Tag Archives: New England Fisheries Management Council
Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) Opposed to 55-square-mile closure area of Stellwagen Bank
Could a closure of Stellwagen possibly lead to other state closures in the future, if the “showroom environmentalists,” as Donofrio calls them, get their foot in the door? Will Buzzards Bay be next? Or Vineyard Sound? Area anglers and businesses supported by recreational fishing are strongly urged to attend on the 16th and oppose the closure. Read the rest here 10:21
UPDATED – New Hampshire’s small commercial fishing fleet is reeling – at odds with NOAA over cod reductions
“The fishermen vehemently dispute this latest assessment,” said David Goethel, captain of the F/V Ellen Diane out of Hampton Harbor. He’s served on the New England Fisheries Management Council and fished for more than two decades, and said the new measures may put him out of business. “It’s a completely idiotic program,” he said. “It is intended to kill fish and kill fishermen.” Read the rest here 09:09 and On the Seacoast, cod fishing blues read it here 10:23
Cod crisis: Iconic species faces an uncertain future
Our cod crisis has become a sad cliche, ironic enough to catch the eye of the national media, and the truth does indeed hurt. Just ask Chatham and Harwich fishermen, who fished in what was once one of the top cod ports in the country but now catch mostly skates and dogfish and very little cod. Read the rest here 08:18
Time to protect cod habitat
The decline of cod is the result of bad decisions by federal fisheries managers (under pressure from powerful fishing interests?) that encouraged overfishing for decades and failed to protect the habitat cod need to thrive. Read the rest here 07:40
NEFMC Executive Director Tom Nies warns of deeper cod cuts if NOAA data holds
The New England Fisheries Management Council expects to move to reduce the annual catch limit for Gulf of Maine cod in 2015 if an impending peer review process shows the dire conclusions of recently completed, if are accurate. “This is BS,” Vito Giacalone, the policy director for the Northeast Seafood Coalition, told the members of the NEFMC’s groundfish committee at the DoubleTree Hotel. “This is not the way it’s supposed to work.” <Read more here> (no need for 2nd page view) 22:29
Fishing quota carryover reeled in by NOAA
NOAA on Friday issued a final rewriting of fishing quota carryover rules that were thrown out last spring in federal court. Seafood consultant James Kendall, who was on the New England Fisheries Management Council when it wrote the carryover provision, said the reversal by the court may mean more disasters like the Northern Edge. When the boat sank in 2004, it was on a fishing trip to finish up on a prior trip that had to end prematurely because of mechanical problems. Read more here 06:30
Guest View: Cause for optimism at NEFMC meeting
Thank you for the report on the Center for Sustainable Fisheries’ proposal that the New England Fisheries Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service implement an intensive, industry-based, collaborative sampling program focusing on increasing data collection and reducing stock-assessment uncertainty (“Fishery council declines yellowtail proposal,” April 26). Read more here 07:16
New England Fisheries Management Council tees up habitat talks – No matter what the council decides, NOAA will have the final say
If recent events are any indication, the federal agency feels no particular compunction to follow the lead of the eight regional fishery management councils that advise it and serve as the doorstep to fisheries regulation and management. Just last week, NOAA disregarded an overwhelming vote by the NEFMC in late 2012 that would have reopened five areas in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank to commercial fishermen and instead decreed that the areas will remain closed. more@gdt 03:21
New England Fisheries Management Council to mull new strategies
On Tuesday, the council is scheduled to take final action on the groundfish committee report, with heavy emphasis on Framework 51, which could include revisions to the Gulf of Maine cod and American plaice rebuilding plans; setting catch limits for white hake, yellowtail flounder, haddock and cod; small-mesh fishery accountability for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder; and other issues. “And on Wednesday, it will be habitat,” more@gdt 06:23
Letter: Stories show need to focus on NOAA science – Mike Dyer, Essex, Ma
The Nov. 21 Times included several illuminating items about the state of our fisheries. In his letter to the editor, Paul Cohan took NOAA regional administrator John Bullard out to the woodshed, shredding Bullard’s recent “My View” piece. In the other, we learned that the New England Fisheries Management Council will not impose emergency restrictions on the big herring trawlers, against the protests of haddock fishermen, who say that the trawlers take too many haddock as bycatch. more@GDT 17:34
Today, NOAA Fisheries announced the final management measures for the Northeast Groundfish Fishery for 2013.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. — April 30, 2013 — Based largely on advice from the New England Fisheries Management Council, NOAA Fisheries announced today final management measures for the Northeast groundfish f
ishery, including much lower quotas for some key groundfish stocks, and actions that will help fishermen better manage and adjust to these quotas. In anticipation of these cuts, the Department of Commerce pre-emptively declared a fishery disaster in the fall of 2012 and continues to work with Congress to help mitigate impacts to the region and maintain the long-standing culture of fishing in these communities. continued
Not all fishing quotas were cut – significant increase in herring quota allocation
Patricia Fiorelli, public affairs officer with the New England Fisheries Management Council, said they expect approval from the National Marine Fishery Service on the new quota as soon as possible and it will be implemented in 2013.
Fiorelli also said the Council last week officially decided to examine catch limits for the Atlantic Herring Fishery for river herring, which applies to Alewife and Blueback herring. “Because those species, which are managed, are in declining numbers, we will put some kind of limits on what can be taken by the Atlantic Herring Fishery,” she said. Read more here
Council accepts mayor’s appeal on yellowtail flounder By Steve Urbon
John Haran, who manages Sector XIII, a group of groundfish boats with members from New Bedford to Greenport, N.Y., was at Wednesday’s meeting and said he could not say what the effects of the council’s votes would be on local fishermen.
“We really won’t know the quotas until January,” he said, before adding that new councilor Laura Ramsden Foley, who voted in support of the higher quotas, was “a breath of fresh air.” http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121115/NEWS/211150353
VIDEO: F S F Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder and Incidental Catch Avoidance Forum (lots of information)
WASHING
TON (Saving Seafood) Nov. 14, 2012 – Yesterday, the Fisheries Survival Fund, an industry group that includes the majority of full-time, limited-access scallop permit holders, hosted a forum, “Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder and Incidental Catch Avoidance,” immediately following the New England Fisheries Management Council meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. Speakers at the event included Dr. Steve Cadrin and Cate O’Keefe of the School of Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dr. David Rudders of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Ron Smolowitz of Coonamessett Farms. http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=b5nrgsdab&v=001aYDP54lNfT8w5naOyp7HRIgB4VG_lM4fDpTYpg49faLY5slnOWx7hp5-MTnG5BD5KPWh852FbmnbhXTHgUt6n45ny7Eyz5sx1B2fXOjmK-cdZ3Nh3VTYuw%3D%3D
