Tag Archives: northeast-groundfishery
On the brink: New fishing restrictions — Frustration, anger and perhaps end of an industry –
John Bullard, regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said an interim measure is only an allusion.“Fisherman don’t need allusions,” Bullard said. “They need a big dose of reality.” The interim action kept the fishery in business while addressing fish stock assessment numbers that were much lower than initially reported. Goethel said that discrepancy in stock assessment needs examination.“There should have been a real serious examination from outside the organization, not just from within,” he said. “We have to start looking for other underlying causes to this problem.” Read more here
Keep the Fishing Ban in New England – CALLUM ROBERTS, YORK, England
Where were the regulators through all of this? Always one step behind and perennially ineffective. Federal law delegated to the New England Fishery Management Council authority to manage the fishery from 3 miles to 200 miles off the coast, but the council didn’t see its job as speaking up for fish. This body was dominated by fishing interests, so when faced with a choice of fishing now or cutting back the catch to assure the fishery’s future, the council’s decisions often favored the short term. With such decisions, collapse of the fishery was inevitable. When it happened in the late 1980s, it was brutal and swift. By the early 1990s, all agreed that something had to be done. The council reinvented its approach to fishery management.Read more
New England panel approves 2013 cod limits with 77 percent cut
The New England Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday night to cut the Gulf of Maine cod fishery limits by 77 percent for the 2013 fishing cycle and to extend similar cuts for the 2014 and 2015, dealing a dire blow to the region’s fishing industry. Why this should be so became a sub-theme of the day, with the phrase “regime shift” used frequently to suggest a braid of environmental and ecological alterations —including millions of lobster traps that take an unknown quantity of cod as by-catch, large volumes of herring which eat cod eggs and seals which feed on cod, as well as the various forms of global warming that emanate from and absorb into the seas. Read more
Guest View: The end of “overfishing”? By Dr.Brian J. Rothschild (new england trusted)
Brian J. Rothschild is the Montgomery Charter professor of Marine Science and Technology at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology.
The necessity of imposing the cuts is not clear. The council’s scientific committee has had difficulties reaching consensus on the management of key stocks. The Council is faced with a dilemma. If the stocks are down and the cuts are necessary, how do we mitigate the impact of the cuts on the people who work in the fishing industry and fishing communities, and then how do we plan for the future? At the same time, if the stocks are not down and the cuts are not necessary, how do we promote stability within the fishing industry and fishing communities, and then how do we plan for the future?
To understand the council’s short- and long-range plans on how to deal with its dilemma is crucial, particularly since the condition of the groundfish stocks may not be as bad as it seems. Read More
Remember this guy? “Gloucester, New Bedford Mayors foolishly endorsing crazies in New England” a few fisheries malcontents??
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton (Editorial Comment) – June 15, 2011 A
Here is our editorial today, and a video.
Gloucester, New Bedford Mayors foolishly endorsing crazies in New England while the industry thrives, sickness has descended on the political class in New England that has so tied themselves to a few fisheries malcontents that they have lost sight of how they might really support their industry. Read and watch the video
NOAA study shows shrinking fleet – a perpetual struggle that will only be amplified in Fishing Year 2013,”
Keiley said she believes people are “frustrated” with the report because “they want to know two things:” “Are people making money … and how many people are working,” she said, “and those are two questions the report does not, and 
really cannot answer directly.” She said she did not blame the Science Center because “they have presented everything they can.” “This is a situation where data is insufficient to provide the analysis people want,” she said. Keiley also pointed out that “revenue is not evenly distributed. The top 50 percent of vessels earned 90 percent of the total revenue, leaving the bottom 50 percent of vessels earning only 10 percent of the total revenue. Read More
Fish panel holds off on limit cuts – “I say if you’re going to take 1 damn percent (more), shut the whole God damn thing down!”
