State and Local

May 22, 2012 – State officials are investigating what killed thousands of fish in Marley and Furnace creeks in northern Anne Arundel County, but suspect they suffocated after an algae bloom sucked the oxygen out of the water, a Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman said Tuesday.

Investigators saw an estimated 6,000 dead and apparently dying fish Monday, mostly in Marley Creek but some as well in adjoining Furnace Creek, said MDE spokesman Jay Apperson. There were at least nine different species of fish involved, including Atlantic menhaden, silversides, silvery minnows and sunfish, he said.

The fish apparently suffocated, according to Apperson; investigators measured almost no dissolved oxygen in the water at the time.

The low oxygen levels were likely a byproduct of the algae blooms seen since March along the upper western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and in tributaries, such as the Patapsco River and Marley Creek, Apperson said.

The MDE spokesman said investigators identified Prorocentrum minimum in the water, a type of algae often associated with mahogany or red tides that discolor the water. Though not considered harmful to humans, they can deplete the water of oxygen as they die and decay. The bloom in Marley appeared to be dying back, Apperson said.

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun.

 

 

May 22, 2012 – ATLANTIC CITY– A new Rutgers University study finds polluted stretches of the New Jersey coast are not as bad as scientists once thought.

Marine scientists have studied pollution-sensitive sea creatures on the ocean floor since 2007. They found numbers of types of animals that indicate healthy water conditions.

Researcher Michael Kennish says the study shows dissolved oxygen levels are not the only way to determine the health of coastal waters. While state and federal officials declared New Jersey's near-shore waters as 100 percent impaired in 2004, there were no major die-offs of fish or bottom-dwelling sea creatures.

Watch the video from NBC 40 here.

 

 

May 22, 2012 – MOSS POINT — Omega Protein's pogy boats are a familiar sight in coastal waters, but they are also players in international trade.
Omega Protein operates menhaden fishing fleets in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Atlantic, out of Reedville, Va.

The company's major source of sales by location is Asia, with 45.5 percent of the total, or $95.9 million annually, states a report from Chris Scheinder, head of demand flow for Omega Protein, which is based in Houston.

The other primary sales locations and the percentage of total sales are United States, 34.4 percent; Europe, 12.1 percent; Canada, 6.1 percent; South and Central America, 1.6 percent; and Mexico, 0.3 percent.

The company harvests and processes menhaden, a small, bony and oily fish that traditionally has not been used for human consumption, though they contain a high level of omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega Protein is a nutritional ingredient company and the nation's leading producer of omega-3 fish oil and specialty fish meal products. The company operates four fish processing facilities in the United States and is the largest fishing company in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read the full story at the Mississippi Press.

 

 

May 21, 2012 – The National Marine Fisheries Service released its report to Congress last week on the state of U.S. Fisheries, noting that many stocks have rebounded, though some remain overfished – especially in New England waters.

The report showed six more U.S. fish species once considered overfished rebounded to healthy levels in 2011. That brings the number of rebuilt fish stocks in the past 11 years to 27.

The report also said 45 of 219 fish populations, or 21 percent, are considered overfished. Thirteen of those are in New England, the most of any geographic region.

Here in Alaska, two species of crab, Pribilof Blue Kings and Southern Bering Sea Tanners, are considered overfished, while Walleye Pollock are on the upswing and Bering Sea Snow Crab are declared rebuilt.

Listen to the full story at KMXT.

 

 

May 19, 2012 – Pogies are easily available for anglers and are a hit with gamefish.

While there are times when other baits might produce more or bigger fish, if there is one live bait all Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia coastal anglers should learn to love and fish with, it’s the menhaden.

Known by many colloquial names — pogie, moss bunker and bunker — the menhaden is not only a bait for all seasons, but it definitely is a bait for almost all marine gamefish on the First Coast.

Offshore, everything from sailfish and kingfish, to cobia, blackfin tuna, cudas, sharks, tarpon and wahoo greedily eat menhaden. Inshore, flounder and redfish go nuts for pogies. Sea trout at times go for them (especially big trout). Even bottom feeders like black drum, whiting and croakers can be drawn to a fishing spot by using ground menhaden as chum. Plenty of drum are caught with strips of fresh menhaden cut from large baits.

There are other baits that produce marine sportfish in Northeast Florida, like mud minnows, mullet and cigar minnows. But for availability for anglers, and desirability for gamefish, menhaden are numero uno. Period. Exclamation point.

Read the article at The Florida Times-Union.

 

 

NEW BEDFORD, MA — The New Bedford State Pier warehouses are receiving a much needed lighting upgrade courtesy of two tenants working in conjunction with the New Bedford Department of Public Facilities and the Commonwealth’s DCR Partnering Program. Highliner Events, organizer of Commercial Marine Expo (CME), and Maritime International are funding the nearly $10,000 upgrade that will replace the buildings’ aging lighting and add additional lighting fixtures, with the City and the Commonwealth providing the installation of the new fixtures.

“The existing lighting in the buildings is highly inefficient and extremely noisy, as well,” says CME show director Ted Hugger. “Our exhibitors at CME 2010 told us that standing under the loud buzz of those lights in Building 2 for two days was an unpleasant experience, and made conversations with attendees difficult. The lighting in Building 1 was insufficient, requiring us to rig supplement lighting.

“The community has made significant investments in upgrading the buildings since our first event in 2010, so we decided we’d like to contribute to the building improvements with this lighting upgrade,” Hugger explains. “And when Carlos Rita, facilities manager for storage tenant Maritime International learned of our plans, he offered to partner with us.”

