Saving Seafood

US shutdown delays NOAA surveys that influence groundfish TACs

February 7, 2019 — Some of the important summer research surveys that the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducts each year off the shores of Alaska to estimate the health of key commercially caught groundfish stocks like pollock and Pacific cod could face delays due to the recent partial government shutdown, officials said.

In a report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said that the shutdown that sent most of its staffers home from Dec. 22, 2018, until Jan. 25 has already affected one research cruise, a winter pre-spawning acoustic survey of pollock stocks in the Gulf of Alaska.

“Unfortunately, due to the delay in starting the survey, the first two legs (in the Shumagin Islands and outer Kenai regions) will not be conducted,” science center staffers wrote in a report to the NPFMC.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: NOAA closes Bering Sea cod fishery as trawl catchers approach TAC

February 4, 2019 — US fishing regulators have closed the directed fishery for trawl-caught Pacific cod in Alaska’s Bering Sea for trawl catcher vessels after harvesters met their A season allocation quicker than they did last year.

The closure order from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, which takes effect at noon today, Feb. 1, brings the season to a close after only 13 days of fishing effort.

During the season, which began Jan. 20, trawl catchers caught 13,507 metric tons of cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands as of Feb 1, the latest date for which data is available. Trawl catchers were allocated a total allowable catch (TAC) of 26,388t for the season, including a 5,000t set-aside for delivery to shore-plants in the Aleutian Islands and 388t for halibut protected species catch.

“This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the Pacific cod allocation of the total allowable catch for the Bering Sea Trawl Catcher Vessel A-Season Sector Limitation in the Bering Sea subarea,” NOAA said in a press release.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Bering Sea Pacific cod move north as survey sees fewer fish in east

October 10, 2018 — As was the case recently with pollock in Alaska’s southeastern Bering Sea, US government scientists found a surprising result when they surveyed Pacific cod stocks this summer: a large number of fish apparently moved north.

Staff at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Alaska Fisheries Science Center are in the process of developing stock assessments that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council will use in making allowable biological catch (ABC) and total allowable catch (TAC) levels for Pacific cod in the Bering Sea for 2019.

However, one key input that will figure into the model that NOAA is making to estimate the Pacific cod biomass — the results of the 2018 southeastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey — has declined significantly.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Red snapper anger directed at Obama, but Trump could solve fishing frustrations

May 15, 2017 — President Donald Trump has stressed the need to make states the “laboratories of democracy.” He calls for fewer burdensome federal regulations, and declares that it’s past time to “drain the swamp.”

All of that could be quickly coming to a head in the coastal states where he secured some of his highest vote totals during last year’s election. State and local leaders are boiling mad over what they say are excessive federal regulations when it comes to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Specifically, the frustration is directed at an all-time shortened season – three days — for recreational red snapper fishing within federal waters.

The Orange Beach City Council, on Tuesday, voted unanimously to forward its concerns in a written letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. In it, the city asks for an immediate lengthening of the recreational season to 46 days, spread over a series of three-day weekends.

The Baldwin County Commission is expected to take similar action on Tuesday.

If nothing happens between now and the first of June, city leaders and the anglers are poised to protest on June 4, the day after this year’s three-day season expires. Boaters are being encouraged to show up at scenic Perdido Pass, filling its waters, in a show of unity.

Read the full story at AL.com