State and Local

March 30, 2015 — New Jersey is charging boaters tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and fees, but two South Jersey lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that they hope will level the playing field for businesses who build or sell boats in the state.

Under current state law, the state’s 7 percent sales tax is imposed on those that purchase boats in New Jersey and those that live in New Jersey, but purchase a watercraft vehicle in another state. In addition, the state also imposes the 7 percent sales tax on out-of-state residents that keep a home in New Jersey as well.

State Senators Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May Court House) and Jim Whelan (D-Northfield) introduced legislation on March 9 that would establish a sales tax cap on boat purchases at $20,000.

“In my mind, overtaxing causes diminishing returns. We want to keep them in New Jersey. We want to keep people building boats in New Jersey. We want those who recreate in New Jersey and fish in New Jersey to stay in New Jersey,” Van Drew said.

The sales tax can be bad for business, especially since many other states already have a sales tax cap on the books. For example, Florida caps sales tax on boat sales at $20,000.

Read the full story here

March 30, 2015 — A meeting being held this week in New Bern will kick off an effort to study new methods and potential gear for reducing the bycatch of finfish in shrimp trawls.

A work group established by the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, a day-long workshop that will include presentations by experts from North Carolina and other coastal states on the latest technology in bycatch reduction gear and experiences.

The workshop will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the History Center at Tryon Palace, 5295 Front St.

The work group is a 12-member committee that includes fishermen, net makers, fish dealers and other stakeholders has been set up under a recently adopted amendment to the N.C. Shrimp Fishery Management Plan.

The group is tasked with helping the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries test new methods of reducing the amount of bycatch of spot, croaker, and other unwanted finfish in shrimp trawls.

Read the full story at the Jacksonville Daily News

March 31, 2015 — A key state committee will hold a public hearing about a plan to add new restrictions to Maine’s resurgent scallop fishery.

State legislators are considering a law change that would limit scallop harvesters to 90 pounds per person, per day. The Marine Resources Committee is holding a public hearing on the proposed change on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the Cross Building in Augusta.

Read the full story from The Associated Press at WABI TV5

 

March 31, 2015 — The body of a fisherman was found off the coast of Nantucket early Monday, after he was reported missing Sunday night, officials said.

The 54-year-old was a crew member on the 85-foot scalloping vessel Hear No Evil, said Petty Officer Myeonghi Clegg, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard in Boston. He was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, while the boat was about 35 miles southeast of Nantucket, she said.

The Coast Guard deployed several boats, as well as a plane and a helicopter, to search for the man.

Read the full story from The Boston Globe

View additional coverage from The New Bedford Standard-Times

 

March 27, 2015 — Of all the ways in which Alaska's aviation and fishing industries have been associated over the years, the use of aircraft to spot fish for commercial fishing operators has by far been the most controversial.

Fish spotting is not unique to Alaska or even the West Coast; according to Aerial Age Weekly, it was used as early as 1920 off the coast of Virginia when “….each morning at 5 o’clock a flying boat carrying a pilot, radio operator and fish spotter leaves the station to aid fishing craft.”

In Alaska, an early mention of the practice can be found in Pacific Fisherman, which carried a small note in 1940 under the headline “Plane Locates Fish For Petersburg Gillnetters.” This “new use of airplanes” was organized by a local gillnetter and pilot to fly the “Stikine flats country” between Petersburg and Wrangell.

The jury was still out then as to how successful the experiment would be, and World War II interrupted any large-scale continuation of the practice — at least temporarily.

By the 1950s, aerial photography of fish was becoming a valuable tool for the Fish and Wildlife Service, especially to spot salmon in Bristol Bay.

Pacific Fisherman recorded that post-war use of aircraft in this capacity was not to be considered casual flying, and required maintaining a constant altitude — “generally between 600 and 800 feet” — avoidance of glare and the precision counting of the observer who “counts ten individuals, mentally connects ten such groups to make a block of 100 fish, then divides the entire school into such blocks, tallying the individual hundreds on a hand-counter.”

All the while, the pilot was holding the aircraft in a constant-rate turn to provide his passenger a steady view to assist the effort.

The commercial use of fish spotters in the state, or hiring of small aircraft by specific boats to lead them to their catch, did not reach newsworthy proportions until the 1970s. As the herring season in particular shortened and the opportunity to catch large quantities was limited, reliance upon aircraft to find schools quickly became more and more common and even critical to success.

Read the full story from Alaska Dispatch News

March 25, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

Forty years ago, visionaries in Maine saw the potential benefits in bringing fishermen, scientists and managers together in a neutral setting to discuss fisheries issues.  They recognized that bringing these groups together in Rockland, Maine during the first weekend in March (picked because of its historically poor weather) would encourage a much needed dialogue on science and regulatory issues that impact the regional commercial fishing industry.  The fact that this forum is still going strong after four decades is testament to the strength of that vision, and to the ongoing guidance of the Forum organizers.  Most importantly, it has created a sense of community that now reaches beyond the borders of Maine.

