Management & Regulation

WASHINGTON – December 21, 2011 – According to the "best available science", 22,000 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod vanished in 4 years, moving the species from recovering to overfished with overfishing occurring. This has raised questions about the assessments and methods, as it would be an extraordinary biological event if those numbers hold true. Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood discusses the science, the consequences and the government's response with Dr. Brian Rothschild of the University of Massachusetts, Vito Giacalone of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, and Eric Schwaab, NOAA's Assistant Administrator for Fisheries.

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December 21, 2011 — NOAA is extending the public comment period deadline for river herring from January 3 to February 3, 2012.  We are responding to requests to provide more time for the public to submit information to us on alewife and blueback herring.  This information will be used to help inform our review, which will be conducted over the next several months, as to whether listing of these species are warranted under the Endangered Species Act.

 

The following was released by NOAA's Northeast Regional Office:

December 21, 2011 — NOAA announced proposed measures to reduce the 2012 annual catch limits (ACLs) for the Atlantic herring fishery to account for catch overages in 2010 and to prevent overfishing. Deadline for submitting public comments is January 23, 2012.

Read the proposed rule

 

 

 

 

 

The following was released by NOAA fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries Service Assistant Administrator Eric Schwaab and New England Fishery Management Council Chair C.W. "Rip" Cunningham issued a joint letter to the fishing industry and other interested members of the public about the preliminary Gulf of Maine cod stock assessment findings and what the agencies are collectively doing to respond to these findings in advance of the 2012 fishing year.

We have also created a new webpage, "Cod News," which provides information on the preliminary Gulf of Maine cod stock assessment and a summary of a meeting that took place on December 9, 2011 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with fishing industry members, scientists and others about Gulf of Maine cod.  Updates on what the agencies are doing to respond to industry recommendations generated during the meeting will be posted on this page.

Read the joint letter from Eric Schwaab and C.W. "Rip" Cunningham

View the Cod News website

 

 

 

 

BREWSTER —To fish or not to fish, that is the question soon to be before the New England Fisheries Management Council.

A preliminary stock assessment for cod in the Gulf of Maine (essentially everywhere north of Cape Cod), produced by a working group at the Northeast Fisheries Service on Nov. 14, suggests the spawning age cod in the gulf in 2007 was overestimated by 270 percent. The fishery that was supposed to be healthy and rebounding is severely over fished, according to the new mathematical models.

“In the last year or two they proclaimed the fishery totally recovered, now they’re saying it’s on the edge of extinction,” said Chatham fisherman Greg Walinski. “The science that determines the amount that’s out there is woefully inept. It’s years behind.”

The proposed statistical model estimates the current spawning stock biomass at 11,868 metric tons and slashed the 2007 estimate from 33,877 metric tons to 12,561 metric tons. Factoring possible error there’s a 90 percent chance the current spawning stock is between 9,479 metric tons and 16,301 metric tons. The fishery is considered overfished if the spawning stock is less than 27,124 metric tons, and the new estimate isn’t even half of that.

Read the complete story from The Cape Codder

 

 

 

 

 

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife has scheduled its hearing to gather public comment on Draft Addendum VII to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Horseshoe Crabs.

The Draft Addendum proposes implementing the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, which incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized horseshoe crab harvest levels for the Delaware Bay area.

The ARM framework was developed by the Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey in recognition of the importance of horseshoe crab eggs to shorebirds in the Delaware Bay Region and was peer-reviewed in 2009.

The Draft Addendum will additionally address allocation of the ARM harvest output among the four states (New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland) that harvest horseshoe crabs from the Delaware Bay population. The allocation is based upon multiple decision options, including the proportion of harvested horseshoe crabs originating from Delaware Bay.

Read the complete story from The Asbury Park Press

 

 

 

 

 

The federal government is weighing whether to shut down the cod fishery in the Gulf of Maine, citing scientific projections of decline that the fishermen themselves don't believe.

