Ahab's Journal

Saltwater Connections

Saltwater Connections is a regional initiative aimed at sustaining livelihoods, cultural heritage, and natural resources along North Carolina’s central coast, from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke and Down East Carteret County.

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Division of Marine Fisheries Has New Website Address

MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries website has a new home.

 As of today, the division’s homepage is at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/home. Those who go to the old homepages at http://www.ncfisheries.net and http://www.ncdmf.net will be redirected to the new site.

Oceana's New Sea Turtle Children's Book Set on the Outer Banks

Author Eric Douglas and Oceana collaborated recently to create a children’s book, “The Sea Turtle Rescue.” The book features illustrations by the talented students at Seaside Elementary School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The story follows a family in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The family's two young girls, 10-year-old Jayne and 9-year-old Marie, learn about sea turtle conservation when boaters find a loggerhead sea turtle caught in fishing line.

Summer Flounder Declared Viable in 2011 Stock Status Report

MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries declared summer flounder “viable” in its 2011 Stock Status Report released today.

 Summer flounder had been listed as “recovering” since 2009, and according to the latest assessment by the National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Science Center the stock is no longer overfished and overfishing is not occurring. Fishing mortality has steadily decreased and the stock has generally increased since the early 1990s.

With 12 Million Lines in the Water, Sport Fishing has a Big Impact

Beneath recreational fishing’s bucolic veneer of a solitary angler alone with his thoughts—and perhaps a striper or two—on a desolate beach, the reality is that sportfishing is big business. Still, the perception remains that the effect of this hobby on the environment is far below that of commercial fishing despite the overall quantity of fishermen on the water.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, nearly 12 million Americans went sportfishing annually from 2005 through 2009, making about 80 million saltwater sportfishing trips per year. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire population of the five coastal New England states getting out on the water seven-and-a-half times apiece.

The economic benefit of these activities is tremendous. Rec fishermen spent $18 billion on equipment and for-hire vessels in 2006 alone according to NOAA’s most recent figures. These contributions rippled through coastal economies, ultimately contributing $49 billion and creating nearly 400,000 jobs. Further, these figures don’t account for costs like hotel rooms, meals, travel costs, and other services of which anglers avail themselves in their quest to land the big one.

Yet many rec fishermen still believe there’s no way his or her single hook on a line can possibly do as much damage as the sweep of a yawning bottom trawl. Well, when we put 12 million hooks on 12 million lines the equation starts to come a bit more into balance.

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Lang looks to federal legal probe after losing NOAA suit

NEW BEDFORD — Rather than appeal a federal judge's rejection of the legal challenge against fishery catch shares and sector management by New Bedford and Gloucester, Mayor Scott Lang suggests there might be a better weapon for the city: the Commerce Department's own inspector general, Todd Zinser.

After Zinser debunked years of denial about the problems in the Northeast law enforcement office of NOAA and exposed wrongdoing, mismanagement and missing funds, Lang appealed to him to look into the agency's rule-making process. Lang wanted to know what has been happening behind the scenes, who is involved and what they are doing, and how sector management and catch shares were arrived at.

But Zinser demurred, saying he would wait until the pending lawsuit was settled.

That day has arrived, unless the cities decide to appeal the Thursday ruling by Judge Rya Zobel that went entirely in the government's favor.

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Judge: System not clear-cut enough to force referendum

U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel rejected a dozen challenges to the legality or propriety of Amendment 16, the radical reorganization of the New England groundfishery into a hybridized system based on business cooperatives.

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‘Beginning of the end for small fishermen’

With the height of the New England fishing season getting under way this week, small family fishermen say controversial new rules are destroying their livelihood — forcing them to sell their boats and instead search for work as laborers on larger vessels.

“It’s a death knell. It’s the beginning of the end for small fishermen,” said Rhode Island fisherman Joel Hovanesian, 54, who recently sold his boat.

