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.

Hatch is aiming to boost aquaculture startup community.

Seldom if ever has a more than two-year-old op-ed in an Alaska newspaper attracted the kind of attention the Alaska House Resources Committee on Monday night devoted to the jottings of retired Anchorage Superior Court Judge Karl Johnstone.

If the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador really threw its back into it, it could be producing more than five times its current volume of Atlantic salmon and exceed 100,000 metric tons annually by 2030, topping even British Columbia, says a report released this week.

Consideration of a bill that would establish a task force to study aquaculture sustainability across Maine evolved on Tuesday into a familiar squabble.

Rohnert Park, Ca. – The Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast, and achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast.

WASHINGTON (CN) – A federal judge upheld a rule Monday that opens up a portion of the western Gulf of Maine to commercial and recreational fishing for the first time.

Along the Cedar River, salmon-recovery advocates are ready to restore a huge area of chinook habitat where it is needed most, in an urban area that provides food for the starving southern-resident killer whales in Puget Sound.

As the fastest growing food production sector in the world, aquaculture accounts for 50 percent of the world’s fish consumption. According to a recent analysis, the aquaculture market was valued at $176 billion in 2017, with an annual growth of 5.8 percent.

(CN) – Pacific sardines, the small, oily fish favored by salmon, baleen whales and toothed whales, have had their population collapsed by 98 percent since 2006, according to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which on Friday formerly declared the West Coast population overfished.

(CN) – The first in a series of bills intended to help prevent the extinction of Southern Resident killer whales is headed to the desk of Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee. The measure, which Inslee requested, would protect habitat for the Chinook salmon the whales eat.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance is pleased to inform the Georgia shrimp industry that $1.062m in financial assistance has been made available to address the 2013 Georgia shrimp fishery disaster. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the funding in a March 27, 2019 press release.

In 2018 and again during the recent legislative session, the General Assembly passed significant legislation regarding the management of oysters (“Maryland General Assembly overrides Hogan’s veto of oyster sanctuaries bill,” April 8).

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana has encouraged South Africans to support the ABALOBI app that tells the story behind the fish on their plates.

Florida Representative a co-sponsor of forward-thinking legislation to benefit coastal fisheries.

Red snapper are without question the poster-children of coastal fishing in Alabama, generating tens of millions in charter fees, lots more in fish market and restaurant sales, and drawing thousands of anglers to the coast to pump up resort and motel income.

The global farmed shrimp industry has an estimated production volume around four million metric tons (MT), and has become one of the biggest consumers of fishmeal in the aquaculture sector. This has put pressure on aquafeed manufacturers to find suitable alternative ingredients that do not affect the health or growth rates of the shrimp.

Canadian lobster fishermen respond to remarks accusing them of undermining conservation efforts

New approach will deliver more timely, actionable data on changing ocean conditions.

My Postdoctoral research has focused on understanding the causes and consequences of public misunderstanding about shark fisheries management. While scientists overwhelmingly support sustainable fisheries management as a solution to shark overfishing, many concerned citizens and conservation activists prefer total bans on all shark fishing and trade. Some go so far as to (wrongly) claim that sustainable shark fisheries cannot exist even in theory and do not exist in practice anywhere in the world, and that bans are the only possible solution.

The Great Barrier Reef shark control program has been suspended after a tribunal ruled sharks found alive on drumlines must be released, ending a 60-year program designed to protect swimmers.

BOSTON — Federal fishing regulators say they're reducing the quota for a small species of shark that is fished commercially off the East Coast.

The boom times for the U.S. lobster industry are imperiled this year because of a shortage of a little fish that has been luring the crustaceans into traps for hundreds of years.

Two years ago, Markos Scheer was sitting pretty. He had a comfortable job working as an attorney at the Williams, Kastner & Gibbs law firm, representing seafood companies and fishermen that operated from California to the Bering Sea. His family was living quite happily in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

None of the members of the Alaska Senate Community and Regional Affairs committee lives near the sea, but at a hearing last week they were not impressed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s plan to pull millions of dollars in fish taxes from remote coastal towns.

Regulators are taking comments on plans to expand a lucrative new crab fishery that’s stirring interest in the Gulf of Maine.

The red tide algae bloom plaguing Southwest Florida hasn’t hit the Florida Keys. And Hurricane Irma happened more than a year ago.

The U.S. Department of Commerce allocated $20 million to help tribes, communities, fishermen, and businesses affected by commercial fishery failures that occurred in Georgia, California, Oregon, and Washington between 2013 and 2017.

State lawmakers are attempting to jumpstart the local bivalve aquaculture industry—but not everybody is celebrating.

California - A settlement announced Tuesday between fishers, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity will bring an April 15 close to the Dungeness crab season statewide, three months earlier than it usually ends.

