Saving Seafood

From coast to coast, seas shape economy — and political debate

April 26, 2016 — In 2014, Louisiana Republican Garret Graves achieved the unusual: He won a seat in Congress with the backing of both staunch conservatives and some environmentalists.

Graves, who spent five years as coastal adviser to then-Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), does not deny climate change. Under his direction, Louisiana adopted a coastal plan that recognizes climate’s role in the state’s disappearing coastline.

But asked about climate change as a freshman lawmaker, Graves chooses his words carefully.

“Look, I think — and I want to make sure I say this right because obviously it’s a loaded question — I think to deny that things are changing is unsustainable,” he said in a recent interview, pointing to the evidence of sea-level rise on Louisiana’s shores. “But the real loaded question is the role of anthropogenic causes versus biogenic.”

Read the full story at the E&E Daily

VIRGINIA: Rediscovering a taste for Chesapeake scallops

April 18, 2016 — The Croxton cousins want to do for the Chesapeake Bay scallop what they helped do for its oyster: bring it back from the brink with bivalve farming and some savvy marketing.

That was the idea behind an event last night where the co-owners of Rappahannock Oyster Co. offered an early taste of the Bay scallops they hope to grow into a new commercial product. After successfully cultivating a small crop of the scallops, which take up to six months to become bite-size, Ryan and Travis Croxton hope to begin selling the shellfish at their four restaurants and elsewhere in the fall.

“They’ve been extinct (in the Bay) since 1933,” Travis Croxton said at the event. “We just found that out a couple years ago and thought—we love scallops, we love the Chesapeake Bay, let’s reintroduce them.”

The work they heard about was that of scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, who have been quietly restoring a small Bay scallops population at their Gloucester Point facility since the late 1990s.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Chesapeake Blue Crab Population Grows 35 Percent

April 14, 2016 — The results of a survey of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population suggest a good summer for local crabs.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources says its annual dredge survey in Maryland and Virginia shows there are more than 550 million blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, the fourth highest level in two decades.

That number is a 35 percent increase in the crab population compared with last year, which was a 38 percent increase over 2014’s results.

See the full story at NBC Washington

VIRGINIA: Local clergy to bless the fishing fleet May 1

April 14, 2016 — A boat parade with commercial fishing boats, powerboats, sailboats, excursion craft, kayaks and rowboats will float up Cockrell’s Creek, to the ceremony site, reported Bob Bolger. All boaters in the area are invited to participate in the parade beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Capt. Linwood Bowis will lead the procession aboard the Chesapeake Breeze, followed by the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum’s Elva C.; a Virginia Resources Commission patrol boat, and Smith Point Sea Rescue 1. Omega Protein will be represented by the Rappahannock, captained by Leo Robbins.

The boat parade will begin at the mouth of Cockrell’s Creek and the Great Wicomico River, said Bolger.

The Rev. James B. Godwin will be the keynote speaker. The Rev. Godwin has served as the pastor of United Methodist churches in North Carolina and Virginia. He retired from Trinity UMC in Alexandria.

See the full story at the Rappahannock Record

Sale of sea scallops to fund research on loggerhead turtles

April 12, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Organizations in five states will receive more than $15 million for marine science research projects funded by the sale of sea scallops.

One of the projects seeks to understand the impacts of sea scallop fishing on loggerhead sea turtles through the use of satellite tagging. Coonamessett Farm Foundation Inc. of Falmouth, Massachusetts, is the lead investigating organization on that effort.

Recipients of the grants are located in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia. They range from universities and educational organizations to commercial fishing businesses.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Virginian-Pilot

2016-2017 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Recommended Awards Announced

April 7, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the New England Fishery Management Council are pleased to announce that 15 research projects have been selected for support from the 2016 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) program. The projects address the council’s research priorities for the nation’s highest-valued single species commercial fishery.

Twenty-five researchers from nine different organizations will be awarded 2016-2017 research grants valued at $15.6 million. These projects are funded by proceeds from selling a portion of the annual sea scallop quota “set aside” for this purpose. Award recipients are located in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia and include universities, non-profit research and education organizations, and commercial fishing vessels and businesses.

Research set-aside programs are unique to federal fisheries in the northeast region. Under RSA programs, no federal funds are provided to support the research. Selected projects receive allocations “set-aside” within established quotas for this purpose under the particular fishery management plan. Successful applicants partner with the fishing industry to harvest their set aside award to generate funds for the research. There are active research set-aside programs for Atlantic sea scallops, Atlantic herring, and monkfish.

