Saving Seafood

NEFMC Reelects Dr. John Quinn as Chair and Terry Stockwell as Vice Chair

September 27, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

At the start of its September 24 -27, 2018 meeting in Plymouth, MA, the New England Fishery Management Council reelected Dr. John Quinn of Massachusetts and Terry Stockwell of Maine to serve as Council chair and vice chair for another term. The two ran unopposed and were ushered in unanimously.

This marks Dr. Quinn’s third consecutive year as chairman. Prior to that, he served three years as Council
vice chair under Stockwell. The two switched leadership positions during 2016 but continued to work
together as a team to direct the Council’s management and policy initiatives. “I appreciate the confidence the Council has shown in me over the past couple of years,” said Dr. Quinn. “I look forward to doing more good work with all of our Council members and stakeholders.”

Dr. Quinn recently was promoted to Assistant Dean of Public Interest Law and External Relations at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) School of Law. He is a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he spent 18 years. He also represented many fishing interests while practicing law in private practice for over two decades in New Bedford before joining UMass.

Read the full release here

All Maine lobstermen will have to report fishing details, including secrets of success

February 9, 2018 — All Maine lobstermen will have to start giving up their most treasured fishing secrets, including where they set their traps and how much they catch, in five years.

Starting in 2023, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will require all lobster fishermen to submit detailed reports on their fishing activities, including those in Maine, the nation’s lobster capital, where current regulations only require 10 percent of licensed lobstermen to share their fishing data. In other states, lobster fishermen have been submitting reports on every trip for years.

The commission was considering a plan to require Maine lobstermen to begin filling out these reports immediately, but Maine Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher argued against it. He said it would require state government to hire five employees and raise industry fees by $500,000 to review that many paper records. Keliher said he would rather wait a couple of years for the development of a cheap and easy electronic monitoring system before requiring 100 percent reporting in Maine.

“I’d rather spend my money on things that are more important at this time while we focus on electronic reporting development,” Keliher told the commission.

Fisheries managers say the data is necessary to assess the health of the Gulf of Maine lobster stock and understand the economic impact of other ocean projects, such as deep-sea coral protections or wind farms, on the valuable lobster fishery. In Maine, which lands 83 percent of the nation’s lobsters, the industry caught more than 130 million pounds of lobster valued at $533.1 million in 2016.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

New England Council Unanimously Reelects Dr. John Quinn as Chair and Terry Stockwell as Vice Chair for Another Term

October 3, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council in late September expressed full confidence in its leadership team when it unanimously affirmed the reelection of Dr. John Quinn of Massachusetts and Terry Stockwell of Maine to serve as Council chair and vice chair, respectively, for another term.

This marks Dr. Quinn’s second consecutive year as chairman. Prior to that, he served three years as Council vice chair under Stockwell. The two switched leadership positions during 2016 but continued to work together as a team to direct the Council’s management and policy initiatives.

“I am honored to be reelected by my colleagues as chairman,” said Dr. Quinn. “We have a lot of very complex and important issues facing us in the year ahead, and I am looking forward to collaborating with my fellow Council members and various stakeholders to attempt to solve some of the problems confronting the industry.”

Dr. Quinn is Director of Public Interest Law Programs at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) School of Law. He also is a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and represented many fishing interests while practicing law in private practice for over two decades in New Bedford before joining UMass.

Stockwell is beginning his first term on the Council as a secretarial appointee. He previously served as the state of Maine’s designated fisheries official to the Council but retired from state service in June following a 21-year career at the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR). DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher now sits at the Council table in that capacity. Stockwell was appointed in August to fill the seat previously held by Mary Beth Tooley of Maine, who had served three consecutive terms on the Council, the maximum allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

In another show of confidence in leadership, the Council reelected the same slate of members to serve on its Executive Committee for the 2017-2018 Council year:

  • Doug Grout, chief of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Marine Division, was elected to serve his fifth consecutive term on the Executive Committee;
  • Peter Kendall of New Hampshire also was elected to serve a fifth consecutive term; and
  • Terry Alexander of Maine was elected to serve his second consecutive term.

Dr. Quinn and Stockwell also serve on the Executive Committee in their roles as Council chair and vice chair.