NOAA Fisheries has been an active participant in this forum for a few decades. Typically, the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office and Northeast Fisheries Science Center host informational seminars on current management and science issues, and also staff booths at the trade show.  In recent years, NOAA Fisheries held a listening session with leadership from the Regional Office, Science Center and Headquarters.  This year was no different as NOAA leadership held a well attended listening session in which they responded to questions and listed to concerns on topics ranging from Gulf of Maine cod to fisheries observers. Regional Office and Science Center staff also participated on panels concerning electronic monitoring and Gulf of Maine cod.  Lastly, Regional Office and Science Center staff supported two booths that provided educational materials and information on a variety of topics ranging from updates on regulations and cooperative research projects, to information about our fisheries observer program.

NOAA Fisheries would like to congratulate the Maine Fishermen’s Forum on 40 years of bringing the fishing community together in a collaborative and fun setting.  The forum is a great opportunity to work together to support our region’s fishermen and fishing families. We appreciate our many years of partnership with the Forum and hope to continue this partnership in years to come.  For more information about the forum, go to: www.mainefishermensforum.org.

Read the story from NOAA

March 24, 2015 — Supporters note that plastic bags have been known to kill birds, fish, turtles and even whales and cost New York City more than $12 million per year for disposal.

Some City Council members, environmental advocates and schoolchildren gathered on the steps of City Hall on Monday to push for a new law that would make shoppers pay for using plastic bags.

Councilman Brad Lander, D-Brooklyn, said the bill would require retail and grocery stores to charge customers a dime for each single-use plastic bag.

He said New Yorkers currently use 9 billion plastic bags each year.

Read the full story and watch the video from CBS New York

 

March 21, 2015 — It was just slipping into the wee hours of Saturday morning back home in Malaysia, where the temperatures ranged from the upper 70s to mid-80's, when the group of nine Malaysian seafood buyers made their way into the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange and Zeus Packing plant on the Harbor Loop.

With the time difference, it was just past noon today on the Gloucester waterfront and the dull gray that seemed to be the official color of this protracted winter, when it hadn't been snow-blindingly white, had settled onto the harbor like a shawl. Temperature held at a balmy 30 degrees. On the first day of spring.

Still, there was no gloom in the mood of the group, which had spent the morning touring the city's waterfront and some its shore-side businesses as the most recent guests of the Selling of Gloucester.

The campaign had run amok all week, stretching from the city's booth at the Seafood Expo of North America in Boston, through another state visit of international seafood buyers and companies on Monday and on into Friday, when Malaysia came calling.

"Gloucester to me, the first time being here, is a beautiful city, very special," said Andre C K Loo, director of C-Food Portions, a seafood buyer and food importer that does about $200 million worth of business a year out of Selangor, Malaysia. "It's very nice, with many old buildings."

But more importantly, he said, was the feeling the group had gotten from the businesses it had visited and the people it met.

"It's feels very real," he said.

The band of merry travelers, its own little Rolling Thunder Review led by city Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano and tourism czarina Carol Thistle, had just come from Mortillaro's Lobster Co. and Ocean Crest Seafood down The Fort and Fisherman's Wharf Seafood on Rogers Street.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

March 18, 2015 — It was still pitch dark as a blunt-bowed outboard skiff ghosted out of the fog and nosed up to the ice-slicked Sorrento Harbor boat ramp early last Wednesday morning. Snow still lay deep on the ground and waist-high banks lined the road but, for the first time in weeks, the forecast called for

Snow still lay deep on the ground and waist-high banks lined the road but, for the first time in weeks, the forecast called for mild temperatures and light winds. It was an ideal day to join James West and his crew for a day of scalloping aboard his dragger, First Impression.

His 50th birthday not too long behind him, West has been a fisherman most of his life. He has gone lobstering, chased groundfish such as cod, haddock and flounder when there was any to be had, gone trawling for shrimp until the fishery closed two years ago, and has even leased a site in Frenchman Bay to try his hand at growing mussels and seaweed.

What West really enjoys, though, is running a dragger. Last week, with just about a month left in the season, West had the 40-foot First Impression rigged to go dragging for scallops. He took two crew — his son, James R. or “Little James” and Sorrento fisherman Jamie Bartow — to help handle the gear and shuck the tasty bivalves that, this winter, have brought fishermen an excellent price.

According to the Department of Marine Resources, the boat price for scallops has averaged around $13 per pound. The large scallops (the “U10s,” that is, 10 scallops or fewer to the pound) that West is happiest to land can bring as much as $14.50. Last winter, the average price was around $12.78 per pound, according to the most recent figures published by DMR.

Read the full story and watch the video from The Ellsworth American

March 19, 2015 — The state, by the end of this week, expects to have paid slightly more than 10 percent of the 141 Massachusetts-based commercial fishing permit holders eligible for the second round of federal fishery disaster assistance.

That pool of permit holders, which represent both state and federal permits, will share about $3.8 million from the $8.3 million in the second phase of funding for Bay State fishermen and fishing communities from the federal fishery disaster assistance.

The flat-rate payments are tiered, ranging from $9,750 to $32,500 per permit, depending on whether the permit holder received assistance for a separate permitted fishing business in the first phase of funding.

Any permit holder who received funds in the first phase — which last year paid $32,500 per permit to more than 200 eligible Massachusetts-based permit holders —  will have their second-phase payment cut in half.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times