Management & Regulation

Each week on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood joins host Phil Paleologos to discuss issues related to the fisheries with news-making guests.

Dr. Jake Kritzer, senior fisheries scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — and Dr. Steve Cadrin of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) — discuss their collaborative efforts to harness the cutting-edge tools of spatial ecology to enhance conservation while simultaneously improving fishing opportunities for the fleet.

While many in the fisheries community might find it surprising that EDF and SMAST are working together, Drs. Kritzer and Cadrin point out that well before joining their present institutions, their studies in marine science had complimented each other, making this collaboration a natural extension of their prior work.

One area in which the scientists plan to collaborate is the emerging study of "metapopulations", which has the potential to significantly enhance the science behind fisheries management.  It is a noteworthy departure from the traditional, simplified view of fish populations as a single group, in one homogeneous environment, interacting and interbreeding randomly with each other.  The reality in nature is much more complex and requires an understanding of the spatial patterns of fish populations.  Species are rarely distributed evenly across the ocean and are more akin to a series of distinct groups whose movements are affected by a broad spectrum of factors — from the behavior of adults to the dispersal of plankton.

Drs. Kritzer and Cadrin make the case that their colleagues at EDF and SMAST have a strong, complimentary overlap of skills to untangle this complexity, and in this Saving Seafood interview, they note their mutual goal is the enhancement of fisheries, not the limiting of fisheries.

[listen to this latest episode at Saving Seafood Radio]

 

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — It’s been a year and a half since the fishing industry in Massachusetts experienced a radical change: new regulations on the number of fish fishermen are allowed to reel in.

“The requirement now to have access to capital and be a brilliant businessman now trumps your skills as a fisherman,” said Vito Giacalone, the policy director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and a part-time fisherman. “And that, to me, sucks, I think. That’s the part that kind of kills the fishing game.”

Giacalone, who was was active in trying to help Gloucester’s fishing industry adapt to the new system, is frustrated that his fellow fishermen in the city received low allocations. Up and down the coast, as many as two-thirds of Massachusetts fishermen were allocated fewer fish under catch shares than they caught in the years just before the program started, according to the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute.

“Some excellent fishermen who are also very good businessmen are saying, ‘My God, knowing what I know and as much as I love fishing, do I really want to extend myself financially beyond where I’m at?’” Giacalone said. “Because that’s really the choice you’re given right now. Either you super-extend yourself and be successful, or you liquidate.”

Early numbers suggest that Gloucester’s fishing industry is consolidating as fewer boats catch more of the fish.

To NOAA, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Kurkul says having too many boats fishing in the Northeast contributed to the over-fishing of local species in the first place.

“Over time, we will see this equalization between what the resource can support and the number of vessels out there, and we’ll see much healthier fishing vessels out there,” Kurkul said. “A healthier resource is going to lead to healthier fishing businesses and healthier fishing communities. So, we’re still in a transition, but that will be the end result of this.”

NOAA expects to have a final report on the first year of catch share sometime this fall.

 

Read the complete story from Boston's WBUR

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following was released by the Commercial Anglers Association of Massachusetts:

BOSTON – August 25, 2011 – The 2011 Massachusetts commercial Striped Bass fishery has just completed another successful season.  The State Division of Marine Fisheries called for the 2011 fishery to close as of August 10th, anticipating that our commercial quota of 1,061,898 pounds would likely be met by that time.   

       As of Thursday August 18th 1,062,925 pounds had been reported as landed.  This is 100.1% of the quota.   The landed amount should increase by a small figure over the next few days as the remaining dealer’s reports are received.

    This performance by the commercial fishery was achieved in a particularly short period of time—18 fishing days, spread out over six weeks.   Last year the quota was caught, by comparison, in 24 fishing days.

       The celerity with which the quota was met suggests a high availability of keeper-sized fish.    Cape Cod waters have reportedly been the locus of the preponderance of the fish caught, with the largest concentration of fish found off of Chatham.

     The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries at present has not much more than the above for preliminary statistics on the 2011 fishery.   But, we can report that with the commercial fishery now closed for 2011 there are large schools of Bass present and available exclusively for the sport fishery for the rest of the year.   

