Saving Seafood

KRISTEN MINOGUE: Shark tags reveal an endangered species returning to natural refuge

December 28, 2020 — In the coastal waters of the mid-Atlantic, an endangered shark is making a comeback. Led by former Smithsonian postdoc Chuck Bangley, scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) tagged and tracked nearly two dozen dusky sharks over the course of a year as part of the Smithsonian’s Movement of Life Initiative. They discovered that a protected zone put in place 15 years ago is paying off — but with climate change, it may need some tweaking.

Dusky sharks are what Bangley calls “the archetypal big, gray shark.” Born 3 feet long, as babies, they’re already big enough to prey on some other shark species. But they’re slow-growing. It can take 16 to 29 years for them to mature. If their populations take a hit, recovery can take decades.

An endangered species, duskies aren’t very common in Delaware waters. When they do surface, they’re easily mistaken for sandbar sharks. But in this new study, the Smithsonian tracked dusky sharks swimming past the southern tip of Delaware on their migrations up and down the Atlantic. For conservationists, it’s a sign that protections put in place are slowly starting to pay off.

The sharks’ numbers plummeted in the 1980s and 1990s, when well-intentioned managers offered sharks as an “alternative fishery,” while other stocks, like cod, were collapsing. The overfishing that followed wiped out anywhere from 65% to 90% of the Chesapeake’s duskies, said Bangley, now a postdoc at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Managers banned all intentional dusky shark fishing in 2000. Five years later, they created the Mid-Atlantic Shark Closed Area along the North Carolina coast. The zone prohibits bottom longline fishing, which can ensnare dusky sharks, for seven months of the year.

Read the full story at Delaware State News

Sharks have been a major disruption for fishermen off the Outer Banks this year

June 24, 2017 — Sharks are chomping the catch of the day.

Fishing off the Outer Banks has been great this year, especially with big hauls of tuna. But boat captains are losing up to 20 fish a day to the opportunistic predators.

Able to smell, hear or sense the struggling fish from miles away, sharks come like a pack of wolves. In some cases, anglers are reeling in nothing but the head.

“You can’t even get a fish to the boat,” said Jack Graham, first mate on the Fintastic, a charter boat based at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. “You get a bite and look back and there’s just a big cloud of blood.”

Sharks are taking the catch along with thousands of dollars in fishing gear, he said.

Captains could bring in their boats with the tuna limit by midmorning if not for sharks gobbling the catch, said Carey Foster, mate on the Smoker, also docked at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.

“The last couple of weeks, they’ve been horrible,” he said.

State fishing summaries include reports of sharks preying almost exclusively on tuna catches.

“This is the highest bite rate I’ve seen in 27 years,” said Brian Melott, a port agent for the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. “These bites ain’t small either.”

Melott surveys anglers and collects catch measurements and other data as part of an ongoing fisheries census.

The two primary species attacking are dusky and sandbar sharks, Graham said. Dusky sharks grow up to 14 feet long and are known for their powerful jaws. Sandbar sharks can reach about 8 feet.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

New protections for threatened dusky sharks taking effect

June 7, 2017 — New protections for a species of threatened East Coast shark go into effect this week.

Dusky sharks range from Maine to Florida and are down to about 20 percent of their 1970s population off the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.

The sharks are in decline in part because of years of harvesting them for their meat, oil and fins. It’s already illegal to fish for them off the U.S., but they sometimes get caught as bycatch.

The federal government is rolling out new protections for the shark this week, starting on June 5. One measure requires longline fishing vessels that target fish such as tuna and swordfish to take new precautions when they accidentally catch a dusky shark and release it.

 The environmental group Oceana is suing the federal government for better protection of the sharks. The group contends the new rules to protect dusky sharks don’t go far enough.

Read the Associated Press story at The Gloucester Times 

New rules mandate circle hooks to protect dusky sharks

February 28, 2017 — The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has officially made final some new recreational shark fishing regulations to fulfill a legal obligation they have to provide additional conservation for dusky sharks which will likely take effect in 2018.

The news will probably confuse some anglers who know a thing or two about shark fishing and shark regulations as dusky sharks have been a no-take-prohibited species for more than a decade.

So how could they, and why would they initiate new fishing regulations for a fish anglers are not allowed to fish for in the first place?

The short answer to that question is that according to the (very questionable) catch data that NMFS has to work with, recreational anglers along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico are catching and keeping a fair number of dusky sharks that they mistakenly think are legal species of sharks.

