Tag Archives: closed areas
Help stop “catch shares” and more in the South Atlantic
Last year, the SAFMC promised that the Vision Project would be “stakeholder-driven” (click here, third paragraph) and conducted 26 “port meetings” that were supposed to seek stakeholder input into the project. These meetings produced overwhelming input from stakeholders, like you, that catch shares, vessel monitoring systems, and more closed areas like MPAs, are vehemently opposed, and should not be in the plan. Breaking its promise of a stakeholder-driven plan, the SAFMC has now included those overwhelmingly opposed measures in its Vision Project plan! Read the rest here 10:30
NEFMC fails to agree on scallopers’ wish to enter long-closed areas
Thursday the council failed to come to terms about the specifics of the plan in Georges Bank, which centers on an area on the Canadian line called the Northern Edge. On Wednesday the council approved several measures in the Gulf of Maine, delineating protected areas where certain forms of fishing gear will not be permitted. Georges Bank was another matter. NOAA Fisheries regional administrator John Bullard had signaled his disapproval of preliminary plans on the grounds that they weren’t protective enough of habitat. And when council member introduced an amendment to make the plan more acceptable to NOAA fisheries, the meeting collapsed into disarray. Read the rest here 08:28
Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 – Our View: Lift fishery restrictions to do good for all
The New England Fishery Management Council votes this week on recommendations by the council’s Habitat Committee to lift restrictions in three closed areas. NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator John Bullard and at least one environmental group are arguing against it because NOAA scientists are saying it would harm important spawning areas for species like cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder. (Which is bull shit!) Read the rest here 08:41
That Peter Shelley. He’s got all the answers! – Why can’t the US be more like the Canadians?
You don’t usually hear much Canada envy from New England’s fishing industry. But last week, commercial fishermen Vito Giacalone, Richie Canastra, and Jimmy Odlin wrote to the Boston Globe to praise Canada’s haddock regulations, which they say have allowed Canadian fishermen to catch a far larger portion of their haddock quota—93 percent between 2004 and 2011, compared to United States fishermen’s 11 percent over the same period. These fishermen say United States haddock fishery regulations,, Read more here talkingfish 17:19
CLF Environmental Lawyers Attack Industry Lawyers on Closure Issues Using Research That Fails To Support Their Own Recommendations
WASHINGTON — February 24, 2014 — The following was released by Andrew E. Minkiewicz and Anne Hawkins of the Fisheries Survival Fund : Last week, the lawyers at the Conservation Law Foundation used a posting on their Talking Fish blog (“Industry Lawyers Wrong on Closed Areas Science: An Open and Shut Case, February 18, 2014) to attack our Read more here 08:23
Opinion: NMFS Rule Recognizes that Fish Need Habitat, and if they don’t we’ll sue the sh!t out of ’em!
Today, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued the final regulation regarding commercial fishing access to the longstanding protected habitat areas in the Gulf of Maine, southern New England, and Georges Bank. In May of this year, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) sued NMFS over a related proposal to allow new fishing in over 5000 square miles of protected ocean habitat areas in New England. CLF brought the lawsuit due to a strong concern more@talkingfish 17:23
NOAA/NMFS: Closed Areas off southern New England to re-open for groundfishing for remainder of fishing year 2013
As part of its efforts to mitigate some of the challenges facing New England groundfishermen this season, today, NOAA Fisheries announced that some areas that have been closed to fishing since 1994 will re-open. Two sections on the eastern and western side of the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area will open through April 30, 2014, the end of the current fishing year. Click here to read the NOAA Fisheries Bulletin. 12:54
EDF say’s Closed areas can decrease uncertainty in effects of climate change on New England Fisheries!
As fishermen around New England will be the first to point out, this summer, much like last year, has been abnormal. The ocean waters were warmer and cod, haddock, and flounders—the mainstay of our fishing industry for centuries—are increasingly elusive. There’s plenty of blame to go around, including decades of mismanagement and overfishing, inexact science and an overabundance of certain predatory species. more@edf 13:53
Government proposal to reopen ocean commercial fishing grounds draws criticism – It does nothing to help small boat independent fishermen
“It’s not like the closed areas are just a paradise full of fish. This is not a panacea,” said Frank Mirarchi, a Scituate fisherman of 51 years. continued@scituatemariner
Fishermen questioning plan to open new areas
The proposal would open up portions of protected sections of the Gulf of Maine to commercial fishing. The plan is facing stiff opposition from parts of the fishing industry, environmentalists and conservationists. 
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Closed Areas need fed’s OK to open
The New England Fishery Management Council has voted to recommend giving commercial groundfishermen access to parts of five areas that have been closed to them for many years. The request to open closed areas to commercial fishing came days before the NOAA Science Center issued a report on the 2011 fishing year that contained the revelation that only 41 percent of allocated fish were landed in 2011. Read More
U.S. Reopens Waters Off New England for Fishing – NYT
Jud Crawford, the science and policy manager for the Pew Environment Group’s Northeast Fisheries program, said the decision to reopen protected waters could have dire consequences. “One of the concerns is that we will very quickly lose some very important breeding stock in these places,” Mr. Crawford said. The council’s vote is subject to approval by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Program, which is expected to act by May. Read More
Feds consider opening New England Closed fishing areas. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would still have to approve.
BOSTON (AP) — There are five zones off the New England coast drawn in varying angles and shapes, all rich with fish, or at least they were at one time. It’s why regulators looking to preserve valuable species closed these areas to certain kinds of fishing year-round, beginning in the 1990s. Two decades later, a fishing industry in crisis wants to get back in. http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121215-NEWS-121219828
NEFMC Considers New Rules That Could Allow Fishing in the NE Groundfish Closed Areas
PLYMOUTH, Mass. – Sept 27, The New England Fishery Management Council today took a step in the process to approve measures that could allow groundfish fishermen to harvest healthy stocks of fish 
from areas that have been closed to this fishery for decades.
Explicitly, the 18-member Council voted unanimously to support further analysis of a measure that calls for groundfish sectors, a type of harvesting cooperative established in 2010, to request exemptions from the longstanding prohibition on fishing in three year-round groundfish closed areas on a limited basis. These restrictions provide that:
