Saving Seafood

NEFMC eyes limiting for-hire boats

March 13, 2019 — Over the past few years, the New England Fisheries Management Council has nibbled around the edges of whether a limited-access program would make sense for the Northeast recreational groundfish party and charter boat fishery.

Now the council is looking to take a far bigger bite out of the issue.

The council, acknowledging that the prospect of limiting access to the fishery has split both recreational anglers and for-hire boat operators, is taking its act out on the road to solicit public opinion on whether the council should effectively condense the for-hire fishery.

“This issue has come from industry,” Janice Plante, council spokeswoman, said Tuesday. “Recreational fishermen have been talking about it for quite a while. It keeps surfacing in council discussions, but it’s been put on a little bit of a back burner. The council’s recreational advisory panel supports taking this step now to thoroughly air all the issues and settle it once and for all.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Shutdown hampers planning for management of fisheries

January 23, 2019 — The New England Fishery Management Council will meet as scheduled next week, but the agenda for the three-day meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will be colored by the ongoing shutdown of much of the federal government.

While the council is not scheduled to vote on any final actions, the shutdown has precluded a legion of scientific and fisheries management staff at the Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office and NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center from contributing analysis and participating as they normally would in the management process.

“It’s really affected the plan development teams,” said Janice Plante, council spokeswoman. “Without their participation, the plan development teams just can’t get the analyses done. We knew this would be one implication of the shutdown. But the longer and longer it goes on, the more and more we miss their participation.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

The shutdown: How the furloughs affect federal fisheries

January 23, 2019 — When the staff of the New England Fishery Management Council returned to their offices following the winter holiday break to a partial shutdown of the federal government, there was cause for concern, but no alarms were set off.

“We were OK at first,” said Janice Plante, the council’s public affairs officer. “We were plugging along post-holidays, doing what we could without being in touch with our federal partners. There’s always plenty to do to start a new year.”

Then the calendar alerts began popping up, signifying that the days ahead were about to become a lot more difficult for the staff.

“The deeper we’ve gone into [the shutdown],” said Plante, “the more challenging it has become for all of us.”

President Donald Trump refuses to sign any fiscal 2019 appropriations bills that do not include $5.6 billion for the construction of his campaign-promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and Democratic leaders refuse to sign off on any new bill that includes funds for the wall.

The stalemate has led to an estimated 800,000 federal workers furloughed or forced to work without pay. NOAA employees, working under the Department of Commerce, involved in the regulation of commercial fisheries and stationed in the regional fishery science centers fall under the furloughed category.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Quotas up for most key Northeast groundfish stocks

September 6, 2018 — At the start of 2018, regulatory changes triggered substantial quota increases for several commercially important groundfish stocks, including Georges Bank cod, Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine haddock and pollock — as well as smaller increases for a few choke stocks.

“The stocks themselves are in good shape, with plenty of fish to catch,” said Bert Jongerden, general manager of the Portland Fish Exchange, a wholesale fish auction in Maine.

Catch limits for other groundfish decreased from 2017 limits, and fishermen still face challenges with non-allocated stocks, such as windowpane flounder.

“Overall, however, the 2018 quotas provide a number of groundfish fishing opportunities on healthy resources,” said Janice Plante, public affairs officer for the New England Fishery Management Council.

Despite a Gulf of Maine cod quota increase, the catch limit remains depressed for fishermen trying to work on healthy stocks. Wholesale auction prices for gulf cod were averaging at $2.52 for large cod in late July. However, added Jongerden, “dabs are the choke species for cod, and boats have to buy allocation in order to go fishing.”

Georges Bank haddock continues to be one of the healthiest stocks — and markets support it.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Dr. Bill DuPaul receives award from NEFMC

May 17, 2018 — Dr. Bill DuPaul, Professor Emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, is the recipient of the 2018 Janice M. Plante Award from the New England Fishery Management Council.

DuPaul, a resident of Ware Neck, was a pioneer of cooperative research in the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, according to a release from NEFMC.

