Saving Seafood

ASMFC 2019 Spring Meeting Preliminary Agenda and Public Comment Guidelines

March 20, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Please find below the preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2019 Spring Meeting, April 29 – May 2, 2019, in Arlington, VA. The agenda is also available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2019-spring-meeting. Materials will be available on April 17, 2019 on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2019-spring-meeting.

A block of rooms is being held at The Westin Crystal City, 1800 S. Eads Street, Arlington, VA  22202. Meeting attendees, please reserve online via Star Group Website at http://www.starwoodhotels.com/ or call The Westin Crystal City at 703.486.1111 as soon as possible and mention the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to obtain the group room rate of $251.00 plus tax single/dbl. Please be aware you must guarantee your room reservation with a major credit card or one night’s advance payment. Hotel reservations must be made by Monday, April 1, 2019.  Room availability will not be guaranteed beyond this date.  If you are being reimbursed by ASMFC for your travel, please make your reservation directly with the hotel. Reservations made through travel websites do not apply toward our minimum number of required reservations with the hotel. Please note, cancellations at The Westin must be made by 4:00 p.m. two days prior to arrival to avoid penalty and an early departure fee of $100.00 will apply when checking out prior to the confirmed date. If you have any problems at all regarding accommodations please contact Cindy at 703.842.0740 or at crobertson@asmfc.org.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

Spring Meeting

April 29 – May 2, 2019

The Westin Crystal City

Arlington, Virginia

Preliminary Agenda

The agenda is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided below. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of Board meetings. Interested parties should anticipate Boards starting earlier or later than indicated herein.

Monday, April 29

1:00 – 5:00 p.m.                        American Lobster Management Board

  • Update on the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team Spring Meeting and Recommendations to NOAA Fisheries
  • Consider Draft Addendum XXVIII for Public Comment
  • Report from the Bait Working Group
  • Update from Delaware and New York Regarding Implementation of Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan Measures

Tuesday, April 30

8:30– 10:00 a.m.                       Atlantic Herring Management Board 

  • Consider Addendum II for Final Approval
  • Consider Approval of 2019 Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance Reports
  • Update on 2020-2021 Fishery Specifications

10:15 a.m. – Noon                   Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board 

  • Consider Acceptance of 2018 Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Reports for Management Use
  • Consider Management Response to the 2018 Benchmark Stock Assessment
    • Review Technical Committee Report on Reductions Needed to Achieve Fishing Mortality Reference Points
  • Consider Forwarding a Letter to NOAA Fisheries Opposing Proposed Measures to Lift the Ban on Recreational Striped Bass Fishing in the Federal Block Island Sound Transit Zone 

Noon – 1:00 p.m.                     Lunch

12:30 – 5:00 p.m.                      Law Enforcement Committee

(A portion of this meeting may be a closed session for the LEC Coordinator and Committee members only)

  • Presentation and Discussion on Police-Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative and Use of NARCAN/NALAXONE
  • Review 2019 Action Plan and 2019-2023 ASMFC Strategic Plan
  • Review and Discuss Outcomes from the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council Enforcement Workshop
  • Federal and State Agency Reports
  • Review and Discuss Progress of the Offshore Enforcement Vessel Working Group
  • Review Ongoing Enforcement Issues (Closed Session)
  • Discuss Usefulness of Criteria/Metrics in Evaluating Enforcement Effectiveness

1:00 – 2:30 p.m.                        Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (continued)

2:45 – 3:15 p.m.                        Coastal Sharks Management Board 

  • Review Highly Migratory Species North Atlantic Shortfin Mako Amendment 11 and Consider a Management Response
  • Consider Approval of 2019 Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance Reports

3:30 – 5:00 p.m.                        Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) Coordinating Council

  • Program/Committee Updates
  • Review and Consider Approval of 2020 Request for Proposals
  • Discuss Committee Restructure

5:30 – 7:00 p.m.                        Annual Awards of Excellence Reception

Wednesday, May 1

8:00 – 10:30 a.m.                      Executive Committee

(A portion of this meeting may be a closed session for Committee members and Commissioners only)

  • Report of the Administrative Oversight Committee
    • Presentation of the FY20 Budget
  • Review Draft Standard Operating Procedures and Policies for Management Board Work Groups
  • Future Annual Meetings Update
  • Executive Director Performance Review (Closed Session)