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N.C. LAWMAKERS CONTINUE TO ALLOW PUBLIC ACCESS TO A PUBLIC RESOURCE

 

By not allowing HB 353 to breath, the NC General Assembly is continuing to allow access to one of North Carolina’s greatest resources. The North Carolina Travel and Tourism Board also voted to allow charter boats, recreational boats and commercial boats to share the resource. By labeling drum, speckled trout, and rock as gamefish (according to the federal definition), no North Carolinians would be able to retain this resource. Game fish status on the federal level translates into no retention, period. Thank goodness this resource is still available to all user groups, North Carolina needs tourism, tourists crave fresh seafood, seafood is supplied by commercial fishermen, which makes for healthy communities. The balance of harvest is tilted towards the recreational effort, it may affect the viability of coastal villages, and the great state of North Carolina. Commercial fishermen are only permitted to harvest ¼ of the recreational catch, maybe someday the resource will be shared equally.

James Reibel

Shrimpers may face stricter rules to protect turtles

In the past six months alone, nearly 400 sea turtles have washed up dead or injured, mostly off the coast of Mississippi. Examinations show the majority drowned, indicating they were trapped in fishing gear, federal scientists said.

"Forced submergence was the leading cause. That's commonly associated with fishing activities," said Michael Barnette, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Federal regulators also have documented a large decrease in the number of shrimp trawlers using required equipment that allows trapped sea turtles to escape. The National Marine Fisheries Service has increased enforcement of those requirements and is considering new rules that could expand gear requirements by April 2012. Meetings will be held this month to gather public comment.

While spike in deaths is mostly confined to the northern Gulf, any new rules would apply to the entire Gulf and Atlantic coasts, including Southwest Florida.

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Process: How Horseshoe Crab Blood Helps Save Lives

Chances are you owe your life to the horseshoe crab. In the 1950s, scientists discovered that LAL (Limulus amoebocyte lysate), a clotting agent found in the critter's powder-blue blood, binds to fungi and endotoxins, coagulating into a thick gel around such invaders. The result: a simple, surefire way to detect impurities in pharmaceutical drugs and medical supplies. Here's how drug developer Charles River, one of five companies licensed by the FDA to produce and sell LAL, harvests crabs and turns their blood into tests that can detect bacteria and other contaminants at less than one part per trillion—without killing the creatures.

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Chefs go eye-to-claw with crabs

Sobel is one of dozens of chefs taking field trips to see watermen and seafood processors at work, part of a Department of Natural Resources initiative to reconnect the restaurant industry with the water and to do a better job promoting Maryland seafood.

Chefs have gone out oystering, crabbing and fishing for yellow perch and rockfish.

"We understood that there's a need to reconnect the chefs and the watermen," said Steve Vilnit, the new outreach and marketing specialist at DNR's Fisheries Service. "There's a huge disconnect there. Chefs don't really realize exactly where their product is coming from and that's unfortunately kind of detrimental to the watermen."

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CSF Website

LocalCatch.org is an online network that links consumers to community supported fisheries (CSFs). The network seeks to increase the visibility of CSFs and it aims to provide assistance to individuals and organizations that need support envisioning, designing, and implement locally-relevant businesses that work towards a triple bottom line.

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Website tracks seafood dinners back to fishermen

A Canadian group is pioneering a high-tech web system that allows diners around the world to track their seafood back to the person who caught it.

Participating fishermen tag their catch and the information is entered intoThisfish.info.

Earlier this week, Nova Scotian Gordon Beaton caught a lobster in the Northumberland Strait, tagged it and sold it on. A couple of days later, Toronto diner Lynn Patterson ordered lobster at the Royal York Hotel.

She pulled out her iPad, went to Thisfish and entered the code.

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Legislative study committee created to reorganize saltwater management

HB 353 would have re-classified red drum, spotted seatrout and striped bass as gamefish, thus making them off limits to harvest and sale or bartering. In effect, netting of these fish to be sold for profit would have been banned.
However, the bill didn’t survive a June 9 deadline to “cross over” to the Senate for consideration, either because five Democrats made deals with the Republican majority for their budget approval votes or the Republican majority didn’t want to answer questions about a relatively small number of job losses in the commercial fishing industry should HB 353 become law.

In either case, McCormick and bi-partisan sponsors of HB 353 managed to morph the bill into an all-encompassing study of saltwater resources management.