“This is another excellent example of a successful public/private partnership that brings economic development to New Bedford,” says Kenneth Blanchard, Superintendent of Public Works, Department of Public Facilities. Pier Manager Capt. Richard Cunio agrees: “This is a perfect example of how the Commonwealth’s ‘Fix it First’ and DCR’s Partnering program works to the benefit of public, municipal and private concerns.”

The project includes adding eight additional fixtures and replacing 42 existing lights with highly efficient, 6-tube, T8 high-bay fluorescent units. The installation will be completed by the end of May, in time for CME’s return to New Bedford, June 13-14.

 

 

 

 

 

May 11, 2012 – FRIENDSHIP — The sinking of two lobster boats is rekindling memories of hostilities among lobstermen three years ago that led to a near-fatal shooting, boats being sunk and a barrage of lobster trap vandalism along Maine's lobster-rich coast.

Someone this week sabotaged two lobster boats, allowing them to drift free and flood with water before washing ashore in this postcard-pretty harbor. The dispute has shone a light on the unwritten rules of the sea, where fishermen often take matters into their own hands to settle grudges.

Lobstermen for generations have cut trap lines and shouted threats to settle differences over who can set their traps where. In more extreme instances, they've been known to ram boats and fire warning shots into the air.

The vandalism crossed the line late Monday night, when the 28-foot Lobstah Taxi and the 35-foot Fantaseas were sunk. Only a portion of the larger boat's cabin was above water when it was found Tuesday morning on an island outside the harbor. The smaller boat was found on a mainland beach, but escaped serious damage.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald.

 

 

May 9, 2012 – ELLSWORTH, Maine — Even though federal officials are looking into whether elver fishing might be adversely affecting the abundance of American eels, the number of elver fishing licenses in the state of Maine went up by more than 50 percent last week.

But it wasn’t the Maine Department of Marine Resources that issued the 236 new licenses in the middle of the 2012 elver fishing season. It was the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

Licenses have been hotly sought-after this year, with demand for eels in the Far East pushing prices for the juvenile eels above $2,000 per pound. Up until last year, the average annual price Maine fishermen got for elvers had never been higher than $350 per pound.

Officials with Marine Patrol, the law enforcement division of DMR, have said the high price is the reason they’ve been busier than ever this spring with elver fishing violations, most of which have been for people fishing for the small, transparent juvenile eels without licenses. In order to protect the resource, DMR has capped the number of licenses it issues each year at 407.

Elvers are juvenile eels that spawn in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean and then migrate each spring to shore and into freshwater, where they grow into adults that eventually return to sea to breed. Maine fishermen are allowed to catch elvers only along tidal waterways that connect the Gulf of Maine to the state’s lakes and rivers.

DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said Tuesday that the Passamaquoddy decision to issue 236 new licenses last week caught the department by surprise. He said the tribe was given authority by the Legislature in the mid-1990s to issue fishing licenses but, because of the timing of when that authority was granted, there has not been a limit on the number of elver licenses the tribe can give to its members.

Last year, when demand for elvers took off and the average per-pound price soared to nearly $900, he said, the Passamaquoddys issued only two elver licenses. Even though the price consistently has been at least double that this year, DMR did not expect the tribe to issue significantly more licenses than it did in 2011, he said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News.

 

 

May 3, 2012 – A growing buy-local-food movement coupled with increasing awareness of over-harvested fish populations has led foodies and shoppers along the North Carolina coast to seek out sustainable, regionally-harvested seafood in ever larger numbers, retailers and conservation experts say.

But while the rising interest is a positive for conservation efforts, purchasing sustainable seafood remains complicated for the average consumer.

For example, several national grocery store chains, including Whole Foods and Target, recently announced decisions to pare down seafood departments to better comply with national “buyer’s lists.” Distributed by conservation groups, the lists rank different types of seafood based on population levels and overfishing of species, among other things.

But the lists often conflict, and their relevance can vary drastically depending on geographic location, according to Scott Baker, fisheries specialist with N.C. Sea Grant.

“Different groups having different designations for the same species, I think that’s definitely a problem,” he said. “You would assume they’re all using the same data, but I would assume there are different levels of up-to-date-ness.”

Read the full article here.

 

 

May 1, 2012 – Fishing for bunker, or Menhaden, is a lost way of life on the East End of Long Island. But the trade flourished from the late 18th century all the way through the 1960s. And members of the Southold Historical Society have captured this era in a new book entitled "Munnawhatteaug – The Last Days of the Menhaden Industry on Eastern Long Island."

The society’s director Geoffrey K. Fleming and collection manager Amy Kasuga Folk worked on the book, a detailed history of the industry and 200 images of a typical bunker expedition of the 1960s, taken by local photographer and antiquarian book dealer Peter Stevens.

“The images capture the industry in its waning days and provide a glimpse of a lost way of life,” said Folk.

Bunker were used primarily as fertilizer.  Their decomposition helped to replenish the soil, allowing for a better growing season and improved yields.  During the 1800s, anglers could capture over a million fish in a single day using hand-pulled seine nets along the shore.

By the time of the Industrial Revolution, bunker were also being solely sought for their oil. Factories were built on the bayside of the North Fork, where fisherman began using steam powered vessels to capture huge amounts of the fish for processing. Fish would be squeezed for their oil, which had uses as varied as lighting fuel, machine lubricant and as an ingredient in the cosmetics industry.

“The factories made it impossible to live or enjoy the bay,” said Fleming. “The smell during the summer precluded recreational uses until the late 19th century, when the factories were closed and moved to Napeague, near Montauk.”

Read the full article at North Fork Patch.