Management & Regulation

October 13, 2014 — The following was released by the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers:

Seattle, WA- Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers (ABSC) is pleased to announce the opening of the 2014-15 Bering Sea commercial king and tanner crab fisheries. The official opening of the season will be 12:00 noon on Wednesday October 15, 2014. The fishery will remain open through January 15, 2015 for Bristol Bay red king crab; February 1, 2015 for St. Matthew’s blue king crab; March 31, 2015 for Bering Sea Tanner crab; May 15, 2015 for Bering Sea snow crab in the Eastern sub-district; and, May 31, 2015 for Bering Sea snow crab in the Western sub-district.

The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the various fisheries is listed below. Please note the IFQ refers to the Individual Fishery Quota issued to harvesters. The CDQ refers to Community Development Quota, a 10% allocation reserved for development projects in rural western Alaskan communities adjacent to the Bering Sea.

Read the full story from the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers

October 8, 2014 — The following was released by the Northeast Regional Planning Body:

A final reminder on the upcoming regional ocean planning events during the month of October. Please see our website for details: neoceanplanning.org/events/fall-2014-public-meetings.

Also, we encourage your attendance at the day-long regional forum on October 21 at the University of New Hampshire. Please take a minute to register for this event online. This will help us to ensure adequate refreshments for those attending.

 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM –– October 7, 2014 — The Pew Chartible Trusts has spelled out five fishery management measures it would like to see participants across the Pacific bluefin tuna industry consider as part of a longer-term plan to protect the fishery's stock.

This iniative follows recent managment decision that though Pew endorsed, said were not comprehensive enough to protect the Pacific bluefine industry for the long-term.

Following a week-long meeting of fishing nations in Fukuoka, Japan, the severely depleted population of Pacific bluefin tuna is expected to experience some limited relief after decades of overfishing. Still, the nations at the meeting did not agree on the measures needed for long-term recovery. Instead, they approved a rebuilding target that is far from the big break this species needs to fully recover.

Meeting in early September, members of the Northern Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) agreed to cut the catch of juvenile bluefin in western and central Pacific waters by 50 percent from the average level seen between 2002 and 2004. The committee also supported measures to maintain the catch of adults  at or below the baseline level for those years.   However, when discussing a longer-term plan for the species, members could only agree on a 10-year rebuilding target of just 6.9 percent of the population’s historically unfished size.  Such minimal growth would mean that fishermen would continue to target a severely depleted Pacific bluefin population for the next decade or longer.

The latest assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean (ISC), an independent group of scientists, found that the Pacific bluefin population has declined by 96 percent from its unfished size. Today, small, juvenile fish make up nearly 98 percent of the total catch, which means that most of the fish caught have not had a chance to reproduce and contribute to building future generations.The ISC has warned that the population will not increase without significant cuts in catch for both adults and juveniles.

"The short-term measures the Northern Committee has recommended are encouraging; however, this is just the first step in solving a decades-long overfishing problem that has resulted in the decimation of this population," said Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for The Pew Charitable Trusts. "The bottom line here is that countries across the Pacific have the responsibility to agree on a strong recovery plan that does more than raise the population from severely depleted to slightly less severely depleted. If all governments involved in the fishery cannot agree on responsible and comprehensive actions, trade restrictions or stronger measures must be considered."

In order to save Pacific Bluefin, here are the five things that must be done:

1.  A stronger science-based precautionary recovery plan has to be implemented

The proposed cut in juvenile catch is encouraging, but it’s not enough on its own to bring Pacific bluefin back from the brink. The latest ISC assessment analyzed seven scenarios that included a range of catch levels. Only one option offered a chance of population growth within 10 years under current conditions.  It contained two critical elements:

First, a limit must be set on the annual juvenile catch in western and central Pacific waters of no more than 4,570 metric tons. That figure corresponds to a 50 percent reduction from average catch in 2002-04, though it amounts to only a 6 percent reduction from 2010-11 levels. Members of the Northern Committee agreed to that cap, but the second element is out of their jurisdiction. A total catch limit of no more than 2,750 metric tons is needed in the eastern Pacific, which is managed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC).

