• November 16: “Glad to see New England fishermen support the sector system, take back their fishery” – CLF’s Peter Shelley editorializes on the recent letter from over one hundred fishermen asking lawmakers to stop calling for the dismantling of the groundfish sector system and urging them to work on improving the system instead.
• November 17: “Jud Crawford on what recent menhaden decisions mean” – The latest installment in TalkingFish.org’s “Ask an Expert” feature interviews Jud Crawford, science and policy manager for the Pew Environment Group, about the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s recent decision to implement measures to protect Atlantic menhaden.
• November 18: “Fish Talk in the News – Friday, November 18″ – A weekly update of recent news stories that might interest TalkingFish.org readers. This week: an editorial on fisherman innovation, making “the deadliest catch” less deadly, fishermen ask politicians to back off of sectors, and Governor Patrick requests disaster assistance funding for Massachusetts fishermen.

The fishing port of Gloucester (Photo credit: NOAA)

The letter was written in response to politicians’ calls for the dismantling of the sector system for the groundfish fishery, a management system that went into effect in May 2010 and has been lambasted ever since by a small vocal minority of fishermen. While critics of sector management frame the system as if it puts New England’s iconic groundfish fishery in danger of being controlled by only a few colossal corporate boats, the letter reminds the delegation that the entire groundfish fleet in New England is a small business fleet. There are some bigger small businesses and some smaller small businesses, but there is no danger of takeover by factory ships or foreign fleets. The small business owners who signed this letter say that the politicians are putting their well-being at risk by calling for the overturn of the sector system.

These boat owners were likely appreciative of the Massachusetts delegation’s intent in trying to intervene on the industry’s behalf. But in the letter, they demonstrate that they are of one mind that the new sector system is one they can work with, that they want to work with. The outcomes they have been fighting for–stability, profitability, and flexibility–are what groundfish sectors are all about. Almost no one who fished under the old days-at-sea management system wants to return to that failed program.

There are still many groundfish management problems facing the New England Council, and Congress could certainly help resolve them by securing funding to improve fisheries data collection, stock assessments, gear research and development, and to cover the cost of on-board monitors. Senator Kerry has introduced important legislation that may well help support these needed initiatives, and it would be nice to see thoughtful discussion and action on these real needs in Congress.

The message of the unequivocal and unprecedented fishing industry letter sent yesterday is that the problems of the few in the fishery should not be used to paint the management system as fundamentally flawed. With this letter, a diverse group of fishermen publicly defended the sector system and implicitly pushed back strongly against both those who have attempted to repeal it through lawsuits and those Congressional offices that have sought to politicize the fishery. If Washington ends up breaking the regionally-designed sector program by its interventions, then Washington will own the results.  But for these fishermen, New England is on the right course. Again, amen.

• November 9: “Chef Richard Garcia on serving high-quality, responsibly-harvested and transparently-sourced seafood” – TalkingFish.org interviews Richard Garcia, Executive Chef of 606 Congress at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, in the latest installment of our “Ask an Expert” feature.
• November 10: “Fish Talk in the News – Thursday, November 10″ – A weekly update of recent news stories that might interest TalkingFish.org readers. This week: responses in opposition to the proposed catch shares ban being promoted by Congressional representatives; a great editorial about the disconnect between fishermen and government regulators; watching the popularity rise of underutilized fish species; and a decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to protect Atlantic menhaden.

A big thank you to all readers who submitted comments to the ASMFC asking them to put measures in place to protect menhaden. We bet the menhaden and the bigger fish who rely upon them for food would thank you, too!

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  Alex Hay outside Mac's Seafood - read an exclusive interview with him at www.TalkingFish.org

  November 1: “Fishermen to Council: Sectors are working; don’t make any drastic changes” – A recap of the New England Fishery Management Council’s workshop to discuss lessons learned from the first year of sector management. The main message fishermen shared at the event? Sectors are working, and we need to stay the course with this system. Fishermen also stressed the importance of stability to their business operations.

