Tag Archives: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
Hard choices for the Chesapeake
The current position of ASMFC for stripers is that “Projections of female SSB (spawning stock biomass) and fishing mortality suggest if the current fishing mortality rate (0.20) is maintained during 2013-2017, the probability of the stock being overfished is high and increases until 2015-2016, but declines thereafter. Read the rest here 11:31
If you have an opinion on fluke management, now is the time to make it known.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will be holding a series of scoping hearings to collect the public’s input on a broad range of issues to be considered for the Comprehensive Summer Flounder Amendment. Fourteen scoping meetings have been scheduled from Virginia through Massachusetts from the end of September through the third week in October. Read the rest here 09:48
‘If they were sensible, they’d be issuing weir permits and closing down the elver fishery’: Palmyra man, son have last eel weir in state
Whitten’s weir, located off a side street in downtown Newport, is the last one in the state. As a concession to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which has said that the population of American eels is depleted, the state last winter banned fishing for silver eels, the adult life stage of the species. Whitten and his son, Theodore “T.J.” Whitten, are the only exceptions to the ban. Read the rest here 16:40
Maine proposes rules to manage growing black sea bass fishery. Black Sea Bass, ya say!!!!
Maine fishery officials are proposing regulations to manage black sea bass, a species that is increasing in abundance in the state’s waters. Scientists say black sea bass are increasing in Maine’s waters because of temperature increase over the past 10 years. You don’t say! Read more here 15:14
Pound Net Watermen Prepare for Menhaden Bycatch Limits
Today, a Maryland waterman with a pound net can catch as many menhaden as he or she would like, on Friday, that gets cut back to 6,000 pounds a day to protect the species from overfishing, Video, and Read more here 12:26
New, more restrictive regulations sought for bass fishing
Many anglers and conservation groups are putting pressure on fish managers to tighten limits on recreational and commercial fishing of striped bass. <Read more here> 18:43
New Measures Proposed for Federal Waters Lobster Fishery
for Lobster Conservation Management Areas 2, 3, 4, and 5, including trap reductions in Areas 2 and 3, and broodstock measures is Areas 2, 3, 4, and 5. The proposed measures aim to reduce fishing exploitation and reduce latent effort in the trap fishery to scale the fishery to the size of the Southern New England lobster stock. The deadline for public comment is August 25, 2014. Read more here ASMFC info here 11:23UPDATED: Maine’s shrimp fishery may face new restrictions
Federal regulators, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, may limit the number of fishermen allowed to catch northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine once the depleted fishery reopens. Read more here (Reading between the lines, here comes Catch Shares for this fishery!) 12:51
Elver Conservation Proposals Meet Maine Industry’s Resistance
An analysis by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission finds that American eel stocks are being depleted. The group was in the state today, taking testimony on ways to preserve the species over the long term. But Elver fishermen and dealers say strict measures like additional quotas aren’t needed to protect eels along the eastern seaboard. Listen and read more here 19:32
In Maine, a key day for elvers regulation
The panel deciding whether to set catch limits or even close the fishery will take comments from fishermen and state officials, and there could be tension. The hearings in Hallowell and Brewer will be held by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which has the authority to set catch limits and establish other rules governing East Coast fisheries from Maine to Florida. Read more here 07:55
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission proposes new rules for American eel
The commission is considering 25 options for revising regulations for commercial fishing for glass, yellow and silver eels, from keeping the status quo to permitting aquaculture with permits to new catch limits. Read more here 11:09
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to consider capping shrimp licenses
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission restricts the impact of fishing on northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine by setting a cap on the total amount of shrimp that can be harvested by licensed fishermen from the three gulf states — Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Read more here 16:38
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to consider next Maine shrimp season
Federal regulators will hold a meeting in New Hampshire to consider whether there will be a commercial fishing season for northern shrimp in 2014-15. Read more here 07:41
Fisheries panel could limit rockfish catch in three year phase-in
Cutbacks would affect all sectors of the fishery — commercial, charter and recreational — and could include limiting the number of fish or pounds commercial fishermen could take, and jiggering the number or weight of individual fish taken by charter or recreational fishermen. Read more here 13:51
Virginia abided by menhaden catch limit for 2013
In late 2012, Virginia and other Atlantic states adopted the first coast-wide catch limit for menhaden in a historic effort to save the “most important fish in the sea” from years of overfishing. Read more here
20:06
Connecticut inches toward lucrative eel industry
Days after a deal by state lawmakers , a 15-state regional agency proposed to ease rules allowing broader access to the multimillion-dollar global eel market. “Why is it so overwhelmingly concentrated in one state? If we’re going to have fisheries, let’s talk about opening it more fairly,” Read more here 13:58
New rockfish catch limits eyed
Worried by recent declines in the numbers of Maryland’s state fish, Atlantic states fisheries regulators are weighing slashing the annual striped bass catch by up to one-third next year all along the East Coast and in the Chesapeake Bay. “It’s called being regulated out of business,” said Robert T. Brown Sr., president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association. He contended that “there’s no shortage of fish.” Read more here 21:25
Falmouth Ma. police tip foils lucrative elver eel poaching
FALMOUTH — The Falmouth Department of Marine and Environmental Services responded to a suspected case of elver poaching Saturday, saving about 35 pounds of the young and valuable eels. The department received a tip when a driver near a herring run saw two men who quickly left in a truck when the passer-by tried to engage them, department Deputy Director Chuck Martinsen said. Read more here 08:24
Saving Striped Bass (It sounds so dramatic!)
