Management & Regulation

January 23, 2013 — A roughly 80 percent cut in Gulf of Maine Cod annual catch and a 61 percent cut in Georges Bank cod are being recommended to fisheries regulators by a special four-person panel.

The panel was appointed last year after the turmoil over radically and unexpectedly reduced estimates of cod populations. It re-examined the assessments and looked at newer ones and concluded that the picture is bleak indeed.

"There is little good news about the health of cod stocks in the Northeast," said Pat Fiorelli, spokeswoman for the New England Fishery Management Council.

"Eighty percent?" asked seafood consultant Jim Kendall. "I don't know why they don't shut the fishery down and get the guys into some program to help them survive. If they cut the stock 80 percent, it's just undoable."

Groundfish boats would quickly be over their limits on bycatch alone, Kendall said.

The recommendation is far from final. The report of the special panel will be taken up today in Boston by the council's Scientific and Statistical Committee.

Steve Cadrin, a UMass Dartmouth marine scientist who sits on the Scientific and Statistical Committee, said there may be several explanations for what scientists are seeing in the cod fishery.

Many wonder what it means that the fleet has caught only about half of its current year's allocation of cod, and even less in some other species. The cod may have moved, the climate is changing, and some fishermen are holding off fishing at all until prices improve, said Kendall.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

 

January 23, 2013 — Landings of inshore or Gulf of Maine cod, already cut by 22 percent for the 2012 fishing year that ends April 30, could be further reduced by between 76.8 percent and 82.6 percent for each of the next three years, according to an announcement today by NOAA’s New England Regional Fishery Management Council.

Landings of offshore, or Georges Bank, cod were also projected to be reduced by 60 percent for the 2013 fishing year that begins May 1. The allowable catch of offshore cod has fallen by about 26 percent over the past two years.

The projected cuts in fishermen’s landing limits for the 2013 season come after a new assessment of Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank cod stocks, which has not altered NOAA’s scientific opinion of the dire condition of the most essential target of Northeast groundfishermen.

Moreover, the council’s Groundfish Plan Development Team is advising the Science and Statistical Committee to reduce the “acceptable biological catch” on virtually every important fish in the mix of groundfish stocks on which the boats from Gloucester, New Bedford, Pt. Judith, R.I. and smaller ports from Maine to New York’s Long Island depend as primary source of landings.

The SSC meets today in Boston to set the acceptable biological catches for the 20 stocks in the mix of groundfish. Those figures form a calculation from which actual catch limits are derived. Then, a week from today, the full council is scheduled to set catch limits for 2013 based on the biological catch limits set by the SSC.

The discouraging data on cod was based on an extraordinary assessment of the stocks undertaken amid a crisis that threatens the survival of the Northeast groundfishery, which was declared an economic “disaster” by the acting commerce secretary last September based on socio-economic studies submitted by Gov. Deval Patrick in November 2011 and subsequently the governors of the other four coastal New England states and New York state. The 112th Congress ended Jan. 3 after deleting a $100 million fishery disaster aid provision from a $60 billion appropriation for Hurricane Sandy relief.

The findings leading to the projected cuts are already being questioned.

The Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund and the Associated Fisheries of Maine complained in a Jan. 4 joint letter to NOAA’s Northeast Science Center director that the cod assessment was potentially distorted by a decision against viewing the stocks’ history in a longer perspective — a decision the three organizations said was influenced by science center staff opposition to outside expertise.

 

Read the full story in the Gloucester Times 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 16, 2013 — NOAA Fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission are hosting a workshop  to discuss protected species bycatch in mid-Atlantic gillnet fisheries.

While gillnet fisheries interact with several species protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act  and the Endangered Species Act, this workshop will focus specifically on sea turtles and Atlantic sturgeon. The objective of the workshop is to generate ideas for technological solutions through a collaborative process that involves the fishing industry, conservation community, species experts/researchers, managers, and other interested parties.

Those unable to attend the workshop in person will be able to listen to the discussions via webinar.

Click here to view the agenda

For more information, contact Ellen Keane at ellen.keane@noaa.gov

This Webinar is held on the following dates:

Jan 22, 2013 12:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST

Jan 23, 2013 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM EST

Register for the webinar here

Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.

 

 

BOSTON (AP) — January 4, 2012 — New England fishermen and federal data reports are telling the same story this year: The catch is way down.

Some fishermen, though, say it’s premature and dangerous to conclude with a third of the fishing year to go that fish have disappeared, or that pushing through huge quota cuts in 2013 won’t matter.

‘‘There was no fish this summer, practically anywhere,’’ acknowledged Maine fisherman Jim Odlin. But he and others said market forces help explain lower catches to date. And he said in four decades in the cyclical business, stocks he’s seen vanish one year come back in force the next, and no one knows why.

‘‘If you saw this for two or three years, then I would start to say something is going on, then I would be convinced,’’ he said. ‘‘But right now, I can’t tell you.’’

 

Read the full story by Jay Lindsay of the Associated Press in the Boston Globe 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 4, 2013 — The New England Fishery Management Council has voted to recommend giving commercial groundfishermen access to parts of five areas that have been closed to them for many years.

The federal Commerce Department must approve the votes, taken at the special Dec. 20 meeting, but John Bullard, regional administrator for the Commerce’s National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, announced his support for limited openings. Such openings would give the commercial fleet, facing a declared economic disaster, some hope for relief from the hardships to come in the fishing year beginning May 1.

At the same special meeting last month, the council deferred setting catch limits on the groundfish complex for the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank until its regularly scheduled January 2013 meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. By then, an extraordinary benchmark assessment of inshore cod will be available.

