EMERALD ISLE, N.C. — February 4, 2013 — For the first time since 2005, fisherman can catch and harvest bay scallops in the Bogue Sound.
The NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources opened the season last week and it runs through April. However, some fisherman say the supply is already almost gone.
Fisherman say they wish officials would have opened the season earlier.
Read the full story at News 14 Carolina
ELLSWORTH, Maine — February 3, 2013 — To protect the ability of scallop fishing beds to replenish themselves, state officials have closed down scallop fishing areas in Hancock County and in Washington County.
Maine Department of Marine Resources indicated Friday that it was closing limited-access fishing areas off Jonesport and Addison, in northwest Blue Hill Bay, in Englishman Bay and in Machias and Little Machias bays.
“The department is concerned that continued harvesting during the remainder of [this] fishing season in these areas would damage sublegal scallops that could be caught during subsequent fishing seasons,” DMR officials said in a prepared statement. “Continued harvesting would also reduce any remaining broodstock that is essential to a recovery, within the [affected areas]. An immediate conservation closure is necessary to reduce the risk of unusual damage and imminent depletion.”
Last month, DMR closed scallop fishing grounds at the mouth of the Damariscotta River, in Somes Sound and around Greenings Island off Mount Desert Island, and in Gouldsboro and Dyer bays off Gouldsboro and Steuben. In December, the department closed the inner harbor in Blue Hill one week into the season and then, on Dec. 22, closed three more areas — in Muscongus Bay, off Deer Isle and in Moosabec Reach off Jonesport
All the closed bays have been part of limited access areas that DMR established last fall as part of a new management scheme for the scallop fishery. New DMR rules enacted for this year allow the department to close such areas immediately when 30 to 40 percent of the harvestable biomass is believed to have been removed during the season.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News
January 30, 2013 — In December, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announced a 72 percent cut for the 2013 shrimping season, and Maine’s shrimping community is scrambling to adapt. The commission announced to set a quota of 625 metric tons, down from 2,400 metric tons in 2012, and stagger the season to start January 22 for trawlers and February 5 for trappers. The decision was made against the advice of its own Northern Shrimp Technical Committee, which recommended a moratorium for 2013. Shrimpers lobbied to keep the season open, saying even a small season is vital to keep the industry afloat.
There isn’t enough data to prove conclusively why the shrimp population has been decimated, but warming ocean temperatures likely play a major role, Waine said. The Gulf of Maine has seen record temperatures in recent years, and Northern shrimp in the gulf can’t tolerate the heat.
“These shrimp are in the southern extent of their range, which means they are in warm water to begin with,” he said. “Take that and add a lot of increased water temperature, and it’s not the best environment for shrimp.”
The shrimping industry also has been historically boom and bust when it comes to participation. Shrimping is seen as a supplemental-income fishery for both groundfishermen and lobstermen, and participation has spiked in recent years as the other fisheries have faltered.
“You can always count the boats in the fishery and see when you’re going to have a decline,” Libby said.
Libby hopes that enhanced efforts to provide real-time reporting of shrimp catches and new management regulations will help prevent overfishing this season. Curbing ocean temperatures will be more difficult, said Waine.
“All I can say is, I hope for a very cold winter for New England. The resource really needs it,” Waine said.
Read the full story at the Working Waterfront
February 1, 2013 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday to cut the amount of cod that can be fished from the Gulf of Maine by 77 percent and from Georges Bank by 61 percent. The cuts are to take effect on May 1.
That means there will be significantly less fish coming into New Bedford, Gloucester, Boston and Portland, Maine, according to Scott Bode, a former fishing captain who is now the chief operating officer of Pier Fish, a wholesale company in New Bedford.
“Prices absolutely should go up,” Bode said. “For fishermen to survive, prices will have to go up. We won’t know how much until people begin fishing.”
But prices are already rising, Bode said.
“Whole cod is selling, wholesale, for $3.88 a pound today,” Bode said. “Fillets used to sell for that price, not that long ago. The price of domestic seafood will be too expensive for the normal family to buy. Everything will go to the high-end restaurants. You won’t find the fish in the grocery stores.”
Cod is fished on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine by smaller boats, typically 40 or 50 feet long, that go out 20 or 30 miles and haul nets and tackle along the bottom of the ocean to bring in haddock, cod and sole.
“It will be really tough for the small boats to make it,” Bode said. “A lot of them will have to stop fishing. The cutbacks are all for cod, but they will affect all the other ground fish. It will have a larger effect.”
The industry has been through this before, said Michael Castigliego of Castigliego’s and Sons Seafood, 1891 GAR Highway, Somerset.
Limits on the scallop catch in Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine pushed prices from $12.99 a pound last year to $15.99 this year, he said.
In all of this, fishermen and federal regulators have fought for years over the science that led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to order the cuts.
Read the full story at the Fall River Herald News
February 1, 2013 — When previous catch reductions have been rolled out by the New England Fishery Management Council, fishermen have reacted with some degree of anger.
This time, though, the council's announcement of a stiff drop in the allowable catch of cod and other groundfish has been met by many on the Cape with something else: resignation.
Fisherman Greg Walinski of Dennisport was one who saw this coming, but he said there's more to the problem than just overfishing.
A year ago, Walinski and his crew caught 2,000 to 5,000 pounds of groundfish during a typical trip to the Gulf of Maine. This year, on the same 35-foot boat, they average about 1,000 pounds per haul.
