Saving Seafood

State and Local

MAINE: Invasive blob-like creatures are clogging Maine fishing gear

October 8, 2024 — Warming ocean temperatures are boosting the populations of small blob-like creatures in Maine’s coastal waters, causing problems for fishermen.

The small invertebrates, several species of which are invasive, are attaching themselves in large numbers to lobster traps and aquaculture equipment, at times creating a major hassle for harvesters as they try to tend to their gear.

“The month of September, they come on like gangbusters,” Hilton Turner, a lobsterman and chair of Stonington’s harbor committee, said about the tunicates, which are better known as sea squirts.

Read the full article at Fox 23

Appalachian Salmon secures key permits to build trout RAS in West Virginia

October 8, 2024 — Appalachian Salmon has secured the key permits it needs for its plans to build a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) to farm trout in the mountains of the U.S. state of West Virginia.

Appalachian Salmon plans to build its RAS on the site of the former Maple Meadow Mine in Fairdale, West Virginia, and use the area’s groundwater resources to farm trout. Appalachian Salmon Founder and CEO Austin Caperton told SeafoodSource that the former mine contains more than 4 billion gallons of fresh water, which can more than supply the estimated 3 million gallons a day the farm would need.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Chinook bycatch shuts down pollock fishery in Central Gulf of Alaska

October 8, 2024 — Commercial fishing for pollock in the Central Gulf of Alaska came to a halt on Sept. 25, leaving 50,000 tons of the whitefish in the water, when shut down by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to prevent exceeding the limit on Chinook salmon prohibited species catch (PSC). The action taken by Jon M. Kurland, regional administrator for the Alaska Region of NMFS, came after the captain of one of 19 trawlers fishing for pollock in the Central Gulf pulled up a net with an estimated 2,000 Chinook salmon.

The Chinook prohibited species catch in this pollock trawl fisheries is 18,316 Chinook salmon. As of Sept. 27, NMFS data indicated the PSC estimate for Chinook salmon in the central Gulf pollock fishery at 19,665 fish. In last week’s incident, the captain immediately notified the partner trawler he was fishing with and they both notified the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank of the bycatch. Both are local vessels based in Kodiak.

Total PSC estimates are calculated using verified information collected by observers.

“This was unprecedented,” said Julie Bonney, owner and executive director of the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank. “Over the last 20 years, there has never been that much prohibit species salmon taken in one tow of the trawlers fishing in the Central Gulf for pollock.”

Measures taken by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to minimize bycatch worked —but the cost to fishermen, processors and the city of Kodiak will be in the millions of dollars, Bonney said. The 19 trawlers had caught just 18,000 tons of pollock.

Closing down the fishery left 50,000 tons of pollock in the ocean, which will impact jobs of commercial fishing crews, processing company workers, and myriad businesses that are engaged with the fishing industry. Bonney said she even got a call from a Kodiak man whose company services vending machines in the processing facilities in Kodiak.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

Territory not included in NOAA’s “Fisheries of the United States” annual report

October 8, 2024 — The director of the Department of Marine & Wildlife Resources, Taotasi Archie Soliai has written to the Deputy Ass’t Administrator for Regulatory Programs of NOAA, Samuel Rauch III on his concerns about American Samoa not being included in NOAA’s “Fisheries of the United States” Annual Report, pointing to “a longstanding pattern of marginalization for our community.”

DMWR director’s concerns comes on the heels of the 200th Meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council held in Honolulu, last month, where an Indigenous Committee to provide recommendations to federal authorities on cultural fishing rights and related issues was established.

Read the full article at Samoa News

Scallops: Council Receives 2024 Survey Season Overview and Framework 39 Update; Recaps Upcoming Work Priorities

October 8, 2024 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council received an overview of the 2024 Atlantic sea scallop survey season when it met in Gloucester, Massachusetts for its September 24-26, 2024 meeting. The Council also received updates on: (1) Framework Adjustment 39 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, which will set specifications and other measures for the 2025 scallop fishing year; and (2) additional ongoing scallop projects, including the development Georges Bank Scallop Biomass Estimates By Sub-Region (2015 – 2024) of a three-to-five-year strategic plan for the fishery.

2024 SCALLOP SURVEY SEASON: Results from the 2024 scallop survey season indicate that overall biomass remains low compared to the 2016-2019 peak years of the fishery. The population of harvestable-size scallops expected to be available for the 2025 fishing year also remains low and may result in reduced allocations to the fishery.

However, surveys did show some positive signs of recruitment – seed and juvenile scallops – in multiple areas that could contribute to the fishery down the road. Here are a few 2024 survey highlights.

• Overall survey biomass decreased from 2023 to 2024.

• Biomass on Georges Bank is over two times higher than in the Mid-Atlantic, although biomass in the Mid-Atlantic bumped up due to new recruitment in the Elephant Trunk and, to a lesser extent, Hudson Canyon South.

• Multiple surveys documented a large recruitment event in Nantucket Lightship South (see maps below). While not as large as the 2013 year-class, the recruitment event is strong. The Council will consider closing the area in 2025 to protect these young scallops for additional grow-out within revised boundaries that better surround the new recruitment event.

• Area I and Area II on Georges Bank both harbor multiple year classes of scallops, which will prove challenging as the Council considers how to protect smaller scallops while providing access to larger, harvestable-size fiveyear-old scallops. The Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team will investigate options for protecting two-year olds in the Area I-Sliver and Area II Extension.

NORTH CAROLINA: Blessing of the Fleet pays tribute to commercial fishing families

October 8, 2024 — It was a picture perfect day Sunday as the sun glistened on the rippling waters of Beaufort Inlet for the the 27th annual Blessing of the Fleet ceremony, held at Radio Island between Morehead City and Beaufort.

Twenty-five commercial fishing vessels slowly made their way by Radio Island as wreaths were thrown into the water. Each wreath represented a commercial fisherman or family member who had died.

Read. the full article at the NEWS-TIMES

OREGON: Tribes slow Oregon’s offshore wind plans to ask ‘the big questions’ on cultural, environmental impacts

October 7, 2024 — To Courtney Krossman and Jesse Beers, the windswept view off Gregory Point offers more than just postcard-perfect scenery.

The majestic cape juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of Coos Bay, its sharp sandstone cliffs ringed by dark water.

“When you look in that direction, the view is essentially the same as what our ancestors saw when they were standing here. It has not altered,” said Krossman, the tribal historic preservation officer for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.

The headland was once home to a village of Miluk-speaking Coos people. Officially returned to the coastal tribes just a decade ago, the site is home to first salmon ceremonies, remembrances for the dead and prayers for ancestors – traditions that Krossman and Beers, the tribes’ cultural stewardship manager, are working hard to preserve.

The tribes’ leaders say the view, the land, the fish and other marine life – fundamental to their cultural and spiritual legacy – could in the coming years be marred by massive floating wind towers and their turbines.

Read the full article at The Chronicle 

NEW JERSEY: ‘He knows we’re here’: Wind power critics protest Murphy to keep cables out of Sea Girt

October 7, 2024 — More than 100 protesters who oppose a plan to connect offshore wind power cables through this beachfront community descended on the area Sunday during a visit by Gov. Phil Murphy, urging him to stop the project and claiming it’s a health hazard.

Murphy was in town attending the New Jersey National Guard’s annual military review at its training center located just blocks from the Sea Girt beach.

Supporters of the group Stop The High-Risk Power Cables, which represents homeowners in Sea Girt, Wall, Manasquan and Howell, chose the event to let Murphy know of their objections.

“It’s a high-rise power cable,” said Kimberly Paterson one of the organizers. “People are upset.”

Read the full article at app.

In surprising move, Bering Sea snow crab fishery to reopen after 2 year closure

October 7, 2024 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Friday afternoon that Bering Sea fishermen will be allowed to harvest a total of about 4.7 million pounds of opilio, also known as snow crab, for the first time in two years. According to Fish and Game, estimates of total mature male biomass are above the threshold required to open the fishery.

The announcement comes as a surprise to many fishermen, after roughly 10 billion snow crabs disappeared from the Bering Sea over a span of four years, and Fish and Game closed the fishery in 2022. Recently, scientists have learned that the disappearance was likely due to ecological shifts, and there’s been little hope within the industry that stocks would recover anytime soon.

Read the full article at KUCB

OREGON: With offshore wind on hold, fishermen want a more rigorous evaluation

October 7, 2024 — For most of his life, Paul Kujala has called himself a fisherman. The Warrenton local owns and operates a small bottom-trawling vessel that he uses to catch sole, sablefish and rockfish — but over the last few years, he’s had his eye on a new technology he fears could threaten that work: floating offshore wind.

Kujala isn’t the only one.

For months, fishermen and others who work in the fishing industry have been calling on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to slow down its process for two proposed wind energy lease areas — a 61,204-acre site 32 miles offshore in Coos Bay and a 133,808-acre site about 18 miles off the coast of Brookings — citing economic and environmental concerns for communities up and down the coast. Those concerns were amplified last month after the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians filed a lawsuit against the bureau and Gov. Tina Kotek sent a letter urging the bureau not to move forward with a long-anticipated Oct. 15 lease auction of the two sites.

Read the full article at The Astorian