Tag Archives: northeast-groundfishery
Gloucester Daily Times Editorial: NOAA fishing report just shows tip of economic iceberg
Yes, the numbers are grim. The latest NOAA annual report on the Northeast groundfishery shows that landings were down by 24.9 percent across the region, while landings and values both hit four-year lows in Gloucester, and overall values fell by nearly 25 percent from the previous year. Read more@gdt
Markey wants seafood inspected for mislabeling – WASHINGTON — Fish sold on U.S. retail markets are routinely mislabeled, harming consumers while threatening the livelihoods of American fishermen, Democra
tic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said in a letter to President Barack Obama. (Ed Markey should pay attention to real issues that affect the fishing industry instead of shilling for Oceana) Read more@gdt 00:39
Fish consumers may not notice cuts that are hurting New England’s fishermen
Associated Press – To the 79-year-old, the decline of the industry has stolen jobs, community spirit and opportunity. And it’s not over, Gilson said. This month , New England’s fishermen again saw a cut to the number of fish they can catch, this time so deep that the historic industry’s existence is threatened from Rhode Island to Maine,,, continued
In depth article: Climate Change Impacts Ripple Through Fishing Industry While Ocean Science Lags Behind
Huffington Post – With a limberness that defies his 69 years, Frank Mirarchi heaves himself over the edge of a concrete wharf and steps out onto a slack, downward sloping dock line bouncing 20 feet above the lapping waters near Scituate, Mass. continued
BULLARD, SHELLEY, and COD: or Fish Being and Nothingness – Featured Writer Dick Grachek
“Returning Our New England Fisheries to Profitability”: “You’re doin’ a great job, Brownie” aka, Janie, Johnny, Petey. You should be proud. Mission Accomplished?
In her resignation email Lubchenco made the gravity-defying claim that she had made “notable progress” in “ending overfishing, rebuilding depleted stocks, and returning fishing to profitability”; but soon after, John Bullard “In an interview at the Times, Bullard said the telling figure was that the fleet caught only 54 percent of the allowed catch in 2012, and reasoned from that statistic that there is a dearth of inshore cod, a situation that warrants serious action to reverse.” Richard Gaines March 8, 2013 Gloucester Daily Times, “NOAA head explains stock stand”
Peter Shelley of Conservation Law Foundation explains the Cod Dilemma in a wormy little video he so humorously named “For Cod’s Sake”…..continued
Can the small family-owned boats survive or will the remaining fishermen wind up as sharecroppers for someone else’s fleet?
continued
Three years into catch shares, fishing industry faces ‘Day of Reckoning’
NEW BEDFORD — Sharp new cuts in fishing quotas mark the start today of the fourth year of fishing catch shares and sector management in the Northeast, NOAA’s prescription for rebuilding fish stocks and streamlining the fishing industry. But the fishermen who now see their quotas of some fish cut by more than 70 percent, who see their livelihood evaporating before their eyes, who are losing homes to foreclosure, insist, without contradiction, that they have done everything NOAA Fisheries has asked them to do in the past three years, and years before that. sadly, continued
60 Massachusetts Lawmakers urge Governor Patrick to seek fishing aid from Obama, his personal friend from their Chicago days
A group of more than 60 state lawmakers, including many with districts far from the sea, asked Gov. Deval Patrick Thursday to appeal directly to President Obama, his personal friend from their Chicago days, to grant emergency relief from impending cutbacks in commercial fishery landings widely feared to render the commercial fishing industry “non-viable.”President Obama has kept a stony silence in the face of the growing crisis once he appointed Lubchenco to administer the nation’s oceans and fisheries. And he failed to respond to requests for her dismissal from Reps. Barney Frank, John Tierney, Walter Jones and Sen. Scott Brown. Frank, now retired, and Tierney, whose district includes Gloucester, are Democrats. Jones, who represents the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Brown, defeated last November by Democrat Elizabeth Warren, are Republicans. continued
Warren hears from local fishermen about industry ‘under attack’
Wicked Local -“They want to get rid of the little guys, the people that know how to nurture the resource, the people who do not care about getting rich,” Welch, a Scituate fisherman, said. “We just want to provide for our families, and we want to work, and we want to employ people.” continued
Lawmakers push to ease fish limits
