Saving Seafood

THE VIRGINIAN PILOT: Congress must ban drilling off Virginia coast

March 16, 2021 — For a state heavily dependent on Navy operations and tourism to drive its economy, particularly in Hampton Roads, Virginia should welcome efforts to permanently ban oil and gas exploration off the coast.

The prospect of drilling rigs perched in the Atlantic — with their perpetual threat of environmental calamity — should send shivers across the commonwealth, and a new push to enact a ban deserves Virginia’s enthusiastic endorsement.

Rep. Donald McEachin, a Democrat representing Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, introduced a bill barring the Interior Department from issuing leases for exploration or production of oil or gas off Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. McEachin has introduced similar legislation in the past, but it got nowhere.

In recent years, the fate of drilling off Virginia’s coast has been swinging in the partisan political winds.

Read the full story at The Virginian Pilot

ASMFC Sciaenid Board Supplemental Materials Now Available

March 10, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the March 18th webinar of the Commission’s Sciaenid Management Board are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/SciaenidBoardSupplementalMaterials_March2021.pdf. They include a de minimis request from the Potomac River Fisheries Commission and public comment. The details of the meeting follow.

Meeting Overview
The Sciaenid Board will consider approval of state implementation plans to reduce recreational and commercial harvest of Atlantic croaker and spot in response to declining trends in abundance and harvest identified in the latest Traffic Light Approach (TLA) report. In October 2020, based on the TLA, the Board initiated a management response as outlined in Addendum III for each species. Specifically, the Addendum requires states to implement a 50-fish bag limit for their recreational fisheries for each species and reduce commercial harvest by 1% of the average state commercial harvest from the previous 10 years. De minimis states, which have minimal commercial and/or recreational fisheries, are not required to change their measures. However, states with more restrictive measures in place are encouraged to maintain them. The Board will also review the Spot Fishery Management Plan Review and state compliance reports, and receive an update on the ongoing red drum simulation stock assessment.

The main meeting materials are available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/SciaenidBoardMaterials_March2021.pdf.

Webinar Instructions
To register for the webinar go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6403860697365421070, Webinar ID# 815-817-291. The webinar will begin 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting so that people can troubleshoot any connectivity or audio issues they may encounter. If you are having issues with the webinar (connecting to or audio related issues), please contact Chris Jacobs at 703.842.0790.

If you are joining the webinar but will not be using VoIP, you can may also call in at 877.309.2071 (a pin will be provided to you after joining the webinar); see webinar instructions for details on how to receive the pin. For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, you can do so by dialing 877 309 2071 (access code: 389-114-411).

Public Comment

Submitting Comments Prior to the Meeting
Public comment may be provided in advance of the meeting by sending comments to comments@asmfc.org no later than March 15 (Subject line: Sciaenid Board). These will be distributed to the Board on March 16.

Providing Comments at the Meeting
For issues that are not on the agenda, the Board Chair will provide an opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the Board’s attention at the start of the meeting. The Board Chair will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the Board Chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak. For topics that are on the agenda, the Board Chair will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. The Chair has the flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the Chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the Board.

For more information, please contact Savannah Lewis, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at slewis@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office Announces Fisheries Research Funding Opportunity

March 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Up to $250,000 in total fiscal year 2021 grant funds is available to support research into how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species change their behavior to deal with changing habitat and climate. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office’s Fisheries Research Program invites applications through April 26, 2021.

Climate change is already affecting the Chesapeake Bay—and the wildlife that lives there. Between 1901 and 2017, the average air temperature in the Chesapeake Bay watershed rose (depending on location in the watershed) between 0.4 and 2.5 degrees F. Increases in water temperature can affect fish spawning areas and migratory patterns. We also expect a shift to more frequent high-precipitation storms, which will affect salinity levels. That in turn will affect fish species distribution and diversity.

We want to better understand how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species will be affected as conditions change. Resource managers can include that science in their decision-making process. Projects funded through this grant will help us gain that knowledge.

The grants will also provide funding to improve social science around fisheries and habitat. We hope to quantify the role of nearshore habitat for local communities and fisheries in the Middle Peninsula area of Virginia. There are many habitat conservation and shoreline restoration efforts under way there.

We want to help develop the next generation of scientists in NOAA’s mission areas. We are interested in supporting research projects that employ and educate undergraduate or graduate students from groups underrepresented in marine science careers, including minorities.

The deadline for application is April 26, 2021. We invite potential applicants to learn more about the application process by joining us for a webinar on February 26 at 1 p.m. EST.

Read the full release here

Feds eye expansion of dogfish catch

March 8, 2021 — Federal fishing regulators are considering letting commercial fishermen catch more of a species of shark in the coming year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it’s considering allowing more harvest of spiny dogfish in the 2021-22 fishing year. Fishermen catch dogfish off the East Coast.

The top producing states include Massachusetts and Virginia.

The NOAA said the proposed revisions increase catch limits by nearly 10%. That would increase the commercial fishing quota to more than 29 million pounds.

That’s more dogfish than fishermen usually catch in a year. Fishermen brought more than 18 million pounds of spiny dogfish to docks in 2019. The last year in which fishermen brought more than 30 million pounds to docks was in 1999.

