Saving Seafood

News for the Gulf of Mexico Region

Snapper bill could kill fishing jobs

October 23, 2015 — The following opinion piece appeared on The Hill and was written by Shane Cantrell, Buddy Guindon, Glen Brooks and Brett Veerhusen:

The commercial and charter fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the United States, are unified in opposition to H.R. 3094 (Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act).

Every year tens of millions of Americans enjoy fresh caught seafood from their favorite restaurants and grocery stores, and millions of tourists travel to the coasts for a day of fishing on charter boats. Fish and shellfish are public resources, and our four fishing industry organizations work hard to provide the American public with sustainable access to the bounty of the Gulf of Mexico and other coastal regions of our nation.

Together, our organizations and the thousands of fishermen we represent have embraced science and management tools that promote conservation and sustainable fishing practices, reduce wasteful by-catch, operate safer and more stable small businesses, and protect fishing and shore-side jobs. We strive for sustainability, accountability, and access to some of the world’s best seafood; and we do so through active and progressive campaigns that bring fishermen, stakeholders, and regulators together to solve problems.
H.R. 3094 poses a clear and imminent threat to our jobs, our fishing communities, and the red snapper resource that we have helped rebuild to some of the highest levels on record.

H.R. 3094 creates loopholes that will erode the commercial red snapper fishery and access to red snapper by millions of American consumers. Commercial management of red snapper in the Gulf is a success story – overfishing was stopped, wasteful discarding was all-but-eliminated, and fishing businesses and jobs are profitable and stable. This is all due to the core conservation and management protections that are afforded to us under federal law (the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act). H.R. 3094 allows the Gulf States to take away nearly 10% of the commercial quota every year without conferring with the Congressionally-approved and stakeholder-comprised Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Gulf Council). To add insult to injury, H.R. 3094 deceives the public by claiming it will not change the IFQ shares in this fishery. However, those who developed this language fail to point out that the “shares” are a percentage of the whole commercial allocation, and that any reduction in commercial allocation will reduce the quota associated with the shares. Commercial fishermen don’t keep what they catch – it goes to American consumers who purchase red snapper from restaurants and grocery stores.

Read the full opinion piece at The Hill

 

Cuba launches shark protection plan produced with US group

October 21, 2015 — HAVANA (AP) — Cuba announced Wednesday that it is launching a long-term plan to preserve its sharks in cooperation with a U.S. environmental group, part of a rapidly accelerating partnership between the two countries aimed at preserving their shared waters in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits.

Nearly a year after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that they would end a half-century of official hostility and start moving toward normalization, the most visible progress has been in the realm of environmental protection.

The shark plan announced by Cuba after two years of work with the U.S -based Environmental Defense Fund commits Cuba to recording shark catches by fishing vessels and eventually implementing stricter rules that would limit shark fishing and protect shark nurseries.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced in Valparaiso, Chile this month that the U.S. and Cuba were signing an accord to work together on protecting marine preservation areas in far western Cuba located a relatively short distance from Texas and Florida across the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits.

In April, a research vessel operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration carried marine scientists from Cuba and other countries on a research cruise aimed at gathering information about the spawning of blue-fin tuna, a commercially valuable and highly threatened species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard – Times

 

 

What Will Florida’s Stone Crab Season Bring? It’s Complicated

October 14, 2015 — FLORIDA — Today, hundreds of fishing boats heaped with traps will race shoreward from the Gulf of Mexico with the season’s opening day bounty of stone crabs, one of Florida’s highest-grossing fisheries.

So, as the boats head toward shore, seafood wholesalers, retailers and stone crab enthusiasts engage in a bit of prognostication about what this season may bring. Will there be lots? And what will they cost?

It’s complicated.

Last year, the stone crab season set a new record: More than $31 million worth of crab claws were pulled from Florida waters from Oct. 15 to May 15.

But before you start melting celebratory butter, that record was not a good one for Florida diners. The record just means that crabs cost more last year; yields were nearly at a record low, said Ryan Gandy, a crustacean researcher with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in St. Petersburg.

The stone cold fact about stone crabs: Demand exceeds supply. Landings of stone crabs last year were 2.2 million pounds — the only worse year in the past decade was the previous season, with just under 2 million pounds landed. A decent year historically is a landing of more than 3 million pounds of claws (one claw is removed, and crabs are returned alive to the water).

Gandy, whose group runs eight trap lines throughout the fishery from Steinhatchee down to Key West, said he has seen a slight increase in their catch per trap. This is what gives them a sense for how the population is doing.

“We’re starting to see some higher numbers coming in, so we’re thinking there’s some population recovery. To the north, we’re seeing some larger crabs, but we won’t know what it looks like until they start pulling traps.”

