State and Local

May 8, 2013 — The fish aren’t the problem. They’re still biting. It’s just that the people aren’t. The recreational fishing season for winter flounder and striped bass in Sheepshead Bay started last month, but boat captains and bait shops in the neighborhood hit hard by Sandy have been seeing less business than usual.

“People don’t have the money now to go fishing,” said Captain Mike Ardolino of the Brooklyn VI. “They’re rebuilding. Fishing just isn’t a top priority right now. And I think it’s going to be that way for a few years.”

Barely a month into the season, it’s still too early to know for sure how recreational fishing will fare, local fishermen say.  A winter that was colder than normal after the storm hit also complicates matters. No one knows whether they have Sandy or the cold winter to thank for the slow start to the season. Or whether it’s a combination of the two.

But one thing has been certain: it’s been roughly six months since Sandy swept through the neighborhood—and for the area’s residents and businessmen, it’s been a rough six months.

On a recent afternoon, a pile of straining black plastic bags and waterlogged wooden furniture sat on the sidewalk next to Bernie’s Bait and Tackle down the street from the pier where the boats rode out the storm. A handwritten banner hanging on a fence behind the trash heap implored the city to return the dumpsters formerly used to get rid of the household belongings Sandy turned into garbage.

“I’m lucky I only had three feet of water in my store. I was able to deal with it,” said Jim Giordano, the bait shop’s owner. “The problem is the neighborhood’s ruined. Our customer base is destroyed.”

Captain Nardiello isn’t faring any better. The number of people he took out on his boat one warm and sunny April weekend was “embarrassing,” he said. Customers numbered in the low teens that Saturday and Sunday. The figures should be at least two or three times that during this time in the season, he said. He can’t afford to go out every day. “It’s atrocious. It’s terrible,” Nardiello said of business now.

Read the full story at the Brooklyn Ink

 

 

May 9, 2013 — Robin Alden, executive director of Penobscot East Resource Center, was invited to Washington, D.C. to offer leaders at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ideas for changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Act during the NOAA “Managing our Nation’s Fisheries 3” conference May 7-9.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act was passed in 1976 and regulates marine fisheries in the U.S.

Alden is asking the NOAA to consider “major changes” to the Act as it enters a new reauthorization period, she said in a telephone interview on Tuesday, May 7. The Act was last reauthorized in 2006.

Right now, the federal fisheries are managed almost exclusively on a by-species basis, meaning that each species is considered separately, and NOAA releases species-specific quotas in what Alden called a “one-size-fits-all” model. Alden is proposing allowing fisheries management to innovate at the regional or local level, pursuing regulation in discussion with local fishermen, even if they don’t have a federal fishing permit. Alden said the current Act does not protect small-scale fisheries and the communities those fisheries support.

Read the full story at Island Ad-Vantages

 

May 9, 2013 — House Bill 983 would ban the commercial catching and sale of spotted sea trout, red drum and freshwater striped bass, leaving them for recreational anglers. Commercial fishermen, restaurant owners and elected officials across the Outer Banks have spoken against the measure.

"The most ironic thing is, I've been in the restaurant business 17 years, and I've seen more speckled trout this year than in any of the other years," said Bud Gruninger, head chef at Lone Cedar.

A forum Monday in Raleigh lasted about three hours with dozens of people, many from the Outer Banks, speaking out on the game-fish bill. Most spoke against it, and some resorted to calling recreational fishermen rich and greedy, among the printable names.

"Hatteras Village could be the first to totally fall apart with the impact of this game-fish bill," Dan Oden said at the forum. As owner of Oden's Dock in Hatteras, he serves commercial and recreational fishermen.

Sport-fishing groups support the bill. It would be a boon to the species and attract more recreational fishermen to coastal towns, pumping in more tourism revenue, argues the website of the Coastal Conservation Association, a nonprofit made up largely of saltwater recreational fishermen. The group has lobbied for the bill's passage.

Texas and Florida are among coastal states that already have passed similar bills without harming the commercial industry, according to the website. Executive Director Stephen Ammons of the Coastal Conservation Association could not be reached.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot

 

 

May 8, 2013 — Shrimp is the No. 2 fishery in Oregon, second only to the state crustacean, the Dungeness Crab. For another, shrimp is the most popular seafood in the country, a rating it's held, according to NOAA every year since 2003.

The Oregon pink shrimp fishery was the first fishery in Oregon certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council and the first shrimp fishery anywhere dubbed sustainable.

So yes, there's plenty of reason to celebrate the shellfish and plenty of it to celebrate, even if it's reputation is, well, a bit shrimpy.

"Most people don't even know we have a shrimp fishery off of Oregon," said Brad Pettinger,  director of the Oregon Trawl Commission. "Oregon is the center of the grounds. We count for 75 percent of the landings on the west coast."

Last year's catch of 49.1 million pounds – worth about $24 million – was second only to the record high of 56 million pounds in 1978.