One of HB 353’s sponsors told North Carolina Sportsman by opposing the game-fish status bill during this legislative session, commercial fishing interests “basically threw kindling on a smoldering fire.”

A quick look at the topics the committee will examine bears out that legislator’s words. Each section could be a nightmare for the state’s commercial fishing industry and the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission.

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Giant Catch: Diving for spiny lobsters in Wrightsvilles waters

Spiny lobsters, taken off the shores of Wrightsville Beach, look as if they belong in prehistoric waters. Ranging from 10 to 12 pounds on average and reaching up to 3 feet in length, these giant lobsters are not your typical catch.

Diving for spiny lobsters is becoming increasingly popular, especially as the weather warms. Boats of experienced divers are chartered about 35 miles offshore in search of the tasty crustaceans that are found in at least 100 feet of water around the ledges and deteriorating shipwrecks that, once caught, make for a great story and a great meal.

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Environmental officials warn against harmful dolphin feeding

Each summer, an illegal and harmful trend returns to Beaufort County -- the feeding of dolphins in the wild

Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/06/29/1709179/environmental-officials-warn-against.html#ixzz1R2DQ7jTu

Three warn panel of fishery endangerment

The policy director of the Northeast's largest fishing industry group predicts unsustainable operating costs that shift from government to industry next year will force a "complex and cumbersome" groundfish management system to "collapse under its own weight" and take the fleet with it.

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CNN Money: Is sourcing food locally a sustainable biz?

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Scallop industry flourishing in Newport News

A scallop harvester from North Carolina is setting up shop in the city's Seafood Industrial Park, increasing the number of scallop operators in the city's harbor to five.

"We will have a record number of scallop operators here," said Doreen Kopacz, Newport News' port development administrator. The city owns the industrial park, and collects rent from businesses operating there.

Kopacz said with waterfront property in such high demand by developers along the East Coast, locations like Seafood Industrial Park become more valuable for the seafood industry.


Meanwhile, the scallop business is lucrative, said Bill Mullis, owner of B&C Seafood, a scallop operator that's also located in Seafood Industrial Park. He said scallops are selling for record high prices. To prevent overfishing, the federal government limits the number of scallop permits.

Chesapeake Atlantic Seafood Harvest is moving four scallop vessels from Oriental, N.C., to Newport News next month, Kopacz said, locating at a one-acre site at the industrial park. They will also have use of a 43,000 square-foot building.

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Locally caught catches on

When chef Derek Wagner buys local fish, he knows where it was caught and who landed it.

Wagner, who owns Nicks on Broadway, prizes his close relationship with several Point Judith fishermen for two reasons. He buys fresh seafood from fishermen he trusts. And he can tell his customers where their meals were caught — sometimes how many miles offshore.

“That information has never been out there before,” said the 34-year-old restaurateur.

The relationship is one example of how chefs, fishermen and suppliers can work together, said experts Monday at the 10th annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium at Johnson & Wales University’s harbor campus.

“Rhode Island is a seafood factory and the stocks are roaring back,” said Barry A. Costa-Pierce, director of Rhode Island Sea Grant, a sponsor of the three-day gathering.

“This conference is all about how we can work together” to boost the state’s $100-million fishing industry, one that includes not only fishermen and suppliers, but some of the finest restaurants in New England, he said.

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Gamefish status bill dead, but likely to be reincarnated in 2012 short session of N.C. Legislature

Although the bill had veto-proof majority support in the North Carolina House and Senate, it fell victim to a backroom deal.

Sources told North Carolina Sportsman that House Republicans likely secured votes from more than one Democrat from a coastal district for their budget, creating a veto-proof majority, in exchange for dropping HB 353 this session.

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Consolidation hurts Maine fishermen

According to a recent report by the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, our New England fishing fleet is consolidating in one direction: away from the small-scale fishery and toward the large-scale industrialized fishery.

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Feds eye tougher measures to protect sea turtles

Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast shrimpers may face new restrictions because of the damage the industry is causing to threatened and endangered sea turtles, federal regulators announced Friday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said it would assess the damage shrimpers are causing to turtle populations. Many of the smaller shrimp boats that use skimmer trawls are not required to use special devices that enable turtles to swim away when they get caught in a net.

