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Marine Resource Education Program to Kick Off 2016 Series in Norfolk, Va.

December 9, 2015 — The following was released by the Marine Resource Education Program:

The 2016 series for the Marine Resource Education Program (MREP) kicks off in Norfolk, VA next month. “If you are someone with an investment in healthy fisheries,” says John Williamson, F/V Sea keeper, National Coalition of Fishing Communities member, and co-founder of MREP, “then the Marine Resource Education Program (MREP) is for you.”

Organized and delivered by members of the fishing community, in partnership with NMFS, the Fishery Management Councils, ASMFC and research institutions, MREP brings together fishermen, scientists, managers, and other marine resource professionals to share professional expertise in a neutral setting. The curriculum offers insights into fishery science and stock assessments, delivered in plain English; participants learn the when, where and how to effectively engage in the fishery management process.

2016 workshop schedule:

  • MREP Fishery Science 100 – January 5-7 – Norfolk Waterside Marriott. Norfolk, VA
  • MREP Fishery Management 100 – February 23-25 – Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk, VA
  • MREP Ecosystems 200 (NEW) – March 15-16 – Ocean Place Resort, Long Branch, NJ
  • MREP for Recreational Fisheries (NEW) – January 19-21 – Wyndham Peabody Court, Baltimore, MD

For more information and to submit an online application: www.gmri.org/MREP-NEapply

To submit an application by phone, call Patty Collins, Gulf of Maine Research Institute (207) 228-1625.

Lodging, meals and travel expenses are covered for MREP participants.   Qualifying commercial fishermen are eligible for an additional $125/day reimbursement for vessel tie-up costs.

Seating is limited, apply today.

For more information about MREP curriculum and goals please contact:

John Williamson (207) 939-7055 john@seakeeper.net

Mary Beth Tooley (207) 837-3537 mbtooley@live.com

Alexa Dayton (207) 228-1645 adayton@gmri.org

“As good as the science is it could be better. Fishermen’s information is key to improving stock assessments.” – MREP participant

“When you know what’s going on, you can make better decisions for the future.” – MREP participant

 

VIRGINIA: Special Investigation: Big fight over little fish

November 12, 2015 — REEDVILLE, Va. – Small business owners along the Chesapeake Bay are concerned that commercial fishing by Omega Protein is hurting their livelihood. Both rely on catching menhaden, a small bony fish that is valuable to Omega for its oil and bone meal, as well as for bait to charter boat captains and crabbers.

Omega has fished for menhaden out of Reedville since the 1870’s. It hauls in millions of them each weekday during a fishing season that is quota-based and runs roughly from May to November.

10 On Your Side visited the Reedville operation and spoke with several employees about the company’s importance to the community. We also met with a charter boat captain who is convinced that Omega’s large hauls are hurting his business along with hundreds of others – marinas, crabbers, tackles shops, etc.

“Used to be these creeks would just be chocked full of menhaden flipping all over the surface,” said Chris Newsome, owner of Bay Fly Fishing in Gloucester. Newsome’s charter clients fish for striped bass, bluefish, speckled trout and redfish, and they feed on menhaden. “They’ve definitely become a lot harder to find over the years.”

Read the full story at WAVY

Fishermen’s Energy Loses Bid for Wind Farm Leases Off LBI

November 10, 2015 — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an offshore land lease sale for the purposes of developing future wind farms on Monday, Nov. 9.  Although a locally held company, Fishermen’s Energy, participated in the auction, it lost out to two other concerns.

US Wind Inc. won the right to develop the Wind Energy Area off Ocean and Atlantic counties by bidding$1,006,240 for 183,353 acres, Outer Continental Shelf Lease Area 0499. RES America Developments Inc. won the right to develop the 160,480 Wind Energy Area acres from Atlantic City south to Cape May County, paying $880,715 for Lease Area OCS-A 0498.

The New Jersey Wind Energy Area starts about 7 nautical miles offshore and extends roughly 21 nautical miles seaward. To see a map of the New Jersey Wind Energy Area, go to boem.gov/New–Jersey.

