Saving Seafood

Council Requests Emergency Action for Commercial Mackerel Fishery

June 17, 2019 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Nearly 40 fishermen and others interested in federal fishery management issues spoke during a public hearing held this week as part of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s week-long meeting in Stuart, Florida. The majority of comments focused on the need for an increase in the commercial king mackerel fishery off the southeastern coast of Florida during the second season that extends into the winter months (October 1st through the end of February). Since the 2015-16 season, the commercial fishery in the Southern Zone (Flagler/Volusia county line south) has harvested under 60% of their annual catch limit. The value of the unharvested quota is estimated $3,885,647 per season over the past four fishing seasons.

Fishermen explained that the current limit of 50 fish per trip often marginalizes profit and keeps fishermen from carrying crew, preventing a new generation of fishermen from getting involved in the fishery and presenting safety at sea issues. Fishermen also spoke about the recent negative economic impacts of severe weather and environmental factors such as poor water quality.

After considering public comment and recommendations from its Mackerel Cobia Advisory Panel, the Council approved a motion to request NOAA Fisheries use emergency action to increase the second season commercial king mackerel trip limit from 50 fish to 75 fish in the Southern Zone. The Council made the request with the intention of having the increase in place by the beginning of the October 1, 2019 opening. The Atlantic king mackerel stock is not overfished or undergoing overfishing, and it is not anticipated that the commercial quota will be exceeded with the increased trip limit.

“We sincerely appreciate the Council’s support in recognizing the importance of increasing the commercial king mackerel trip limit here in South Florida,” said Ira Laks, Chairman of the Council’s Mackerel Cobia Advisory Panel and a dual-permitted commercial/charter captain from Jupiter, Florida. “The Council considered input from its advisory panel as well as a number of mackerel fishermen who attended Wednesday night’s public hearing,” explained Laks. “I want to also thank all of the fishermen who took the time and effort to attend the hearing. It made a difference.”

Other Items
Red Grouper
A 2017 stock assessment for red grouper indicates the stock is overfished and undergoing overfishing. As a result, the Council reduced the annual catch limit for red grouper in 2018, but further measures are needed. The Council approved Snapper Grouper Regulatory Amendment 30 during its meeting this week. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, the amendment will revise the rebuilding schedule for the red grouper stock and modify the spawning season prohibition off the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina, adding the month of May to the current January through April closure. The amendment would also establish a commercial trip limit of 200 pounds gutted weight for red grouper in federal waters.

Red Snapper
The Council also discussed options for the red snapper fishery. The number of recreational fishing days for red snapper in federal waters in the South Atlantic is determined by NOAA Fisheries each year, based on the estimated harvest from the previous year. If fishing is allowed, the opening dates of both the recreational fishery and commercial fishery currently begin in July. The Council is considering options for modifying the current parameters in place, including the season start dates as well as days of the week when red snapper harvest is allowed to allow more flexibility for the season and reduce the number of fish that must be released.

Regulatory Amendment 33 to the Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan would address these modifications and includes action to remove the minimum number of days for allowing a red snapper season (currently 3 days or more), modify the start date of the recreational red snapper season, revise the days of the week harvest would be allowed, and modify the start date of the red snapper commercial fishery. Public hearings via webinar and listening stations will be scheduled for August and the Council will review public comments during its September 16-20, 2019 meeting in Charleston, SC. The public hearing schedule will be publicized as soon as it becomes available.

Dolphin Wahoo
The Council also continued to work on management measures for dolphin fish and wahoo through Amendment 10 to the Dolphin Wahoo Fishery Management Plan. The amendment currently includes actions to revise annual catch limits, sector allocations, and accountability measures and options to reduce the vessel limit for dolphin. The amendment would also remove operator card requirements, addresses retention and gear training requirements for commercial vessels and options for allowing for-hire vessels north of the North Carolina/Virginia border to fillet dolphin with skin intact under the condition that two fillets equal one fish. Dolphin and wahoo are managed in federal waters along the Atlantic coast by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council in cooperation with the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils. There is no minimum size limit for dolphin in federal waters off of North Carolina northward. The Council’s Dolphin Wahoo Advisory Panel had requested the Council considers allowing the sale of bag limit dolphin by dual-federally permitted (charter and commercial) vessels. After considering public comment and input received during this week’s public hearing, and much discussion, the Council decided to remove the action as part of Amendment 10. The Council will continue to discuss the amendment in September.

At the request of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and after considering public scoping comments, the South Atlantic Council will move forward to develop an amendment to designate bullet and frigate mackerel as ecosystem component species within the Dolphin Wahoo Fishery Management Plan and evaluate appropriate regulatory actions. The designation, widely supported during the scoping process, would acknowledge the important role the two species play as forage fish for dolphin and wahoo.

