Saving Seafood

Marine scientists use drifters to explore regional currents

June 27, 2017 — We know Clint Eastwood was the High Plains Drifter. And we’ve heard Bob Dylan’s tale of the Drifter’s Escape. But now the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole is employing drifters not on the plains but on the waves around Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine.

“I’m excited about our latest drifter project,” proclaimed NMFS Oceanographer Jim Manning. “It’s one of many we’ve had and it seems like a real application for drifters. We’ve used them for a lot of fun educational purposes but our recent project in the Bay of Fundy has real purpose.”

They’ve been used with purpose in Cape Cod Bay as well. But, you might ask, what exactly is a drifter? It’s not a shiftless character begging at the kitchen door for scraps.

“It looks like an underwater kite, like a box kite,” Manning explained. “It’s a meter by a meter of cloth sails and they only thing that sticks out is a satellite transmitter. It provides us an estimate of the surface current.”

Its function is similar to that of a glass bottle with a note in it. You toss it in the ocean, it drifts somewhere, and you find out where it went.

With the old bottle you had to wait months or years until someone wrote back but a transmitter can tell you where it is today. It reveals where the surface currents are headed and can tell you where anything drifting along, like a cold-stunned sea turtle in Cape Cod Bay, or a swath of toxic algae in Maine, might wind up.

The current project Manning is excited about focuses on Alexandrium fundyense, the plankton that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in anyone that eats a shellfish, usually a clam, that has filter fed on it. It’s the same algae that lives in the Nauset Marsh between Orleans and Eastham, and causes annual shutdowns of shellfishing harvests.

The plankton has a resting stage where it sits as cysts in the mud. When conditions are right and the water warms the cysts germinate, it swims up towards the surface and the currents carry it away. In Nauset Marsh it doesn’t go far and stays in the marsh but in the Bay of Fundy it’s carried down the coast.

“The main objective is to help numerical modelers try to simulate the ocean,” Manning said. “A couple of universities have big computer models. These models are used for a variety of things. We’ve deployed the drifters north of Grand Manan Island up in the Bay of Fundy to demonstrate how complicated the currents are. Every time we put one out it goes in a different direction.”

Read the full story at Wicked Local

DON DeMARIA: Fair is fair: Everyone should get a monitor

June 26, 2017 — Effective fisheries management requires cooperation between managers and fishermen. Cooperation involves a certain amount of trust. Managers must be able trust that data being provided by fishermen is correct, and fishermen must trust that managers are analyzing those data properly. It is a two-way street.

The councils and NMFS appear not to trust fishermen when they propose requiring vessel monitoring systems and electronic video monitoring to be installed on commercial fishing vessels. Basically, they are telling the fishermen we really don’t trust you telling us where you were fishing and what you caught and discarded, so we are putting an ankle monitor on you and will have a video camera watching your every move.

I get the fish are a public resource deal — those harvesting a public resource need to do it in an acceptable manner, and accurate data are required to manage the resource properly argument. Likewise, tax dollars are a public resource of sorts and should be monitored and managed properly. If NMFS and the councils really want to start down the path of distrust, then fishermen may want to consider doing the same. After all, we have a right to know how our tax dollars are being spent, and it is tax dollars that pay the salaries of NMFS staff and council members.

So, I am proposing that all NMFS personnel and council members wear a radio collar — similar to what wildlife biologists use on bears, wolves, etc., so we know where they are 24 hours a day, just like a VMS does on a commercial fishing vessel. Let’s call the radio collar something nice, like a Federal Employee Monitoring System. I know the radio collars will be a little awkward at first, but so is a VMS unit on a small open outboard vessel fishing the southern Gulf of Mexico with a reef fish permit, but it is required.