“Dr. DuPaul is a man of great integrity,” NEFMC chairman Dr. John Quinn said “He intuitively knew that solutions to hard problems would come only when people on all sides worked together. He proved that cooperative research can break through seemingly insurmountable barriers and help resolve even the most challenging issues.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal

 

NEFMC Presents 2018 Award for Excellence to Dr. Bill DuPaul

April 18, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:   

The New England Fishery Management Council today presented its 2018 Janice M. Plante Award for Excellence to Dr. Bill DuPaul, a highly respected scientist and pioneer of cooperative research in the Atlantic sea scallop fishery. His early work on scallop dredge ring size helped revolutionize the fishery’s primary gear-type, leading to enhanced selectivity of large scallops and the release of smaller ones. He forged and nurtured partnerships with fishermen from the very start of his career, earning industry’s trust and willingness to participate in a wide range of studies that greatly advanced management of the resource and the fishery.

Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn, who presented the award, said, “Dr. DuPaul is a man of great integrity. He intuitively knew that solutions to hard problems would come only when people on all sides worked together. He proved that cooperative research can break through seemingly insurmountable barriers and help resolve even the most challenging issues.”

Dr. DuPaul is an emeritus professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary. His research included extensive work on the relationship between scallop meat weight and shell height, and he consistently strove to improve dredge efficiency, enhance scallop quality, and reduce bycatch, especially of yellowtail flounder.

He is a strong supporter of the industry-funded Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program. He has spent countless hours at sea with fishermen conducting gear research, biological studies, and annual surveys that have helped gauge abundance and distribution of scallops both on Georges Bank and throughout the Mid-Atlantic. The annual surveys also helped document incoming recruitment, enabling fishery managers to identify and close areas with large beds of seed scallops for additional grow-out. This practice is a bedrock of the current rotational area management program – and one that Dr. DuPaul was in on from the beginning. He is a staunch advocate of Scallop RSA Share Days where industry members and scientists gather to openly discuss their research results and exchange ideas about emerging issues.

In 1991, the New England Council established the Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT). Dr. DuPaul was an inaugural member of the team and to this day continues to provide valuable guidance. He is the PDT’s longest serving member. He also has been heavily involved with the Council’s Research Steering Committee and, from 2007-2010, served on the former Scallop Survey Advisory Panel.

Dr. DuPaul remains active in the scientific world. He currently is a member of the Scallop Stock Assessment Working Group, which is doing the legwork for the upcoming scallop benchmark stock assessment. As an esteemed veteran of the field, his voice is routinely sought after as wise counsel on a multitude of scallop issues.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Fishing council to hear sectors’ post-Rafael plans

April 16, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council will be updated on the groundfish crisis involving several New Bedford-based fishing sectors when it convenes for three days of meetings next week in Mystic, Connecticut.

The groundfish presentation by staff from the Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office will be the centerpiece of the groundfish report on Wednesday and is designed to provide “an overview of (Northeast Fishing) Sector IX’s steps to address its shortcomings, as well as a summary of Sector IX’s operations plan,” according to the agenda for the meetings.

“The New Bedford sector has submitted its operations plan to GARFO and this will be an overview of what they’ve done to address the problems and what they need to do to have a new plan approved,” said council spokeswoman Janice Plante.

Plante said the presentation will not include comment from officials with the New Bedford fishing sectors.

NOAA Fisheries shut down Sector IX last November, withdrawing its operation plan for the remainder of the 2017 fishing season and into the 2018 season set to begin May 1.

The extraordinary move came in the wake of the conviction and sentencing of New Bedford fishing kingpin Carlos Rafael on charges of tax evasion, money laundering and bulk smuggling.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Analyses not ready for at-sea monitoring meetings

March 26, 2018 — Let’s kick off today’s edition of FishOn with a little programming note, courtesy of the New England Fishery Management Council.

If you had planned on traveling to Boston on Monday, March 26, to attend the council’s groundfish advisory panel meeting on at-sea monitoring, don’t. And don’t bother heading down there on Tuesday, either, for the scheduled meeting of the council’s groundfish committee on the same subject.