Citing widespread evidence of an abundance of important commercial in shore fish stocks — and a scientific study that found flaws in the modeling methods used by the government to set catch limits — a contingent of state lawmakers led by Senate President Therese Murray is urging NOAA’s top fisheries official to delay dire cuts planned for May 1 and allow the fleet reasonable access to stocks while new studies are conducted into the vitality of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. continued
Editorial: Division of Marine Fisheries chief Paul Diodati’s stand shows catch shares killing fishery
Noting that he shares the concerns of the relatively few state-permitted, small-boat fishermen, he made it clear that the shortage of fish within those fishermen’s usual grounds is due in large part to the fact that more and more big boats — “unencumbered by trip limits …particularly on Gulf of Maine Cod when they are aggregated for migration, feeding (and) spawning, has significantly contributed to declines in local abundance.” Read more
NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard explains stock stands
NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard said Thursday fishermen’s testimony he’s heard that the inshore waters are teeming with yellowtail has made him concerned about proposed draconian catch limits for the species of flounder. Yellowtail, cod, haddock, hake, and other flounders are found in close proximity, making up the Northeast multi-species groundfishery, and low allocations of prevalent stocks create the nightmare for fishermen who must stop work once they’ve come to their limit on any single stock. Read more
Editorial: Cape Pond Ice’s plight shows impact of fishery losses – Gloucester Daily Times
The Cape Pond Ice case shows once and for all that this economic disaster is not “just” about fishing. It’s about the entire city’s economy – and a rogue agency of our own federal
government should not be allowed to bring it down. Read more
My View: Science, sense needed in fishing’s ‘human crisis’ – Scott W. Lang
The human crisis in the groundfishing industry is a real crisis. It is not contrived, it is not looming, it is not a threat, it is here.
Bycatch alert system growing for fourth year
NEW BEDFORD — New fishing grounds are being added to the highly successful system developed by UMass to avoid catching yellowtail flounder in the Northeast, it was announced Wednesday. Dr. Brian Rothschild, dean emeritus of the UMass School for Marine Science and Technology, said the program “has reduced the ratio of yellowtail to scallops and because of that it has been an economic boon to the fishery.” Read more here
Catch shares tied to cod losses – State fisheries chief cites lack of controls under NOAA system
The 2010 catch share commodification of the Northeast groundfishery, hailed by advocates including NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco as a sure path to restoring overfished stocks and profitability for the fleet, has had the opposite effect on Gulf of Maine cod, according to the state’s director of marine fisheries.
The habit of bigger offshore boats to accumulate catch shares in Gulf of Maine cod and capitalize on pulses of the cod with landings far larger than 800 pounds has “significantly contributed to declines in local abundance” of the essential fish for the day boats, state fisheries chief Paul Diodati said in a memo sent Feb. 5 to the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission and obtained by the Times. Read more here
NOAA shielding key legal document – “That information is attorney-client privileged!” Ciaran Clayton, NOAA’s director of communications
The legal document underpinning the decision of NOAA’s regional administrator against easing the 77 percent cod limit cuts seen as a death knell for the industry starting May 1 will not be shared with the public, the agency has advised the Times. According to NOAA officials, the office of NOAA General Counsel Lois Schiffer submitted a legal brief to Gloucester-based Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard last month that gave the legal reasoning behind his decision against allowing the Northeast groundfishery, declared a disaster in September by the acting commerce secretary, to be allowed a second year of interim emergency relief from extreme cutbacks in Gulf of Maine cod. Read more
John Bullard – No guarantees that fish stocks will come back
The big question is: Why has this happened? Over the years, quotas have been gradually reduced, but still the fish aren’t coming back as expected. It isn’t simply a case of overfishing. There are environmental forces at play such as
predation from recovered populations of dogfish and seals, changes in ocean water temperature and increases in ocean acidity. So, while it may not be totally on the fishermen’s shoulders, it will be the fishermen who will have to pay the price. Read more
Fishermen look to White House – John Bullard, NOAA’s Northeast regional administrator based at Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park, scoffed at that idea.