New England fishing regulators Thursday delayed voting on a series of significant cuts to fishermen’s 2013 allowable catch in groundfishing stocks after repeated and emotional warnings that the reductions would finish off an industry already grappling with a federally recognized economic “disaster.” The New England Fishery Management Council voted 15-2 to put off deciding on new catch limits for various bottom-dwelling groundfish species until their next meeting, scheduled for the end of January. Read More
U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee-$64 billion disaster assistance bill-includes $150 million-Northeast groundfishery and three other states
The bill’s impetus was relief for the superstorm Sandy disaster, but lawmakers have added a variety of other disaster relief measures, including farm drought relief. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1839366712/Some-Sandy-relief-for-fishermen
U.S. Court of Appeals Rules Against New Bedford & Gloucester et al- Sides with Feds and Special Interests
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down every one of a number of arguments the cities and their co-plaintiffs in the industry made in their appeal. The court upheld a 2011 lower court decision in the suit brought by the two ports as well as fishermen and fishing groups. Broadly speaking, the court ruled that the government stayed within the letter and spirit of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was designed to end overfishing in the Northeast.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121129/NEWS/211290345
He said with two unambiguous court rulings in the government’s favor, there should be no doubt now that the fishing law is legal. “The challenge now is to get this fishery functioning in the way it ought to be functioning,” Shelley said.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121129/NEWS11/121129728
Read the official ruling here Read the background on the case and appeal here
Fish quota limits spark debate GloucesterTimes.com
In May 20
10, just at the moment NOAA put into operation a free trading commodity market for groundfishermen who were given an allocation and joined into a fishing cooperative, a perfect storm of constrictions began strangling the industry. The New England Fishery Management Council last week came to a consensus that the “disaster” made of the groundfishery required belated intervention — an attempt to preserve fleet diversity between big and little boats and regulate the free market to bar more of the $80 million industry from falling into a small number of big hands and external investors.
FLASHBACK! John Kerry – “Lubchenco is your friend,” February 2010 To leave the Fish Wars as Secretary of Defense?
Kerry released the following statement to the Times yesterday in response to a request about his position on Magnuson. “The status quo isn’t working, and I say that as someone who is passionate about the environment, but who can see plainly that people are hurting and there are legitimate issues that have to be fixed. “I’m going to be talking with fishing and environmental experts at the state and federal level to develop sustainable fisheries in New England and work with the New England delegation, as I always have, to keep federal assistance flowing into Massachusetts for our fishing families and to rebuild the fisheries.” http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x966804462/Kerry-to-fishermen-Lubchenco-your-friend
No offense Senator,,,,,,,,,,screw it, Senator Kerry, you thought then, as you do now, that its all about frittering out a few bucks to to the victims of President Obama’s US Commerce Department, the New England Fishing Industry. You have been ineffective Senator, and I’m done beating the drum for you. You have not delivered, Senator.
Please, John Kerry, just go away! http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061174640
Fishing aid tied to fed budget talks Gloucester Daily Times
Overshadowed by the scale of the pieces in play on the national chess board — trillions in budget cuts, tens if not hundreds of billions in potential tax cuts lost and gained, and unspecified help for Hurricane Sandy’s victims and farm victims of drought — is a unified effort by the New England and New York congressional delegations to place a marker for $100 million for disaster assistance for fishermen and fishing communities.http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x257827572/Fishing-aid-tied-to-fed-budget-talks
“The fishing industry, in general, is in a very negative mood,” The Controversial Science of Counting Fish
At the meeting in Portsmouth on Friday, scientists detailed the complexities and uncertainties of counting fish that live out of sight. They also took questions from fishing industry advocates frustrated over what they say are shifting and incorrect population estimates that have led to lower catch limits and damaged their businesses http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121112-NEWS-211120323
AUDIO: Highlights of NOAA’s Fishermen’s Northeast Groundfish Science Forum. Great Report from savingseafood.org
November 
9, 2012 — Today, NOAA conducted a Fishermen’s Northeast Groundfish Science Forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, allowing fishermen and members of the public to interact with NOAA officials on groundfish science.
