Management & Regulation

A National Marine Fisheries Service decision this week to reduce the trip limit for skate wings to 500 pounds for the remainder of the 2010 fishing year has riled Bay State fishermen who say the move is unnecessary and will cost lots of jobs.

"We employ probably 30 people for the skates and we're going to have to let them go now," said Louis Juillard who manages the fish division of Marder Trawling Inc., a fish house in the South End of New Bedford. "Normally the skate fishery never closes and we take between 30 to 40 million pounds of wings every year."

But the 2010 allocation provided for a total catch of just over 20 million pounds of skate wings this year, with the stipulation that landings would be reduced when 80 percent of that total was reached. The fishing year began on May 1 and, according to the letter that skate permit holders received, the National Marine Fisheries Service is "projecting" that this figure has already been reached.

But fishery regulators are making a big mistake, Julliard said. "They don't realize that they are hurting people. If need be, we're going to sue the government because that's the only way we can be heard."

The skate limit started out in May at 20,000 pounds per trip and that was reduced to 5,000 pounds in mid-July, according to Richie Canastra of the Whaling City Display Auction. "Now, with just 500 pounds, it means that boats are going to be discarding 30 to 50 thousand pounds per trip, he said. "It's a return to wasteful fishing, and we're looking at roughly 300 jobs being lost because of flawed science," he said.

Canastra was scheduled to take the industry's position before a national television audience with a live appearance, along with New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang, on the Fox Business News channel Wednesday evening. "Ninety-five percent of skate and dogfish — which just got closed down, too — is exported. With a trade deficit, I don't understand why this administration is doing this now," Canastra said.

Fishermen, accustomed to seeing large numbers of skate coming aboard, greeted the news with incredulity. Captain Tom Vinagre of the dragger Destiny, back in port ahead of Hurricane Earl, said he could easily fill his net with skate in certain areas after a 20-minute tow.

"Now we can't target them?"

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today [subscription site]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We are not going to knuckle under. It has come down to our survival," said Fred Moore, a member of the tribal council, a former representative in the Maine Legislature and a commercial fisherman. At issue is the tribe's contention that it is exempt from U.S. fishing regulations. The Passamaquoddy Tribe has been in discussions with the National Marine Fisheries Service over its rights to fish in federal waters. Moore said the tribe has been forced to fish in federal waters out of economic necessity and is trying to cooperate with the fisheries service in observing U.S. fishing regulations.

Patricia Kurkul, northeast regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, then issued a warning to the tribe that its members face charges and seizure of any catch taken from federal waters.

She said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the fisheries service's parent agency, is exploring the Passamaquoddies' assertion that they are exempt from U.S. fishing laws, but that doesn't mean the federal government recognizes those claims at the moment.

"They are not familiar with our indigenous rights," said Kani Malsom of Pleasant Point, an owner of the Paulo Marc. He declined to identify the captain who was stopped by the Coast Guard.

Citing a 60 percent unemployment rate, tribal members say they need to fish to survive, physically and economically. Moore, who is making another run for the Legislature, said no treaty exists between his tribe and the state or federal government that limits where the Passamaquoddies may fish.

Read the complete story from The Kennebec Journal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mayor of New Bedford, Scott Lang, joins Richie Canastra, owner of Whaling City Display Auction, to speak with FOX Business News about current conditions in the fishing industry.

Watch the video from FOX Business News here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There has been a great deal of controversy over the recent announcements by NOAA Fisheries concerning dogfish.  This year, an action was taken that resulted in an increase of about 20% in the 2010 quota over the 2009 quota, and kept the trip limit at 3,000 pounds/trip.

For more on that action, click on this link.

As the recent actions have been controversial, Saving Seafood asked NOAA Fisheries to explain the current situation.  Their explanation follows: The stock is rebuilt, overfishing is not occurring, and the biomass is about where projections made in 2003 and 2006  [Northeast Regional Stock Assessment Workshop (SARC) 37 and 43] forecast it would be by 2009.

The 2010 quota could have been set higher without allowing overfishing in 2010. However, that was not the only concern. The New England Fisheries Management Council's Joint Spiny Dogfish Committee supported a lower quota than the maximum allowable, one that reflected a constant catch strategy that would  guard against dramatic fluctuation in annual quota in future years.  This is a concern because despite improved recruitment in 2009, the Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) is expected to decline beginning in 2015 when the weak year-classes of 1997-2003 (the weakest on record) start entering the SSB.

