The court has made public the plea documents associated with the Fuglvog case.
A bill before Congress would stop the commercial fishery management regime of catch shares now at work in New England from being extended to more waters without support from fishermen.
“This bill will ensure that catch share programs are shut down if they are forcing people out of work,” said Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., who co-sponsored bill HR-2772 with Reps. Walter Jones, R-NC, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
Catch share programs are designed to control excessive fishing pressure, by assigning groups of fishermen set annual limits on their catches, and then allowing them to largely decide when and where to catch the fish.
Read the complete story from The Asbury Park Press.
Global advocacy group Oceana last month released a report claiming that the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Fishery is illegally killing 90 per cent of threatened and endangered sea turtles by failing to use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs).
The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is working to deny the claims and keep the shrimp fishery operating.
These concerns on the part of environmental groups as well as senior government officials regarding the exceptionally high number of turtle strandings in 2010 and 2011 and TED compliance issues in the shrimp fishery have spawned two petitions to shut down the fishery.
Read the complete story from FIS Worldnews.
New catch share programs on the East and Gulf coasts could be started by the federal government only with approval of the members of the fishery under legislation that has now been filed by three representatives in the U.S. House.
The legislation also requires the termination of existing programs — such as the catch share regimen for New England groundfish — when the total number of fishermen in the program drops by 15 percent.
The "Saving Fishing Jobs Act of 2011" was filed last week by Republican Reps. Jon Runyan of New Jersey, Walter Jones of North Carolina and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Annual catch limits for species of fish caught off the Southeast coast will be considered this week as the federal government works to prevent overfishing of the nation's seafood stocks.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing between 3 miles and 200 miles offshore from North Carolina to Florida, meets Tuesday in Charleston.
On the agenda are comprehensive annual catch limits for fish species including king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, grouper and dolphin, among others.
One proposal reduces the recreational bag limit for Spanish mackerel from 15 fish to 10 fish per person, per day. Another maintains the current recreational bag limit for king mackerel — three per person, per day from Georgia to New York and two per person, per day off Florida's east coast.
Read the complete story by The AP at News Times.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries commission has said North Carolina’s commercial fleet is doing a much better job of complying with ASMF regulations concerning weakfish (gray trout), a species heavily overfished along the Atlantic Coast and long in decline in NC.
After NC fisheries regulators implemented strict new AMFC conservation measures, an August 2010 report to the commission said that about 17% of commercial fishing trips were out of compliance with the new laws. The regulations called for a 10 percent by-catch allowance meaning a 100 lb commercial weakfish limit instead of the previous 1,000.
The ASMF was informed at their Aug 1-4 meeting by the Technical Committee that from January 2011 through April 2011 NC had only 5% noncompliant trips (roughly 1,150 lbs of weakfish) versus the previous 17% number.
Read the complete story from The Examiner.
PORTLAND, Maine—Three Maine lobstermen and a former groundfish fisherman have become the first graduates from the first-ever "Cod Academy" aimed at teaching them the ins and outs of fish farming.
Since kicking off in January, the school has provided the four with both classroom training and hands-on experience at a commercial fish farm off eastern Maine that raises cod. They were recognized Tuesday at a graduation ceremony at the USDA National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center in Franklin.
The goal is to provide fishermen more opportunities to make their livelihoods off the water while diversifying the state's aquaculture industry and preserving Maine's working waterfronts, said Sebastian Belle, director of the Maine Aquaculture Association who spearheaded the program. The graduates are now eligible for financial assistance from the association to start their own small-scale cod farms if they choose.
Read the complete story by The AP at The Boston Globe.
A step toward ending a ban on deepwater grouper fishing could be adopted by federal fishery officials, meeting Tuesday in South Carolina.
However, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council may also approve new rules on dolphin that would ban charterboat crews from selling excess catch.
The focus of the special one-day meeting in Charleston will be to establish annual catch limits for several marine species including mackerel, wahoo, black grouper and dolphin this year.
"The primary reason for this meeting is to meet the congressionally mandated timeline for the Magnuson-Stevens Act," council spokeswoman Kim Iverson said.
Read the complete story from KeysNet.
On a beautiful beach evening in the Hamptons last weekend, Oceana held it second annual “Splash” event at the home of Margie and Michael Loeb. The backyard was filled with hundreds of true ocean lovers who want to protect our fragile aquatic environment.
Actor & author Ted Danson began the evening’s festivities with a passionate speech about the state of our oceans. Later on, he signed his book Oceana to numerous supporters.
“One of the things we’re talking about tonight is seafood fraud. Because a lot of the fish you think you’re eating is not as billed. You could be ordering grouper or red snapper and it could actually be tilapia” said Danson to the press. “There is so much illegal fishing going on around the world that gets relabeled before it gets to your restaurant. 80% of the fish that we eat in this country, we import from other places. 2% is looked at (by the FDA), or inspected.”
Read the complete story from Ecorazzi.
NEW BEDFORD — The city may have slumbered in the pre-dawn hours Friday, but down on the docks it was all rattle and hum.
Lights blazed and diesels growled the length of New Bedford's South Terminal as scallop boats returning from closed-area trips jockeyed for space at the long wharf behind the fish houses.
The Miss Maude, the Apollo, the Ocean Queen and the Nordic Pride were among the first boats home from the closed areas on Georges Bank that opened to scallop fishing at midnight last Sunday.
The decision by fishery regulators to allow entry on Aug. 1 sparked a mass exodus from the waterfront last weekend, with practically the entire fleet leaving port. Friday's intense activity on the waterfront will continue as the remainder of the boats are expected to land their catch over the next several days.
Read the complete story from The Standard-Times.