     Veteran spotter pilot Ralph Pratt, making flights daily for Giant Blue-fin Tuna, continues to see schools of Bass on the Back Side of Cape Cod (Provincetown to the Golf Balls in the Truro Highlands area) mostly in the morning inside the lobster gear.    The Southern edge of “Middlebank” (synonym for Stellwagen Bank ) from the Southwest Corner to the Southeast Corner has schools of Bass over the entire region, often in the same area frequented by whales.    (The Stellwagen Bank Bass are in the Exclusive Economic Zone, and as such are off-limits to retention by all fishermen due to an Executive Proclamation deriving from the George Bush Administration.)

    Flying from the Golf Balls back into Cape Cod Bay Ralph has seen Bass from the cottages to the Wood End Buoy. 

   Spotter pilot George Breen, flying  South of the Golf Ball area, has seen very few Bass in close to shore, possibly repelled by the presence of a large seal population there.   But he reports that the fleet more than a mile off the beach has had an abundance of Bass to fish on.    

   Capt. Bob Luce, of Harwich, reports that post-commercial season there are 200 boats fishing in his area.  His charter clients are averaging 20 fish per trip brought to the boat each trip (he allows one per angler to take home).   Bass are present in abundance between Chatham and Nauset, and in other areas.

           North Shore fish reportedly are off-shore feeding on Mackerel and there have been few reported to us caught in the  Merrimac River.   Of the fish taken in and near the Merrimac, one angler reports a higher incidence of bite marks apparently from seals than he has seen in past years.   This may account for the resource ranging further off-shore lately.

     The most recent coast-wide stock assessment for the resource was done in 2009 by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (they are done bi-annually).   Although there has recently been a decline in the stock status from its peak in 2004 (70.8 million fish), the ASMFC reports that the resource is neither over-fished nor is experiencing over-fishing.

       Since 1982 the Striped Bass population has increased from less than 9 million fish to the current 52.8 million fish. 

  The female spawning stock biomass at the time of the restoration (1996) was 14,500 metric tons and has most recently (2008) been estimated at 55,500 metric tons.

        Here in Massachusetts, since the resource was declared restored coast-wide in 1995 by the ASMFC, the recreational fishery landings have expanded from 1,504,390 pounds (1995) to 5,516,183 pounds (2009).    

     In short, when measured from the top down, the resource in recent years shows a decline in young fish and a decline  in catch per-unit-effort; but when measured from the bottom up the resource manifests itself to be healthy and at an historically high level.

          Calls for a ban on the sale of Striped Bass as a conservation measure are absurd when one considers that the commercial fishery is a fraction of the size of the recreational fishery: it constitutes 20% of the harvest; the recreational fishery 80% (2009 assessment).

       In numbers of fish harvested, the comparison is as follows (2009 assessment—the most recent):
Commercial harvest: 59,258 fish (15%); the recreational: 336,470 (85%).

     If curtailments in harvest are warranted, it is surely the recreational fishery having vaulted ahead of the commercial fishery in recent years, rather than the commercial fishery, that would be due for a reduction.   This disparity in the two fisheries was not supposed to have developed under the coast-wide management plan.    Both fisheries over-fished in the 1970s, and both sacrificed equally to restore the stock.    At present there is no parity, with the recreational fishery responsible for the bulk of the over-all mortality, and the commercial fishery coming in as a very distant second.

     Both fisheries, however, remain subject to a coast-wide management plan that mandates only biologically-permissible mortality rates, and triggers a reduction in coast-wide harvests if they are warranted by what has proven to be an eminently successful plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If halibut is a public resource, why is the public resource given to the commercial fishing fleet, so that the public has to buy it back?

“It is important to hear directly from people concerned about this topic,” Lubchenco said. “We’re in the middle of the public comment period, and I’m sure you have submitted comments, but it is important for me to hear directly. Homer is important to Alaska, and Alaska is important to the rest of the country.”

