State and Local

Several bills relating to commercial striped bass fishing have been filed in the Massachusetts state legislature. Most notable are Senate bills 337 and 392, and House bills 260 and 1145, which would outlaw commercial bass fishing entirely. Below is the complete list of bills being considered, along with a brief summary of their purpose.

Senate Bills:

S00336 – The bill calls for long-term research into the levels of contaminants in striped bass. The Department of Public Health will publish the results annually and issue warnings and labeling as necessary.

S00337 – The bill would eliminate the commercial harvesting and sale of wild striped bass in Massachusetts, and would set limits on the recreational striped bass catch.

S00364 – Similar to S00336, the bill would require research into striped bass contaminants, with appropriate labeling from the Department of Public Health.

S00365 – The bill requires that the management of the commercial striped bass fishery be governed by the following set of factors: “the prevention of overfishing, the rebuilding of overfished stocks, the impact of these proposed rules and regulations on the economic value of the recreational catch, the impact on the economy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the impact on tax revenues generated for the Commonwealth by the recreational fishery from the sales, meals, hotel/motel, fuel and income taxes.”

S00391 – Like S00336 and S00364, the bill would require research into striped bass contaminants, with appropriate labeling from the Department of Public Health.

S00392 – The bill outlaws the commercial harvesting and sale of wild striped bass, sets limits for the recreational bass fishery, and establishes penalties for violations of either regulation.

S00393 – The bill requires that the striped bass commercial fishery be managed to the same guidelines presented in S00365.

House Bills:

H00258 – The bill requires management of the commercial striped bass fishery based on criteria identical to those proposed in S00365 and S00393.

H00259 – Similar to several Senate bills, the bill requires research into contaminants in striped bass, with appropriate labeling from the Department of Public Health.

H00260 – The provisions of the bill are similar to S00337 and S00392, and eliminate the commercial harvesting of wild striped bass in Massachusetts, and sets limits on the recreational bass fishery.

H01145 – Similar to H00260, the bill eliminates the commercial bass fishery in Massachusetts and establishes recreational catch limits.

 

A bill working its way toward the governor's desk to be signed into law would require that any fish or other baits that are not a natural part of a lobster's diet be approved before they're lowered into Maine waters.

The Legislature's Marine Resources Committee unanimously endorsed the bill and it reached the House floor last week. It is expected to be approved by both the House and Senate.

The search for new lobster baits has gone on for decades, but it intensified in recent years as shortages of herring, the bait of choice for lobsters and lobstermen, grew more acute. Lobster bait may seem like a lowly topic for the Legislature, but it's a big problem, considering Maine's $300-million-a-year lobster industry uses 100,000 metric tons of bait each year.

Maine already has some laws against baiting traps with unwanted "stuff," such as the hides of deer, moose and other animals. The issue there was more a concern about public perception than any threat to lobsters, which tend to eat most anything. There is an exception for a hairless, rawhide type of bait.

Read the complete story from The Portland Press Herald

 

 

 

 

 

HALLOWELL, Maine — Maine's new top fisheries official is vowing to grow the economic value of the state's oldest industry, commercial fishing, and the coastal communities that rely on the ocean.

The value of the state's seafood harvest ranges from $350 million to $450 million each year and contributes three or four times that much in economic activity to Maine.

Patrick Keliher, who was sworn in Jan. 26 as the Department of Marine Resources commissioner, thinks those numbers can go up. While protecting the fisheries resources has to be the No. 1 priority — no fish, no fishermen — Keliher more can be done to promote seafood and give fishermen flexibility so they can maximize the value of their catch.

While the value of the catch typically tops $400 million, there is no price tag to measure the industry's value to Maine, he said.

Read the complete interview on CBSNews.com

 

 

 

 

 

NARRAGANSETT — Officials are considering a ban on herring pair-trawling in state waters.

Galilee fishermen have called the vessels, most which approach the state’s maximum 165-foot commercial fishing vessel limit, too large and incompatible with the operations of the local fleet.

“I have people calling me telling me, ‘Rich, it’s getting out of hand with the pair-trawlers,’” said Rich Fuka, president of the R.I. Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

For years, out-of-state trawlers have targeted Rhode Island waters for Atlantic herring, which funnel into Rhode Island every winter via the Nantucket Sound. This year, warm weather and relatively high water temperatures have kept the herring schools here for longer periods of time.

