Management & Regulation

May 21, 2012 – North Carolina will soon ban industrial-scale purse seine fishing for menhaden, a species long at the center of conflict between marine conservation interests and producers of a valued dietary supplement.

Citing large by-catch kills, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission has agreed to prohibit the practice of deploying smaller boats with purse seines from mother ships within the three-mile state limit.

The boats encircle schools of menhaden with the nets, and once the fish are ensnared, they are sucked through pipes into the larger ships.

Mother ships have sometimes been seen almost to the breakers along the Outer Banks in pursuit of the fish. Slicks of oil are usually left behind.

Planes are also deployed to spot the schools from above.

“This is a conservation measure we think needs to be put in place,” commission Chairman Rob Bizzell said in a statement.

Read the full story at the Outer Banks Voice.

 

 

May 21, 2012 – NOAA's preliminary focus in attempting to control and eliminate discarded bluefin tuna is on the U.S. pelagic longline fishing fleet, which targets healthy stocks of sword and other tunas but also discards an average of more than 100 metric tons of bluefin a year, according to industry figures.

The prized fighter and food fish is managed via a quota system that divides the allocated catch between fishing categories both commercial and recreational, and also gives 8.1 percent of the total to the longliners who are not allowed to target bluefin, but may keep a proportion of its bycatch while discarding the rest. Bycatch is the term given to fish that is unintentionally hauled up by fishing boats that are targeting other species.

The American Bluefin Tuna Association, which represents commercial fishermen, reports dead discards by longline fishermen ranged from a low of 90 metric tons to a high of 160 metric tons between 2005 and 2010.

But the association faults the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not the longliners, who are represented by the Blue Water Fishermen's Association.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

May 18, 2012 – Seeking to meet an international requirement, the National Marine Fisheries Service is exploring and gathering ideas for ways to minimize the waste of discarded bluefin tuna — the most prized of all fin fish and the species most fiercely fought over by fishermen and environmentalists.

Among the options discussed in a scoping document is commodifying the market to trade in bluefin catch shares, adopting the controversial management system that now rules the New England groundfishery.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last year denied an application to put the global migrator on the endangered species list. But bluefin remain a NOAA species of concern and is on a watch list "about its status and threats to the species," according to the NMFS "scoping document," which discusses possible solutions to U.S. management of the tuna.

NMFS held a scoping hearing Wednesday night in Gloucester, part of a series that began in New Jersey, and will move on to Louisiana, North Carolina, and New York City before wrapping up in Portland, Maine, the week of June 17.

The comment period for scoping a new management plan ends July 15, after which NMFS will produce its proposal, and put it out for public comment.

NMFS is moving to rewrite a 13-year-old fishery management plan to reduce dead discards — which result largely from legal long-line fishing for swordfish and other kinds of tuna.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

May 16, 2012 – MOREHEAD CITY — North Carolina will soon prohibit certain menhaden purse seine fishing operations in state waters.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission voted last week to prohibit the use of purse seines deployed from a mother ship for the harvest of menhaden within the state’s three-mile jurisdiction. The action mirrors a draft bill approved by a legislative study committee on marine fisheries issues.

“This is a conservation measure we think needs to be put in place,” said commission Chairman Rob Bizzell.

Commission members said they were concerned about the amount of bycatch associated with large purse seine fishing operations, and the conflicts that arise with other fishing sectors.

The measure does not prohibit smaller purse seine operations that do not use multiple vessels.

The commission asked Division of Marine Fisheries Director Louis Daniel to implement the closure by proclamation. Daniel said he plans to issue the proclamationin the next two weeks.

Read the full story here.

 

 

May 18, 2012 – NEW BEDFORD — A drastic cut in the allowable catch of yellowtail flounder has left the groundfish industry in New Bedford bracing for economic disaster. In response, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service and the New England Fishery Management Council assembled a working group to look for ways to help fishermen affected by the decision.

Yellowtail landings account for roughly 20 percent of groundfish revenue in New Bedford, but more importantly, fishermen need the allocation to enable them to land other lucrative stocks, such as winter flounder and haddock which mingle with yellowtail.

The working group is coming to the city for a public meeting next Wednesday to discuss the recent stock assessment and to look for ways to mitigate the effects of the cuts, fishery managers say. "This is a problem for us, for the industry, for everybody," said Pat Fiorelli, the public affairs officer for the NEFMC.

Fishery regulators shocked the industry last month when they announced that the catch for the 2012 fishing year, which began May 1, would be just 218 metric tons. The groundfish fleet working on Georges Bank landed around 1,140 metric tons of yellowtail last year.

