Saving Seafood

Rhode Island: Ocean State Officials Pledge to Halt Offshore Drilling

February 13, 2018 — NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Rhode Island’s governor and members of Congress are calling for an all-out effort to oppose President Trump’s plan for offshore drilling along the Eastern seaboard. They warned of the environmental and economic risks to the state’s fishing and tourism industries. They urged the public to submit comments on the proposal to the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) and to show their opposition at a scheduled Feb. 28 public workshop in Providence.

Referencing the six commercial fishermen in the audience at at Feb. 12 press event, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he planned to advance a bill signed by all New England senators to ban offshore drilling off the New England coast. Whitehouse called the offshore drilling proposal a “dumb idea” and blamed the fossil-fuel industry for directing the Trump administration to enact it.

“This will not happen. Whatever it takes to prevent it, we will see takes place,” Whitehouse said.

Gov. Gina Raimondo promised to lobby governors of coastal states to pass resolutions opposing the offshore drilling plan.

“This is backwards. We ought to be moving forward for offshore wind farms, not backwards for offshore oil drilling,” she said.

Raimondo also restated her intent to have Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke follow through on his promise to meet her in Rhode Island and discuss the fossil-fuel project. Several East Coast governors called Zinke after he met with Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Scott apparently convinced Zinke to exempt his state from the offshore drilling plan. Although there is skepticism of the agreement after Zinke’s office backtracked somewhat on that promise and legal questions of such an exemption surfaced.

Whitehouse and Raimondo were asked whether a state or regional carbon tax would put economic pressure on Trump and the fossil-fuel industry. Both said they favor a national or multi-state fee on fossil fuels. However, Whitehouse said his carbon tax bill in the Senate won’t advance until the head of the Senate is a Democrat.

“The Republicans are keenly interested in trying to shovel this issue under the rug as much as they can to keep the fossil-fuel money flowing into their party. It’s a sad state of affairs,” Whitehouse said.

Raimondo said she favors advancing a carbon tax along with public pushback to offshore drilling.

Read the full story at ECORI

 

RHODE ISLAND: Sewer Line Break Forces Suspension of Shellfish Harvesting

Mount Hope Bay and a river flowing into the bay are closed to shellfish harvesting because of a sewer line break and overflow.

January 31, 2018 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Mount Hope Bay and a river flowing into the bay are closed to shellfish harvesting because of a sewer line break and overflow.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management said Tuesday that Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River will reopen Feb. 15, pending the outcome of tests for fecal coliform bacteria. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries closed Mount Hope Bay in Massachusetts.

The Bristol County Water Authority made emergency repairs to a water main near a sewer line on Jan. 5.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News and World Report

 

Rhode Island: Fishermen: Bay cleanup might be doing harm

December 7, 2017 — NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Narragansett Bay is cleaner and clearer than it’s been in decades.

But after huge strides in treating wastewater and controlling storm runoff, some are asking a question that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago about what is arguably Rhode Island’s most valuable natural resource:

Is the Bay too clean?

Fishermen are raising the issue after seeing steep declines in numbers of flounder, lobster and other species that were once so abundant that they formed the bedrock of their industry.

It has gotten bad enough that lobsterman Al Eagles says that he and others now call the Bay “Chernobyl,” a reference to the site of the devastating Soviet-era nuclear disaster.

“We have to ask ourselves, ’What is taking place in the Bay that has changed it from a resilient bay to a dead bay?” Eagles, who has fished for 45 years, said Wednesday at an annual marine affairs forum held at the University of Rhode Island.

Lanny Dellinger, board member of the Rhode Island Lobstermen’s Association, put the blame on a tightening of restrictions on wastewater treatment plants after the historic Greenwich Bay fish kill in 2003 that over the past 10 years or so has cut in half the amount of nutrients that flows into the Bay.

“It seemed to be happening in sequence with the timing of nitrogen reductions,” Dellinger said, pointing out that such nutrients are key to the growth of phytoplankton, a critical food source for marine life. “I used to see unbelievable amounts of life, but I started to see that change in the mid-2000s.”

