Ahab's Journal

Saving the sawfish

George Burgess is so associated with sharks that he often can be seen explaining the beauty of the fearsome creatures during the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week programming, the summertime favorite that begins Sunday.

But Burgess is also an expert on another fish that is equally compelling and a bit scary looking - the sawfish.

Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, is also director of the National Sawfish Encounter Database and is overseeing research on the endangered fish.

Read "Saving the sawfish"

Food Safety Organizations, U.S. Congressman Voice Support for USDA Inspections for Catfish

In letters sent last week to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, three of the nation’s largest food safety watchdog groups and a U.S. Congressman voiced their support for USDA inspections for domestic and imported catfish species, as mandated by the 2008 Farm Bill. 

In a separate letter to Sec. Vilsack from Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, the lawmaker recalls a trip to tour Vietnamese seafood processing facilities in December 2008, where he noted the aquaculture conditions were less than favorable and the fish were unfit for American consumption: 

“During my most recent trip to the Mekong Delta, I saw the putrid conditions in which these fish are raised. I saw raw sewage and drainage pipes leading directly into the Mekong Delta upstream from where the fish farms are located.

“The FDA only voluntarily inspects less than one percent of total food imports and less than two percent of seafood from foreign plants. This is frightening and unacceptable.” 

Read "Food Safety Organizations, U.S. Congressman Voice Support for USDA Inspections for Catfish"

 

Mass. bill proposes to end commercial bass fishery

State Representative Matthew Patrick, (D) Barnstable is proposing to end commercial fishing for Atlantic striped bass in Massachusetts through House Bill 796 in the current state legislative session.

Patrick, who filed this bill on behalf of the South Portland, Maine-based Stripers Forever, said fewer than 30 people fish commercially for Atlantic striped bass in this $24 million fishery in Massachusetts. Because of that low number of fishermen and declining striped bass stocks, he believes it makes sense to permanently close a fishery that supports so few fishermen and yet is culling out so many of the species' breeding females.

Read "Mass. bill proposes to end commercial striped bass fishery" 

 

Sustainable seas? Overfishing easing in places

WASHINGTON - Crabcakes and fish sticks won't be disappearing after all.

Two years after a study warned that overfishing could cause a collapse in the world's seafood stocks by 2048, an update says the tide is turning, at least in some areas.

"This paper shows that our oceans are not a lost cause," said Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, lead author of both reports. "I'm somewhat more hopeful ... than what we were seeing two years ago."

Read "Sustainable seas? Overfishing easing in places"

WATERFRONT ACCESS PROJECTS SOUGHT FROM N.C. SOUTHERN COAST

MOREHEAD CITY – N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Director Louis Daniel is seeking additional applicants from the state’s southern coastal areas for the Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund.

 

Approximately $4.5 million remains in the portion of the fund that had been earmarked for projects in the southern coastal counties.

NOAA Fisheries Provides Additional Clarifications on Guidance Designed to End Overfishing

Earlier this year, in its revised National Standard 1 Guidelines, NOAA Fisheries published final guidance that is designed to help end overfishing and rebuild federally managed marine fish stocks. The guidance outlines a system of annual catch limits and accountability measures to prevent annual catch limits from being exceeded, and to address such a situation quickly if it does occur. It also includes provisions on accounting for scientific and management uncertainty.
Annual catch limits are required in fishing year 2010 for U.S.
commercial and recreational fisheries subject to overfishing, and in fishing year 2011 for all other fisheries.

Message from Jane Lubchenco

Rebuilding our fisheries is a top priority at NOAA. Doing so is essential to preserving the livelihoods of fishermen, the vibrancy of our coastal communities, a sustainable supply of healthy seafood, and restoring ocean ecosystems to a healthy state.

To succeed, we must work closely with recreational and commercial fishermen, scientists, conservationists and everyone with a stake in healthy fisheries. We must innovate. We must act boldly. And, we must make tough decisions firmly grounded in scientific information.

A new report in the July 31 issue of Science provides useful guidance. It highlights both some important successes and challenges for our fisheries. The two-year study, “Rebuilding Global Fisheries,” concludes that efforts to end overfishing around the world are beginning to pay dividends. The message is loud and clear: When we set firm fishing limits, fish and habitats can recover.

