Saving Seafood

Chesapeake Bay dead zone ‘smallest’ it’s been since 1985

December 2, 2023 — The “dead zone” in the Chesapeake Bay is the smallest it has been since recording began in 1985, according to new data from Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Old Dominion University and Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

The dead zone is the area in which there is a relative low amount of oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia. Typically, this means that polluted runoff has brought in phosphorus and nitrogen, which feeds growth of algal blooms. These blooms eventually die and decompose, removing oxygen from the surrounding waters faster than it can be replenished. Animals such as crabs, oysters and fish need healthy levels of oxygen in the water to survive.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported dissolved oxygen levels in the Chesapeake Bay were “much better” than past years. The department reported the dead zone averaged 0.52 cubic miles from May to October this year, compared with the historical average of 0.97 cubic miles.

VIMS reported a dead zone of 0.58 cubic miles. The institute reported that hypoxia began earlier than usual, in April, but it remained “uncharacteristically low” from June until ending in late-September. The relatively early end resulted from cooling temperatures in September and strong winds during Tropical Storm Ophelia.

Read the full article at the Virginian Pilot

MARYLAND: Following worrying rockfish population data, Maryland looks to cancel spring trophy season for 2024

November 30, 2023 — After five straight years of troubling data on the population of young rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland officials plan to enact emergency regulations canceling this spring’s trophy season for recreational anglers.

The rules would eliminate the once exciting two weeks each spring when anglers targeted large fish swimming up the bay to spawn. But this period had been delayed from April into May in recent years in an effort to protect the spawning fish, which diminished its allure.

“That’s the time when Maryland fishermen have access to what is essentially a large, oceanic fish,” said Lynn Fegley, director of fishing and boating services at Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. “But given the very low recruitment—baby striped bass numbers—we’ve had successively over the last few years, we are moving to just give the fish a break.”

The emergency rules were spurred by a troubling so-called young-of-the-year survey, released in October, that found juvenile striped bass numbers in the Chesapeake Bay at their second-worst result since the survey began in the 1950s. It marked the fifth successive year showing numbers well below the historical average.

Under the new rules proposed by the department, Chesapeake Bay anglers wouldn’t be able to catch and keep rockfish, also known as striped bass, until May 16 next year. In the Susquehanna Flats, located at the mouth of the Susquehanna River near Perryville, Maryland’s newly proposed rules would push back the start date until June 1.

State officials said that the delayed opening in the flats, where many striped bass end their journeys from the Atlantic Ocean to spawn, is an attempt to further protect large adult fish lingering in the sprawling underwater grass beds near the Susquehanna, so they can produce more young

Read the full article at PHYS.org

Researchers: Blue Catfish Stomach Contents Suggest Large Impact On Crab, Menhaden

November 29, 2023 — In terms of appetite and willingness to gorge on just about anything, blue catfish have few peers in the Chesapeake Bay, experts say.

“They’re eating everything, anything they can get their mouths around,” said Noah Bressman, a fish biologist at Salisbury University in Maryland.

Now, a clearer picture is emerging of their ecological toll. Two new studies based in tidal rivers on opposite sides of the Bay show that the invasive species is gobbling up prized native aquatic life, such as menhaden and blue crabs, at high rates.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

VIRGINIA: Converted deck lugger is a winner for Chesapeake oyster growers

November 23, 2023 — Back in the October 2021 issue of National Fisherman, the 96’ x 24’ x 7’ Hopeful Harvest was featured as a converted Oil Supply Vessel (OSV) arriving from Bayou La Batre, Ala. to work as a Chesapeake Bay oyster planter.

“The 7-foot draft just did not make the boat workable for us,” says Jeff Kellum of W.E. Kellum Seafood of Weems, Va. “We have a lot of shallow oyster grounds that the boat simply could not get on. Since the boat would not work, this meant another year of me going back and forth to the Gulf to find and convert another boat.”

 Kellum found a 66’ x 26’ x 5’ deck lugger tug boat that had been used in the inland oil business, and named it Replenisher. Cobra Management and Dry Dock Services (CMDDS) in Houma, La. was hired to convert it into a Chesapeake Bay oyster planter.

When Kellum found her, the boat had not left the dock in five years and parts had been taken off her and used on other boats. “We really did not have to do a lot of work on the hull,” says Kellum. “There was some steel work done in the bow and we replaced the bulwarks,” he says.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: US state of Virginia could reopen its winter blue crab harvest

October 25, 2023 — The U.S. state of Virginia is reportedly considering whether to reopen its winter blue crab harvest – fifteen years after the fishery was closed.

