September 11 - Wicked Tune-Up for Tuna Rules - Fishermen who catch tuna with harpoons, hand gear, purse seine nets, and longlines gathered last Wednesday in Gloucester, MA, for a hearing on proposed changes to the way we manage the catch of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Bluefin are highly prized for the sushi market and for recreational fishing. Strong, sleek, and muscular, these fish are astonishingly fast giants that can reach well over a thousand pounds. But their popularity has led to plummeting populations and has landed the bluefin on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

September 12 - The Bottom Line: Rebuilding Plans Work for U.S. Fisheries - By Lee Crockett, The Pew Charitable Trusts. A congressional hearing this week on the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act examined a new report from the National Academies on the law’s effectiveness in rebuilding depleted fish populations. As a member of the peer-review panel for the report, I can attest to the amount of work that went into this study, which clearly recognizes our nation’s overall success in restoring fish stocks.

September 13 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, September 13 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, fishing stakeholders respond to a report and hearing on Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization and rebuilding requirements; a seasonal lobster closure begins in Long Island Sound; Serious Eats highlights Maine lobstering; New Bedford’s Working Waterfront Festival will take place September 28-29; GMRI’s Out of the Blue campaign continues with a focus on whiting; new research shows changes in marine life distribution follow the direction and speed of climate change.

September 4 - We can restore river herring, but the Mid Atlantic Council and NOAA Fisheries need to step up - This post was written by John McMurray, a charter fishing captain and MAFMC member. We should acknowledge and stress that we can rebuild this culturally and economically important fish that has historically been a critical part of the marine food chain. And that we can, at least to some extent, control mortality both inshore and offshore. A stocks-in-the-fishery designation would give us the tools to do that. It won’t be easy for NOAA Fisheries, or Council staff, to make it happen, but it’s their/our obligation.

September 6 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, September 6 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, an NAS report evaluates the success of the Magnuson-Stevens Act; EDF’s Sarah Smith argues that closed areas can help fisheries build resilience to climate change; species distribution in New England is changing, with bonito, black sea bass, and squid moving north; Maine’s record seafood revenues in 2012 were mostly from lobster; UMass scientists prepare to tag juvenile bluefin tuna; USFWS will no longer stock the Merrimack with salmon; the NEFMC releases the agenda for its next meeting; Massachusetts closes 40 oyster beds; PCB resistant killifish in New Bedford Harbor stump scientists.

August 19 - Troubled Waters for Herring - Everything eats herring—from whales to striped bass to seabirds. Without abundant herring stocks, the Atlantic food web doesn’t work. That’s why herring protection brings together a diverse coalition of interests that includes recreational and commercial fishermen, conservation groups and whale-watching businesses. Sadly, two recent decisions by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will have serious impacts on herring, and all of the species that depend upon them.

August 21 - Mean, Green Eating Machines: The European green crab is “one of the world’s worst invasives” - Warming ocean temperatures have allowed green crabs to persist farther and farther north along the North American coastlines. Where cold winter chills used to keep its numbers in check, populations of green crabs are now booming places like the Gulf of Maine, and they are eating their way through our precious local seafood.

August 23 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, August 23 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the Science and Statistical Committee discusses yellowtail and haddock; an opinion piece says Saltonstall-Kennedy funds should go to research, not NOAA; magazines argue over the high consumer price of lobster; Massachusetts’ summer flounder season ends; marine protected areas can protect fish populations without hurting fishermen; California serves as an example of successful coexistence with growing seal populations; scientists tag 20 loggerhead sea turtles.

August 12 - Deep Sea Canyons on Your Desktop - The live streaming video from the NOAA research vessel Okeanos Explorer brings eye-popping images from the ocean floor as scientists maneuver a remotely operated vehicle (or ROV) called Deep Discoverer along the canyons and seamounts at the edge of the continental shelf.

August 16 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, August 16 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NOAA and the Council continue to argue over herring trawl observer coverage; lobster shell disease moves north; the Maine Lobstermen Union holds its first meeting; a new NOAA research vessel will map the seafloor; shark fin bans may hurt the dogfish fishery; low sand lance abundance hurts whale watch businesses; southern species are becoming more common in New England; an expedition to tag great white sharks is moving slowly; lobstermen oppose gear changes; the MAFMC discusses coral conservation; MA fishermen catch fewer, larger bluefin; climate change may inhibit Atlantic salmon recovery; recovering alewife populations feed the lobster bait industry.