Co-authored by 21 of the world’s leading marine ecologists and fisheries scientists from academia and government, including NOAA’s Dr. Mike Fogarty, this consensus paper is the first exhaustive evaluation of 31 of the world’s most economically and ecologically important marine ecosystems and more than 160 individual fish stocks.

“This is the first time we’ve seen academic marine biologists and fishery population experts coming together with one voice to assess both the state of individual fish populations and the health of marine ecosystems,” says Dr. Steve Murawski, chief scientist for NOAA Fisheries.

The paper revealed a number of key findings, including:

• Five of the 10 most intensely studied large marine ecosystems are showing positive signs of recovery. These include three in the United States: the Northeast Continental Shelf (Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, N.C.); the California Current (stretching from the coast of Washington to Mexico); and Alaska’s eastern Bering Sea.

 

Katie Lynch, Fisheries Observer

As an observer who supplies data for the National Marine Fisheries Service, Katie Lynch collects fish scales and other samples from  bluefish, striped bass, and scallops. She weighs in or estimates the weight of squid hauls from draggers, and she said she is always excited when she sees what the trawling nets pull in.

    An employee of AIS Inc., Ms. Lynch is based in New Jersey near the Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island. She drives to Montauk two to three times a month and is required to jump aboard commercial boats for at least 12 to 15 trips per month. If she doesn’t, she has to make up for it the following month.

Read "Katie Lynch, Fisheries Observer"

Scientists who debated on fisheries team up for comprehensive study

The result is a new analysis published Thursday in the journal Science that provides the most comprehensive look at fish stocks around the world. While the researchers found 63 percent of commercial species have been fished to perilously low levels, they also report that many species have rebounded when fishing pressure is scaled back.

"The bad news is that this analysis confirms there is an increasing trend toward species collapse in fisheries," said Boris Worm, a marine ecologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Worm was the lead author of the 2006 study that predicted marine harvests would peter out by 2048.

Now he believes the situation might not be quite that grim by midcentury. The new analysis shows that it is possible to rebuild ecosystems, and that future collapses can be avoided if nations act wisely.

If he makes it to 2048 — he'll be 79 years old — Worm said he hopes to host a seafood party.

But the scientists cautioned that there's little monitoring of the 75 percent of the world's seafood catch that comes from the developing world. As wealthy nations tighten fishing regulations, industrial fleets shift to Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. "This is going to cause a lot of ... stock collapses in the coming decades," said co-author Tim McClanahan, of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Kenya.

Read "Scientists who debated on fisheries team up for comprehensive study"

Economic Impact Study of the NC For-Hire Fishing Fleet (Charter/Headboats)

The Summary Tables show -
>
> Estimated Passenger Trips per year - 430,938
>
> Estimated Passenger Fees paid per year - $65,488,531

Killed after being freed

A stranded dolphin was nursed back to health for seven months - only to be attacked by sharks two hours after being set free.

Dunham, an Atlantic bottlenose, was savaged so badly by tiger sharks he had to be put down.

Read "Killed after being freed"

NMFS leadership choice on hold

Turning away from the only two candidates to be interviewed, the Obama administration has apparently decided to reopen the search for the nation's top fisheries administrator.

The unexpected delay comes as the government moves aggressively to remake the nation's fisheries, converting the commonly held resource of wild fish stocks into a tradeable commodity under a regulatory format based on fishermen's "catch shares."

Nearly three months after interviewing Brian Rothschild, an academic from Massachusetts, and Arne Foglvog, a former fisherman, fishery official and political appointee from Alaska, Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "continues to actively recruit candidates," her communications director Justin Kenney told the Times yesterday.

Read "NMFS leadership choice on hold" 

Baker Secures Federal CRP Grant

Scott Baker, a North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist based at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will serve as the principal investigator on a project selected for funding by the Cooperative Research Program. Known as CRP, the competitive grant program is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS.

