Fisheries

The vigor with which the government has prosecuted its crackdown in domestic waters has certainly been unprecedented this year in China – it seems that every village government in the country has had a publicity event that involves pouring bags of fish seedlings into local waters.

Until recently, the growth of fishing was largely unregulated, leading to over-capacity of fishing boats, inter-state conflict and overfishing of some species.

When Gosman’s Dock, 14 acres of restaurants and shops at Montauk Harbor, went on the market for $52.5 million in 2015, it signaled the latest evolution in a "discovered" coastal town that used to be all about surfing, fishing and dive bars. But walk past the dumpster and ice machine onto the dock that stretches into the harbor, and you’re in another world.

New research identifies a perfect storm of warming waters and reduced food to blame in the collapse of the once lucrative jumbo squid fishery off Baja California.

In 2015, a nesting record of 289 nests was set, followed by a new record in 2016 when 325 sea turtle nests were found on Seashore beaches.

Peak landings in Alaska's prolific Bristol Bay fishery were reached July 8 with some 2.55 million sockeye caught that day alone. But strong catches continue to come in, according to data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and bay's harvest now looks like it will see another 14m sockeye above the 26.1m harvest level that biologists first predicted.

Union members: Regs would hurt Maine lobstermen

Cuba enacted new fisheries legislation over the weekend that represents its first national change since 1996 and a major shift in current fisheries policy, helping to ensure coordinated management of marine resources between Cuba and other countries in the region, including the United States, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) reports.

Shrimpers say changes are a good sign but not enough

Bethel-based KYUK reports water temperatures near the town broke into the low 70s earlier this week. That’s the highest river temperature ever recorded there.

We must deal with conflicts among ocean users while maintaining the health of the marine ecosystem.

Salmon farming is going through unprecedented change. Industry giant Mowi has offered to move away from "contentious" sea loch sites in north-west Scotland, in exchange for permission to replace the capacity in wilder waters.

Editor’s note: Jim McClintock, Ph.D., a professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is one of 25 nationwide scientists developing a definitive report on the effects of climate change and leads annual educational Climate Change Challenge cruises to Antarctica. This Op-Ed was originally written for Al.com.

Fecal matter, killer algae, too much water, not enough water—Florida's hydrological disaster is killing its legendary inshore fishing

The commercial fishing industry on the gulf coast has seen two major disasters in the last 15 years: Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. Now, some fear we’re on the cusp of a third. The culprit: historic flooding from the Mississippi River.

Baby lobsters are continuing to appear in high numbers off some parts of Canada while tailing off in New England, raising questions about what the valuable shellfish's population will look like in several years.

State Rep. Patrick Kearney is sponsoring three bills aimed at helping the state’s commercial fishing and lobster industries.

There are times in this politically contentious period that commonsense legislation still manages to move forward through the congressional process. The Young Fishermen’s Development Act looks like it will be one of these bills that will make it to the finish line.

Japanese whaling fleets set sail Monday to hunt whales commercially for the first time in 31 years, a day after Tokyo formally left the International Whaling Commission.

The commercial fishing industry knows Alaska's only member of the US House of Representatives well, and they may not be saying goodbye to him anytime soon either.

Fisheries officers from Kosrae, Micronesia, recently toured the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center to learn more about aquaculture efforts in Hawaii.

A Maine land conservation program will use more than $1 million to preserve working waterfront areas, including sites that are important to the lobster fishing industry.

An invasive species of swamp eel has been found in New Orleans, and a state biologist says it's the first time this species has been found in the United States.

Another fault line emerges on the American Shoreline.

More news coming from Maine's lobster fishery.

THE management of Scotland’s fishing industry has been an “economic and environmental disaster of epic proportions”, according to a representative of the Scottish Creel Fisherman’s Federation.

Most fishing communities from North Carolina to Maine will face declining fishing options unless they adapt to climate change by catching different species or fishing in different areas, a new study warns.

Bristol Bay fishermen ramp up efforts to save their industry and look to Congress for suspension of rushed Pebble Mine permitting process. Listen to Catch Curve Podcast on the Bristol Bay fishery and the Pebble Mine with Anne Mosness (Link at the end of the article)

New York leading the way on shellfish restoration.

It is a rare opportunity to be part of launching a new marine industry on the Texas coast, but thanks to state Rep. Todd Hunter, state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, the Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott, it is about to happen.

This morning, the Fishery Monitoring Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center released shrimp landings data from the Gulf of Mexico for May 2019.

N. Ramesh, J.A. Rising and K.L. Oremus. The small world of global marine fisheries: The cross-boundary consequences of larval dispersal. Science. Vol. 364, June 21, 2019, p. 1192. doi: 10.1126/science.aav3409.

CNT: Commercial fishermen have been awarded disaster assistance and the processors are looking for help too to offset losses due to new tariffs .