The New England Fishery Management Council established the sea scallop RSA program to address research that will support management of the scallop resource. The Council sets the research priorities and researchers compete for funding through a federal grant competition managed by NOAA Fisheries. All of the funds derived from quota sales are used to support research and compensate industry partners. NOAA Fisheries does not retain or use any of these funds.

This year, more than 30 proposals were received for consideration. Six of these are two-year projects. Proposals were evaluated and ranked for technical merit and responsiveness to Council research priorities.

Ten projects will address the Council’s highest research priorities, including intensive and broad-scale resource surveys, bycatch reduction, scallop meat quality, and scallop area management. Five projects focus on other Council priorities, such as sea scallop biology and productivity, habitat impact research, and reducing the risk of sea turtle interactions with the scallop fishery.

Proposals underwent a two-stage review – one for technical merit and one for responsiveness to management priorities.

Proposals for sea scallop surveys were evaluated and ranked by a technical panel that looked at merit as well as how the work met recommendations from a recent peer review of all sea scallop survey methods used in the region. All other proposals were each evaluated for technical merit by three subject matter experts. Each technical reviewer submitted scores and comments on each proposal. A management panel made recommendations on priority projects, based on current management priorities.
The technical review scores, in conjunction with recommendations from the management panelists, are the basis for RSA survey funding decisions.

Sea Scallop Resource Surveys Recommended for Funding

These surveys, combined with the annual NOAA Fisheries sea scallop survey, will provide a comprehensive picture of the scallop resource by the end of this summer. The data collected are expected to support the Council’s area management decisions for 2017 and beyond.

Arnie’s Fisheries Inc. will conduct an optical survey of the Elephant Trunk Access Area using the HabCam V3 instrument system, looking at scallop numbers, sizes, and density in order to generate harvestable biomass estimates.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) will conduct a fine-scale dredge survey of the Mid-Atlantic sea scallop resource from the Virginia/North Carolina border to Block Island, Rhode Island. VIMS will also conduct high-resolution abundance and distribution surveys in and around the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area, and in Georges Bank Closed Area II and the surrounding area to the south, where secondary objectives include finfish bycatch species composition and catch rates; scallop product quality and disease research; and commercial and survey scallop dredge performance.

The Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, as part of their habitat research on the northern part of Georges Bank, will conduct a high resolution HabCam survey to support near-term scallop area management decisions of this area that is undergoing considerable management changes. Lund’s Fisheries are co-principal investigators.

As requested by the New England Fishery Management Council, the survey technical review panel not only considered technical merit, but also the results of a recent peer review when evaluating proposals for sea scallop surveys. That review, conducted in 2015 by the Center for Independent Experts, examined all of the primary survey methods for assessing sea scallop abundance in the region, several of which are supported through the scallop RSA program. The technical panel ensured that proposals were responsive to the peer review findings.

Bycatch Mitigation Projects

For the fifth year, UMASS Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology will use their award to support a yellowtail flounder bycatch avoidance system.To address low allocations of yellowtail flounder in the scallop fishery, these researchers will work with the limited-access and general category scallop fleets to deploy the bycatch avoidance system in fishing grounds on Georges Bank and in southern New England.

Reducing bycatch through scallop dredge gear modifications is the focus of two projects proposed by the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. The Foundation plans to design and test gear designed to reduce flatfish bycatch through modification to the dredge bag, and the use of a modified flounder sweep attached to the dredge bail, filming interactions to monitor the effectiveness of the gear modifications.

The Coonamessett Farm Foundation will also continue its seasonal bycatch survey on Georges Bank, collecting information on yellowtail flounder bycatch rates and other bycatch species relative to scallop meat yield. Data will also be used to evaluate sea scallop health and meat quality, provide maturity data for several flounder species, estimate the prevalence of a potentially significant parasite in yellowtail flounder, and examine lobsters for shell disease while also collecting biological data.

For the eighth Coonamessett Farm will tag up to 30 loggerhead sea turtles with water activated tags. They will also observe sea turtle behavior using a remotely operated vehicle, take biological samples, and collect length and weight measurements. This work provides information on sea turtle distribution and behavior in the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England, where there is overlap between sea scallop fishing activity and turtle distribution. Co-principle investigators include Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, and Roger Williams University.

Sea Scallop Biology, Meat Quality, and Productivity Projects

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will study sea scallop age structure and growth rates over time. Under a separate grant, VIMS will develop a framework for mark-recapture studies to estimate natural mortality, growth and movement of scallops and the effects of scallop density on those factors.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth campus investigating scallop meat quality will focus on how the infection that causes “gray meat” in sea scallops is transmitted.

