Management & Regulation

NOAA today finalized an Omnibus Amendment which establishes procedures for setting annual catch limits and accountability measures to prevent overfishing for 10 federally managed fish stocks managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Now that the amendment is approved, the Mid-Atlantic Council will be on its way to establishing catch limits and accountability measures for all its required fisheries. According to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, all federally managed fisheries must be managed with those tools by the end of 2011. The amendment also includes measures to prevent fishermen from exceeding the catch limits, and addresses how any overages that occur would be handled.

The fish species in the Mid-Atlantic affected by this action include Atlantic mackerel, butterfish, Atlantic bluefish, spiny dogfish, summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, tilefish, Atlantic surfclam, and ocean quahog. Actual catch limits and accountability measures for each fish stock will be set within the respective fishery management plans for these stocks. However, the amendment formalizes the process for how scientific advice from the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will be integrated in fishery management plans.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources.

Read the release from NOAA's Northeast Regional Office

 

 

 

 

 

A first national report by NOAA on bycatch — fish that are caught accidentally, then are not landed or used — has found that 17 percent of the fish caught commercially in 2005 were wasted.

In New England, the bycatch rate was 14 percent.

The 528-page report, motivated by statutory obligations set forth in the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, has been in preparation since 2006, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The figures are estimates, NOAA emphasized, but "the effort is the first to compile and collect regional data about U.S. commercial fisheries into one nationwide report."

"Fisheries managers, the fishing industry and the environmental community share the goal of preventing and reducing bycatch, which is an important part of ending overfishing and ensuring sustainable marine resources," said Richard Merrick, chief scientist at the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

Up until recently, a regional fisheries stock assessment concluded there were plenty of Atlantic menhaden — or at least enough to declare the species wasn't in peril from overfishing.

But recently, fisheries managers concluded they may have been wrong.

Certainly, there were and are plenty of menhaden eggs. The problem, they have discovered, is there is a breakdown in the population dynamics from the eggs to the fish.

So now, years after environmentalists and coalitions of recreational fishing groups and fish conservation organizations raised red flags about the fate of the menhaden, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is proposing limits designed to help the species rebound.

"Abundance has been lagging for the last few years," said Tina Berger, a commission spokeswoman.

Among the concerns, she said, is a growing interest in commercial harvesting of menhaden as a baitfish for more lucrative fisheries, such as lobstering.

Among anglers and state regulatorsthere are worries about this small fish at the bottom of the food chain.

Menhaden are the prey of species from large tunas to striped bass and bluefish. With a decline at the bottom of the food chain, there is concern about what happens to the species at the top.

The commission set a cap in 2005 on harvests in the menhaden reduction fishery — fish caught to be processed for oil and fish meal — in the Chesapeake Bay region because of concerns about a localized population decline.

But a recent analysis pointed to an increase in the catch there. That fishery takes the lion's share of the Atlantic coastal harvest and has been blamed by some for the coastwide decline in the population.

Read the full article at Delaware Online.

Analysis: The article gets several points about menhaden right that most other reports get wrong. It recognizes that the most recent assesment of the population concludes that there is not overfishing and that menhaden fecundity is high. It also recognizes that there are factors other than the commercial reduction fishery that put pressure on the menhaden population, and that the number of menhaden in the Bay will naturally vary from year to year.

However, there is significant debate on exactly how much menhaden contribute as filter feeders. A recent study by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science concluded that menhaden have little to no net impact on water quality.

 

 

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) Sept. 26, 2011 – Five months ago, NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) released a report compiled by Preston Pate and SRA-Touchstone Consulting Group which noted that "Fisheries management in New England is beset with problems and challenges that are characteristic of fisheries management in general but may be even more acute in this area now due to concurrently changing factors of law, management programs, and economics."

At a New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Mystic, Connecticut last April, NOAA's Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, Eric Schwaab, announced steps the agency planned to take in response to the initial results and recommendations from an independent review of the fishery management process in New England. He also opened an informal 30-day public comment period on the report.