Each lease will have a preliminary term of one year, during which the lessee will submit a site assessment plan to BOEM for approval. A site assessment plan describes the activities (installation of meteorological towers and buoys) a lessee plans to perform for the assessment of the wind resources and ocean conditions of its commercial lease area.

Fishermen’s Energy Chief Operating Official Paul Gallagher was not available for comment on Tuesday.

Fishermen’s Energy was developed in 2007 by a consortium of eight commercial fishing and dock facilities along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Virginia. In New Jersey, Viking Village in Barnegat Light, Atlantic Cape Fisheries and Cold Spring Fish and Supply Co. are some of the partners.

The idea was to take a leadership role in building wind energy farms that would be sensitive to fishing areas and the marine environment.

Read the full story at The SandPaper

 

Legislation Introduced to Reform Seasonal H-2B Guest-Worker Program

November 9, 2015 — Legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives to reform the H-2B seasonal guest-worker program. H.R. 3918, the Strengthen Employment and Seasonal Opportunities Now Act also known by its acronym the SEASON Act, will reform the guest-worker program used by American employers to hire foreign workers for temporary and seasonal work, such as forestry, seafood processing, and other industries.

Introduced by House Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot from Ohio, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland, and Congressman Charles W. Boustany, Jr., MD of Louisiana, the SEASON Act is designed to bring needed reforms to the H-2B program in order to protect American workers, help U.S. employers who play by the rules hire seasonal guest-workers, save taxpayer dollars, and ensure the H-2B program is truly a temporary, seasonal guest-worker program.

“New regulations for the H-2B visa program issued by the current Administration are increasing the red tape and creating higher costs for the small and seasonal businesses using the H-2B program,” said Gulf Seafood Institute member Frank Randol, owner of Randol’s Restaurant and a shellfish processor who depends on guest-worker labor. “Many of our Gulf seafood processing plants were unable to open in 2015 due to a lack of labor. The industry will struggle to survive if they have a second year without these workers. This legislation is desperately needed.”

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood Institute

 

ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Sets 2016 Specifications for Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay Origin

November 5, 2015 — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fl. – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the harvest specifications for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Under the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, the Board set a harvest limit of 500,000 Delaware Bay male horseshoe crabs and zero female horseshoe crabs for the 2016 season. Based on the allocation mechanism established in Addendum VII, the following quotas were set for the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, which harvest horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin:  

 

Delaware Bay Origin Horseshoe Crab Quota (no. of crabs)

Total Quota

State

Male Only

Male Only

Delaware

162,136

162,136

New Jersey

162,136

162,136

Maryland

141,112

255,980

Virginia*

34,615

81,331

*Virginia harvest refers to harvest east of the COLREGS line only

The Board chose a harvest management program based on the Technical Committee and ARM Subcommittee recommendation. The ARM Framework, established through Addendum VII, incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized harvest levels for horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay origin. Previously the horseshoe crab abundance estimate was based on data from the Benthic Trawl Survey conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute, however, due to the Benthic Trawl Survey not having been conducted in recent years, a composite index of the Delaware 30ft Trawl Survey, New Jersey Delaware Bay Trawl Survey, and New Jersey Ocean Trawl Survey was used instead. Funding has been secured for the Benthic Trawl Survey to be conducted in 2016.

The Horseshoe Crab Technical Committee, Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee, and the ARM Subcommittee also recommended the ARM Framework be reviewed and updated in 2016. The Board agreed with this recommendation, with specific interest in re-considering the thresholds to allow the harvest of female horseshoe crabs, as well as the recent listing of red knot as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ARM subcommittee will develop specific recommendations to the Board on changes to the ARM Framework in 2016.

For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, FMP Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or krootes-murdy@asmfc.org.                                                                                                                                                              

ASMFC Presents Willard Cole Prestigious Captain David H. Hart Award

November 4, 2015 — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fl. – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission presented Willard “Bill” Cole, formerly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Captain David H. Hart Award, its highest annual award, at the Commission’s 74th Annual Meeting in St. Augustine, FL.  