Researchers at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, with colleagues at Rutgers University, will study how a nematode parasite affects scallop meat quality and provide insight into how industry and management can assess and predict impacts to the scallop stock and meat quality.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will demonstrate the feasibility of a seeding program to enhance and stabilize scallop recruitment while documenting the factors that affect seed survival.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will investigate the impact of scallop fishing in habitat management areas using the REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle.

For more information about these recommended awards and the Scallop RSA Program, please contact Ryan Silva (ryan.silva@noaa.gov, 978-281-9326), or Cheryl Corbett (cheryl.corbett@noaa.gov, 508-495-2070).

To learn more about work funded through the Sea Scallop RSA program, or through the NEFSC Northeast Cooperative Research Program, use our searchable project list.

2016-2017 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Projects 1

Project Organization Principal Investigators * Set-Aside Award
based on $12 per pound
R=research
C=compensation fishing
T=total budget
Optimizing the Georges Bank Scallop Fishery by Maximizing Meat Yield and Minimizing Bycatch Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Carl Huntsberger, Jasper Leavitt, Rachel Simpson, Liese Siemann (CFF)
David Rudders (VIMS)
Heidi Henninger (AOLA)
Roxanna Smolowitz (RWU)		 R-$498,573
C-$1,495,719
T-$1,994,292
166,191 lb of scallops
Development of Ecosystem Friendly Scallop Dredge Bags: Tools for Long-Term Sustainability Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Farrell Davis
Christopher Parkins
Melissa Campbell		 R-$394,050
C-$1,182,150
T-$1,576,200146,350 lb of scallops
A Modified Flounder Sweep for Flatfish Bycatch Reduction in the LAGC Scallop Fishery Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Christopher Parkins
Farrell Davis		 R-$92,380
C-$277,140
T-$369,52030,793 lb of scallops
Understanding Impacts of the Sea Scallop Fishery on Loggerhead Sea Turtles Through Satellite Tagging Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Samir Patel
Shea Miller		 R-$223,014.50
C-$669,044
T-$892,058.5074,338 lb of scallops
Drivers of Dispersal and Retention in Recently Seeded Sea Scallops Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc. Shea Miller
Liese Siemann
Jasper Leavitt		 R-$270,032
C-$810,096
T-$1,080,12890,011 lb of scallops
Optical Survey of the Scallop Resource in the Elephant Trunk Scallop Access Area – Year 2 Arnie’s Fisheries, Inc. Richard Taylor R-$146,635
C-$439,905
T-$586,54048,878 lb of scallops
Transmission of Apicomplexan Infection and Development of Gray Meat in Atlantic Sea Scallops Placopecten magellanicus (2 Years) University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Jennifer Koop
Susan Inglis		 R-$179,140
C-$460,646
T-$639,78653,315 lb of scallops
Scallop Fishery Bycatch Avoidance System 2016 University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Steve Cadrin R-$87,500
C-$225,000
T-$312,50026,041 lb of scallops
A Cooperative High Precision Dredge Survey to Assess the Mid-Atlantic Sea Scallop Resource Area (2 Years) Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders
Sally Roman
Robert Fisher		 R-$395,870
C-$1,583,478
T-$1,979,346164,946 lb of scallops
An Assessment of Sea Scallop Abundance and Distribution in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area and Surrounds (2 Years) Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders
Sally Roman		 R-$178,389
C-$713,556
T-$891,94574,329 lb of scallops
An Investigation into the Scallop Parasite Outbreak on the Mid-Atlantic Shelf: Transmission Pathways, Spatio-Temporal Variation of Infection, and Consequences to Marketability (2 Years) Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders (VIMS)
David Bushek
Daphne Munroe, Robert Fisher, Eleanor Bochenek (Rutgers University)		 R-$231,628
C-$713,794
T-$945,42278,785 lb of scallops
An Assessment of Sea Scallop Abundance and Distribution in Georges Bank Closed Area II and Surrounds Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders R-$89,643
C-$358,572
T-$448,21537,351 lb of scallops
Scallop Mark-Recapture to Estimate Density Dependent Natural Mortality and Growth Virginia Institute of Marine Science David Rudders
John Hoenig		 R-$148,571
C-$445,713
T-$ 594,28449,524 lbs. of scallops
Age Structure and Growth Rate in the Sea Scallop Placopecten magellanicus (2 Years)  Virginia Institute of Marine Science Roger Mann
David Rudders		 R-$202,512
C-$411,161
T-$613,67351,139 lb of scallops
Impact of Disturbance on Habitat Recovery in Habitat Management Areas on George’s Bank (2 Years) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Scott Gallager
Mike Purcell (WHOI)
Wayne Reichle
Jeff Kaelin (Lund’s Fisheries)		 R-$666,486
C-$1,999,458
T-$2,665,944222,162 lb of scallops