Over Walinski's three decades in the business, cod and haddock from Georges Bank and, more recently, the Gulf of Maine were typically where he made his living.
But that's changed.
"There are not a lot of fish around," he said, calling the reason for the dearth a "complex issue" — including global warming, overfishing and a huge seal population feasting on the fish.
So, Walinski said, while a drastic drop in groundfish quotas set by New England fishing regulators this week will hurt, the lack of fish to catch is the problem.
The quota reductions will "put a lot of people out of business, but they are going to be out of business regardless of the cuts," said Walinski, who's changed his focus to bluefin tuna and dogfish.
"I know everyone else is going to do the same thing," he said. "Either that or go out of business."
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times
SCARBROUGH, Maine — February 1, 2013 — The current licensing system and marketing to increase demand for lobsters were hot topics discussed at a public forum with local lobstermen.
Scarborough Town Hall chambers were filled with lobstermen on Jan. 23, some of them with their spouses, who were interested in talking about the future of the lobster industry.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources initiated the discussion that was the 10th of 16 the department has planned.
“I am here to listen,” said Patrick Keliher, commissioner for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “We want to discuss short-term and long-term strategies.”
Keliher said the gathering was not a hearing and not a regulatory meeting.
“This is an open conversation about specific issues. Nothing has a bill or regulation attached to it. Nothing we talk about today would impact you in this coming season,” Keliher said.
Keliher said he was prompted to organize the discussions after he received numerous calls last summer with requests for him to slow down the fishery and do something about the dwindling boat price. Boat price is the price per pound for lobster paid to fishermen.
“My authority lies in resource protection propagation and health as it relates to resources. I should not have authority to impact markets,” Keliher said, adding that boat prices for lobster have been dropping since 2008 and hit an all-time low last summer.
Read the full story at the Scarborough Leader
January 30, 2013 — The New England Fishery Management Council met Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to approve major cutbacks that would likely cripple Maine's fishing industry.
The council approved 77% cuts to the cod stock in the waters of the Gulf of Maine. That's a drastic cut in the amount that fishermen can haul.
Top fishing regulators acknowledge the cuts will devastate the industry in New England but they say there's little they can do to prevent them. They say they are bound by law to reduce overfishing. They say Cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine and George's Bank are alarming low with no signs of rebounding.
If the cuts for this year Cod catch limits had been reduced by 80-percent, that would limit fishermen to 1249 metric tons. It wasn't that long ago that fishermen would be hauling in 8000 metric tons.
View the video and read the full story at WLBZ
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — January 30, 2013 — The New England Fishery Management Council passed a 77 percent, three-year cut in catch limits for Gulf of Maine cod on Wednesday, and is considering cuts of up to 70 percent for other species.
Fishermen said the drastic catch limits will destroy the industry and the proposals are based on flawed science.
“The economic disaster that’s coming doesn’t need to happen,” said Paul Vitale, who fishes off Gloucester, Mass. “I’ll be going bankrupt. That’s the plan.”
Vitale said he would rather see the groundfishing industry shut down completely while studies are done, rather than let it limp along with severe catch limits.
Chris Chadwick, who fishes off Gloucester and Marblehead, Mass., said reducing the quotas hurts his family.
“I think this is unfair. All I’m trying to do is support my family. Reducing the quotas reduces my child’s ability to go to college,” Chadwick said.
Read the full story at the Kennebec Journal
January 30, 2013 — The first listening session will be held in Manteo, North Carolina on February 11 at the North Carolina Aquarium. The second listening session will be held on February 12 following the first day of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Hampton, VA. Click here for a full Council meeting agenda.
During this informal discussions Mr. Bullard would like to hear from stakeholders about the major issues currently facing the fishing industry and thoughts on how a successful industry would be structured.
For more information, contact Olivia Rugo at olivia.rugo@noaa.gov or 978-675-2167
Monday, February 11, 2013 4:00 – 6:00 PM
North Carolina Aquarium, Roanoke Island
374 Airport Road, Manteo, NC
AND
Tuesday, February 12, 2012 5:00 – 6:00 PM
Embassy Suites
1700 Coliseum Drive , Hampton, VA
Members of the fishing industry and other stakeholders are invited to attend public listening sessions in North Carolina and Virginia with John Bullard, the NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator for the Northeast Region.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — January 30, 2013 — Mayor Jon Mitchell is asking fishing regulators in the Northeast to get aggressive about softening the blow of quota cutbacks for cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder.
Mitchell sent a letter Monday to the New England Fishery Management Council, which is meeting this week in Portsmouth, N.H., with several strong suggestions, including finding out why groundfish regulation has admittedly failed.
He supported the request of the Massachusetts congressional delegation that NOAA immediately identify ways that the fishing industry can be helped under the Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs fishing regulation.
"More than at any other point in memory, the fishing industry needs the government to do everything in its power to prevent or mitigate the impact of the impending cuts," Mitchell wrote. Action must be taken, he said, "to keep the industry alive."
The council's agenda for today is exclusively the groundfish issue. Alarmingly low stock assessments have prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to propose quota cutbacks of as much as 86 percent in the fishing year beginning May 1. Quota that low would end fishing, say fishermen.
Those assessments have been challenged, but NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard stood by them in a letter to the council last week. The letter was to deny another round of interim measures pending new assessments, something he said the law does not allow.
Mitchell also asked the council to reconsider its computations about rebuilding targets for groundfish stocks with an eye toward mitigating the impending crisis.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times