Saving Seafood

Alaska fishermen push for changes to how managers deal with bycatch

October 9, 2019 — Halibut catches fluctuate based on the ups and downs of the stock from California to the farthest reaches of the Bering Sea. If the numbers decline, so do the catches of commercial and sport fishermen.

But similar reductions don’t apply to the boats taking millions of pounds of halibut as bycatch in other fisheries.

In the Bering Sea, for example, there is a fixed cap totaling 7.73 million pounds of halibut allowed to be taken as bycatch for trawlers, longliners and pot boats targeting groundfish, with most going to trawlers. The cap stays the same, regardless of changes in the halibut stock. Much of the bycatch gets tossed over the side, dead or alive, as required by federal law.

Stakeholders are saying it is time for that to change.

This month, after four years of analyses and deliberation, managers are moving toward a new “abundance based” management plan that would tie bycatch levels to the health of the halibut stock as determined by annual surveys.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

From the sea to the food insecure: Seafood ‘gleaning’ program begins in N.J.

September 27, 2019 — Several pantries, soup kitchens, and a women’s shelter in New Jersey are the beneficiaries of fresh seafood thanks to a pilot program that began in August.

At a press conference in Point Pleasant Beach last week, Fulfill (formerly The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties), America’s Gleaned Seafood of Lavallette, and Trinity Seafood of Lakewood announced the New Jersey Seafood Gleaning Pilot Program.

The growing movement seeks to increase food security and reduce food waste by utilizing the approximately 20 percent of seafood that is discarded by United States fisheries annually for consumption.

“Gleaning is an important tool in the fight against hunger. Perfectly good fish are routinely getting thrown overboard or worse — thrown in a dumpster. What a waste, especially considering one in ten people don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” said Fulfill CEO and President Kim Guadagno, New Jersey’s former Lieutenant Governor, at the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach.

Read the full story at WHYY

Gleaned Seafood brings bycatch to the needy

September 23, 2019 — A pilot project to give commercial fishing bycatch to the hungry officially launched Friday in New Jersey, where the America’s Gleaned Seafood volunteer program and Trinity Seafoods have made the first deliveries.

“They have a lot of leftover fish they can’t use. But its’s perfectly good fish,” said Kim Guadagno, the CEO and president of Fulfill, a nonprofit regional food bank, at a media conference at the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.

After more than two years of careful organizing, gleaning advocates made the first deliveries in August, moving 2,300 pounds of unregulated species — mostly cownose and bat rays — that were processed and frozen into 630 pounds of kitchen-ready product at Trinity’s facility in Lakewood, N.J., said company president Mike Carson.

The fish went to several pantries, soup kitchens and a women’s shelter. St. Mark’s Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen in Keansburg, N.J. was one of the first users, where its chef used ray as the basis for cioppino, an Italian-style fish stew.

The fish were well-received by users, and will help fill a chronic shortage for food banks, said Guadagno, a former New Jersey lieutenant governor.

Fulfill serves Monmouth and Ocean counties on the New Jersey coast, where “136,000 people will go to bed tonight not knowing where they’re next meal is coming from. Fifty thousand of them are children,” she said. “I can’t keep enough protein on the shelf. This fish is a found source of protein.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Regulators approve new swordfish gear that’s safer for whales, turtles

September 19, 2019 — A new type of fishing gear designed to catch swordfish while reducing harm to other animals received approval from fishery regulators Monday.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council authorized initial use of deep-set buoy gear, which minimizes catch of non-target species, including marine mammals and sea turtles. At its September meeting in Boise, Idaho, the council voted to issue 50 permits for the new gear, and to add up to 25 additional permits per year after that, up to a maximum of 300 total permits.

Most swordfish off the California coast are currently caught at night, using mile-long, large-mesh drift gillnets, which are set overnight, and often ensnare other fish species, sharks, sea lions, dolphins and whales.

The new, deep-set buoy method using lines allows fishermen to drop hooks into deeper waters where swordfish forage during the day, catching the prized fish without ensnaring other animals. Because the swordfish are retrieved more quickly, the catch is fresher and commands higher prices at market, proponents say.

Read the full story at The San Diego Union-Tribune

Whale entanglements along West Coast drop by nearly half

September 9, 2019 — A conservation group says the number of whales entangled in crab fishing gear along the West Coast dropped by nearly half this year after a lawsuit settlement ended California’s commercial Dungeness crab season early.