Iowa has soybeans and corn. Idaho has potatoes. Maine has lobsters. President Trump’s growing trade war is causing headaches for all the industries — as well as American consumers —as China imposed tariffs in response to Trump’s tariffs on imports.

As Trump focuses on disruption, Beijing is evidently operating on a higher level.

The Trudeau government’s rewrite of the Fisheries Act is set to become law after senators opted not to press on amendments they made to the bill that were rejected by the Liberal-majority House.

The booming population of a native species of Northwest shrimp threatens the oyster beds of Washington's Willapa Bay and a coastal way of life.

We spoke to Dr Ciaran Byrne from Inland Fisheries Ireland about the worrying decline in wild salmon numbers.

A mild 2018-19 winter resulted in a surprising boost for blue crabs, according to a survey.

During this spring's fish migration season, 81 northern snakeheads attempted to swim up the Susquehanna River through the Conowingo Dam, a “dramatic increase” in the invasive species, state natural resources officials said.

RECENT STUDIES on the health of our oceans offer irrefutable evidence that something very disturbing is taking place and that the threat to marine life has never been graver.

Open your checkbooks America, the fishing is not too good. (CNT)

Regulators approve another year of reduced catch limits for Atlantic herring.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Genetically engineered salmon is heading to store shelves in the U.S., but it won't be coming from the biggest salmon farming state in the country.

Next month, Japan will resume commercial whaling, an activity that was banned in 1982 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana anglers are taking full advantage of the red snapper season that opened May 24.

New York State is investing $10.4 million to restore native shellfish populations across Long Island’s coastal waters. The effort is expected to improve the region’s water quality and boost the local economy.

Both of the US' big purse seine menhaden fisheries have been recommended for certification by the Marine Stewardship Council, though how fast harvesters and processors are able to start carrying the label remains to be seen.

STONINGTON, Conn. — Here in one of New England's oldest fishing communities, there's a longing for the old days, long before climate change and the federal government's quota system got so complicated.

Many fish, marine mammals and seabirds that inhabit the world’s oceans are critically endangered, but few are as close to the brink as the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Only about 411 of these whales exist today, and at their current rate of decline, they could become extinct within our lifetimes.

Wild fish, farmed fish, Frankenfish — get ready for seafood grown directly from cells — with no head, tail, bones or blood.

BATON ROUGE, La. Year after year after year, the Gulf of Mexico seafood community has been drowning in one disaster after another with little relief from the government agencies. Now, the floodgates are about to open, drowning all hopes that this year will be any different from years past.

While the Norwegian directorate of fisheries has just published an update stating a little over 10,000 metric tons of farmed salmon have so far been lost to an algal bloom, Nordea Bank's lead analyst has warned this is only part of the picture.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Fishermen already dealing with a dramatic reduction in the amount of a key bait fish they are allowed to harvest will likely face an additional cut next year that could drive up the price of lobster for consumers.

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — The warming waters associated with climate change are creating big ripple effects across fishing communities, including in this picturesque seaside town with a long fishing history.

The number of boats harvesting seafood has increased significantly since the middle of the previous century, a new global analysis finds, and is much higher than some scientists assumed.

Northern cod’s of huge importance to coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador

Young's Keep Fin Fish Free Act would stop officials from allowing fish farms in U.S. offshore waters

Deaths come weeks after similar incident in Scotland: ‘We’re all pretty worried’

Above - Cody McLaughlin, fisherman and spokesman for the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, admires a freshly caught shad before releasing the fish back into the Delaware River in Trenton on Saturday, April 6, 2019. (Michael Sol Warren | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Ghost nets are a substantial threat to fish and wildlife the world over. Addressing the problem will take effort on a large scale.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken an island-based management approach since 2012, providing autonomy to agencies like the Caribbean Fishery Management Council, which has now approved plans to further embrace island-based fishing management.

VANCOUVER — Canada has announced sweeping new rules to protect Southern Resident orcas off British Columbia’s coast, including requiring ships to stay 438 yards away from the whales and closing some salmon fisheries.

Fish fences so large they can be seen from space are causing habitat destruction

SHIPPAGAN, N.B. — Testing aimed at preventing North Atlantic right whales from becoming entangled in fishing gear got a boost Tuesday as Ottawa formally announced more than $2 million for snow crab fishermen in northern New Brunswick.

The fleet currently lacks regulation, with no quotas or limits on catch and no statutory tracking of smaller boats. But these statistics suggest stocks are struggling and could be approaching a cliff edge.

Paul Lansbergen says that beyond protecting fish stocks, law should protect ‘sustainable’ fishing rights

West Coast fishing communities earned millions of dollars from a trial program allowing fishermen to cash in on rebounding rockfish populations, NOAA announced last month.

Despite its swift rise, the sustainable seafood movement’s work is far from done. To safeguard the future of fish, more seafood businesses must commit to sustainability, and consumers must be even more resolute in demanding a transparent seafood supply chain and supporting sustainability with every purchase.