The two-year project will evaluate the effectiveness of electronic video monitoring for characterizing fishing activities of the commercial snapper/grouper vertical hook-and-line fleet.

Baker will work with fishermen from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia as well as partners from Archipelago Marine Services, Ltd., South Carolina Sea Grant, the Environmental Defense Fund and NMFS. Together, the research team will compare electronic monitoring to traditional data-collection methods such as observers and logbooks. They also will gather information on the age and size structure of frequently discarded species.

Read "Baker Secures Federal CRP Grant"

 

Panel hears about financial prospects for offshore drilling

Proponents of opening federal waters off the state’s coast to offshore energy exploration are playing up the possibility of the mineral deposits eventually generating up to a half-billion dollars a year in royalties for the state’s increasingly barren financial cupboard.

The report released by the Southeast Energy Alliance on Monday also estimated offshore drilling could mean 6,700 new jobs, with many of them located in economically challenged eastern North Carolina.

But to environmentalists and many coastal officials, that carrot isn’t worth the risk of what would happen to the state’s vital tourism and marine ecosystems if a spill occurred.

Read "Panel hears about financial prospects for offshore drilling"

  

Statement from the Pew Environment Group on the Hilborn-Worm Study on Rebuilding Global Fisheries Published in Science

WASHINGTON (July 30, 2009) – Rebecca Goldburg, director of Marine Science at the Pew Environment Group, issued the following statement today in response to a paper published in the journal Science.  The paper’s lead authors, Dr. Ray Hilborn and Dr. Boris Worm, who have held differing views about the status of global ocean fisheries in the past, collaborated on the research for this study. They were joined by 19 co-authors.

Fish study update: NOAA chief sees success in 'firm limits'

An important new study of the world's fisheries has found that management efforts especially in developmentally advanced nations — notably the U.S, New Zealand and Iceland — have been effective in reversing declines caused by chronic overfishing.

The report, which appears in the issue of Science magazine that appears on newsstands tomorrow, is no cause for celebration or let up in the recovery programs, even in the most advanced systems. But it presents a more hopeful picture than previous alarmist predictions by the chief author, Boris Worm, and colleagues of his who have produced a welter of academic studies funded by the Pew Environment Group and associated environmental non-government organizations, or ENGOS.

Altogether, a team of 21 scientists from academia and government, many with extensive ties to Pew, worked two years on the study, titled "Rebuilding Global Fisheries." And its findings contrast sharply with previous findings by Pew and other ENGO scientists, that suggested the oceans were so "overfished" that many stocks were on a path to extinction.

Read "Fish study update: NOAA chief sees success in 'firm limits' "

Overfishing Continues to Deplete World's Seafood Stocks, Study Shows

63 Percent of Seafood Species Below Target Levels, Rebound Seems Possible for Some

The seafood study, released online Thursday in the journal Science, examined thousands of different seafood species, from the Atlantic codfish to the Australian jackass morwong. Its authors emphasized the good news: About half of the depleted species seemed capable of a rebound, if given the right protections.

But the lead author, biologist Boris Worm, said the study also showed how deeply and thoroughly fishing fleets have scoured the oceans. As the world's catch of seafood has grown more than five times since 1950, he said, overfishing has spread from "rivers to coastal areas to the [Continental] shelf to the deep sea."

Worm said that renaming of unfamiliar fish -- especially deep-ocean fish like the slimehead -- can be a sign of the trend he wants to stop.

Read "Overfishing Continues to Deplete World's Seafood Stocks, Study Shows"

Venture fund focuses on sustainable seafood

Venture capitalists have long invested in microchips.

Now how about fish and chips?

Sea Change Investment Fund is a San Francisco venture fund focused on companies selling sustainable seafood - the only such fund in the country.

Started as an initiative of the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Sea Change screens potential investments both for their profit potential and for their environmental benefits.

Read "Venture fund focuses on sustainable seafood"

 

California Fisheries Fund

The California Fisheries Fund (CFF) is a revolving loan fund, currently capitalized at $5 million, that supports fishing communities working to improve the sustainability of their fisheries. CFF invests in innovative projects that will lead to more stable and profitable fisheries, including management changes such as catch shares and more localized management. CFF seeks business projects undertaken by fishery organizations, ports, processors, and individual fisherman that are likely to increase stewardship and conservation, add value to fisheries, and promote long-term asset-building.