Read the full letter at National Fisherman

NEFMC Approves Framework 4 to Adjust Skate Bait Fishery

June 21, 2017 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council today approved Framework Adjustment 4 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The framework revises the threshold trigger and possession limits in the skate bait fishery. The measures are expected to help keep the bait fishery open throughout the fishing year while minimizing the risk of fishermen exceeding their annual total allowable landings (TAL) limit. The framework also effectively eliminates the link between the skate wing fishery and the skate bait fishery regarding incidental possession limits. This move was requested by industry since the two fisheries operate very differently.

During the 2016 fishing year, the bait fishery was subject to an essential closure when the incidental possession limit was implemented in Season 3 and then was further reduced to 1,135 pounds to match the whole weight equivalent of the 500-pound limit imposed on the skate wing. This made it uneconomical to pursue the bait fishery. Once approved and implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Framework 4 will:

  • Give the bait fishery its own incidental limits;
  • • Keep the commercial bait per-trip possession limit at 25,000 pounds for Seasons 1 and 2 with a 90% trigger, meaning when 90% of the seasonal TAL is projected to be reached, the bait fishery will be subject to an 8,000-pound incidental limit unless the annual TAC is not expected to be achieved;
  • Reduce the possession limit in Season 3 to 12,000 pounds and impose an 80% TAL trigger unless the annual TAL is not expected to be achieved; and
  • As a hard backstop, close the fishery when 100% of the annual TAL is projected to be reached.

The Council approved Framework 4 based on a recommendation from its Skate Committee, which considered input from industry members in developing the new measures. Skate bait fishermen proposed the 12,000-pound Season 3 possession limit as a compromise to enhance the likelihood of keeping the fishery open at a lower but still functional level during the final portion of the fishing year. Committee members considered the provision to close the fishery when 100% of the TAL is reached to be an important safeguard against the TAL being exceeded.

Read the full release here

LoBiondo, NJ officials blast Trump’s offshore drilling proposal

June 19, 2017 — U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, called a move by the Trump administration to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean “barbaric” and “insane” during a press conference Monday.

Seismic air guns are used to find gas and oil pockets deep beneath the ocean floor. President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order in April aimed at expanding offshore drilling near the East Coast, and, earlier this month, five companies applied to conduct seismic testing — including in an area just south of Cape May.

Environmentalists, local politicians and tourism officials gathered Monday afternoon near the 30th Street beach in Avalon to signal their opposition to seismic testing and offshore drilling.

“We in Cape May County have a $6.3 billion tourism business,” Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton said. “Now I want you to imagine an oil spill out there today, with this wind blowing on the beach.

“We can’t afford that, ladies and gentlemen,” he added.

During seismic testing, air is blasted into the ocean floor every 10 seconds for an extended period of time. LoBiondo said he attended an air-gun demonstration last year.

“The decibel level for this seismic air gun is up to 250 decibels.” LoBiondo said. “That would blow a human ear out.”

Industry groups say seismic surveys have been conducted in the United States and around the world for decades, with little adverse impacts. The National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, the agency seeking the seismic testing permits, has said that air-gun operations would include measures to monitor and mitigate any harm to marine mammals.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Maine congressional delegation asks forfeited groundfish permits be redistributed through Northeast

June 19, 2017 — Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin sent a letter Monday to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross asking that the 13 groundfish permits forfeited by Carlos Rafael — a New Bedford fisherman who has pleaded guilty to 28 federal counts of tax evasion, falsifying fishing quotas and conspiracy — be redistributed to fishermen throughout the Northeast, not only New Bedford.

In their letter, the Maine congressional delegation said that groundfish permits embody a shared resource and, as such, should be returned to groundfish fishermen in “a fair and uniform manner.”

“Mr. Rafael’s grave and extensive disregard for both the law and sustainable fishing practices is a setback to the recovery of the beleaguered Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery, and has done, and will continue to do, financial harm to fishermen from Maine to New York,” the delegation wrote.

“These fishermen, who have complied with federal quotas and regulations, were forced to compete with this illegal activity and now must endure its repercussions on future stock assessments,” they wrote. “For these reasons, we believe the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) should cancel each of the groundfish permits that Mr. Rafael currently holds and reallocate the fishing privileges associated with such permits to all eligible permit holders in the fleet.