Pat Kurkul (NOAA/NMFS Regional Administrator) and Frank Almeida (NEFSC Acting Science and Research Director) addressed the Council's meeting today on the Regional office and Science Center initiatives; Patricia Fiorelli (Council staff) spoke on about improving communications with stakeholders; and Rip Cunningham addressed the development of a shared vision and strategy to guide the management process

Read the Preston Pate and SRA-Touchstone Consulting Group report

NEFMC Executive Director Memo re: Touchstone Report – Outreach and Communications DRAFT straw-man recommendations

Touchstone Report – Graph of Councils

NEFMC Presentation: NEFMC Response to Touchstone Report

NMFS Presentation: September 26, 2011 Response to Management Review

Letter from NMFS to NEFMC re: Management Review

Guidelines For Public Comments at Meetings

 

 

 

 

 

 

If there is something you want to say to the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Managment Council (MAFMC), there is opportunity to do so now. Earlier this week the Council launched an initiative to develop a vision and strategic plan for their managed fisheries and they’re asking the public to help shape it.

Perhaps it’s also an opportunity to mend some fences with anglers who have felt at odds with the Council over the way some of the fisheries have been managed. Two species they manage especially, the summer flounder and black sea bass, have created their fair share of criticism from recreational anglers in the Garden State.

What they are asking for is the public to participate in a survey, which is available on their website, and give suggestions on how to manage fish stocks in the future.

Read the complete story from My Central Jersey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit the Herring Point surf fishing area at Cape Henlopen State Park one weekend this time of year and you'll begin to understand the recreational and economic importance of the lowly menhaden fish.

The Lewes fishing beach is often as packed with vehicles as a Rehoboth Beach outlet on a rainy Saturday, and the big lure for these fishermen is big fish: blues and striped bass, among others. These prized predator fish are attracted to the area by schools of Atlantic menhaden, a small, silvery species that has been called “the most important fish in the sea” by scientists, fishermen and environmentalists alike (a title notably introduced by H. Bruce Franklin in his book on the menhaden’s historic importance to marine ecology and coastal populations).

But times have changed, and the menhaden stocks are declining – fast.

While schools of menhaden have been spotted in Delaware Bay this year, the overall size of the population along the coast is at record low levels. Scientists affiliated with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the 15-state regulatory body that oversees management of the species, estimate the menhaden population is now only 8 percent of its historic levels, with 10 percent of its former spawning capacity.

Scientists found that menhaden have been subject to sustained overfishing, with harvests that may be threatening the species’ ability to provide enough forage for all the other fish and mammals that rely on it.

While it’s no prize trophy for a sport fisherman, menhaden is a critical link in the marine ecosystem, feeding large predatory species including striped bass, bluefish, tuna, cod and swordfish, as well as haddock, halibut and king mackerel. The fish is also an important bait for crabs and lobsters. Menhaden also feed ospreys, pelicans, loons, sea turtles and other marine mammals and birds.

On Sept. 26, the ASMFC will conduct a hearing in Lewes to solicit public comments on possible new commercial harvest limits for menhaden (known locally as “ bunker”).

Read the full article at Delaware Online.

Analysis: The article overestimates the level of danger to the menhaden fishery. Contrary to the article's claims, menhaden have not been subject to "sustained overfishing"; the ASMFC has concluded that not only is menhaden not overfished, but that overfishing on menhaden had only occured once in the last ten years. Menhaden are currently fished to levels around 8% of their Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP); MSP is not a historical measurement but is based on the spawning potential of a theoretical unfished population. In the past 55 years, the menhaden population has rarely exceeded 10% MSP.

Striped bass are opportunistic feeders; their diets vary widely depending on what is available, and the species is not entirely reliant on menhaden. Data from the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife places menhaden anywhere from first to fifth on its Index of Relative Importance (IRI) and the amount of menhaden consumed varies greatly from year to year. Regardless, the striped bass have been judged to have a sufficient food supply. Similarly, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has an ongoing survey of the Chesapeake Bay, ChesMMAP, that, among other things, examines the diets of several species of Bay fish. They measured that menhaden can make up as little as 9.6% of striped bass diet.