Visit the California Fisheries Fund website

Food & Water Watch Partners with Washington, DC Chefs to Oppose Controversial Gulf Aquaculture Plan and Rally to Support Sustainable Seafood

Washington, D.C. – Today, renowned Washington D.C.-area chefs emerged from their kitchens to partner with Food & Water Watch and stir up a diverse crowd of activists, foodies and policy experts to rally against the controversial Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council ocean fish farming plan currently being considered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Donning chef aprons and toques outside the department’s building, the group spoke in opposition to the plan that could threaten consumer health, the environment and coastal communities if approved at the federal level. Both chefs and Food & Water Watch experts advocated for a program for better wild fisheries management and more sustainable aquaculture to meet our nation’s seafood needs.

Read "Food & Water Watch Partners with Washington, DC Chefs to Oppose Controversial Gulf Aquaculture Plan and Rally to Support Sustainable Seafood"

 

Stolen trailer held oyster shell cache

CHAPEL HILL -- Someone stole a trailer full of spent oyster shells from behind Squid's seafood restaurant, and the Coastal Conservation Association wants it back.

It's no mere pile of trash but a life raft for North Carolina fisheries.

CCA member and UNC-Chapel Hill microbiologist Chris Elkins bought the trailer two years ago and had a lid installed to keep critters out and the stench in.  

Read "Stolen trailer held oyster shell cache"

Chile’s Antibiotics Use on Salmon Farms Dwarfs That of a Top Rival’s

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay - Chile used almost 350 times more antibiotics in its farmed salmon in 2008 than Norway, its chief competitor and the largest salmon producer in the world, according to official data from both countries.

Read "Chile’s Antibiotics Use on Salmon Farms Dwarfs That of a Top Rival’s"

"Deadliest Catch" seamen say fishermen not greedy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boat captains from the U.S. television show "Deadliest Catch," which chronicles the perils of Bering Sea crab fishing, say small commercial fishermen are unfairly blamed in the debate over declining fish populations. 

Read "Deadliest Catch" seamen say fishermen not greedy"

Group opposes flexibility in rebuilding fish stocks

The Pew Environment Group released a report last week that maintains that failing to rebuild depleted fish stock populations as quickly as possible results in lost economic opportunities for the fishing industry.

The report, Investing in Our Future: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Mid-Atlantic Fish Populations, found that rebuilding summer flounder, black sea bass, butterfish and bluefish populations by 2007 would have increased commercial fishing landings by 48 percent, increased recreational landings by 24 percent, and generated an additional $570 million per year in direct economic benefits.

Continue reading "Group opposes flexibility in rebuilding fish stocks" »

Study cautions against repeating mistakes of B.C.’s speculative fishing quota markets

VANCOUVER, B.C.— A new socio-economic study released by Ecotrust Canada today highlights a long list of troubling trends that has resulted from the implementation of individual transferable quota (ITQ) markets in B.C. fisheries since the early 1990s. The report is coming out at the same time as Ottawa plans to expand ITQ markets in Canada and U.S. President Barrack Obama is considering the widespread adoption of ITQs, also known as “catch shares,” in American fisheries.

The study, titled A Cautionary Tale About ITQ Fisheries, found that B.C.’s highly unregulated market for trading fishing quota is encouraging speculative buying and leasing of quota by “armchair” fishermen and investors. This is driving up business costs for working fishermen, which is hindering their competitiveness relative to American fishermen. Income is also being drained away from skippers and crewmen to pay for expensive lease fees. More troubling are safety statistics and anecdotal reports that suggest the economics of ITQs may be affecting the safety of working fishermen.

Read "Study cautions against repeating mistakes of B.C.’s speculative fishing quota markets"   

ALLIGATOR RIVER PUBLIC ACCESS SITE

MOREHEAD CITY – A traditional commercial fishing access point to the Alligator River in Tyrrell County will soon get a facelift.