Throughout his nearly 40-year career as a state, university, and federal fishery manager and scientist, Bill Cole worked to protect, restore, and conserve fisheries resources and their habitats along the Atlantic coast.  Bill graduated from North Carolina State University in 1966, and moved to Lake City, Florida, where he began his career with the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission.  Shortly after, he joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), where he stayed for the remainder of his career. At USFWS, Bill served in different capacities and numerous offices from North Carolina, to New York, DC, Texas and even New Mexico. In each place he left an indelible mark; serving on review teams for the first Everglades study, developing the Navigable Waters Handbook; protecting riverine, wetland, and coastal habitats in Long Island Sound, the Hudson River and St. Lawrence Seaway; and establishing what ultimately would become the USFWS South Atlantic Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. While with the South Atlantic Office, he worked closely with the State of North Carolina to restore anadromous fishery resources throughout the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, once the site of the largest commercial American shad and river herring fisheries on the entire East Coast.  

With his customary vision, Bill understood early on that management of fishery resources in North Carolina required participation in regional fishery management institutions as well. As such, he became involved with both the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Commission, as the Southeast Regional Director’s designee for both institutions.  He served in that capacity continuously for 19 years.  Bill served on numerous committees and management boards for both groups, and prior to his retirement served as Chair of the Commission’s South Atlantic State-Federal Fisheries Management Board. 

Along with several colleagues, Bill conceived the Cooperative Winter Tagging Cruise off North Carolina and Virginia.  The Cruise was designed to tag striped bass in a mixed stock of migratory fish wintering off the North Carolina Outer Banks and southern Virginia as a part of the Commission’s Atlantic migratory striped bass management program.  The Cruise began in 1988 and has been conducted annually with  few interruptions.  It is one of the longest time series of any such coastal tagging program, as well as one of the most effective federal, state, and academic partnerships.  Bill served as Chief Scientist on all but two of the cruises during an 18 year period, and annually coordinated scheduling, equipment acquisition, and recruitment of all Scientific Party members.  Through the years, tagging of additional ASMFC- and Council-managed species was added to the Cruise protocol.  To date, the Cruise has tagged 252 Atlantic sturgeon and over 47,000 striped bass, with a tag return rate approaching 20 percent.   

Bill is a charter member of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program Operations Committee, and has been an ardent supporter of the Program since its inception, providing staff to serve as the initial Program Coordinator, and working tirelessly with federal and state partners to move the program forward.  

Finally, during his last year with USFWS, Bill was detailed to the National Marine Fisheries Service, where he served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, Dr. William Hogarth.  Bill was a key element in the planning of several national-level meetings that brought together fisheries professionals from Regional Fishery Management Councils and Interstate Fisheries Management Commissions to consider the future directions of fisheries management.

Bill has characterized himself as a “biopolitician,” but his contribution to the management of U.S. East Coast fisheries goes well beyond his many notable accomplishments.  Bill has been a true friend and mentor to many in our fisheries management family and we are deeply indebted to him.  Since Bill was unable to attend the Hart Award ceremony, Dr. Wilson Laney, a longtime colleague and friend, accepted the award on Bill’s behalf.

The Commission instituted the Award in 1991 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding efforts to improve Atlantic coast marine fisheries. The Hart Award is named for one of the Commission’s longest serving members, who dedicated himself to the advancement and protection of marine fishery resources.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

‘Ghost fleet’ offers treasure trove of wildlife, history in the Potomac

November 2, 2015 — NANJEMOY, Md. — Hidden beneath the waters of the Potomac River are dozens of sunken ships known as a “ghost fleet” that sailed from the Revolutionary War to after World War I, and now, thanks to the Chesapeake Conservancy, the public can experience these underwater ships and the unique ecosystem that has grown around them from their desktops.