Between January and June, 379 sea turtles were found stranded along the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coastline, the NMFS said. Turtle deaths have been linked to shrimp nets and trawls.

Roy Crabtree, regional administrator for the NMFS, said regulators would look at requiring more shrimpers to add the turtle-saving gear to their nets. He said closing some areas to shrimping would be examined too, but he added that closing a fishery is "the last resort."

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/24/2283196/feds-eye-tougher-measures-to-protect.html#ixzz1QQIx9GCR

N.C. watermen wary of latest legislative twists

Having failed this spring to reel in votes, the legislators who proposed declaring three species of fish off-limits to commercial fishermen are instead asking their colleagues to create a committee dedicated to studying that idea.

The sponsors of HB353, known as the "game fish bill," have resurrected the legislation for inclusion in the Studies Act of 2011, which lawmakers could pass when they resume work July 13. In its current form, the Studies Act calls for the creation of the Marine Fisheries Legislative Study Committee, whose members would consider a wide range of ways to overhaul fishing laws.

The original idea behind HB353 - to designate red drum, spotted sea trout and striped bass as game fish, making them illegal to sell - remains on the proposed committee's agenda. Additional ideas to study include the creation of a hook-and-line commercial fishery, changes to the process of appointments to the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission and the elimination of the trawl boat fishery.

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GRANT MONEY AVAILABLE FOR RECREATIONAL BOATING INFRASTRUCTURE

MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is accepting proposals for the Boating Infrastructure Grant, or BIG, Program for federal fiscal year 2012. 

 BIG is a grant program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that reimburses up to 75 percent of costs for projects that construct, renovate or maintain tie-up facilities and related amenities for recreational transient vessels that are at least 26 feet long. It was authorized by Congress in 1998 and is funded by excise taxes on fishing equipment and motorboat fuel.

Interior Offshore Wind Leasing Program Seen as 'Test Case' for Marine Spatial Planning

As the 27-agency National Ocean Council begins the formidable task of mapping out the myriad resources of the nation's oceans, lakes and coasts, some are looking to the Interior Department's offshore wind program for hints of how early planning can improve federal decisionmaking.

Interior's plan to expedite wind leasing and development off the Atlantic Coast is viewed by some as an early glimpse of the potential for coastal and marine spatial planning, or CMSP. The Obama administration initiative seeks to gather scientific data, mapping resources and input from ocean stakeholders to provide a framework for federal officials and investors to make informed decisions.

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Michigan's Commercial Fishing Industry

Reporter Dustin Dwyer has traveled all over the lower peninsula to gather these fish stories for us, and he starts with a simple question: why can it sometimes be so difficult to buy fresh fish caught in Michigan?

The short answer to that question is: Michigan's commercial fishing industry is pretty small. Other than tribal fisherman, only about 50 people hold commercial fishing licenses in the state.

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Outdoors: Bill to give red drum, spotted seatrout and striped bass game-fish status still alive as part of study

Lost in the drama of the state Legislature's back-and-forth budget bill bickering during its last session was an issue that could change the face of coastal sportfishing in North Carolina.

House Bill 353, aimed at giving game-fish status to red drum, spotted seatrout and striped bass - making them available to hook-and-line harvest only, off limits to commercial fishermen and illegal to sell - didn't reach resolution before the General Assembly's session ended. But the bill has found a home underneath the umbrella of a new study committee made up of four members of the House and four members of the Senate, who will report findings at the May 2012 short General Assembly session.

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USA. Legislation introduced to stop unwarranted Fisheries Closures

The Fisheries Science Improvement Act will help ensure  science is the primary driver of federal fisheries management decisions

Take Action: Ask Congress to Make Federal Fisheries Management Decisions Based on Science

The Fisheries Science Improvement Act (H.R. 2034), introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) on June 23, 2011, with the support of a bi-partisan group of 18 other Members of Congress, seeks to ensure that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) is required to set catch limits based on data, not on guesstimates.

This legislation will guide federal fisheries management towards a more science-based approach and prevent NOAA Fisheries from setting arbitrary and overly-restrictive catch levels on numerous important recreational fisheries.