The Center for Biological Diversity says preliminary data released by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows 18 whale entanglements were reported in the first eight months of this year, down from 42 reports during that same period in 2018. The majority of entangled whales were spotted off California.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Atlantic Herring Eastern Maine Spawning Closure in Effect Starting August 28, 2019 through October 8, 2019

August 27, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Atlantic herring Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine, and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure. However, if sufficient samples are not available then closures will begin on predetermined dates.

There is currently no samples for the Eastern Maine spawning area to determine spawning condition. Therefore, the Eastern Maine spawning area will be closed starting at 12:01 a.m. on August 28, 2019 extending through 11:59 p.m. on October 8, 2019. The fishery is currently at zero landing days, and the states will notify fishermen of the spawning closure as soon as possible. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land, or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Eastern Maine spawning area during this time and must have all fishing gear stowed when transiting through the area. An incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip/calendar day applies to vessels in non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Eastern Maine spawning area.

Eastern Maine spawning area includes all waters bounded by the following coordinates

Maine coast     68° 20’ W
43° 48’ N          68° 20’ W
44° 25’ N         67° 03’ W
North along the US/Canada border

Please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy at 703.842.0740 or krootes-murdy@asmfc.org for more information.

Longline fishing hampering shark migration

August 21, 2019 — Longline fisheries around the world are significantly affecting migrating shark populations, according to an international study featuring a University of Queensland researcher.

The study found that approximately a quarter of the studied sharks’ migratory paths fell under the footprint of longline fisheries, directly killing sharks and affecting their food supply.

Dr Bonnie Holmes, from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, wanted to find out why shark numbers have been declining significantly over the past 20 years.

“We’re losing these incredible creatures, and we know so little about shark movements and what drives them,” she said.

“I joined an international research effort, using new technologies — like satellite tracking and big data analysis — to help answer some critical questions.”

Read the full story at Science Daily

Study finds fishermen who venture to new grounds benefit

August 21, 2019 — In 2009, excessive bycatch of endangered sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a five-month closure of the Gulf’s longline fishery. Boat captains unexpectedly found themselves locked out of prime fishing grounds, and were forced to look elsewhere to make a living.

As it turned out, some captains fared better than others in this endeavor. And their experience has implications for fishermen today who are adapting to changing environmental and regulatory conditions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

DAN MORRIS: Maine Voices: Lobstermen threatened with the extinction of their way of life

August 15, 2019 — The word “extinction” has been thrown around a lot lately by environmental groups that believe that Northern right whales are on the verge of just that. Though right whales number more than 8,000 in the Southern Hemisphere, only 400 to 500 are believed to be in the Northern Hemisphere.

Fishermen, whose only master is Mother Nature, and who have been admired over the years for their tenacity and independence, now have been cast as the villain in the whale story. Large, well-funded, out-of-state environmental groups would have you believe that these whales are going extinct and that Maine fishing gear entanglement is a major reason why.

These groups have proposed things like ropeless fishing and refuse to believe that ideas like this are not practical in Maine. Can you imagine how a fisherman could set his 20- to 30-trap trawl into water 300 to 400 feet deep, not knowing where any of his competitors’ trawls might have been set days before? As if hauling long trawls in deep water isn’t dangerous enough, hauling up one’s trawl with another one or two draped over it can be life-threatening.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Provincetown rescue team frees entangled right whale off Cape Cod coast

August 7, 2019 — On Friday, Aug. 2 the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team (MAER) from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), in collaboration with the Northeastern Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) partially disentangled a North Atlantic right whale, one of only about 400 individuals left, east of Cape Cod.

The entangled whale was initially discovered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, on July 4, 2019 by Transport Canada. Despite a horrific entanglement, the whale was highly mobile. On July 19 it was spotted again by an aerial survey team from NEFSC and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. A response team from New England Aquarium (NEAQ) was in the area and succeeded in attaching a telemetry buoy to the whale to track its movements for disentanglement.

Over the next two weeks the whale traveled east, out of the Gulf, then south, past Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. During that time Canadian disentanglement teams made several attempts to free the animal and were able to make some cuts to its entanglement.

Read the full story at Wicked Local