Management & Regulation

For years, Virginia enacted rules and limits for catching blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay based on scientific targets, each designed to protect the prized species and prevent overfishing.

On Tuesday, state officials learned those numerical targets are significantly flawed, and that new, stricter estimates are soon to be unveiled, which likely will lead to tougher crabbing regulations.

When the final numbers are released Aug. 9, they almost certainly will spark a new row between watermen, who harvest crabs under government limits, and the scientists and regulators who design and approve them.

Watermen have long been suspicious of the scientific models and mathematical equations and question the accuracy and motivations of fishery biologists, accusing them of chasing grant money and not listening to those who make their living on the water.

Read the complete story from The Virginian Pilot Online.

 

 

 

 

 

The public is being asked to weigh in on an innovative new catch sharing plan that for the first time would allow transfers of halibut quota between commercial and charter operators in Southeast Alaska and the Central Gulf of Alaska. The plan, under the direction of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, would allocate each year's halibut catch limits between the two sectors.

"The Council saw it as a way to provide some compensated way of transferring between the two," said Rachel Baker, a fisheries specialist with NOAA Fisheries in Juneau. "We don't know how many people will use it or what the lease prices will be. That all remains to be seen. But it will be authorized by the plan if it is approved."

Currently, the commercial and charter halibut fisheries operate under different management programs. The commercial fishery has been managed under an IFQ program since 1995. Since 2003 the charter sector has been managed using harvest guidelines, which give operators a number of fish they can catch per guided angler per day, but it does not ensure the overall catch stays within a defined limit.

Read the complete story from Capital City Weekly.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

In an exclusive interview with Saving Seafood, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) discusses continuing efforts in Congress to protect fishermen from unjust federal enforcement.  Mr. Frank — who has joined forces with a bipartisan coalition of senators and congressmen from Maine to Florida who seek fair treatment for our fishermen — is announcing new legislation, cosponsored by 13 lawmakers, to eliminate NOAA's 'profit motive' in conducting asset forfeitures.  Under the proposal, beginning in FY 2012, all monies in the forfeiture fund would be directed to the states and used for cooperative fishery research and independent stock assessments.  Additionally, to remove the inherent conflict of interest in having the existing pool of administrative law judges oversee cases, the new proposal would establish a truly independent judiciary that assures fishermen are fully and fairly heard.  Later in the show, Dr. Brian Rothschild — the Montgomery Charter Professor of Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth — highlights the importance of properly-funded research in developing fair and fact-based fisheries policy, and expresses his enthusiasm for Congressman Frank's proposals in furthering that goal.

[listen to this latest episode at Saving Seafood Radio]

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — NOAA is crediting successful management for another annual increase in the scallop allocation for 2012.

The agency also is tweaking the mapping of closed areas so that groundfish and scallop closures will occur in the same areas. This, NOAA said in a statement Wednesday, will permit scallopers to fish in two areas previously off-limits to them.

"Increases are possible because the Atlantic sea scallop resource is healthy and the fishery is operating sustainably," said Patricia Kurkul, regional administrator of the Northeast region of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"In 2010, the fishery had a catch target of 47 million pounds. We were able to raise 2011 catch limits to 51 million pounds and increase them again in 2012 to 54 million pounds."

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has decided to discontinue funding for the dockside monitoring program in the groundfish industry. NOAA said it will phase out the program by Sept. 19 and redirect the funds — around $1 million — to help fishermen defray some of their operational costs under the sector management system.

"The sectors will be able to use that money for expenses, such as office space rental or salaries for sector managers. They can also use it for monitors if they wish to continue using them voluntarily," said Maggie Mooney-Seus, communications officer with the National Marine Fisheries Service. "I know a couple of sectors were using them to gather data."

The money will be disbursed by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, a research and education center located in Portland, although the details of how it will be allocated have yet to be determined, Mooney-Seus said.

The catch share system introduced in May 2010 to regulate the New England groundfish industry mandated the use of observers onboard boats at sea, in addition to using dockside monitors to tally the catch as it came ashore. In 2010, the rules called for 50 percent of sector vessels to be monitored at the pier, dropping to 20 percent for the current fishing year. That rule was later modified by the New England Fishery Management Council, which wanted all vessels without an at-sea observer to be monitored as they off-loaded their catch

In New Bedford, Stephanie Rafael, who manages the vessels in Sector 10, questioned why the decision was not taken earlier, before the beginning of the fishing year on May 1.

