Management & Regulation

BOSTON, Mass. — November 19, 2014 — The following was released by the Environmental Defense Fund:

The Environmental Defense Fund announced today a new proposal calling for 100 percent monitoring of groundfish fishing boats in New England. Comprehensive monitoring is critical to help rebuild the fishery and avoid the total collapse of the cod industry in New England.

This announcement comes in response to a recent decision by federal regulators to close large areas of the New England cod fishery for six-months. Cod stocks are at their lowest point in 40 years – just 3 to 4 percent of what is a considered healthy stock. 

Currently just 20 percent of all fishing boats in New England are monitored. Monitoring plays a crucial role in understanding what fish are being caught, how much is being caught and what amount is discarded and tossed back into the oceans. This leads to better science, which in turn generates more accurate stock assessments and catch limits. High catch accountability through effective monitoring is fundamental to sustainable fisheries management.

“Given the massive scale of this crisis, we simply cannot continue to operate in the dark. This fishery is too important,” said Matt Mullin, regional director of EDF’s oceans program in New England. “Increased monitoring will directly address an ongoing, fundamental flaw in our fishery management – the fact that we do not have an accurate assessment of what is being caught on 80 percent of boats.”

In other parts of the country such as the Pacific, where just a decade ago the fishery was declared a federal disaster, monitoring has played a critical role in the rebuilding of fish stocks. Following the implementation of a management system that mandated 100 percent monitoring and accountability, that fishery saw more accurate science and the rebound of several stocks. It has now been officially certified as sustainable.

“The time for false hope has passed and the need for leadership is paramount,” continued Mullin. “This fishery is on the brink of collapse, but there are steps that can be taken to help  rebuild the stock and ensure the future of the fishery. Though these solutions will be challenging, they are imperative to ensuring that the New England cod industry does not become a footnote in history.”
 
In addition to 100 percent monitoring, EDF is working to develop better strategies to help fishermen avoid catching cod, and is calling for a greater investment to determine the impact  of climate change on the fishery. A recent study showed that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, which has major implications for cod spawning and feeding. Underlying fisheries science must begin to account for that.

EDF is also proposing a more robust effort to market and promote underutilized fish species that are less known, but abundant in local waters.

“Thankfully, cod is not the only fish in our oceans. There are a variety of species that are plentiful in local waters that fishermen know how to catch, but lack the recognition of the iconic cod,” said Mullin. “As we work to rebuild cod stocks, we can also introduce new consumer marketing strategies to help promote and create demand for these sustainable and plentiful fish, such as Pollock, haddock and redfish. The bottom line is that in order to keep fishermen working during this period of stress for the industry the fishery needs to reenvision itself away from cod and towards more abundant stocks.”

The good news is that the demand for these abundant species is there. A study released by UMass Dartmouth showed strong support among Massachusetts’ consumers to try new fish varieties, particularly when those efforts supported local fishermen and enabled struggling groundfish stocks to recover.

The study, “Identifying New Market Opportunities for Groundfish Species in New England,” indicates that availability and sustainability are key issues for consumers when deciding what types of fish to eat.  Seventy-two percent of respondents described availability as at least somewhat important, and 70 percent described sustainability as somewhat or very important. In addition, 75 percent of consumers surveyed said that where a fish is from is somewhat or very important when deciding what type of fish to eat.

“Massachusetts is home to a variety of institutions with large purchasing power, such as our colleges and universities, state agencies, and hospital and healthcare networks, to name just a few,” added Mullin.  “If we get creative and make the marketing of these underutilized but delicious fish a priority, we can support fishermen during this difficult period and ensure a strong fishery for the future.”

November 19, 2014 — The New England Fishery Management Council appears ready to give NOAA what it wants in the 2015 management plan for the Northeast multispecies groundfishery.

In its first vote since NOAA last week implemented stinging area closures to help the beleaguered cod, the council voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slash the annual catch limit for Gulf of Maine cod by about 75 percent to 386 metric tons for all commercial and recreational fishermen in the 2015 fishing season.

That reduction in the cod quota from the current 1,550 metric tons sets the stage for today, when the council will continue assembling the fishery management plan — with the new NOAA cod measures front and center in the day-long session that is  expected to be divisive and rancorous.

“It’s going to be a long day,” NEFMC chairman Terry Stockwell said in complete understatement to the council members as he gaveled Tuesday’s proceedings to a close.

The council today will discuss many of the measures instituted last week by NOAA with an eye toward including them in the formal fishery management plan.

The NOAA emergency measures — which run for six months with the potential of rolling over for another six months — include a series of rolling, monthly area closures that fishermen believe will shut down groundfishing in the western Gulf of Maine and all but eliminate cod fishing even in the open areas.