An effective rebuilding plan also requires a coordinated, ocean-wide effort that returns the spawning population—the fish able to reproduce—to 155,000 metric tons within 10 years. That amounts to 25 percent of the Pacific bluefin population’s original size, the minimum level needed to support a healthy fishery.

2.  26 nations in the west must commit to saving Pacific bluefin.

The Northern Committee recommends conservation management measures, but the entire WCPFC has the final say. At the annual meeting in December 2014, all commission members should support the short-term catch reductions, and request that the Northern Committee revisit and strengthen the long-term rebuilding target at its next meeting.

3. 21 nations in the east must also agree and commit to conservation measures.

The Pacific bluefin population is highly migratory; some fish travel all the way from Japan to Mexico and back. Since fish populations must be managed as a whole, the WCPFC isn’t the only regional fisheries management body that has work to do.

Members of IATTC are responsible for fishing in the east. These countries could not reach agreement on measures for rebuilding Pacific bluefin tuna when they met in July, so they’re scheduled to reconvene in late October. At this meeting, they must agree to an overall catch limit of 2,750 metric tons a year, a level that scientists predict will aid recovery of the bluefin population.

4. The fishing industry needs to commit to recovery as well.

For an ocean-wide rebuilding plan to work, it must have buy-in from the fishing industry. Everyone from recreational anglers in southern California to commercial fishermen in Mexico to small-scale fishermen in Japan must come together to support a plan that will lead to a healthy bluefin tuna population in the Pacific.

5. Strong and regular monitoring must be undertaken to ensure progress toward rebuilding and recovery.

The Pacific bluefin population is in intensive care. Once everyone agrees to the plan, there must be regularly scheduled check-ups to measure progress. These include scientific assessments of the population, as well as timely government monitoring and enforcement to secure compliance. An electronic catch documentation system that tracks each fish from sea to sale is a critical tool for achieving this objective.

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

 

October 7, 2014 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:

Oyster harvesting in Florida’s Apalachicola Bay may shut down entirely for an extended period of time resulting in an even further scarcity of Gulf oysters in the marketplace if new restrictions are put in place by a Florida state agency.

Drought in the upper Apalachicola Bay Basin, agricultural water usage in the Flint River Basin, and domestic and industrial water usage in the Upper Chattahoochee River Basin are principle causes elevating the salinity problems in Apalachicola Bay into which the three rivers empty. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Executive Director Nick Wiley, if restrictions put in place for the coming winter don’t help the imperiled fishery recover, shutting down the Bay might be the only option.

“It’s very likely that we’re going to have to entertain a possible complete closure of the Apalachicola oyster harvest,” Wiley told his commission members. “We want to take that step very carefully, and only do that if everybody feels that’s what we have to do.”

According to Chris Nelson of the Gulf Oyster Industry Council and a Gulf Seafood Institute board member, this is just one more example of how “salinity changes” have produced growing challenges for Gulf Coast oyster production.  “In this case a dry climate cycle and increasing upstream usage and impoundment of freshwater has created an inhospitable environment for oyster growth and reproduction in the Apalachicola Bay system,” the oyster expert told Gulf Seafood News.

Read the full story from the Gulf Seafood Institute 

 

October 7, 2014 — Federal regulators are reducing the number of days fishermen can fish for Atlantic herring off of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Atlantic Herring Section's members from the three states say vessels may fish for Atlantic herring for four days weekly, from 12:01 a.m. Monday until midnight Thursday.

Read the full story from WCSH

 

October 3, 2014 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, with input from industry, set a “days out” effort control measure to allow four (4) landing days per week in Area 1A during the remainder of the 2014 fishing season. Trimester 3 (October 1 through December 31) has a total allowable catch of 8,142 metric tons (mt). This amount is 27.2% of the 33,031 mt annual catch limit sub-component for Area 1A after adjusting for rollover from 2012’s unused quota, fixed gear set-aside, research set-aside, and bycatch allowance.
 
Vessels may fish and land sea herring from 12:01 AM on Mondays up to midnight on Thursdays during trimester 3. Friday, Saturday, and Sundays are “no landing” days. Please note a state may implement different start and finish times for the four consecutive landings days.
 
