Saving Seafood

State and Local

NORTH CAROLINA: 2015 Kids Fishing Day events announced

May 12, 2015 — The U.S. Forest Service announced today that the National Forests in North Carolina in cooperation with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and other partners will host a series of Kids Fishing Day events throughout May and June at sites across the state.

The events are free for children ages 12 years and younger. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Participants are encouraged to bring their own poles though most events will have bait and extra poles available. Children must be able to handle their poles independently though adults may assist in reeling.

Read the full story from the Sun Journal

VIRGINIA: Reedville is the ‘American success story’

May 6, 2015 — Residents of Reedville just got a new neighbor.

Bret Scholtes was already no stranger to Reedville and the rest of Northumberland County; as the CEO of Omega Protein, he visits every six weeks or so in winter and in the summer he spends several days here each week.  His wife and children spend the whole summer in Reedville.  Scholtes announced Saturday that he has purchased a house on Cockrell’s Creek, making him the town’s newest resident.

Read the full story from the Northumberland Echo

MAINE: State battles Passamaquoddies over elver fishing

AUGUSTA, Maine — May 8, 2015 — The Department of Marine Resources said the Passamaquoddies are again violating the rules that were created to restrict the amount of eels that can be caught.

The state said the tribe is putting the entire, multi-million dollar fishery at risk with their actions.

This isn’t the first time they’ve had this kind of face-off. The state and the Passamaquoddies had a similar confrontation over the elver fishing rules two years ago, and that helped lead to creation of a catch quota system. The quotas were put in place to satisfy federal fisheries regulators, and persuade them to let Maine continue to allow elver fishing.

The Department of Marine Resources said Maine is the only state on the east coast that has a meaningful elver season. But the Department said the latest moves by the tribe are aimed at bypassing the quotas, that could lead to federal regulators banning any future fishing.

The Department said the Passamaquoddies are allowing more people to have fishing licenses than they were supposed to, and letting them fish with fixed nets, called Fyke nets, which catch more eels than hand held nets. The tribe has insisted it has the right to control how many people fish and how they fish, and has resisted the state’s controls.

Read the full story and watch the video from WCSH

3,500-lbs. great white shark off Long Beach Island, New Jersey

May 8, 2015 — Welcome to Ocean County, Mary Lee.

The nearly 16-foot, 3,456-pound female great white shark (or Carcharodon carcharias, if you prefer the scientific term), which goes by the name Mary Lee, was last spotted off the southern end of Long Beach Island this morning after reaching the coast of New Jersey yesterday.

The great white shark appears to trekking its way north along the New Jersey coastline, just a couple weeks away from Memorial Day Weekend and the kickoff to beach season.

It is also nearly a year from the anniversary of the 1916 shark attack on the Jersey coast that killed four people. The first attack, July 1, 1916, happened very near to where Mary Lee is today, Beach Haven.

It is believed a great white shark was responsible for those attacks, though records from the time dispute whether the additional attack in Matawan was a great white or a bull shark.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

 

NEW JERSEY: Garden State Seafood Association Spring Fling 2015!

May 7, 2015 — Spring into 2015 with the Garden State Seafood Association. 

Join us for an evening of networking with fishermen, vendors, local politicians and GSSA staff & board at the GSSA Spring Fling!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

6pm-9pm

Tuckerton Seaport
Visitor’s Center-Ground Floor
120 West Main Street
Tuckerton, NJ

Tickets $60.00 each

Tickets include appetizer dinner, beer & wine.
Catered by Viking Fresh Off The Hook.

Additional details to follow next week!

Purchasing tickets in advance is strongly recommended.

Contact Katie Dowe at 954.826.0789 or katie.dowe@ymail.com.

VIDEO: Maryland Watermen React to Increase in Menhaden Quota Increase

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — May 6, 2015 — Two years ago, a group of watermen calling themselves the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition filed a lawsuit against the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.  They said the science behind those 2010 and 2012 assessments was bad, but they lost their court case on technicalities.

Early this year, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announced a new benchmark assessment had been created for the menhaden, using new data sets, which showed the fishery was actually in good shape.  Tuesday, the commission upped the quotas on menhaden by 10 percent, making captain Rob Newberry, one of the watermen involved in that lawsuit, very happy.

“This is a regulation that’s been overturned and it’s great for us, I mean it’s only 10 percent but you have to start somewhere.  It’s a great thing for us,” said Newberry.

Read the full story from WBOC

Elver dispute between Maine agency, Passamaquoddy flares up again

May 7, 2015 — Tensions between state and local Passamaquoddy officials over elver fishing increased late Wednesday when the Department of Marine Resources announced it was taking emergency action to restrict what kind of gear tribal sustenance fishermen can use.

In a prepared statement released after 5 p.m., department officials indicated that the department is banning the use of fyke nets by members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe who have been issued tribal sustenance licenses.