“Our goal is to rebuild cod within the time frame,” said NOAA Regional Administrator John K. Bullard. “That’s a goal worth fighting for.”
With so much on the table today, Tuesday’s session held the ambiance of an opening act. But that’s not to say the passion and frustration weren’t flowing.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

November 18, 2014 — "Long term trends in environmental conditions are not favorable for northern shrimp. This suggests a need to conserve spawners to help compensate for what may continue to be an unfavorable environment."

On Nov. 5, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section met in Portland and, after a scientific presentation, voted unanimously to close the shrimp fishery for another year. The handful of fishermen and processors in the room pleaded for a short season—anything to keep boats on the water.

However, the results of the annual survey and stock assessment showed the second lowest biomass on record (the lowest was in 2013). The scientific Technical Committee left the shrimp section with a strong message: "Long term trends in environmental conditions are not favorable for northern shrimp. This suggests a need to conserve spawners to help compensate for what may continue to be an unfavorable environment."

Managers had no choice but to keep boats tied up for another season.

Since the moratorium last season, shrimp have been called the "canary in the coal mine for climate change" in New England fisheries. But the canary analogy, which simply tells the miners to get out or die, may be too simple. Rather, the decline in shrimp seems to be akin to Rachel Carson's cry for action as she explored the causes of declining bird populations in the late 1950s. The loss of shrimp this season isn't just a warning: it is an opportunity to identify a responsive path forward for fisheries management.

Climate change is the elephant in the room when it comes to fisheries management. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99 percent of the world's oceans, and warmer waters are making it harder for some species to live here.

Read the full story from The Working Waterfront

 

NEWPORT, R.I. — November 18, 2014 — With fishermen still reeling from a set of new area closures that NOAA clamped on the industry last week, federal regulators may set more new rules governing the 2015 fishing season during a series of meetings here this week.

The New England Fishery Management Council is meeting through Thursday, with questions expected regarding the new rolling closures the federal government put in place last Thursday as emergency measures aimed at protecting what a NOAA stock assessment says are badly depleted Gulf of Maine cod stocks.

The council's Scientific and Statistical Committee says an acceptable catch for cod next year is 386 metric tons. The current acceptable biological catch is 1550 metric tons.

The talks are also expected to set rules for the coming fishing season that begins next May 1, with cod and groundfish discussions planned for today and Wednesday.

The meeting comes on the heels of last week's announcement by John K. Bullard, NOAA's Gloucester-based Northeast administrator, of the the need to close commercial and recreational cod fishing in parts of the Gulf of Maine. The six-month emergency restrictions include a 200-pound limit on how much a fishing vessel can catch during a single trip.

Fishermen and industry backers, however, have widely questioned the credibility of the latest NOAA stock assessment, which was carried out as an "unscheduled" study and without any input from fishermen or other industry officials despite calls for more cooperative research and industry input.

Governor-elect Charlie Baker also joined in saying he wanted "answers" regarding discrepancy between the claims in NOAA's study and the working findings of fishermen who are on the water.

All of the closures involve areas geographically close to Cape Ann that provide prime fishing areas for Gloucester’s dwindling small-boat fleet.

The emphasis on closing the nearby areas underlined recent charges from Gloucester community leaders and fishing stakeholders that the city’s fishing community will suffer disproportionately under the new measures.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

November 18, 2014 — Federal regulators working to save plummeting cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine may decide this week to ban lobster fishing in parts of the ocean where cod spawn – an unprecedented step that raises jurisdictional questions over who calls the shots in managing commercial fisheries.

The New England Fishery Management Council is expected to vote on the lobster-gear proposal Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday when it meets in Newport, Rhode Island, to set rules for the 2015 groundfishing season, which begins in May.

The regulators are considering several steps – including closing some areas to all fishing during certain months – to protect cod stocks in coastal areas of the Gulf of Maine, where the cod population is at 3 to 4 percent of a level considered sustainable, its lowest since scientists began tracking the species 40 years ago.

Regulators are now examining whether the region’s lobster fishery is partly at fault. In 2008, the year for which the most recent data are available, an estimated 177,000 cod were captured in lobster traps in Maine state waters. If each fish weighed a pound, which would be small for that species, it would total 80 metric tons. A scientific committee last week recommended that the council set a catch limit for Gulf of Maine cod of 386 metric tons.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

November 18, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment on new measures that would enable fishery managers to adjust accountability measures put in place if annual catch limits are exceeded for southern and northern windowpane flounder. This intent of this action is to reduce some of the adverse economic impacts on the fishing industry associated with the accountability measures, while preventing overfishing of southern and northern windowpane flounder stocks.

Click here to view the proposed rule. Public comments must be received by 5pm on December 2nd.

