Opinion

January 13, 2015 — It was good to see U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey give high priority last week to the Massachusetts and Northeast groundfishing crisis.

Penning a letter to NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, the date of the correspondence shows that Massachusetts two senators didn’t even wait until the first session of the new Congress convened last Tuesday, Jan. 6. The Warren-Markey letter was written and sent the day before, on Jan. 5, and we can only hope that sends Sullivan and other NOAA officials a message regarding the urgency of fishermen’s plight.

More importantly, however, was the letter’s content. In posing their questions to Sullivan, Warren and Markey targeted the issues at the very core of the current dispute over the latest NOAA regulatory actions. Those are questions over the validity of the science that has led to the new area closures decreed by NOAA northeast administrator John Bullard in November, and the timing and justification for carrying out the unscheduled stock assessment that produced the controversial data in the first place.

”It is our understanding that the stock assessment update was unscheduled and was conducted outside of the established procedure for conducting such updates,” Warren and Markey wrote. “What factors caused NOAA to initiate the unscheduled stock assessment update? Why did NOAA choose to conduct this update in a way that did not follow the normal procedure for stock assessment updates?”

The senators also questioned why the results of the updated cod assessment were released before the data had been fully peer-reviewed — and the challenged why NOAA didn’t release the full draft report until two weeks after the results were reported.

Read the full editorial piece from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

January 12, 2015 — There are many promising signs, both anecdotally and scientifically, that menhaden numbers are increasing, rather than declining.

The Star Democrat’s coverage of rockfish harvest cuts (“Panel orders rockfish reduction,” 11/11) contains several statements from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Bill Goldsborough that misrepresent the relationship between menhaden and striped bass (“rockfish”), and the status of menhaden itself.

According to Mr. Goldsborough, a decline in menhaden is contributing to malnutrition in rockfish, and that further action by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is required to address these “food web issues.” A link has never been established between bacterial infections in bass and a lack of menhaden, and the historical evidence shows that menhaden and striped bass have seldom been abundant in the Bay at the same time.

Read the full opinion at The Star Democrat

 

January 12, 2015 — "If decision makers do not use balanced and reasonably correct information in the development of conservation policy, we cannot hope to emerge intact from our current sustainability crises."

In “Where Have All the Cod Gone” (New York Times, Jan. 2) history professor W. Jeffrey Bolster claims that the “… recent ban on cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) was an important step toward restoration.” He thinks that the present low levels of cod in the Gulf of Maine are the “tragic consequence of decision makers’ unwillingness to steer a precautionary course in the face of environmental uncertainties” and that “decisions could have been made to exploit fish stocks more sustainably” over the last 150 years. He states “overfishing has been the norm for a very long time."

But Bolster’s analysis is an oversimplification and a misunderstanding of this important conservation issue. And in a broader sense, it is symptomatic of how we misunderstand and oversimplify our conservation and sustainability issues, and how this limits our ability to develop efficient and cost-effective solutions.

There is a lot at stake! We need to understand that practical solutions require a reasonably accurate understanding of what we know and what we do not know. Faulty assumptions can easily engender unrecoverable societal costs. If decision makers do not use balanced and reasonably correct information in the development of conservation policy, we cannot hope to emerge intact from our current sustainability crises.  

The state of the Gulf of Maine cod makes an excellent case study concerning the sustainability of our fish resources. So let’s ask three critical questions: 1) how reflective is the GOM cod of fisheries management in general; 2) is there a GOM cod stock; and 3) has the decline of the GOM cod really been caused by “massive nets dragged along the bottom that snared every fish in their path”(as stated by Bolster — a point in fact, the efficiency of trawl nets is closer to 30 percent than 100 percent)?  

Read the full opinion piece from the New Bedford Standard-Times    

 

January 7, 2015 — Increasing monitoring to 100 percent accountability over the short-term is paramount. There is no time left to waste. The studies and pilot programs in New England, and proven programs elsewhere, are clear about its effectiveness.

The New England cod fishery is on the brink of collapse. For weeks now we have heard from all stakeholders, with some calling for more closures, some less, and others seeking financial aid for fishing families. We’ve even heard a few calling for an all-out ban on cod fishing. But what is missing from much of this conversation are constructive ideas to pave a path forward for fishermen in New England.

