State and Local

GLOUCESTER, Va. — March 20, 2014 — The first day of Virginia's blue crabs fishery season opened on Monday, but cold weather and frigid water is leaving the state's signature crustacean sluggish and not moving around.

That means a very slow start to the crabbing season for watermen.

Cyndi Speight, operations manager at York River Seafood Co. on the Perrin River near its mouth to the York River, said she doesn't believe blue crabs will be landed until April due to the extended winter the region has been having.

"It's kind of hard to project what's going to happen, but we're hoping for a good year," Speight said.

York River Seafood Co. has been operating in Gloucester since 1945 and buys blue crabs directly from watermen. The company mainly sells wholesale and ships blue crabs throughout the East Coast, though it also sells locally via retail, Speight said.

The blue crabs in local rivers and bays are just not moving around due to the cold temperatures. Watermen know it and are waiting until the weather warms up, Speight said.

Menhaden, also known as bunker, are coming in, though.

"Right now, because of the cold I think the majority of watermen are bunker fishing," Speight said.

How this year's blue crabs season will measure up to previous years won't be known for some time. Results from an annual Virginia Institute of Marine Science winter survey of the blue crabs population is still a few weeks away, said Rom Lipcius, a VIMS marine science professor.

"My sense is that the fishery isn't going to do better than last year," Lipcius said.

The preliminary 2013 Virginia commercial harvest of blue crabs was 17.9 million lbs. statewide, with the majority of the harvest coming from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, said Joe Grist, deputy chief of the Fisheries Management Division of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

It's too soon to project an outlook for the 2014 Virginia commercial blue crab fishery, but weather is playing a factor for now, Grist said.

Read the full story at the Newport News Daily Press

March 21, 2014 — The City Council is expected to weigh in on the disbursement of the $75 million in federal disaster relief funds Tuesday when it takes up a resolution introduced by Councilor-at-Large Paul Lundberg.

Lundberg’s resolution, co-sponsored by Councilor-at-Large Sefatia Romeo Theken, urges the state to focus its allocation of the funds on fishermen and fishing businesses and not to “activities that could be funded by other sources.”

“Our fishing industry really is a collection of small businesses, including water-borne and shore-side businesses,” Lundberg said Thursday. “This resolution expresses the support of the City Council that these funds go to these businesses directly impacted by the reduction in the allowable catch limits.”

Congress appropriated the $75 million in fisheries disaster funding in January to help fishermen and fishing communities such as Gloucester, helping them recover from the economic disaster generated by the collapse of the groundfish fishing industry.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times 

 

 

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — March 21, 2014 — It may still be cold out, but the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is reminding people that all bobhouses must be removed from the ice by the end of the day on April 1, according to state law.

Lt. Heidi Murphy of the department’s law enforcement division says the law is designed to ensure that bobhouses and their contents do not fall through the ice and become a hazard to boaters, or get left behind on shore.

Failure to remove a bobhouse from public waters, public property or private property by the deadline can result in a fine and a one-year loss of the owner’s fishing license. The department can seize a bobhouse that hasn’t been removed in cases where it can’t identify the owner.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Globe

SAVANNAH, Ga, — March 20, 2014 — The $35 million in additional port deepening funds proposed by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has been approved by the state legislature and now awaits the governor's signature.

Along with previous funding, Georgia has now allocated $266 million, fulfilling the state's portion of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP).

"Lawmakers across Georgia recognize that improving the Savannah Harbor is critically important to the continued economic health of this state and region," Deal said. "That unified vision is also evident among our delegation to Washington, which has worked tirelessly to secure the federal portion of the project costs. It is now long overdue for the federal government to fund their portion of this federal project to make U.S. manufactured products more competitive overseas."

Deepening the Savannah Harbor from 42 to 47 feet will accommodate an increase in the number of super-sized container vessels transiting the Panama Canal after its 2015 expansion. With a deeper channel, larger and more heavily laden ships can arrive and depart with greater scheduling flexibility. These "Post Panamax" vessels will lower shipping costs per container slot.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study has shown that SHEP will reduce shipping costs for private companies by $174 million a year.

Read the full story at RISI

 

March 20, 2014 — Two commercial fishing zones off Massachusetts are among the nine dirtiest in the country, an advocacy group has found in a report slated for release Thursday.