8:00 a.m. – Noon                      Law Enforcement Committee (continued)

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.          Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board

  • Review Plan Development Team Analysis of Black Sea Bass Commercial Management Strategies to Address Fishery Shifts
  • Consider Approval of Advisory Panel Nomination

12:15 – 1:15 p.m.                      Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 p.m.                        Business Session

  • Consider Approval of the Comprehensive Summer Flounder Amendment
  • Review and Consider Approval of 2019-2023 Strategic Plan

2:45 – 5:15 p.m.                        Horseshoe Crab Management Board

  • Review and Consider Acceptance of 2019 Horseshoe Crab Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Reports for Management Use
  • Consider Potential Management Response to the 2019 Benchmark Stock Assessment
  • Consider Approval of Advisory Panel Nomination

Thursday, May 2

8:00 – 9:45 a.m.                         Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board

  • Executive Committee Report
  • Law Enforcement Committee Report
  • Artificial Reef Committee Report
  • Consider Noncompliance Recommendations (If Necessary)

9:45 – 10:00 a.m.                      Business Session (continued)

  • Consider Noncompliance Recommendations (If Necessary)

10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.          South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board 

  • Consider Approval of Cobia Draft Amendment 1 for Public Comment
  • Consider Potential Management Action for Spot and Atlantic Croaker

Public Comment Guidelines

With the intent of developing policies in the Commission’s procedures for public participation that result in a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will use a speaker sign-up list in deciding 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, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have 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 agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.

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In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).

1.    Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of a meeting week will be included in the briefing materials.

2.    Comments received by 5:00 PM on the Tuesday immediately preceding the scheduled ASMFC Meeting (in this case, the Tuesday deadline will be April 23, 2019) will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting and a limited number of copies will be provided at the meeting.

3.    Following the Tuesday, April 23, 2019 5:00 PM deadline, the commenter will be responsible for distributing the information to the management board prior to the board meeting or providing enough copies for the management board consideration at the meeting (a minimum of 50 copies).

The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.  As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail, fax, and email.

As High-Tide Flooding Worsens, More Pollution Is Washing to the Sea

March 15, 2019 — As high-tide flooding worsened in Norfolk, Virginia in recent years, Margaret Mulholland, a biological oceanographer at Old Dominion University, started to think about the debris she saw in the waters that flowed back into Chesapeake Bay. Tipped-over garbage cans. Tossed-away hamburgers. Oil. Dirty diapers. Pet waste.

“This water is coming up on the landscape and taking everything back into the river with it,” says Mulholland, a professor in the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. “I was thinking how no one is counting this stuff (as runoff pollution). It drove me nuts.”

Nuts enough that she decided to sample those waters. That’s why on a recent Saturday morning she was steering her Chevy Bolt EV toward a narrow, flooded ribbon of Norfolk’s 51st Street at high tide. Marsh grasses bordered an inlet of the Lafayette River on one side of the street. A line of houses set back from the street rose on the other. Soon she came upon an overturned trash can, its contents underwater. A few feet away was a box. She opened it, and inside was a toilet. “Oh, this is good,” she said, pulling out her phone for a photo.

It’s an apt metaphor for her pioneering research project, which she has dubbed Measure the Muck.

With global sea levels steadily rising — already up 8 inches in the past century and now increasing at an average of 1.3 inches per decade — the incidence of high-tide “sunny day” or “blue sky” flooding is on the rise, especially along the U.S. East Coast. Those flooding events now routinely wash over sections of cities, and when the waters recede they take with them an excess of nutrients and a toxic mix of pollutants that flows into rivers, bays, and oceans.

Read the full story at Yale Environment 360

Whales are dying along East Coast—and scientists are racing to understand why

March 14, 2019 — On a blustery winter afternoon off the coast of Virginia Beach, people are pressing forward on the bow of the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center’s whale watching boat as a dorsal fin breaks the surface. Cameras click in staccato for a second or two before the humpback whale dives to feed again.

The relatively small dorsal fin belies the humpback’s size. Calves weigh about a ton. Adults can grow heavier than a yellow school bus loaded with kindergarten students. Few things that swim in the sea can break their bones.