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Feds get serious about ‘excluder devices’

Federal authorities have scheduled a series of meetings through next month to gather public input on how to protect sea turtles from fishing gear.

Those meetings are expected to center largely on the question of whether smaller shrimp boats with skimmer frames rather than the trawls used by larger boats should be required to equip their nets with so-called turtle-excluder devices.

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Alaska's Tartare and Burgers: Can We Learn to Save Wasted Fish?

Fish aren't just fillets that swim—and for seafood to be truly sustainable, consumers will need to learn to eat every part

To some, the very idea of a meal using the discarded bits and unwanted ends of a major food industry evokes repulsion. In Alaska, I gorged on a banquet of bits and ends and it was nothing short of unforgettably delicious.

It's hard to imagine that many processors don't use the meat still on the bone of a sockeye salmon after sides have been cut off, or those bright-red sockeye bellies with their enticing lines of fat. When butchering my own fish—not a common occurrence, I'll admit, since fillets are easier to find and to use—what's left makes for great stock. But I was recently introduced to lots of other possibilities for the fishy "odd bits," and it was an eye-opener.

Before I tell you about my fantastic meal, I have to share where it came from. I was asked to keynote Global Food Alaska's biennial summit, and I used the opportunity to explore the nuances of the Alaskan seafood supply. Although I personally consume about a ton of seafood every year, and part of my job is to ensure our chefs have access to sustainable seafood, I went to Alaska unschooled. Two weeks ago, I got a brief look into a fascinating food trail.

In Cordova, in south-central Alaska, I met Scott Blake, CEO of Copper River Seafoods. A former commercial fisherman and the son of fishers, Blake cofounded the company in 1993 with three other fishermen.

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"What does it take to get fired?" senator asks

BOSTON — The fisheries law enforcement culture in New England, which featured bounties and bonuses and millions in fines coming and going as if managed by "cookie jar" rules, is being reformed, the head of the National Marine Fisheries Service told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Monday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NMFS' parent agency, said it has put control of its funds under its CFO, made enforcement of laws more consistent with nationwide standards, and transferred the burden of proof of wrongdoing to enforcement officials.

Faith in the progress proclaimed by NMFS administrator Eric Schwaab at Faneuil Hall, while widespread among the presiding senators and witnesses, was shaky and cut with skepticism. There is no evidence that anyone who participated in the ugliness, documented by the federal Commerce Department's inspector general and a special judicial master over the past 18 months, has been called to account.

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Oceans heading for mass extinctions, experts warn

Mass extinctions of species in the world's oceans are inevitable if current trends of overfishing, habitat loss, global warming and pollution continue, a panel of renowned marine scientists warned Tuesday.

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Life long commercial fisherman invites tourists along for the ride

To help offset his investment costs Massey has started the next reality Alaskan adventure: crewing on board a working Alaskan Halibut fishing vessel.

“I needed to do something,” Massey said. “I had to spread that poundage out to make it a viable interest, or just get out of it. I have to fish my pounds anyway; I may as well try to make some money at it. I just had to build a better mouse trap.”

An Alaska Legislative House Bill that passed in 2005 allowed the purchase of 7-day crew licenses to allow visitors an affordable way to engage in a sort of extreme tourism adventure by actually participating in the fishery as a crewmember. The bill also forbids a wage, thus combating illegal or unethical hiring practices.

By Alaska statute a resident or non-resident can purchase a multiple-day commercial crew license, however, they cannot sport fish from the vessel, nor can commercial vessels allow sport fishing on board.

Massey is marketing a six- to eight-hour day. He will license clients at the boat. Clients sign on as crew and learn to bait, set and haul gear and “experience what it’s like fishing with 200 hooks instead of just one.”

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How is NOAA managing funds to protect domestic fishing?

June 20, 2011 - Eric Schwaab - Testimony before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management
Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs
U.S. Senate

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Turtles strand with skin diseases

SCUD. When that term comes up, the veterinarian and the turtle hospital manager quit talking and look at each other. They're not researchers; they're not comfortable speculating about what's wrong with the loggerheads.