The following is a summary of the morning session. A summary of the afternoon session will be published next week. Throughout the summary below are links to audio highlights of the day’s meeting. http://www.savingseafood.org/science/audio-highlights-of-noaas-fishermens-northeast-groundfish-science.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SavingSeafoodRss+%28Saving+Seafood%29
LIVE – Northeast Groundfish Science Forum – Listen via Webinar set for November 9 begin at 8:30AM,
Registration is not required, but we are trying to get a headcount. To confirm your participation or for more information, contact Teri Frady at [email protected] / 508 495 2239.
Speakers have been added and the agenda has been further developed since the first announcement. The forum will also be available via webinar . An audio recording will be posted afterward. http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/groundfish/meetings/
NOAA: New Opportunity Proposed for Groundfish Fishermen to Target Redfish
November 7, 2012 — NOAA Fisheries is proposing a new measure to allow members of the groundfish industry to use smaller mesh sizes in their fishing nets in certain areas to target healthy Acadian redfish stocks.
Fish council eyes December for ’13 limits By Richard Gaines Staff Writer GDT
The New England Fishery Management Council has set a special one-day meeting Dec. 20 to take final action on most groundfish allocations for the 2013 fishing year that begins May 1, and take near final action on Framework 48 which updates and refines Amendment 16 and its catch share maagement system. The special meeting was spun off the November council meeting set for Newport, R.I., due to the welter of issues. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1499658911/Fish-council-eyes-December-for-13-limits
Cape Cod’s fishermen fret over seals, dogfish and the future
Two areas, 35-miles south and 150-miles east of Chatham have been closed for cod and other groundfish but the National Marine Fisheries Service is contemplating re-opening to help fishermen because all fishermen are facing drastic cuts of 70 percent in cod and 73 percent in haddock on Georges Bank. But not all fishermen are enthused.
Then there’s this insight by someone who can’t be very smart.
Wholesaler Andy Baler of the Nantucket Fish Company noted that huge mid-water trawlers are catching tons of herring off shore while the National Marine Fisheries Service looks idly on. “Cod and haddock feed on local herring but they’re starving. That’s why you see fish so skinny,” he said. “The mid-water trawlers are going to suck every bit of bait out there. You have one management system for some fish and another management system that goes and kills all the fish they eat.” Bullard conceded the two plans are un-connected. NOAA takes a fish by fish approach. “This port is crushed. We’re living on a few dogfish,” Baler declared. “We need some help. Keep the herring here so we can fish the channel.”
Read more: Cape Cod’s fishermen fret over seals, dogfish and the future – – Harwich Oracle http://www.wickedlocal.com/brewster/newsnow/x1826353094/Cape-Cods-fishermen-fret-over-seals-dogfish-and-the-future#ixzz29O2eBrZ9
The relationship is this. The larvae of the bottom fish need to go to the surface of the ocean in order to obtain food – plankton – and light. While they go up, they become a feast for the pelagics. When those larvae that survive become codlThe relationship is this. The larvae of the bottom fish need to go to the surface of the ocean in order to obtain food – plankton – and light. While they go up, they become a feast for the pelagics. When those larvae that survive become codlings, they want to go back to their friends and relatives. While they descend to their native habitat, they become a second feast for the pelagics.
http://carmine3.newsvine.com/_news/2010/11/04/5408211-fish-and-future
Editorial: Inshore cod assault cries out for catch share reforms GDT
The grim ineffectiveness of NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco’s catch share fishery management system as presently carried out in New England may never have been more apparent than this week, when even NOAA’s new regional administrator and the Environmental Defense Fund, which pushed this system from the start, came out in favor of making key reforms to it. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x1684125865/Editorial-Inshore-cod-assault-cries-out-for-catch-share-reforms
Crisis highlights running dispute over US fish law
Jay Lindsey once again tells us a portion of the story, and shame on Peter Baker for capitalizing on it, as is the usual for Peter Baker!
But Peter Baker of the Pew Environment Group said the law is not to blame for fish populations that have dwindled over decades, exactly what the law can fix. The law is pointed in the right direction, he said.
