State and Local

BEACH HAVEN, N.J. — September 17, 2014 — The new monument, situated in front of the museum in Beach Haven, depicts six fishermen hauling in a net as they work at what has been named the most perilous profession in the world.

A little bit of rain and bad weather Saturday, Sept. 14, during the New Jersey Maritime Museum’s sixth annual fundraiser only seemed to enhance the unveiling of the property’s new bronze sculpture, which symbolizes the entire New Jersey commercial fishing industry. The frieze by Brian Hanlon of Hanlon Sculpture Studio in Toms River is Phase 2 of the Fishermen’s Story memorial. Phase 1, which memorializes the life of the late Jim Mears, a charter boat and tilefishing boat captain who died in January 2012 when his vessel, the Mandy Ness, capsized in a sea lane 10 miles offshore, was erected in Barnegat Light last summer.

The new monument, situated in front of the museum in Beach Haven, depicts six fishermen hauling in a net as they work at what has been named the most perilous profession in the world. They are Harold, Don and Jim Mears as well as Eric, George and Jack Svelling, members of two Island families known for their expertise in the trade.

Read the full story from The Sandpaper

 

CLEARWATER, Fla. — September 17, 2014 — It's like Florida's version of The Blob. Slow moving glops of toxic algae in the northeast Gulf of Mexico are killing sea turtles, sharks and fish, and threatening the waters and beaches that fuel the region's economy.

Known as "red tide," this particular strain called Karenia brevis is present nearly every year off Florida, but large blooms can be particularly devastating. Right now, the algae is collecting in an area about 60 miles wide and 100 miles long, about 5 to 15 miles off St. Petersburg in the south and stretching north to Florida's Big Bend, where the peninsula ends and the Panhandle begins.

Fishermen who make a living off the state's northwest coast are reporting fish kills and reddish water.

"It boils up in the propeller wash like boiled red Georgia clay. It's spooky," said Clearwater fisherman Brad Gorst as he steered the charter fishing boat Gulfstream 2 in waters near Honeymoon Island, where dead fish recently washed ashore.

Red tide kills fish, manatees and other marine life by releasing a toxin that paralyzes their central nervous system. The algae also foul beaches and can be harmful to people who inhale the algae's toxins when winds blow onshore or by crashing waves, particularly those with asthma and other respiratory ailments.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News and World Report

 

September 15, 2014 — The developers of a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod have signed a lease agreement with the state to use New Bedford for staging and construction of the 130-turbine project, officials announced Friday.

Gov. Deval Patrick joined Cape Wind officials in making the announcement at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Wind Technology Testing Center in Boston, the largest wind blade testing facility in North America.

“Cape Wind is not just going to serve Massachusetts,” Patrick said during the event. “It’s going to be built in Massachusetts.”

Officials said the work will begin in January at the South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal on the New Bedford waterfront. The terminal has been specifically designed to handle the heavy loads associated with the staging of offshore wind projects and is the first facility of its kind in North America.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

 

September 15, 2014 — The Portland Fish Exchange's fortunes very much have mirrored the rise and fall of New England's offshore fishing industry over the past 30 years.

Inside the Portland Fish Exchange's cavernous warehouse on a hot summer's morning it's unseasonably cold, 38 degrees Fahrenheit according to a wall thermometer. An hour before the start of that day's auction, graders walk makeshift aisles of totes filled with iced fish that were offloaded in the early morning, sorted by species, size and quality and tagged with bar codes that tell buyers when the catch was landed and the boat that brought it in.

At 22,000 square feet it's one of the largest refrigerated warehouses in the state, the staging area where 90% of Maine's catch of fresh cod, dabs (lemon sole), flounder, haddock, hake, halibut, Maine shrimp, monkfish, pollock, redfish, skate, swordfish and tuna is displayed for buyers who'll make their bids electronically in an Internet auction that occurs at 11 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. Twenty years ago, the totes would have filled the warehouse. Now they take up less than one-third of the space.

"I was here from 1989-1996, when we opened up at 4 a.m. and sometimes ran until midnight," says General Manager Bert Jongerden, who returned in 2007 to run the all-display fresh seafood auction that opened in 1986 and quickly became the model for similar auctions in New Bedford and Gloucester in Massachusetts. "Back then, when we did 30 million pounds of fish, we had close to 65 people working here. From 1990 to 2003 or 2004, we were the No. 1 port on the East Coast for groundfish."

Read the full story at MaineBiz

 

NEW ORLEANS — September 15, 2014 — Louisiana shrimpers are back on the water, and most of them returned after three days of what had been planned as a one-week strike for higher prices.

After a meeting last Friday, Louisiana Shrimp Association members said they'd keep their boats docked for a week because prices are so low.