In 2007, Virginia closed its winter blue crab dredge fishery season for the first time to rebuild the Chesapeake Bay’s crab population. The drop in population was enough that in 2008 the U.S. Department of Commerce declared a commercial fishery disaster for the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery – the first time the crab fishery had received such a designation.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

VIRGINIA: State study on menhaden in Chesapeake Bay would cost $2.6 million

October 25, 2023 — Following legislation this past session that required the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to determine how long a study on the Atlantic menhaden population in the Chesapeake Bay would take and how much it would cost, the results are in: at least three years and $2.6 million, if everything were done simultaneously.

Recreational anglers who want to limit Omega Protein – the lone reduction fishery that catches the nutrient-rich menhaden for fishmeal and oil – have called for science to show that the company’s hauls are hurting the striped bass population that feeds on menhaden.

The company, at the same time, said their Reedville-based operations provide jobs and there’s no science to show they are hurting menhaden numbers and the greater ecosystem.

The study is the closest step toward information that both sides have sought during the debate on how restrictive Chesapeake Bay menhaden fishing regulations should be.

Read the full article at Virginia Mercury

New striped bass fishing curbs eyed amid poor spawning in Chesapeake Bay

October 22, 2023 — Acting on the heels of poor striped bass spawning reported again in the Chesapeake Bay, East Coast fisheries managers are considering new catch restrictions aimed at curbing the decline of the highly sought-after migratory fish.

At its annual meeting in North Carolina, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s striped bass board voted Oct. 18 to seek public comment on a suite of conservation measures that could be imposed starting in 2024.

The “draft addendum” to the commission’s striped bass fishery management plan lays out options for setting a variety of limits on the number and size of fish that anglers could catch in the Bay and along the coast. It also proposes reducing the commercial harvest quota by up to 14.5%, on par with the reduction sought in the recreational fishery.

The commission, which represents state fishery managers from along the coast as well as federal agencies, will hold a series of hearings and take public comments in writing on the plan over the next two months.  It intends to choose among the options and take final action at its next meeting in January in Arlington, VA.

The commission vote came less than a week after the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported that its annual seine survey of state waters for juvenile fish yielded an average of just 1.02 little striped bass per net haul, far below the long-term average of 11.1. That is the second lowest tally since 1957. It also marks the fifth straight year of seriously subpar reproductive success for the species.

Read the full article at Bay Journal

New fish spill cleanup boats on Chesapeake Bay

August 23, 2023 — Omega Protein’s last menhaden net tear on Chesapeake Bay has led to the firm designing and building a new clean-up vessel called a “skimmer boat.” It is designed to rapidly pick up dead fish on and below the surface of the water.

The 20’ x 8’ aluminum garvey-style boat was designed and built by Lambert Walker of Reedville, Va., who retired from Omega in 2013. Walker was asked to come out of retirement to build a new boat. Before he had retired, he had built a similar boat for the same type of use.

Walker, 72, says he is “just an old welder.”  He is an old welder and much more.  Walker started working in the companies’ metal shop in 1973, when Omega Protein was then known as Zapata Haynie Corporation.

His boatbuilding skills and knowledge have come from 40 years of building aluminum purse seine boats and handling maintenance needs on the companies’ equipment and on Omega’s steel hull fishing vessels.

“I just took out my scale rule, drew it up and welded it together,” he says modestly. “It is a nice little boat, and it will meet the need when it is necessary.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Wittman leads House members in legislation to protect Chesapeake Bay

July 23, 2023 — The Chesapeake Bay SEEE Act would help protect the watershed, improve ecosystem management and increase environmental stewardship opportunities.

Congressman Rob Wittman of Virginia, U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland, Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Virginia and Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia reintroduced the Chesapeake Bay Science, Education and Ecosystem Enhancement (SEEE) Act today.

“The Chesapeake Bay is integral to our way of life in Virginia’s 1st District and conserving our coastal and marine ecosystems has remained one of my top priorities,” Wittman, co-chair of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force, said. “I am proud to join my colleagues in this effort to expand environmental education opportunities, boost state and local restoration efforts and provide NOAA with the resources it needs to protect this national treasure.”

Read the full article at Augusta Free Press