Electronic monitoring is one of those solutions. Recently, our organization, the Environmental Defense Fund, announced a push to advocate for 100 percent monitoring on all boats on the New England waters. Simply put, the information about what fish are being caught, how much is being caught, and how much is being discarded and tossed back into the ocean is incomplete at best. We are operating in the dark, and that means that catch limits are sometimes based on stock assessments that are not accurate. Monitoring plays a crucial role in understanding our oceans and in return, leads to better science, which generates more precise stock assessments and accurate catch limits. Frankly, having an effective monitoring program in place very well could have helped prevent the cod crisis we’re currently in.

Electronic monitoring is not new. In fact, when the New England Groundfish sectors program was implemented in 2010, electronic monitoring was discussed as part of the sector system — specifically for monitoring fish caught, discards and compliance with reporting. The National Marine Fisheries Service was told to create guidelines for approved use of electronic monitoring — guidelines that have yet to be produced.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

January 6, 2015 — Balancing commerce and nature along the Jersey Shore is never easy.

Commerce – especially and ironically the commercial-fishing industry and the marinas and bait-and-tackle shops that cater to recreational fishermen – is often at odds with efforts to enhance and maintain the coastal ecosystem.

It's hard, if not impossible, to make everyone happy.

But in the debate over rules to protect winter flounder, Ernie Utsch, co-owner of Utsch's Marina in Cape May Harbor, is right.

Utsch, other marina owners and the owner of the Lund's Fisheries commercial-fishing dock in Cape May Harbor are fighting a designation that makes the manmade harbor an "essential fish habitat" for winter flounder, a separate species from the better known summer flounder or fluke.

The New England Fishery Management Council sets winter-flounder rules from New England to the Mid-Atlantic. The rules prohibit dredging, some beach-replenishment work and other marine projects from Jan. 1 to May 31, when winter flounder are laying eggs on ocean and bay bottoms.

Read the full Editorial from the Press of Atlantic City

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — January 6, 2015 — 2015 is going to be a much tougher year than expected in the seafood industry. This was brought home this morning by headlines about economic turmoil in Europe.

We are continuing our experiment of putting our observations on the news into a separate column, instead of including them with our daily news summary.  Also we are trying different names/headers.

2015 is going to be a much tougher year than expected in the seafood industry.  This was brought home this morning by headlines about economic turmoil in Europe.
 
The last few months have been good for the US seafood industry, with a wind at our backs driven largely by the strength of the dollar and the improving US economy.  But that wind is threatening to become a hurricane. 
 
The Euro hit a nine year low against the dollar yesterday, and will be heading even lower.  Meanwhile in Japan, the yen is hovering near 120 to the dollar, and most expect it will soon by at Y 125 per dollar.
 
Lets look at how that may affect shrimp, salmon, and whitefish. 
 
Shrimp prices have been falling for several months, and the market is searching for a price level that will stick.  But a lot of shrimp is priced in dollars, such as from Ecuador, for example, and the weak Euro is going to limit exports. A weak Yen is also cutting shrimp exports to Japan. 
 
That shrimp is going to come to the US, where the economy is better, the currency is stronger.  With more producers targeting the US market we may see too many trying to go through the same door – meaning that the stability we are all looking for in the shrimp market may be harder to find.
 
For those holding any inventory, that is a problem.
 
Salmon prices have come down, but stabilized.  Although salmon markets are globally diversified, the currency shift will bring more European salmon to the US, putting pressure on Chile, and at the same time limiting Chile's sales into Europe and Russia at the margins.   Japan's currency weakness is also a problem for Chilean producers.  Although not as dramatic as shrimp, the US will likely see more salmon in 2015, again as the market with the stongest economy and currency.  As salmon is sold on contract and not held in inventory, but in live pens, the impacts won't be felt by importers, but by Alaskan sellers of wild salmon who will face weaker export markets and more competition in the US market for an expected big wild harvest.
 
Whitefish is also likely to be affected.  European buyers of pollock, and Japanese buyers of roe and surimi, will see the costs of these items climb sharply.  The resulting volume cutbacks will create price volatility.
 
If you think seafood prices cannot fall very much after three good years, look at oil.  Oil went briefly below $50 a barrel yesterday, and is now selling at about half its price of over $100 a barrel seen last June.
 
