Management & Regulation

April 20, 2015 — A small group of Texas seafood leaders, restaurateurs and chefs gathered around tables carefully lined together in an Austin seafood market and restaurant to give new life to an organization that has been on a year’s hiatus after successfully delaying the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s Amendment 28 that would have removed fresh Gulf fish from seafood counters and restaurant tables across the country.

Share the Gulf has reawakened to respond to efforts by Gulf state fishery managers to grab control of the Gulf of Mexico’s red snapper fishery, leaving the future of the commercial fishery in doubt.

In the fall of 2013 more than 130 chefs, restaurant owners, fishermen, seafood industry leaders and conservationists came together to form the coalition dedicated to raise awareness and support for fishermen, restaurants, retailer, consumers and tourism communities dependent upon fair access to fresh Gulf seafood.

Red snapper is a shared fishery under the Magnuson Stevens Act and overseen by the Gulf Council. It is currently split almost evenly between commercial and recreational fishermen.  Due to what many see as an outdated data collection system , fishery managers have had no choice but to further restrict catch limits resulting in shortened seasons for recreational fishermen.

Share the Gulf Awakens

“Because of the initial interest in Share the Gulf two years ago we know there are a lot of people out there who have an interest in fresh sustainable seafood,” said Buddy Guindon of Galveston, TX, a spokesman for Gulf red snapper commercial fishermen.  “It is going to be much easier this time to re-energize our base and get them out there in order that we can keep fish on the consumers plates in restaurants and in markets around the country.”

Guindon, who is the treasurer of the Gulf Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance and a Founding Member of the Gulf Seafood Institute, brought a film crew shooting a new reality show for the National Geographic Channel to the meeting. He feels Share the Gulf is needed more than ever if the state management initiative is to be to become history.

“Share the Gulf was dormant for a period because we didn’t have a challenge. I think we are going to come off stronger this time around because we are adding to our supporter base,” said the owner of Galveston’s Katie’s Seafood about delaying the initiative that could mean the end to commercially caught Gulf snapper.  “Everyone in the organization is engaged in business, the members are much more willing to get involved and help when the need arises if you aren’t bugging them all the time.”

Read the full story from the Gulf Seafood Institute

April 16, 2015 — Life has suddenly gotten easier for the sardine. Federal regulators are not only closing the commercial sardine fishing season early in Oregon, Washington and California, but it will stay closed for more than a year.

The decision to shut down the sardine harvest is an effort to build up depleted stocks of the small, oily fish. The conservation group, Oceana, says that sardine populations have crashed more than 90 percent since 2007.

There are a number of theories about why the fish stocks have collapsed. Oceana says it comes from overfishing. But a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts says the wide swings in the sardine population are normal and usually related to "decades-long shifts in ocean conditions."

Read the full story from NPR

 

April 15, 2015 — The number of domestic fish stocks listed as overfished or subject to overfishing has dropped to an all-time low since 1997, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began tracking stock status, according to the 2014 Status of U.S. Fisheries report to Congress released Wednesday.

The report, produced annually since 1997, highlights continued U.S. progress toward sustainably managing fish stocks. This progress is a result of the combined efforts of NOAA Fisheries, the regional fishery management councils, the fishing industry, and other partners.

The report also finds three more fish stocks: Gulf of Maine/Cape Hatteras butterfish, Gulf of Mexico gag grouper and, Mid-Atlantic Coast golden tilefish were rebuilt to target levels in 2014, bringing the total number of rebuilt U.S. marine fish stocks to 37 since 2000.

Read the full story from the Bradenton Herald

 

April 15, 2015 — NOAA today submitted its annual report to Congress on the state of all U.S. fishing stocks and did everything but paint a big smiley face on the cover.

There was very little to smile about, however, in New England and its Northeast Multispecies fishery, which continue to lead all U.S. regions in the number of damaged or imperiled stocks.
In its report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the number of stocks subject to overfishing or being overfished are at all-time lows since it first began preparing the annual report in 1997.

At the end of 2014, according to the report, 26 (8 percent) of 308 assessed fish stocks are on the overfishing list which denotes stocks with a harvest rate that is too high or, in the words of Alan Risenhoover, director of NOAA Fisheries office of sustainable fisheries, "too many fish are being taken too fast for that stock to maintain itself at productive levels."
That is a net reduction of two stocks from 2013 and represents a 1 percent improvement.