 

Over the next 18 months the Alligator River Waterman’s Association, in partnership with the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program, will construct erosion control systems and new docking facilities on Department of Transportation- owned property at the foot of the U.S. 64 Alligator River Bridge. The project will be funded by a $452,760 Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund grant from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

 

“We are so happy to hear that we have a contract in hand,” said Darlene Sawyer, project manager for the Alligator River Waterman’s Association.

Biologists see spawning fish in Marine Protected Area

Biologists recently witnessed an extraordinary sight while conducting an underwater study of mutton snapper in the Florida Keys. 

For the first time in Florida waters, scientists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of South Florida observed this species spawning in a Marine Protected Area in the Florida Keys. The site was established, in part, to protect spawning schools of snapper and grouper in the Tortugas Ecological Reserve. 

Read "Biologists see spawning fish in Marine Protected Area"

Rare orange lobster finds new home at Seabrook Station

Orange lobsters are supposedly so rare, they occur only once out of every 500 million lobsters, but that hasn't been the case this year.

For the second time this summer, an orange lobster was part of the catch that made its way to Brown's Lobster Pound in Seabrook, N.H.

The last time a rare-coloredlobster surfaced, it was a 11/4-pound male lobster colored a most unusual yellow, orange and black with a really white underside, caught by an Essex lobsterman in May. That lobster went to the New England Aquarium in Boston.

But no boiling pot will claim this anomaly of nature. It's residing at the Science and Nature Center at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant, along with Chilly Willy, the center's famous blue lobster.

Read "Rare orange lobster finds new home at Seabrook Station" 

Plans advance for open-ocean farm in waters off the Big Isle

A dozen spherical cages, each with a diameter half the length of a football field, would be submerged in state waters off the Big Island if plans are realized to establish the largest open-ocean fish farm in Hawaii.

The Honolulu company proposing to raise sashimi-grade ahi published a final environmental impact statement with the state last week, clearing a major regulatory hurdle in the effort to start operations projected to generate more than $100 million in annual sales.

The venture, if realized, would be the third aquaculture farm in Hawaii raising fish from eggs and growing them to market size in underwater ocean cages.

It also would be the biggest in terms of production and space occupied - 12 million pounds of fish a year raised below 247 acres of sea surface 2.6 miles off Kawaihae, north of the resorts in West Hawaii. 

Read "Plans advance for open-ocean farm in waters off the Big Isle"

Virginia wants to buy back crab licenses

The state of Virginia wants to buy back an undetermined number of crabbing licenses in a bid to sustain a recent surge in Chesapeake Bay blue crab.

The program, under review by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, would be a first in the state's 100-plus years of commercial fishing regulation.

The state would hold a "reverse auction" in which crabbers would submit a bid stating how much money they would be willing to surrender their licenses for. The state would then either accept or reject the offer.

"This is not a negotiation," said John M.R. Bull, a spokesman for the commission. "It's an effort to reduce the number of watermen, full time, who are crabbing."

Read "Virginia wants to buy back crab licenses"

 
 

OK'd House bill halves shellfish bottom leases

RALEIGH — Those who farm coastal waters for shellfish could soon see their leases cut in half.

The House on Wednesday approved 115-0 a bill that reduces the term of a shellfish bottom lease from 10 years to five years. The bill, which has previously passed the Senate, has been returned to the Senate for concurrence.

Read "OK'd House bill halves shellfish bottom leases"

Survey: Consumers prefer local, sustainable seafood

PORTLAND, Maine — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) recently announced the results of a survey conducted in May regarding consumer attitudes about the importance of sustainably harvested local seafood.

More than 40 percent of respondents indicated that they would increase their seafood consumption if they knew it was sustainably harvested, while almost 60 percent said knowing that the seafood was caught locally would increase the amount of seafood they purchased. More than half of those who took the survey said they would pay slightly more for these products, particularly if they knew it would support fishermen, coastal communities or the ocean environment. Respondents cited supporting the local economy as the biggest motivator for buying regionally harvested seafood.

