Management & Regulation

Wait now – there's more going on in the oh-so complicated and frustrating world of fisheries management.

Also on Monday, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold one of its menhaden meetings to determine if it should lower the allowed annual take of one of the most important fish in the sea. A filter feeder that cleans the waters, and a valuable food source for most species, menhaden numbers are already crucially low.

So it's a no-brainer … lower the take by commercial fishermen who harvest the species for its Omega 2 oils.

Menhaden is the only species in Virginia waters that isn't controlled by fisheries professionals. The General Assembly controls it. What? Why?

Monday's meeting is supposed to be a time when the fishing community – both commercial and recreational – can voice their opinion on the matter.

So where has the ASMFC in all its wisdom decide to hold this meeting? Not any place central to all involved. No, they decided to hold it at Northumberland High School in Heathsville – a mere stone's throw from Reedville, home of Omega Protein, the company that does all the taking.

Read the full article at the Virginian-Pilot.

Analysis: The article refers to menhaden numbers are "crucially low." However, the most recent ASMFC stock assessment does not indicate that fishing is currently causing long-term damage to the population. The ASMFC concluded that menhaden are currently not overfished, and that overfishing has only occurred once in the fishery in the last ten years.

New Jersey is joining other East Coast states that have shut down their river herring seasons because of a coastwide decline in the fish populations and uncertainty about their future prospects.

Environmental and recreational fishing groups are fastened on one target: winter commercial fishing in the ocean off New Jersey that targets mackerel and squid, and unintentionally catches some river herring and shad during the months they spend feeding in the ocean.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council met in Galloway to come up with a plan for reducing the incidental capture of herring and shad. The council, a quasi-government board that sets regulations for fishing in federal waters, will propose options for public comment — ranging from putting more observers on boats to record catches to shutting down fishing areas offshore to prevent river herring losses.

Some fishermen contend they don’t catch enough river herring and shad mixed in with mackerel and squid to make a real difference, and worry the proposed safeguards go too far.

Read the complete story from The Asbury Park Press.

 

 

 

 

 

ELLSWORTH, Maine — Catch controls need to be in place when it comes to regulating the groundfish industry, according to Maine fisherman Glen Libby.

Brown and Ayotte, both Republicans in the U.S. Senate, have introduced a bill that could do away with the catch shares program, which went into effect on May 1, 2010. The catch shares program was put into place as a means of granting fishermen more control over when they can fish without doing away with limits aimed at protecting fish populations.

Before catch shares were adopted, Libby said, fishermen were limited to 14 days at sea and often raced against each other to catch as much of a certain species that they could before the fishing fleet reached the overall catch limit on that species. Fishermen also had limits on how much they could bring ashore from each trip, he said, and so often threw excess fish overboard at sea, though most of it was dead, in order not to exceed their catch limit.

With catch shares, however, individual fishermen are allocated a certain amount before they leave the harbor, Libby said. If they also are part of a larger sector, in which fishermen pool their shares together, they can trade shares back and forth among each other as long as they stay with the overall catch limits allocated to that sector.

Read the complete story from Bangor Daily News.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Send a message to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission today in support of stronger conservation for menhaden, an important forage fish.

The Situation
Menhaden, a key food source for many popular sportfish – especially striped bass – are the most important fish in the sea according to noted historian and author H. Bruce Franklin. Unfortunately, menhaden stocks have declined 88 percent over the last 25 years and are at their lowest abundance in recorded history.

Commercial harvest continues
Despite growing concerns over the condition of the menhaden population, managers have allowed commercial harvest to continue at high levels, resulting in overfishing which seriously threatens some of the East Coast's most prized recreational fisheries, including striped bass. In an effort to increase menhaden abundance and its availability as a forage species, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is in the process of establishing new population targets and fishing limits for the species.

Disease is taking its toll
The declining status of menhaden has taken on more significance with the increasing prevalence of Mycobacteriosis infections among striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay. There is growing evidence that a lack of suitable forage, notably menhaden, has stressed these important sportfish and made them particularly vulnerable to this fatal disease. Stronger conservation measures are required for the appropriate management of the menhaden fishery and will help bolster its population.

Read the full petition at Keep America Fishing.

Analysis: The article misrepresents the health of the menhaden fishery; it claims that menhaden are overfished, which has no basis in the data collected on the fishery. The last Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) assessment determined that the fishery was not overfished, and that in the last ten years of the stock assessment overfishing, fishing above the mortality threshold, only occured once in 2008 on a marginal level. This has not affected menhaden fecunity levels, which are currently at their target.

The article also makes the claim that a lack of menhaden are responsible for an increase in mycobacteriosis in bass, an assertion that is controversial and not as universally supported as the article implies. Environmental factors, such as the "thermal niche/oxygen squeeze" theory, are much more likely candidates for the source of the bass' illness. Because large amounts of run-off in the Bay have created areas with low levels of oxygen, called hypoxia, in cold waters that bass traditionally inhabit, bass spend more time in warmer, shallower waters. However, the bass are not ideally suited for these waters, and the temperature is too high for them to feed properly. This makes them susceptible to a variety of health problems, including mycobacteriosis.

 

 

 

It may not seem like it at first glance, but the little menhaden is one heck of a fish. So much so that many consider it the most important fish in the United States. Let’s put it this way: if the little engine that could was a fish, it would be this one.

This practice of using the fish as compost had almost been forgotten until 1792, when it resurfaced again due to its mention in an article written about the method. Afterwards, it grew to such popularity that tons of the ground fish was brought miles inland and used on fields there.

Nowadays they are fished for other important reasons. Just last year, the company Omega Protein was able to fish roughly 404 million pounds of menhaden out of their coastal Atlantic waters.  Their catch is then turned into fish oil and supplements in addition to becoming “poultry feed and fishmeal for farmed salmon.”

