Management & Regulation

December 1, 2014 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Department of Marine Resources will hold three public meetings to provide information on the New England Fishery Management Council’s Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2.
 
This fishery management action will address habitat requirements for all fisheries managed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEMFC) in federal waters and may impact Maine fishermen who operate in federal waters.
 
These meetings are informational only, not public hearings, but are intended to help inform industry members about what the proposed actions include and how they can provide input during the public comment period which ends in early January.
 
The amendment includes proposals for area closures for habitat protection, groundfish spawning, and research. Implications include the possibility of closures for the scallop, quahog, halibut, shrimp, herring and groundfish fisheries.
 
While lobster gear is not currently included in the list of gear potentially affected by the amendment, the possibility remains open that this could change as a result of public input and any supporting scientific information. The Council plans to work with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the coastal states in the Northeast on this issue, but very little information has been available to date. 
 
Meetings will be held December 9 at 5 p.m. at the Casco Bay Lines on Commercial Street in Portland, December 10 at 5 p.m. at the Ellsworth City Hall Auditorium, and December 15 at 5 p.m. at the University of Maine Machias, Room 102 in the Science Building.
 
A schedule of public hearings hosted by NEFMC to solicit public comment can be found at public hearing schedule notice.pdf. There will be one held Monday, January 5 via webinar. Register at http://bit.ly/1yDgJux. A summary document can be located by clicking here summary of proposed habitat measures.pdf.
 
In Maine, there will be public hearings on Tuesday, January 6 at 6 p.m. at Jeff’s Catering and Event Center in Brewer and Wednesday, January 7 at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.
 
For more information, call Pat Fiorelli at the New England Fishery Management Council at 978-465-0492, ext. 106. 

 

December 1, 2014 — Bluefin tuna fishers in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast are facing new restrictions to protect the prized species from being overfished. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the rules Monday for commercial fishing vessels.

Taking effect in January, the rules forbid the use of miles-long fishing lines in areas of the gulf and off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., during certain sensitive periods for Atlantic bluefin tuna. Anglers may still catch the tuna using other types of gear.

Although bluefin are not considered an endangered species by federal scientists, their future is viewed with concern and they are the focus of international conservation efforts. The fish — giants weighing hundreds of pounds and measuring as long as 6 feet — sell for thousands of dollars, mostly to feed the worldwide market for sushi.

Read the full story from The Times-Picayune 

 

 

December 1, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries today announced final regulations that will help protect Atlantic bluefin tuna by reducing dead discards and providing measures to help ensure compliance with international quotas. These regulations were developed through a comprehensive process that included input from the public, states, industry, and others.

Click here for more information.

 

November 28, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has announced the fifth round of Fishery Innovation Fund grant opportunities. The goal of the Fund, launched in 2010, is to increase revenue and provide additional access and fishing opportunities for both commercial and recreational fishermen and was created through a partnership between NFWF and NOAA, with additional support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. The pre-proposal due date is December 19, 2014.

The Fund is a grant program designed to foster innovation in the fishing industry in order to sustain fishermen's livelihoods while rebuilding fish stocks. It supports the participation of fishermen and their communities in securing sustainable fisheries in the U.S. This year, NFWF anticipates awarding $1.16 million through this solicitation.

Successful proposals will develop innovative approaches to:
 
I.  Build the capacity of fishing businesses and communities to improve their sustainability and access additional forms of financing (loans and equity).
 
II. Support full utilization of Annual Catch Limits and minimize bycatch of overfished and endangered, threatened, and candidate species.
 
III. Improve the quality, quantity, and timeliness of fisheries-dependent data used for science, management, and fishermen's business purposes.

Full details about how to apply, evaluation criteria, and application assistance can be found on the NFWF website.

November 24, 2014 — A charter boat captain who makes a living chasing tuna, Johnny Johnson finds it infuriating that regulators may close stretches of ocean in the name of research, but he doesn’t know when, exactly where or for how long.

    “You’re telling me I can’t go feed my family. That’s what you’re telling me. You’re cutting me off from the only thing I know how to do,” Johnson, of Gloucester, said passionately. “Our kids are hungry every single day, and we can’t have these people making these decisions about how we will survive.”

Fishermen, charter-boat captains and anglers lined up Tuesday night to voice opposition to the New England Fishery Management Council’s proposal for protecting and researching fish habitats. The plan includes proposals to close three areas off New England to recreational and charter-boat ground fishing, including 55 square miles of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

The federal government will use the finished proposal to set fishery management policies, such as closure implementation.

The turnout Tuesday night at the Radisson Plymouth Harbor hotel was so large that the council had to move the meeting into a larger conference room. Dozens of fishermen and members of the Stellwagen Bank Charter Boat Association attended.

Read the full story at The Patriot Ledger

November 21, 2014 — Maine’s scallop fishermen and state regulators have been working for years to rebuild the nation’s largest inshore sea scallop fishery. This week federal regulators gave them a boost.

The New England Fishery Management Council on Thursday approved a measure that would allow scallop draggers licensed to operate in federal waters in the Gulf of Maine to also take part in Maine’s winter scallop season in state waters – even after the total allowable catch limit is reached in federal waters.