Read the full story at Tampa Bay Times

Trustees Propose Comprehensive Restoration Plan for the Gulf of Mexico

October 5, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Because of potential relevance to Atlantic highly migratory species fisheries and constituents, we want to make you aware of the announcement below from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees.

The Trustees have proposed a comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem restoration plan for the Gulf of Mexico. The draft plan is based on our thorough assessment of impacts to the Gulf’s natural resources-and the services they provide-following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The draft plan would allocate up to $8.8 billion allocated for natural resource injuries under a proposed settlement with BP. We have proposed to accept this settlement, which would resolve BP’s liability for natural resource injuries stemming from the spill.

The draft plan would allocate funds to meet five restoration goals, and 13 restoration types designed to meet these goals. The restoration types address a broad range of impacts at both regional and local scales. Together, these efforts will restore wildlife and habitat and increase recreational opportunities in the Gulf.

The five goals of the draft plan are to: 1) restore and conserve habitat; 2) restore water quality; 3) replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources; 4) provide and enhance recreational opportunities; and 5) provide for monitoring, adaptive management, and administrative oversight to support restoration implementation.

The 13 proposed restoration types are:

1. Wetlands, coastal, and nearshore habitats

2. Habitat projects on federally managed lands

3. Nutrient reduction

4. Water quality

5. Fish and water column invertebrates

6. Sturgeon

7. Submerged aquatic vegetation

8. Oysters

9. Sea turtles

10. Marine mammals

11. Birds

12. Mesophotic and benthic (lowlight and ocean floor) communities

13. Provide and enhance recreational opportunities

In proposing this plan to address the ecosystem-level injuries caused by this spill, we considered both the potential environmental benefits and impacts. The plan does not identify specific projects for each restoration type, but lays out a framework for developing future project-specific restoration plans. The public will have the opportunity to comment on these subsequent restoration plans.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Draft Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement is available for public review and comment through December 4, 2015. We will hold eight public meetings where you will be able to provide comments on the draft plan and the proposed settlement with BP.

NOAA Announces Gulf Red Grouper to Close Oct. 8

October 2, 2015 — Recreational Fishing Season will close on October 8, 2015

The recreational harvest of red grouper in the Gulf of Mexico will close at12:01 a.m., local time, on October 8, 2015, and remain closed until January 1, 2016.

Red grouper catches in early 2015 were substantially higher than the same time periods in previous years. Because the recreational red grouper season closed in October 2014 under a higher bag limit, in May 2015, at the request of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries reduced the bag limit to 2 fish with the intent to extend the fishing season for the entire year. However, fishermen have told us abundant red grouper are being found closer to shore in shallower water this year, making them more accessible to the recreational sector. Despite the reduced bag limit, the 2015 landings data indicate the 1,900,000-pound recreational annual catch limit will be harvested by October 7, 2015.

Read the full story from The Fishing Wire

Sea Grant Pubs Focus on the Deepwater Horizon Impact on Gulf Fisheries

October 3, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:

Two new oil spill science outreach publications have been released from the Sea Grant Oil Spill Science Outreach Team. They focus on fishery landing and disasters and the impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill on Gulf seafood.

The project is funded by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, an independent organization created in 2010 with funds from BP to support oil spill research in the Gulf.  It provides support to the Sea Grant programs of the Gulf of Mexico (Florida, Mississippi-Alabama, Louisiana and Texas) for an extension and outreach effort to increase the use of oil spill science by people whose livelihoods depend on a healthy Gulf.

Two recently released publications, Fisheries Landings and Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico and The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill’s Impact on Gulf Seafood, are the first for the five-state team.

“Understanding the value and use of fishery-dependent data, like landings, as well as fishery-independent research, such as the results emerging from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, is an important theme in this publication,” said Chris Hale, the Texas member of the Sea Grant Program.

Read the full release at the Gulf Seafood Institute

LOUISIANA: First Major Gulf Oyster Hatchery Revs Up Production on Grand Isle

September 14, 2015 — For more than 20-years, the old Grand Isle Sea Grant oyster hatchery and lab faced exposure to every known element the Gulf of Mexico could throw at it. The recently opened Mike Voisin Oyster Hatchery, whose namesake served as a Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries commissioner and chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, may not face that same exposure to the elements, but instead face new challenges both manmade and natural.

Water quality will be a continuing challenge for the new $3 million dollar hatchery according to John Supan, an oyster specialist with Louisiana Sea Grant, who designed and oversees the facility. “The building’s water system is designed to go into recirculating mode during times when water quality is not optimal. It is one thing to have the system, but making it work will be a big challenge,” he explained.

