Tag Archives: Fish stocks

Seafood industry urges ‘extreme caution’ on controlling seals to avoid consumer backlash

Canada’s seafood industry is urging Ottawa to use “extreme caution” when considering measures to control the growing seal population, warning they could jeopardize market access and acceptance of Canadian seafood. But according to Conservative fisheries critic Clifford Small, a member of parliament from Newfoundland and Labrador, those concerns are overblown. “It is immensely important that as the government considers potential steps moving forward, its actions do not disrupt either the market access or acceptance of Canadian fish and seafood products, both internationally and domestically,” said Paul Lansbergen, president of the Fisheries Council of Canada. Lansbergen said both the U.S. and the European Union have strict rules regarding the harming of marine mammals during fishing. >click to read< 14:50

In Hot Water

So, let’s run a logical thought based on what our governments assumption is on fish stocks with what we know. NOAA says there is nothing wrong with the biomass of white hake, but they cannot find adolescent hake. Ask a lobsterman along the shoreline. They are seeing an abundance of juvenile hake and cod in their traps. Imagine lobstermen and inshore fishermen across a vast area all saying the same thing? NOAA says there’s nothing wrong with the biomass of haddock but same thing, they can’t find small fish. But what do we know?! >click to continue reading< By Jerry Leeman 20:30

LETTER: Standing up for our fishery

A famous Newfoundland and Labrador politician was once asked about the impact of seals on the fish stocks off our coast. He replied using the wit many good Newfoundland orators are known for and said something to the effect of well, they don’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.  He was absolutely right then and the same holds true today as we see thousands of tons of fish consumed daily off our shores by these cute-looking mammals with voracious appetites for cod, crab and other lucrative species; the same fish our harvesters and processors depend on,,, by Paul Lane  >click to read< 07:21

DON CUDDY: Whales, fish stocks and new tech: Catching up with NOAA’s Jon Hare

I was pleased to enjoy a wide-ranging chat with Mr. Jon Hare last week. Jon is the Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. That’s the division of NOAA that is charged with managing “the living marine resources of the Northeast Continental Shelf Ecosystem from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras.” So this man has a lot on his plate. When he began working as director in 2017 I interviewed him about the task ahead and did a follow up last year. So in what has now become an annual event we sat down to talk about how things are going at the Science Center and I found the encounter as interesting as ever. >click to read<18:40

‘Wake-up call’ needed for Canada’s fisheries management: scientific audit

The report found Canada has a lot of work to do to reverse the term decline of its fish stocks, and it needs to pick up the pace. Oceana’s science director Robert Rangeley said he hopes the audit is a “wake-up call” for better fisheries management. “My biggest fear is one of complacency,” said Rangeley. “We’re still hovering around one-third of our fish stocks (that) are healthy, which is very poor performance for the 194 stocks that are so important for coastal communities.” >click to read<09:34

Federal government protects overabundant grey seal population over fish stocks

MONCTON, NB – Fish harvesters attending the Gulf Groundfish Advisory Committee this week in Moncton are expressing their frustrations and disbelief over the federal government’s refusal to protect groundfish stocks by controlling the grey seal population. Many species of groundfish will be unable to adequately recover without proper management of the grey seal population. The effect of grey seals on fish populations has been confirmed by scientists, yet the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has not taken adequate action to address this problem. An increased harvest of grey seals would aid in allowing groundfish species to rebound, thereby creating new economic opportunities for thousands of families in Eastern Canada. continue reading the press release here 09:08

Fisheries management kills both fish stocks and fishermen

Fishery management seems only to reduce the fishery and to counterbalance that, fishermen are killed. The modern mathematical fishery management has been a total failure. Constant cuts in effort and quotas to protect stocks against supposed “over fishing” in order to build up stocks in order to get increased catches later have not lived up to the promises, least to say. But the orthodox science will not face the truth. Below is a link to a presentation I had on the subject at a recent conference in Faroe Islands. There they abandoned the quota system in 1996 and took up effort system, based on days at sea. But a constant reduction of days, to prevent over fishing, has ruined the fishing grounds. Please note that there is both English and Danish text in the presentation, saying the same thing. This presentation is about  the result of fishery management. The scientists maintained that by  reducing  the catch of small fish they would grow bigger and give more catch later. In most cases this has not been the case, and we are still waiting for the later to come. Examples are shown. Read the presentation by Jon Kristjansson, fisheries scientist, Iceland Click here 16:36

Canada’s Fishing Industry at Risk of Major Stock Collapse

xfishingindustryboats_page_thumb_-jpg-pagespeed-ic-olfwtexq5qCanada’s $6-billion fishing industry is at risk of suffering another major stock collapse, the country’s Environment and Sustainable Development commissioner warned Tuesday. “We’re at potential risk for another stock to potentially collapse. It’s disconcerting that the department wasn’t aware of this, couldn’t wrap it up,” Julie Gelfand told reporters in Ottawa. In her fall report, Gelfand said 15 of Canada’s major fish stocks, which are considered to be critically at risk, are still being fished. Twelve of those stocks currently have no government rebuilding plan in place — a number the commissioner said they weren’t even aware of until she had completed her audit. “We gave them that number,” Gelfand said. Read the story here 10:47

NPR Claims Fish Stocks are Declining Worldwide – Comment by Ray Hilborn, University of Washington

CFOODFish Stocks Are Declining Worldwide, And Climate Change Is On The Hook click hereThis is the title of a recent NPR posting — again perpetuating a myth that most fish stocks are declining. Let’s look at the basic question: are fish stocks declining? We know a lot about the status of fish stocks in some parts of the world, and very little about the trends in others. We have good data for most developed countries and the major high seas tuna fisheries. These data are assembled and compiled in the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment database, available to the public at ramlegacy.org  This database contains trends in abundance for fish stocks comprising about 40% of the global fish catch and includes the majority of stocks from Europe, North America, Japan, Russia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Major fisheries of the world that are not in the data base are primarily in S. and SE Asia. Read the response here 13:24

EXXON VALDEZ RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTINUED COLLAPSE OF ALASKAN FISHERIES, STUDY SUGGESTS

Fish stocks in Alaska’s Prince William Sound may still be affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, according to a report from scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The report finds that the exposure of crude oil to Pacific herring and pink salmon embryos may affect their development into adults. The report challenges the notion that the collapse of herring stocks was unrelated to the Exxon spill, which was long held on the basis that the four-year gap between the spill and the herring collapse in 1993 suggested another cause. Read the rest here 16:42

Fish houses surviving despite challenges

SNEADS FERRY — As the cold weather kept a grip on the area this week, Sneads Ferry’s fish houses were quiet. They worked on equipment, readied boats and otherwise prepared for the boats to start running and fishing to start. A long winter that seems to have continued into spring has had them waiting a bit longer than usual. Read more here topsailadvertser  19:15

Fish stocks ‘can recover,’ marine expert says at URI lecture

The data should help dispel a common misperception that once a population has collapsed, it cannot rebound, said Olaf Jensen, an assistant professor at Rutgers’ Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. “Stocks do and can recover,” he said. “There is no evidence of a point of no return. … Most fish populations seem to retain their resiliency.” continued@providencejournal