Actually, you’re free to go to Boston. Just don’t go to the meetings. Due to the fact that there apparently are no more groundfish, the meetings have been postponed. Kidding. Just kidding. We’ve got a whole ocean of groundfish out there.

In fact, the meetings have been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date in May because there is more work to be done on the technical analyses used as the basis for discussions by both the advisory panel and the groundfish committee as a whole.

“The necessary analyses aren’t ready yet, either for the groundfish committee or the advisory panel, to discuss Groundfish Monitoring Amendment 23,” Janice Plante, council spokeswoman, said in a Friday email. “And Amendment 23 was the focus of the meetings.”

The council staff, she said, has been working feverishly to finish the council framework that includes specifications for the upcoming groundfish season, including catch limits for 20 groundfish stocks. They also have been working at trying to complete a separate measure dealing with recreational cod and haddock measures.

Both proposed rules have been published in the Federal Register and regulators are seeking stakeholder comment on both.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

NEFMC Program Review – Listen Live March 13-16, 2018

March 8, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

A six-member panel of external scientists and fishery managers will be conducting an independent review of the New England Fishery Management Council’s operations and performance during a March 13-16, 2018 meeting in Boston, MA. The public is invited to attend in person or listen to the discussion via webinar. Here are the details.

WHERE:  The meeting will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn, Boston Logan Airport.

WEBINAR OPTION:  To listen live, register at Council Program Review webinar.

WHAT’S THE SCHEDULE:  The agenda and all related documents can be downloaded at meeting materials.

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT: The New England Council initiated an independent review to assess its past performance and, more importantly, to identify improvements to its processes in order to successfully address ongoing and future challenges. The undertaking was approved by the Council in November of 2016 and launched in November of 2017. Details about the scope of this external review can be found at prospectus and terms of reference.

WHO’S DOING THE REVIEW:  The six independent reviewers are Robert Beal, Robert Gill, Dan Hull (panel chair), Dr. Pamela Mace, Dr. Bonnie McCay, and Dr. Kenny Rose. Short biographical sketches are available under “Panel Members” on the Council Program Review Information Page.

WHAT WAS INVOLVED: The Council enlisted the help of two contractors to support the review.

  • The Fisheries Leadership and Sustainability Forum (Fisheries Forum) gathered extensive input from stakeholders, fishery managers, and scientists via 14 port meetings, one webinar meeting, an online survey, and one-on-one interviews with over 70 people for the review panel. Individual stakeholder input was kept confidential, but collective comments, opinions, and suggestions are summarized in two reports:
  1. Download the Draft Stakeholder Report at “What people said.”
  2. Download the Draft Management and Science Community Report at “What managers and scientists said.”

The list of port meetings and a copy of the online survey can be found on the Council Program Review Information Page.

  • Tidal Bay Consulting (Tidal Bay) compiled reference documents for the review panel and is providing support for the meeting itself. Tidal Bay will prepare the final report in coordination with the review panel.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Read the release at the New England Fishery Management Council

NEFMC: Atlantic Herring, NGOM Scallops, Electronic Monitoring Seminars at Maine Fishermen’s Forum

February 23, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council is participating in three seminars at the March 1-3, 2018 Maine Fishermen’s Forum at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, ME. Come join us!

  • Meet some of our staff members.
  • Ask us questions.
  • Learn more about the Council’s work.

The forum provides a casual setting where stakeholders – fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, environmentalists, and legislators alike – can engage in meaningful conversation.

On Friday, March 2, we’ll be talking about Atlantic herring, electronic monitoring, and the Northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery.  Here are the details.

                         Atlantic Herring Amendment 8 Informational Update

WHEN:  9 a.m. in the Rockland Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The New England Council is developing Amendment 8 to the federal Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan to consider:

(1) Potential changes to how target catches are set in the herring fishery, starting with a new acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule; and

(2) Alternatives to address potential localized depletion and user conflicts in the fishery.

The amendment will be going out to public hearing in April or May. This forum session provides an ideal opportunity for fishermen and other stakeholders to ask questions and become more familiar with the alternatives in advance of the formal hearings.