Read "Survey: Consumers prefer local, sustainable seafood"
 

Fishermen feel like Big Brother coming aboard

The National Marine Fisheries Service now is considering -- and taking public input on -- a proposal that could require commercial fishermen from North Carolina to the Florida Keys to install video cameras on their boats. And again fishermen are expressing concerns about violation of privacy -- critical to those who closely guard the coordinates of their most productive fishing spots -- and regulators literally looking over their shoulders.

Fishery managers, however, say the proposal is part of an observer program currently in place in other areas, and that it allows the agency to collect much-needed scientific data.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a plan last year that allows Fisheries Service scientists, called observers, to be randomly placed on any federally permitted commercial snapper and grouper fishing vessel, charter permitted snapper/grouper vessel or recreational vessel targeting snapper and grouper. Under the proposed program, the observers could be replaced with video cameras, National Marine Fisheries Service fisheries biologist Jack McGovern said.

The proposal is included in a rule change called Amendment 15B, which includes several grouper/snapper fishing regulations. The plan still must be approved by the U.S. secretary of Commerce, and the National Marine Fisheries Service will take public comment on the proposal until Aug. 4.

Read "Fishermen feel like Big Brother coming aboard"

Mitten crabs threaten native species

The concern, said Charles Epifanio, interim director of the University of Delaware's School of Marine Science and Policy, is that mitten crabs may prove to be a competitor for native blue crabs.

So Epifanio and colleague Ana Dittel set out to find out what type of research is needed to better understand this potential invader before it becomes a serious problem.

According to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the crabs began showing up in the mid-Atlantic in 2005. In all, 13 mitten crabs have been collected from the Chesapeake and Delaware bays and the Hudson River, frozen and studied.

Read "Mitten crabs threaten native species"

Bred in the Basin: Fisherman recalls life on the Atchafalaya

HENDERSON -— A lifetime of commercial fishing in the Atchafalaya River and Basin left Kaiser Dupuis with a strong handshake that belies his 92 years on this Earth.

Until he retired four years ago, Dupuis says he was the only man who fished year-round in the Atchafalaya. He sold some of his catch to people who met him at the river. The rest he sold to J.B. Talley fishery, which is no longer in business.

In his heyday, Dupuis would lay out 200 hoop nets in the river, sometimes catching two boatloads of fish a day. That’s somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds of fish a day and, even when he got just four cents a pound, he managed to make a decent living.

Read "Bred in the Basin: Fisherman recalls life on the Atchafalaya"

NEW RULES FOR SNAPPER/GROUPER FISHERMEN

MOREHEAD CITY – New rules go into effect this week that impact the commercial and recreational snapper/grouper fisheries in North Carolina.

Hatteras fisherman writes to NOAA catch share task force

 

Dear Ms. Medina

   My name is jeff oden and I am a commercial fisherman from N.C..  I am writing in regards to your being  the head for the NMFS task force on catch shares.  As a fisherman I have tried to be involved in the past...having served as and advisor to the ASMFC and more recently to the South Atlantic snapper grouper advisory committee...and there arises my reasons for this contact.

    As some form of catch shares seem a given in all of our nations fisheries  (snapper/grouper included in spite of this council having already convening a task force and rejected them), it is alarming to me and many other watermen  in our coastal communities  how the race seems to be on to flush the last vestiges of our trade down the toilet along with our heritage and replace it with a corporate mindset which will essentially be a token of what our fishery was in the past.  The independant small time fisherman/woman will essentially vanish as there seems to be no place for those that seemed to be content on getting by on less....with  the lions share of the of the fishery going to the high liners....or essentially the problem.

Oceans chief: Future of fishing lies in local nets

BOSTON -- The head of the agency overseeing ocean research and fisheries says the federal government has no interest in consolidating the nation's fishing industry into the hands of a few large companies.

Instead, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco said the government can help craft rules to protect smaller, family-run fisheries that have traditionally plied the nation's coastal waters.

Read "Oceans chief: Future of fishing lies in local nets"

Government Puts Fate of Rare Deep Sea Corals in Public's Hands

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2009 – In a long awaited decision, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) today, putting the fate of rare deep sea corals off the South Atlantic coast in the hands of the public. Last month, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council advanced a proposal – five years in the making – to protect more than 23,000 square miles of known deep sea coral from North Carolina to Florida from destructive fishing gear. 