 

November 17, 2014 — West Coast fishery managers have recommended easing federal limits on commercial catches of Pacific sardine for the first time in 15 years, despite evidence of sharp declines of the tiny fish, a key food source of sea birds and marine mammals.

Under the plan approved over the weekend, the maximum harvest level allowed in U.S. Pacific waters would be raised from 15 percent to 20 percent of the sardine's estimated total biomass – less 150,000 metric tons to provide a margin of error.

The higher limits were proposed unanimously by the 14-member Pacific Fishery Management Council, one of eight advisory panels around the country that oversee commercial and recreational fishing for U.S. waters in their regions.

The recommendations are subject to approval of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a U.S. Commerce Department agency. If adopted, they would go into effect as early as next July, the start of the new sardine season.

Read the full story from Reuters

 

July 23, 2014 — The Federal agency that manages marine endangered species announced Wednesday that it's considering a ban on recreational or commercial fishing of a species of tuna that extremely popular among fans of sashimi.

The Fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries) is opening a formal rulemaking process to determine whether it should add Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) to its list of fish species that must be released immediately if caught. The fish is sold in sushi joints as "maguro."

Pacific bluefin catches have dropped dramatically in recent years, to the point where sport fishing now accounts for more of the U.S. catch than commercial fishing. And scientists say the species now stands at less than five percent of its historic numbers.

The move comes in response to an April petition by the Center for Biological Diversity asking NOAA Fisheries to amend its Fishery Management Plan for U.S. West Coast Fisheries for Highly Migratory Species, a program with a name too long to acronym that addresses Pacific Ocean fish who divide their time between the U.S. West Coast and places like Japan and Siberia. CBD's petition asked NOAA Fisheries to rewrite the plan to include a ban of catch of Pacific bluefin, or at least to implement annual catch limits and minimum sizes for the bluefin.

Other "highly migratory" Pacific fish species whose catch is prohibited under the plan include basking, great white, and megamouth sharks, as well as Pacific halibut.

Read the full story from KCET

November 13, 2014 — On the heels of Monday’s abrupt emergency shutdown of cod fishing in inshore waters off Massachusetts and New Hampshire until May 1, the New England Fishery Management Council is now weighing another round of steep cuts in the allowed catch of Gulf of Maine groundfish for the rest of the year after that.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service imposed the sudden shutdown of vast areas of the gulf after data showed cod stocks in their worst shape in at least 40 years.

But Thursday, many fishermen were trying to persuade the local council: The government data are not true.

"I am certain that the science is wrong by a lot on this one," said Vito Giacalone, a Gloucester, Massachusetts, fisherman and leader of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund. "They're finding them in a lot of areas. They're not just catching them in one concentrated area as they thought. Big catches, like 3,000, 4,000 pounds, one-hour tows, little 40-foot boats. Flounder, cod, as good catch rates as we've ever seen."

David Goethel, captain of the Ellen Diane out of Hampton, New Hampshire, agreed.

"I think there are a lot more cod than they are finding," Goethel said. "I think we're in the position we're in basically because one boat couldn't catch any cod — and that boat happens to belong to the U.S. government."

Read the full story and watch the video at NECN

November 13, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA:

You will be interested to know we have taken another important step to improve the quality of recreational data that informs our decision-making.
 
We are convening a team of experts to help us transition to a promising new method of surveying private boat and shore-based saltwater recreational anglers along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts about their fishing trips, or effort.
 
Preliminary findings from an extensive, multi-year pilot project indicate mail surveys do a better job of capturing recreational fishing trips than our current coastal household phone survey.
 
Moving to a mail survey may sound counter-intuitive, but our pilot project results indicate mail surveys do a better job of capturing recreational fishing trips by reaching a broader population of anglers, getting more accurate information from respondents, and delivering higher response rates.
 
Other government agencies, including the U.S. Census Bureau and many highly respected research firms now use mail surveys because of their effectiveness.
 
The switch to the mail survey will not happen overnight. In fact, we don't expect it to be fully implemented and used for science or management decision-making before 2016 at the earliest. That's because we know from past experience that major methodological changes can disrupt our assessment and management activities.
 
This is why we are standing up a team to smartly manage the transition to the mail survey. The team includes both members of our staff and representatives from the Councils, Commissions, and states.
 
The expert team will work with state and regional decision-making bodies to develop the most appropriate way to shift to the new mail survey so as to minimize potential impacts.
 
We will not fully implement the new survey until we can explain any differences between estimates and determine how the new numbers can be used in stock assessments and for catch accounting.
 
I invite you to ask us questions by participating in an informational webinar on Monday, November 24 at 2:00 pm (EST). You can register here or by contacting Leah Sharpe. And follow our progress online at www.CountMyFish.noaa.gov.