Read the complete story from The South County Independent

 

 

 

 

 

Damon, who lives in Trenton, is a former state senate chairman of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee and was one of Maine’s three commissioners to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in Washington, D.C.

Damon’s remarks came during a class he is offering through the Acadia Senior College. His five-session series, "The Maine Fisherman," began on Jan. 24 and will run through Feb. 28. It will cover topics such as the progression over time of the fishing mindset; the development of various types of fishing gear and fishing methods; conservation and the environment and what they meant to the future of the fishery and fishermen; and the many regulations proposed or now in place.

Damon said that, in his youth, a fisherman could handline an average of 700 or 800 pounds of groundfish — mostly cod and a little bit of haddock, hake and cusk.

He referenced a term that is commonly used in fisheries management, “catch per unit of effort.”

Read the complete story in The Bar Harbor Times Soup

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — Mayor Jon Mitchell has added his voice to a chorus of disapproval greeting the results of a 2011 survey that concluded cod stocks were teetering on the verge of collapse.

"We need to continue to press NOAA for realistic catch limits so that our industry doesn't contract," Mitchell told The Standard-Times Wednesday.

His comments marked his first major advocacy effort as mayor on behalf of the city's beleagured industry.

"This survey may hurt other ports more than New Bedford but our groundfish boats do go there. I want to be an advocate for every component of the industry," he said.

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times

 

 

 

 

 

HALLOWELL — Maine lobstermen last year caught more than 100 million pounds of lobster, the first time the lobster catch has topped the 100 million-pound mark, the state's top fisheries official said today.

The preliminary catch numbers for 2011 illustrates just how strong the lobster resource remains, Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher told The Associated Press. The previous record of 94.7 million pounds, worth more than $313 million, was set in 2010.

"Based on the sheer number of juvenile lobsters we're seeing on the bottom, whether we'll continue at 100 million it's hard to say, but I think we'll continue to show strong landings for the next several years," he said.

David Cousens, a South Thomaston lobsterman and the longtime president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, remembers when lobstermen were catching 20 million pounds a year. He never imaged the day when the catch would top 100 million pounds.

Read the complete story in The Portland Press Herald

 

 

 

 

 

BOSTON—Massachusetts announced Tuesday that it has set up a $1 million loan fund to help the dwindling number of fishermen with smaller businesses buy the rights to catch more fish.

The new Commercial Fisheries Revolving Loan Fund aims to help fishermen struggling after 2010's transition to a new management system in New England, the Patrick administration said.

That new system allots each fisherman a certain catch limit of each of the bottom-dwelling groundfish species they chase, such as cod, haddock and flounder. The fishermen pool and manage those quotas in groups called "sectors."

Through the sectors, they can buy and lease more quota of a particular species from each other, as needed.

Read the complete Associated Press story by Jay Lindsay in The Boston Globe

 

 

 

 

 

WEST OCEAN CITY, Md. — It’s unlikely you’ll just stumble upon the Maryland coastline’s only commercial fishing harbor.

But it’s there, and it’s moving millions of pounds of seafood. In 2010, more than 8 million pounds of catch, valued at more than $8 million, was harvested by commercial vessels that dock there.

The Ocean City Commercial Harbor is across the U.S. 50 bridge from the resort, in West Ocean City, nestled about a half-mile south of the road hundreds of thousands of people travel annually to get to and from town.

However, unless first-time tourists hear about one of the restaurants or seafood markets surrounding the docks, they’re probably not going to end up in the area.

But get there early enough in the morning and you’ll see the commercial fishing vessels that dock at the harbor venture out to sea. At first light, they snake through the channels where Sinepuxent Bay meets Isle of Wight Bay, through the Ocean City Inlet that separates the resort from Assateague Island and out to the open ocean.

Read the complete story in The Washington Post

 

 

 

 

 

New Jersey has shut down its river herring fishery partly because it does not have the personnel or the funding to collect the data it needs.

That means fishermen who net the herring, mostly for the bait business, can no longer do so. Recreational anglers, including fly fishermen, no longer may target them. If an angler catches a river herring by accident, it now must be thrown back.

Commercial fishermen who work offshore and land river herring as an accidental by-catch of squid, mackerel and Atlantic herring operations, also cannot sell them in New Jersey.

State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin closed the fishery in state waters Thursday, said Brandon Muffley, head of the state Bureau of Marine Fisheries.

Read the complete story from The Press of Atlantic City