Saving Seafood

May Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Landings Largest Since May 2009

June 26, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service is reporting May 2018 Gulf of Mexico shrimp landings (all species, headless) of 16.281 million pounds compared to 14.585 million pounds in May 2017. This is the largest May total since 16.288 million pounds were landed in May 2009.

The Louisiana fishery led all Gulf states in May with landings totaling 10.369 million pounds. This is considerable since there hasn’t been a single production month in excess of 10 million pounds in that state since June 2014.

The cumulative total for the entire Gulf now stands at 28.14 million pounds; 2.1 million pounds or seven percent below the Jan-May 2017 total of 30.25 million pounds. The trend is still notable as landings in each of the last two months have exceeded the prior five-year average and the 2018 cumulative total stands 5.2 million pounds or 23 percent above the cumulative total of the prior five-year average.

As you would expect, ex-vessel prices are lower, especially for 21/25 and smaller count shrimp; and the Urner Barry markets have come under considerable pressure in recent sessions as seasonal production expands and where carryover inventory exists. Weakness is evident throughout the complex, but especially on 16/20 and smaller headless shell-on shrimp, and all-size PUD’s and P&D’s.

This story was originally published in Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

Red snapper season gains length this year

May 31, 2018 — The Gulf of Mexico off Texas’ upper and middle coast is likely to be a bit bumpy now through the weekend as a moderate, 10- to 15-knot south wind is predicted to kick up 2- to 4-foot seas in offshore waters. Add a little wind-chop and tight wave intervals to the mix, and the open Gulf could be irritatingly, if not nauseatingly, uncomfortable for recreational anglers bouncing, rolling and pitching in the Gulf in 20- to 26-foot fishing boats.

But that’s not likely to blunt the number of Texas-based anglers heading offshore beginning Friday. They have reason to be encouraged and excited. Friday marks the opening of what promises to be the longest red snapper fishing season in more than a decade for Texas recreational anglers fishing from private boats in waters beyond the state’s jurisdictional boundary.

After two decades of seeing recreational fishing season for red snapper in Gulf water under federal jurisdiction (beyond 9 nautical miles) steadily shrink from year-round until 1997 to as few as 11 days in 2016, Texas anglers fishing in federal waters will this year be able to catch and retain the Gulf’s most popular reef fish for what state fisheries managers project will be an 82-day season.

That 82-day season, tentatively set to end Aug. 21, is almost double 2017’s 42-day federal-water season for private-boat anglers, nearly eight times 2016’s 11-day season and the longest since a 194-day season in 2007. The federal-water recreational snapper limit will remain two snapper per day with a 16-inch minimum length requirement.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle

 

The Texas Oyster Industry Is Now a Shell of Itself

April 27, 2018 — It’s the first day of Texas oyster season, and Galveston Bay is packed with so many boats that 33-year-old Captain Joaquin Padilla decides to post a video of them on Facebook, adding a side-eye emoji as comment. Padilla has been on the water with his little crew since sunup, steering his boat, the Miss Kosovare, in languid circles, dragging his dredge—a chain and metal basket about the size of a basking shark’s mouth—over the oyster reefs below. His is one of about 150 trawlers out this November day, harvesting bivalves from the limited wild reefs on the bottom of Galveston Bay, right in Houston’s backyard.

Out on the water, Padilla sticks with a smaller group of about ten boats that all belong to his buddies and family—his father, uncle, brother-in-law, and cousins all make a living oystering, too. Two of his friends, a pair of brothers—one in rubber overalls, the other in jeans—are working as his deckhands, pulling in the dredge and culling through hundreds of oysters as they crash onto the stainless-steel table before them.

Hammers in hand, the brothers clean and sort oysters more quickly than a droid could, loading their haul into giant pails on one end of the table, while pushing the undersized and dead ones back out into the water off the other. It’s arduous work—muddy, sweaty, and noisy from the diesel engine and the dredge’s clinking chain.

By 9 a.m. the Miss Kosovare has bagged the state-mandated 30-sack catch limit. Almost everybody on the water has. It’s easy enough work, not even late enough for the wind to come up and churn the bay to chocolate milk. Tejano music blasts from the deck on the ride back in to Prestige Oysters, where Padilla works. But there’s talk back on the docks. The fishermen are worried about the future. They know they have a rough season ahead.

They know the state, charged with protecting the threatened, finite resource that is our public reefs, has opened only 14 of the 34 shellfish classification areas along the Texas coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which has reduced the oyster population significantly. East Galveston Bay, a huge area where 150 boats typically could work for six months easy, has lost practically every single oyster.

This morning they’ve been fishing what the state calls TX 7, a portion of Galveston Bay that is, for the moment, full of market-sized oysters. But 150 boats on a two-by-two-mile stretch of water, not all of which is covered in oyster reef, is a lot of boats. How long the open sections will be able to provide three-inch oysters—the legal size for harvestable specimens in public waters during public season, which runs from November 1 to April 30—is anybody’s guess.         