"The good news is that, for the most part, they are responding to therapy. That's our job, put them back in the water," South Carolina Aquarium veterinarian Shane Boylan says of the loggerheads.

SCUD is septicemic cutaneous ulcerative disease, essentially skin rot. It can be deadly when it shows up in turtles. It's treated with antibiotics.

So far this year, 15 live stranding sea turtles have been admitted to the aquarium -- putting 2011 on a record pace for strandings. Eight of them had skin ulcers, lesions or had lost keratin, the soft tissue on flippers and necks. In 10 years of operation, the hospital never has admitted more than one or two turtles with skin problems, out of an average 20 admissions per year.

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Tierney, Frank frown on Obama nominee

WASHINGTON — For months, Republicans in the Senate have dug in their heels to block many of President Obama’s appointments. But his recent choice for commerce secretary has provoked skepticism from an unexpected corner of his own party: Massachusetts Democrats who represent fishing communities.

Representatives John F. Tierney of Salem and Barney Frank of Newton have said they are unhappy about nominee John E. Bryson’s long-ago links to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group that has earned antipathy from fishermen for its efforts to beef up regulation.

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Fox News Report on HB 353

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Federal Fishery Managers Make Decisions Affecting Both South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fisheries

Regulations for spiny lobster, king and Spanish mackerel, and cobia determined at joint meetings

At GreenFleet, "We're not just building boats; we're building kids"

The boat-builder is Christian Smith of New Bedford. He and his wife, Jennifer, started GreenFleet in 2009. The program is free for all New Bedford teens to join. Any teen who signs up is in the program.

The Smiths have four main intentions with GreenFleet:

 

• To teach inner-city teens from New Bedford to build boats
• To teach them to use the boats they build
• To have them use those boats to haul garbage from SouthCoast beaches
• To cultivate in these kids a pride in their waterfront 

 

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Marine Fisheries Legislative Study Committee Created in HB 773

PART XLVIII. MARINE FISHERIES LEGISLATIVE STUDY COMMITTEE (H.B. 353 – McCormick, Glazier, Ingle, Samuelson)

 

SECTION 48.1.

Committee created. – There is created the Marine Fisheries Legislative Study Committee (Committee). The Committee shall consist of eight members as  follows:

(1) Four members of the Senate, appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the  Senate.

(2) Four members of the House of Representatives, appointed by the Speaker of  the House of Representatives.

SECTION 48.2.

The Committee may study the following: 

(1) The potential impact to both the State's fisheries resources and the State's  economy related to the designation of Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus),  Spotted Sea Trout (Cynoscion nebulosus), and Striped Bass (Morone  saxatilis) as coastal game fish.

(2) Changes to the appointment process and qualification for membership on the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission.

(3) Creation of a hook and line commercial fishery.

(4) Elimination of the trawl boat fishery in North Carolina.

(5) Entering into reciprocal agreements with other jurisdictions with regard to the conservation of marine and estuarine resources; and regulating  placement of nets and other sports or commercial fishing apparatus in coastal fishing waters with regard to navigational and recreational safety as  well as from a conservation standpoint. 

(6) Entering into agreements regarding the delegation of law enforcement  powers from the National Marine Fisheries Service over matters within the  jurisdiction of the Service. 

(7) Potential modification of the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997.

(8) Whether Marine Fisheries should be a division of the Coastal Resources Commission or the Wildlife Resources Commission.

(9) Other findings that promote the allocation of the State's resources to the  optimum use.

(10) Any other matters the Committee deems relevant. 

 

Gamefish proposal sent to new legislative panel

Legislation proposed to put striped bass off limits to commercial watermen by designating the species a gamefish has been put under the umbrella of a new legislative study committee.

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NOAA proposes procedures for setting annual catch limits and accountability measures for all Mid-Atlantic fisheries, seeks public comment

NOAA today proposed procedures for setting annual catch limits and accountability measures to prevent overfishing for 10 federally managed fish stocks managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Once the procedures are final, the Mid-Atlantic Council will be on its way to establishing catch limits and accountability measures for all its required fisheries. According to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, all federally managed fisheries must be managed with those tools by the end of 2011. Already, NOAA and the eight regional Fishery Management Councils have implemented annual catch limits to prevent overfishing for 203 of the nation's 528 managed marine fish stocks.

