Management & Regulation

February 12, 2015 — Regulators are considering limiting entry into the Gulf of Maine for northern shrimp fishing, if and when the decimated stock rebounds enough to reopen the fishery, according to a document seeking public comment on the possible revisions to the region’s management plan.

The northern shrimp fishery, now closed for the second consecutive year because the state of the stock has fallen to its lowest level on record, remains an open-access fishery when open.

The revision in the draft amendment for the fishery’s management plan would change that by instituting a limited entry program that would “consider the appropriate number of participants in the fishery given biological, environmental and economic considerations,” according to a document from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The document, known as a public information document, is the first step in the process to amend the fishery’s management plan. That process, which is scheduled to extend into the winter of 2016, includes a number of hearings in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts to gather public comment.

Gloucester hearing

The Massachusetts hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. at the state Division of Marine Fisheries Annisquam River Station on Emerson Avenue in Gloucester.

The AFMSC closed the Gulf of Maine to shrimp fishing in 2014 and 2015 to protect the dwindling number of spawning females, affecting fishermen from Maine (who accounted for 83 percent of the landings in 2013), New Hampshire (11 percent) and Massachusetts (6 percent).

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

February 13, 2015 — Everyone’s got a chance to weigh in on possible revision of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation & Management Act Guidelines. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has scheduled a public meeting and comment period to hear from the public. NMFS announced in the Federal Register of Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015 that it will accept comments until June 30 and conduct a meeting on Wednesday, March 25, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time.

The meeting takes place at the NOAA Science Center, 1301 East West Hwy., Silver Spring, MD, 20910; (301) 427-8563. You can submit comments electronically or in print to Wesley Patrick, NMFS, NOAA, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, 1315 East-West Hwy., Room 13357, Silver Spring, MD 20910, fax: (301) 713-1193; Attn: Wesley Patrick. Refer to NOAA-NMFS-2012-0059. If you have any questions, contact Patrick at (301) 427-8563; Wesley.Patrick@noaa.gov. The meeting is accessible to people with disabilities. If you need special accommodations, contact Patrick at least five days in advance.

NOAA wants to hear ideas on its proposal of Jan. 20, 2015 on the National Standard guidelines and the guidelines for NS1, NS3, and NS7. They include 12 ideas.

Read the full story at The Examiner

February 12, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The states of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on the Public Information Document (PID) for Draft Amendment 3 for Northern Shrimp for public comment. The details of those hearings follow.

 
Maine Department of Marine Resources
Saturday, March 7 at 1 PM
Maine Fishermen’s Forum
The Samoset Resort by the Sea, Camden Room
220 Warrenton Street
Rockport, Maine
Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553
 
Monday, March 30 at 6 PM
Casco Bay Ferry Terminal Conference Room
56 Commercial Street
Portland, Maine
Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553

New Hampshire Fish and Game
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 at 7 PM
Urban Forestry Center
45 Elwyn Road
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095
 
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 6 PM
MA DMF Annisquam River Station
30 Emerson Avenue
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Contact: Kelly Whitmore at 978.282.0308
 
The Draft Amendment was initiated to consider establishing a limited entry program for the northern shrimp fishery for use in the future if and when the stock recovers and the fishery is re-opened. While the fishery is managed through a total allowable catch and defined season, it remains an open access fishery and has experienced significant fluctuations in participation over the last 30 years. This open access, coupled with concern about the health of the stock, led the Section to move forward on a limited entry program to further control effort in the fishery. A limited entry program will consider the appropriate number of participants in the fishery given biological, environmental, and economic considerations.
 
As the first step in the Commission’s amendment process, the PID is intended to gather information concerning northern shrimp and provide an opportunity for the public to identify and comment on major issues relative to the management of this species. Following the initial phase of information-gathering and public comment, the Section will evaluate potential management alternatives and develop Draft Amendment 3 for public review. After the public comment period, the Section will specify the management measures to be included in Amendment 3. A tentative schedule for the completion of Amendment 3 is included in PID.
 
Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the PID either by attending public hearings or providing written comments. The PID can be obtained at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/NShrimpDraftAm3PID_PublicComment.pdf or via the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on April 15, 2015 and should be forwarded to Mike Waine, Senior FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Shrimp PID). For more information, please contact Mike Waine at mwaine@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

 

February 12, 2015 — Regulators are considering limiting entry into the Gulf of Maine for shrimp fishing if-and-when the decimated stock rebounds enough to reopen the fishery, according to a document seeking public comment on the possible revisions to the region's management plan.

The northern shrimp fishery, now closed for the second consecutive year because the state of the stock has fallen to its lowest level on record, remains an open-access fishery when open.

The revision in the draft amendment for the fishery's management plan would change that by instituting a limited entry program that would "consider the appropriate number of participants in the fishery given biological, environmental and economic considerations," according to a document from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The document, known as a public information document, is the first step in the process to amend the fishery's management plan. That process, which is scheduled to extend into the winter of 2016, includes a number of hearings in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts to gather public comment.

The Massachusetts hearing is scheduled for March at 6 p.m. at the state Division of Marine Fisheries Annisquam River Station on Emerson Avenue in Gloucester.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

February 10, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The presentations from the ISFMP Policy Board and NEAMAP Board, as well as the species management boards that met last week at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2015 Winter Meeting are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2015-winter-meeting (click on the Presentations link at the respective board meeting header). Audio files of the species management boards’ proceedings will be available on that same webpage by tomorrow afternoon (click on Audio File link at the respective board meeting header).
 
Meeting materials, presentations and audio files from previous Commission meetings can also be found at http://www.asmfc.org/home/meeting-archive.

 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] February 9, 2015 –The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board approved a plan that achieves a 25% reduction in harvest from 2013 levels for the East Coast  fishery and 20.5% reduction in harvest from 2012 levels for the Chesapeake Bay fishery.

Given the wide range of options being considered, the Board recommended neighboring states and jurisdictions work together to implement consistent management measures, especially on shared water bodies. This recommendation was also supported by the Commission’s Law Enforcement Committee. Additionally, the Board reminded states there is greater certainty in the percent reductions of simple management measures (i.e., changes in bag or size limits) relative to more complex measures (e.g., slot/trophy fish and mode-specific options).

The Board also tasked the Technical Committee with expanding the exploration of stock-specific reference points to include the other producer areas, such as the Delaware Bay and the Hudson River stocks, in addition to the Chesapeake Bay.  The Board will review progress on the stock-specific reference points at its Spring Meeting in May.

States and jurisdictions must have plans in place that implement these harvest reductions by the start of the 2015 fishing season.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Alexandria, Va. — February 5, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Management Board approved the 2015 Black Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report for management use. Based on the assessment results, black drum is not overfished and not experiencing overfishing. Median biomass was estimated to have declined slowly and steadily from 135.2 million pounds in 1900 to 90.78 million pounds in 2012, though the median biomass estimate in 2012 is still well above the median biomass that produces maximum sustainable yield (BMSY; 47.26 million pounds). The median maximum sustainable yield (MSY) estimate is 2.12 million pounds and provides an annual catch target that can be used to sustainably manage the fishery. The median overfishing limit (OFL), which provides a catch threshold indicating when overfishing is occurring, is estimated to be 4.12 million pounds.
 
Black drum are a data-poor species. Their rarity and migratory patterns lead to highly variable levels of encounter in state surveys and fisheries. Further, limited size composition data has been collected, making the use of age-structured models unreliable. For these reasons, data-poor, catch-based modeling methods were used for the assessment. These models estimate reference points based on historical catch data and life history information.
 
Three modeling methods were evaluated to estimate catch reference points for assessing population health such as MSY and OFL. These methods included Depletion-Corrected Average Catch, Catch-MSY, and Depletion-Based Stock Reduction analysis (DB-SRA). These methods have been evaluated against data-rich assessments and are considered robust given inputs and assumptions are correct. DB-SRA was selected as the preferred method based on the underlying configuration of the methods, the required inputs, and performance of the methods evaluated through sensitivity analysis and simulated projections.
 