The culprit, according to the advocacy groupOceana , is bycatch — or the fish and ocean wildlife that commercial fishermen are not targeting but that end up in their nets.

According to the report, nine US fisheries, including two off Massachusetts, are responsible for more than half the nation’s reported bycatch. These fish are often discarded at sea, “likely already dead or dying,” creating the dirty effect, the report says.

Oceana contends that bycatch is “one of the most significant threats to maintaining healthy marine ecosystems.”

The two Massachusetts-area zones are the Northeast Bottom Trawl Fishery, where more than 50 million pounds of fish are thrown overboard each year, and the New England & Mid-Atlantic Gillnet Fishery, where more than 2,000 dolphins, porpoises, and seals were caught in nets as bycatch in 2010, according to Oceana.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

March 19, 2014 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The 2014 elver fishing season will begin Sunday, April 6, 2014 at noon. Originally scheduled to begin on March 22, 2014, the season opening has been delayed due to deliberations over the two bills impacting the fishery, LD 1723 signed into law by Governor LePage Thursday, March 13, and LD 1625, signed into law on Tuesday, March 18.
 
“The cold weather is expected to delay elver runs this season, so the late start will likely have little impact on landings,” said Colonel Joseph Fessenden, Chief of the Maine Marine Patrol.
 
The additional time is required by the Department of Marine Resources to implement necessary emergency rulemaking to allocate individual fishing quotas to Maine’s non-tribal elver harvesters, to obtain information from Maine’s federally recognized Indian tribes necessary for allocation of individual fishing quota to licensed tribal members, and to distribute new elver transaction cards.
 
LD 1723 established the elver transaction “swipe” card system, used for the first time this season. Similar to a credit card, it has a magnetic stripe on the back that is encoded by DMR staff with identifying information for each harvester, which along with the transaction information including weight and price paid, will be uploaded to a secure database and monitored by the Department to ensure the state does not exceed its quota of 11,749 pounds.
 
Of the 11,749 lbs, Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher is authorized to withhold up to ten percent to provide a buffer that helps prevent the state from exceeding the overall quota. The Commissioner has chosen to withhold 5 percent from both non-tribal and tribal allocations, which leaves a total quota for the state of 11,161 pounds.
 
The Department will be issuing each license holder a transaction card and will be providing dealers with card readers that are used to record and upload transaction details. This outreach will require a minimum of two weeks, as the Department plans to issue the cards at several locations around the state for the convenience of license holders.  These locations are currently being determined and will be communicated in writing to license holders.
 
LD 1625 authorizes the Commissioner to establish, by emergency rule, an elver fishing quota for the state. The new quota-based approach is the result of an agreement crafted by Commissioner Keliher with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the interstate compact that establishes the regulatory framework for member states. The agreement established a quota for Maine during the 2014 season that is 35 percent less than the 2013 season dealer-reported landings, which totaled 18,076 pounds.
 
Per LD 1625, 21.9 percent of the overall annual quota will be allocated to Maine’s federally recognized Indian tribes. Of the 21.9 percent, the Passamaquoddy Tribe will be allocated 14 percent of the overall annual quota, while the Penobscot Nation will be allocated 6.4 percent of the overall annual quota, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians will be allocated 1.1 percent, and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs will be allocated 0.4 percent of the overall annual quota. Five percent will be withheld from each tribe’s allocation as a buffer
 
The law requires that each tribe provide documentation to the department of the allocation for each individual license holder. There are 48 Penobscot Nation license holders, 16 Houlton Band of Maliseet license holders and 8 members of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs. LD 1625 authorizes the Passamaquoddy tribe to issue an unlimited number of licenses, of which six can use fyke nets and the remainder must use dip nets.
 
The remaining 79.1 percent of the overall annual quota will be allocated to 436 non-tribal eligible license holders based on calculations currently under consideration by the Commissioner.
 
The Department will issue notification of the individual fishing quotas to licensed harvesters as well as instructions for distribution of the elver transaction swipe cards in the coming week.
 
The season will end May 31, 2014 or prior to that date if the state’s overall quota is reached.

 

March 20, 2014 — Last night the Kodiak City Council and Borough Assembly met for a joint work session and discussed Gulf of Alaska trawl bycatch management at length.