Read "Government Puts Fate of Rare Deep Sea Corals in Public's Hands"

David Sikes is seeing red

Heated debate over snapper numbers still rages, even as party boats flourish

 So what’s all the fuss about?

It stems from a CCA document submitted to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council as a way to shake up a broken regulatory process that was going nowhere with an outcome that was pleasing no one. The primary point of the paper was to spark discussion outside of traditional parameters and specifically to introduce an open or free market approach to the distribution of shares within the annual snapper quota.

By open market, I mean the CCA wanted recreational anglers to have access to commercial snapper allotments. Under the current system, commercial share holders may trade among themselves. In about 18 months commercial operations will be allowed to buy and sell all or part of their quotas to other commercial reef fishermen who don’t already own shares, but still only to other commercials. CCA would like to see some of the commercial allotment shift to the recreational side.

Why not make these shares available to individuals, charter outfits, party boats, states and organizations? The market would set the price, so potentially a commercial fisherman could boost his profits by working less. There is no question that a recreationally caught snapper is more valuable than one caught by a commercial boat.

Another aspect of the CCA plan calls for the creation and distribution of non-reusable snapper tags, which could be sold in lots to the highest bidder quarterly. 

Read "David Sikes is seeing red"

Port of Cape May reels in $73.7M., climbs to fourth in nation

LOWER TOWNSHIP - You won't hear too many commercial fishermen in the Port of Cape May complain about the government's Atlantic sea scallop regulations.

That's because they're too busy catching the succulent shellfish, selling them and putting cash in the bank.

Scallop harvests, boosted by federal regulations that close off huge sections of the ocean to let them grow big and plump, helped the port, which includes docks in Lower Township and Wildwood but none actually in Cape May, move from the eighth largest in the country in 2007 to No. 4 in the nation last year.

"I've been through some bad times. This is a feel-good time," said Keith Laudeman, who began scalloping in 1976 and now processes them as owner of Cold Spring Fish & Supply.

Read "Port of Cape May reels in $73.7M., climbs to fourth in nation"

One fish, two fish

The protesters walked from Harris Harbor to the Department of Fish and Game carrying signs.

"Let all the fish be counted."

There were no more than 10 protesters, but their beliefs are widely held among commercial fishermen: Charter captains and lodge owners are underreporting their clients' halibut catch, and Fish and Game needs to do a better job counting it.

"We feel like no one's listening," said Terry Smith, whose sign said simply, "States Fish Future."

Halibut is managed by a federal agency. But the department's Sport Fish Division is charged with counting fish harvests in Alaska, whether state or federally managed, nonguided fishermen or those on charter boats.  

Read "One fish, two fish"

Marsh plants get room to grow on Roanoke Sound

An oyster-shell reef has been completed at Jockey's Ridge State Park to shelter the beach from erosion and allow native grasses that were planted to fill in the shoreline.

The reef, at the northwest boundary of the park, stretches about 400 feet in Roanoke Sound.

"It's an alternative to bulkheading," said Erin Fleckenstein, a coastal scientist with the North Carolina Coastal Federation field office in Manteo. "We're creating marsh, minimalizing erosion and using natural material in the process."

The project was recently named one of 10 "Waters to Watch" in 2009 by the National Fish Habitat Action Plan for restoring the coastal marsh habitat and protecting the shoreline.

Read "Marsh plants get room to grow on Roanoke Sound"

Lawsuit Seeks Injunction to Stop Changes to Atlantic Grouper, Vermilion Snapper Fishing

The Fishing Rights Alliance (FRA) has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), challenging Amendment 16 to the Grouper Snapper Regulations in the South Atlantic. Amendment 16 imposes a 4-month ban on grouper fishing each year from January through April. The amendment also reduces the number of grouper from 5 fish to 3 in the open season part of the calendar year and closes vermilion snapper fishing from November through March.

