Saving Seafood

Management & Regulation

Proposed scientific study aims to solidify flounder fishery numbers

State fishing representatives are proposing a $3.5 million research study that would provide alternative scientific data and analysis on the status of winter flounder, a groundfish stock whose diminished levels are largely responsible for restrictive fishing regulations that took effect on May 1.

A draft of the five-step research proposal, which calls for fishing vessels to participate in a second winter flounder survey, was submitted last week in time to meet a deadline set by Gov. Deval Patrick.

The proposal will "contribute to developing strategies to possibly mitigate days-at-sea reductions in southern New England and to support future advances in fisheries management," said Brian Rothschild, who chairs the New Bedford Mayor’s Ocean and Fisheries Council.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

OPINION: A better fishing system

Peter Baker, director of the Pew Environment Group’s campaign to "End Overfishing in New England" and Robert Johnston, a resource economist with Clark University, comment on the proposed transition to sector management.

NEW ENGLAND’S fisheries feed our region’s cash flow and provide dinner for our tables. But by most measures the current management system of this vital industry has been a failure, and hasn’t adequately protected the marine ecosystem nor promoted a profitable fishing industry. Now, with the encouragement of the public during a pending regulatory comment period, the federal government has an opportunity to adopt a more sensible approach to managing these great fisheries.

Every fishing vessel that leaves a New England seaport faces difficult but important choices between conserving the resource – so there will be fish to catch in the future – and earning a decent living. But the current system of managing fishing stocks by regulating a boat’s "days at sea" falls short of both goals.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

Massachusetts Attorney General vows to ‘delve further’ into feds’ treatment of Gloucester auction

Attorney General Martha Coakley said she heard enough of an "overbearing" federal enforcement effort during her mid-morning waterfront visit to convince her of the need for her office to "delve further into this". In an interview after her visit, Coakley said she was uncertain why the auction "appears to be now caught" in a federal bureaucratic hold "out of proportion to the violations, and it seems to be oppressive and repressive."  The Attorney General said she saw a role for the state in ensuring that the "federal government is not overreaching."

The Massachusetts attorney general toured the embattled Gloucester Seafood Display Auction yesterday.

And after watching a boat unload, hearing of the auction’s operations from buyers and sellers — and hearing of its travails at the hands of federal fishery law enforcement agents pursuing two cases aimed at extracting heavy fines and shutting it down for long periods — Martha Coakley said she came away convinced that "something is wrong."

She emphasized she was "just at the beginning" of her education about the catching, brokering and policing of the fishing business. But she said her reading research, plus her hour on the wharf, at the cold storage warehouse and in the auction chamber left her with no doubt that the "wrong" comes from the federal government — not the computerized auction operation that anchors the local maritime economy, drawing boats from all along Gulf of Maine.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Opinion: Unjust NMFS enforcement system has lost last credibility

First, the agency brought in "suspects" accused of committing some sort of violations.

The charges had been filed after "enforcement" officers had come onto the suspects’ property. The allegations were mostly based on an "authorization" letter the suspects didn’t even think they needed. But the charges carried stiff penalties, and heavy fines. So the suspects had reason to feel vulnerable — and afraid for their livelihood.

When interrogated, however, a number of suspects learned the enforcers had another mission. Investigators told the suspects they’d go easier on them if they gave up some "dirt" on the real target of this witch hunt — the marketplace where the suspects sold their wares. The goal was to shut down the market. And the case doesn’t even go to a real court, but into a legal system where "judges" work in cahoots with the enforcers’ own agency. Just for good measure, a judge under documented investigation for basing decisions on politics, more than evidence, is handling the case,

All of that may sound like a dark episode of "24" or a rerun of "Alias" — or, worse, like some sinister foreign dictatorship.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Letter: Questions taint NOAA’s ‘olive branch’

I am writing in response to the latest column and olive branch offered by acting national fisheries administrator Jim Balsiger (The Times, Friday, May 8).

What a warm and fuzzy piece. But if all of what he wrote is true about alternative nets and gear, then why aren’t the day boats using those nets now to target abundant haddock, which finally moved inshore, where they are accessible to the inshore fleet, four days before the three-month closure went into effect? The fish will be back offshore when it re-opens.