The Black Drum Stock Assessment Subcommittee noted the black drum stock assessment would be improved by applying a more complex, data-rich assessment method such as a statistical catch-at-age model. Data limitations that need to be addressed to successfully make this transition are biological sampling (length and age) of recreational and commercial fisheries and a fishery-independent survey tracking abundance and the age structure of the mature stock. Additionally, information about fish discarded in commercial fisheries and movement of fish would improve the assessment.
 
Under the Black Drum Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which was approved in 2013, states were required to implement a maximum possession limit and minimum size limit (of at least 12 inches) by January 1, 2014, with an additional increase of the minimum size limit to at least 14 inches required by January 1, 2016. The FMP also includes a management framework to adaptively respond to future concerns or changes in the fishery or population. Given the assessment findings, the Board choose to not make any additional changes to the management program at this time.
 
A more detailed description of the stock assessment results is available on the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/54d3a0462015BlackDrumAssessmentOverview_Feb2015.pdf.
The final assessment and peer review reports will be posted to the Commission website the week of February 9th, www.asmfc.org, on the Black Drum webpage. For more information on the Stock Assessment, please contact Jeff Kipp, Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org; and for more information on black drum management, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, FMP Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org.

 

February 5, 2015 — The Board's chair Robert Boyle from South Carolina said the assessment has set the stage for them to discuss how they want to move forward in sustainably managing Atlantic menhaden.

The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved the 2014 benchmark menhaden stock assessment for management purposes at the winter meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The meetings was held this past week in Alexandria, Virginia.

The assessment found that menhaden are not being overfished and overfishing is not occurring relative to the current maximum spawning potential. The reproduction capability — or fecundity — is 71-percent higher than the target level.

The Board's chair Robert Boyle from South Carolina said the assessment has set the stage for them to discuss how they want to move forward in sustainably managing Atlantic menhaden.

"This discussion will include Board management objectives that address the needs of the reduction and bait fisheries as well as the ecological services menhaden provides as an important prey species," Boyle said in a prepared statement.

Read the full story from the Asbury Park Press

 

February 5, 2015 — The Board's chair Robert Boyle from South Carolina said the assessment has set the stage for them to discuss how they want to move forward in sustainably managing Atlantic menhaden.

The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved the 2014 benchmark menhaden stock assessment for management purposes at the winter meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The meetings was held this past week in Alexandria, Virginia.

The assessment found that menhaden are not being overfished and overfishing is not occurring relative to the current maximum spawning potential. The reproduction capability — or fecundity — is 71-percent higher than the target level.

The Board's chair Robert Boyle from South Carolina said the assessment has set the stage for them to discuss how they want to move forward in sustainably managing Atlantic menhaden.

"This discussion will include Board management objectives that address the needs of the reduction and bait fisheries as well as the ecological services menhaden provides as an important prey species," Boyle said in a prepared statement.

Read the full story from the Asbury Park Press

 

February 5, 2015 — There are more menhaden than previously thought, according to a new stock assessment, calling into question whether there was a need for a 20 percent reduction on the menhaden fishery about three years ago.

Menhaden are managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which also manages other coastal fishery species. A benchmark stock assessment from 2009 to 2011 led the ASMFC to order East Coast states to impose a 20 percent reduction on the menhaden fishery, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources put that reduction into place in 2013.

The reduction triggered a lawsuit from Maryland watermen, who argued that it was not needed.

At the time, officials from both DNR and the ASMFC said the reduction was ordered based on the best available science they had.

Now, a 2015 menhaden benchmark stock assessment has determined the resource commonly called “the most important fish in the sea” is not overfished or experiencing overfishing.

Capt. Rob Newberry — a spokesman for the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition, members from which initiated the lawsuit against DNR over the menhaden regulations — said, “We were right. They were wrong.”

“My thing for the Harvesters, we don’t need these regulations. Lift the regulations. Let us continue on our fishery the way we have been and just keep going. We said all along they weren’t necessary,” Newberry said.

Read the full story from The Star Democrat