• November 2: “Know where your fish comes from” – The first piece in TalkingFish.org’s new “Ask an Expert” series – this week: an interview with Alex Hay of Mac’s Seafood in Wellfleet. Alex talks about his company’s commitment to local and sustainable seafood and provides a great recipe for pan-seared hake with wild mushrooms.
• November 3: “Overfishing 101: A Small Fish With Big Problems” – This is the latest piece in Lee Crockett of the Pew Environment Group’s “Overfishing 101″ series, and it deals with Atlantic menhaden, a small fish that is “a pillar of the East Coast marine food web.” Sadly, Atlantic menhaden populations have declined to record lows. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will consider options to protect menhaden when it meets next week in Boston.
• November 4: “Fish Talk in the News – November 4, 2011″ – A weekly update of recent news stories that might interest TalkingFish.org readers. This week: reactions to the Boston Globe’s seafood fraud investigation, more opinions on the groundfish sector system, and NOAA will consider listing river herring under the Endangered Species Act.
• November 4: “Peter Shelley: Call to oust chief of NOAA is bad for a fishing industry in flux” – CLF’s Peter Shelley’s Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe in response to Senator Scott Brown’s call for NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco to resign.

Senator Scott Brown (Photo credit: Bibliographical Directory of the U.S. Congress)

In late October, Senator Scott Brown called for the resignation of NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco. CLF’s Peter Shelley wrote the following Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe in response to Senator Brown’s statement:

Call to oust chief of NOAA is bad for a fishing industry in flux

SENATOR SCOTT Brown’s call for the resignation of the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is misdirected and destructive to a changing fishing industry that needs predictability, not political theater (‘‘Citing ‘indifference,’ Brown says NOAA chief should be fired,’’ Metro, Oct. 23).

Brown seems to think that the catch-share program was forced on Massachusetts fishermen by NOAA and Jane Lubchenco. In fact, the approach of having sectors of boat owners manage their fish quotas was developed and approved by the New England Fishery Management Council with unanimous support from the council’s Massachusetts fishing industry members and Governor Patrick’s representative. NOAA adopted the council’s plan without change. Eighteen months in, with some promising results and no quantitative evidence of an economic emergency, the council continues to support the catch-share program.

Brown’s call for Lubchenco’s head may curry favor with some frustrated Massachusetts groundfishermen, but it won’t solve their problems. What they do need is economic stability and confidence that their concerns will be addressed in full by the New England council. Its efforts to build on the program’s successes and mitigate its negative impacts are already underway with the full support of NOAA and Lubchenco.

If Brown is really concerned about the fate of Massachusetts’ fishing industry, he’d be better off seeking to end the congressional stalemate that is prolonging the national economic crisis than creating a bogus enemy in Lubchenco.

Peter Shelley

Senior counsel Conservation Law Foundation Boston

• October 20: “Fish Talk in the News – Thursday, October 20″ – A weekly update of recent news stories that might interest TalkingFish.org readers. This week: reactions to Senators Brown and Ayotte’s bill to end the sector system, an interview with chef Barton Seaver, Senator Kerry’s letter of requests to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, and NOAA’s announcement that they will fund at-sea monitoring costs through the 2012 fishing year.

• October 11: “Celebrate Seafood in October” – A list of October seafood festivals that will be happening along the New England coast.
• October 13: “Fish Talk in the News – Thursday, October 13″ – A weekly update of recent news stories that might interest TalkingFish.org readers. This week: a bill introduced by Senators Brown and Ayotte to allow the dismantling of the sector system, Target commits to selling only sustainable and traceable seafood by 2015, discussion of threats to river herring and potential actions for protection, recollections of when salt fish was king in St. John’s, and Wellfleet OysterFest, which is coming up this weekend.
• October 14: “Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Talks Fish” – See Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discuss the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans, and how we are ignoring these threats “at our own peril.” (CLF Rhode Island Director Tricia K. Jedele also blogged about this on the CLF Scoop – read that blog here.)

Haddock, one of the species managed as part of the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery (Photo credit: NOAA)

Still, NOAA’s statement on the release of the report expressed optimism.  “The report provides welcome news about Northeast groundfish revenues,” said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries. “For example, the higher revenues occurred without exceeding this year’s groundfish catch quotas. And while many fishermen are doing better, we also know that some fishermen and businesses are not doing as well.”

The report noted that many trends observed in 2010 were continuations of trends that had been apparent since 2007 or even earlier, including declining landings, a declining number of active vessels, and increasing concentration of groundfish revenue among the top-earning vessels. Some other trends observed this year are new, and these trends are of a more positive nature, including increases in gross revenues, increases in prices of both groundfish and non-groundfish species, and increased economic performance in terms of revenue per unit effort.

As mentioned above, data from the final three months of the fishing year and data on the costs associated with the new system have yet to be incorporated into NEFSC’s analysis, so a final assessment of the first year of sectors is not currently possible. The interim report will be updated in August 2011 to take into account this additional information.

To read more about the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery and the sector system, please visit Talking Fish, a new blog created by CLF and other like-minded organizations and individuals to foster informed and productive discussion about New England’s fisheries and coastal communities.