Seafood is not as commoditized as oil, and a lot of seafood items are 'sticky' in that they have special requirements, niche markets, or complicated production specs that shield them from rapid price changes.   But seafood is not immune to the laws of supply and demand, and all the news today makes me think supply in the US is going to grow substantially, possibly beyond the ability of US consumers to absorb.
 
So, the most difficult time to be a seafood producer or importer is when prices are falling and your current inventory is losing value by the week.  Welcome to 2015.

This editorial originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

December 23, 2014 — Penny Pritzker, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, is expected to appoint a new member to the New England Fishery Management Council before the council’s January meeting.

We would urge the secretary to appoint New Bedford scalloper Charlie Quinn to the post, filling the seat vacated by Tom Dempsey.

Quinn has been scalloping for decades, dragging with his own boat since the age of 18, and has seen the scallop fishery under bad management, good management and great management.

The secretary has two other candidates to consider, but Quinn’s experience and intellect make him the right fit for the council, which is responsible for conservation and management of fishery resources off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Quinn was in Washington, D.C., Monday as the process moves forward. Parts of his resume suggest the appointment should be obvious. He would be the only scalloper on the council, which covers the major New England fishing ports of Portland, Point Judith and Gloucester, in addition to the biggest money port in the U.S., New Bedford, which derives most of its landings from scallops.

Read the full opinion piece from The New Bedford Standard-Times

December 20, 2014 — Initiative sponsors claim conservation as their goal but this initiative isn’t about saving fish, it’s about putting more king salmon in the river for the sport fishery to catch. That’s not conservation. It’s greed.

This selfish effort to ban setnets hits home for me: My wife is my business partner; my two teen-age children are members of our commercial-fishing crew. Our business, our income, our investment in boats, motors, equipment, land, shore leases and gear would all be rendered valueless because a small group of well-financed, dishonest people want all the fish. It has taken the joy out of fishing and replaced it with fear for the future of this valuable, rich and colorful fishery.

In 2013, the average king harvested in the East Side Setnet fishery was very small; more than 75 percent weighed about 10 pounds or less. These three- and four-year-old kings are not valued by the sport fishery, which targets and retains only large kings.

That same year, the ESSN fishery harvested 2,988 king salmon. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s genetic stock identification studies, approximately 2,300 of these were Kenai River late-run king salmon. Only 715 were large kings the sport fishery desires.

Based on data from 1986-2011, the Kenai River sport fishery harvests about 22 percent of the total annual king run. If the ESSN fishery had been eliminated and those additional 715 large kings had entered the Kenai River, only about 157 fish would have been caught by sport-fishermen.

Read the full opinion piece at the Peninsula Clarion

December 19, 2014 — President Obama's decision to permanently protect Alaska's Bristol Bay and adjacent lands from oil and gas drilling is so clearly the correct decision that the only objections will come from those whose sole interest is the welfare of those two energy industries.

The area in southern Alaska is home to walrus, sea otters and several kinds of whales, grizzly bears, wolverines and many other species. It's a popular tourist attraction too. But perhaps above all, Bristol Bay is the nation's fishing net, just as California's Central Valley is the nation's food basket. Forty percent of the wild seafood consumed in the United States comes from the bay, which has the world's largest sockeye salmon run, a sign of a particularly well-managed fishery.

The combined economic contribution of fishing and tourism in the region outstrips by many times over the total amount that oil and gas exploration would provide. That makes the president's decision economically sound as well as environmentally important.

Read the full editorial at the LA Times

 

December 16, 2014 — Many environmentalists focus solely on “overfishing,” and repeat that word like a mantra, but I (and others) believe that the real problem is climate change. Fishermen have been telling me for the past few years about rising water temperatures. Fish like cod simply can't survive in warmer waters, and move to colder areas.

A "shout out" to Paul Greenberg for a very thought-provoking piece in the New York Times this past Sunday. The article, “Can Seafood be Kosher and Sustainable?” got me thinking about the critical issues facing our fisheries in Massachusetts and the Gulf of Maine.

Unfortunately, quotas and fishing moratoriums have nearly brought the Massachusetts dayboat fishery to its knees. Many captains have either thrown in the towel or decided that they can only afford to be part time fishermen. Next year is shaping up to be much worse, quota-wise. This is truly a shame, as the infrastructure of the industry is being destroyed almost overnight.

Read the full opinion piece at the Boston Herald