Saving Seafood

Commercial fishermen: Net ban would destroy N.C. seafood industry

May 23, 2016 — A state House bill first introduced 16 years ago has been resurrected that would ban the use of large trawling nets in state waters, a move that the commercial fishing industry says could destroy the livelihood for most North Carolina fishermen.

New Bern native Billy Richardson, D­-Cumberland, filed a bill that would let voters decide whether to outlaw gill and certain other nets in all state coastal waters. If the N.C. General Assembly supports House Bill 1122, the binding referendum would be on the November election ballot.

“It would be the end of North Carolina’s (commercial) fishery,” said Wayne Dunbar, a waterman for nearly 40 years, located in Pamlico County’s Paradise Shores on Lower Broad Creek, leading into the Pamlico Sound. “People that don’t fish wouldn’t get North Carolina seafood.”

Dunbar said this time of the year most of the fishermen trawl inland waters for speckled trout, flounder, spot, croakers and menhaden. On a typical day, he will go out in his small boat with 300 yards of net and fill a fish box with about 300 pounds of seafood.

Dunbar, who studied fish and wildlife management at Wayne Community College, said a net ban also would be devastating to the crab industry, the largest of the state’s fisheries.

The bait includes menhaden and other fish caught in nets.

Read the full story at the New Bern Sun Journal

Helping Fishermen Catch What They Want, and Nothing Else

May 3, 2016 — Heather Goldstone, of NPR affiliates WGBH and WCAI, discusses bycatch reduction in fisheries on a recent episode of “Living Lab.” Her guests were veteran gear designer Ron Smolowitz of the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, who has worked with the southern New England scallop industry; Steve Eayrs, a research scientist at Gulf of Maine Research Institute, who has worked with groundfishermen in Maine; and Tim Werner, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium, who put acoustic pingers on gill nets to warn away dolphins. An excerpt from the segment is reproduced below:

It’s the holy grail of commercial fishing: catch just the right amount of just the right size of just the right species, without damage to the physical environment. It’s a tall order, and few fisheries are there yet.

Leaving aside the issue of straight up over-fishing, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that, each year, fishermen around the world accidentally catch more than seven million tons of marine life – everything from whales and turtles, to sea cucumbers – that they weren’t even after. Such by-catch, as it’s known, is essentially collateral damage.

And fishing has other environmental impacts. In some parts of the ocean, the scars left by trawls dragged across the sea floor can be seen for years.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Over the past decade or so, a lot of effort has gone into designing fishing gear and related equipment that allows fishermen to catch more of what they do want, and less of what they don’t, while also minimizing damage to the environment. For example:

  • Veteran gear designer Ron Smolowitz and the Coonamessett Farm Foundation have worked with the southern New England scallop industry over the past several years to develop a trawl that excludes loggerhead sea turtles. It turns out, it’s also better at capturing scallops, with the end result that scallopers can use smaller areas and less fuel – 75% less – to make their catch.

Read the full story and listen to the segment at WCAI

North Carolina Fisheries Association – Weekly Update for March 28, 2016

March 29, 2016 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

CARTERET COUNTY FISHERMEN’S ASSOCIATION is meeting on Saturday, April 9th at 6:30pm in Marshallberg. The group will be planning their annual Fish Fry scheduled for May, among some other things.

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SKIMMER TRAWLS:

Last week we listed information about potential new regs for skimmer trawls. For those of you who use skimmer trawls, you will receive a mailing from us in the next couple of days about this issue.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ IT!

After looking it over, contact us at the office or an NCFA Board member about your thoughts as we will be discussing the subject at our Board meeting next Monday in Washington. The list of Board members and their phone numbers is listed in the mailing. If you’d like to attend the Board meeting, feel free to do so and participate in the discussion. The meeting begins at noon at the Civic Center in Washington NC.

For more info, contact NCFA’s biologist, David Bush: (910) 777-1605, or by email.

NOAA Fisheries hosts public meetings in April to discuss potential skimmer trawl regulations in Southeast US:

NOAA Fisheries is considering new regulations in the shrimp fishery of the southeastern United States based on information indicating sea turtles are vulnerable to capture by skimmer trawls and tow times may not be as effective in reducing bycatch-related mortality as turtle excluder devices. The agency will host five public meetings around the region to discuss and receive input from fishermen and other constituents on alternatives to reduce sea turtle bycatch and mortality.