Read the full story at Houstonia

 

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross praises red snapper recreational pilot program

April 23, 2018 — U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross expressed praise on Tuesday, 17 April, for a pilot program that gives states along the Gulf of Mexico more power in managing the red snapper recreational fishery.

NOAA Fisheries previously unveiled a two-year pilot program giving partial control of the fishery to officials in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. All five states submitted applications that will enable them to manage the recreation fishery in both state waters, which run for the first nine miles off the coast, and federal waters, which extend beyond that.

“Granting these experimental fishing permits to all five states continues the work we started last year to expand recreational fishing opportunities through coordinated, Gulf-wide seasons,” Ross said. “We are going to give the states the opportunity to demonstrate effective management that improves recreational opportunities for all Americans.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Texas Red Snapper Season Extended to 82 Days, Longest Since 2007

April 19, 2018 — After more than two decades of seeing opportunities to catch and retain red snapper from federally controlled waters of the Gulf of Mexico increasingly restricted even as the popular reef fishes’ once-struggling population soared, Texas’ long-suffering offshore recreational anglers this week saw that pendulum swing slightly but significantly the other direction.

In the wake of Monday’s federal approval of a two-year experimental program granting states bordering the Gulf of Mexico partial authority for managing and monitoring harvest of red snapper waters off their coasts, Texas fisheries officials announced they project an 82-day season during which anglers who fish from privately owned vessels will be able to take their two-fish daily limit of snapper from federally controlled waters.

That 82-day season, set to open June 1, is almost double 2017’s 43-day federal-water season for private-boat anglers, nearly eight times 2016’s 11-day season and the longest since a 194-day season in 2007.

“We believe this is a positive move that will benefit our anglers with more opportunity, benefit the resource and allow us to demonstrate that the states can very effectively manage this fishery,” Lance Robinson, deputy director of coastal fisheries for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said of the two-year shift to each state setting snapper season lengths and dates for private-boat anglers. Previously, federal officials set a single season length and dates for the entire Gulf under federal authority.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle

 

Trump Signs Omnibus Spending Bill With Legislation Adding 63,000 H-2B Guest Workers

March 28, 2018 — President Donald Trump has signed a new 2,232-page Omnibus Spending Bill sent to him by the Senate after it passed the House of Representative that includes an increase in the H-2B Guest Worker Program for the remainder of the year.

The H-2B program allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers to fill low-skill, non-agricultural positions. Currently it provides for an annual cap of 66,000 visas per year, with a few exceptions.

The new bill contains a provision to once again allow the Department of Homeland Security to exceed the annual cap on admissions of unskilled non-agricultural workers. If fully implemented by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, it has the potential to add as many as 63,000 additional H-2B guest workers next year, nearly doubling the size of the program.

New Bill Huge Improvement

“The new provision to exceed the cap on admissions will sure will help a lot!” exclaimed Jennifer Jenkins, a Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member and owner of Crystal Seas Oyster in Pass Christian, MS, whose company depends on the more than 150 H-2B workers each year. “I’m not sure it will solve all the problems because there are so many people trying to use the program, but anything is a huge improvement from where we were a week ago.”

The H-2B Foreign Worker program, many from Mexico and Central America, has continued to grow at a steady pace. The Gulf States of Texas, Florida and Louisiana have more than 33,000 H-2B workers alone, with occupational categories that include: landscaping and grounds keeping workers, seafood workers, forest and conservation workers, and maids and housekeeping.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

 

Texas fisheries get disaster area declaration in wake of Hurricane Harvey

March 28, 2018 — Seven months after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has issued a national disaster declaration for the state’s commercial fishery.

The “commercial fishery disaster” designation will allow commercial fishermen in the state to receive federal funds and other assistance. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 included USD 200 million (EUR 161 million) for fishery disasters declared by the U.S. Department of Commerce in calendar year 2017, and for fishery disasters resulting from Hurricanes Maria, Irma, and Harvey.

“The 2017 hurricane season was catastrophic for communities in Texas and for states along the Gulf of Mexico,” Ross said in a NOAA press release. “The Department of Commerce and the [p]resident are committed to working closely with Congress and the [s]tate of Texas to continue supporting recovery efforts for fishermen and local fishing businesses affected by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Coast Guard risks rough seas stopping red snapper poachers

March 2, 2018 — SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — A small but swift U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat bounced violently over the choppy Gulf of Mexico last week, becoming airborne more than once before the chief ordered the pilot to slow down.

Five-foot waves and constant swell are typical February conditions at the U.S.-Mexico maritime boundary — even pleasant compared to other days the armed and ready crew members search for Mexican fishermen poaching in U.S. waters.