Elver eels

Such licenses are intended to allow tribal members to fish for food or other personal use, but Department of Marine Resources officials said they are concerned sustenance fishermen who use large, funnel-shaped nets may be catching large amounts of the baby eels and then, in violation of state law, selling their catch to take advantage of high prices.

Demand for elvers has increased sharply in the past five years, boosting the value of Maine’s annual elver harvest from about half a million dollars in 2010 to $40 million in 2012. The value of Maine’s statewide harvest dipped to $8.4 million last year, when fishermen on average earned $874 per pound, but prices so far this season have risen back to about $2,000 per pound.

The department and the tribe have been skirmishing over the elver fishery for the past several years, though they have not feuded publicly since the start of the 2014 season. In 2012, the tribe caught Department of Marine Resources officials off guard when the tribe issued 236 licenses to its members. A year later, the Passamaquoddys caused a furor when they issued more licenses than the Legislature had approved for the tribe.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Fisheries management reform discussed at Center for Sustainable Fisheries forum

May 6, 2015 — The center is attempting to put momentum into creating more partnerships for survey work between the industry and NOAA, and to breach the wall that has kept NOAA from embracing independent and/or outside research in its decision-making, which is sharply limited under the current version of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act.

Steve Cadrin, a marine scientist at SMAST and specialist in survey work, gave a detailed presentation about the NOAA estimates, and finished with the same thought as Lang: that NOAA must be somehow persuaded to join forces.

Lang encouraged those present to begin contacting state legislators and members of Congress, spelling out the problems and asking for NOAA budgets to be used as leverage to reform the agency.

Among the problems are the concerns about skimpy and incompetent fishing by the crew of the Bigelow, NOAA’s research vessel. Bigelow’s survey results for Georges Bank are strongly contradicted by the early returns of research by Kevin Stokesbury of SMAST, who presented an update of his new camera trawl equipment. His videos show an endless abundance of yellowtail flounder everywhere in the Georges Bank closed areas, where NOAA sees next to none.

David Goethel of Gloucester presented photos showing huge landings of cod in Georges Bank. He said he alone could used up the entire total annual catch allowance for cod in three fishing days if he had to.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

DMR Implements Emergency Regulation to Protect Maine’s Elver Fishery

May 6, 2015 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

Patrick Keliher, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources today announced an emergency rule to prevent overharvest of Maine’s elver fishery. The move also ensures that the actions of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point will not jeopardize the State’s compliance with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Eel Plan.

Today’s emergency rule, which will take effect Friday, prevents the use of fyke nets, other than those used in the commercial fishery and subject to daily reporting requirements to monitor catch in real time.   Daily landings reports are required by the State of Maine and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) most recent American Eel fishery management plan addendum.

“Fyke nets, which catch significantly more elvers than a dip net, may result in much greater unreported catch and could cause the State to exceed its total allowable catch if utilized outside the scope of the daily reporting requirement in the commercial fishery,” said Commissioner Keliher.

“The Department of Marine Resources has taken this step based on information from the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point that it has issued sustenance licenses that authorized the use of a fyke net,” said Commissioner Keliher.

“The Passamaquoddy Tribe does not have a mechanism to accurately track and report the landings of sustenance license holders to the Department and is putting this fishery at risk by using a gear that could significantly increase the take of elvers and cause the State to exceed its overall quota.

“The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point has decided to change harvest plans in the middle of the season, as the Tribe has done in previous years.  Chief Fred Moore, in a conversation with Marine Patrol, has admitted that the tribe plans to ship the eels harvested by sustenance fishermen out of the country, a clear violation of Maine sustenance laws.

“Chief Moore has spelled out a plan that not only jeopardizes Maine’s compliance with ASMFC but also violates State law,” said Keliher.  “Let me be clear; when elvers are valued at $2,000 per pound they are not being caught for sustenance, they are being caught and sold.

“The Department is concerned that these licenses will cause the overall state quota to be exceeded, and negatively impact the elver resource.  By harvesting elvers in excess of the established quota, there is potential for unusual damage to the American eel resource.”

“The Maine Department of Marine Resources is committed to sustaining this important and valuable fishery,” said Commissioner Keliher.

NEW JERSEY: Christie signs new striped bass regulations into law

TRENTON, N.J. — May 5, 2015 — Most New Jersey anglers will tell you that taking home even one striped bass is no easy feat.

Legislation signed into law Monday by Gov. Chris Christie makes bagging a second fish even harder.

The new stricter regulations signed into law change the state’s minimum size and catch limits from two fish at a minimum size of 28 inches each to one fish between 28 and 43 inches and a second fish no smaller than 43 inches.

The change is being imposed to comply with a mandate from the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission, a regional agency that sets fishing quotas for East Coast states.

Read the full story from the Burlington County Times