According to the oyster researcher, periods of low salinity from wind-driven plumes of Mississippi River water, or local heavy rainfall from tropical waves, affects larval production in a hatchery environment.

All About Water Quality

Water quality has plagued the Grand Isle operation since inception. With more than 27 years in the making, the new oyster hatchery is shielded from the elements of the Gulf’s uncertain weather and Supan is confident he has found the solution for the fluctuation of water quality.

An advanced water circulation system and temperature-controlled system allows larvae and spat to be produced year-round. This will be instrumental in meeting the hatchery’s billion oyster larvae a year contract with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). Larvae produced at the facility will be used for the restoration of public reefs that were damaged after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 and specifically for corrective action towards the state’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment funded cultch plants.

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute

 

Gulf Council Shifts Red Snapper Quota

August 25, 2015 — Debate over regional management of the Gulf of Mexico recreational red snapper fishery moved from Washington, D.C. to the Crescent City as the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council met for the fourth time this year. In a highly contested vote, the Council voted to remove snapper quota from the commercial fishery while allocating additional quota to the recreational sector.

The Council’s action on Reef Fish Amendment 28 would allocate the increase in allowable harvest due to recalibration of Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) catch estimates to the recreational sector. The resulting allocation for 2016 – 2017 would be 48.5% commercial and 51.5% recreational.

For years, Amendment 28 has gone through numerous iterations as it has been under consideration by the Gulf Council. The current red snapper fishery is divided almost 50-50 between the commercial and recreational sectors. Some alternatives considered in Amendment 28 could have shifted millions of pounds of fish and done untold damage to commercial fishermen, the seafood supply chain, restaurants and grocery stores.

The Council’s final action will retain a portion of the commercial red snapper quota in 2016 to ensure that the IFQ quota intended for reallocation is not distributed among commercial fishermen before Amendment 28 is implemented.

“Gulf Council members friendly to the commercial coalition were able to defeat Alternative 9, the effort to take approximately 1.2 million pounds of red snapper from the commercial sector, but were unable to stop the motion to reallocate 380,000 pounds of our commercial quota,” said Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) Board President Harlon Pearce, owner of Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans. “Amendment 28 was passed with an allocation change of approximately a 2.5% shift in the recreational fishery’s favor, and is now being sent to the Secretary of Commerce for final approval.”

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute 

 

 

Sport fishermen win greater share of red snapper catch

August 15, 2015 — NEW ORLEANS — Recreational fishermen get a greater share of the red snapper catch in the Gulf of Mexico under a rule approved by a governing body.

On Thursday, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council increased the share of the catch going to recreational fishermen — made up of charter boats and non-commercial anglers. The council met in New Orleans.

The change gives recreational fishermen 51.5 percent of the total catch and commercial fishermen 48.5 percent. Currently the catch is split 50-50. The change needs the approval of the U.S. Commerce Department.

The increase came about after scientists re-examined catch data and discovered they’d underestimated what non-commercial fishermen caught.

Red snapper is a highly prized fish and highly managed. Commercial and recreational fishermen must abide by catch limits and other rules.

Roy Crabtree, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said management of red snapper has helped the stock recover and rebuild.

For instance, red snapper had disappeared off the coast of Florida near St. Petersburg 15 years ago, he said. “They’re back all the way down to the (Florida) Keys now,” he added. “We’ve made huge progress.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press here

 

Proposed Red Snapper Amendment Criticized by LSU Scientist

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — August 13, 2015 — Dr. James Cowan, Professor at the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Studies at Louisiana State University (LSU), has written a letter to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council opposing the under-consideration Amendment 28 to the Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan. Among other changes, Amendment 28 would transfer red snapper quota from the commercial fishery to the recreational fishery.

According to Dr. Cowan, “the notion that reallocation of red snapper from the commercial sector of the fishery to the recreational sector is a conservation measure is indefensible.” Instead, he notes that the key to maintaining a stable red snapper population is to ensure that there is a good year class every 5-7 years. He explains that one of the main problems currently facing the fishery is the lack of older fish, who produce more eggs and are thus more likely to contribute to producing new red snapper.

Dr. Cowan further criticizes the Amendment, noting that red snapper remains overfished, and that “raising [Annual Catch Limits], reallocation of more of the fishery to recreational sector, along with state management of the resource, will result in overfishing again within two to four years.” Given that current issues can be traced to a lack of older red snapper in the population, he notes, “there appears to be no justification” for reallocating quota to the recreational fishery. And because that fishery is more likely to target larger, older snapper, Dr. Cowan writes that, “I believe that the proposed reallocation will result in an increased risk of failure to reach the 2032 stock rebuilding target.”

Read the full letter from Dr. Cowan here