"It makes it a little difficult because we already have contracts with our (monitor) providers," she said. "If NOAA is dropping the program, I think we'll be able to get out of them. But it makes it a little hairy. And for those providers who only do dockside monitoring, this is obviously pretty bad news. I feel sorry for people who thought they had a job for the year and now they won't." Rafael also doubted that the majority of sectors would continue with the monitors voluntarily. "There are already so many costs that if it's not a requirement, I can't see anyone keeping them."
 

 

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Cate O'Keefe, Program Manager of the SMAST Scallop Research Group — and Greg DeCelles, a SMAST research scientist — describe their cutting-edge program that provides real-time data to help fishermen avoid bycatch of unwanted species when harvesting scallops, a highly lucrative catch. Fleet participation in this unique academia-industry collaboration continues to grow while benefiting the New Bedford economy.

[listen to this recent episode at Saving Seafood Radio]

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD – July 19, 2011 — The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed an increase in the permissible haddock bycatch for the Atlantic herring fishery — a move that one fishing company in New Bedford says was a long time coming.

Severe restrictions on haddock caught unintentionally, imposed on midwater trawlers fishing for herring, were blamed for the April shutdown of the NORPEL fish processing plant on Fish Island in New Bedford with the resulting loss of 80 jobs. One of the company's two boats, the 115-foot Nordic Explorer, subsequently left New Bedford to fish on the West Coast.

The new proposal, announced Monday afternoon by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service, would increase the bycatch limit to 2 percent of the acceptable biological catch for haddock. The herring industry has been fighting for just such a ruling since last fall.

Despite opinions from National Marine Fisheries Service scientists that a 2 percent limit was appropriate, the New England Fishery Management Council fixed the limit at 0.2 percent last year, a decision that has been heavily criticized by the industry and local officials.

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Earlier this month, New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang hosted a conference call of the key stakeholders in a Federal lawsuit filed against the Commerce Department by fishing families and the port cities of New Bedford and Gloucester.  The suit, which sought relief from 'flawed and unjust' fishing regulations enforced by NOAA, did not receive a favorable ruling.  But as Mayor Lang explains, there are several potential grounds for appeal, which are being actively researched and explored.

[listen to this latest episode at Saving Seafood Radio]

 

 

 

NOAA announced that it plans to redirect roughly $1 million in federal funding for its groundfish dockside monitoring program to help sectors defray some of their costs.

In the groundfish fishery, individual vessels can form groups called sectors and each sector is allocated a share of the year’s allowable catch. Individual sectors then manage their respective harvests as a group, according to an annual plan.

By providing funds directly to sectors, managers and members can determine how best to use the money to develop their respective operations. Sectors may use funds for approved operating costs such as sector manager salaries, office space rental and communications costs.

Effective September 19 until the end of the 2011 fishing year and for the entire 2012 fishing year, there will be no centralized NOAA funded dockside monitoring program. Any sector that chooses to continue dockside monitoring, after September 19, may do so on a voluntary basis  at their own cost.

To ensure a smooth transition for sectors and dockside monitoring providers, NOAA will provide funding for a 50 percent coverage rate for sector vessels through September 18.

While NOAA has decided not to centrally fund dockside monitoring for sectors during the 2011 and 2012 fishing years, as it did in 2010, the requirement for the fishing industry (both common pool and sectors) to pay for dockside monitoring beginning in 2013 technically remains in place. The New England Fishery Management Council can recommend that this requirement be eliminated or further modified.  The Council is a multi-stakeholder body that develops fishery management plans in the Northeast.

Read this article from NOAA News.

 

 

 

 

PORTLAND, Maine — Forty stocks of fish populations are subject to overfishing in U.S. waters, but progress is being made to rebuild stocks and reduce overfishing, federal officials said Thursday.

The number of fish populations being fished at too high of a level at the end of 2010 was up by two from 2009, according to an annual report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Among the stocks being overfished are cod in the Northeast, red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific bluefin tuna off the West coast.

But officials said many key populations of fish have shown improvement over the years. Twenty-one stocks have been rebuilt to healthy levels since 2000, and three key stocks in the Northeast — Georges Bank haddock, Atlantic pollock and spiny dogfish — reached healthy levels in 2010, said Eric Schwaab, the head of NOAA's Fisheries Service.

"We are turning a corner as we see important fish stocks rebounding," Schwaab said in a statement.

Read the complete story by the AP at The Gloucester Times.