The lawsuit claims the regulatory changes are based on what has been described as flawed Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) by the chairman of the National Research Council’s review of MRFSS. Congress has mandated that this survey method be revamped by January 2009, but this still has not occurred. 

Read "Lawsuit Seeks Injunction to Stop Changes to Atlantic Grouper, Vermilion Snapper Fishing" 

Bluefin Tuna -- The Ocean's Bling

This is as good a moment as any to plug one of my hobbyhorses, the alarming depletion of global fisheries.  I understand that climate change is a controversial subject that sparks intense disagreement among people of goodwill, but whatever your stance on it, I submit that preserving humanity's ability to feed itself partly from the bounty of the sea must rank among our most urgent environmental priorities, and as far as I can tell, it isn't anywhere near the top of the political agenda.

“People believe in their hearts that a piece of raw fish is worth $600. And one of the main reasons that it’s worth $600 is because you can’t afford it and I can’t, but they can. That makes it very special, and it makes people who eat it special.

“Any kind of luxury goods largely come from that sort of statement: I can afford it, and you can’t. I’ll drive a Maserati, even if I can’t drive it faster than 65 miles per hour in most of the United States. I can afford a $280,000 car, and you’re stuck with a Dodge Neon. I can fly private jet, drive a Maserati, do anything I bloody well please, including having a $600 piece of fish. And you can’t.”

And this is the brutal truth: bluefin, which beyond their intrinsic value as living creatures happen to be one of the universe’s more majestic species, a Platonic ideal of oceanic speed and grace, aren’t being extinguished by our greed. They’re being sacrificed to our vanity, pretension, and ostentation — the most pathetic of our vices.

Read "Bluefin Tuna -- The Ocean's Bling"

Could we be the generation that runs out of fish?

In the babbling Babel of 24/7 news – where elections, bailouts and beheadings blur into one long shriek – the slow-motion stories that will define our age are often lost. An extraordinary documentary released next week, The End of the Line, forces us to stop, and see. Its story is stark. In my parents' lifetime, we have killed 90 per cent of the world's fish. In my lifetime, we will finish off the rest – unless we change our ways, fast. We are on course to be the people who wiped fish from the earth. 

Read "Could we be the generation that runs out of fish?"

NOAA Catch-Share Policy

NOAA's Catch Shares Task Force is developing a new NOAA policy that will ensure that catch shares are fully considered by the regional councils in new or amended fmps.  A draft interim policy is expected in August, with a comment period for the public and councils following in the fall. 

Monica Medina, NOAA policy director, has encouraged public input now.  Send your comments on catch share policy to Monica.Medina@noaa.gov

NYS sues feds on new summer flounder fishing rules

New York has again sued the federal government over summer flounder regulations that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says are based on "obsolete science" and unfairly penalize the state's recreational fishing industry.

The complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn amplifies a previous lawsuit protesting the 2008 recreational rules for summer flounder, or fluke. The complaints target the federal Department of Commerce, which through the National Marine Fisheries Service sets the limits for recreational fluke fishing. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages fish in state waters, is also a defendant.

Both suits allege New York receives a smaller portion of the coastwide fluke catch than it should because the quota allotted to each state is based on outdated and inaccurate data. Limits for New York fishermen "are far more stringent than those for anglers based in neighboring states - who are often literally pursuing the same fish, with the same tackle," the complaint said.

Read "NYS sues feds on new summer flounder fishing rules"

JONES PUSHES BACK AGAINST PROPOSED BAN ON RED SNAPPER FISHING

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC) joined Rep. John Mica (R-FL) to introduce H.R. 3307, legislation that would place on hold a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed ban on Red Snapper fishing in the Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to Florida.  The bill would prohibit the Secretary of Commerce from moving forward with the ban until NMFS conducts a new study of the population of Red Snapper in the South Atlantic Marine Fishery (from North Carolina to Florida) and reports that study to Congress.   

IG to hold interviews

NEW BERN — The federal Office of Inspector General (IG) is going to hold interviews in New Bern and Dare County with local commercial fishermen as part of an inquiry on National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) enforcement, but opinion is divided on how big an issue NMFS enforcement is to fishermen.