Davis dove into a lengthy list of questions on the topic of the newly passed draft plan by North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. Many related to questions on how the potential economic impact figures into any ultimate decision, and why it wasn’t considered in the first draft proposal.

The catch sharing plan would give the guided halibut charter fleet a set percentage of the overall allowable catch determined annually by the International Pacific Halibut Commission. Depending on how many millions of pounds of halibut the charter fleet receives, charter fishermen would be allowed one fish a day, two fish with one less fish than 32-inches long, or two fish of any size, which is the current allowable catch. The allocations could be different for Area 2C, Southeast Alaska, and Area 3A, the central Gulf of Alaska including Cook Inlet and Homer.

 

Read the complete story from The Homer Tribune

 

 

 

 

 

The head of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is preparing a proposal for an "ecological research area" that could limit recreational and commercial fishing in Stellwagen for the first time since the protected area was created off Massachusetts in 1993.

Stellwagen Superintendent Craig MacDonald has scheduled an advisory committee meeting for Thursday in Boston. And the idea that MacDonald might ask federal fishery managers to limit activity inside Stellwagen has created inordinate interest in the 9 a.m. public meeting at the New England Aquarium.

The history of Stellwagen, an 842-square-mile stretch of ocean water that extends across Massachusetts Bay and seems balanced between the tips of Cape Ann and Cape Cod, was forged by an alliance of conservation and fishing interests to create a safe haven for fishing from other commercial activities.

In the run-up to the meeting, fishermen and even members of the ad hoc subcommittee of the Sanctuary Advisory Committee say they've been left largely in the dark.

"I have zero information," said Vito Giacalone, a commercial fisherman from Gloucester who is policy director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and one of eight members of the sanctuary subcommittee, which will be meeting for the first time.

 

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — Fishermen and scientists gathered at the whaling museum Tuesday for a meeting of the mayor's Ocean and Fisheries Council to share information on a number of issues facing the industry.

Fishermen, the industry and the economy would benefit from more fishing on healthy stocks in the closed areas, Canastra said.

"Look what just happened with the scallops in Closed Area 1," he said. "They were old and gray. It was supposed to be a nursery but it became a nursing home and a graveyard."

Laura Foley Ramsden, co-owner of Foley Fish, gave the processors' perspective. "We lost a lot of money in March because the weather was bad and no one could fish and the price went through the roof," she said. "When we talk to buyers about fresh New England seafood, they want us to guarantee the price and the supply. The only way to ensure a steady supply of fish is to achieve optimal yield from the fishery."

By-catch constraints and catch limits that are set too low are leaving too many fish in the ocean at a time when stocks are rebuilt and the biomass for haddock and scallops is exploding, Foley Ramsden said.

According to Brian Rothschild from UMass Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology, the groundfish industry took 83,000 tons of fish in its first year fishing under the new sector management system; the same amount landed the previous year. "There was no difference in the catch between sectors and the old system of days at sea," he said.

 

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Wright, past president of the Massachusetts Aquaculture Association, told The Standard-Times that in Mattapoisett, which has become a focal point of the waterfront war, "it sounds to me that there seems to be some disconnect between upland land owners and the working waterfront. The landowners feel entitled to their view being undisrupted with commercial activity in a public waterway."

He said that in most places on Cape Cod, aquaculturists are getting along with the neighbors, some of whom, he said, actually like the low-tech shellfish farming going on in their seascapes.

For some, it isn't the fish farms that are the problem, but rather the low fees — no more than $25 per acre per year — that don't come anywhere near the cost of keeping an eye on them by shellfish wardens and harbormasters.

Mattapoisett Selectman Paul Silva said, "I cannot in good faith support a 'private for-profit' venture that uses public waterways and would compete for tax dollars with public safety and education." If necessary, Silva wants legislation at the state level to raise the fees to a "fair fee schedule."

Most fish farms are in shallow water and are relatively small — from one-half to a few dozen acres, many of these being hobby farms. Then there are the large commercial operations, such as Taylor Seafood, which farms 100 acres in Mattapoisett and 35 in Fairhaven, supplying oysters to restaurants in Boston, New York and beyond.