Read the full story at The Boston Herald

New Slow Zone off Virginia to Protect Right Whales

March 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On March 3, 2021, an observer on board the HDR Naval research vessel observed the presence of right whales east of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Virginia Beach Slow Zone is in effect through March 18, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

East of Virginia Beach, March 3-18, 2021

37 10 N
36 32 N
074 51 W
075 40 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

PUBLIC COMMENT TO SHAPE FUTURE OF ROCKFISH HARVEST

February 11, 2021 — Managing rockfish (striped bass) is like managing the Orioles or Nationals: everybody has an opinion on how to do it. Even as we acknowledge the significant challenges that Major League Baseball managers face, the rockfish issue is a lot more complicated. After all, it concerns tens of millions of fish swimming the Atlantic coast past 13 jurisdictions from North Carolina to Canada. The most recent data indicate that our beloved rock are overfished, and that we are overfishing them. Worse yet, the current version of the management plan in effect along the coast dates from 2003.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which has legal authority to coordinate and enforce each jurisdiction’s local management plans, seeks to develop a new coastwide plan, to be known as Amendment 7. At its winter meeting last week, ASMFC’s commissioners (made up of three representatives from each Atlantic state, plus the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and NOAA) approved a Public Information Document (PID), asking for written comment from “stakeholders” (that’s any of us concerned with the health of these iconic fish) through April 9. The commission will also conduct public hearings, probably by webinar with dates and information announced on its web site.

It reads, “The purpose of this document [the PID] is to inform the public of the commission’s intent to gather information concerning Atlantic striped bass and to provide an opportunity for the public to identify major issues and alternatives relative to the management of this species. Input received at the start of the amendment process can have a major influence in the final outcome of the amendment.”

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

KRISTEN MINOGUE: Shark tags reveal an endangered species returning to natural refuge

December 28, 2020 — In the coastal waters of the mid-Atlantic, an endangered shark is making a comeback. Led by former Smithsonian postdoc Chuck Bangley, scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) tagged and tracked nearly two dozen dusky sharks over the course of a year as part of the Smithsonian’s Movement of Life Initiative. They discovered that a protected zone put in place 15 years ago is paying off — but with climate change, it may need some tweaking.

Dusky sharks are what Bangley calls “the archetypal big, gray shark.” Born 3 feet long, as babies, they’re already big enough to prey on some other shark species. But they’re slow-growing. It can take 16 to 29 years for them to mature. If their populations take a hit, recovery can take decades.

An endangered species, duskies aren’t very common in Delaware waters. When they do surface, they’re easily mistaken for sandbar sharks. But in this new study, the Smithsonian tracked dusky sharks swimming past the southern tip of Delaware on their migrations up and down the Atlantic. For conservationists, it’s a sign that protections put in place are slowly starting to pay off.

The sharks’ numbers plummeted in the 1980s and 1990s, when well-intentioned managers offered sharks as an “alternative fishery,” while other stocks, like cod, were collapsing. The overfishing that followed wiped out anywhere from 65% to 90% of the Chesapeake’s duskies, said Bangley, now a postdoc at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Managers banned all intentional dusky shark fishing in 2000. Five years later, they created the Mid-Atlantic Shark Closed Area along the North Carolina coast. The zone prohibits bottom longline fishing, which can ensnare dusky sharks, for seven months of the year.

Read the full story at Delaware State News

Keel laid for ship that will build major Virginia offshore wind project

December 17, 2020 — The keel has been laid for the vessel that will help create an $8 billion offshore wind farm off the Virginia coast, which will be the largest offshore wind project in the United States.

Dominion Energy made the announcement on Wednesday, calling it a “monumental step for the offshore wind industry in America.” The keel is the bottom-most central steel structural beam on a vessel.

The 472-foot ship, which will be the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel, is being constructed by the global marine shipbuilding firm Keppel AmFELS at its Brownsville, Texas shipyard. Officials have lauded its domestic-focused supply chain, which will use more than 14,000 tons of U.S. steel, most from Alabama and West Virginia.

Read the full story at WAVY

Virginia Adopts 10% Menhaden Harvest Cut

December 16, 2020 — Virginia’s menhaden harvest, now under the control of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), has officially been reduced by 10 percent to comply with the Atlantic coast-wide fishery quota.

It’s the first state reduction since VMRC took over management of the fishery from the General Assembly. In recent years, Virginia legislators had failed to adopt limits set by coastal fishery managers, and ultimately the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) found Virginia out of compliance. That lack of compliance put Virginia at risk of a menhaden fishing moratorium, but VMRC’s taking over management of the fishery in April 2020 avoided the looming moratorium.

In August, ASMFC committed to using Ecological Reference Points in its fishery decision-making, which take into account menhaden’s role in the food chain, not just its abundance. As Bay Bulletin reported, ASMFC voted in October to reduce the entire Atlantic catch by 10 percent.

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Debate swirls around proposed regulation that could set aside more parts of the Chesapeake Bay for commercial oyster harvest

December 14, 2020 — Tal Petty calls the water in his corner of the Patuxent River “magic.”

The oysters living in its depths draw a special mineral taste from clay on the river floor, and fossils along the shore, he said. And those oysters wouldn’t even be there if it weren’t for Petty, who grows them in underwater cages before selling them nationwide.

His business is quite a bit different from that of traditional watermen, who tong the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries for wild oysters. And environmentalists argue it’s an improvement, since adding oysters to the bay means adding thousands of natural filters capable of removing harmful nitrogen and sediment as they feed.

Lately, however, oyster farmers and watermen have been at odds over a regulation that could make it more difficult for oyster farming operations like Petty’s Hollywood Oyster Company to get started.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering a rule that would make any area of the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries with five or more wild oysters per square meter eligible to become a “public shellfish fishery area.” These zones are exclusively for commercial harvesters.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun