also more than 200 tournaments targeting Atlantic HMS that year.
To understand how this robust industry impacts our national economy, we asked 1,806 anglers to break down their fishing trip expenses. We also collected cost and earnings information from 73 tournament operators and spoke with 104 tournament fishing teams. Both surveys were conducted in 2016.
Anglers reported spending an average of $682 for a day of fishing for Atlantic HMS outside a tournament. Daily expenses were highest in the Gulf of Mexico. We estimate they spent $300 more on average there than in New England. Regardless of where they fished, though, anglers say boat fuel was their largest expense. Bait costs came in as a distant second, followed closely by groceries.
January 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:
The Hawai’i swordfish fishery is expected to land its first catch in nine months tomorrow. This healthy fishery produces approximately 55 percent of America’s domestic swordfish and supplies 14 percent of the total US swordfish market.
“Without Hawai’i swordfish, US markets will increase their dependence on foreign suppliers,” said Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which manages the fishery. “Our pelagic longline fisheries are well managed and rigorously monitored, and regulations are enforced. International fishery management organizations consider them model fisheries and have adopted many of the measures we developed. Our fishery targets the North Pacific stock, which is healthy (not overfished or subject to overfishing), and avoids the troubled Eastern Pacific and South Atlantic stocks.”
Some of these rigorous conservation measures include rules protecting sea turtles, gear restrictions and a cap on the number of sea turtles with which the fishery may interact. The fishery currently operates under an annual cap of 17 loggerhead and 16 leatherback turtle interactions and has 100 percent observer coverage. An interaction occurs whenever a sea turtle becomes hooked or entangled in longline gear, as recorded by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) observer.
The fishery closed on March 19 last year after reaching the loggerhead cap and reopened on Jan. 1, 2020.
According to a 2019 biological opinion issued by NMFS, the Hawai’i shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish does not jeopardize the continued existence of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtle populations. Ninety-nine percent of turtle interactions in the fishery result in the turtle being released alive. The loggerhead turtle population, which nests in Japan, is growing at an annual rate of 2.4 percent.
The Council has developed amended measures, which were transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce on Wednesday for review and approval. The amendment, which could be effective as early as May 2020, would remove the loggerhead cap and have a leatherback cap of 16. The amendment includes a trip limit of five loggerhead and two leatherback interactions, after which a vessel would be required to return to port. If that vessel reaches the trip limit again, it could not fish for swordfish for the remainder of the year and it could interact with only five loggerhead and two leatherbacks total the following year.
Mike Lee of Garden and Valley Isle Seafood notes: “The Hawai’i swordfish fishery has a multimillion dollar impact to the local economy, which includes several wholesale seafood distribution companies. Hawai’i swordfish is a premium product with high levels of demand. Fishery closures disrupt market channels and leave our customers little choice but foreign imports.”
“For the last two years the fishery operated for about three months due to premature closure and generated around $1.5 million in landed value, said Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA). “By comparison, the fishery produced three times that revenue ($4.5 million) in 2017 and nearly $9 million in 2009. Additionally, closing the fishery forces swordfish vessels to convert to target tuna (ahi) with the risk that the bigeye tuna quota may be reached before the end of the year, when market demand peaks.”
The Lady Luck, the first vessel from the Hawai’i swordfish fleet, is expected offload around 35,000 pounds of swordfish at Pier 38 in Honolulu around 5 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 17. The swordfish could appear on the auction floor around 9 a.m. For more information, contact Eric Kingma, HLA executive director, at (808) 389-2653 or eric.k.kingma@gmail.com or Asuka Ishizaki, the Council’s protected species coordinator, at (808) 522-8224 or asuka.ishizaki@wpcouncil.org.
FAST FACTS ABOUT THE US SWORDFISH FISHERY OPERATING UNDER HAWAI’I LONGLINE FEDERAL PERMITS
November 4, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council discussed changes related to the interaction of sea turtles in the swordfish fishery and the South Pacific albacore fishery when it met in American Samoa last week. Both require the National Marine Fisheries Service to agree with Council’s action to move forward.
The Council urged NMFS, on the Hawaii deep-set longline fishery consultation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) consider all anticipated scientific information in the biological opinion. This should include the new model developed by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center that evaluates the impacts of fishery interactions on the North Pacific loggerhead and Western Pacific leatherback sea turtle populations.
The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee, prior to last week’s Council meeting, endorsed the new model as best scientific information available for evaluating the fisheries’ impacts. The results of the model for the shallow-set (swordfish) longline fishery showed no discernible impact of the fishery’s interactions on the population trend of loggerhead turtles over the next 100 years. For leatherbacks, it showed a small change in the long-term population trend, indicating that the population impact from the fishery would occur five years earlier at the end of the 100-year period.
The NMFS scientist noted the primary impacts to the leatherback population include directed fisheries and nesting predation where the turtles nest in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
The Council also urged NMFS to apply the model to the Hawai’i deep-set (tuna) and American Samoa longline fisheries so they may be considered in the ongoing consultations. It also recommended NMFS work with the Council to develop only necessary sea turtle protection measures under the ongoing consultations for the Hawai’i deep-set and American Samoa longline fisheries that are appropriate and practicable and ensure the sustainability of the fisheries.
Additionally, the Council will work with NMFS to evaluate the impact of any management actions for reducing turtle interactions on the economic performance and socioeconomic effects of the shallow-set and deep-set longline fisheries, including consideration of the effect on protected species being transferred to foreign fisheries should the U.S. longline fishery close.
Regarding South Pacific albacore tuna, the Council requested NMFS compile and evaluate the catches of albacore from Chinese-flagged longline vessels operating in the southwest Pacific and compare them to the catches and performance of the American Samoa longline fleet.
The Council also wanted to move forward on creating a reference point for South Pacific albacore. It requested NMFS and the U.S. delegation to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission work with other international delegations to develop the reference point. It should include the catch per unit effort of small island developing states and participating territories to reach historical levels, in addition to a biomass target reference point.
Furthermore, they should also work with other international delegations to develop:
a) a harvest plan for South Pacific albacore to achieve its target reference points “soonest” and under 20 years; and
b) an allocation scheme for countries and cooperating members in which small island developing states and participating territories are exempt from annual catch reductions to reach the target reference point or that they can maintain catches commensurate with historical optimal levels. The allocation scheme must take into consideration charter arrangements and allocations should be accounted by fishing vessel registry, such that conservation benefits are not undermined.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.