Saving Seafood

ASMFC Coastal Sharks Board Approves Addendum V

October 25, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Coastal Sharks Management Board approved Addendum V to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Coastal Sharks. The Addendum allows the Board to respond to changes in the stock status of coastal shark populations and adjust regulations through Board action rather than an addendum, ensuring greater consistency between state and federal shark regulations.

Previously, the FMP only allowed for commercial quotas, possession limits, and season dates to be set annually through specifications. All other changes to commercial or recreational management could only be accomplished through an addendum or emergency action. In instances when addenda were initiated, the timing of when the addenda were completed and state implementation resulted in inconsistencies between state and federal shark regulations, particularly when NOAA Fisheries adopted changes through interim emergency rules.

Moving forward, Addendum V will allow the Board to change a suite of commercial and recreational measures, such as recreational size and possession limits, season length, and area closures (recreational and commercial) in addition to the current specifications for just the commercial fishery, throughout the year when needed. Under this provision, if the Board chooses to adjust measures through Board action, the public will be able to provide comment prior to Board meetings, as well as at Board meetings at the discretion of the Board Chair. Additionally, the Board can still implement changes in shark regulations through an addendum.

In addition, the Board considered proposed federal 2019 Atlantic shark specifications. Similar to recent years, NOAA Fisheries is proposing a January 1 open date for all shark management groups, with an initial 25 shark possession limit for large coastal and hammerhead management groups, with the possibility of in-season adjustments. The Board will set the 2019 coastal shark specifications via an email vote after the final rule is published later this fall.

Addendum V will be available on the Commission’s website (www.asmfc.org) on the Coastal Sharks webpage by the end of October. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootesmurdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

ASMFC 2017 Spring Meeting Supplemental Materials Now Available

May 3, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2017 Spring Meeting are available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2017-spring-meeting for the following Boards/Sections (click on “Supplemental” following each relevant committee header to access the information). For ease of access, supplemental materials for all Boards/Section, with the exception of the South Atlantic Board, have been combined into one PDF.

Atlantic Herring Section – Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; FMP Review; Correspondence Regarding VMS; NEFMNC Comment on Draft Amendment 1; Spawning Closure Protocol; Public Comment

 Tautog Management Board – Summary of Management Options; Draft Amendment 1; MA/RI Proposed Regional Options; Public Comment

 Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board –  Draft Addendum V and Technical Comments on Proposed Options

 Atlantic Menhaden Management Board –  Update on Draft Amendment 3 Development; Allocation Work Group Recommendations on Management Alternatives to include in Draft Amendment 3; Draft Amendment 3; NY menhaden landings Recalibration; Lenfest Correspondence; Public Comment

 Executive Committee – Memo on Advisory Panel Members Serving as Board Proxies and Chair Term Limits

 Coastal Sharks Management Board – NOAA Fisheries HMS Presentation on Amendment 5b

 Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board and MAFMC – Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; Correspondence from CT Charter and Party Boat Association & RI Party and Charter Board Association; Summer Flounder Recreational Management White paper; Technical Committee Report on Black Sea Bass Recreational Data; Public Comment

 ISFMP Policy Board – Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview

 Business Session – Revised Agenda

 South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board – Atlantic Croaker Benchmark Stock Assessment & Peer Review Reports and Spot Benchmark Stock Assessment & Peer Review Reports

Study finds preliminary recovery of coastal sharks in southeast U.S.

February 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science:

A new analysis of population trends among coastal sharks of the southeast U.S. shows that all but one of the 7 species studied are increasing in abundance. The gains follow enactment of fishing regulations in the early 1990s after decades of declining shark numbers.

Scientists estimate that over-fishing of sharks along the southeast U.S. coast—which began in earnest following the release of Jaws in 1975 and continued through the 1980s—had reduced populations by 60-99% compared to un-fished levels. In response, NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service in 1993 enacted a management plan for shark fisheries that limited both commercial and recreational landings.

Now, says lead scientist Cassidy Peterson, a graduate student at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, “We’ve shown that after over two decades of management measures, coastal shark populations are finally starting to recover and reclaim their position as top predators, or regulators of their ecosystem. Our research suggests we can begin to shift away from the era of  ‘doom and gloom’ regarding shark status in the United States.”

Joining Peterson in the study, published in the latest issue of Fish and Fisheries, were VIMS professor Rob Latour, Carolyn Belcher of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Dana Bethea and William Driggers III of NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and Bryan Frazier of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

he researchers say their study based on modeling of combined data from 6 different scientific surveys conducted along the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico between 1975 and 2014 provides a more accurate and optimistic outlook than previous studies based on commercial fishery landings or surveys in a single location.

“Data from shark long-lining operations or shark bycatch can be suspect,” says Peterson, “because what looks like a change in abundance might instead be due to changes in fishing gear, target species, market forces, or other factors.”

Research surveys are scientifically designed to remove these biases. Survey crews purposefully sample a random grid rather than visiting known shark hot spots, and strive to use the exact same gear and methods year after year to ensure consistency in their results.

But even with these safeguards, data from a single survey often aren’t enough to capture population trends for an entire shark species, whose members may occupy diverse habitats and migrate to different and far-flung areas depending on age and sex.

Read the full report at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science