Have the stocks dwindled Peter Baker? And what would you base that assumption upon? The reliable trawl data of the NESC? You have the information that everyone else has that pays attention to these issue. Of course, you wouldn’t recognize the weaknesses when they conveniently favor your ENGO crusade. If there actually is plausibility to the data, and I say that with doubt, would you also recognize that herring would be included as a predator, along with an exploding population of seals, dogfish and skates, hindering any recovery? No you would not! I base that on your narrow-minded herring campaign which can’t seem to be capable of connecting any dots! Isn’t it convenient to say the 2008 trawl data was flawed, while the revelations of the NESC that they are not using the industry designed equipment for the trawl survey as was specified during the creation of it?
I am disappointed with another Jay Lindsey half story again, and am disgusted with the Pew network.
httphttp://www.berkshireeagle.com/northeastnews/ci_21717557/crisis-highlights-fish-law-dispute
New Regionl NMFS fisheries leader hosted ‘listening session’ in Chatham Oct.2, 2012 – Hey Andy, herring eat too, ya know!
CHATHAM — At the town’s community center Thursday night, there was little animosity on display, as is often the case when fishermen square off in a room with an official from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency charged with overseeing the commercial fishery. Perhaps that was because of John Bullard, the newly minted fisheries service Northeast regional administrator, and his gentle manner as he listened to what Cape fishermen had to say about fisheries management. “You’re an even-tempered, soft-spoken man. You got that thing going on,” mused Provincetown fisherman Beau Gribbon………….Andy Baler, owner of the Nantucket Fish Company, said fishery managers needed to protect forage species such as herring that formed the basis of the marine food chain. “Herring feed everything,” he said. Baler advocated managing stocks not as single species but by placing importance on the relationships between species.
Andy Baylor has drunk the Pew Brew. He is blind to the FACT herring are now a predator specie, feeding voratiously on codling. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121005/NEWS/210050330/-1/NEWS11
Maine Voices: Diversity, versatility important to future health of fisheries
By PATRICK SHEPARD
In light of the recent disaster declaration for the New England groundfishery, fishermen and managers need to begin planning for the future of this important industry to ensure that affordable opportunities exist for young fishermen as groundfish stocks rebuild. Let’s fast-forward, for a moment, to when populations of cod and haddock are commercially abundant off Maine’s coast once again. What will this mean for local fishermen? The shocking, short answer is that most Maine fishermen won’t have the rights to be able to catch those fish. While there’s been a lot written about the high abundance and low price of lobsters this year, one thing that hasn’t been discussed is that most of the fishermen in this state don’t have the federal permits required to catch anything other than lobster.http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/diversity-versatility-important-to-future-health-of-fisheries_2012-10-05.html
Paul Cohan – F/V Sasquatch Shift of fishing closure gives hope
To the editor:
Hats off to John Bullard and the Northeast Seafood Coalition (“NOAA backs off gillnet closure,” Page 1, Gloucester Daily Times, Sept. 27).
How is it that the coalition, with far fewer resources and access to data, devised an acceptable alternative that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grudgingly accepted with less than 96 hours to go before the closure went into effect? http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x708369977/Letter-Shift-of-fishing-closure-gives-hope
Watch Out! Here They Come. Nor’easter Men from the History Channel – Oct 4 – 9pm
NOR’EASTER MEN
The HSUS Criticizes Federal Agency’s Decision to Delay Protecting Porpoises in Atlantic Waters
The National Marine Fisheries Service is legally responsible under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to protect harbor porpoises,” said Sharon Young, marine issues field director for The HSUS. “The agency’s step back from its own regulations and retreat from a compromise plan between the commercial fishing industry and environmental groups may lead to a larger number of porpoise deaths this fall.”
You must’ve missed this, Sharon. Have you heard about the slaughter that lies ahead for all those marine mammals we’ve been saving? Hmmm?http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2012/09/harbor_porpoises_delayed_protection_092612.html
Bullard – Harbor Porpoise – Will Announce Decision Wednesday at NEFMC Meeting – Sept. 26 at 1:15 pm – LISTEN LIVE!
Mr. Bullard has stated that he will announce whether he has decided to change NOAA’s position Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 1:15 pm at a New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
LISTEN LIVE https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/423548903
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