These public meetings are the first stage in a multi-step process required by the National Environmental Policy Act to ensure that Federal agencies evaluate the environmental impacts of major Federal actions. During these meetings, the public is provided with an opportunity to assist us in determining the scope of issues that require analysis. The analysis of issues and the environmental impacts of the proposed actions will be presented in a draft Environmental Impact Statement, which will be made available for public comment. The notice of intent to prepare the draft statement will be published in the Federal Register on March 15, 2016.

Additionally, we prepared a scoping document and a list of frequently asked questions as aids to the public on the upcoming scoping process. These documents are available on the NOAA Fisheries website at: http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/protected_resources/index.html. The scoping document describes the major issues, current management and legal requirements, and identifies potential management measures to reduce interactions, and in particular, lethal interactions, between sea turtles and trawl fisheries.

There are several meetings being held but the North Carolina meeting is:

Morehead City, NC — April 13, 2016, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., Crystal Coast Civic Center.

Scoping comments may also be submitted during a concurrent 45-day comment period. When they publish the draft EIS, it will also have a 45-day public comment period.

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FROM THE DIVISION OF MARINE FISHERIES:

State seeking public comment on management options required to improve blue crab stock

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is accepting public comment on management options for the blue crab fishery. The management measures are required under Amendment 2 to the N.C. Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan to improve the condition of the state’s blue crab stock.

Division staff will discuss the possible management measures and receive public comment at the following upcoming advisory committee meetings:

Southern Regional Advisory Committee

April 6, 5:30 p.m.

DMF Central District Office; Morehead City

Northern Regional Advisory Committee

April 7, 5:30 p.m.

DEQ Washington Regional Office; 943 Washington Square Mall, Washington

Shellfish/Crustacean Advisory Committee

April 14. 6 p.m.

DMF Central District Office; Morehead City

Additionally, comments can be directed by phone to division biologists Jason Rock at 252-948-3874 or Corrin Flora at 252-264-3911, or by email to Jason.Rock@ncdenr.gov or Corrin.Flora@ncdenr.gov.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to consider management action at its May meeting. Possible management options include:

* Increasing the minimum size limit for male and immature female crabs

* Establishing a seasonal size limit on peeler crabs

* Reducing the tolerance of sub-legal size blue crabs to a minimum of 5 percent and/or implementing gear modifications to reduce sublegal catch

* Eliminating the harvest of v-apron immature hard crab females

* Restricting the harvest of sponge crabs

* Prohibiting all harvest of sponge crabs and/or requiring sponge crab excluders in pots in specific areas

* Closing the crab spawning sanctuaries from Sept. 1 to Feb. 28 and possibly imposing further restriction

* Expanding existing and/or designating new crab spawning sanctuaries

* Closing the fishery by season and/or gear

* Gear modifications in the crab trawl fishery

Management measures will be implemented by proclamation following the commission’s May meeting.

Management action is required under Amendment 2 to the N.C. Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan, adopted by the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission in November 2013. Amendment 2 uses an adaptive management framework based on the condition of the Blue Crab Traffic Light, which requires annual evaluation of three indicators to determine if any change in management is warranted. The indicators are adult abundance, the abundance of juvenile crabs in the stock (recruit abundance), and production (which evaluates the reproductive potential or resilience of the stock).

The annual evaluation has been completed, and management thresholds have been exceeded, requiring management action.

For more information, go to http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/home under “Hot Topics.”

SOUTHERN FLOUNDER:

Thanks to those of you who have contributed to our Southern Flounder Fund. Those funds will be used exclusively for issues related to southern flounder, either legally or other avenues to address the situation.

If you have not yet contributed, please do so ASAP!

Send your donations to:

NCFA

2807 Neuse Blvd; Suite 11

New Bern, NC 28562

Please make your check out to NCFA/Southern Flounder Fund or to the NC Fisheries Association and be sure to put Southern Flounder Fund in the memo.

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CALENDAR

Apr 4; Noon; NCFA Board meeting; Civic Center; Washington NC

Apr 6; 5:30pm; MFC Southern Advisory Cmte; DMF office; Morehead City

Apr 7; 5:30pm; MFC Northern Advisory Cmte; DEQ office; Washington

Apr 9; 6:30pm; Carteret County Fishermen’s Association; Marshallberg

Apr 11; 6:00pm; Oyster/Hard Clam Advisors; DMF office; Morehead City

Apr 12-14; MAFMC meeting in Montauk, NY

Apr 13; 2:00-4:00pm; Skimmer Trawl meeting; Civic Center; Morehead City

Apr 13; 5:30pm; Finfish Advisors; DEQ office; Washington

Apr 14; 6:00pm; Shellfish/Crustacean Advisors; DMF office; Morehead City

Apr 25; North Carolina General Assembly convenes for the Short Session

May 2-5; ASMFC Spring Meeting; Westin; Alexandria, VA

May 18-20; MFC meeting; Civic Center; Morehead City

View a PDF of the Weekly Update

Research finds trawling not as devastating as often portrayed

November 23, 2015 — An ongoing two-year independent study on trawling and its effect on benthic sea life — species that live on sea floors where trawling occurs – has found that the practice may not be as devastating as it is portrayed by some NGOs.

The study called, ‘Trawling: Finding Common Ground on the Scientific Knowledge Regarding Best Practices’, is being funded by the Walton Foundation and the Packard Foundation in partnership with the National Fisheries Institute, and is being done by a group of international scientists who are collecting and assessing data of global sea floors where trawling occurs.

The major data collection and analysis for the project has been completed, including assessments of mobile bottom contact gear in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa and most of the US, making it six times more extensive than and previous compilations.

According to Ricardo Amoroso of the University of Washington, who presented the data at this year’s Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle, public perception of trawling is often negative. Common public beliefs include the equivalent of 10 football fields are trawled every four seconds and that trawling is turning the seafloor into a desert.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Say Goodbye to Bycatch: Fishing Smarter in the 21st Century

November 23, 2015 — Fishing nets are blind. They have been for thousands of years.

Just like our ancestors, today’s commercial fishermen drop their nets, or “trawls”, into dark, opaque waters. What they pull up is anyone’s guess.

In addition to the fish being targeted, their trawls also contain “by-catch”: unintended fish species and ocean wildlife that are tossed back because they cannot be sold. The thing is, by the time the nets are hauled up, most of the by-catch is already dead.

So what’s the problem with catching a few extra fish?

What if I told you that by-catch is a major contributor to overfishing and poses a significant threat to the world’s oceans? Currently, in the United States, approximately 1 in 5 fish caught by commercial fishermen are by-catch. That’s 2 billion pounds of fish and other marine species wasted each year. Imagine inadvertently capturing, killing, and disposing of 4,800 blue whales…what an enormous, destructive waste.

In attempting to solve the by-catch problem, Rob Terry, founder of SmartCatch, asked himself: what if commercial fisheries could see inside their trawls before they reel them in?

In 2014, the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic (LEX-NG) Fund issued a grant to Rob Terry to develop SmartCatch’s Digital Catch Monitoring System, or DigiCatch for short. With DigiCatch technology, fisherman can reduce by-catch by having eyes underwater to monitor their trawls.

Read the full story at the National Geographic

DON CUDDY: Collaborative research can save the New England groundfish industry

October 25, 2015 — These days it seems as though every story about the New England groundfishery contains a headline with “crisis” or “disaster” in it, often followed by claims and counterclaims from fishermen, environmental groups and fishery regulators. Yet amidst all the controversy there is general agreement on one point: the need for better fishery science, to enable more timely and more accurate stock assessments.

The data used for fish stock assessment in the Northeast is derived primarily from the annual spring and fall surveys conducted by the Henry B. Bigelow, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s 208-foot research vessel. The results are largely distrusted by many fishermen who contend that NOAA is using the wrong bottom-trawl gear on a vessel that is in any case too large for the task. Furthermore, fishermen say, random sampling of the vast survey area is not sufficient to develop an accurate picture of stock abundance.

To get a better picture of what is happening in the ocean the fishing industry has been urging NOAA Fisheries to engage in more collaborative research, using commercial fishing vessels with crews working alongside fishery scientists. This is not a radical idea. It is already in effect in fisheries on the West Coast and it is also happening here in the shallower coastal waters of the northeastern seaboard. The Bigelow’s deep draft of 19.5 feet precludes it from working inshore.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

How Restaurants and Fisheries Are Saving Edible Seafood From the Trash

October 22, 2015 — As demand for seafood rises, chefs have their seafood supplier on speed dial. And while species like tuna, cod, and halibut are popular, these days, the daily catch on the blackboard might be something unfamiliar — squirrel fish or the banded rudderfish. Don’t be scared off. Most likely it’s bycatch or trash fish. While perfectly edible and quite tasty, these fish are so named because they might otherwise be thrown overboard or ground into fishmeal because they aren’t the intended catch on commercial fishing boats.