The next meeting of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is scheduled for September 16-20, 2019 at the Town and Country Inn in Charleston, SC. Additional information for this week’s meeting, including final committee reports, an interactive story map, and meeting report is available from the Council’s website at: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/council-meetings/.

VIRGINIA: At long last, Dominion decides it’s game on for offshore wind

May 31, 2019 — When utility regulators gave Dominion Energy Virginia the go-ahead to build two offshore wind turbines last November, it was still unclear whether the pilot project might be the end as well as the beginning of offshore wind in Virginia.

Now, however, Dominion seems to have decided it’s game on. Although the company hasn’t issued any public statements about its intentions, its presentation to investors in March included $880 million in spending on offshore wind through 2023, over and above the cost of the pilot project.

This came as a surprise to everyone, including Virginia regulators at the State Corporation Commission. Commissioners were not pleased that Wall Street heard the utility’s plans before they did. Dominion’s 2018 Integrated Resource Plan did not propose building a full-sized offshore wind farm any time in the next 15 years.

Nor had the 2016 and 2017 IRPs, even though the company has been sitting on a lease for an area of ocean that could provide at least 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind power, enough for 500,000 homes.

At a hearing on the IRP this month, the company promised regulators it would submit detailed information in its future filings, and confirmed that it currently has its sights set on 2024 for the first commercial wind farm.

For now, however, Dominion remains focused on getting the two test turbines up and running in a state-held lease area 24 miles out to sea from Virginia Beach. If all goes according to plan, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project will be up and running by late summer 2020.

The two, 6-MW turbines will contribute only enough electricity to the grid for about 3,000 homes, but they will be the first turbines in federal waters anywhere in the U.S.  (The nation’s first wind farm, off Block Island in Rhode Island, is closer to shore in state waters.)

With that finish line in sight, state officials, developers, business people and offshore wind researchers were at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Tuesday night to share their vision of how Virginia will leverage its baby steps into a multi-billion-dollar industry that could “reinvent” Hampton Roads.

The town hall forum, organized by the Sierra Club, emphasized the workforce, supply chain and port opportunities if Virginia succeeds in becoming a commercial hub for offshore wind farms all along the East Coast. Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration hopes to find success with this plan even if Virginia lags other states in building wind farms.

Read the full story at the Virginia Mercury

UMCES report: Low health scores rain on Chesapeake Bay’s recovery

May 23, 2019 — A year of historically heavy rainfall strained the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem — but not past the breaking point, according to a wide-ranging assessment released Tuesday.

The estuary’s overall health score in 2018 dropped from 54% to 46% but retained its “C” grade for a seventh consecutive year, according to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s latest report card.

It marked the lowest grade since 2013 and reversed a streak of four years of improving or steady scores.

“We don’t have as good of news to report because of some record rainfall,” said Bill Dennison, UMCES vice president for science application. “The good news is it took a hit, but it did not crash.”

The federal government and the states within the 64,000-square-mile Bay watershed are working on a plan to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution under an agreement signed in 2010. The effort faces a 2025 deadline.

The resilience of that recovery faced one of its biggest tests last year. About 72 inches of rain inundated the Baltimore area during 2018, about 30 inches more than normal, according to the report.

From a scientific perspective, the deluge offered a glimpse of how the recovering ecosystem may respond as climate change leads to increasingly erratic weather, Dennison said.

Many scientists predicted that last year’s rains would dampen the restoration gains. The UMCES report bears out those projections, showing reductions in the scores for water clarity, nitrogen, phosphorus and aquatic grasses.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Chesapeake Bay health dips, but still rates a C in annual report card

May 22, 2019 — Bay health took a hit from record rainfall last year, but experts claim the Chesapeake’s growing resilience managed to keep a bad situation from getting worse.

The 2018 Chesapeake Bay Report Card was released by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, one of several groups that assess the bay’s health each year. It put the bay’s overall score at 46% — a drop from the previous year’s 54%, but still a C on its 20-point grading scale.

Bay resilience is critical because very wet years may no longer be an anomaly. Climate models predict an increase in weather extremes, and local marine experts are seeing some evidence of that.

“We’re encouraged that, in spite of the fact that we had a major insult to the bay with all the runoff and rainfall in 2018, that we took a dip but we didn’t crash,” said Bill Dennison, vice president for science applications at the center.

“Many of the living resources appear to be fairly resilient,” said Mark Luckenbach, associate director for research and advisory services at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “But we need to understand that that’s likely to become more frequent — these really high rainfall events.”

VIMS, affiliated with the College of William and Mary, collected much of the data used to compile the report, particularly for bay-wide seagrass, Virginia fish and blue crabs.

Read the full story at The Daily Press

More Humpback Whale Deaths Under Investigation

May 15, 2019 — The concerning trend of humpback whales washing up dead in the Bay region continues— with two more whale carcasses found in Virginia in the past month.