Following a dire assessment of cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine that threatens to put the Gloucester fleet out of business, an 80 percent reduction in the yellowtail catch poses a similar danger to New Bedford draggers.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Standard Times.

 

 

May 16, 2012 – WAKEFIELD — Big offshore draggers using their own and acquired catch share allocations have worked inside Stellwagen Bank for the past year — where they'd not been seen before — depleting a rebuilding stock of Gulf of Maine cod.

That was the testimony Tuesday from more than a dozen charter boat captains during a day-long meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council's Recreational advisory panel meeting held at a hotel complex in Wakefield.

A federal fisheries analyst also confirmed the presence, though not the impact, of the Stellwagen draggers.

Additional new fishing pressure on inshore cod stocks has come through boats operated by members of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association longlining in Stellwagen, some charter skippers also told the panel.

The advisory panel reports to the council's Groundfish Committee, which will be involved in deliberations into 2013 to develop a new rebuilding program for the most important fish stock for the recreational sector and the inshore commercial fleet based in Gloucester and found in small ports along the entire coast of New England.

"This is the most troubling situation that I've ever had to deal with," said Capt. Barry Gibson of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, chairman of the Recreational Advisory Panel and who served on the council for nine years through 1995. "Ninety-foot boats (in Stellwagen) and no trip limits."

The boats were identified as hailing from New Bedford, Gloucester and Maine.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

May 15, 2012 – Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler says he's considering going to court if the interstate panel that regulates Atlantic coast fishing for menhaden doesn't cut back enough the catch of a Virginia-based fleet that takes the lion's share of the forage fish.

Speaking at a Chesapeake Bay scientific symposium in Baltimore on Monday, Gansler said he was "working with" the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission as it ponders tightening harvest limits on menhaden. Called by some "the most important fish in the sea," menhaden are a food source for many other fish and wildlife, including ospreys and striped bass, Maryland's state fish.

"We're not optimistic they'll go far enough," he said of the commission, "but hopefully they will." The commission is scheduled to take up the issue at its next meeting in August.

Gansler has urged the fisheries commission to impose the bulk of the harvest cutback on Omega Protein, which lands 80 percent of the menhaden caught along the Atlantic coast at Reedville VA for processing into animal food and fish oil supplements.

The other 20 percent are caught for use as bait in other fisheries, including crabbing.  Maryland watermen have said any reductions in their allowed catch could have severe impacts on their livelihood.

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun.

 

 

SEATTLE, Washington – May 14, 2012 – The Alaska Department of Fish & Game issued a press release this morning announcing the extension of the Bering Sea snow crab season until June 15, 2012.

Read the press release from Alaska Department of Fish & Game

Read the press release from Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers commenting on ADF&G's decision to extend the season.

 

 

May 14, 2012 – New England has the highest number of fish species that are considered overfished, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA released its annual report on the status of fish stocks in the U.S. today.

“It’s not a surprise,” said Monica Allen of NOAA’s public affairs office in Washington. “That was the case last year and the year before. New England has the oldest fishery in the country.”

The annual report always contains mixed findings, Allen said, and the good news it contained for the region should not be overlooked.

“We are seeing progress accelerate,” she said. “Summer flounder (fluke) is rebuilt and that’s a very valuable stock for both recreational and commercial fishermen in New England.” Government scientists also found that the Georges Bank and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic stocks of winter flounder are no longer subject to overfishing and the Georges Bank stock will be rebuilt ahead of its 2017 deadline, according to the report.

“The status of two other stocks, red hake and Gulf of Maine winter flounder, was previously unknown,” said George Darcy, NOAA’s assistant regional administrator for sustainable fisheries in the Northeast. “But we have been able to determine that they are not overfished. So that’s good news.”

Winter flounder on Georges Bank and smooth skate in the Gulf of Maine are also no longer overfished, Darcy said.

Of the 45 fish stocks classed as overfished, 11 are New England groundfish, Darcy said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times.

 

 

The summer flounder fishery has been rebuilt, a report out Monday from the federal government said.

The fish species, commonly known as fluke, is arguably New Jersey's most important sport fish, and is also one of the state's most important commercial finfish species. Summer flounder joins six other species – none of which are common to New Jersey waters – that were declared rebuilt this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual Status of U.S. Fisheries report.

A species is considered rebuilt when its stock level meets a federal target that is considered by scientists and policymakers to be considered healthy and self-sustaining.

The summer flounder rebuilding effort is important to New Jersey anglers since the deadline for the species to meet its target was set for next year. If the target was not met by then, anglers would have been subject to more restrictive fishing regulations, up to and including a closure of the fishery.

Read the complete story from the Brick Patch