Four or five men in a simple Mexican watercraft, or “lancha,” can easily take tens of thousands of dollars in fish on a single run. The boats don’t look like much — rickety white fiberglass hulls with no steering wheels, powered by standard Yamaha outboard motors, equipped with simple fishing gear and rusting navigational equipment. But Mexican poachers are mostly winning the cat-and-mouse game, slipping through the violent chop and back into Mexico’s territorial seas, coolers laden with fish.

Their goal is one of the most popular commercial and recreational fish species in the Gulf today: red snapper.

“Almost exclusively what we’re seeing being targeted is red snapper,” said Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of the Coast Guard regional crew out of Corpus Christi, Texas. “Where they’re going and the reefs they’re fishing in are definitely populated by red snapper, which aren’t migratory. They’re hitting places where they know they’re going to catch red snapper, and that’s what we’re seeing from their catch.”

The U.S. has protested to the Mexico government, but the response has been lacking. Last year, NOAA decertified Mexico under compliance rules aimed at tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The decertification means that no Mexican fishing vessel can enter any U.S. port, accept under exceptional circumstances and only with the Coast Guard’s approval.

Several million dollars’ worth of red snapper have already been stolen from U.S. waters by Mexican fisherman. As the problem persists and may worsen, NOAA may go even further next year. An officer with NOAA’s enforcement division says the next step could entail restrictions or an outright ban on imports of fish from Mexico.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Interior to Hold Massive Sale of Offshore Oil and Gas Leases

February 21, 2018 — The Interior Department announced Friday that the sale of leases on 77.3 million acres off the Southeast coast for oil and gas exploration will occur on March 21.

The sale, which Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said is the largest in U.S. history, will consist of leases off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. It includes all currently unleased areas in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Responsibly developing our offshore energy resources is a major pillar of President Trump’s American Energy Dominance strategy,” Bernhardt said. “A strong offshore energy program supports tens of thousands good paying jobs and provides the affordable and reliable energy we need to heat homes, fuel our cars, and power our economy.”

Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a New Orleans-based nonprofit that is heavily involved in environmental issues asked “How stupid can we be?” when she learned of the scheduled lease sale.

“The Gulf Coast is consistently nailed by hurricanes and yet our government insists on an energy strategy that exacerbates these hurricanes,” she said.

“A real energy strategy would be one that pursues renewables full speed ahead. Their so-called energy strategy is really a scheme for corrupt politicians to enrich themselves and their cronies,” Rolfes added.

Raleigh Hoke, campaign director of the Gulf Restoration Network, also took a dim view of the Interior Department announcement.

“We are disappointed that this Administration is moving forward with yet another lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico while simultaneously rolling back key safety measures to protect workers and the environment,” Hoke said. “Oil spills and accidents are an everyday occurrence in the Gulf, and we’re still at risk of a major catastrophe like the 2010 BP drilling disaster. We need stronger safety requirements, not weaker, and an end to all new offshore leasing in the Gulf.”

“Trump’s auctioning off this massive amount of our ocean while at the same time proposing to rollback important environmental and safety requirements,” agreed Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

 

After turbulent 2017, states want to control snapper fishery

February 14, 2018 — A year after the Trump administration likely broke the law by allowing overfishing of red snapper, five Gulf of Mexico states now want special power to manage the species in federal waters in 2018 and 2019.

They’re likely to get their way, too.

Unlike last year, the new plan would not allow sports anglers in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to exceed federal quotas, but the states would get the authority to call the shots in setting their own fishing seasons in federal waters.

Daryl Carpenter, the owner of Reel Screamers Guide Service in Grand Isle, La., and president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, can’t wait, saying the federal management system is broken and “has failed to come up with any type of fix.”

“It’s too dominated by non-interested groups, by your green groups who want to hug and cherish the fish,” he said. “You can get nothing done in the federal system. … I’m 100 percent in favor. The states need to take control of this and get the federal government out of our damn life.”

Critics say that ceding control to the states would be a mistake, arguing that federal officials long have led the way in rebuilding the red snapper population and remain the most qualified to do the job.

“The federal management process is the most open and transparent, no matter how frustrating,” said Shane Cantrell, executive director of the Charter Fisherman’s Association and the owner of Galveston Sea Ventures in Galveston, Texas.

All five states are pushing the idea as an experiment that would be allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, the nation’s premier fishing law.

They want NOAA Fisheries to give them “exempted fishing permits.” Those permits allow fishing that would normally be banned under federal law, usually as pilot projects done in the name of research.

“It allows us to exempt certain fishing activities from the regulations,” said Roy Crabtree, administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“How well will it work? Well, time will tell,” Crabtree said. “But I think a lot of people will argue that we’ve had some quota overruns in the past and we’ve had a lot of dissatisfied customers, so I think we do need to try something different.”

Many state officials say that NOAA is all but certain to sign off on the exempted fishing permits, after Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby got Congress to include language in a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill that directed the agency to come up with a pilot program to give states more control.

After the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted on Feb. 1 to approve the plans, Alabama officials said they were one step closer to taking over management of the red snapper.

Read the full story at E&E News