Photo credit: AZRainman via Compfight.

Flipping through the latest issue of Commercial Fisheries News recently, I was somewhat surprised to find several stories about climate change interspersed with the ads for diesel engines and winches. These articles weren’t of the “Do you or don’t you believe” variety, or predictions of how high the seas would rise or how bad the storms/droughts/heat waves/cold waves would be. The tone of these stories was summed up pretty well by the cover: “Changing Ocean – what does it all mean?”It was a sobering read, to say the least. In short – rapidly increasing water temperatures, along with ocean acidification and shifting currents are playing havoc with our fishing grounds. Many of our most economically important fish and shellfish are not found where they used to be, and former strangers like sailfish and cobia are becoming familiar in our waters.

Many fishermen have realized, as have many of us non-fishermen, that conversations about climate “beliefs” are outdated, and the real story now is how we cope with the changes that are already happening, and are bound to keep coming.

Fishermen are joining experts in other areas such as coastal infrastructure, energy distribution, and national security in speaking out about the real, observable facts of the current impacts from climate change. Even as the ocean changes, the uses of our oceans and coasts are increasing. We are adding new uses like tidal and wind energy development and more undersea communications cables to our existing uses like fishing, shipping, and recreation. If we are going to both maintain the health of the ocean which provides the goods and services we depend upon and manage ocean uses so they are compatible, profitable and less prone to harm ocean health then we need to coordinate all new and old uses as best we can. Here in New England we have an active ocean planning process working to do just that.

In 2010 President Obama signed the Executive Order establishing the National Ocean Policy which calls for, among other things, regional ocean planning. This planning must involve better coordination of federal agencies and ocean users, be informed by the best available science and data, be conducted in a manner that considers the entire ocean ecosystem, not just discrete parts, and be open and transparent to all stakeholders.

New Englanders were well equipped for this new and important challenge, having created our own state plans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the Northeast Regional Ocean Council to help guide our regional efforts. Most recently, we have convened a Regional Planning Body to begin the real nuts and bolts work of putting together our nation’s first true regional ocean plan.

There is no doubt that the ocean is changing, that these changes will require resiliency and problem-solving to cope with, and that we are asking more and more of our ocean resources than ever before.  The best way forward is with a good plan, and we will continue to actively support these efforts in New England, and we hope you will too.

August 5 - Man, Eating Shark - My plan was to kick off Shark Week by feasting on Squalus acanthias, aka Spiny Dogfish, and reporting my impressions. Spiny dogfish are one of the few fish populations in good biological condition that New England fishermen can still catch, having recovered from a crash back in the early 1990’s. Once a fish despised because of the havoc it caused with fishing gear and its voracious predation on more valuable commercial fish, many fishermen who can no longer find cod or other prime species are turning to dogfish out of financial desperation.

August 6 - Uncertain Science Isn’t to Blame for Groundfish Crisis - The real issue is not whether there is uncertainty in fisheries management science. Of course there is, and the more you get into the weeds of fishery management science the more the numerous uncertainties reveal themselves. The real issue is how managers choose to deal with the uncertainty that is inherent in fisheries management. In New England, by and large, they deal with it badly.

August 7 - Managing Fisheries in “A Climate of Change” - The Maine nonprofit Island Institute organized the two-day symposium “A Climate of Change” to bring fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, and NGOs together to share information and ideas about how climate change is already affecting fishing, and what they can do about it.

August 9 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, August 9 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, a new study shows marine species moving poleward in response to climate change; the ASMFC delays a decision on elver management; NEFMC chair Rip Cunningham writes to John Bullard in response to NERO’s refusal of Amendment 5 to the herring plan; NOAA declines to list river herring under the Endangered Species Act; Obama nominates Kathryn Sullivan to lead NOAA; Maine’s lobster monoculture is vulnerable to climate change; Senator Warren calls for federal disaster aid for the groundfish industry.

July 29 - Overfishing Threatens Genetic Diversity of Winter Flounder - New research by scientists in six bays of Long Island, New York, shows that overfishing of winter flounder living in these bays has led to severe inbreeding, a factor that is not typically considered in marine fisheries management.

