Saving Seafood

Economic Impact

Captains say rolling closures force them to keep vessels in port

For most of Gloucester’s commercial fleet, the fishing season ended at midnight this morning — just as the fun was getting started — as the first of two month-long "rolling closures" took a huge block of water out of play for groundfishing.

The waters are already reportedly teeming with haddock, a fully recovered stock, that is just now beginning to arrive inshore.

With the small day boats flummoxed, landings are expected to decline by between 30 percent and 60 percent between now and June 1 when the inshore waters are again open, according to Larry Ciulla, president of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, the port’s dominant broker.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times.

Industry braces for fishing rules

A decision could come as soon as today limiting fisherman to as few as 20 days at sea in a year.

Federal regulators are about to finalize new commercial fishing restrictions that some fear could be a fatal blow to Maine’s groundfishing fleet.

The National Marine Fisheries Service might decide as soon as today whether to move forward with a January proposal that would effectively give Maine boats as few as 20 days at sea during the fishing year that begins May 1.

The proposal would cut fishing time by about 60 percent — the average boat now has 48 days a year — to relieve pressure on fish populations that have yet to rebound from overfishing.

Read the complete story at Portland Press Herald.

Industry awaits NMFS decision: Interim Rule could be announced this week

The National Marine Fisheries Service is close to settling on — and announcing — a one-year regulatory scheme for New England’s hard-pressed, shrinking fleets that could squeeze $30 million out of the industry.

Announcement of the Interim Rule could come as soon as Wednesday or as late as April 15, according to sources at NMFS’ national offices outside Washington, D.C.

The uncertainty traces to the installation two weeks ago of Jane Lubchenco as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NMFS’ parent agency.

Confirmed by the Senate, marine biologist Lubchenco took it upon herself to review the draft Interim Rule introduced by NMFS’ Gloucester-based regional administrator Patricia Kurkul — whose push for it has drawn a cascade of condemnations by a broad-based coalition of fishing interests, a few environmental voices and the united opposition of the coastal New England congressional delegation.

The congressional delegation has put Lubchenco on notice that it is prepared to take legislative action to negate the Interim Rule should it remain in its original form.  Read the complete story from the Gloucester Times

 

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE

Federal regulators are about to finalize new commercial fishing restrictions that some fear could be a fatal blow to Maine’s groundfishing fleet.  "We’re all just kind of waiting to see what’s going to happen," said Bert Jongerden, general manager of the Portland Fish Exchange, a city-owned auction house where about 70 Maine boats sell their catches.  Read the story from the Portland Press Herald 

 

The federal government should regulate the commercial fishing industry, not take another step toward destroying it. And that very basic principle should guide the nation’s new top fishing regulator, Jane Lubchenco, as she makes a key decision in the days ahead.  Read the editorial from the Gloucester Times 

 

Obama Signs Snowe-Sponsored Ocean Initiatives Into Law

WASHINGTON, DC (March 30, 2009) – A measure sponsored by Maine Senator Olympia Snowe aimed at advancing ocean science was signed into law today by President Barack Obama.  

The Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009 is included in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.  Snowe, a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmospheres, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, says the initiative authorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to compile information from a network of data collection systems around America’s coastlines.  She says it will also encourage the development of ocean science technology. "Today marks a major victory for the advancement of ocean science," Snowe says in a statement.  "These ocean and coastal research programs will further enhance our understanding of the marine world and improve our ability to predict ocean conditions and climate trends." 

Read the story from Maine Public Broadcasting 

OPINION: NOAA chief must reject Interim Rule, use council’s version

The federal government should regulate the commercial fishing industry, not take another step toward destroying it. And that very basic principle should guide the nation’s new top fishing regulator, Jane Lubchenco, as she makes a key decision in the days ahead.

Lubchenco, recently confirmed as head of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will decide — perhaps as soon as tomorrow, but certainly by April 15 — whether new proposed draconian regulations planned by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service for the coming year beginning May 1 will stand.

If they are not modified and allowed to stand as the Interim Rule pushed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, commercial fishing will suffer a major blow — a reduction of nearly a third of the current fleet and a cut of 20 percent, or $30 million, in gross sales, according to NMFS’ own numbers.

If the Interim Rule stands, it would also deal a harsh blow to the credibility of Lubchenco and acting NOAA fisheries administrator James Balsiger, who have reached out to fishermen industry, sought their input, and expressed a willingness to restore communications and trust with an industry that’s been under NMFS’ heavy-handed thumb for far too long.