Six stocks came off the overfishing list in 2014, including Gulf of Maine haddock and Western Atlantic Blufefin tuna, while four stocks were added.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

April 15, 2015 — The bluefin tuna is on the rebound a decade after it symbolized the failure of international fisheries management. Some scientists and Maine fishermen say the assessment by federal regulators is overdue.

U.S. fishery managers announced Wednesday that they are removing bluefin tuna from the list of species subject to overfishing, and plan to recommend to an international body that the catch quota for the U.S. be increased.

“That is one of the success stories,” said Alan Risenhoover, director of the NOAA Fisheries Service’s Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

There are about 30,000 metric tons – roughly 66 million pounds – of adult bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic, according to the 2014 stock assessment. Those population levels haven’t been seen since the early 1980s, said Lisa Kerr, a researcher who was involved in the stock assessment conducted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, the inter-governmental organization responsible for the conservation of tuna in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas.

In the U.S., Maine is second to only Massachusetts in the number of commercial fishermen who pursue bluefin tuna, the premium choice for sushi and sashimi in restaurants in Japan and, increasingly, other countries. Maine has more harpooners, the traditional way of hunting tuna, than any other state.

While the increasing abundance of tuna in the Atlantic is welcome news for fishermen, it’s unclear how increasing quota limits could help Maine fishermen because natural conditions, such as weather and the abundance of natural predators, are the biggest drivers of a fishermen’s success, said David Linney, who harpoons for tuna out of York.

Bluefin tuna roam the Atlantic and enter the Gulf of Maine in the summer to feed on herring and mackerel. He said he’s noticed increasing numbers of tuna in recent years.

Linney said he could catch more tuna if regulators would put tighter restrictions on the trawlers that catch herring.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

April 15, 2015 — Several fish stocks from Maine to Florida are rebounding and are no longer subject to overfishing, federal regulators said Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it is removing two stocks – the gag grouper of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic albacore – from its "overfished" list. The agency is also taking six stocks off of the "overfishing" list, including the Gulf of Maine haddock, the South Atlantic gag grouper, the western Atlantic Bluefin tuna, the snowy grouper of the South Atlantic coast and the jacks of the Gulf of Mexico. The North Atlantic albacore is now off of both lists.

NOAA considers a fish stock "overfished" when its population size is too small, and the stock is placed on the "overfishing" list when its annual catch rate is too high.

The rebounding fisheries are evidence of the impact of a 2007 law change that enacted annual catch limits, said Alan Risenhoover, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Sustainable Fisheries. There were 41 stocks listed as subject to overfishing in 2007 and only 10 domestic and four international stocks remain on that list, he said.

"It really is a comment on our fisheries in our country. They are on a sustainable path for the long term," Risenhoover said.

Risenhoover said improved fish stocks can sometimes be subject to higher fishing quotas. He said overfishing has dropped to "an all-time low" since 1997, when NOAA started tracking stock status.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

April 14, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eileen Sobeck announced this week that the Agency is committed to working with the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct an independent review of the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP).

The decision comes at the recommendation of the MRIP Executive Steering Committee (ESC), and was announced in conjunction with the release of the new National Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Policy 2015-2018 National Implementation Plan.
 
The timing of the ESC recommendation coincides with the recent launch of the new mail-based Fishing Effort Survey (FES). Improvements incorporated into the FES address a major concern raised in the NRC's 2006 review of NOAA's recreational catch and effort data collection, estimation, and reporting methods. By sampling from comprehensive lists of postal addresses, as well as lists of licensed anglers, the FES maximizes coverage of the population without sacrificing efficiency.
 
The FES complements previous work we have undertaken to address other NRC concerns. This work includes fixing a mismatch between the way catch data was collected and how those data were used to make estimates; removing sources of bias from the design of angler catch surveys; developing the National Saltwater Angler Registry to support FES sampling; and working to engage a broad array of scientists, managers, and stakeholders in every aspect of the MRIP process – from the priorities we set, to the studies we conduct, to the way we share our data.
 
As outlined in the annual MRIP Implementation Plans, the improvements to date do not represent an endpoint in the MRIP process. Rather, they are milestones in what is intended to be an ongoing cycle of evaluation, research, and implementation that will ensure NOAA's data collection methods continually evolve to meet the changing needs of scientists, stock assessors, managers, and stakeholders.
 
The NRC review will provide an objective, independent analysis of our response to the 2006 recommendations, which were incorporated into federal law as part of the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act. It will also detail our progress in meeting our commitments to Congress and the recreational fishing community to address these issues through a process that is scientifically sound, statistically robust, collaborative, and transparent.
 