Read the full story at The Oregonian 

 

 

May 9, 2013 — The following was released by the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association:

The Bristol Bay, Alaska commercial salmon fishery is the world’s most valuable wild salmon fishery and in total produces an astounding annual value of $1.5 billion, according to a new report, “The Economic Importance of the Bristol Bay Salmon Industry.” The fishery supports a significant number of jobs in the four West Coast states, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, and the total value of Bristol Bay salmon product exports in 2010 was $370 million, accounting for nearly 20% of the total value of all U.S. seafood exports. Written by researchers at the University of Alaska’s Institute for Social and Economic Research, the report marks the first time the full value and impact of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery has been measured.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said: “I am pleased a study has been done to detail the economic importance of the salmon industry in Bristol Bay. This report confirms what we have known for years – that it is not just Alaskans who depend on Bristol Bay for their personal income and livelihoods. Over 3,000 Washingtonians make their living off Bristol Bay’s salmon runs. This report, in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft Watershed Assessment, clearly demonstrates both the environmental and economic damages that development in this region could have, and I am hopeful the Administration takes the economic value of the salmon fishery into account when making future decisions regarding Bristol Bay.”

There is also a shorter executive summary of the report, which was commissioned by the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. Report highlights include:

– The Bristol Bay salmon fishery supports 12,000 jobs in fishing and processing industries; including 4,369 fishing and processing jobs in Alaska; 3,227 in Washington state; 2,143 in Oregon; 553 in California and 1,629 in other states.

– The salmon fishery creates an additional 7,800 jobs across the country due to the multiplier effects of retailing in grocery stores, restaurants, etc., and developing  value-added products.

– The commercial fishery provides about $500 million in direct income to workers across the country every year.

The report comes at the same time the EPA is conducting a comment period of its revised Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment, a scientific report that shows that digging up the proposed Pebble mine will destroy up to 90 miles of salmon streams and up to 4,800 acres of wetlands in the best case scenario, without potential leaks or a catastrophic failure.

The report was released during a May 9 phone conference that included Deadliest Catch Captain Johnathan Hillstrand, who said: "For everyone who counts on the salmon industry to make a living, the Pebble project is the Deadliest Mine. The only people who want this mine don't live in Alaska or even the United States. They’re foreign mining companies that want to sell gold and copper to the Chinese.”

"There are few issues that are more black and white than protecting Bristol Bay. EPA’s draft assessment and this economic impact study both confirm that the proposed Pebble mine would be bad for fish and bad for fishermen. With 3,000 Washington state jobs at stake, we can’t afford the ecological or economic risk," said Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington.

The report’s authors also found that favorable market trends in global demand for wild salmon are likely to continue, increasing the value of Bristol Bay sockeye.

“This report demonstrates how critical the Bristol Bay salmon fishery is to thousands of jobs, millions in revenues and to countless businesses like ours,” said John Garner, vice president of Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, one of the largest seafood processing companies, with operations in Bristol Bay. “We process hundreds of millions of pounds of high quality seafood a year, including Bristol Bay sockeye and it is an incredibly important product line for us.”

The economic importance of the Bristol Bay salmon industry goes well beyond the value, jobs and income from fishing and processing in Bristol Bay. More value, jobs and income are created in downstream industries as the salmon are shipped to other states, processed further and sold in stores and restaurants across the country. Additionally, the multiplier effect generates additional value as fishermen and processors purchase supplies and services and workers spend their income.

“The estimates of the economic importance of the Bristol Bay fishery are actually conservative. In fact, without the Bristol Bay salmon industry, profits would be lower and costs would be higher in the rest of the seafood industry,” said Scott Goldsmith, one of the authors of the study. “The Bristol Bay fishery helps supply the entire world with wild salmon, and is a vital part of Alaska’s seafood export economy, so it’s natural that the benefits of the fishery stretch far beyond Alaska.”

“We’re proud of the hard-working men and women in this industry who’ve invested their time, sweat and money to build a thriving American commercial fishery that’s been operating for more than 125 years,” said Bob Waldrop, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “We will not sacrifice this hard work to the Pebble Mine – planned as North America’s largest open-pit mine – the greatest threat our fishery has ever known.”

 

 

May 8, 2013 — The state's top environmental and energy official said today he's “absolutely convinced” that the South Terminal in New Bedford will be the primary staging area for Cape Wind, despite the offshore wind farm's developers exploring other options in Rhode Island.

The port project, also known as the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, was announced in 2010 as a coup for the SouthCoast fishing port that would bring hundreds of immediate and long-term jobs to the city. Since then, Cape Wind developers have met with officials in Rhode Island to discuss the possibility of using the port of Quonset, in North Kingstown, R.I., for some staging work.

“I am absolutely convinced that New Bedford will be the primary staging port for Cape Wind and future developments that are not Cape Wind related,” Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan told the State House News Service.

Sullivan testified before the House Bonding Committee, chaired by New Bedford Democrat Rep. Antonio Cabral, on the Patrick administration's $911 million bond bill for environmental and energy capital spending that includes roughly $24 million for the South Terminal project.

The new port is expected to cost $100 million, including permitting and design, construction, the dredging of the harbor and environmental remediation and mitigation to clean the polluted waters of the harbor and reseed the impacted shellfish population.