Halving the number of vertical lines in a state where everyone fishes for lobster in their own way presents significant challenges for regulators.

Angling Notes: Stocks have declined in Irish waters, says Inland Fisheries Ireland

Seafood loss and waste adds up to 7 billion dollars in Indonesia. How can better monitoring ensure better standards for sustainable fishing? The Food and Agriculture Organization notes that lower-income nations’ exports of fish and fishery products reached $78 billion in 2014, more than triple the value of global rice exports.

When the Louisiana High School Bass Fishing Association planned a tournament on Bayou Black, they used maps created by Media Bass showing restricted areas.

Experts say that farming octopuses would require the catching of vast amounts of fish and shellfish to feed them, putting further pressure on the planet's already threatened marine livestock.

More than half of the world’s seafood now comes from farms, and that percentage is projected to rise as the global population grows. How can the aquaculture industry ensure sustainability?

MAINE - Long-term cooperation between the state and the Island towns has been an effective way to manage the clam fishery on the island, according to a panel of diggers, a town official and researchers.

A new report explains how we can expand aquaculture so we can keep eating fish while rehabilitating our oceans.

Seafood is one of the most important food sources for the world’s seven billion people — for as many as three billion people, it is their primary source of protein. That significant demand is projected to rise as the population adds upward of two billion more people in the next 30 years.

When a 757.8 pound swordfish was caught off the Florida Keys in late March, some wondered: why let it struggle for 8 hours?

Hatcheries release over a billion juvenile salmon into the Gulf of Alaska each year, and recently, fishermen, scientists and interest groups have been fighting about the impacts of all of those fish.

East Coast fishery managers last week took the first steps toward cutting the striped bass harvest 17 percent next year to help end overfishing of the popular species, which has been in decline for years.

This year’s 190 million spawning females doesn’t reach that “healthy” level, but it’s still 29% above last year and the fifth largest number since the survey began.

Oysters got attention from lawmakers this year in both Maryland and Virginia, but the issue sparked bitter debates in Annapolis.

BOSTON — If ever there was a topic that might easily lend itself to bipartisan agreement in Massachusetts it would be lobster, the tasty crustacean that’s long been both a staple of New England cuisine and a vital part of the region’s economy.

DURHAM, N.C.—Tropical and subtropical fish are taking up residence on shipwrecks and other sunken structures off the North Carolina coast. This pattern may continue or even accelerate in coming years given predictions of warming oceans under climate change, a new study co-led by Duke University scientists suggests.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — More California sea lions preying on imperiled salmon in the Columbia River below a hydroelectric project on the Oregon-Washington border are being killed under a revised policy, federal authorities said Friday.

The Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership claims that the 84-turbine offshore wind project soon to be developed by Vineyard Wind lacks scientific backing and will inevitably harm the local ecology and way of life for fishermen and boaters.

Myanmar has lost 80 percent of its original mangrove cover; much of what remains is located in the southern province of Tanintharyi. But in addition to illegal logging of mangroves for charcoal and firewood, aquaculture is a recent development that also threatens mangrove ecosystems.

A salmon-farming operation will pay $332,000 in fines for releasing a quarter-million Atlantic salmon into the northern Puget Sound when one of its floating pens collapsed in August 2017.

If southern flounder live in warmer water during a critical window of early development, a higher percentage become male—more than 90 percent in some cases—research from North Carolina State University found. Having a high proportion of adult males over the long term could threaten both wild populations and the valuable commercial fishing industry, which depends on larger female flounder.

Coastkeeper and local fishermen cast a wary eye

New rules dictate non-retention until July 15

Pacific Northwesterners are undeniably fond of their endangered resident killer whales. Many locals are also fans of salmon fishing, a hobby that sustains charter fishing fleets in coastal harbors from Neah Bay, Washington, to Brookings, Oregon.

FORT MONROE - In an attempt to get ahead of pending changes to striped bass regulations, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to cancel the upcoming spring trophy season in the Chesapeake Bay.

Omega Protein says it won't be hurt by a new law that blocks it from fishing for menhaden in New York state waters in order to preserve the forage fish for whales and other wildlife because it never goes there.

It’s official- there won’t be a trophy rockfish season in Virginia this spring. Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) has voted unanimously to enact an emergency closure because of worrisome new research about the striped bass population on the Bay.

Salmon catches on Scotland’s rivers fell to their lowest level since records began last year, sparking calls for the preservation of the species to become a national priority.

Atlantic Puffins, those charismatic little seabirds with wildly colorful bills, are warning us of big trouble in the ocean. Puffins now must travel further and dive deeper to find the tiny fish their chicks need to survive. Even so, Puffin parents increasingly are coming up short and last year many chicks starved.

Seafood farming in the ocean—or marine aquaculture—is the fastest growing sector of the global food system, and it shows no sign of slowing. Open-ocean farms have vast space for expansion, and consumer demand continues to rise.