The men spoke at the 16th annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett, an event aimed at fostering discussion and developing research projects. Bruce Corliss, dean of the school, said he chose to focus on questions about the Bay’s health after a conversation with Eagles.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

 

Fishing Report: A new way to count fish

November 25, 2016 — Scientific surveys of fish are often done by trawling. This means towing a net and then hauling it up to count the catch. Estimates are then made about how many of each species are in a square mile. They are generally done in the same area for the same amount of time on a periodic basis.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management does trawl surveys in Narragansett Bay, the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration and a regional fisheries commission do trawl surveys too. Fish managers and scientists simply do not have the resources to do a proper job with survey trawls in our coastal waters, never mind areas outside our territorial waters (200 miles). Large tracts of the ocean are not monitored so we have no idea what fish are in the water globally, never mind how many are being taken out.

But a reliable and inexpensive way to monitor fish populations is being developed by scientists. Philip Thomsen and his team from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, are developing a a far less costly way to count fish.

The team is examining fragments of floating DNA which fish slough off in slime and scales, or excrete into the water.

A Nov. 19 Economist blog post said scientists “Hope they are able to link the quantity of this ‘environmental’ DNA to those species’ abundances, as measured by a trawl survey that took place at the same time… Given the fragmentary nature of environmental DNA, they found it easier to recognize families than species (a family, in this context, is the taxonomic level above a genus; herring, sardines and shad, for example, all belong to the family Clupeidae). The trawls picked up fish from 28 families. The team found DNA from members of 26 of these in their samples, and also detected three families that had no representatives entangled in trawl nets.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

RHODE ISLAND: RIDEM Announces Implementation of Phase 3 Groundfish Disaster Assistance Program

August 31, 2016 — The following was released by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management:

New regulations, implementing Rhode Island’s third phase (aka “Bin 3”) of the three-phase federal groundfish disaster assistance program, took effect on August 24, 2016.

For this Phase Three (“Bin 3”) Program, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) will disburse $705,658 in federal aid to provide additional assistance to those engaged in the Rhode Island groundfish community who were significantly affected by the groundfish disaster, namely:

(1)  Current holders of federal permits [as of August 24, 2016] for the 43 commercial vessels, home-ported in Rhode Island [as of August 24, 2016], that received federal aid under the Bin 1 program;

(2)  Captains and crew who worked aboard any of the 43 vessels and received federal aid under the Bin 2 program; and

(3)  Captains and crew who worked aboard any of the 43 commercial vessels, meet the Bin 2 eligibility standards, but did not apply for consideration under the Bin 2 program.

Updated information on the Phase Three Program, including the regulations for the program, can be found at the DEM webpage titled “Groundfish Industry Economic Assistance and Development Programs,” which is here: http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/fish-wildlife/marine-fisheries/groundfish-assistance.php.

For those individuals falling under the first two categories listed above, the only requirement will be to complete and return a Pre-Approval Form, which RIDEM is sending to all qualified individuals this week (week of August 29, 2016) via certified mail.  The forms must be returned within thirty (30) days of receipt.  If you feel that you are qualified under either of the first two categories, and do not receive a Pre-Approval Form by September 9, 2016, contact Robert Ballou at Robert.Ballou@dem.ri.gov, or 401-222-4700, ext. 4420.

For those captains and crew falling under the third category listed above, the 30-day application process will commence on September 1, 2016 and run through September 30, 2016.  Application forms are available here: http://www.dem.ri.gov/pubs/regs/regs/fishwild/bin3capt.pdf.  All completed applications must be postmarked by September 30, 2016, or hand-delivered by 4 pm on September 30, 2016.

For questions or further information on any aspect of the Phase Three Program, contact Robert Ballou at Robert.Ballou@dem.ri.gov, or 401-222-4700, ext. 4420.

