Saving Seafood

NC commercial, recreational fishermen saw record harvests in 2015

June 22, 2o16 — North Carolina commercial and recreational fisherman reeled in record harvests last year.

Milder weather allowed fishermen to work longer, harvesting more shrimp and hard blue crab in the latter months, according to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

Shrimp landings increased by 94 percent — the highest since 2008. November 2015 shrimp landings increased by 307 percent from November 2014. Hard blue crabs also increased by 23 percent to 31 million pounds.

“We had the best spring shrimp we’ve ever had,” said Phil Guyer, owner of Coastal Seafood and Propane in Leland. “In fact, we saw shrimp in March and our hometown shrimper said that they’ve never caught shrimp in March. We had a really good year.”

While shrimp and crab harvest flourished, other species in the top five — spiny dogfish, summer flounder, Atlantic croaker — plummeted.

Recreational fishermen caught an estimated 10.2 million fish in 2015, 6.8 percent more seafood than in 2014. Fishermen also released 6 percent more fish in 2015 than in 2014.

Similarly, coastal recreational fishing in 2015 also increased substantially. Dolphin, yellowfin tuna, cobia and wahoo were the top five recreational species harvested. Dolphin catches increased by 132 percent, while wahoo rose by 66 percent and cobia rose 62 percent.The increase in dolphin, wahoo and cobia is likely due to the decline of yellowfin tuna harvests, which was down 10.7 percent last year, Marine Fisheries stated in a news release.

Read the full story at the StarNews Online

December 2015/January 2016 Issue of ASMFC Fisheries Focus is Now Available

January 28, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):

The December 2015/January 2016 issue of ASMFC Fisheries Focus is now available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file//56aa587cFishFocusDec15Jan16_web.pdf.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE
 
Upcoming Meetings
page 2

From the Executive Director’s Desk
Looking Back and Reviewing the Year Ahead
page 3

Species Profile
Atlantic Croaker
page 4

ACCSP Launches Redesigned Website
page 9

Science Highlight
Habitat Bottlenecks and Fisheries Management
page 10

On the Legislative Front
page 11

ASMFC Comings & Goings
page 11

Past issues of Fisheries Focus can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/search/%20/%20/Fishery-Focus.

ASMFC Begins Preparations for Joint 2016 Benchmark Stock Assessments for Atlantic Croaker and Spot

ARLINGTON, Va. — June 30, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has begun work on the joint benchmark stock assessments for Atlantic croaker and spot. The spot assessment will be the first coastwide assessment for this species, while the Atlantic croaker assessment will build upon the last benchmark assessment conducted in 2010. The assessments will evaluate the health of Atlantic croaker and spot populations and inform future management of these species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public (with the exception of discussion of confidential data).

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sets that will improve the accuracy of the assessments. These include, but are not limited to data on growth, maturation, migration, genetics, tagging, recruitment, natural mortality, abundance/biomass, and fishery removals. An essential need is data to inform the stock assessments of discards and bycatch in other directed fisheries (e.g., the South Atlantic shrimp trawl fishery). For data sets to be considered at the Data Workshop, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying methods description, to the Commission by August 1, 2015. All available data will be reviewed and vetted by the Atlantic Croaker and Spot Stock Assessment Subcommittee for possible use in the assessments. For those interested in submitting data, please contact Jeff Kipp (jkipp@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740), Stock Assessment Scientist, for details.

The Data Workshop will take place September 21-25, 2015 with the location to be determined.  The assessment workshop and peer review will be conducted in 2016. For more information on the Atlantic croaker and spot stock assessment process, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.