The New England Fishery Management Council will decide next year, after an independent review of studies on the cod population, if new restrictions, including outright closure of the fishery, should be imposed. The basis for that decision, The New York Times reports, will be wildly divergent estimates on how much progress has been made in rebuilding the population of an iconic staple of the New England economy and diet.

From May 2010 to April 2011, commercial fishermen caught about nine million pounds of Gulf of Maine cod, according to the New England Fishery Management Council, earning more than $2 per pound on average.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration set a deadline in 2004 to rebuild the cod species by 2014, and the 2008 survey suggested that goal was within reach. But researchers now say the survey might have sharply overestimated the number of young cod; the new data suggest the spawning population is at only about 20 percent of the rebuilding target. The estimates are based on a mathematical model that uses data from a number of sources, including catch records and research trawlers that fish in the gulf several times a year.

Read the complete story from The Atlantic Wire

 

 

 

 

 

 

RYE — Padi Anderson calls shrimp the "best kept New England seafood secret." But this year, fishermen like her husband, Mike Anderson, will have less opportunity to haul in the Gulf of Maine crustaceans.

That's due to a shortened season set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Northern Shrimp Section for the 2012 northern shrimp fishery. A season that normally begins in December will instead commence Jan. 2 for the trawl season and Feb. 1 for the trap season. The change, necessitated by a smaller population of northern shrimp, will reduce the total allowable catch of shrimp from 4,000 metric tons last year to 2,000 metric tons this year. Additionally, the season will close when landings are projected to reach 95 percent of the total allowable catch.

"Given the favorable stock conditions of the last two years, the Section set relatively long fishing seasons in an effort to accommodate the industry's desire for expanded fishing opportunities," said Section Chairman Doug Grout, chief of marine fisheries for N.H. Fish and Game. "Unfortunately, substantial increases in both effort and participation resulted in early season closures and significant overages in both seasons.

The resulting impact on the shrimp stock now means we must call for a shortened season and limited fishing opportunities in 2012 to protect the resource."

Read the complete story from The Portsmouth Herald

 

 

 

 

 

A preliminary assessment that cod are still being overfished could lead to further tightening of federal regulations on a fish that has been associated with the region for more than 400 years.

Last week, a group of scientists met at Woods Hole and backed the preliminary analysis of the area’s cod stock prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees fishing in federal waters. The analysis, released last month, asserted that even if all fishing of Gulf of Maine cod was prohibited, it would be unlikely that the stock would be rebuilt by 2018, some four years after NOAA had expected cod to rebound to healthy amounts.

The analysis contrasts with a 2008 NOAA report that showed cod stock on the rebound. But the new report suggests that the previous assessment may have overestimated the amount of cod in the sea by nearly 300 percent. NOAA conducts its research with ocean trawlers, uses academic scientists to study fishing stocks, and incorporates statistical reports of fish landings submitted by fishermen and seafood dealers into its reports.

In recent weeks, fishermen have called for the government to review its latest findings and said any new regulations could have a devastating impact on the local fishing industry.

Read the complete story in The Boston Globe

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Federal regulators are considering the unthinkable in New England: severely restricting — maybe even shutting down — cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine, from north of Cape Cod clear up to Canada. New data suggest that the status of the humble fish that has sustained the region for centuries is much worse than previously thought.

Fishermen insist that there are plenty of cod and that the real problem is fuzzy science. They say the data are grossly inconsistent, pointing to a 2008 federal report that concluded that Gulf of Maine cod, though historically overfished, were well on the way to recovery.

The news is causing high anxiety in Massachusetts, where a wooden “Sacred Cod” has hung in the State House for more than 200 years and the fishing industry, though struggling, still figures prominently in the state’s identity.

“I can’t think of another fishery shutdown that would have the economic consequences of this,” said Steven Cadrin, a scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, who helped with the assessment.

Read the complete story from The New York Times