Why aren’t hook boats fishing now? Very selective gear type. The party boats are all allowed in there right now with unlimited retention of haddock and 10 cod per man, and doing quite well by all accounts.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Lobstermen consider certification

Though it has long been regarded as one of the more sustainable fisheries on the planet, Maine’s lobster industry is considering whether it should try to make itself look even greener.

To ensure that Maine lobster keeps up with changing consumer demands, some lobster industry representatives hope to have the fishery certified as sustainable by the London-based Marine Stewardship Council.

Wal-Mart is one of the driving forces behind this interest. In 2006, the retail giant said that by 2011 it would buy all of its wild-caught fish only from fisheries that have been MSC-certified. If Maine’s lobster industry wants to include Wal-Mart among its buyers, certification advocates say, it will have to get its fishery management methods officially endorsed by MSC.

Read the complete story at Bangor Daily News.

Grim Times on the Flounder Front in New York

“It’s a crime against the world the way they regulate these fish,” Captain Weimar said from offshore before the May 1 change went into effect. For years, Captain Weimar has railed against what he sees as the wasteful results of small trip limits on fluke. He predicts that the same kind of waste will result from the winter flounder ban.

As of tomorrow, New York’s daily fluke limit has been set at 50 pounds.    

“The [fluke] stocks are healthier than they’ve ever been,” Captain Weimar said. “Fluke are at historical highs. It’s a crime against the world to throw them back.”    

“They should put you on a yearly trip limit, or semi-annual limit. We would catch our limit and then tie up our boats. Anything but discards. It’s not management. The regulations should make fishermen stewards of the ocean. They make us out to be the bad guys instead.”

Read the complete story at The East Hampton Star.

Coast Guard jurist in Gloucester NMFS case under cloud

Read related story: NMFS offered deals to ‘rat’ out auction

The administrative law judge assigned to the illegal fish brokeringcase brought by the National Marine Fisheries Service against theGloucester Seafood Display Auction is the subject of multipleinvestigations for allegedly conceding a willingness to decide cases asdirected by his chief justice.

Coast Guard Administrative Judge Walter J. Brudzinskitold the Times yesterday the allegation made in a sworn affidavit by aformer colleague was completely false.

"If it weren’t," he said in a telephone interview, "I’d be in jail and so would my boss."

But Brudzinski said he was barred from discussing thesubstance of the allegations by retired Administrative Law Judge JeffieMassey against Brudzinski and Chief Justice Joseph Ingolia of the CoastGuard administrative court system.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Groundfishermen seek ruling against herring trawlers

A group of Maine fishermen has asked a federal judge to move quickly in deciding a lawsuit so that diminished groundfish stocks will be protected from midwater herring trawlers that fish out of New Bedford and other Northeast ports.

The Midcoast Fishermen’s Association filed a motion late Monday for summary judgment in a lawsuit the group filed against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the secretary of commerce in December 2007.

The group is seeking to ban herring trawlers from fishing in areas of the ocean that are closed to groundfishing boats for the purpose of rebuilding overfished stocks of cod and other groundfish. The lawsuit alleges that the trawlers are undermining rebuilding efforts by unintentionally catching too many groundfish while chasing herring in so-called "closed areas" of the Gulf of Maine and other Northeast waters.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

Seattle Writer Urges “Join Oceana and help save the world’s oceans”

The earth’s oceans are a very precious resource. They cover over 70percent of the globe, control our climate and provide the primarysource of protein for over 1 billion people around the world. Theyprovide refuge from everyday life for untold numbers of divers,sailors, swimmers and vacationers.

But the oceans need our help. Danger of every kind, from large-scalecommercial fishing to worldwide pollution, threatens the stability ofthe earth’s largest ecosystem. Decimation of marine life populations,contamination of the fish that survive and destruction of coral reefsare just a few of the threats currently facing the world’s oceans. Leftunchecked, the oceans as we know them will cease to exist.

The oceans don’t have a voice, but you do. It’s called Oceana.Oceana is a world-wide conservation organization with more than 300,000members and e-activists in over 150 countries. Oceana is a non-profitorganization that is 100 percent focused on ocean conservation. With asingular focus on saving the earth’s oceans, Oceana focuses on severalmajor campaigns, including dirty fishing, destructive trawling, sharkfinning, seafood contamination, sea turtle conservation, fishingsubsidies and global warming.

Read the complete story at Examiner.