The five closed areas include two near Gloucester: the Western Gulf of Maine closed area, a thin rectangular section of water about 10 miles wide running from near Provincetown to opposite Portland, Maine, and about 12 miles east of Gloucester; and Caches Ledge, a rock outcrop about 30 miles north-northeast of Gloucester. The others are in Georges Bank.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — January 2, 2013 — A series of forums seeking public input into the state of the Maine lobster industry are getting under way.

Maine fishery officials are holding 16 public meetings through January in coastal towns from York to Machias. The first meeting is Wednesday in Boothbay Harbor.

The meetings were scheduled following the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's report entitled An Independent Evaluation of the Maine Limited Entry System for Lobster and Crab.

Schedule of meetings with location and time

Boothbay Harbor – Jan. 2 at 5:00 p.m., Department of Marine Resources

Jonesport – Jan. 3 at 11:00 a.m., Jonesport Fire Station

Machias – Jan. 3 at 4:00 p.m., Machias Memorial High School Cafeteria

Gouldsboro – Friday, Jan. 4 10:00 a.m., Gouldsboro Community Center

Friendship – Jan. 7 2:00 p.m., Hahn Community Center

Tenants Harbor – Jan. 7 at 6:00 p.m., St. George Town Hall

Swans Island – Jan. 9 at 11:00 a.m., Swans Island Fire House

Mount Desert Island – Jan. 9 at 5:00 p.m., Mount Desert Elementary School

Yarmouth – Jan. 14 at 5:00 p.m., Log Cabin

Bucksport – Jan. 16 at 11:00 a.m., Bucksport Town Office

Deer Isle – Jan. 16 at 4:00 p.m., Deer Isle-Stonington High School Cafeteria

Vinalhaven – Jan. 17 at 11:00 a.m., Vinalhaven Town Office

Scarborough – Jan. 23 at 11:00 a.m., Scarborough Town Office

Bath – Jan. 23 at 4:00 p.m., Bath City Hall Auditorium

Bristol – Jan. 28 at 5:00 p.m., Bristol Town Hall

York – Jan. 31 at 5:00 p.m., York Public Library

 

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

 

December 26, 2012 — According to Mike Wayne of the ASMFC, 80 percent of the menhaden caught are used to acquire Omega-3 fatty acids essential in fish oil pills, cosmetics, animal feed and more.

The 20 percent cut could do harm to the omega protein industry. Believing that the ASMFC’s own scientific experts provided the board with invalid information, Omega Protein Inc.’s CEO Bret Scholtes said the commission acted without definitive findings.

“Omega Protein is disappointed by the commission’s decision to adopt these harvest reductions,” Scholtes said. “In this already difficult economic climate, families who depend on this fishery deserve better. They are the backbone of hardworking coastal communities.”

Ben Landry, director of public affairs for Omega Protein Inc. said he believes some sort of changes will have to be made.

“We’re still working through what operations adjustments we’ll have to take. We’re clearly disappointed that the commission chose to go forward,” he said.

He also believes that a 10 percent harvest restriction would have been more reasonable than the 20 percent cap.

Omega Protein Inc. is a member of Saving Seafood, a nonprofit corporation funded by the fishing industry. Comprised of fisheries along the coast, it works with boat owners, captains, fishermen, seafood processors and brokers committed to resource preservation.

Menhaden Fisheries Coalition, a part of Saving Seafood, is a an organization made up of fishery associations, bait processors, waterman associations and more dedicated to supporting the livelihood that has fueled many hardworking, blue-collar towns along the Eastern Seaboard.

As a member of the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition, Omega Protein Inc. believes that the organization is imperative in pulling together companies for the same cause.

“Omega can’t do this by themselves,” said Landry. “Finding partners with the same goal is important for the future of our work.”

 

Read the full story here

 

 

BOSTON (AP) — December 23, 2012 – Fish regulators will allow fishermen to target Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs in areas of Georges Banks that have been closed to harvesting for 22 years.

The areas, which will reopen in January, have been closed since 1990 on the recommendation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which found high levels of a toxin there that can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans.

Read the complete story by the AP at The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

December 20, 2012 — This Boston Globe video by Beth Daley captures the anger and frustration boiling over at at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting.

An earlier Boston Globe story described the situation as follows:

Fishermen's frustration, two decades in the making, exploded in a hotel ballroom Thursday as fishery regulators reluctantly debated devastating cuts to the size of the New England fleet's allowable catch.

Fishermen hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on several missteps that have widened deep mistrust between fishermen and government scientists — major errors on a federal analysis of cod off New England; a disrespectful attitude toward a scientist that industry hired, and problems in enforcement that resulted in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration apologizing and returning hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to fishermen.

Fishermen said the science used to justify fishing cuts is so bad, regulators should ease up on limits until it improves.

Watch the video at The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 20, 2012 — Regulators on Thursday voted to reopen about 5,000 square miles of protected waters off the coast of New England to new applications from commercial fishing interests. The move drew concern from environmental advocates and praise from fishermen who hope access to the waters will boost the ailing industry.

The “groundfish closed areas” were set aside, for the most part, in the 1990s to preserve habitat along the seafloor and give critical species like cod and haddock a safe place to spawn. While recreational fishing and some limited commercial fishing have been allowed in these areas, environmental advocates and scientists say the restrictions are needed to help older female fish that help to increase stocks.

But commercial fishermen say the implementation of a quota-based protection system in 2010 made the conservation areas obsolete, and called on the New England Fishery Management Council, the regulating body, to renew access to the waters.

“Many of the existing closures greatly hinder fishermen’s ability to access and harvest their available allocation of healthy stocks,” said Nick Brancaleone, a spokesman for the Northeast Seafood Coalition, an industry group.

 

Read the full story in the New York Times