“We are specifically troubled that the City of New Bedford (where Mr. Rafael’s enterprise is based) is seeking to acquire control of his permits. We believe, instead, that all members of the fleet, including those in New Bedford, who have been disadvantaged by Mr. Rafael’s illegal activity, deserve a share of the rights to access these permits once remanded back to NMFS,” the delegation wrote.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

39-day red snapper season gives private recreational anglers relief, but future seasons still unsettled

June 17, 2017 — Now that private recreational fishermen are in the first days of the new 39-day red snapper season in federal waters, there’s a lingering question about any future season or seasons for the hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers throughout the five Gulf States.

After Wednesday’s announcement came from the U.S. Department of Commerce, pro-fishing groups proclaimed a long-overdue win for the private recreation fishing community.

During the same hours, groups long aligned with and supporting commercial fishing and the separation of the recreational fishing sector — it’s been three years since these groups pushed for separate seasons for private anglers and for-hire/charterboat interests — decried the move, even to the point of stating the National Marine Fisheries Service indicated red snapper numbers will continue to increase, but at a much slower rate.

None of those claims were revealed in Commerce’s announcement.

The advance of a 39-day season began in the days following the early May proclamation by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council that set a three-day, June 1-3, private recreational red snapper season in federal waters, that’s nine miles out to 200 miles into the Gulf.

And Wednesday’s announcement came just hours after U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the majority whip, was critically wounded while practicing for the annual baseball game between Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate.

“I’d like to offer my thoughts and prayers to Whip Scalise, his staff, the Capitol Police, and their families,” Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said. “Majority whip Scalise and his staff have been incredibly helpful on this and a host of other issues, and I wish them and the other victims a speedy recovery.”

Tuesday night, on the eve of the announcement, Scalise declared the three-day season “unacceptable.”

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

Sharks should be happy about new Google Earth survey of seal populations

June 14, 2017 — Gray seals are booming. They’ve flocked to coastal Massachusetts, where hunters once killed the animals wholesale — a dead seal’s nose could fetch a $5 reward in the 1960s.

Twenty years ago, there were about 2,000 seals near Cape Cod and Nantucket. A new estimate, published Wednesday in the journal Bioscience, suggests there are now as many as 50,000.

‘‘We should be celebrating the recovery of gray seals as a conservation success,’’ said David Johnston, an author of the study and marine biologist at Duke University .

Where seals go, sharks often follow. Great white sightings in Cape Cod increased from 80 in 2014 to 147 in 2016. Johnston said the shark spike may be linked to the seals. ‘‘One of our tagged animals was killed by a white shark,’’ he said.

Maine and Massachusetts once placed bounties on seals because fishermen feared they would gobble up valuable fish such as cod. (There is little evidence that seals actually compete with fishermen, Johnston said.) The century-long bounty hunt claimed up to 135,000 animals.

The seals bounced back after 1972’s Marine Mammal Protection Act outlawed the killings. ‘‘I’m a firm believer if you just stop doing bad things to wildlife they will recover,’’ Johnston said. The seals’ recovery raised a question infrequently asked in conservation: What happens after success?

‘‘We haven’t done a great job of preparing people,’’ he said, ‘‘that they would be back again.’’

Part of that means quantifying the success. In 2011, a National Marine Fisheries Service aerial survey estimated 15,000 seals swam in southeastern Massachusetts waters.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

LDWF seeks comment on red snapper options

June 10, 2017 — Rancor, the word in all its definitions, properly describes the sentiment pervading the issue of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico among Louisiana’s recreational offshore fishermen.

Despite what’s turned out to be a 200-day season in state waters out to nine miles for this species, this year’s three-day June 1-3 season in federal waters out to 200 miles into the Gulf stirred enough resentment toward federal fisheries managers and fierce opponents to recreational access that congressional delegations from the five Gulf states jumped into the fray.

While Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., declined specific comment on his part, he said there were many others stirring this stew for more recreational access. The result is a package of three options the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will elicit public comment on during a special meeting set for 1:30 p.m. Monday at the state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

Here’s what the U.S. Department of Commerce, through its National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Section, agreed to offer, after the hard push from the five Gulf states’ congressmen and senators.

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

Moving Tribute Marks Oliver’s Last Council Meeting

June 6, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Chris Oliver, executive director of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and soon to be head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, did not want a going away party and his staff assured him they would not throw one during his last fisheries council meeting.

But shortly after the agency “B” reports yesterday morning, members of the Council’s Advisory Panel, the Scientific and Statistical Committee, other agencies involved in Alaska’s fishing industry, and stakeholders all quietly gathered in the main meeting room to wish him well.

Deputy Director Dave Witherell started things off with a tongue-in-cheek video showing the young Oliver coming to Alaska from Texas and “of course, falling in love with Alaska.” Oliver is an accomplished hunter and fisherman, one of many talents highlighted in the humorous tribute.

Witherell turned serious at the end, though, and called Oliver an important role model, a “leader, mentor, and friend” — words that would be echoed by many during the event.

Then Captain Stephen White, Coast Guard member of the Council, stepped up to present Oliver with the Meritorious Public Service Award on behalf of the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

As White pinned the award on Oliver’s lapel, the commendation was read aloud.

“….Mr. Oliver led the Council’s efforts in rationalizing the world’s most complex fisheries, significantly improving safety measures and practices amongst federal fishing fleets and preserving sustainability of fishery resources for future generations.

“…Mr. Oliver’s vigilance, leadership, and professionalism have been fundamental to the stewardship of Alaska’s fishery resources. His many contributions and dedication to public service are most heartily commended and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard.” The commendation was signed by Rear Admiral Michael F McAllister, Commander of the 17th Coast Guard District.

Other members of the Council related poignant and humorous stories about Oliver and his 15 years as the executive director of the Council — longer than any other.

Council chairman Dan Hull described Oliver as a “great mentor, pragmatic, a man who gets straight to business, but he’s always open to alternative views and innovation.  He’s been a strong supporter of our partner agencies and user groups and communities.

“There is no one more experienced or knowledgeable,” Hull said, “or with a better character or attitude to lead NOAA Fisheries.

“The loss to this region is a huge gain for the nation, the agency and for the regional fisheries management council system across the country,” Hull said.

Oliver took the microphone after sustained applause and remarked “I wouldn’t have had this opportunity if it weren’t for this Council. And the support of an excellent staff. They make me look good.” A slight pause, then “They mostly make me look good.”

The audience, many of them on their feet, laughed lightly.

Then with an emotion-laden voice, Oliver said, “This has been the hardest career decision I’ve ever made. I will do you proud.”

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

New Jersey Congressman Blasts Plan To Use Underwater Air Guns To Look For Oil In The Atlantic

June 9, 2017 — The Trump Administration wants to look for oil and natural gas under the Atlantic Ocean using seismic air guns, a proposal that doesn’t sit well with a South Jersey congressman.

The National Marine Fisheries Service wants permits to use those air guns from Delaware to Central Florida. Republican Congressman Frank LoBiondo is dead set against the proposal.

“This was started by President Obama while he was in office with his Department of Commerce,” LoBiondo told KYW Newsradio. “It was a dangerous and dumb idea then and it continues to be a dangerous and dumb idea now.”

The oil and gas industry is pushing for these surveys, and five companies have applied through the Interior Department to get those permits.

LoBiondo’s reasons for opposing the plan are mostly economic.

“Why would we want to take a risk on endangering our tourist season, endangering our fishing, commercial and recreational? It is beyond me, and there’s no good reason why, if they had to do this, it couldn’t be done in February,” he added.

Read the full story at CBS Philly