CFRF Black Sea Bass Research Fleet

August 24, 2016 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation:

On September 1st., the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF), in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM), will launch a one-year pilot project to develop a cost-effective method to collect critically needed fishery dependent data on black sea bass (Centropristis striata) in the Southern New England and Mid-Atlantic Bight region. The project will be approached collaboratively by a team of commercial and recreational fishermen and fisheries scientists and managers, and will involve eight months of black sea bass catch and discard characterization from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. The Black Sea Bass Research Fleet will involve eight fishing vessels from a variety of gear types, including trawl, lobster/crab trap, gillnet, and hook and line, in collecting biological black sea bass data as part of routine fishing practices. Participant fishermen will use a specialized tablet app to efficiently and accurately record biological information about black sea bass catch and bycatch throughout the year. The results from the proposed project will help to fill existing data gaps for the northern Atlantic black sea bass, which is an essential first step in developing a management plan that reflects the current state of the black sea bass resource.

The CFRF will be soliciting applications from fishing vessels based in Rhode Island to participate in the Black Sea Bass Research Fleet in September 2016. More information about the project, including application materials, will be available on the CFRF website here.

The CFRF looks forward to getting the Black Sea Bass Research Fleet up and running!

RHODE ISLAND: More Tropical Fish Arriving in Narragansett Bay Earlier

August 18, 2016 — When a tropical fish called a crevalle jack turned up this summer in the Narragansett Bay trawl survey, which the University of Rhode Island conducts weekly, it was the first time the species was detected in the more than 50 years that the survey has taken place.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s seine survey of fish in Rhode Island waters also captured a crevalle jack this year for the first time.

While it’s unusual that both institutions would capture a fish they had never recorded in the bay before, it’s not unusual that fish from the tropics are finding their way to the Ocean State. In fact, fish from Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean have been known to turn up in local waters in late summer every year for decades. But lately they’ve been showing up earlier in the season and in larger numbers, which is raising questions among those who pay attention to such things.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about how they get here,” said Jeremy Collie, the URI oceanography professor who manages the weekly trawl survey. “Most of them aren’t particularly good swimmers, so they probably didn’t swim here. They don’t say, ‘It’s August, so let’s go on vacation to New England.’ They’re not capable of long migrations.”

Instead, fish eggs and larvae and occasionally adult fish are believed to arrive in late summer on eddies of warm water that break from the Gulf Stream. Collie said they “probably hitch a ride” on sargassum weed or other bits of seaweed that the currents carry toward Narragansett Bay.

Most of these tropical species, including spotfin butterflyfish, damselfish, short bigeye, burrfish and several varieties of grouper, don’t survive long in the region. When the water begins to get cold in November, almost all perish.

Read the full story at ecoRI

NPR Rhode Island: Interstate Fisheries Group Opposes Marine National Monument Proposal

May 13, 2016 — More than 160,000 people have signed a petition asking President Obama to declare a marine national monument in New England waters. It’s an effort spearheaded by a coalition of environmental groups and scientists. But the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is asking the president to reject this proposal.

“Under the Antiquities Act, the president can act without any public comment, any public input. I think that’s the big issue right now,” said Mark Gibson, chief of the fisheries division at the state Department of Environmental Management. He represents Rhode Island in fisheries groups. He said the New England Fisheries Management Council is already working to protect important habitats for corals, using the nation’s primary fishing law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“So it will take some time,” said Gibson. “We are going through the full process of committee recommendations for areas that need to be protected, and the council will have to consider those, move them to public hearings, move them to the next council meeting, so it’s a long process that goes on.”

It’s a long process, but it works, adds David Borden, a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and a lobsterman. He said this proposal is missing the comprehensive review that happens among regulators, fishermen and environmental advocates.

“I think it’s important for the public to realize that there is no formal proposal that’s available for either the fishing industry or the public to look at and so we’ve requested that the public be afforded that opportunity,” said Borden.