Last September, the New England Fishery Management Council voted 15-1 not to go with the now-proposed Interim Rule, but to go with the council’s still tough but at least more reasonable version. NMFS’ Kurkul, the only council member supporting the Interim Rule, ignored the sentiment of her colleagues and still planned to put the Rule in place.

If Lubchenco now rubber-stamps Kurkul’s Rule, it will basically tell the fishing industry the status quo is fine — indeed, it will tell the fishery management council that its input isn’t even needed, and that NMFS’ heavy-handed rule and enforcement under Kurkul is acceptable.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times. 

Captains vary techniques to maximize catch

While numerous commercial fishermen groundfish with just one method, such as dragging or gillnetting, throughout the year, Capts. B.G. Brown, 37, of Gloucester and Mike Leary, 44, of Hampton Falls, N.H., multi-task groundfish techniques to get the best returns from their annual fishing time at sea.

These seasoned fishermen, who work out of Gloucester, reveal their favorite fishing method, along with its pros and cons, as well as those of the others.

Second-generation fisherman Brown began fishing about age 8 and has since fished inshore and offshore.

"I’ve had my own boat (the 31-foot Kathryn Leigh) the last five years," said Brown, who is helped by crew Nick Richon and Kirk Wonson, both of Gloucester. He now begins the golden inshore fishing period — Dec. 1 through March 30 — gillnetting and ends it longlining or "hooking." Fish are at their best in terms of quality and usually boat price during this time between ground closures.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times. 

OPINION: NOAA’s leaders must reel in enforcers to gain credibility

Jane Lubchenco, the newly confirmed head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,and Dr. Jim Balsiger, NOAA’s acting administrator of fisheries, bothseem to be looking to build bridges to the New England fishing industry.

Lubchenco said she wanted to hear from all sides before deciding onwhether the highly controversial Interim Rule to regulate groundfishingshould be implemented May 1,the beginning of the fishing year. And Balsiger is writing a guestcolumn for the Times — including the latest installment at right — inan effort to repair what he believes is a communication breakdown withfishermen and the community at large.

Those are indeed goodthings to hear. But what matters more — much more — is how they aretranslated into action. And so far, the message from the regulatory andenforcement arms of NOAA, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Coast Guard, is much less reasonable or benign.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times. 

Lawmakers question ‘green’ police’s role vs. fishermen

Gloucester’s state legislators yesterday asked the state secretary of energy and environmental affairs about the contract that allows federal fishery law enforcers to "deputize" state Environmental Police personnel in actions against Massachusetts fishermen.

State Sen. Bruce Tarr and state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante wrote to Ian Bowles, whose secretariat includes the Environmental Police, seeking information about the agency’s pact with the National Marine Fisheries Service, whose enforcement activities have inflamed worries within state government of "coercive" and "vindictive" behavior.

"We’ve been concerned about a growing pattern of impropriety and aggression by NMFS law enforcement and were aware that the state was connected by virtue of a contract," the legislators wrote.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times. 

OPINION by Jim Balsiger: Working alongside fishermen to improve fish stocks

Some of our nation’s earliest science on fish stocks depended on a trusting relationship between scientists and fishermen.

When the haddock stocks crashed in the early 1930s, federal fisheries scientists went to fishermen to collect catch information to understand the causes of the crash and to rebuild this staple food for New England.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service today continues to work with fishermen in New England and throughout the nation to study the abundance of fish, where they migrate, where and when they spawn, and how they are affected by fishing, other marine species, ocean currents, changing water temperature and ocean chemistry.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times. 

Battle for flexibility renewed in Congress

A new round of debate has opened over the explicit stock-rebuilding deadlines in federal fisheries law, with the re-introduction of "flexibility" legislation by its author in the last session of Congress, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-NJ and co-sponsors from other coastal districts where fishing businesses have been hit hard by quota cuts.

The bill H.R. 1584 would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to allow exemptions to the law’s 10-year timeframe for species management plans to reach their targets. It’s a measure that goes to the heart of debates over the accountability — or lack of it — among the nation’s eight federal regional management councils.

"The goal here is to get rid of arbitrary deadlines," said James Donofrio of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, a primary mover behind the bill on Capitol Hill. "We’re looking to get the other 19 co-sponsors (from the last session) back on there, and we’re looking for a senator" to sponsor a version in the upper house, Donofrio said.

Read the story at Asbury Park Press.