But WVUE-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1wjZ9Jw) that many were trawling again by Tuesday.

Read the full story from The Miami Herald

 

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. — September 15, 2014 — Michael Maddigan extensively describes the evolution of the herring as an economic powerhouse in the region and explores the many and varied uses for the fish.

So much to write and say about such a small fish.

While herrings typically reach lengths of no more than 15 inches, their economic impact on the development of Middleboro and other communities in southeastern Massachusetts was so profound and their contributions to the progress of the region so distinct that the species deserves a book of its own.

Thus, "Nemasket River Herring: A History" (copyright 2014; published by the Natural History Press, a division of The History Press of Charleston, S.C.), authored by Michael J. Maddigan of Middleboro, earns its distinction as the most current — and likely most comprehensive — dissertation ever published on river herrings (also called alewives) in the Nemasket River and other local waterways. The herring have called this area home for eons and have awed generations of local residents with their reproductive powers and acute abilities to persevere and survive against the rapacity of mankind.

Like the book's subject, "Nemasket River Herring: A History" meanders from the distant past into contemporary times, providing examples of steps taken first by Native Americans, later by English settlers, and ultimately by American citizens and communities to harness the economic benefits of the herring. Readers learn that herring essentially defined the boundaries of Middleboro through their spawning processes and significantly influenced its formal relations with nearby communities, while also shaping much of its fiscal stability until well into the 20th century.

Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times 

 

September 12, 2014 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has implemented an emergency regulation to prevent potential gear conflict between herring fishermen and lobstermen working in an area off the coast of Mount Desert Island.

The rule, which went into effect Friday, September 12, will create a temporary exception to a three lobster trap trawl limit outlined in department regulation. The exception will apply to an area northeast of Mount Desert Rock to minimize gear conflicts that could arise between the herring fishery and the high density of lobster gear in this area.

The regulatory trawl limit was implemented in this area, as well as others along to coast, in response to lobster industry requests. By limiting the number of traps on a single line, known as a trawl, gear conflicts among lobstermen in areas of high fishing concentration are minimized. However the trawl limit also results in more trawls and vertical lines which can become entangled by the herring fishermen who will be following the anticipated migration of herring into these waters in the coming weeks.

“By giving lobstermen in this discrete area the option to fish longer trawls during this time, lobstermen can take steps to minimize the potential for gear loss, while continuing to fish the same amount of gear in the area,” said Marine Patrol Colonel Joseph Fessenden.

“The Department and Maine Marine Patrol have received recent indications that the herring fishery will be in this area shortly and are concerned with lobster trap gear conflict,” said Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher. “We put this rule into place as an emergency measure so it will take effect in time to help ensure the success of both fisheries.”

Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is the primary bait used in Maine’s lobster fishery.  It is also an important forage species for predators such as seabirds, marine mammals, and a variety of larger fish species. In 2013, Atlantic herring was Maine’s fourth most valuable fishery, worth more than $15 million in landed value, and the second highest in terms of landings with 98 million pounds landed. Maine’s lobster fishery was the most valuable, worth more than $378 million.

According to the rule, in all waters within the described area that lies due south and seaward of a line drawn between latitude 44’ 1.335 N and longitude 68’ 13.845 W and latitude 44’ 9.481 N and longitude 67’ 57.56 W, lobstermen will be allowed to have more than three traps on a trawl line. All areas north of this line within the Hancock County Trawl Limit Area as described by DMR Regulation Chapter 25.04(B)(3) will be limited to three traps per trawl per current rule. This emergency rule will expire on December 10, 2014.

A public hearing will be held in the affected area if requested of the Commissioner in writing by five people. The hearing will be held within 30 days of the Commissioner receiving the written requests.

A copy of the emergency rule can be found on the Department of Marine Resources at http://www.maine.gov/dmr/25.04trawllimitweb091214.pdf. A map of the area can be found at http://www.maine.gov/dmr/TrawlLimits2014.pdf.

 

September 13, 2014 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

AFFILIATE MEETINGS:

ALBEMARLE FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATION will meet on Tuesday, September 23rd at 6:30pm at Leon Nixon's Catering in Edenton. Call Terry Pratt for more info: (252) 339-7431.

PAMLICO COUNTY FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATION will meet next week sometime, either the 18th, 19th or 20th. We'll let you know the exact date/time/location as soon as it's nailed down, or call Wayne Dunbar for more info: (252) 670-7467.