By default and past experience, what slim hope remains to relieve the declared federal fisheries disaster before it consumes the surviving core of the groundfishing fleet in Gloucester and other New England ports has shifted from le
adership at the Commerce Department to the White House. ”I have not heard one word about fisheries from the president,”said Paul “Sasquatch” Cohan, the Gloucester fisherman who announced at the Warren meeting in Gloucester that he had nothing left to fight with. “I wouldn’t give up, but now I have to give up,” said Cohan, who operated a gillnet day boat. Read more
Senator Warren hears the fears of a community poised to lose it all, the fishing community
An airing of grievances and an airing of fears rained down on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren Tuesday in her first meeting with the fishing community since she took office last month. The grievances were those of business people, descendants of the nation’s earliest industry, who in one form of another had made their way harvesting the sea, but now find themselves trapped by government edicts and policy said to be posing as biology, according to Vito Giacalone, the local port’s best known and connected leader. Read more
Cod quota rollover is tightened, too – “we intend to allow just under 2 percent” John Bullard
NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard has agreed to extend a 10 percent carryover of uncaught fishing quota to the new fishing year — for all stocks except the Gulf of Maine cod, for which a carryover and potential bycatch would account for fishermen’s total catch under dire new catch limits due to take effect May 1. ”For all allocated groundfish stocks, except Gulf of Maine cod, where the stock remains in poor condition and there is a high risk of exceeding overfishing limits, we intend to continue to allow fishermen to carryover up to their full 10 percent unused quota in 2013,” he said. “For Gulf of Maine cod we intend to allow just under 2 percent carryover in 2013 to avoid a risk of exceeding the overfishing limit. Read more
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
Editorial: Fishery shutdown would showcase economic impact
The senior counsel for the Conservation Law Foundation may be arguing for all the wrong reasons, but he makes a valid point: Read more here
Maine lawmakers urge help for fishermen – The state’s members of Congress join others from the region
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers from Maine and two other states are urging federal regulators to “exercise all authority under the law” to help the New England groundfishing fleet weather severe catch limits that many fear could decimate the industry. Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., plans to submit legislation seeking disaster funding for the New England fishery as well as other U.S. fisheries. Tierney said his bill would tap money collected on imported fish to pay for the disaster relief and additional scientific research. Read more here
New England – Drastic Cuts to Imperiled Cod Fishery
Rip Cunningham, chairman of the New England Council, told the Gazette this week it was a difficult process. “I continue to think it was a tough decision to make,” he said. “Given the circumstances, I think the council made the right decision. The council understands that when they make their decision there are real people that are going to be impacted. I certainly hope everyone is thinking that we have to do a balance between mitigating short-term impacts to the fishermen and the long-term impacts to the resource.” Read more here
Voices of the exterminators and the exterminated .The New England Ground Fish Fleet
Just three years ago, the industry was told that the Gulf of Maine cod stock was rebounding and was expected to be fully rebuilt by 2014. The following year, they were told the models had been wrong and the stock was actually appro
aching
depletion. Fishermen continued to express concern with the science behind the stock assessments on Wednesday. “We’re not talking about, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to have a tough year next year,’” “We’re talking about, you know, that’s it.’”David Goethel. Read more here
Our view: Bay State’s ‘Sacred Cod’ has become NOAA’s sacred cow
Yes, NOAA can show “scientific” data suggesting that these dire cuts — up to 77 percent for the Gulf of Maine cod catch — may be necessary. Yet NOAA also had 2008 survey data that showed many of the cod stocks were already rebuilt. And NOAA’s latest data is off an assessment model that did not include any input from fishermen, meaning it’s no more credible than the admittedly bogus data used in the “Trawlgate” fiasco of 1999-2000, when NOAA conceded its statistics were hopelessly flawed, yet still used them to set stock limits. Read more here
Opinion – Hard realities for New England fishermen
For decades the waters off New England have been subject to some of the most intense fishing pressure and environmental impacts of any body of water in the world. These impacts include shipping traffic, pollution, loss of habitat, and myriad other factors. Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute determined in a study titled, “A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems,” that the Gulf of Maine and environs had suffered an overall degradation of more than 90 percent compared to their pristine state. The worst of this has occurred in the last 50 years. Read more here!
Editorial – Save the fish, but also help the fishermen
This newspaper understands the angry response severe restrictions provoked among those whose families have earned their living from the sea for generations – “I’m leaving here in a coffin,” one fisherman from New Bedford, Mass., complained – but the council had no viable options…..We encourage NOAA to adopt the restrictions, as painful as they will be to New England fishermen, since they are the best way to give cod, now on the verge of extinction, a chance to replenish. Read more here at The Day
One fisherman’s tale shows plight of many -Richard Gaines – gloucester daily times
For a gillnet fisherman, these are trying times — with worse yet to come. Captain Don Smith, a 57-year-old transplanted Mainer whose family roots are in Nova Scotia and has fished commercially from Gloucester for more than 30 y
ears, doesn’t need to be prodded to speak to that…… Making life more difficult for the small boats are the big boats; these “trip” boats that traditionally worked offshore on the more distant Georges Bank. But the catch share trading system imposed by federal regulators in 2010 has liberated them to acquire quota from non-participants or day boats, and — no longer limited by daily catch limits —they have been induced to chase the pulses of cod onto Stellwagen, where they flaunt their scale and have their way. Read more here
