Saving Seafood

State and Local

San Francisco State faces mounting protests after evicting Marin fisheries program

June 11, 2015 — Protests mounted this week over San Francisco State University’s eviction of a popular salmon-rearing and children’s educational program from the school’s Romberg Center of Environmental Studies in Tiburon, and Rep. Jared Huffman launched a full-court press to get the decision reversed.

“I’m so furious with the arrogant bureaucrats at SFSU and especially the new director” at Romberg who kicked the Tiburon Salmon Institute out of the 36-acre bayside campus off Paradise Drive, the San Rafael congressman said. “This really is a giant poke in the eye to Marin County.”

Huffman noted that Brooke Halsey, founder of the institute, has been told to pack up the project and leave by July 1 “without any good reason” except perhaps that the future of the property is uncertain in light of a realty listing advertising it earlier this year.

But Leslie Wong, president of San Francisco State, said the property never was for sale, adding that officials for a time wanted to see if anyone was interested in renting space on the campus. There were no takers.

Read the full story from Marinij.com

Why these mysterious, blood-sucking fish fell from the Alaskan sky

June 12, 2015 — It all began outside of Value Village in Fairbanks, Alaska. Somehow, a strange-looking eel-like fish — equipped with teeth perfect for latching onto another animal and sucking its blood — ended up in the thrift store’s parking lot last week.

Oh, and the fish was alive.

So store employees put the wiggling creature in a bucket of water and called the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to report it.

The department has since received three other reports of the fish on land in Fairbanks, including one spotted on a man’s lawn.

They are arctic lampreys — long, jawless fish that are the most common lamprey in Alaskan waters.

“They are parasites on other fish and sometimes other marine animals,” said ADFG sport fish information officer Nancy Sisinyak. “They latch on with those rasping teeth and they live off of the nutrients of that host animal.”

Read the full story from The Washington Post

LOUISIANA: Unique fishing rodeo will benefit guide’s wife

June 11, 2015 — Capt. Dennis Bardwell is one of the most well-liked fishing guides on the Louisiana coast, so when his wife Cathy was diagnosed with cancer, Bardwell’s fellow guides sprung into action to help cover medical costs.

The result of their planning is a June 20 fishing rodeo out of Venice Marina that should be at least as much fun as it is helpful.

Adult anglers will compete for the heaviest tuna, wahoo, dolphin, speckled trout, redfish and flounder. Kids will be angling for the heaviest speckled trout and redfish.

Read the full story from The Times-Picayune

29th annual Seafood Festival this weekend in Belmar, New Jersey

BELMAR, N.J. — June 10, 2015 — Does anything scream summer at the Jersey Shore more than fresh seafood? And how much fresher can it get than actual authentic Jersey seafood? This weekend, Belmar is welcoming all seafood lovers to come and celebrate the best the ocean has to offer at the 29th annual three-day New Jersey Seafood Festival in Belmar running from June 12 to 14.

The Festival, held at Spring Lake Park, at the corner of Fifth and Ocean Ave., will feature more than 40 seafood vendors, a Beer Tent and a Wine Garden, a children’s activity tent and live music. Admission is free for all visitors and there will be a shuttle from the Marina and the train station available for all visitors.

The Belmar Tourism Commission works throughout the year to plan this weekendlong event that has seen the number of festival visitors surpass the 200,000 mark last year, with craft vendors and local nonprofit organizations reaching a much larger audience each year.

From lobster rolls and shrimp to crab cakes, oysters, clams and fish sandwiches — there will be an “ocean” variety of seafood available this week at the 29th annual Seafood Festival.

For more information on the Festival, call the Belmar Tourism Commission at 732-747-4449 or visit www.visitbelmarnj.com.

Read the full story from MyCentralJersey.com

N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission schedules public meeting on flounder options

June 11, 2015 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission has scheduled a public meeting for June 17 to receive public comment on six proposals for changes in the way southern flounder are managed in North Carolina waters.

The meeting will be next Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center.

At the meeting, members of the public may speak for three minutes each until time runs out.