 

 

LEWES, Del. (AP) — A former Delaware natural resources secretary is urging residents to attend a hearing on proposed menhaden harvest changes.

Commercially important species such as striped bass and tuna feed on menhaden, which are at 10 percent of their former spawning capacity. A corporate fleet based in Reedville, Va., accounts for 80 percent of the remaining harvest, which is processed into fish oil, animal feed and other products.

John Hughes says the economic benefit Delaware receives from menhaden will be jeopardized if the tiny fish continue to decline and he supports harvest cuts to significantly increase spawning. Hughes made the comments in an editorial in The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sept. 26 at DNREC offices in Lewes.

Read the story at the Houston Chronicle.

Analysis: The article is deeply misleading when it claims that menhaden are "at 10 percent of their former spawning capacity." This refers to the Maximum Spawning Potential (MSP), which is not an actual count of fish or a measure of their "former spawing capacity." Rather, it is a level of spawning potential based on a theoretical unfished population. Currently, that level is  around 10% in the menhaden fishery. However, this is not a new or troubling development; the fishery has rarely exceeded 10% MSP in the 55 years the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has been monitoring it, and their most recent stock assessment concluded that at the current MSP the menhaden population is not overfished.

 

 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2011 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Last Friday, in a dramatic reversal of course, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its decision not to declare loggerhead sea turtles along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts to be "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act.

As a result, these most abundant of all sea turtles will continue to receive protection as a "threatened" species – a lower level of caution consistent with their growing status – without imperiling much needed jobs in America's fishing industry.

The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) had strenuously opposed NMFS' proposed rule to uplist the NW Atlantic population of loggerhead turtles to endangered.  FSF submitted extensive comments–including a leading scientist's critique of the underlying loggerhead population assessment, legal analysis, and information derived in part from the association-supported sea turtle research–all of which NMFS relied on in reversing course.

Read the complete story from PR Newswire at The Sacramento Bee.

 

 

 

 

BOSTON—New England's already strapped fishing fleet has a major new expense bearing down on it — paying for human monitors to track the fish that are hauled on deck or tossed over. That is, unless researchers can figure out how to replace those humans with cheaper electronic eyes.

A federally funded pilot project is testing a system at sea that could record the catch, and even figure out what it weighs, relying largely on closed-circuit cameras on board.

The system wouldn't completely replace the flesh-and-blood observers fishermen are periodically required to take to sea. But a primary aim is to reduce the need for them and save fishermen money, said Nichole Rossi, the project's lead.

Some fishermen are skeptical a camera system can be accurate or less expensive than a person on board. Others don't like the observer program at all, considering it intrusive and a sign of how little regulators trust them.

Read the complete Associated Press story by Jay Lindsay in the Boston Globe

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA is requesting public comments on its initiation of a Secretarial Amendment (attached) to implement annual catch limits and measures to ensure accountability in the small-mesh multispecies fishery. We are initiating the Secretarial Amendment because the New England Fishery Management Council is not able to develop and submit Amendment 19 to establish ACLs and AMs for the small-mesh multispecies fishery as required by the Magnuson Act until well past the statutory deadline of 2011.

Public meeting to solicit comments will be held as follows:

-Monday, October 3, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the New York
Department of Environmental Conservation Marine Resources Headquarters,
205 Belle Mead Road, Suite 1, East Setauket, NY.

-Tuesday, October 4, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Ocean County
Administration Building, Room 119, 101 Hooper Avenue, Toms River, NJ.

-Tuesday, October 11, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Northeast
Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA.

-Wednesday, October 12, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Narragansett
Town Hall, 25 Fifth Avenue, Narragansett, RI.

Read the complete document released by NOAA