Tag Archives: nefmc
Gulf of Maine Cod Peer Review Meeting – Live Streaming Information for Aug. 28-29, 2014
Scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service say the amount of cod spawning in the Gulf of Maine is estimated to be three to four percent of its target level. They key food species is experiencing low catches in states such as Maine and Massachusetts. Attend the meeting by webinar. Information is here 08:01
Out of Nowhere Comes an Updated Stock Assessment on Cod!
Some quips, quotes and communications of the new reformulated and deadly impromptu Cod Assessment from the good people at NOAA, and its under agencies. Read it, and tell me what you think. Our comment section is open! <Read more here> 17:16
It’s Day Three of the NEFMC Portland Meeting – Listen Live! Scallops, Herring
The public is invited to attend the June 17–19, 2014 New England Fishery Management Council meeting. Revised June Council Meeting Agenda. Register by clicking here to listen via Webinar. Meeting Materials: Meeting documents will be posted on the Council’s website at www.nefmc.org. 07:35
Meeting in Portland – The New England Fishery Management Council Commence’s it’s June 17-19 Jamboree
The public is invited to attend the June 17–19, 2014 New England Fishery Management Council meeting. Revised June Council Meeting Agenda. Register by clicking here to listen via Webinar. Meeting Materials: Meeting documents will be posted on the Council’s website at www.nefmc.org. 19:09
It’s time to listen to the fishermen who are asking for more ecological protections for the fish, not less.
A quick overview of why this is necessary: In 2010, the council established groundfish “sectors:” groups of fishermen governed by an overall catch cap or limit, that allows annual trading of fishing quota. When they created this new management system, the council also eliminated inshore fishing protections that were part of the old system. The new regulations and lack of inshore protections resulted in a perfect storm of heavy fishing pressure concentrated in a very small area, followed by a stock collapse and numerous nearshore fishermen who, with nowhere left to fish, were put out of work. Read more here 14:26
CSF STATEMENT ON EXPERIMENTAL GBYTF FISHERY Presented to New England Fishery Management Council
Dr Rothschild stood before the NFMC yesterday, and read this statement. The status of groundfish stocks in New England is shrouded in considerable uncertainty. This uncertainty often raises the question as to whether stocks that are claimed to be overfished are actually overfished or vice versa. Uncertainty in this determination reflects in turn whether management regulations intended to correct these characterizations are effective. Read the Statement here 10:53
NEFMC – Herring Press Release
Please click here for a copy of the NEFMC Press Release Measures to Promote Accountability in the Atlantic Herring Fishery. The Press Release provides NEFMC March 27, 2014 meeting of the SSC beginning at 8:30 a.m.
The SSC Meeting will be held on Thursday, March 27 at the Omni Hotel in Providence, RI Discussion Documents Webinar Registration 07:39
NEFMC – Press Release – Draft Habitat Protection Rules Move Forward
Dear Stakeholders and Interested Parties: Please click here for a copy of the NEFMC Press Release Council Moves Draft Habitat Protection Rules Forward for Pubic Review The Press Release provides details about the Council’s February 25-26, 2014 Council meeting in Danvers, MA. Read the Press Release here 14:48
NEFMC – February Council Report
Please click here for a copy of the Council Report http://www.nefmc.org/actions/
NEFMC priority lists spotlights groundfish – Editorial: Fish panel must heed community impact in changes
Fish panel’s priority lists spotlights groundfish – The New England Fisheries Management Council kicked off its three days of meetings here Monday and quickly fell victim to its own process, as council members debated which issues deserved to be on its list of 2014 priorities. more@gdt
Editorial: Fish panel must heed community impact in changes – Yet this council — a policy arm of NOAA that is supposed to bring the input of fishermen, federal government officials and the environmental community to the same table, yet too often fails the fishermen – could also bury small, largely independent fishing fleets such as Gloucester’s once and for all. more@gdt 01:05
Sam Novello urges eased whiting limits – Getting the bureaucracy run around
Novello said he first approached National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency staff with his idea and was told to bring his proposal to the NEFMC. ”I think they were giving me a bit of the runaround,” Novello said. He then contacted the Newburyport-based NEFMC and said he was told no changes could be made to the area’s fishing schedule until 2015 at the earliest. ”That’s it,” Novello said. “That’s all I got.” Not so, said Andrew Applegate, NEFMC’s small mesh multi-species plan coordinator. Applegate said he did not shut the door on Novello’s proposal, that he instead told the Gloucester fisherman that the process for changing the regulations is a lengthy one, involving the development of new rules, the submission of the rules for review and then the actual implementation by NOAA Fisheries NMFS. more@gdt 00:35
Rhode Island AG lends support to Mass. lawsuit seeking to overturn ‘Draconian’ fishing regulation
PROVIDENCE – Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court in support of the Massachusetts lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeking to reverse a federal regulation that reduces ground-fishing allotments by 77 percent.< em> [email protected] 13:45
Cart Before the Horse – Access and Diversity in Fisheries – NEFMC and Amendment 18
The council, one of eight national bodies established in 1976 by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, abandoned in 2009 its former Days at Sea policy that strictly controlled the number of trips vessels could take in search of their target species. They introduced a new regulatory model based instead on catch shares that, through autonomous ?sector management,? would reduce the competitive pressure to overfish. However, one of the consequences of sector management has been the overaccumulation of catch-quotas by larger fishing fleets and the subsequent decline of coastal fishermen who operate inshore vessels. [email protected] 12:10
It’s 2:17 – 1430 and I’m waiting for the public stakeholders “webinar” hosted by the NEFMC to begin promptly at 1:00 – 1300!