At 15 million pounds held constant over the next 5 years, there's an increase in the quota over 2009 but just a 2 percent chance that the stock will be newly overfished in 2015 when the weak year classes begin to enter the spawning stock.

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – August 31, 2010 – According to an order by NOAA issued today, starting tomorrow, those who are fishing under a Category A Day in certain areas will need to count each fishing day as if were two days.  Cmmon pool fishermen affected lose 50% of their fishing rights overnight, with no prior notice.

The text of NOAA's announcement follows:

In order to ensure a stable supply of groundfish throughout the fishing year, NOAA Fisheries Service announces that, effective on September 2, 2010 at 0001 hours, it is implementing a Category A differential DAS counting rate of 2: 1. This requirement applies to NE multispecies common pool vessels fishing under a Category A DAS in the Inshore GOM Differential DAS Area, the Offshore GOM Differential DAS Area, the Inshore GB Differential DAS Area, and the Offshore GB Differential DAS Area.  This rule does not apply to the SNE Differential DAS Area; vessels will only be charged at a 1: 1 rate if fishing there.  This rule also implements a zero possession limit on witch flounder for all common pool vessels.

Read the NOAA letter to permit holders.                          

A panel studying menhaden management in Virginia will meet Sept. 23 in Fredericksburg.

The panel, chaired by state Sens. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, and Richard Stuart, R-Westmoreland, met earlier this summer in Newport News. Members want to know how many menhaden live in the Chesapeake Bay and if the population is overfished. Some suggested funding a study to the tune of $500,000 annually to complete the task.

The Fredericksburg meeting should be interesting because members will hear from Rob Latour and Bill Goldsborough. The two have respected, but opposing, points of view.

Latour is a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who chairs the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's  menhaden technical committee. The coast wide population of menhaden is 20-40 billion, he said, more than enough to sustain Virginia's fishery.

Read the complete story from The Daily Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA Fisheries Service announced today that effective 0001 hours on September 3, 2010, fishing vessels issued a Federal open access skate permit may not possess or land more than the incidental limit of 500 lbs of skate wings per trip for the remainder of the 2010 fishing year (through April 30 2011).

Under new management measures that went into effect on July 16, 2010, NOAA is required to reduce the skate wing fishery possession limit when 80 percent of the annual Total Allowable Landings of skate wings are caught. 

Read the permit holder letter from NOAA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – August 29, 2010 -The federal government has announced a decision to stop all landings of dogfish. The action was taken by Patricia Kurkul, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Gloucester-based regional administrator of fisheries. And it comes after the six-month NOAA Fisheries allocation was landed in three months.

But that's a development that industry analysts attribute to the overabundance of the small schooling shark and efforts by fishermen to keep working even for a low-value, low-margin prey, while saving their small allocations of the more valuable ground fish.

Dogfish was bringing around 25 cents a pound last week, and, with a 3,000-pound daily limit, the day boats could eke out gross revenues of $750 a day while saving small allocations of high value groundfish.

Dogfish are by far the most abundant species to be brought up by NOAA's research nets, said Dr. Brian Rothschild, the dean emeritus of the UMass School of Marine Science and Technology.

Some 20 times as much dogfish was recorded by weight compared to the next most abundant species, redfish, he said.

"The dogfish is extremely abundant, mortality rate very low, and the great abundance of the small sharks is not typical of the ecosystem," said Rothschild. He urged reconsideration of the closure "in light of the effect of catch shares on jobs and fishery."

"This just shows the disconnect between the government, the regulators and the industry," said Larry Ciulla, president of the auction. Losing the access to dogfish while rationing small allocations of high value groundfish will have a destabilizing effect on the fishing industry, he added.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Daily Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old-fashioned snail mail and a postage stamp might be the answer for federal officials struggling to keep the waters off the U.S. coast from being overfished.

Anglers who fish for fun in U.S. coastal waters say the federal government currently relies on bad data to determine which ocean locales are overfished and subsequently placed off limits to recreational and commercial fishing so stocks can rebuild.

The government through the National Marine Fisheries Service has relied heavily on a home telephone survey since the 1970s to random-digit dial coastal households for information about fishing trips.

Now a pilot study in North Carolina has found a new way to calculate recreational fishing activity in the ocean — and it's proven promising as a method to replace calling people on the phone, according to statistician Lynne Stokes, one of five researchers who conducted the North Carolina pilot study.

Read the complete story from PhysOrg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fishing Vessels from New Bedford join a fleet of boats in protest of the Obama Administration's oversight of the fishing industry,

See the photo gallery from The Standard Times.