According to NMFS, even though the reported number of dusky sharks harvested is low, they are required by law to do something that will help reduce the mortality of these sharks by the recreational fishery.

Read the full story at DelmarvaNow

Plan for imperiled shark doesn’t please all conservationists

December 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government isn’t going far enough with a plan to protect a threatened shark that lives off the East Coast and has been decimated by the fin trade, some conservationists argue.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing changes to federal fishing rules with the goal of protecting dusky sharks, a large species that is down to about 20 percent of its 1970s population off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico because of commercial fishing for the species that’s now illegal off the U.S.

Dusky sharks were long hunted for their meat and oil, as well as their fins, which are used to make soup in traditional Chinese cooking.

The fisheries service is proposing a suite of new rules for recreational and commercial fishermen designed to protect the shark, which is sometimes still killed via accidental bycatch by fishermen seeking other species. But conservation group Oceana said the rules aren’t strict enough and leave the sharks vulnerable.

Part of the problem is that the plan focuses on accidental catch of the sharks by swordfish and tuna fishermen, and they are often caught by fishermen seeking other species than those, said Lora Snyder, the Oceana campaign director.

“We see this as more of the same,” she said. “They are ignoring fisheries where dusky shark bycatch is happening.”

The government’s proposal is subject to public comment until Thursday. The proposal comes as a result of a legal settlement between the fisheries service in Oceana after the conservation group charged in federal court that the government was taking too long to protect dusky sharks.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CNBC

ASMFC 75th Annual Meeting Details, Preliminary Agenda and Public Comment Guidelines

August 30, 2016 — The following was released by the ASMFC:

Please find below and attached the preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 75th Annual Meeting, which will be held October 23-27, 2016  at the Harborside Hotel in Bar Harbor, Maine. This email contains meeting details, including the preliminary agenda. All of the business meetings scheduled during this week (with the exception of closed sessions) are open to the public, free of charge. However, if you plan on attending any of the Annual Meeting social events, please help us prepare for these events by registering early (see below and attached for more details). Please note the preliminary agenda, which is also available athttp://www.asmfc.org/home/2016-annual-meeting, is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided in the Preliminary Agenda which follows.

Our Maine Commissioners have been working for quite a while now on the meeting details and are looking forward to welcoming you all to Bar Harbor. Surrounded by Acadia National Park and located at the edge of the sea there is a special mystique to Bar Harbor that you have to experience to understand!

ACCOMODATIONS: A block of rooms is being held at the Harborside Hotel (55 West Street, Bar Harbor, ME. Please make your reservations by calling (800)328-5033 as soon as possible to obtain the negotiated room rate of $159.00 plus tax. Hotel reservations must be made before September 26, 2016. Room availability will not be guaranteed beyond this date.  Please be aware that you must guarantee your room reservation with a major credit card or one night’s advance payment and you must notify the hotel of any cancellation prior to 72 hours before arrival or you will be billed one night’s room plus tax. If you have any problems regarding accommodations, please contact Cindy at 703.842.0740 or crobertson@asmfc.org. 

PLEASE NOTE: The negotiated room rate will be available from October 22nd through the 27th.

GETTING TO BAR HARBOR: Bar Harbor is accessible by automobile, plane or boat! The flights into Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport are not plentiful in the latter half of October, but you can get connecting flights from Boston and Portland into Bar Harbor Airport.  Bangor has many flights daily – even some nonstop flights from Washington, D.C., and it is an hour and 15 minutes from Bar Harbor.  Portland has even more flights from up and down the coast, and the drive to Bar Harbor from Portland is 3 hours.

REGISTRATION:  The meeting registration fee is $200/per participant and $150/per spouse or guest if you register by October 17, 2016. After October 17th and in Bar Harbor the fees will be $225 and $175, respectively. The registration fee covers the Sunday night reception, the Tuesday night dinner, and the Wednesday Hart Award Luncheon, as well event materials. Payment is not required until you arrive at the meeting; however, we ask that you please assist us in planning for the meeting by registering as soon as possible. You may register by returning the fillable registration form (by email to lhartman@asmfc.org, fax (703.842.0741, or US mail to 1050 N. Highland Street, Suite 200A-N, Arlington, VA 22201). Once you have registered, payment can be made in several ways (1) check, cash or credit card at the ASMFC Registration Desk at the Annual Meeting; (2) credit card by calling Lisa Hartman at 703.842.0744; or (3) mail a check to ASMFC (address above).  (Please note all board/committee members attending the Annual Meeting will be reimbursed for the full registration fee. However, the additional $25 for late registration fees will not be reimbursed.)