Read the full story from North Carolina Sportsman

FLORIDA: Florida’s 2015 Bay Scallop Season Starts June 27th

June 9, 2015 — If you recall, last season FWC decided rather than have the Governor make an annual pronouncement that scallop season will start early, they would just change the opening date to “the Saturday before July 1st unless July 1st falls on a Saturday, then the opening date would be July 1st.”

Got it?

Well, that Saturday this year is June 27th when the Scallop Fleet will work the Nature Coast and Panhandle for bay scallops. FWC usually releases a preview of scallop numbers in late-June. If they do, I’ll share that later.

Read the full story at The Lakeland Ledger

Swipe card system to monitor Maine urchin catch met with skepticism

June 7, 2015 — Fishermen and dealers of Maine’s valuable sea urchins are approaching a state plan to track the fishery through swipe cards with the same caution they exercise around the spiny animals.

State regulators want to create a swipe card system to record transactions in which fishermen sell urchins to dealers. The cards would help more efficiently gather data about the fishery and could eventually help give fishermen more flexibility about when they fish, said Maggie Hunter, a biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Fishermen typically dive to harvest Maine’s urchins by hand or take them with gear dragged by boats. They are harvested for their roe, which is especially popular in Japan and stateside Japanese restaurants, where it’s called uni and appears in sushi, sashimi and other dishes. Maine urchins, which dealers said have a flavor that is appealing to the Japanese market, is by far the most valuable urchin fishery in the U.S. by price per pound at the dock.

Joe Leask, a diver on the Maine coast who is also chairman of the Maine Sea Urchin Zone Council advisory board, said he’s not sure the swipe card system is necessary. Urchin fishermen already keep log books and are subject to a highly regulated fishing season as it is, Leask said.

“What is the goal of the swipe card? If it’s accountability, the system’s already in place,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s a tool that’s needed right now.”

Read the full story from The Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

Observer plan riles Massachusetts lobstermen

June 6, 2015 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — The specter of increased observer coverage on the decks of their boats is not sitting well with Massachusetts lobstermen, whose resistance to the NOAA Fisheries plan was in full flower at a public meeting Thursday night in Gloucester.

Resistance? It was more like rebellion.

“We don’t want to end up like the groundfish guys,” Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer, the longtime Gloucester lobsterman who serves as president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, told NOAA representatives at federal agency’s regional headquarters in the Blackburn Industrial Park. “I don’t need anybody to measure my lobsters. I can measure my own lobsters.”

That was one of the milder comments, as the audience of about 50 lobstermen from the North Shore and other Massachusetts coastal communities peppered NOAA representatives with questions and concerns about the regulator’s plan to expand its Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP) in the New England lobstering industry and as far down the East Coast as Maryland.

The lobstermen were particularly livid over two issues: what they perceived as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s inability to grasp the extent of the safety issues that will be created by putting observers and their gear onto already-cramped lobster boats and the lack of definitive answers on whether boat owners will carry any of the financial liability if an observer is injured while at sea.

“I’ll get rid of my permit before I’ll let these guys on my boat,” yelled one lobsterman from the back of the crowd.

The NOAA team, which included representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard and the private MRAG Americas company that supplies observers to monitor the lobster industry, planned to give a visual and oral presentation and then open the floor up to questions.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

NEW JERSEY: Governor Chris Christie sues to block ocean blasting in Rutgers seismic study

June 5, 2015 — NEW JERSEY (AP) — The Christie administration is trying to again block a Rutgers University-led research group from blasting sound waves on the ocean floor, saying it will harm marine life and disrupt the state’s $1 billion commercial and recreational fishing industry.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Friday, the state Department of Environmental Protection says the study that began this week off the coast of Long Beach Island violates federal laws protecting marine animals such as humpback whales making their spring migration up the East Coast.

The study, which received federal permits last year, intends to collect data about sediment on the ocean floor to determine historic trends of sea level rise along the Jersey Shore dating back 60 million years. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Rutgers researchers have said the study could be used to help make decisions on where to elevate houses, build protective barriers or relocate critical infrastructure.

Read the full story at The Record