By June, the fish will be racing through these waters on the way to coastal New England as part of their northern migration, a biological spectacle akin to the movement of salmon on the West Coast. But with the striped bass population in decline, competition for the prized catch has intensified between recreational and commercial fishermen, setting up a showdown over a fishery that generates, according to one study, several billion dollars a year. Read more here
Different states with different rules sting SouthCoast fluke fishermen
POINT JUDITH, R.I. — April 9 was a good day for Tony Borges, captain of the Sao Paulo. He only had to throw 100 pounds of fish overboard. That’s 100 pounds of fluke, roughly 33 individual fish, most of which were already dead. Read more here 08:55
Maine elver eeling begins Sunday under strict quotas, monitoring
For the first time, fishermen eelers will be required to stay within individual catch quotas in response to rising concerns about the sustainability of one of only two elver fisheries in the U.S. Maine also is implementing an electronic swipe card system that will allow regulators to monitor how many eels are being caught daily and shut down individual fishermen – or the entire season – if limits are exceeded. Read more here kennebecjournal 08:39
Maine lobster industry encouraged to plan ahead for likely fishery decline
Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, stressed that message Tuesday to a few dozen lobstermen and other people who attended an industry meeting at the local Neighborhood House. Read more here 07:29
Lawmakers sink Passamaquoddy bid to exempt tribal fishermen from individual elver catch quotas
Due to concerns about the impact on the population of American eels from Maine’s elver fishery — the only such fishery on the East Coast that nets any significant amount of the newborn eels — Maine, for the first time ever, has imposed individual quotas on elver fishermen. Read more here 08:45
Maine tribe resists same-rules-for-all elvers plan that caps individual catches
Under the bill, tribal fishermen would be subject to the same individual catch limits as other Maine fishermen. But the Passamaquoddies contend the tribe has made numerous other concessions, limiting itself to just one type of gear and agreeing to a decrease in its overall share of the elver harvest. Passamaquoddy officials say choosing who can fish is cultural, not just a matter of conservation. Read more here 21:35
2013 Annual Report to Congress: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
Read the 2013 Annual Report here. 08:20
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission – “Sustainably Managing Atlantic Coast Fisheries”
Sustainably Managing Atlantic Coastal Fisheries – Five year strategic plan – 2014-2018 Read the report here 09:53
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approves Maine’s elver plan
ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has agreed to allow Maine to restrict its annual elver harvest with a statewide quota, rather than by a cap on the number of licenses that can be issued throughout the state. Read more@BDN 19:46
Catch-22 hobbles sea bass fishery – a combination of regulatory red tape, inadequate science and cautious regulators.
Black sea bass are everywhere, says charter boat captain Dorwin “Gov” Allen of Marstons Mills. They’re in Nantucket Sound, of course, but they are also in Cape Cod Bay, and 20 or more miles east of Chatham, where they were once rarely seen. They are even being caught in New Hampshire, once considered too cold, in numbers that surpass catches in North Carolina and Maryland. Read more@capecodonline 07:38
Fluke Fight. New Jersey fights New York’s efforts to take summer flounder
New Jersey fluke fishermen claim New York is trying to take their fish. The border war of sorts has been going on for several years but appears to finally be heading toward a vote on the issue in February. New Jersey has the bulk of the quota for fluke, also known as summer flounder, on the East Coast. New York is No. 2 and wants to increase its harvest. “It’s New York looking at extra fish we have in New Jersey. It’s as simple as that,” said Tom Fote, of the Toms River-based Jersey Coast Anglers Association. Read more@pressofatlanticcity 13:17