If they had a choice, fisherman would rather not have to deal with bycatch, but fishing nets aren’t particular about what they scoop up. Bottom trawlers have little discretion when they drag along the seafloor. Longlines with baited hooks extend for 50 miles or more, which attracts anything that swims by — including unwanted edible fish as well as sea turtles, sharks, and other sea mammals. Opportunistic seabirds flock to longlines in hopes of an easy meal, often getting snagged.

All in all, it’s an inefficient way catch fish, and even the fisherman dislike it. The most recent tally from Johns Hopkins University estimates that in United States-controlled waters, 573 million pounds of fish are lost due to fisherman bycatch every year. This pales in comparison to the even-more striking fact that 51-63 percent of seafood is wasted at the consumer level.

Read the full story at Eater

 

Keep America Fishing Expresses Concern on Vast “No Fishing” Proposals for New England Waters

September 11, 2015 — Do you believe that the only way to conserve our public lands and waters is to lock recreational fishermen out? Do you view recreational fishing as an extractive activity on par with oil drilling and commercial bottom trawling?

Of course you don’t.

But right now, that’s what some anti-fishing organizations are actively accusing us of. When demanding areas off the New England coast be designated as “fully protected” marine monuments, their real agenda is to set up no-fishing zones.

The federal government is currently exploring this issue. There is the potential for all recreational fishing to be banned, even though there’s no evidence to suggest we pose a threat to the habitat or fish populations in these areas.

Read the full story from The Fishing Wire

A RENEGADE TRAWLER, HUNTED FOR 10,000 MILES BY VIGILANTES

July 28, 2015 — Aboard the Bob Barker, in the South Atlantic — As the Thunder, a trawler considered the world’s most notorious fish poacher, began sliding under the sea a couple of hundred miles south of Nigeria, three men scrambled aboard to gather evidence of its crimes.

In bumpy footage from their helmet cameras, they can be seen grabbing everything they can over the next 37 minutes — the captain’s logbooks, a laptop computer, charts and a slippery 200-pound fish. The video shows the fishing hold about a quarter full with catch and the Thunder’s engine room almost submerged in murky water. “There is no way to stop it sinking,” the men radioed back to the Bob Barker, which was waiting nearby. Soon after they climbed off, the Thunder vanished below.

It was an unexpected end to an extraordinary chase. For 110 days and more than 10,000 nautical miles across two seas and three oceans, the Bob Barker and a companion ship, both operated by the environmental organization Sea Shepherd, had trailed the trawler, with the three captains close enough to watch one another’s cigarette breaks and on-deck workout routines. In an epic game of cat-and-mouse, the ships maneuvered through an obstacle course of giant ice floes, endured a cyclone-like storm, faced clashes between opposing crews and nearly collided in what became the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel in history.

Industrial-scale violators of fishing bans and protected areas are a main reason more than half of the world’s major fishing grounds have been depleted and by some estimates over 90 percent of the ocean’s large fish like marlin, tuna and swordfish have vanished. Interpol had issued a Purple Notice on the Thunder (the equivalent of adding it to a Most Wanted List, a status reserved for only four other ships in the world), but no government had been willing to dedicate the personnel and millions of dollars needed to go after it.

So Sea Shepherd did instead, stalking the fugitive 202-foot steel-sided ship from a desolate patch of ocean at the bottom of the Earth, deep in Antarctic waters, to any ports it neared, where its crews could alert the authorities. “The poachers thrive by staying in the shadows,” Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Barker, said while trying to level his ship through battering waves. “Our plan was to put a spotlight on them that they couldn’t escape.”

Read the full story at The New York Times 

Deadline to apply to NEFMC’s Trawl Survey Advisory Panel Friday, July 31

July 27, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The deadline is this week, Friday, July 31, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. if you would like to apply for a New England Fishery Management Council seat on the new Trawl Survey AP.  

In addition to addressing the objectives identified for this group, panel members may discuss concerns about trawl survey performance and data collection, methods to address or mitigate these concerns, and assist in promoting a better understanding of the results. The panel will include members of both the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils, the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission, and fishing industry experts, as well as non-federal and Northeast Fisheries Science Center scientists.

Please see www.nefmc.org/news/nefmc-seeks-applicants-for-trawl-survey-advisory-panel for more details, including the full announcement, an application, and instructions about returning a completed application. If you have any questions please contact Pat Fiorelli at pfiorelli@nefmc.org.