Saving Seafood

Public invited to meetings of fishing regulators

May 12, 2017 — Gloucester, Massachusetts will sit at the epicenter of the national fishery management universe next week when top regulators from around the country gather here for three days of overviews of the nation’s individual fisheries.

The Council Coordination Committee, which includes chairmen and directors of the eight regional fishery management councils, is set to discuss issues such as national monuments and sanctuaries, habitat, recreational fisheries, enforcement and legislation.

The meetings at the Beauport Hotel Gloucester are being hosted by the New England Fishery Management Council, which was determined to hold them in a working commercial fishing port, according to NEFMC Executive Director Tom Nies.

Nies said the meetings give the geographically diverse regulators — who hale from Alaska to the Caribbean — the chance to discuss issues that cut across all of their councils. It also affords NOAA Fisheries the opportunity speak to the collective councils as a single group.

“We meet twice a year and it’s really the only time all eight council have the chance to discuss national-level policy issues and issues that other councils are facing that we may face ourselves in the future,” Nies said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Fisheries council sets up 2017 priorities

December 20th, 2016 — The New England Fishery Management Council has set its management priorities for 2017, including potential revisions to the management of Atlantic halibut and an examination of the implications of groundfish catches in non-groundfish fisheries.

The list of priorities, which largely charts the council’s expected — perhaps more accurately, hopeful — course in the upcoming year, was approved by the full council after about three hours of discussion at its November meeting.

The prioritization of issues, according to NEFMC Executive Director Tom Nies, is a valuable tool for providing the council with the structure to address pressing issues while also retaining the flexibility to delve into other issues as they present themselves to the council.

“The process is very helpful in focusing the efforts of the council on major tasks and still give it the flexibility through the rest of the year to change course as we have to,” Nies said.

The list of priorities would see the council:

Consider of possible regulatory changes to the northern Gulf of Maine scallop management area;

Improve the Gulf of Maine cod and haddock recreational management process;

Initiate actions to resume landings of the rebuilt barndoor skate stock;

Coordinate long-term wind power issues with other regulatory agencies, and;

Conduct a comprehensive review of council operations.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Times 

New England Fishery Managment Council Approves 2017 Management Priorities

December 16, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Managment Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council recently approved its 2017 management priorities, which will guide the Council’s committees and working groups in the year ahead. The Council annually takes this step for two reasons: to focus its time on mutually agreed-upon issues of importance; and to give the public a snapshot of what to expect in the foreseeable future.

“Our priority-setting exercise helps us determine how to best allocate available resources,” said Council Executive Director Tom Nies. “We always have more proposals on the table than we’re able to handle each year, so by collectively deciding upfront which actions rank the highest, we’re able to work much more efficiently on the Council’s most pressing issues without getting sidetracked.”

Setting annual catch limits and other fishery specifications – a requirement under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act – remains the Council’s highest cross-cutting priority.

But for 2017, the Council also supported many high-priority items that fishermen and other stakeholders said were especially important. Here are a few of the highlights that were approved during the Council’s mid-November meeting in Newport, Rhode Island:

  • Sea scallops: Consider regulatory changes to the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area;
  • Groundfish: Revise Atlantic halibut management measures;
  • Groundfish: Review groundfish catches in “other” non-groundfish fisheries and assess implications;
  • Recreational fishing: Improve Gulf of Maine cod and haddock recreational management process;
  • Barndoor skates: Initiate action to allow landings of this rebuilt species;
  • Habitat: Coordinate wind power issues with other agencies over the long term, not just 2017; and
  • Council: Conduct a programmatic review of Council operations.
  • Atlantic herring – Continue work on Amendment 8 to address localized depletion and user conflicts in the fishery and develop a new acceptable biological catch control rule using a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) process;
  • Habitat – Complete the Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and a separate framework adjustment to address surf clam fishery access to pending Habitat Management Areas;
  • Whiting – Move forward with Amendment 22 to consider limited access for the Small-Mesh Multispecies Complex and consider changes to possession limits;
  • Skates – Prepare an amendment to consider limited access for both the skate bait and skate wing fisheries with provisions that may consider catch share alternatives; and
  • Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management – Continue work on the development of operating models and a draft example Georges Bank Fishery Ecosystem Plan and develop a MSE process to engage fishermen and other stakeholders while conducting testing and validation.

A table identifying all of the Council’s 2017 management priorities is available at: http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/161201_Approved_Priorities.pdf

See the full release at the NEFMC

NEFMC Puts Out Call for Advisory Panel Applicants

August 2, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Industry members who want to serve on one or more of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Advisory Panels (APs) still have time to submit applications. The deadline is Aug. 31, 2016.