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The Unfulfilled Promise of the World’s Marine Protected Areas

This week the National Marine Protected Areas Center, a tiny division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was scheduled to release an eight-page fact sheet titled “Marine Reserves in the United States.” Lauren Wenzel, the center’s director, was kind enough to send me an advance copy.

It’s a telling document. The brief report confirms what ocean advocates have been saying for years: Far too little of America’s ocean areas are protected. A little more than 3 percent of U.S. territorial waters — 381,969 square kilometers — are protected at the highest level as marine reserves. But 95 percent of that area is contained in a single reserve, the 363,680-square-kilometer Papahānaumokuākea National Monument (formerly known as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument) created by President George W. Bush in 2006. Without Papahānaumokuākea, marine reserves make up only one-tenth of 1 percent of U.S. waters.

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Food & Water Watch Announces Report, National Campaign Calling on Congress to End Destructive Fisheries Management Program

Group Releases Fish, Inc. Report Revealing Rapid Consolidation of U.S. Fishing Industry
New Bedford, MA — On Thursday, Food & Water Watch launched a campaign calling on Congress to stop the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from further expanding a widely unpopular fisheries management program known as catch shares — a program that has resulted in job loss for thousands of fishermen across the United States. The national consumer advocacy group also released a report revealing that the number of catch share programs, which grant once-public access to fish to private interests, have increased by 150 percent (from 6 to 15) in the United States in less than a decade, while NOAA plans to expand the programs by an additional 33 percent in the next 5 years.

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House Moves to Ban Modified Salmon

In a potential blow to the future of the biotech industry, a handful of House lawmakers voted last night to bar the Food and Drug Administration from approving any bioengineered salmon for mass consumption.

A terse amendment (pdf) offered by Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Don Young (R-Alaska) would ban FDA from spending any funds on genetically engineered salmon approvals beginning in the next financial year. Less than a dozen lawmakers voted by voice to attach the amendment to an agriculture spending bill expected to pass the House this week.

The amendment is squarely aimed at preventing the approval of a fast-growing modified salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies.

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House panel ponders death for salmon-munching sea lions

WASHINGTON -- A House subcommittee began deliberating Tuesday whether to speed up the killing of an exploding population of California sea lions that is preying on thousands of endangered salmon in the Columbia River. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said residents in the Pacific Northwest had spent billions to save their salmon only to see aggressive sea lions kill them. Last year alone, he said, 6,000 salmon were killed.

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NOAA chief's claim of innocence proven false

In her teleconference here a month ago today — held to apologize to members of the fishing industry for an era of abusive law enforcement actions — NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco sought to insulate herself from culpability.

She did this by proclaiming she had made "fair and effective enforcement a top priority" from her "first day in office," March 20, 2009.

But the earliest action by Lubchenco, according to a chronological log prepared by her office for the Times, didn't come until June 2009, three months later, when, already under pressure from Congress, she called in the Commerce Department inspector general.

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CCA: Game Fish Status Still Kicking

H.B.353 aimed to tag Red Drum, Speckled Trout, and Striped Bass not “dead” as some report.

  
      Raleigh, NC – House Bill 353, which seeks game fish status for Red Drum, Speckled Trout, and Striped Bass, has been stalled in a House committee as the Legislature concentrates on the battle over the State Budget.  Reports of this bill being “dead” are widely exaggerated and efforts to make a final push continue.  “Unfortunately, this bill, among many others introduced this session, has fallen victim to the overwhelming attention being given to the budget battle”, stated Greg Hurt CCANC Government Relations Chairman.  With adjournment expected at week’s end, the window of opportunity is closing fast. 

 CCA NC continues the push to have the bill voted on this session.  Your calls and e-mails to your elected Senators and Representatives are still needed.  “Game Fish status is still a very important initiative for these species, says Jay Dail, CCA NC Chairman.  “Whether in this session, or the next, we need to hold our elected officials accountable for the economic boost this would provide our coastal communities, as well as the overall health of these fish”.