Total $ 15,589,853
1 CFF – Coonamessett Farm Foundation
VIMS – Virginia Institute of Marine Science
AOLA – Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association
RWU – Roger Williams University
WHOI – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

 

Traceability in seafood chain about money, not just ethics

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 28, 2016) — A coalition of environmentalists and seafood industry professionals is campaigning to make the case that traceability in the seafood industry is about success in the marketplace as much as it’s about ethics.

Ocean conservation group Oceana, based in Washington, D.C., has assembled the contingent of fishermen, processors, wholesalers and others to make the case that customers will pay a premium for verifiable seafood. They seek to link customers with the backstory of the product, such as where the fish was caught, whether it was sustainably harvested and when it was brought ashore.

The group includes representatives from more than a dozen businesses, including Virginia oyster farmers, a Boston seafood distributor and the fishmonger for a D.C. restaurant group. It is making its case as federal regulators consider tightening seafood importation standards.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

U.S. charity deploying fish to front lines of fight against Zika

VIRGINIA (March 17, 2016) –The Zika virus is spreading around the globe, becoming a major health crisis, and now one humanitarian organization is deploying mosquito-eating fish throughout Central America in an effort to stop the epidemic.

The virus has triggered outbreaks in recent months in 41 countries and is transmitted by mosquitos which thrive in pools of standing water. Normally, Zika causes fever and rashes and not much more, but there is a particularly alarming link between the virus and a rare neurological syndrome that can be fatal, Guillain-Barré, as well as an increase of babies born with abnormally small heads.

To combat the mosquitoes, Operation Blessing International, a Christian humanitarian organization based in Virginia, is deploying small gambusia or Sambo fish in cities and villages throughout El Salvador and Mexico. The fish feast on the larva of the Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which carries Zika, dengue and yellow fever.

Read the full story at Fox News Latino

Obama Reverses Course on Drilling Off Southeast Coast

March 14, 2016 — The Obama administration is expected to withdraw its plan to permit oil and gas drilling off the southeast Atlantic coast, yielding to an outpouring of opposition from coastal communities from Virginia to Georgia but dashing the hopes and expectations of many of those states’ top leaders.

The announcement by the Interior Department, which is seen as surprising, could come as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the decision who was not authorized to speak on the record because the plan had not been publicly disclosed.

The decision represents a reversal of President Obama’s previous offshore drilling plans, and comes as he is trying to build an ambitious environmental legacy. It could also inject the issue into the 2016 presidential campaigns, as Republican candidates vow to expand drilling.

In January 2015, Mr. Obama drew the wrath of environmentalists and high praise from the oil industry and Southeastern governors after the Interior Department put forth a proposal that would have opened much of the southeastern Atlantic coast to offshore drilling for the first time.

The proposal came after governors, state legislators and senators from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia all expressed support for the drilling. Lawmakers in the state capitals saw new drilling as creating jobs and bolstering state revenue.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Climate cycle could determine the reproductive success of menhaden

February 19, 2016 — Scientists have long puzzled over what drives the reproductive success of Atlantic menhaden, a tiny but critical East Coast fish.

A new study, published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science and supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program, provides a partial answer: An oceanic climate cycle known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or AMO.

The finding is likely to be useful in improving the way scientists assess the species and the way managers set catch limits.

Menhaden is a small, oily fish that provides food for striped bass, bluefish, and several other species, as well as bait for fishermen.

It also is the target of the largest fishery on the East Coast, which is centred in Virginia and catches menhaden for use in nutritional supplements, animal feed, and fertilizer.

Setting catch limits has proved challenging, in part because no one has been able to say what drives recruitment—a technical term for how many young fish are produced. Recruitment largely determines how much fishing a population can sustain.

Tom Miller of the University of Maryland, and one of the authors of the study, explained that it is very difficult to understand and manage this stock.

To address this, the researchers used a statistical model designed for disorderly data like those on the abundance of young menhaden. They considered 16 factors that might be driving that abundance, including climatic cycles, intensity of fishing, temperature, salinity, and predator abundance.

Read the full story at FIS