The NEFMC has contracted an economic analysis of the Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery with the economic consulting firm Compass Lexecon. The purpose is to provide the NEFMC with an analysis that would help determine whether there are excessive shares of fishery access privileges in the multispecies fishery, and if so, what form those excessive shares take. Now, this might not interest everyone, but I’m interested n listening to the webinar that has kept me waiting! I can’t wait to hear why this well publicized webinar about this important issue is not being broadcast! BH Link 14:25
To NEFMC stakeholders – Groundfish Economic Analysis
The NEFMC has contracted an economic analysis of the Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery with the economic consulting firm Compass Lexecon. The purpose is to provide the NEFMC with an analysis that would help determine whether there are excessive shares of fishery access privileges in the multispecies fishery, and if so, what form those excessive shares take. More detail’s in Public Notice’s 11:44
NEFMC Chairman C.M. “Rip” Cunningham rips Bullard monitor stand
“Little, if any, justification is provided other than general statements that without higher coverage rates, ‘discard rates would be difficult to estimate because there is little catch history in these areas’ and the higher coverage would ‘allow (the National Marine Fisheries Service) to monitor whether vessels are interacting with protected species,’” Cunningham wrote. “Neither argument is convincing …” @GDT
NEFMC to NOAA on Closed Area Access: “Council Opposes 100% Observer Requirement” – “Your Arguments Are Not Convincing”
New England Fishery Management Council Chairman C.M. “Rip” Cunningham has written to NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard expressing the Council’s opposition to NOAA’s requirement for the industry to fund all at-sea monitoring coverage for closed area access. Chairman Cunningham suggests this requirement may prevent any participation in the program. He notes that as a result of the fragile economic state of many participants, the increased costs to fund observers may not be affordable. He also noted that little, if any, justification for this requirement was provided other than two general statements which the Council did not find convincing. Read the Letter
East Coast Fishery Managers Sign Agreement to Coordinate Deep Sea Coral Conservation
Attached is a joint news release from the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, New England Fishery Management Council, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Council continued here
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
NEFMC Seeks Fishermen to Participate in an Electronic Monitoring Working Group
The New England Fishery Management Council is forming an ad hoc Electronic Monitoring (EM)Working Group. Its members will be asked to identify any existing barriers or necessary steps that would enhance groundfish sector operations plan(s), in particular those plans that rely on electronic monitoring as a primary mechanism to achieve their stated compliance and catch attribution goals. read more about this.
Nils Stolpe: A staggering loss to U.S. fishermen and U.S. seafood consumers. And while on the subject of press releases…. CLF and Earthjusice
It was back in June of 2008 that I first became aware of Richard Gaines’ work in the Gloucester Times in a three part series exploring the interplay between fishermen, feds, ENGOs and the mega-foundations that funded them in a controversial move to close Stellwagen Bank to fishing (see http://tinyurl.com/n8m3voh for the first installment). A letter about the series I wrote to Times Editor Ray Lamont started “kudos to Richard Gaines for reporting what is going on behind the smoke and mirrors obscuring the struggle to maintain the historical fisheries that have thrived on Stellwagan Bank for generations. He couldn’t be more on-target when writing ‘Pew is associated with public information campaigns against fishing and fish consumption.’” continued@thewritingsofnilsstolpe
Excellent Article: Fishing the Gulf of Maine: Tradition at a Crossroads By Michael Sanders
When most of us go down to the coast, whether to walk or swim or fish or sail, we take for granted what we see before us. We see the lobster boats and the colorful buoys marking the strings of traps, the bobbing green and red cans marking safe passage, the gulls and other seabirds. In the larger working harbors like Portland and Stonington and Port Clyde, there might be draggers tied up, unloading fish they’ve caught far out in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank. What we don’t realize,,,,,,,,continued
NEFMC to ask Congress in its rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to establish a certification program for seafood
The council voted 16-0 at the end of its three day meeting in Mystic, Conn., to ask Congress to include in its rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Act language establishing a certification program for seafood — similar to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s stamp of approval for meat, according to the debate at the council. continued
NEFMC – Press Release : Improved White Hake Stock, ABC could be increased by 13%
Attached is a press release regarding the Quota Increase for Groundfish Stock that will be the topic of discussion at the upcoming New England Fishery Management Council Meeting, April 23 – 25 in Mystic, CT. If you have any questions, please contact the Council office at (978) 465-0492, ext. 100. Read the press release
Meeting Notice – NEFMC, Groundfish Oversight Commitee and Advisory Panel
March 6, 2013 – Groundfish Oversight joint with Groundfish Advisors http://www.nefmc.org/nemulti/meeting_notice/130306MtgNoticeWakefield.pdf
As Fisheries Struggle, Debate Heats Up Over How to Help
Russell Sherman stood at the wheel of his boat, the Lady Jane, as light faded and his crew prepared to dock for the night. He made $19,800 fishing last year, he said, and at 64 is afraid he will go into foreclosure. “People are on the hook for money, and they’re not going to be able to pay it off,” said Mr. Sherman, who is a founding member of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, an industry group that supports fishermen and has pushed against deep cuts to the industry. “Desperate situation.” Sadly, Read more here
End of the line?
It could be overfishing. It could be global warming. It could be the seals. It could be a lot of things. In fact, there are perhaps only two things that are certain when it comes to fishing off the shores of Cape Cod: fish stocks are rebuilding a
t a slower rate than expected. And they will not meet management targets to recover to healthy levels unless something changes dramatically. Read more here
