Saving Seafood

Scientists, fishermen plot ways to prevent whale entanglements

May 25, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Nette Leverman was reading from a sheaf of papers she held in her hand, detailing the interactions between whales and fishermen in Greenland, where she is a population biologist.

Humpback, minke, fin and bowhead whales were getting caught in fishing line and nets in the waters off the country’s coast. It’s a familiar refrain, heard over and over Monday, the first day of a four-day international workshop on large whale entanglements.

“We’ve known for decades about this problem, yet solutions to it remain elusive,” said Tim Werner, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, and one of the workshop’s organizers.

Governments and fishermen around the world are feeling the strain from an increasing numbers of whales being snared in fishing gear as some whale species rebound and as the amount of gear in the water increases for fishing, aquaculture and other uses.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Interstate fishing regulators will meet to discuss what New England’s shuttered coldwater shrimp industry should look like if it reopens

May 23, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Interstate fishing regulators will meet to discuss what New England’s shuttered coldwater shrimp industry should look like if it reopens.

The little pink shrimp were popular as a grocery store item and with restaurants until regulators shut the fishery down in 2013. Scientists say warming ocean temperatures have made New England waters inhospitable for shrimp.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet in Portsmouth on June 3 to discuss how much participation the fishery might be able to sustain if it reopens.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Herald

Northern Shrimp Section Meeting Scheduled for June 3 in Portsmouth, NH

May 20, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section will meet on June 3, 2016 from 9:30 – 11:30 AM at the Portsmouth Public Library, Levenson Community Meeting Room, 175 Parrott Avenue, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At the meeting, the Section will discuss resuming development of Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp, which had been initiated to address effort in the event the fishery reopens. As part of the discussion, the Section will review a summary of Maine’s industry meetings on addressing over-capacity in the fishery. The Section will also be presented an analysis by the Plan Development Team regarding limited entry.

The meeting is open to the public; limited public comment will be allowed at the discretion of the Section Chair. The draft agenda and meeting materials can be found here. For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org.

Atlantic herring rules change proposed

May 9, 2016 — Portsmouth, N.H. — Rules for Atlantic herring are being proposed by New Hampshire Fish and Game to help sustain the populations.

The rules are proposed to get New Hampshire into compliance with Amendment 3 to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for Atlantic herring.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is a deliberative body that coordinates the conservation and management of the 15 Atlantic coast states’ shared near-shore fishery resources for sustainable use.

Read the full story at WMUR

Number of New Hampshire groundfishermen continues to decline

March 30, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The number of New Hampshire boats fishing for groundfish has continued to decline, with only five full-time groundfisherman left in the state.

Fishermen have been catching haddock, cod and flounder off the coast and selling it in New Hampshire for centuries. But fishermen said that quotas and regulations over the past decade that are meant to protect groundfish have made it almost impossible to make a living.

The regulations have also affected other fishermen. At Tuesday’s regional meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council, some complained they were unable to catch herring to use as bait because they were in the same area as regulated groundfish.

Read the full story at WMUR

New Hampshire Sen. Ayotte Questions NOAA on At-Sea Monitoring and National Standard Eight

February 24, 2016 — The following was released by the Office of Senator Kelly Ayotte:

This week during a Senate Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Subcommittee hearing, U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte questioned National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs Samuel Rauch on the administration’s recent announcement that it would require New England fishermen to pay for its at-sea monitoring (ASM) program beginning March 1, 2016.

“I look at your budget: $5.4 billion for 2015, and you can’t find $3.78 million to fund at-sea monitoring, which is consistent with what many of us have written in the 2015 appropriations bill for NOAA,” asked Ayotte. “I can’t believe that we have a system where we’re going to put iconic fishermen out of business. The large folks – they’re going to be fine. The small fishermen – they’re done.”

Ayotte has long been a strong and consistent voice for New Hampshire’s small boat fishermen in fighting against onerous federal regulations. In September, she introduced legislation to terminate NOAA’s independent third-party ASM program unless NOAA fully funds the program using dollars within the its existing budget. Ayotte and Senator Jeanne Shaheen also previously called for a full investigation into NOAA’s ASM program for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery, which includes New Hampshire’s coastal region.

Also in September, Ayotte hosted a roundtable discussion in Portsmouth with NOAA officials, fishermen, and business leaders to discuss concerns regarding fishing regulations, federal catch-share limits, NOAA’s process for determining fish stocks, the implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and the imposition of fees for at-sea monitors on commercial fishing vessels.

Read the release from the office of Senator Kelly Ayotte

Regulators to decide whether to keep Maine shrimp ban

December 7, 2015 — PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire – Fishing regulators are ready to decide if a moratorium on fishing for Maine shrimp will be extended into next year.

Fishermen haven’t been able to catch the shrimp since 2013. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section is scheduled to meet on Monday in Portsmouth to decide if that will continue.

The commission’s Northern Shrimp Technical Committee says prospects for shrimp recovery are poor for the near future. It is asking the Northern Shrimp Section to extend the moratorium.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Fate of New England shrimp fishery will be decided soon

November 23, 2015 — ELLSWORTH — Fishermen wondering whether there will be a shrimp season this winter won’t have long to wait for an answer.

On Monday, Dec. 7, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section and Advisory Panel will meet in Portsmouth, N.H., to decide whether boats from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts will be allowed to this winter. Last year, the regulators imposed a moratorium on fishing because scientists said the shrimp stock was on the verge of collapse.

Next month, the scientific advisory panel will meet to review the 2015 Stock Status Report and develop recommendations for the 2016 fishing season. The section will meet later in the day to set specifications for the 2016 fishing season, if there is to be one, after reviewing the 2015 Stock Status Report and the advisory panel recommendations.

Information from the ASMFC suggests that another moratorium is likely. According to surveys in the Gulf of Maine, between 2012 and 2014 the abundance of shrimp and the size of the shrimp biomass were at their lowest levels in the 31-year history of the survey. The 2014 fishable biomass was the lowest on record.”

The presence of juvenile shrimp in the survey was discouraging as well. Shrimp hatched during 2013 were not expected to reach fishable size until 2017 and the level of recruitment in 2014 was the ninth lowest since the surveys began.

In a document prepared to introduce the public to proposed changes to the Northern Shrimp Fishery Plan (which have been postponed), the ASMFC said that scientists believed that “the northern shrimp stock has collapsed with little prospect of recovery in the near future.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American