Read the release at the New England Fishery Management Council

New England Fishery Management Council says farewell to Tooley

August 14, 2017 — The New England Fishery Management Council is bidding farewell to Mary Beth Tooley of Maine.

“Your steadfast focus was remarkable, not just for scallops and herring — two species of high interest to you — but for all council actions,” Chairman John Quinn said of Tooley in a news release. “You had a gift for incrementally forging consensuses on extremely difficult issues. You remained gracious and measured in the face of controversy and routinely brought a needed dose of reality to the table with your in-depth understanding of the day-to-day operations of both the scallop and herring fisheries.”

Terry Stockwell of Maine was appointed to fill the seat being vacated by Tooley, who had served three consecutive terms.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NEFMC Bids Farewell to One Member, Welcomes Another

August 11, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council is bidding farewell to Mary Beth Tooley of Maine and welcoming a new face to the Council table – Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

On June 28, 2017, the Secretary of Commerce announced that three New England Council members, whose terms were scheduled to expire, had been reappointed to serve for another three years effective August 12, 2017.

  • Peter Kendall of New Hampshire was appointed to his third term on the Council;
  • Elizabeth “Libby” Etrie of Massachusetts was appointed to a second term; and
  • John Pappalardo of Massachusetts was appointed to a second term.

Terry Stockwell of Maine was appointed to fill the seat being vacated by Tooley, who had served three consecutive terms. Stockwell is the Council’s vice chairman and previously served as the state of Maine’s designated fisheries official to the Council. In June, however, Stockwell retired from state service following a 21-year career at DMR, and he now is beginning his first term as a secretarial appointee.

Read the full release at the NEFMC

Dartmouth attorney, former legislator voted chair of New England Fishery Management Council

September 21, 2016 — A member for four years, John F. Quinn of Dartmouth has been elected chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council, a quasi-government group that develops rules for fisheries operating in federal waters.

Attorney Quinn, 53, ran his first council meeting as chairman in Danvers on Tuesday after the vote. He had been vice chairman for the last three years and switched positions with former chairman E.F. “Terry” Stockwell III of Maine. The two have led the council since 2014, according to a news release.

“I am honored that my colleagues from across New England elevated me to this position,” Quinn said. “It’s a great opportunity.”

The director of public interest law programs at the UMass Dartmouth law school, Quinn said he signed up for the council because of his experience as a lawyer and litigator on SouthCoast. Having worked with fishing issues in the region, it seemed fitting to be on the regulation side, he said.

“I understand the waterfront and some of the challenges the industry is facing,” said Quinn, who married into a fishing family.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Herring limits expanded to prolong catch of lobster bait

July 21, 2016 — An interstate fishing council has extended some of Maine’s emergency Atlantic herring restrictions to Massachusetts to try to close a loophole that threatened to derail the summer supply of lobster bait.

On Wednesday, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted 2-1 to cut the number of days that herring boats can land fish each week within its jurisdiction from five to two, with Maine and New Hampshire representatives voting in favor of the landing day reduction and Massachusetts voting against it. Under its emergency rules, Maine had already cut its landing days down to two in an attempt to prolong the availability of fresh herring throughout the lobster season, but boats that fished that area could still land for five days if they sailed to a Massachusetts port such as Gloucester.

Maine regulators are trying to balance the lobster industry’s demand for fresh bait now, when season is just beginning but offshore herring is in short supply, with its need for fresh bait through the end of summer, when the inshore summer herring quota is in danger of running out. While lobstermen don’t like a bait shortage at any time, the industry is supporting Maine’s herring restrictions to make sure there will still be fresh bait available when they need it most.

Maine regulators who lobbied on behalf of the regional rule change say one large boat that usually fished for menhaden has begun to fish heavily for herring and bring it to Gloucester. They argued that boat, which fishermen described as 160 feet long with a 50-foot seine, could undermine Maine’s efforts to stretch the 19,400 metric ton quota of herring that can be taken from Maine’s coastal waters through September, and punish Maine’s herring fleet, which has supported the state’s effort to balance the need to prolong the quota and still keep at least some herring coming in for lobstermen to bait their traps.

“Without constraints on the landing (in Massachusetts) we would not make it into August, much less September,” said Terry Stockwell of Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald