Saving Seafood

Conservation & Environment

Bottom fishing ban may be heading south

Snapper and grouper fishing might have just opened up again.

On Thursday, federal regulators moved farther south their preferred option for closing an offshore bottom-fishing area. If adopted, the closed area would end at roughly the Georgia-South Carolina border. The former preferred option ran the closure all the way to North Carolina. It would have closed off any bottom fishing in the prime grounds off South Carolina.

The alternative will be reviewed for its impact on restoring red snapper and could get a final vote in June. But a decision might not come before a new stock assessment is finished in December. A temporary bottom- fishing ban remains in place for the winter spawning season.

"I'm not happy about it. We are where we are," said Duane Harris, a Georgia charter boat captain who is chairman of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the group that voted for the option change.

"I think it's simply a matter that the folks in South Carolina and North Carolina didn't believe the area needed to be that large. I think we'll revisit the matter (in June)," he said.

Read the complete story at The Post and Courier.

A garbage patch to call the Atlantic’s own

You’ve probably heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – that vast concentration of plastic litter trapped by ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean. Now, researchers at the Woods Hole-based Sea Education Association have found a garbage patch of our own in the Atlantic.

The organization, which runs undergraduate sailing oceanography programs, has been towing nets in the western North Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to Venezuela for 22 years. Students have made more than 6,000 tows, pulling up nets to count marine organisms – and plastics – in them, and carefully recording the data.

Their data shows while a whopping 62 percent of the tows contained plastic, researchers consistently saw one area with the highest concentrations: Due east of Atlanta in the western Sargasso Sea.

The exact size of the patch is unknown but the plastic is likely gathering for the same reason the garbage is in the Pacific: Because of gyres, or rotating ocean currents that trap the waste. And while you may expect to see plastic bags and milk jugs floating in a garbage ocean dump, most of the plastic is in tiny bits, broken down by the ocean and elements. Some of the material marine debris but most are plastics that make up common household products from straws to milk jugs.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

 

PRN: UK Poised to Designate World’s Largest Marine Reserve

WASHINGTON, March 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today, the Pew Environment Group praised the United Kingdom (U.K.) for taking one further step towards designating the world's largest marine reserve.

The proposed marine reserve would protect a group of 55 islands located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Known as the Chagos Archipelago, the islands and their surrounding waters cover 210,000 square miles (544,000 square kilometers), an area larger than France. With some of the cleanest seas in the world, the islands are home to one of the most ecologically healthy coral reef systems on the planet.

The Chagos Archipelago and its surrounding waters comprise the British Indian Ocean Territory, an overseas territory of the U.K. Following a three-month public consultation, the U.K. government is now considering the designation of a Chagos Protected Area, which would safeguard the area's rich diversity of marine life by prohibiting extractive activities, such as fishing. More than 275,000 people from around the world have signed petitions supporting this designation.

Read the complete story at College and University Related News.

Florida Sen. LeMieux Spars with NOAA Chief Over ‘Sustainable’ Fish Limits – and the Size of Red Snapper

Florida’s newest U.S. senator told the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Wednesday that the NOAA is wrong about the declining size and number of red snapper fish in Florida.

Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.) told NOAA chief Dr. Jane Lubchenco that her agency’s statistics do not match fishermen reports regarding the size and number of red snapper fish.

“If the science is bad, and we’re making draconian decisions based upon bad science, or science that we can’t believe in, that’s affecting people’s lives — that’s wrong,” LeMieux said Wednesday at a Senate Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard subcommittee hearing on NOAA's FY2011 budget request for fisheries enforcement programs and operations.

Lubchenco challenged the claim that red snapper are prospering and numerous, insisting that the data on this matter is solid.

“I think with the challenge with something like red snapper is that the calculations about what is a sustainable level of fishing, take into account how — what size the fish are," she said. "And what many of the fishermen are seeing are lots and lots of younger fish and are assuming that that means that they are recovered and that there are plenty out there. And, in fact, it’s important for those younger fish to get larger and reproduce for the future health of the fishery."

But LeMieux again invited the administrator to come to Florida to take stock of the red snapper population.

“I want to renew in closing my offer to you to come down to Florida and let’s go on a fishing boat and see these red snapper because what my fishermen are telling me is not only are there many red snapper, but there are big red snapper, not just the juvenile fish,” he said.

Read the complete story at CNS News.

Jones calls for overhaul of fisheries enforcement

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones on Thursday called for a hold on active prosecutions of fishermen until problems with NOAA law enforcement and litigation are resolved.

Jones, R-N.C., said NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) law enforcement is “out of control, terribly mismanaged and needs a major overhaul.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce recommends a major overhaul of federal fisheries policy in a new report discussed by the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife Oversight on Thursday.

Read the complete story at The Sun Journal.

FLORIDA: Washington DC Fishermans Protest

Fishermen, marina operators, and charter boat captains rallied in Washington DC last week to protest what they call excessive fishing regulations that will be putting them out of work.

NOAA, the national Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which enforces the Magnuson-Stevens Act has already closed some areas  and intends to close others to stop overfishing.

Many coastal communities have been negatively impacted by these closures since their primary economy depends on the fishing industry.  From fishermen to restaurants and other marine related business owners, they are all feeling the heat.

Read the complete story at From The Water Magazine.

What’s wrong with the Magnuson-Stevens Act?

A letter to NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, signed by the leadership of the American Sportfishing Association, Center for Coastal Conservation, Coastal Conservation Association, International Game Fish Association, National Marine Manufacturers Association, and The Billfish Foundation asks for immediate action to address a crisis within the federal fisheries management system.

“We support healthy fisheries and good fishery management. It’s good for anglers, our business and our economy. We’ve developed common-sense administrative and appropriations proposals that address the need for timely, accurate data while preserving efforts to rebuild our marine fisheries. We see these as a starting point for actions that must be implemented to address the short and long term problems,” said Mike Nussman, ASA’s President and CEO.

“Unfortunately, what we are seeing now is crisis management rather than fisheries management and this must stop before more jobs are lost and more of the nation’s recreational anglers are unnecessarily shut out.”

Read the complete story at The Middle River Dispatch.

OPINION: Add voice for flexible fishing reform

I wanted to share with you my experience Feb. 24, when I took a memorable bus trip to Washington, D.C. Fifty-five of us (80 percent from Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and the Little River area) met at Ocean Isle Fishing Center at 3:30 a.m. to begin our journey. The bus left Ocean Isle at 4:15 a.m. with us, our pickets, signs and props. We arrived in D.C. about 11:30 a.m. and could see the stage and large banner set up on the lawn in front of our nation's capitol. Fishermen and ladies were pouring in from every direction.

It was estimated that 4,000-5,000 people were there. They came from every state on the East Coast, the Gulf Coast, even from California and Alaska. At least 10 buses came from South Carolina and as many from North Carolina, also.

The rally started promptly at noon. Senators, representatives, mayors, governors, lobbyists and fishermen took to the stage to tell their stories. Democrats and Republicans stood side by side pledging their support for House bill 1584 and Senate bill 1255, which will provide flexibility in fishery reform. We recognized specifically Charles Schumer, Barney Frank, Scott Brown, Mike McIntyre, Kay Hagan and several others who took time to show us their support. I was disappointed that Jim DeMint, Lindsay Graham, Jim Clyburn and Gresham Barrett did not participate. Only Henry Brown was there representing South Carolina.

Read the complete story at The Sun News.

March 8th forum to be held at the New Bedford Whaling Museum

Mayor Scott W. Lang has announced the Northeast Fisheries Summit, a day-long discussion that will focus on the future and sustainability of the fishing industry in New England and near- and mid-Atlantic ports.

The Summit is co-hosted by the Mayor’s Ocean and Fisheries Council, the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute.

Expected to attend is Eric Scwhaab, the newly appointed Assistant Administrator for Fisheries with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Congressman Barney Frank; and industry leaders, scientists, elected officials, environmentalists, and government officials from across the Northeastern region.

Read the complete story at The Whaling Museum Blog.

New Bedford to host Northeast Fisheries Summit Monday

NEW BEDFORD – Local fishermen who have blasted a new fisheries management system due to take effect on May 1 – saying the new rules will put them out of business – will have the chance to voice their concerns on Monday as the Whaling City hosts the Northeast Fisheries Summit.

The future and sustainability of the fishing industry in New England and near-and mid-Atlantic ports will be the focus of the day-long discussion at the Whaling Museum, which is expected to be attended by Eric Schwaab, the newly appointed Assistant Administrator for Fisheries with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).      

Cong. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), fishing industry leaders, scientists, elected officials, environmentalists and government officials from across the Northeastern region are also expected to attend the summit, according to Mayor Scott W. Lang.     

"We all recognize the importance of achieving a sustainable fisheries management plan," said Mayor Lang. "I look forward to an open discussion about how we can ensure a balance of sensible conservation practices with the economic vitality of the fishing industry. It is appropriate that this discussion take place in New Bedford, the nation's top-ranked value port."

Read the complete story at O Jornal.