Read and listen to the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

Fishery Board Considers Ideas To Protect Southern New England Lobsters

May 6, 2016 — The health of Southern New England’s American lobster population remains a concern for fishermen, scientists and regulators. Ideas for how to help replenish lobsters are still making their way through a long process.

This week the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s lobster management board offered ideas on how to improve the health of the declining lobster populations in areas critical to southern New England fishermen.

Mark Gibson, a board member representing Rhode Island and chief of the fisheries division at the state Department of Environmental Management, said they are just that: ideas.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

States Schedule Hearings on Jonah Crab Draft Addendum I

February 11, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):

The states of Maine through Maryland have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Addendum I to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan  for Jonah Crab (FMP). The details of those hearings follow.

Maine Dept. of Marine Resources
March 17, 2016; 6-8 PM
Casco Bay Lines Conference Room
56 Commercial Street
Portland, Maine
Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553
 
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
March 14, 2016; 5:30 PM
New Bedford Fairfield Inn and Suites
185 McArthur Drive
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Contact: Dan McKiernan at 617.626.1536

March 15, 2016; 6:00 PM
MA DMF Annisquam River Field Station
30 Emerson Avenue
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Contact: Dan McKiernan at 617.626.1536

Rhode Island Dept. of Environmental Management
March 16, 2016; 6-9 PM
University of Rhode Island Bay Campus
Corliss Auditorium
South Ferry Road
Narragansett, Rhode Island
Contact: Scott Olszewski at 401.423.1934

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation
March 23, 2016; 6:30 PM
New York State Dept. of Enviro Conservation
205 North Belle Mead Road, Suite 1
East Setauket, New York
Contact: Rachel Sysak at 631.444.0469

Maryland Department of Natural Resources
April 4, 2016; 2-4 PM
Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce
12320 Ocean Gateway
Ocean City, Maryland
Contact: Craig Weedon at 410.643.4601 ext. 2113

The Draft Addendum proposes changes to the incidental bycatch limits for non-trap gear (e.g., otter trawls, gillnets) and non-lobster trap gear (e.g., fish, crab, and whelk pots). For non-trap gear, the Draft Addendum includes options to maintain, increase, or eliminate the bycatch limit, while options for non-lobster traps include establishing bycatch limits of varying size or maintaining no limit on these gears. The intent of the Draft Addendum is to cap incidental landings of Jonah crab while ensuring the inclusion of current participants in the Jonah crab fishery.

The FMP currently prescribes a 200 crab per calendar day/500 crab per trip incidental bycatch limit for non-trap gear; however, concerns were expressed over the appropriateness of these limits. Data submitted by the New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries illustrate while 97-99% of trips from 2010 through 2014 were within the current limit, there were several trips above the limit. Furthermore, current bycatch landings were sufficiently low, accounting for approximately 0.1% of total landings.

Bycatch limits for non-lobster trap gear were added as a second issue for consideration in the Draft Addendum to address concerns regarding the lack of effort controls on non-lobster traps and the potential for trap proliferation. Data submitted by NOAA Fisheries show between May 1, 2013 and August 31, 2015, 194 trips landed Jonah crab with whelk pots, crab pots, and fish pots. Of these, 80 trips landed 100 crab or fewer and 115 trips landed 200 crab or fewer.  Approximately 45 trips landed between 200 and 500 crab and 40 trips landed more than 450 crab.  Landings from Maryland show between 2012 and 2015, 33 trips landed Jonah crab with fish pots. All of these trips were under 200 pounds. Reports also indicated from 2014-2015, 36 trips landed Jonah crab with whelk pots. Average landings per trip with whelk pots were under 500 pounds; however, there is concern that these whelk pot landings may in fact be rock crab, a closely related species which is often misreported as Jonah crab.

Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum can be obtained at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/JonahCrabDraftAddendumI_PublicComment_Feb2016.pdf or via the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on April 18, 2016 and should be forwarded to Megan Ware, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at mware@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Addendum I).