EDISTO ISLAND, South Carolina — Everyone here loves oysters. At least, that’s the impression that came across Tuesday during a public hearing, as resident after resident said they were huge fans of one of the Lowcountry’s most iconic products.

Federal energy and ocean officials signed a formal agreement with commercial fishing advocates to work together on planning for offshore wind energy development.

Florida State University has received $8 million to study how to revive the Apalachicola Bay.

Washington, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kelly ruled March 21 that the North Pacific Council’s Amendment 113 (A113) to the Bering Sea Groundfish Fisheries Management Plan does not comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) requirements.

On the heels of the Maine Department of Marine Resource’s announcement that the lobster industry topped USD 484 million (EUR 426 million) in value in 2018, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association was discussing the multiple outside factors that could make 2019 a difficult year for fishermen.

New management schemes needed to maintain stocks in fisheries worldwide -- A new paper by an international team of researchers argues that decision-makers and fishing organizations must recognize the growing role of recreational fishing and the potential pressures it places on fish stocks.

For environmental conflict and political drama, it’s hard to beat fishing. Almost all the fish consumed by developed countries comes from industrial fisheries, which generate not just a lot of revenue, but controversy over their impact, such as accidentally harming seabirds or scraping the sea floor. Meanwhile, recreational fishing usually escapes notice. Although it also has a large impact, both environmental and economic, amateur fishing is often ignored by regulators or swept under the same kind of rules as commercial fishing.

There are roughly five times as many recreational fishers as commercial fishers throughout the world. And yet, the needs and peculiarities of these recreational fishers have largely been ignored in international fisheries and conservation policy.

Three members of the state’s Congressional delegation — U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy — have announced that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will be recommending changes to the management plan for summer flounder that will dramatically increase the quota for the state’s commercial fishermen.

The ocean off the West Coast is shifting from several years of unusually warm conditions, toward a cooler and more productive regime that may boost salmon returns and populations of other ocean predators, according to a new NOAA Fisheries report.

When the herring finally disappear, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s cod fishery, once one of the most lucrative in the Northeast, has declined to the point that it had its least valuable year in more than a half-century in 2018.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted three alternative season structures for 2019 ocean salmon fisheries off of Washington, Oregon and California today, Tuesday, March 12, 2019 for public review. The Council will make a final decision on salmon seasons at its meeting in Rohnert Park, California, on April 11-15.

SEATTLE—The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is taking a fresh look at whether new fishing restrictions are needed to help prevent the extinction of endangered southern resident killer whales that frequent Puget Sound.

A Florida commercial and charter fisherman has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges and faces 10 days in jail over a video that shows him dragging a shark behind his boat at a high speed. The video went viral in the summer of 2017.

For the first time, famed music and culture festival South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, featured a panel on aquaculture dubbed “The Future of Food: Aquaculture” on 11 March.

Lobstermen’s Association president says fish devour young lobsters, calls for quota boost.

Developers of the fast-growing genetically engineered salmon first started the approval process with the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1995. In 2019, we are a bit closer to having the option of buying this fish for ourselves, as the FDA clears the final regulatory hurdle to allow sale of AquAdvantage salmon.

Ocean conditions are improving for salmon entering the ocean this year, several years after The Blob, an unusually warm water event that began forming in 2014, scientists announced Friday.

One out of five seafood samples taken from across the country, including Kansas, Missouri and Colorado, are mislabeled. That’s according to a study by Oceana, a nonprofit organization that promotes marine conservation.

Project builds on research that developed soy-based feeds for tuna aquaculture.

R.I. Fishery Advisory Board chairman doesn’t like settlement.

With the majority of American lobsters caught in Maine, the state's lobster fishermen could bear the brunt of changes in federal fishery regulations to save the endangered right whale.

Matagorda County Commissioners approve a proclamation in support of legislation to enable oyster mariculture in the Texas coastal waters.

MONROE, La. (The News-Star) - (3/3/19) According to our partners at The News-Star, the oyster dressing is safe this year. Since the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, 4 billion to 8.3 billion subtidal oysters were estimated to be lost across the Gulf coast. Many states are struggling.

MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – Scientists and conservationists are reporting the return of spawning coho salmon to the upper reaches of a tributary of Big River, thanks to a four-year habitat restoration project led by Mendocino Land Trust in partnership with California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Jackson Demonstration State Forest.

Texas has one of the largest coastlines in the nation, but it is the only coastal state that does not have an organized commercial oyster farming industry.

If any doubt existed that Alabama has the best artificial reef program in the world, Chris Blankenship made an emphatic declaration last week that Alabama’s artificial reefs are unparalleled anywhere on the planet.