The ESC anticipates that the NRC assessment will be concluded in time for the results to be included in the next NOAA Fisheries fishery-dependent data collection program review, which is a part of the regular five-year cycle of the Agency's Science Program Reviews.  

 

April 14, 2015 — The sardine population along the West Coast has collapsed due to changing ocean conditions and other factors, including allegations of overfishing, prompting regulators Monday to cancel fishing next season and schedule a vote this week on an immediate emergency ban.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council agreed to close the fishery from Mexico to the Canadian border starting July 1, when the 2015 season begins, after federal scientists documented a 91 percent decline in sardine numbers along the West Coast since 2007.

The council, a 19-member policymaking organization made up of fishery representatives from California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, scheduled a vote Wednesday on whether to take the bigger step of immediately halting sardine fishing. The current season would go until June 30 or until between 3,000 and 4,000 metric tons of the schooling fish are hauled out of the water, fulfilling this season’s quota.

“This is a huge step,” said Geoffrey Shester, the California campaign director for Oceana, an international conservation organization that has been fighting for eight years to lower the annual sardine take and implement stricter regulations. “This is one of the most lucrative fisheries in California, so to completely shut it down is a huge deal.”

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

April 14, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance:

Charter and commercial fishermen throughout the Gulf of Mexico celebrated today as the news came down from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that Amendment 40 (Sector Separation) had been approved. The announcement came in the form of a letter from NMFS Regional Director to the Chairman of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

“This is a huge step forward for us,” said Captain Steve Tomeny, Treasurer of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’AllianceandchartercaptainfromPortFourchon,Louisiana. “Wewanttobeaccountable,like the commercial sector. We’ve spent years working to get a management plan that does that, and now we have it. The Gulf Council and NMFS listened to charter fishermen and got this one right.”

Amendment 40 to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan will formally recognize the differences between the charter for hire fleet and the private anglers that fish for red snapper, and will afford them the opportunity to develop management plans that work for their different needs and create more investment and control over their future. For instance, the charter for hire sector is limited access, mostly operates in federal waters and often under more restrictive management measures, and is believed to have the infrastructure to allow for real-time catch reporting. The private angler sector, on the other hand, is open access, mostly operates in state waters under noncompliant management measures, and is thought to lack the infrastructure for real- time catch reporting. As a result, NMFS has identified fundamental differences in the management uncertainty for each sector.

“After years of hard work, the charter for hire industry will finally be recognized as an industry and Amendment 40 paves the way for the entire recreational fishery to be on the path for accountable and sustainable management plans,” said Captain Shane Cantrell, Executive Director of the Charter Fisherman’s Association and charter captain out of Galveston, Texas.
With approval of Sector Separation occurring on April 10, implementation is expected in time for the start of the recreational red snapper fishing season on June 1.

“The commercial fishery is accountable and now the charter fishery will be too,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, owner of the commercial fishing vessel Falcon, and owner of Katie’s Seafood Market in Galveston, Texas. “The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has already declared that the current system of recreational red snapper management violates the Magnuson- Stevens Act. The Judge even said that ‘At a certain point NMFS was obligated to acknowledge that its strategy of incrementally shortening the season was not working. Administrative discretion is not a license to engage in Einstein’s definition of folly – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.’ Sector Separation is a much needed new idea – it’s a step towards breaking the chain of illegal and irresponsible recreational red snapper management.”

April 10, 2015 — Pacific coast sardines are facing a population collapse so severe that Oregon's multimillion-dollar sardine industry almost certainly will be shut down this summer.

Anticipating fishermen will pursue anchovies instead, ocean conservationists are pushing for pre-emptive measures to avoid repeating the collapse with another species.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates the fishing industry off the coast of Oregon, California and Washington, is expected to vote Sunday to close the West Coast sardine fishery in response to new population estimates that indicate the species' still hasn't emerged from an eight-year plummet.

The latest figures indicate there are somewhere between 97,000 and 133,000 metric tons of adult sardines in the ocean from northern Mexico to British Columbia. That's a 90 percent dip since sardines peaked in 2007, and it puts the population below a mandatory fishing cutoff of 150,000 metric tons.

Although sardine populations are known to boom and bust, the species' downward spiral in spite of favorable water conditions has ocean-watchers worried there's more to this collapse than cyclical population trends.

Read the full story from The Oregonian