The first humpback washed up in Oyster, a barrier island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it was a partly-decomposed male more than 41 feet long, and had landed on a state-leased clam bed. With the help of a local fisherman, the Virginia Aquarium was able to get to the carcass to take tissue samples for analysis. R&C Seafood in Oyster posted photos of the whale on Facebook.

Then on May 2, the Coast Guard advised the Virginia Aquarium about a dead humpback whale that was struck by a container ship about 60 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. That whale had been decomposed and scavenged, so officials didn’t respond, NOAA explains.

The very same day, NOAA received reports of a whale caught in a commercial fishing net in Ocean City, Maryland. According to the reports, Good samaritans and Natural Resources officers worked to free the large mammal. The next day, the National Aquarium and police worked together to look for the whale. Jennifer Goebel, NOAA spokesperson, tells Bay Bulletin, “It was spotted swimming on the ocean side of Ocean City on May 4, and appeared to be gear-free, though we were not able to confirm that with photographs.”

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

States Schedule Public Hearings on Atlantic Cobia Draft Amendment 1

May 13, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board approved Draft Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia (Atlantic cobia) for public comment. Atlantic coastal states from Virginia through South Carolina have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Amendment 1. The details of those hearings follow.

Virginia Marine Resources Commission

  • June 12, 2019; 6:00 PM
  • 380 Fenwick Rd, Building 96
  • Fort Monroe, Hampton, VA
  • Contact: Pat Geer at 757.247.2200

North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

  • June 13, 2019; 7:00 PM
  • Dare County Commissioners Office
  • 954 Marshall Collins Drive, Room 168
  • Manteo, NC
  • Contact: Chris Batsavage at 252.808.8009

Read the full release here

States Schedule Public Hearings on Atlantic Cobia Draft Amendment 1

May 10, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board approved Draft Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia (Atlantic cobia) for public comment. Atlantic coastal states from Virginia through South Carolina have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Amendment 1. The details of those hearings follow.

Read the full release here

Fishery commission takes step toward reducing striped bass harvest by 17% in Chesapeake, along Atlantic coast

May 1, 2019 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said Wednesday it will require new restrictions on striped bass next year, amid overfishing of the species known in the Chesapeake as rockfish.

The panel, which regulates a striped bass fishery that spans from Maine to North Carolina, launched a study of how a variety of conservation measures could reduce fish deaths by 17 percent. That includes reducing the number of fish that are caught and also the number that die from hook wounds after being caught and released.

Measures states from Maine to North Carolina will be asked to consider include:

  • New limits on the minimum size of fish that can legally be caught;
  • Possible new rules establishing “slot” limits on striped bass fishing, meaning only fish larger than an undetermined minimum size and smaller than 40 inches long can be legally caught;
  • Closure of some portions of striped bass fishing season; and,
  • Requirement that special equipment known as circle hooks be used coastwide while fishing with live bait. (The circle hooks already are required in Maryland.)

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun

Federal fisheries managers will reduce striped bass catches

May 1, 2019 — After years of listening to anglers begging for a fix, federal fisheries managers on Tuesday decided to tighten regulations to help the striped bass population rebound.

In its 2018 stock assessment, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission declared the species as overfished. Virginia anglers reporting less fish in the Chesapeake Bay and none in the ocean have known this for a decade.

Now the ASMFC is looking for ways that states from North Carolina to Maine can help reduce mortality. Solutions will affect the number of fish taken by both recreational anglers and commercial fishermen.

Last week Virginia fisheries managers decided to do away with the annual spring trophy season, allowing anglers to take only two fish a day that fit into a 20- to 28-inch slot limit. That season runs from May 16 to June 15.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot 

THE BALTIMORE SUN: Maryland’s rockfish challenge

April 30, 2019 — Maryland rockfish — or striped bass as they are more widely known — are in sharp decline. As of 2017, total East Coast landings, commercial and recreational, were down by nearly 40 percent from 10 years prior. Female spawning stock is in similar decline, according to a recent assessment. Not since the 1980s when the fish was believed to be reaching a tipping point and a years-long moratorium on harvest was imposed to protect rockfish have state officials faced such a worrisome outlook.

On Tuesday, members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will meet in Arlington, Va., and likely call for conservation measures to prevent further overfishing. States like Massachusetts and Connecticut have already endorsed such a move, as has Virginia, where last week the Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted 7-0 to suspend that state’s “trophy” rockfish season (so-called because it’s the one time of year when fishermen can keep large, spawning-age rockfish of 36-inches or longer) just as it was set to open. That move was likely costly to charter boat captains in Virginia who are certain to lose customers, particularly given that its Chesapeake Bay neighbor has not taken similar action — Maryland’s trophy season opened April 20 and continues through mid-May.

Read the full opinion piece at The Baltimore Sun