The conservancy has teamed up with Terrain360, a Richmond, Virginia, company, to take panoramic shots of Mallows Bay and the more than 100 shipwrecks located there, piecing them together to create a virtual tour of the bay that you can find here.

The bay, tucked along the shores of the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland, is home to the largest collection of historic shipwrecks in the Western Hemisphere. But the sunken ships have also created a marine habitat full of fish, birds and other wildlife, which the conservancy hopes to protect.

Visitors to the bay will spot an engine rising from the mist. Trees growing from the hull of a sunken ship seem to form an island that’s shaped like a ship. And the rusty hull of another ship can be seen rising above the waterline further out from the shore. Nearby is a menhaden fishing boat dating to the 1940s that was used during World War II.

Read the full story at WTOP

 

Congress cracks down on seafood fraud

October 28, 2015 — Local watermen of the Chesapeake Bay have come under attack from knowingly imported and mislabeled foreign seafood. Consumers are also at risk because safety standards for seafood in other countries of origin differ from those in the United States. “Consumers should protect themselves with knowledge about these issues and get to know local seafood companies they can trust,” said Paula Jasinski, executive director of Chesapeake Environmental Communications.

Crabbers from Virginia’s Blue Crab Industry Panel highlighted this significant problem for their industry several years ago.

Read the full story at Northern Neck News

 

US scallop prices only expected to rise with no supply relief in sight

October 27, 2015 — As landings continue to come in a little shorter than had been predicted for 2015, US sources see no easing in prices for domestic scallops, which are back up near the all-time high levels seen before this fishing season began.

The agreed outlook is for prices to remain where they are now, with limited landings expected between now and Christmas, when demand traditionally picks up from October.

One executive with a scallop catching firm told Undercurrent News that boats landing in Newport News, Virginia, last week, saw U12s earn $15.75 per pound to the boat, and as much as $16 a few days later.

10/20s sold for $12.03 – $12.05. A second source, also operating out of Newport News, confirmed the largest sizes were going in the $16 range. He put 10/20s in the high $11 area, and in the low to mid $12 too. Both sources added these were typical of recent developments, and that they expected prices to remain similar for the rest of 2015.

Meanwhile David Cournoyer, general manager of Marder Trading in New Bedford, Massachusetts, put prices for fresh, dry U10s at $17.50 to the boat, $18- 18.50 sold on the street.

10/20s were $14 sold on the street, give or take 40 cents, he told Undercurrent.

“October demand was down, as it generally is this time of year. Demand tends to increase in November, December, and early January usually.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Aquaculture on the rise in coastal North Carolina

October 22, 2015 — NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. – Nearly all of southeastern North Carolina’s waters are now open for shellfish harvesting after heavy rains and floods left most areas polluted earlier this month.

Not only are oysters one of the state’s most popular shellfish to eat, but the shells themselves can be used as hardworking landscape material, in the form of driveways and patios.

Oyster shells make up many of the paths at Colonial Williamsburg to to get around. But starting October 1, a new law went into effect prohibiting contractors from using the shells in commercial landscaping.

The new law is an effort to increase the state’s oyster shell recycling program, where the shells are used to rebuilt oyster reefs.

“Oysters happen to be one of the few species that when we harvest it, we take the habitat right along with it, so we are trying to put that back into place,” said UNC-Wilmington’s Troy Alphin. “Larvae oysters depend on the adult oyster shell for settlement, and they have a very narrow window for settlement in their life span, only a couple of weeks. So if the shells are not in the water, they are not available for the larvae to settle on, these larvae will die. What we are trying to do is make sure the shells are back in the water as soon as we can they will be available for the next generation of oysters.”

At a summit earlier this year, North Carolina ecologists, scientists and politicians announced new efforts to make North Carolina the “Napa Valley of Oysters.”  One way that can be accomplished is by developing new oyster sanctuaries, something that Virginia and other states have already done.

A healthy oyster population is linked to the overall health of coastal fisheries.

Read the full story at WECT6

 

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