Saving Seafood

Study: Bay Rockfish Die at Twice the Rate of Those in Atlantic

May 18, 2020 — Striped bass that stay year-round in the Chesapeake Bay are dying at nearly twice the rate of those that migrate each year to the Atlantic Ocean, a new study has found. The cause or causes aren’t clear, but the lead researcher said that it needs to be addressed to right a troubling decline in the prized finfish.

An electronic tagging study led by scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science found that large mature striped bass leave the Bay every year to roam coastal waters until the next spring. Those smaller, younger fish that remain in the Chesapeake died off at the rate of 70% a year.

“The mortality rate is alarming,” said Dave Secor, a professor at the UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons. “If fish are dying at greater than 50% or 60% a year, that’s a problem.”

The study, published Thursday in the journal PLOS One, appears likely to draw further attention to disease and overfishing, two suspects in the decline of striped bass, also known as rockfish, which are among the most sought-after fish in the Chesapeake and along the Atlantic coast.

UMCES scientists implanted acoustic transmitters in 100 striped bass from the Potomac River and tracked their movements over four years. Signals emitted by their tags were picked up as they swam by receivers stationed in the Bay and along the coast — a kind of E-Z Pass network for fish, as Secor described it.

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Federal funds earmarked for Maryland, Virginia, Delaware fisheries hurt by coronavirus

May 15, 2020 — About $10 million in federal funding has been set aside to assist Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware fisheries hurt by the novel coronavirus.

Virginia fisheries are set to receive $4.5 million, Maryland fisheries will receive $4.1 million and Delaware fisheries will receive $1 million, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Fisheries division.

Specifically, these funds will help address direct or indirect fishery-related losses as well as negative impacts to subsistence, cultural or ceremonial fishing caused by COVID-19, according to NOAA.

Fishery participants eligible for funding will be able to work with their state marine fisheries management agencies, territories or tribes to apply for these funds. In order to obtain funds, a business must have experienced a revenue loss greater than 35 percent of its prior 5-year average or experienced any negative impacts to subsistence, cultural or ceremonial fisheries

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

Large rockfish leave Chesapeake Bay to become ocean migrators

May 15, 2020 — A new electronic tagging study of 100 Potomac River striped bass sheds light on rockfish migration in Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researchers found that when rockfish reach 32 inches in length they leave Chesapeake Bay and become ocean migrators. Small fish stayed in the Bay had higher mortality rates than those that undertook ocean migrations.

“Knowing the size at which they leave, we can do improved management that is tailored better to commercial and  sectors those related to catch and size limits,” said study author and Professor Dave Secor of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “It allows us to bring different parts of the fishery into an assessment model to evaluate stock health and test how effective regulations will be.”

Chesapeake Bay striped , also known as rockfish, (Morone saxatilis) were implanted with two-inch acoustic transmitters and their coastal shelf migrations recorded over a four-year period by telemetry receivers throughout the Mid-Atlantic shelf waters and southern New England. Researchers found that only large striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay migrate to ocean waters when they reach 32 inches in length, and smaller fish remain resident to the Chesapeake Bay, regardless of sex.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

VIRGINIA: Multi-year menhaden quota conflict could finally be at an end

May 15, 2020 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has rescinded a noncompliance finding for the U.S. State of Virginia’s menhaden fishery, potentially ending a conflict over the quota that has been going on for more than two years.

The noncompliance finding was initiated in October 2019 after a multi-year battle over the state’s menhaden catch limits in the Chesapeake Bay. The conflict was initiated in November 2017, when the ASMFC made changes to the menhaden quota up and down the U.S. East Coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ASMFC Withdraws the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Atlantic Menhaden Noncompliance Finding

May 14, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Today, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission notified the Secretary of Commerce that the Commonwealth of Virginia is in compliance with Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. Specifically, the Commonwealth has promulgated regulations to implement the 51,000 metric ton (mt) Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap (cap). For the 2020 fishing season, the Commonwealth set the cap at approximately 36,000 mt, nearly 15,000 mt below Amendment 3’s cap to reflect overages that occurred in 2019. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which now has regulatory authority for menhaden management in state waters, will set the cap at 51,000 mt in 2021 as long as catch is below the cap set in 2020.

“I would like to thank my fellow Virginia Commissioners, Governor Northam, Secretary Strickler, the Virginia General Assembly, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for their attention to this issue,” stated Patrick Keliher, ASMFC Chair and Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “We are appreciative of their hard work to bring the Commonwealth back into compliance prior to the effective date of the moratorium.”