A mile to the north, however, by the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, a massive cargo ship is pushing south toward the whales. On this Saturday in late January, these humpbacks are swimming in traffic in the shipping channel that leads vessels to and from some of America’s busiest ports. These shipping vessels are one of the few true physical threats to humpback whales.

“Those big ships, they’re churning up the water and the fish are coming through and that’s what the whales are going for,” says Mark Sedaca, captain of the 65-foot Atlantic Explorer on this whale watching trip.

Read the full story at National Geographic

Mackerel fishery to be scaled back for rest of 2019

March 12, 2019 — The East Coast harvest of an economically important species of small fish will be scaled back for the rest of the year.

Fishermen catch millions of pounds of Atlantic mackerel from Maine to Virginia every year, as the fish is widely used as food. However, federal rules state that the mackerel fishery must be restricted once fishermen approach their limit for the catch of river herring and shad, which are other species of small fish.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 95 percent of the catch cap has been exhausted. That means mackerel fishing vessels will be prohibited from fishing for more than 20,000 pounds of mackerel per trip from Tuesday to the end of the year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

Council Approves Chub Mackerel Management Measures

March 11, 2019 — The following was published by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

At their meeting in Virginia Beach, VA last week, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a suite of management measures for Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in federal waters from Maine through North Carolina. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, the Chub Mackerel Amendment will add chub mackerel to the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan.

The management measures approved by the Council include an annual total allowable landings limit of 4.50 million pounds, a 40,000 pound commercial possession limit when 90% of this limit is projected to be landed, and a 10,000 pound possession limit when 100% of this limit is projected to be landed. In addition, commercial fishermen will be required to have one of the existing federal commercial permits for longfin squid, Illex squid, Atlantic mackerel, or butterfish in order to retain any amounts of chub mackerel in federal waters from Maine through North Carolina. Fishermen who do not already have one of these permits can obtain one of the existing open access permits. Similarly, for-hire vessels will be required to have the mackerel, squid, butterfish party/charter permit in order to retain chub mackerel.

The Council developed these management measures to help ensure orderly growth and sustainability of the emerging chub mackerel fishery which recently developed in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. In addition, Council management will help elevate the priority of data collection for this data-limited species. The Council has already taken steps to address an important data limitation by funding a study on the importance of chub mackerel in the diets of tunas, marlins, and other predators in the mid-Atlantic.

Questions? See http://www.mafmc.org/actions/chub-mackerel-amendment or contact Julia Beaty, Fishery Management Specialist, jbeaty@mafmc.org, (302)526-5250.

NOAA Fisheries Announces 2019 Bluefish Specifications

March 11, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today we filed a final rule approving and implementing the 2019 specifications for the Atlantic bluefish fishery recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in cooperation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The final 2019 specifications are fundamentally the same as 2018, with only minor adjustments to the final commercial quota and recreational harvest limit to account for most recent full year of recreational catch data (2017), and a 4.0 million lb of quota transferred from the recreational to the commercial sector rather than 3.5 million lb in 2018.

Table 1 (below) provides the commercial fishery state allocations for 2019 based on the final 2019 coast-wide commercial quota, and the allocated percentages defined in the Bluefish Fishery Management Plan. No states exceeded their state-allocated quota in 2018; therefore, no accountability measures need to be implemented for the 2019 fishing year.

Table 1. 2019 Bluefish State Commercial Quota Allocations.

State Percent Share Quota Allocation (lb)
Maine 0.67 51,538
New Hampshire 0.41 31,956
Massachusetts 6.72 517,828
Rhode Island 6.81 524,874
Connecticut 1.27 97,626
New York 10.39 800,645
New Jersey 14.82 1,142,264
Delaware 1.88 144,801
Maryland 3.00 231,426
Virginia 11.88 915,857
North Carolina 32.06 2,471,746
South Carolina 0.04 2,714
Georgia 0.01 732
Florida 10.06 775,558
Total 100 7,709,565

For more details please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register and our permit holder bulletin.

Questions?
Fishermen: Contact Cynthia Ferrio, Sustainable Fisheries Division, 978-281-9180
Media: Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, 978-281-9175

VA won’t be penalized over menhaden regs if it stays under cap

March 5, 2019 — Virginia will not face penalties for failing to formally adopt new catch limits on Atlantic menhaden — as long as harvests stay within limits established by East Coast fishery managers.

The decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in February headed off a potential legal showdown as to whether it had scientific justification for slashing the commercial menhaden harvest in the Bay in 2017, even as it raised catch limits along most of the coast.

Since then, the Virginia General Assembly has twice failed to adopt the commission’s mandated annual Bay cap of 51,000 metric tons.

Failure to adopt the limit put the state out of compliance with the commission’s regulations. As a result, the ASMFC could ask the U.S. Department of Commerce to impose a moratorium on all menhaden harvests in Virginia. Twice last year the ASMFC considered, but delayed, such an action.

Steven Bowman, who heads the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said his agency monitored 2018 harvests both through catch records and aerial surveillance and would continue to do so. “The cap was not exceeded,” he said. “It did not come close to being exceeded.”

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

ASMFC Schedules Peer Review for Horseshoe Crab Benchmark Stock Assessment for March 26-28, 2019

February 27, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Benchmark Stock Assessment will be peer-reviewed on March 26 – 28, 2019 at the Commission’s office at 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA 22201. The assessment will evaluate the horseshoe crab population along the Atlantic coast and inform the management of this species. The peer review is open to the public, except for discussions of confidential data when the public will be asked to leave the room.

Confidential data (see NOTE below) are data such as commercial landings that can be identified down to an individual or single entity. Federal and state laws prohibit the disclosure of confidential data, and ASMFC abides by those laws. Each state and federal agency is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of its data and deciding who has access to its confidential data. In the case of this stock assessment and peer review, all analysts and reviewers have been granted permission by the appropriate agencies to use and view confidential data. When the assessment team needs to show and discuss these data, observers to the stock assessment process will be asked to leave the room to preserve confidentiality. For horseshoe crab, regional biomedical data and model runs that include these data are considered confidential, as well as any discussions around regional trends or stock status derived from these data. Additionally, the public and all other workshop participants will be asked to leave the room during the Peer Review Panel’s final deliberations.

A copy of the agenda for the peer review can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/HSC_PeerReviewWorkshopAgenda_March2019.pdf. For more information, please contact Patrick Campfield, Science Director, at pcampfield@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Virginia dodges sanction on menhaden

February 13, 2019 — A threat to shut down Virginia’s menhaden fishery disappeared after an interstate commission decided it wouldn’t find the state out of a compliance with a new quota for the oily fish.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission cut the quota for menhaden caught in the Chesapeake Bay by purse-seine vessels by 42 percent back in 2017 — but the General Assembly balked this year and last at enacting that lower quota into state law.

This month, the commission indefinitely postponed taking any action to find Virginia out of compliance, a finding that could trigger a federal moratorium on the fishery.

Menhaden has made tiny Reedville the biggest U.S. fishing port, measured by pounds, outside Alaska. Reedville’s fleet of purse seine vessels — large former offshore oil service ships or former minesweepers — scoop up menhaden schools with giant nets, then deliver the fish to the Omega Proteins processing plant, where they’re turned into fish oil and animal feed.

The commission said that if the Reedville fleet catches more than 51,000 metric tons in the Bay — its current quota — it could still decide Virginia is out of compliance. But it noted that the Bay catch since 2012 has been below that level — Virginia’s noncompliance is strictly that it hasn’t enacted the commission’s cap into state law.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

 

Virginia’s Democrats in Congress call to stop seismic testing off coast

February 12, 2019 — In the latest effort to remove Virginia from offshore drilling plans, the state’s Democratic representatives in Congress are pushing federal officials to revoke seismic testing permits that include the waters off Hampton Roads.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the heads of the departments of Commerce and the Interior, the Virginia delegation said the Trump administration’s draft five-year energy plan “runs counter to the explicit wishes of coastal communities up and down the Atlantic that would be at risk from offshore drilling and exploration.”

The appeal was spearheaded by U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin of the 4th district, but the nine signatories include Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Hampton Roads Congress members Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, 3rd district, and Elaine G. Luria, 2nd district.

The letter calls on the administration to rescind five Incidental Harassment Authorization permits issued last November by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and to remove Virginia’s offshore area from the president’s controversial 2019-2024 offshore energy plan.

With IHA permits, energy companies can conduct seismic surveys to see where and how much oil and gas is buried in the seabed.

Read the full story at the Daily Press