Sullivan said the project is on a tight 19-month construction cycle to meet the timetable for Cape Wind for the start of 2014, but said he understands why Cape Wind officials would be exploring contingency options should any part of the project not go “perfectly” and get delayed.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

 

May 6, 2013 — Last Thursday, the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council set the black sea bass regulations in state waters for the 2013 season. The minimum size is 121/2 inches with a 20-fish bag limit and a season that runs from May 19 to August 8; then from Sept. 27 to Oct. 14; and then from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.

Setting the black sea bass regulations was a little different this year in that Amendment XXIII, which was approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), provided for regional management measures to be implemented for the species. This modification is for the 2013 season only

The change was deemed necessary because of the wide geographic range of this species. The application of coastwide minimum size, possession limit, and season restrictions did not affect every area involved in the fishery the same way. Some states took the lion’s share of the coastwide quota before other states even had a chance to fish for sea bass.

There is also a great deal amount of uncertainty when it comes to the size and health of the stock, which fishery managers have called fully rebuilt. Yet despite that status, the fishery exceeded its quota in 2009, 2010 and 2010 and was closed early in two of those years.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

 

 

May 6, 2013 — Watermen, restaurant owners, county commissioners and others are headed for Raleigh today to argue against a bill that would prohibit commercial catches of striped bass and other gamefish.

A public forum on the bill will be held at 1:30 p.m., said state Rep. Paul Tine, a Dare County Democrat.

Now making its way through the state House of Representatives, the bill would designate red drum, speckled trout and striped bass as coastal gamefish. It proposes to limit fishing to hook-and-line methods, which would put them off limits to commercial trawlers in state waters.

Opposition is strong among commercial interests in Dare County, who argue that the bill would essentially remove the fish from local restaurants and seafood markets.

“This is a public trust commodity,” Tine said today while driving to Raleigh.

The bill acknowledges a need to balance commercial and recreational interests, but goes on to say that “the General Assembly recognizes the importance of providing plentiful fishery resources to maintain and enhance tourism as a major contributor to the economy of the state”

A longtime proponent of the designation, the Coastal Conservation Association, argues that the species need continued protection.

Read the full story at The Outer Banks Voice

May 4, 2013 — Despite alewives being the focus of sometimes contentious efforts to improve their access to Down East Maine freshwater spawning habitats, these migratory fish remain something of a mystery to many, while at the same time remaining a favorite food for wide variety of Maine wildlife.

Alewives as a meal for Mainers themselves? Not so much. At least not anymore. Once a dinner-table staple in Maine, alewives are now more likely to be chopped up for lobster bait.

In addition to osprey and bald eagles, which have perfected dive-bombing fishing techniques in feasting upon the annual spring run of “river herring,” alewives are prey for a long list of critters. Alewife predators include not only raptors, but other fish, among them bass, bluefish, tuna, cod, haddock, halibut, eel, trout, landlocked salmon, pickerel, pike and perch. Other predators include great blue heron, gulls, terns, cormorants, seals, whales, otter, mink, fox, raccoon, skunk, weasel, fisher and turtles. Maybe even bears.

An 1852 history of Kennebec County recounts that in Gardiner and Pittston “alewives were so plentiful at the time the country was settled that bears, and later swine, fed on them in the water. They were crowded ashore by the thousands.”

Before the 20th century advent of refrigeration, which allowed a wide variety of fish species as options for dinner entrees, alewives were popular because they kept well when smoked or packed in salt. They were also plentiful, as each May and June hundreds of thousands of the 10-inch silver fish migrated from the sea into virtually all of Maine’s freshwater rivers and streams to spawn. Alewives were also cheap, as in free for the taking.

For thousands of years Native Americans and, centuries later, Maine’s early European settlers relied heavily on alewives for subsistence. So did the poor, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service history of alewife migration. When one Maine river town built a dam that blocked the fish from their spawning habitat, settlers upstream were outraged.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

 

May 4, 2013 — North Carolina fishermen — commercial and recreational — will square off at 1:30 p.m. Monday in public forum in the Legislative Office Building, 300 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh, as legislators consider HB-983. If passed, it would designate red drum, speckled trout and striped bass as game fish, taking them off the market and the menu of everyone except recreational fishermen — who fish for fun with hook and line.

By giving them the designation of game fish — these three species are not endangered — they could not be sold, which would make them off limits to commercial fishermen.

Bill sponsors pushed by the Coastal Conservation Association, a sports fishing group, are trying to say these three fish are more valuable to recreational fishermen and making them game fish would boost tourism, create jobs and money for the state.

Commercial fishermen, many of them small family commercial fishermen and women, disagree saying not allowing them to catch these fish would cost them and their families money, in some cases their livelihoods, destroy jobs and take the fish away from consumers who buy them in fish houses or eat them in restaurants.

Although these fish are a public resource and should be available to everyone whether they catch it themselves or buy it in a seafood market or eat it in a restaurant, to the CCA these fish belong to recreational fishermen, and only to recreational fishermen.

Read the full story at the Cataret County News-Times