In April the North Pacific Fishery Management Council will take up the bycatch issue, and try to develop some sort of management plan to help reduce it within the trawl industry. On Monday, the Kodiak Fisheries Work Group heard public comments, panel discussion and guest presentations on the matter and ultimately drafted a list of community goals that align with elements of the fishery management council’s framework motion on bycatch.

That drafted list was before the island’s two governing bodies last night, and Kodiak’s fisheries analyst, Heather McCarty, emphasized that the entire list is mere suggestions to the council for further analysis on certain issues. 

“Everything in this outline is asking for analysis or continued analysis of the elements of the framework motion and any additional elements that you might add. It’s not expressing support for those elements.”

Read the full story and listen to the audio at KMXT

March 19, 2014 — With about two months left in Florida’s stone crab harvest season, get ready to empty your wallet if you want to dine on the state’s signature seafood delicacy.

Prices are the highest in recent memory, according to restaurateurs and seafood dealers around the state, and they’re not expected to drop much before the season closes May 15.

At world-renowned Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach, you will shell out about $90 for 1 1/2 pounds of jumbos. For large, figure about $60; mediums — the smallest — are about $30 for just under a pound.

“It’s getting crazy,” acknowledged Steve Sawitz, chief operating officer of Joe’s.

Across town at Truluck’s Seafood, Steak and Crab House in Miami, all-you-can eat large stone crabs cost $99 per person.

“The highest I’ve ever seen it,” manager Ed Tanner said.

Even if you drive to takeout markets at Keys Fisheries in Marathon or Triad Seafood Market in Everglades City, you’ll pay about $38 per pound for jumbos down to about $17 for mediums.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

 

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/19/4004924/craving-seasonal-stone-crabs-get.html#storylink=cpy  

March 18, 2014 — It’s obvious to Chris Blankenship, Director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division, that recreational fishing surveys conducted by the federal government are unable to provide accurate data on the red snapper catch off Alabama.

That is why Blankenship has asked the Alabama Conservation Advisory Board to approve a regulation that would establish a system for anglers who catch red snapper off Alabama to report their catches to Marine Resources.

“The reporting of red snapper regulation would require people to report how many red snapper they kept after each trip during snapper season,” Blankenship said. “We want to make it as easy on the fishermen as possible to report their catches. We will have a Smartphone app similar to Game Check that will require a little less information and easier-to-input information. If you don’t have a Smartphone where you can use your app, you can use your touch-tone phone. You’ll need your boat registration number, how many people you had onboard and how many red snapper you caught and kept.”

Because of Alabama’s limited shoreline, Marine Resources will be able to use boat ramps as intercept sites for the survey as well.

“In the event somebody doesn’t have a phone to use or the battery goes dead or whatever, we’ll have drop-boxes at Boggy Point, Cotton Bayou, Fort Morgan and Billy Goat Hole on Dauphin Island,” Blankenship said. “We’ll have paper forms with a carbon copy for people to fill out their information and put it in the drop-boxes. They’ll tear off the carbon and keep it.”

Blankenship said Marine Resources is testing the system right now to make sure the bugs are worked out if the Conservation Advisory Board approves the request.

Read the full story at the Courier Journal 

AUGUSTA, Maine — March 18, 2014 — Maine’s elver season will start two weeks late to give the state time to implement an emergency law enacted Tuesday by lawmakers that gives it more authority over the industry.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Walter Kumiega, D-Deer Isle, House chairman of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee, passed unanimously in the House and Senate. It was a quick, quiet passage for the bill after a tenuous few months that saw Maine Indian tribes calling it discriminatory.

By Tuesday, tension had cooled on the issue of the glassy, baby American eels, a delicacy in Japan, where the domestic elver market tanked after a 2011 tsunami, driving up prices from $25 per pound toward $2,000 per pound in Maine, one of two American states that allow elver fishing.

The law allows the Maine Department of Marine Resources to establish an annual weight quota for the elver harvest, allocating individual quotas to harvesters of the eels.

After concern over the fishery’s health was expressed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the department agreed earlier this year to slash Maine’s total 2014 elver catch by 35 percent from last year’s, to nearly 11,750 pounds. Another law passed this year allows a swipe-card system for fishermen that will yield daily reporting data and make illegal harvesting more difficult, according to the commission.

Peter Steele, a spokesman for Gov. Paul LePage, said the department was pushing the season back from its normal start date of March 22 to April 5 in order to implement elements of the new laws. The limit is expected to affect the catch more than the length of the season.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald