Saving Seafood

NEFMC SSC – Listen Live – Wednesday, October 25, 2021 – Groundfish Issues

October 18, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will meet by webinar to discuss issues related to groundfish.  The public is invited to listen live.  Here are the details.

WHEN:  Monday, October 25, 2021

START TIME:  9:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.  The Remote Participation Guide is posted here.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8422.  The access code is 206-777-773.  Please be aware that if you dial in using this number without joining the webinar at the link above, you will be unable to speak during opportunities for public comment.  This is a listen-only telephone option.  Your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will meet to:

  • Review recent stock assessment information from the 2021 Groundfish Management Track Assessments and information provided by the Council’s Groundfish Plan Development Team (PDT);
  • Recommend overfishing limits (OFLs) and acceptable biological catches (ABCs) for Georges Bank cod and Gulf of Maine cod for fishing years 2022-2024;
  • Review information presented by the Groundfish PDT and consider recommending revised OFLs and ABCs for Georges Bank haddock and Gulf of Maine haddock for fishing year 2022;
  • Review information presented by the Groundfish PDT and consider recommending revised OFLs and ABCs for white hake under the recently implemented rebuilding plan for this stock; and
  • Consider other business as necessary.

COMMENTS:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 21, 2021.  Address comments to Council Chairman Eric Reid or Executive Director Tom Nies and email them to comments@nefmc.org.  Additional information is available in the meeting notice.

MATERIALS:  All documents for this meeting will be posted on the SSC October 25, 2021 meeting webpage.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492, ext. 101, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Alaska residents’ salmon permits down 50 percent since 1975

October 13, 2021 — The preliminary value to fishermen of the nearly 41 million salmon caught this summer at Alaska’s largest fishery at Bristol Bay is nearly $248 million, 64 percent above the 20-year average. That figure will be much higher when bonuses and other price adjustments are paid out.

But as with the fish bucks tallied from Alaska’s cod, pollock, flounders and other groundfish, the bulk of the Bay’s salmon money won’t be circulating through Alaska’s economy because most of the fishing participants live out of the state.

In 2017, for example, 62 percent of gross earnings from the Bristol Bay driftnet fishery and 40 percent from the setnet fishery left Alaska as nonresident earnings.

That’s due to the region experiencing an overall 50 percent decline in local permit holdings since Alaska began limiting entry into commercial salmon fisheries in 1975. Combined, residents of the Bristol Bay region now hold less than one-quarter of the region’s salmon permits.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting November 8, 2021

October 13, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will hold a webinar meeting to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s November 2021 meeting agenda.  The meeting is open to the public.  The online meeting will be held on Monday, November 8, 2021beginning at 1:00 p.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, or when business for the day is completed.

Please see the GMT meeting notice on the Council’s website for details.

For further information:

•Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Todd Phillips at 503-820-2426;  toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

 

Amendment 23 Implementation Informational Webinar October 12

October 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The New England Fishery Management Council developed Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan to revise the groundfish sector monitoring program. The Council’s selected measures include a requirement for 100 percent of sector groundfish trips to be monitored, if the agency can reimburse industry’s costs. Sectors would be able to use either human at-sea monitors or either of two electronic monitoring options, or a combination of those options, to meet their monitoring requirement.

While NOAA Fisheries reviews Amendment 23, we are determining how to implement the measures if they are approved. We will host an informational webinar and virtual workshops this fall to assist industry in preparing for the implementation of Amendment 23, if approved. The informational webinar will focus on presenting information about the new Maximized Retention Electronic Monitoring model, implementation decisions made to date, a timeline for additional implementation decisions, and our outreach plan to engage constituents in collaboratively planning implementation details.

Informational Webinar

October 12, 2021:  2-3:30pm

Join by computer or mobile device:

Click:  https://noaanmfs-meets.webex.com/noaanmfs-meets/j.php?MTID=mf70daa7dbf1f38e61d475b239746200a

Enter event number: 2761 228 1129

Enter event password: Meeting123

Or Join By Phone:

Dial In: 866-647-1746

Enter Participant Code: 6042534

Virtual Workshops

We are also planning virtual workshops, with multiple webinars to allow each to focus in-depth on a limited number of topics. We will limit the number of attendees for each webinar to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to engage in the discussion. Topics will be chosen based on public feedback so that we focus on the issues of interest to our constituents.

For more information on the webinar and virtual workshops, visit the event page.

Questions?

Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103

Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting October 18-22, 2021

September 29, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a webinar meeting of its Groundfish Management Team (GMT) for a weeklong work session that is open to the public. The online meeting will be held on Monday, October 18 from 1:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), until business for the day is completed.  The GMT will reconvene on Tuesday, October 19 through Friday, October 22, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. PDT until business for each day has been completed.

Please see the GMT meeting notice on the Council’s website for details.

For further information:

• Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Todd Phillips at 503-820-2426;  toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Potential Groundfish Sector Monitoring Providers

September 15, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

If your company is not currently an approved at-sea monitoring (ASM) and/or electronic monitoring (EM) provider and you would like to provide monitoring services to groundfish sectors in fishing year 2022 (May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2023), you must submit an application by October 15, 2021.  Companies already approved to provide ASM or EM services in fishing years 2021 and 2022 do not need to apply again in order to provide those services in 2022.  Companies not already approved to provide either ASM or EM services in fishing years 2021 and 2022 need to apply for approval for the respective service in 2022.

Applications must include a cover letter and the information and statements identified in the regulations at 50 CFR 648.87(b)(4).  In your cover letter, please specify whether you are interested in providing ASM services, EM services, or both.  Companies interested in providing both ASM and EM services must develop separate ASM and EM deployment plans to meet the service provider performance standards (§ 648.87(b)(4)(ii)(A)).

We will review your application in accordance with the third-party monitoring provider standards (§ 648.87(b)(4) and (5)).  Please review the regulations describing ASM and EM provider and operational standards carefully, including the requirements for signed statements.  Approvals will cover fishing year 2022, and final decisions will be published in the Federal Register.  There will be a future opportunity to apply for a two-year approval for fishing years 2023 and 2024.

Please use Kiteworks, a secure file-sharing service, to submit the requested documents by October 15, 2021, to Claire Fitz-Gerald and Kyle Molton.  If you need help creating a Kiteworks account, please contact Claire Fitz-Gerald for assistance. The bulletin announcement can be found here.

 

Groundfish Subcommittee of the SSC to hold online meeting September 29-30, 2021

September 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council)  Groundfish Subcommittee of the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will hold an online meeting to review requested analyses exploring scale uncertainty in the new spiny dogfish stock assessment and rebuilding analyses for copper rockfish and quillback rockfish in California. The online meeting will be held Wednesday, September 29, 2021, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) and Thursday, September 30, 2021, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT.

Please see the meeting notice on the Pacific Council’s website for additional details.

For further information:

 

US Northeast groundfish market in flux due to pandemic, labor shortages

September 7, 2021 — In 2019, the U.S. state of Maine’s total commercial groundfish landings were valued around USD 4 million (EUR 3.4 million). In 2020, fleets in Maine landed just 58,730 pounds of cod, averaging USD 2.55 (EUR 2.16) per pound at the dock for a total value of USD 149,844 (EUR 126,926), whereas 15.2 million pounds had been landed a decade before.

A 2021 NOAA status update reported that in New England, 13 commercial species are currently considered “overfished,” including Atlantic cod (considered collapsed), yellowtail flounder, Atlantic halibut, winter flounder, and Atlantic herring.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Notice of Alaska Observer Requirements for the Partial Coverage Fleet Effective September 1, 2021

August 31, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Observers are an essential component of commercial fishing operations and provide critical information that is necessary to keep fisheries open and to provide sustainable seafood to our nation. In response to widely available vaccines, increased transportation availability, and the removal of health and travel mandates in most communities, NOAA Fisheries has identified that most ports in Alaska have current travel and lodging conditions that allow observers to meet and maintain applicable health and travel advisories for deployment into the commercial fisheries.

NOAA fisheries will be expanding the deployment of observers to all ports throughout Alaska on September 1, 2021 to meet monitoring objectives for vessels in the Partial Coverage Category of the North Pacific groundfish and Pacific halibut fisheries. This change is consistent with the June 29, 2021 updated NOAA Fisheries observer waiver policy which states that vessels are no longer eligible for release from observer coverage under the Emergency Rule if a fully vaccinated or quarantined/shelter-in-place observer is available.

To the extent possible, NOAA Fisheries will deploy observers to achieve coverage levels identified in the 2021 Annual Deployment Plan for the remainder of the year, which are designed to meet the monitoring objectives established by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries.

Consistent with existing regulatory authority at 50 CFR 679.51(a)(1), NOAA fisheries may release trips from observer coverage on a case-by-case basis for vessels in the Partial Coverage Category.  NOAA will use this authority when no observers are available for deployment.  We will continue to work with the contracted observer service provider, AIS, Inc., to implement adjustments to the logistics of deploying observers, ensuring that qualified observers are available as soon as safely possible.

NOAA Fisheries may modify the list of ports with available observers in the future in response to transportation availability and/or changes in health and travel advisories.  Any revisions to the deployment of observers due to changes in health and travel advisories will be published through an Alaska Region Information Bulletin.

NOAA Fisheries is committed to protecting the public’s health and ensuring the safety of fishermen, observers, and the communities in which they work, while fulfilling our mission to maintain our nation’s seafood supply and conserving marine life.  We will continue to monitor all local public health notifications, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for updates.

Reminder: Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting August 31, 2021

August 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a webinar meeting of its Groundfish Management Team (GMT) to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s September 2021 meeting agenda.  This meeting is open to the public. The online meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 31 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.  The scheduled ending time for this GMT meeting is an estimate, the meeting will adjourn when business for the day is completed.

Please see the meeting notice on the Council’s website for details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Todd Phillips at 503-820-2426;  toll-free 1-866-806-7204.