“It’s a small victory for Maine scallop fishermen,” said Togue Brawn, who owns a Portland business that buys scallops from Maine’s small-boat fleet.

Maine’s fishery is a 70-day season that starts on Dec. 1 and ends in April or whenever fishery mangers decide it needs to be closed to protect the stock. Fishermen have daily catch limits.

The federal fishery, by contrast, has a year-round season and is managed by a system of individual catch quotas and limits on the number of days fishing boats are allowed at sea.

Made of two districts, the federal fishery has a small northern district between the Canadian border and Boston, and a huge southern district that includes the Georges Bank and in offshore waters in the Mid-Atlantic. The northern district has an annual catch limit of just 70,000 pounds. The southern district, which is dominated by large boats from New Bedford, Massachusetts, that go to sea for days at a time, yields about 50 million pounds of scallops annually and accounts for roughly 99 percent of the nation’s scallop catch.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

November 22, 2014 — There are a lot of fish in the sea. How to count them? It is, surprisingly, one of the hottest questions in New England public life these days.

Massachusetts Governor-elect Charlie Baker, concerned about sharp restrictions on cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine, has openly questioned whether the federal government is accurately tallying the iconic species.

“My continued concern about this,” he said recently, “is there’s only one source of truth.”

And aggrieved fishermen, an iconic species of their own, have argued that the abundant catch in their nets this year belies the government’s warnings of a species on the brink of collapse.

Scientists and environmentalists have offered broad rebuttals to Baker and the fishermen in the news media, often blaming the problem on decades of overfishing. But there has been little detailed discussion of how the federal government actually counts fish and how reliable its numbers are.

The decades-old count, it turns out, is a sprawling effort, overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, based in Woods Hole.

Observers on fishermen’s boats track what they are catching and where. Analysts pore over catch data filed by dealers at the dock. And samplers at ports inspect a fish ear structure known as the otolith whose calcified rings reveal the age of a fish — just as tree rings show the age of a tree.

Age is important. Scientists say information on how a particular cohort of fish is faring — 1-year-old summer flounder or 5-year-old cod — says something critical about the long-term health of the population.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

November 24, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is intending to move, within the next few years, to a new MRIP-based method for surveying Atlantic and Gulf Coast saltwater recreational shore and private boat anglers about their fishing trips.
 
Last week we made available preliminary findings from an extensive, multi-year MRIP pilot project, which previews a promising new method for surveying saltwater recreational anglers about their trips. The findings indicate mail surveys likely do a better job of capturing recreational fishing trips (fishing effort) by reaching a broader population of anglers, getting more accurate information from respondents, and delivering higher response rates.
 
Given the implications of this project report, NOAA Fisheries identified members for a Transition Team that includes experts from state agencies, Regional Fishery Management Councils, Interstate Marine Fisheries Commissions, and NOAA Fisheries.
 
If you would like more information about the pilot project or the Transition Team,MRIP will be hosting a webinar on November 24, 2014 from 2-3pm EST at
 
https://noaast.adobeconnect.com/mripstakeholders/
Toll Free: 888-606-9804
Toll: 517-308-9231
Passcode: 8609376
Restrictions may exist when accessing freephone/toll free numbers using a mobile telephone.
 
For questions please contact Leah Sharpe at leah.sharpe@noaa.gov

 

November 21, 2014 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):

Inside This Issue

Upcoming Meetings
page 2
 
From the Executive Director’s Desk
2014-2018 Strategic Plan: Year 1
page 3

Species Profile
American Eel
page 4
 
Fishery Management Actions
Atlantic Striped Bass
Northern Shrimp
Horseshoe Crab
Spiny Dogfish
page 6
 
Emily Greene Receives Melissa Laser Fish Habitat Conservation Award
page 7
 
Proposed Management Actions
Summer Flounder
Jonah Crab
American Lobster
Northern Shrimp
Spiny Dogfish
page 8
 
ACCSP Focus
Atlantic Coastal States to Collect Recreational Intercept Data for MRIP
page 9
 
Science Highlight
Understanding Socioeconomics
page 10
 
On the Legislative Front
page 11
 
ASMFC Comings and Goings
page 12

Read the full report from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)

November 20, 2014 —  A proposal to restrict lobster fishing in certain designated spawning areas for cod is on the agenda at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Newport, R.I., this week.

A groundfish subcommittee voted last week to recommend that, “due to the high bycatch of cod in the lobster fishery and potential disruption of spawning behavior,” Gulf of Maine cod spawning closures “include a restriction on fishing with or using lobster pot gear.”

At issue is the number of cod being caught in lobster traps and whether they survive the trip to the surface.

Last week, the Portland Press Herald published numbers citing a Department of Marine Resources estimate that 177,247 cod were taken in lobster traps in 2008. “That was an estimate based on raw data provided by DMR staff to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC),” Commissioner Pat Keliher said in a statement Monday. “However, the analysis and extrapolation were not done by DMR.

“In fact,” Keliher said, “DMR believes this work overestimates the actual by-catch of cod in the Maine lobster fishery.

“The data, which was from 2008, was a very rough estimate, and does not fully account for the variability of by-catch in the lobster fishery in different parts of the coast, in different depths, and in different seasons. That variability is significant. This rudimentary analysis should not be the basis for management decisions.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American