“Our advisors are important to us,” said Council Executive Director Tom Nies. “They bring a wide range of experience and perspectives to the table and give us valuable insight into the practical, social, and economic implications of our actions.”

Selected AP members will be appointed to three-year terms running from January 2017 through December 2020.

IMPORTANT: Current advisors who want to continue serving on APs do not need to fill out new applications but MUST email Joan O’Leary at joleary@nefmc.org or fax a note to the Council at (978) 465- 3116 indicating their desire to remain on a particular panel.

Seats are available on the Council’s Habitat, Herring, Enforcement, Monkfish, Red Crab, Skate, Scallop, Whiting, and Groundfish APs, as well as the Groundfish Recreational Advisory Panel, commonly referred to as the RAP.

Potential qualified applicants include:

  • Commercial and recreational fishermen;
  • Seafood processors and dealers; and
  • Other industry stakeholders such as members of conservation groups, academia, or state and local

    management agencies or boards.

Application forms and additional information are available here.

President Obama Will Not Designate Cashes Ledge as a National Monument

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — March 25, 2016 — Earlier today, a spokesperson for the White House Council on Environmental Quality told the Associated Press that Cashes Ledge is “not under consideration for a [national monument] designation at this time.” According to attendees at meetings held yesterday in Massachusetts, Christy Goldfuss, Managing Director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, stated, “Based on feedback we received, we are not considering Cashes Ledge for any kind of action at this time.” Located approximately 80 miles offshore in the Gulf of Maine, Cashes serves an important and historic area that has been fished commercially and recreationally for decades.

The Northeast Seafood Coalition and Associated Fisheries of Maine noted in a joint statement that, “Consideration of National Monument designations in the offshore Canyon areas of Southern New England remains ongoing, and affected fishermen should remain vigilant in assuring that any concerns they may have are addressed.”  Fishing interests including the Atlantic red crab fishery, offshore lobster fishery, squid, mackerel, butterfish, tilefish, albacore wahoo,dolphinfish (mahi mahi), and others have interests in areas that remain on the table. Pelagic longline, rod and reel and greenstick fisheries including yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, bigeye tuna and swordfish could also be affected.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is in the midst of an ongoing process working with fishing, environmental and scientific interests to protect deep sea coral and other important sea bottom attributes in the Northeast Canyons. NEFMC executive director Tom Nies told Saving Seafood, “The Council’s recommendations to protect Cashes Ledge are still being reviewed as part of our Omnibus Habitat Amendment. The Council has not taken a position on any of the monument proposals that have been circulated, but the meeting in Boston did give us the opportunity to explain our deep-sea coral amendment process directly to Ms. Goldfuss. We are very pleased that CEQ traveled to New England to give us this opportunity. I think the industry and state representatives present also appreciated this face-to-face meeting and we all look forward to a continuing dialogue.”

In response to the announcement, Terry Alexander, President, Associated Fisheries of Maine said, “Commercial fishermen in New England face continuous regulatory uncertainty, so it is a relief to know that there is one less restriction on fishing to worry about. We believe that the President was persuaded by a lack of scientific information to support such a designation, as well as the position expressed by stakeholders that decisions about closing areas to fishing should take place under the process outlined in the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA).”

Vito Giacalone, Chair of Governmental Affairs for the Northeast Seafood Coalition said, “We are relieved by the President’s decision to forego a National Monument designation on Cashes Ledge, As stakeholders who participated in a lengthy, thorough and transparent public process to identify and protect important marine habitats such as Cashes Ledge, we are grateful and pleased to hear that the MSA process we all followed has been acknowledged and respected by the Obama Administration. We are sincerely grateful that the President, after gathering all pertinent facts, saw that the use of Executive Order was unnecessary in light of the process that has already taken place through the New England Fisheries Management Council.

The American Antiquities Act of 1906 provides authority for the President to declare national monuments by public proclamation on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States, but fishing representives attending the meeting expressed concern that establishing an Atlantic marine monument usurps the public, inclusive Council/NMFS processes already undertaken and ongoing.

While the process in New England is ongoing, similar processes in the Mid-Atlantic were praised by environmental groups. For their efforts Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) Executive Director Greg DiDomenico and Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) Chairman Rich Robbins were lauded last September as as Conservation Leaders by the New York Aquarium. In October, the two men were honored again together with GSSA president Ernie Panacek as Regional Ocean Champions by the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University. “The process in the Mid-Atlantic should be the model for developing targeted habitat protection in New England,” said Mr. DiDomenico. “An open, collaborative process is the best way to build on these efforts.”