August 2 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, August 2 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, fishermen and environmentalists are disappointed with NMFS’ rejection of observer requirements for the herring fleet; industry members say that uncertainty in stock assessments means catch limits should be eased; the NEFMC chairman tells NOAA that observer requirements for closed areas access are excessive; the Island Institute hosts a symposium on fisheries and climate change; oyster thieves hit another Cape Cod farm; three fishery management councils agree to protect deep-sea corals; NOAA announces a new fisheries research grant opportunity; scientists begin an expedition to tag twenty great white sharks off Chatham.

July 18 - Help Protect New England’s Cod Habitat - The public has until July 26th to submit comments on a proposed rule that would open nearly 3000 square miles of protected habitat to destructive commercial trawling. Click through to see an infographic for more information and to take action.

July 19 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, July 19 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the Senate Appropriations Bill includes $150 million in fisheries disaster funding; WCAI’s “Long Haul” series continues with five more articles on New England fishing; debate continues over NOAA’s move to open protected areas to commercial fishing; Massachusetts lifts its ban on the sale of lobster tails; NOAA proposes rules to reduce marine mammal entanglements in fishing gear; state lawmakers approve funding for the Newburyport Shellfish Purification Plant.

New England’s cod populations are at their lowest levels in history, thanks to decades of chronic overfishing and habitat destruction. Fisheries scientists agree that protecting vital fish habitat is key to restoring these once-plentiful fish species. How does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) respond? Yesterday NOAA proposed to allow new bottom trawling and other forms of commercial fishing in areas of New England’s ocean that have been protected for almost twenty years. NOAA’s assessment, which did not include a full analysis of the impacts and benefits of removing this protection as required by federal law, actually concludes that, for three of the four areas, opening them to trawling and other forms of fishing is “likely to yield only small increases in net benefit.”  NOAA’s assessment also finds that, in one of the areas, the opening will result in a reduction in net benefits to offshore lobstering, which will not be allowed at times when groundfishing is permitted.

The trade-offs exchanged for this “small increase in net benefit” are many, and they include the value of almost two decades of ecological restoration. Protecting habitat promotes the recovery of Georges Bank haddock and has rejuvenated the valuable scallop stocks. If NOAA’s own environmental assessment concludes that these protected areas harbor larger, more productive fish, why is NOAA allowing access to kill fish that could help overfished stocks to rebound or healthy stocks to remain healthy?

Also at risk is any role that these areas might play in the long-term protection of fish habitat. For more than eight years, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has been “developing” a grand plan, known as the Omnibus Habitat Amendment, designed to meet federal law requirements to protect fish habitat against the damaging impacts of fishing gear. A final decision on the Amendment is expected in ten months. Bizarrely, NOAA is proposing to open areas now that are under consideration for future protection. What will be the remaining value of this habitat after trawls have been allowed to ply them for months? Let’s face it, NOAA, any trawling will diminish this area’s habitat value and trawling for two months will eliminate it. The fact is that if NOAA’s proposal is completed it will effectively preempt the NEFMC’s assessment of these areas and remove them from inclusion in any future habitat protection plan without the fully required analysis.

If the benefit that these areas play in rebuilding and maintaining fish stocks and the fact that they are under consideration in a federally-mandated habitat protection plan was not enough to convince NOAA that opening these areas was a bad idea, the agency should have at least been convinced by the role that they play in buffering against climate change impacts. This is especially so given that NOAA’s strategy for helping fish adapt to climate change is to “conserve habitat to support healthy fish,” and one its means for achieving that is “to reduce negative impacts of capture practices and gear on important habitats for fish.” Sadly, this action could not be more diametrically opposed to these strategies.

NOAA’s proposal appropriately retains protection from trawling for places in the Gulf of Maine like Cashes Ledge, an underwater mountain range 80 miles off the coasts of Massachusetts that harbors the largest and deepest kelp forest on the eastern seaboard and shelters some of the most diverse habitat and wildlife in the region. The agency should extend its rational thinking beyond the Gulf of Maine and retain all existing protected areas until a full consideration of the functions, values and merits of new and existing protected areas has been completed as part of the Omnibus Habitat Amendment process.

The public has until July 26 to comment on NOAA’s proposal to open nearly 3,000 square miles of protected habitat to commercial trawling. Please take action here.