UPCOMING MEETINGS: Please note the following as it's very important to have a very good representation from commercial fishermen at these meetings:
September 29th: Striped Bass public hearing at the Dare County Government Complex in Manteo

October 15th: Summer Flounder public hearing at the DENR office in Washington, NC

Jerry's comments:

STATE FAIR: As noted last week, the North Carolina State Fair is a 10 day event October 16-26. The NCFA Board discussed this at last Monday's Board meeting and agreed to assist NC Catch with materials and volunteers to help with an booth for commercial fishing. Affiliates should make sure this is on your agendas when you meet and make arrangements to help for a day.

GOD & COUNTRY BANQUET: This event is sponsored by the Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition and will be held on this coming Monday, September 15th, at the Havelock Tourist & Event Center in Havelock NC. It begins at 6:30 pm with a dinner and the program follows. Excellent speakers and introductions of many candidates for public office, including judicial. Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby will be the Master of Ceremonies. Tickets are $20 each or table of 8 for $150. For tickets, call Pam: (252) 514-0381. For more information on speakers and guests, call me.

HELP FOR NCFA: The Board took action to help with the workload of NCFA including administration, research and lobbying. The "official" announcements will be made soon.

BLESSING OF THE FLEET is Sunday, October 5th, 10:00am at the State Port in Morehead City. If you are a commercial fisherman and can participate, you should be there. This is a religious service and part of the North Carolina Seafood Festival that is scheduled for October 3-5. There will also be a commercial fishing vessel on display for tours. More information on that later.

OBSERVERS: We have recommended to the Division that they have fishermen call DMF to let them know when they're going to fish utilizing their gillnet permits. DMF says they are leaving messages with fishermen and many times the calls are not returned. It could be that the fishermen DMF is calling are not currently fishing with gillnets, so they don't return the call. If fishermen would call in to let DMF know of their intent to fish, then it would eliminate that problem of no returned calls. There may be cases where the calls are not being returned by some fishermen who end up fishing. Since the Division can see through trip tickets that they went fishing, it's silly to avoid the call. Failing to take an observer may result in a ticket and you could lose your gillnet permit. Once again, we remind fishermen that it's a provision of the ITP that we have a certain number of observed trips, and if we don't, the fishery can be shut down by the feds.

God bless,
Jerry

MEETINGS:

NOTE: If you are aware of ANY meetings that should be of interest to commercial fishing that is not on this list, please contact us so we can include it here.

Sept 15 God & Country Banquet; Havelock NC; 6:30pm; call Jerry for more info

Sept 15 -19 South Atlantic Fishery Management Council; Charleston, SC

Sept 23 Albemarle Fishermen's Association; Leon Nixon's Catering, Edenton; 6:30pm

Sept 29 Striped Bass Hearing on Addendum IV; Dare County complex; 6:00pm

Oct 3-5 North Carolina Seafood Festival; Morehead City

Oct 5 Blessing of the Fleet; State Port; Morehead City; 10:00am

Oct 6 NCFA Board of Directors meeting; Hampton Inn; Washington NC; 2:00pm

Oct 7 – 9 Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council; Philadelphia

Oct 15 Summer Flounder Public Hearing; DENR office; Washington NC; 6:00pm

Oct 16-26 North Carolina State Fair; NC Catch needs help for booth!

Oct 27 – 30 ASMFC Annual Meeting: Mystic, CT

Please note that the items below are links to the items mentioned on the internet; however, they will not work unless you download this update as a pdf by clicking on the link above.

MFC/DMF Meeting Schedule

SNAPPER-GROUPER COMPLEX-COMMERCIAL AND RECREATIONAL PURPOSES

CRAB TRAWLING AND TAKING SHRIMP WITH NETS

TRAWLING, SPECIAL SECONDARY NURSERY AREA

GILL NETS – BOGUE BANKS

STOP NETS – MULLET BEACH SEINE FISHERY – ATLANTIC
OCEAN – CARTERET COUNTY

RULE SUSPENSION- GILL NET RESTRICTIONS: INTERNAL COASTAL WATERS

LARGE MESH GILLNETS: PERMITS AND OBSERVERS:
Beginning on Monday, September 1st, if you fish gillnets in internal waters, you need a permit. (Drift gillnets, strike, runaround or drop gillnets are exempt.) The permit wasn't the Division's idea, but came from commercial fishermen. It was thought that if one of the requirements for the federal ITP in the fishery is to have 7% of large mesh trips observed, then rather than have more restrictions, why not devise a permit to make sure we get enough coverage. Without the coverage, the feds can shut down the fishery, so a permit can keep that from happening. If a fisherman refuses to take an observer, he can lose his permit.

If you are fishing large mesh gillnets, don't wait to be called to take an observer. Call DMF and volunteer if you haven't taken an observer. Don't let it up to a few to take observers. If everyone does their part, the burden can be spread around a bit and you can do your part in keeping the fishery open.

If you call DMF and volunteer rather than waiting around for them to call you, we'll put your name in a hat and the winner will have a nice dinner with Louis Daniel, courtesy of NCFA! (Louis doesn't know about this, so just testing to see if he reads these updates.)

One other point about fishing and turtles: If you have an interaction with a turtle while you're fishing and you don't have an observer, then call DMF and let them know. That's better for all of us. You won't get penalized for it and it's something that should be done.

POUND NETS:
Most fishermen check their pound nets daily for a number of reasons. One is the quality of the fish is better if fished frequently. NCFA encourages all pound net fishermen to check their nets daily, weather permitting. Fishermen should not be expected to risk their lives when checking their nets, but if the weather allows, we encourage you to check. It just makes sense, but most of you already know that.

View a PDF of the release here

September 11, 2014 — Portsmouth has a new way of getting line-caught fresh fish.

New Hampshire Community Seafood is bringing the "CSF," or community-supported fishery, model to the Seacoast for its second year.

Organized in a similar fashion to the more familiar community-supported agriculture model, through which farms offer shares of fresh produce, the fishery program provides weekly pick ups for local residents of day-boat-fresh fish.

According to the New Hampshire Community Seafood, about 98 percent of the fish landed on the Seacoast is shipped to other states or overseas. The organization's aim is to reintroduce a fishing culture that is supported by the community.

"I first got involved in our local fishing industry while working with New Hampshire Sea Grant as a Brian Doyle Fellow as a senior marine biology student at the University of New Hampshire," says Sarah VanHorn, a founder and coordinator for Community Seafood. "I quickly began to realize that the majority of our local fishermans' catch was being shipped overseas, and (I) was determined to find a way to change that. A community-supported fishery seemed like a good place to start."

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

September 8, 2014 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association, Inc., a group of New England lobster wharf operators, processors, dealers and wholesalers, has entered the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery (Homarus americanus) into independent, third-party assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. This assessment is in parallel with a separate assessment of the fishery that led to MSC certification in 2013. The founding members of the client group are Cozy Harbor Seafood, Inc., Craig’s All Natural, LLC, East Coast Seafood, Inc., Garbo Lobster Co., Inc., Inland Seafood, Inc., Mazzetta Company, LLC, and Orion Seafood International, Inc.
 
About the fishery
The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery under assessment covers all commercial vessels licensed by the State of Maine or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that fish within the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Conservation Management Area 1, which includes the Gulf of Maine stock in coastal Maine and Northwest Atlantic FAO area 21. Fishing is seasonal and concentrated in the latter half of the year. The fishery is managed jointly by the NMFS, ASMFC, and the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Over four thousand commercial fishermen actively harvest Maine lobster. In 2013, fishermen landed 126 million pounds of Maine lobster with a landed value of $364 million. The Maine lobster fishery accounts for more than two thirds of all lobster landings in the United States. The product is sold live, fresh and frozen in domestic and international markets.
 
What the fishery says
Craig A. Rief, President of the Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association, said, “Our association represents members dedicated to the sustainability of Maine lobster. It is our goal to make it affordable for members to share the benefits of MSC certification. Maine lobster is known domestically and around the world as an iconic species that defines high quality seafood. MSC certification will enable us to certify to our customers that Maine lobster is harvested in a sustainable way to assure it will be available long into the future.”
 
About the certifier
Independent certifier SAI Global Assurance Services will conduct the assessment of this fishery against the MSC standard. Orla Minogue, Programme Administrator, can be reached at: Orla.Minogue@saiglobal.com.  Stakeholders with an interest in the fishery are encouraged to provide comments and information for this assessment process.
 
The MSC guide for stakeholder input is available online at: http://www.msc.org/documents/get-certified/stakeholders/stakeholder_guide_to_the_MSC_v2.pdf/view?searchterm=stakeholder.
 
A template for stakeholder input is available online at: http://www.msc.org/documents/get-certified/stakeholders/template_for_stakeholder_input.
 
About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
 
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization set up to help transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only certification and ecolabeling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization Guidelines for the Eco-labeling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery certification and ecolabeling schemes include:
 
  – Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilizing scientific evidence;
  – Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
  – Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
                                                 
The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Glasgow, Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, Madrid and Stockholm.
 
In total, over 300 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program that, together, represents over 10 percent of the annual global harvest of wild capture fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land over seven million metric tonnes of seafood annually – close to eight percent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 22,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
 
For more information on the work of the MSC, please visit www.msc.org.
 
# # #
 
Media Contact:
 
Mike DeCesare | Communications Director, Americas Region
Marine Stewardship Council | 2110 N. Pacific St., Suite 102 | Seattle, WA 98103
1-206-691-0188, ext. 109 | mike.decesare@msc.org