FORMAT:  The session will open with a short overview of the Council process, followed by the Amendment 8 discussion, and conclude with a presentation by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the federal Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring Amendment, which includes proposed measures for the Atlantic herring fishery.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL:  Mary Beth Tooley of the O’Hara Corporation is the forum board member who is hosting this session.  She also is the moderator. The panel members are:

  • Deirdre Boelke, New England Fishery Management Council, Atlantic Herring Plan Coordinator
  • Carrie Nordeen, National Marine Fisheries Service, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO)

                                 Electronic Monitoring (EM) on the Water

WHEN:  1 p.m. in the Rockland Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The New England Council and NMFS are taking steps to improve monitoring in the groundfish fishery. These ongoing efforts have prompted increased interest in using camera systems as an alternative to human at-sea monitors. The question is: Can cameras, coupled with dockside monitoring, provide the necessary level of coverage to meet catch monitoring requirements? In an effort to find out, fishermen are participating in several groundfish pilot programs to explore the feasibility of using this electronic monitoring (EM) technology on their boats. The seminar will spotlight the pilot programs, and groundfish captains who are experimenting with EM will share their perspectives on how EM actually works on the water.

FORMAT:  Following a brief overview of the ongoing projects, panelists will give quick synopses of the EM projects they’re involved with and explain why they were willing to participate. Then, EM footage from several of their boats will be shown, and the affiliated captains on the panel will help guide the audience through what’s going on. They also will discuss fishing operations and catch handling while using EM. Plenty of time will be available for questions. Exchanges between fishermen in the audience and panel members are encouraged.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL:  Gerry Cushman of the F/V Bug Catcha is the forum board member who is hosting this session. Janice Plante of the New England Fishery Management Council is the moderator. The panel members are:

  • Randy Cushman, F/V Ella Christine, Port Clyde, ME, trawl fishery
  • Mike Russo, F/V Gulf Venture, Provincetown, MA, gillnet fishery
  • Tyler Bond, F/V Safe Haven (crew), F/V Savage Joe (owner), Harpswell, ME, jig fishery
  • Mike Monteforte, F/V Second Wind, Point Judith, RI, trawl fishery
  • Bob Dooley, owner/operator of West Coast and Alaska-based vessels for over 40 years, Half Moon Bay, CA, trawl/crab fisheries
  • Claire Fitz-Gerald, NMFS/GARFO Fishery Management Specialist, introductory/overview speaker

                                Northern Gulf of Maine Federal Scallop Fishery

WHEN:  2:45 p.m. in the Rockport Room

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The New England Council recently completed Framework Adjustment 29 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The framework contains specifications and measures for the 2018 federal scallop fishing year, which begins on April 1. The National Marine Fisheries Service has published a proposed rule containing just the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Management Area provisions within the framework and is collecting public comment through March 7. The agency broke out the NGOM measures from the rest of the scallop actions to ensure they are in place by April 1. The intent is to prevent excessive fishing in the Northern Gulf of Maine area. This seminar will provide an overview of the Northern Gulf of Maine management measures and cover how and why they were developed. Information about scallop surveys and research priorities also will be discussed.

FORMAT:  The session will begin with an explanation of federal scallop fishery management in the Northern Gulf of Maine. Panelists then will provide information about 2018 scallop work priorities, changes to the Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program, scallop surveys, and research initiatives for the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area. Fishermen are encouraged to ask questions about any of these scallop-related activities.

WHO’S ON THE PANEL:  Kristan Porter of the F/V Whitney & Ashley is a member of the New England Council’s Scallop Advisory Panel. He is the forum board member who is hosting this session, and he also is the moderator. The panel members are:

  • Jonathon Peros, New England Fishery Management Council, Scallop Plan Coordinator
  • Travis Ford, NMFS, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
  • Vincent Balzano, New England Fishery Management Council, Scallop Committee Chairman; commercial fisherman

MAINE FISHERMEN’S FORUM INFORMATION:  Many other seminars are lined up. General information about the 2018 forum, including hotel details, directions, and background, is available at Maine Fishermen’s Forum. The seminar descriptions and schedule can be downloaded at forum lineup.

View the event in more detail at the NEFMC site here.