 

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

The National Marine Fishery Service observer program sends many recent graduates of marine biology programs out on fishing vessels to collect data for fisheries science and to observe fishing activity and how it affects the environment and wildlife. In stories about fishing you often hear of the efforts of sea captains and their brave crews and never a word about the observer who accepts and takes many of the same risks as anyone who signs on as a crew member in the world's most dangerous job.

 Anonymous and uncelebrated fisheries observers quietly work in the background as the eyes, ears, and hands of our nation's fisheries science. In the mid-water herring industry off of New England we take them fishing often (Sometimes 80 to 100 percent of our trips). Their stay with us is always so short that they are rarely very memorable (probably by design) but there is always the exception to any rule.

Call her M. as anonymity is a requirement of this story. She came aboard like every other observer with a stack of baskets and fish measuring stuff for her work during the voyage. She was in her early twenties. In a baggy sweatshirt pulled over a slender frame with hair pulled back in a pony tail she looked like just another fresh faced college kid ready to do her part for the cause of fish science. At first she kept to herself but since we weren't going to take any fish on board the Osprey at that time of year it isn't a very demanding job for an observer. I think this whole story happened because she got bored.

My crewmate C.D. is a cribbage player with a long history of wins over fellow crew members and captains. We had been having a series of very competitive games and while there was no clear victor I would give him a slight advantage over me in both number of wins and quality of play. He is very proud of his game and ability to play and brags on himself a little at times but it's all good fun. It was not unusual that we were playing a quick game one evening after a day of fishing (that I won). While putting the board away I heard a voice behind me say, "Will you teach me how to play cribbage?"

 

Read the complete story from Newsvine

 

 

 

 

 

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Decisions this week by the Gulf of Mexico  Fishery Management Council could bring better science to the Gulf and give a bounce to the area red snapper economy, local experts said Friday.

Meeting in Austin, Texas, this week the council agreed to increase the daily bag limit on red snapper from two to four.

The council also agreed to conduct stock assessments in 2012 and 2013 that will give a better understanding of how many red snapper are actually in the Gulf.

A “standard” assessment early next year could help maintain or increase the 48-day season that occurred June 1 to July 18 this year, said Pam Anderson of Capt. Anderson’s Marina.

But more importantly, a more in-depth “benchmark” assessment in 2013 could help scientists understand something that boat captains already are experiencing: There are more fish out there than some believe, said Bob Zales II, president of the Panama City Boatman’s Association and a charter fishing captain.

“It’s critical,” Zales said.

Concerning gag grouper, the council increased commercial quotas by 567,000 pounds for 2012, but shortened the 2011 season for recreational gag grouper from Sept. 16 to Nov. 15, or 61 days, said Steven Atran, a fisheries biologist for the council.

Anderson said gag grouper is not as important along the northern Gulf as red snapper, however.

Anderson said scientists determined from a standard stock assessment in 2009 that fishing stock had fallen dramatically, probably from a massive red tide along Florida coastal regions in 2005. Zales thinks the data was flawed.

 

Read the complete story from The Miami Herald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, met with some Morro Bay city officials and local fishermen to get feedback on how well a controversial new catch-share program is working. She also took a boat tour of the Morro Bay harbor.

Lubchenco said her Morro Bay visit was an opportunity to visit with fishermen from a smaller harbor and get feedback on how the catch-share program can be improved. Her harbor tour included stops at two boats involved in the catch-share program — the 35-foot Dorado and the 63-foot trawler South Bay.

Roger Cullen, captain of the Dorado, said that one improvement would be loosening the requirement that every catch-share trip have an observer onboard, which costs $350 per day. He said a better solution for smaller boats such as his would be to use video cameras to monitor what is brought aboard.

Lubchenco agreed that the program still has problems to work out, and it is not suitable for every fishery. The program was developed over a five-year period with input from the industry and is intended to give fishermen a stake in the future.

Local fishermen involved in the catch-share program have formed the Central Coast Sustainable Groundfish Association. They plan to use the group as a way to pool risk and involve the community in the program.

Read the complete story from The San Luis Obispo Tribune