Under the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, upon receiving notification that a state has come back into compliance with a mandatory management measure, the Secretary of Commerce determines whether the state is in compliance. If he concurs with the Commission’s compliance finding, the moratorium is terminated immediately.

Luria demands $10 million in funding to support Virginia fisheries

May 14, 2020 — On Wednesday, Congresswoman Elaine Luria released a letter written to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross outlining the need for nearly $10 million in relief for Virginia’s fisheries and complete transparency with NOAA’s recent funding distribution.

The CARES Act, Section 12005 directs the Department of Commerce to distribute $300 million to the seafood and fishery industry businesses that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

NOAA released its plan last week for distributing these funds throughout each state, of which $4,520,475 is slated to go to Virginia fisheries, which is about 1.5% of the total allocation.

“It is unacceptable that NOAA’s allocation decision does not reflect the dramatic losses Virginia watermen have faced as a result of this pandemic and does not accurately calculate the contribution of Virginia’s fisheries industries to the national seafood industry,” said Luria. “I urge NOAA to immediately revise its allocation formula to provide Virginia at least $10 million in CARES Act fisheries funding.”

Read the full story at WAVY

Despite early season fears, Chesapeake blue crab selling for record prices

May 14, 2020 — In March, the closure of most U.S. restaurants just as the blue crab season in Virginia and Maryland was getting started had retailers, processors, and watermen afraid that the bottom would drop out of the market.

Initial reports in local media indicated that pricing was off, in some cases, as much as 30 percent, and the fear was that the fishery would be in dire straits.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

VIRGINIA: Northam administration says federal fisheries relief ‘falls woefully short’

May 12, 2020 — Virginia’s waters are unusually still this spring.

Ordinarily, May 1 is the start of the charter boat season, a day that sees convoys of boats head out from the ports of coastal Virginia for deeper waters where fish are sought by daytrippers. By then, crabbing and oystering, which usually begin in March, are in full swing. So are the commercial fisheries, many of which operate year-round.

Not so this year. Like so many other industries, fisheries, whether commercial or recreational, have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday announced $300 million in relief funding for fisheries around the nation, Virginia’s top natural resources official says the state’s $4.5 million allocation is nowhere near enough to stem the tide of losses.

“This funding falls woefully short of even beginning to address the devastating impacts fisheries and aquaculture businesses have suffered due to COVID-19,” said Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler in a statement. “The fishing industry in Virginia supports thousands of jobs and generates millions in revenue. The administration must release more funding to help our coastal communities and businesses.”

Read the full story at The Virginia Mercury

Statement From Glenn Cooke Commending President Donald Trump On His Executive Order That Will Improve US Aquaculture Competitiveness and Economic Growth

May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Seafood:

Glenn Cooke, CEO of the Cooke family of companies, provided the following statement after President Donald Trump signed the first ever Executive Order that includes provisions to improve U.S. aquaculture competitiveness and economic growth on Thursday.

“I am very pleased President Trump has recognized that domestic farmed production of aquaculture seafood is vital to help correct the severe trade imbalance and strengthen local food security. This should be viewed as a call to State and local governments that the country is in dire need of domestically produced seafood protein and that they should find ways to support, promote, and expand this essential food sector as other countries have.

As a family company, with marine fish farming operations in Maine and Washington and shellfish farming in North Carolina, and wild fisheries in other states including Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska, we are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that our people put in every day to produce healthy seafood meals for families across the USA. Cooke Aquaculture USA in Maine was very proud to have been chosen as the supplier of sustainably farmed Atlantic salmon for the President’s 2017 inauguration. Our strong operations have shown that aquaculture presents a tremendous opportunity to create thousands of jobs and build vibrant working waterfronts co-existing with traditional fisheries in rural coastal communities.

President Trump and his Executive Agencies are to be commended for their leadership to address the regulatory challenges with establishing seafood farms by revising the National Aquaculture Development Plan and implementing a Nationwide Permit authorizing finfish, seaweed or multi-trophic culture in federal marine waters.”

Read the full release here

Omega Protein anticipates few COVID-19 impacts to Virginia’s menhaden season

May 7, 2020 — Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic’s widespread impact on the U.S. seafood industry, Reedville, Virginia-based Omega Protein is expecting to have relatively few impacts to the menhaden fishery.

Omega Protein, a division of Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke Inc., is by-far the largest fisher of menhaden in the U.S. – catching tens of thousands of tons of the species each year. Primarily used for reduction purposes, the species has avoided the economic hardships of premium seafood species, according to Ben Landry, director of public affairs for Omega Protein.

Read the full story at Seafood Source