Saving Seafood

News for the New England Region

Council Endorses 2022 U.S./Canada TACs; Discusses Groundfish Framework 63, Focuses Options to Promote Stock Rebuilding

October 20, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its late-September 2021 meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council agreed by consensus to accept the U.S./Canada Transboundary Management Guidance Committee’s (TMGC) total allowable catch (TAC) recommendations for three shared groundfish resources on Georges Bank. These involve Eastern Georges Bank cod, Eastern Georges Bank haddock, and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder. The TMGC recommended the TACs based on advice from the U.S./Canada Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee (TRAC). The U.S. has members on both the TMGC and the TRAC. The TRAC deals with the science and assessment end of the process, while the TMGC focuses on management.

The TACs will be included in Framework Adjustment 63 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, which is under development. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, NOAA Fisheries) must approve the TACs before they are implemented.

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Read the full release from the NEFMC

 

Maine lobstermen celebrate, conservationists criticize ruling on fishery closure

October 20, 2021 –Maine lobstermen will not have to stop fishing in an area slated to be off-limits from October through January.

A federal judge granted temporary relief to the Maine Lobstering Union Saturday.

The group sued in an effort to block the seasonal closure of the roughly 1,000-square-mile area.

Federal officials argued the closure is necessary to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

“You’re not going to save a whale by closing down I-95 and we feel like that’s the same implication,” said Virginia Olsen of the Maine Lobstering Union.

The rules issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine Fisheries Service are part of a 10-year plan to reduce the risk of right whales getting tangled in lobster fishing ropes and dying.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in September to challenge the protections which, they argue, will “eliminate” the Maine lobster fishery.

Read the full story at WMUR

 

Maine Lobstering Union Lands Injunction to Halt Right Whale Lobster Fishing Area Closure

October 19, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) was granted emergency relief by U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker on October 16 to halt an impending closure of a lobster fishing area off Maine.

The closure was set to be implemented as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced at the end of August.

After learning of the closure, the MLU, along with other industry groups including the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), sued the NMFS over the right-whale related rule changes.

According to the MLU, the closure would have impacted a large area of “prime lobstering territory.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

Directed herring fishery closed for rest of the year, incidental catch still allowed 

October 19, 2021 — The directed herring fishery has been closed for the rest of the year for the inshore Gulf of Maine, according to officials.   

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board voted late last month to set the number of landing days at zero for the second half of the herring season, meaning a vessel can’t go out fishing directly for herring.   

Fishermen are allowed to fish for other species and may land up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip as incidental catch only, said Emilie Franke, the fishery management plan coordinator at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.   

Herring is a prized bait fish for lobstermen in Maine, though many have resorted to other species, such as  pogies,  as  herring numbers have  declined  and quotas have tightened. Herring is considered overfished, but overfishing  by fishermen  is  not  currently happening, leaving officials searching for an answer on how to help the species  rebound. 

The New England Fishery Management Council met late last month to talk about how to move forward with the conservation of the species across New England. The council decided to go forward with an acceptable biological catch strategy that allows for sustainable harvest of the fish while accounting for the species role as a forage species  and baitfish. The rule works by allowing fishing mortality rate to fluctuate with the highs and lows of the species’ biomass, allowing flexibility depending on how the fish is doing. It also adds accountability measures.   

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Big Oil wants to be Big Wind. Can fossil fuel companies be trusted?

October 18, 2021 — Danielle Jensen spent two years working on Mars — not the planet, the offshore oil rig.

Her job was to keep the crude flowing for Royal Dutch Shell. She operated the platform’s pumps and compressors, clocking two-week shifts with a mostly male crew.

Workdays were long, and walking around in a flame-retardant suit all summer in the Gulf of Mexico was brutal. But she felt good about providing energy to the world — modern society was built on fossil fuels, after all.

Times are changing, though, and Jensen wants to be part of the future. When Shell posted a job for planning an offshore wind farm off Massachusetts, she leapt at the opportunity. She now lives in Boston and works for Mayflower Wind, a joint venture of Shell and two European utilities.

“Once we get a few of these big projects installed and powering people’s homes, I think it’ll be unstoppable,” she says.

Jensen is the rare energy worker who has stepped from a carbon-intensive industry into one with almost no emissions at all. Her move mirrors a wider energy transition. Shell is among a handful of large oil companies racing to enter the offshore wind market, banking that their experience with ocean drilling can turn them into clean energy giants.

Read the full story at WBUR

Will offshore wind threaten wildlife? A Duke-led team is working to find out

October 18, 2021 — A team of scientists led by Duke University researchers will set out to determine the risk offshore wind turbines could pose to birds, fish and marine mammals with the support of a U.S. Department of Energy grant.

The $7.5 million grant was awarded as federal and North Carolina officials push to scale up the offshore wind industry, with President Joe Biden setting a national goal of 30 gigawatts of wind by 2030 and N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper setting targets of 2.8 gigawatts by 2030 and 8 gigawatts by 2040.

Researchers from 15 institutions will create a tool-kit that the wind energy industry and regulators can use to figure out where wind farms should be placed and what steps should be taken to protect nearby wildlife. The Duke University grant is one of four included in the Department of Energy package.

Read the full story at the Charlotte Observer

 

Federal judge blocks lobster fishing ban in stretch of Gulf of Maine

October 18, 2021 — A federal judge in Maine on Saturday blocked a seasonal ban on traditional lobster fishing in a stretch of offshore waters in the Gulf of Maine that regulators say is needed to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale from extinction.

In his 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said regulators had relied on “markedly thin” statistical modeling instead of hard evidence to show the nearly thousand-square-mile area they had planned to close was really a hot spot for the imperiled whale.

While the area targeted for closure may be a viable habitat for the right whale, there is no hard proof the whales actually gather there, or even pass through that part of the Gulf of Maine, with enough frequency to render it a “hotspot,” Walker wrote.

The National Marine Fisheries Service had only just this year deployed acoustic devices along the Maine coast that can detect the presence of right whales through their song, Walker noted. When available, such evidence of a hot spot is preferable to statistical likelihoods.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Association files brief in support of motion filed against U.S. Secretary of Commerce to block closure of Maine lobster fishing grounds

October 15, 2021 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has filed a brief in support of a motion filed against the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to block the impending closure of Maine lobster fishing grounds by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The seasonal closure, scheduled to go into effect next week, will bar lobster fishing in 967 square miles off the coast of Maine.

It’s part of a ten year federal plan to protect right whales.

Read the full story at WABI

 

Energy Department announces $10.8M in funding to study impact of offshore wind on East Coast fisheries

October 15, 2021 — The Department of Energy has announced $10.8 million in funding to research the impact of offshore wind on East Coast fisheries and ocean ecosystems. The move is part of President Joe Biden’s plan to tackle climate change by making a big push for renewable energy. But the commercial fishing industry says plans to use hundreds of thousands of acres of ocean to develop wind power will impact the catch.

Clammers and scallop fishermen say they won’t be able to maneuver through the turbines, which would be spaced 1 nautical mile apart. They fear a shrinking patch of fishable ocean will lead to the collapse of the industry.

Some worry about the impact of construction on marine mammals, especially the endangered North Atlantic right whale, which currently has an estimated population of less than 400.

“Harnessing the incredible potential that exists within offshore wind energy is an essential piece of reaching a net-zero carbon future,” Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. “In order for Americans living in coastal areas to see the benefits of offshore wind, we must ensure that it’s done with care for the surrounding ecosystem by coexisting with fisheries and marine life —and that’s exactly what this investment will do.”

Read the full story at WHYY