In addition, the spawning areas in Western Maine and Massachusetts-New Hampshire are closed until October 21 and October 18, respectively. An incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of herring per trip for non-directed fisheries is permitted during the closures in the two spawning areas. Landings will be monitored closely and the directed fishery will be closed when 92 % of Trimester 3’s adjusted quota is projected to be reached.
 
Please contact Melissa Yuen at (703) 842-0740 for more information.

 

October 2, 2014 — The two agencies that control the future of fluke off our coastline, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, have proposed a comprehensive summer flounder management amendment.

To gather stakeholder feedback on the issues to be addressed in the amendment, the agencies scheduled scoping hearings from Massachusetts to North Carolina through the end of October. Everything and anything regarding fluke and its management is on the table.

Ideas on reducing fluke mortality, data collection, quota allocations, size, season and and bag limits, management strategies and discards are all open for discussion.

As Chris Zeman, one of New Jersey's representative to the MAFMC, said when the scoping process was announced, "this opportunity occurs once a decade if you're lucky. We rarely enter into a process like this."

Considering the fervor generated in all those connected with fishing for summer flounder, it was a bit surprising to find the turnout at the scoping meeting in Belmar on Tuesday night on the light side.

The time of day, traffic or the fact that it is still very early in the amendment process, may have kept the numbers down. Yet it would seem that a chance to sound off on summer flounder would have packed the room.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

WYE MILLS, Md. — October 3, 2014 — There are many options in front of the commercial striped bass fishery right now.

Striped bass, known as rockfish, are said by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to be on a downward trend toward overfishing, although overfishing is not occurring.

ASMFC hopes to turn the trend around, after all the effort put in to date to recover the rockfish population, according to Mike Waine, the fishery management plan coordinator at the ASMFC.

The ASMFC's striped bass management board is considering three options to reduce the striped bass fishery both coastwide and in the Chesapeake Bay. The board is expected to decide at a conference in late October whether it wants to spread out the regulations over three years or make the whole reduction in one year.

"There are a lot of different perspectives of what should be done, and not everybody agrees with each other, and that's usually the case," Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service Director Tom O'Connell said Thursday, Sept. 25, at Chesapeake College at a public hearing held on the proposed regulations.

He encouraged the watermen in the room to maintain a productive conversation with Waine, who was presenting the proposals for ASMFC.

Read the full story from The Star Democrat

 

ARLINGTON, Va. — October 2, 2014 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet on November 5, 2014 in Portland, Maine to consider approval of the Public Information Document (PID) for Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp for public comment. The Section will also review stock status of northern shrimp and set specifications for the 2015 fishing season.
 
The PID for Amendment 3 was initiated to consider establishing a limited entry program for the northern shrimp fishery. 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 continued concern about the condition 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. If approved, the PID will be released for public comment with the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts conducting public hearings on the document. As the first step in the development of a new amendment, the PID is intended to solicit input concerning the northern shrimp fishery and provide an opportunity for the public to identify and comment on major issues relative to the management of the species with an emphasis on limited entry, state-by-state allocations and multi-year specifications.
 
In 2013, the Northern Shrimp Section approved a moratorium for the 2014 northern shrimp fishing season based on the status of the resource, which is considered at record low levels and experiencing recruitment failure for the past three years. The Northern Shrimp Technical Committee is scheduled to meet on October 22nd to update the northern shrimp stock status, the findings of which will form the basis of the Section’s determinations for the 2015 season.
 
The Northern Shrimp Advisory Panel will meet prior to the Section (10 AM to 4 PM on November 4th) to formulate its recommendations on the PID and the 2015 season. The Section will then meet from 9:30 AM to 3 PM on November 5 to review Advisory Panel recommendations and take action on the PID and 2015 season. Both meetings will take place at the Holiday Inn by the Bay, 88 Spring Street, Portland, Maine; 800.345.5070. For more information, please contact Marin Hawk, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mhawk@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

PRESS CONTACT, TINA BERGER, 703.842.0740

October 2, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is reopening the comment period on the proposed rule to implement an information collection program for the Atlantic surfclam and ocean quahog fishery that published on August 7, 2014. 

The original comment period closed on September 8, 2014.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council requested the comment period be reopened to allow for additional public comment.  The new deadline for public comment is October 17, 2014.

Contact: Maggie Mooney-Seus, 978-281-9175, Marjorie.Mooney-Seus@noaa.gov