Read the complete story from Green Answers.

Analysis: The article makes several inacurate claims about the health of the menhaden fishery. The article describes the menhaden population as being "in a rapid decline spurred primarily by overfishing." However, this is not reflected in the data, which does not indicate a pattern of overfishing in the past decade. The same Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) stock assessment that they cite not only concludes the the fishery is not overfished, but also that overfishing has only occured once in the last ten years. The assement also concludes that the fishery's fecundity level is at its target.

Several other claims in the article are also inaccurate. While the article makes the case that menhaden are important as filter feeders, there is doubt as to their precise ecological role. A recent study buy the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) concluded that menhaden's impact on water quality is negligible.

The article also claims that menhaden are a "primary food source" for several species of fish, notably striped bass. however, striped bass diet is highly variable, and is influenced by variables, such as location and availability of other prey species, that are independent of the commercial menhaden harves. An ongoing VIMS survey finds that menhaden can constitute as little as 9.6& of striped bass diets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 7, 2011 – At a packed hearing at the Boston statehouse on Monday, legislators hammered NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco for her department’s administration of the region’s new catch shares fisheries management system. It has been a year since the new quota-based system has been in place and Ms. Lubchenco, the ex-officio head of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), touted the progress of the region’s long-suffering fisheries to an unsympathetic congressional panel.

“We are finally on track to end overfishing,” she told the panel of congressmen that included Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry, Scott Brown and Alaska Sen. Mark Begich as well as Massachusetts Reps. William Keating, Barney Frank and John Tierney.

“Stocks are being rebuilt and catch limits are up,” Ms. Lubchenco said. “In addition revenues are up for some but not all the fishermen. Fishermen are fishing more selectively, benefiting their bottom line and the vulnerable stocks. I believe that in fact we are making progress but not enough.”

Read the complete story from The Vineyard Gazette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 7, 2011 – News Friday of a black sea bass closure is having a devastating effect for charter and head boat operators in the Carolinas, Georgia, and North Florida, said Capt. Robert Thompson, owner of the fishing charter service Blind Hawg Charters in Murrells Inlet.

NOAA Fisheries Service announced Friday that the recreational black sea bass fishery will close Oct.17 as the annual catch limit for the species has been met for the 2011-12 fishing season.

“This will have huge economic impacts on the Grand Strand area, particularly where lots of fishermen come to catch black sea bass,” said South Atlantic Fishery Management Council member Tom Swatzel of Murrells Inlet. “It will impact hotels and restaurants in addition to charter boats.”

Read the complete story from The Sun News.

 

 

 

 

Greg Mayhew, captain of the 75-foot dragger Unicorn out of Menemsha, is the last Vineyard fisherman still groundfishing on Georges Bank. And this year might be his last on the legendary fishing ground.

“I don’t know if I’m going to even go next year because it might be better just to lease the days out and get half price for them,” he said.

Mr. Mayhew’s story is familiar to small owner-operated fishing outfits throughout New England, who under the new catch shares fisheries management system have found themselves saddled with small catch allocations and burdened by new regulations intended to bring accountability to the capture of fish species in federal waters that have been pushed to the brink of extinction in recent decades.

The catch shares system was enacted this year.

“It’s a free market right now for permits and the only way you can increase your allocation is by buying another permit that has catch history associated with it, and that catch history is expensive,” he said in a telephone interview. “So you’re stuck in a Catch 22: if there weren’t any fish to catch during the qualifying years and then you don’t get an allocation to be able to catch the fish, even as they come back, you won’t have the rights to catch them.”

Read the complete article from The Vineyard Gazette

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – October 5, 2011 – Today on Saving Seafood radio, Bob Vanasse spoke with Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Congressmen Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and discussed their reactions on Monday's Boston Field Hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee Oceans Subcommittee.  Following the Senator and Congressman, NOAA Fisheries Northeast Administrator Pat Kurkul, New England Fisheries Management Council Chairman Rip Cunningham, and NOAA Northeast Science Center Director Frank Almeida discussed their various organizations' responses to the Preston Pate / Touchstone report which was critical of fisheries management in the Northeast.

 

Listen to the show

Lewes — Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission officials and fishermen agree: Menhaden have been overfished for 32 of the last 54 years, and their current population is at the lowest level on record.

Stakeholders are trying to determine the best methods, rules and regulations to adopt that would give menhaden a chance to bounce back.

Speaking at a Sept. 26 public meeting, Eidman said menhaden, a forage fish, play an important role in feeding larger game fish such as striped bass, tuna, weakfish, marine mammals and several bird species.

He said recreational fishing businesses and the businesses they support are already being adversely affected because there are fewer menhaden.
Fishermen and others concerned about fish conservation say menhaden are the most important fish in the world and their ever-decreasing numbers are causing a negative ripple throughout the region.

Menhaden Defenders, Coalition to Protect Fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which held the meeting to hear comments about proposed regulations, agree about many things, chief among them is that the menhaden population has declined by 88 percent in the last three decades.

Read the complete article from The Cape Gazette

Analysis: According to the ASFMC's most recent stock assessment, the menhaden population has not been overfished in the past ten years, except for 2008. The article also calls for limits to be set at 15% MSP. Menhaden are currently fished at levels around 8% MSP, and in the past 55 years, the population has rarely exceeded 10% MSP. 

The article is also incorrect in blaming poor health in striped bass on the level of menhaden in the Bay. As part of their ongoing ChesMMAP study, VIMS has analyzed the diets of several species of fish, and menhaden only make up a small percentage of the diet of many species. For example, they have been found to make up as little as 9.6% of striped bass diet, even though the exact number will fluctuate given location of the bass or prevalence of other feed species.