April 2013 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 11. MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS
NOAA Fisheries Announces Intentions on At-Sea Monitoring
We know the cost of at-sea monitoring remains a serious concern for the groundfi sh industry given the condition of stocks and commensurate low quotas for next fi shing year. We recognize this will be an excep- tionally diffi cult year for fi shermen so we are working on a plan to cover as much of these costs as possible at NOAA. While this is our intent, we cannot defi nitively commit to this because of the high degree of uncertainty due to the potential effects of sequestration and the lack of a FY13 budget. We are projecting that if effort goes down next year, NOAA will be able to fund at-sea monitoring in the groundfi shery. If effort remains the same, NOAA will fund at-sea monitoring but can only do this by using funds currently slated for research to develop electronic monitoring in the North- east. This funding choice may delay this important effort. We understand that fi shermen need to be able to plan for how much of the mon- itoring costs they are expected to pay next year. That is why we are communicating our intentions at this time despite the signifi cant budget uncertainty the agency currently faces. Sequestration or other major changes which might be enacted in the FY13 budget could signifi cantly reduce our ability to cover all of these monitoring costs. This will not apply to certain exemp- tions requested by sectors that require 100 percent at-sea monitoring coverage. NOAA is working to ensure that there is a way for fi shing operations to obtain and pay for re- quired monitoring this coming fi shing year, as well as in the future as monitoring costs are transitioned to the industry.
For more information, please contact
Maggie Mooney-Seus;
marjorie.mooney-
seus@noaa.gov; 774 392 4865
ASMFC Begins Preparations for North- ern Shrimp Benchmark Stock Assess- ment
This spring, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will begin work on the 2013 benchmark stock assessment for northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis). The assessment will be used to evaluate the health of the northern shrimp stock and inform the management of this species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confi dential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room.
The Commission welcomes the sub- mission of data sources that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on commercial landings and discards, catch per unit effort, biological samples (length, stage, frequen- cy), and life history information (growth, maturity, fecundity, spawning stock biomass weights, natural mortality). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by April 22, 2013. The Data Workshop will be conducted on May 1-3, 2013 (location to be deter- mined). This workshop will review all avail- able data sources for northern shrimp and identify data sets that will be incorporated in the stock assessment. For those interested in submitting data and/or attending the north- ern shrimp data workshop (space is limited), please contact Dr. Katie Drew, ASMFC Stock Assessment Scientist, at kdrew@
asmfc.org or 703.842.0740. The deadline for data submission is April 22, 2013. For more information, please contact
Michael Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at
mwaine@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
NOAA report fi nds commercial and
recreational saltwater fi shing generated $199 billion in 2011
U.S. commercial and recreational salt-
water fi shing generated more than $199 bil- lion in sales and supported 1.7 million jobs in the nation’s economy in 2011, according to a new economic report released by NOAA’s Fisheries Service. The report, Fisheries Economics of the United States 2011, is published annually on a two-year lag to allow data collection, analysis, and peer review. It provides eco- nomic statistics on U.S. commercial and recreational fi sheries and marine-related businesses for each coastal state and the nation. Key to the report are the economic effects--jobs, sales, income, and value added to Gross National Product--of the com- mercial and recreational fi shing industries. “Economic impact” measures how sales in each sector ripple throughout the state and national economy as each dollar spent generates additional sales by other fi rms and consumers.
The seafood industry—harvesters, seafood processors and dealers, seafood wholesalers and retailers—generated $129
billion in sales impacts, $37 billion in in- come impacts and supported 1.2 million jobs in 2011, the most recent year included in the report. Recreational fi shing generated $70 billion in sales impacts, $20 billion in income impacts, and supported 455,000 jobs in 2011. Compared to 2010, the numbers are up for all of these impacts except commer- cial seafood sales.
“Commercial and recreational fi shing are integral parts of the nation’s social and economic fabric,” said Sam Rauch, deputy assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service.
The annual report also breaks down the sales impacts, income impacts and job fi gures for each coastal state. The fi ve states that generated the most jobs from fi shing in 2011 were California, Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, and Alaska. The states with the most growth in the number of com- mercial fi shing jobs compared to 2010 were Alabama (76 percent, net increase of 4,743 jobs), Mississippi (45 percent, net increase of 1,722 jobs), Oregon (32 percent, net in- crease of 4,483 jobs), Louisiana (29 percent, net increase of 7,272 jobs), and Alaska (17 percent, net increase of 9,288 jobs). The greatest portion of the nation’s landings revenue generated by the com- mercial fi shing industry was in Alaska ($1.9 billion), followed by Massachusetts ($433 million), and Maine ($381 million).
Continued to Page 12.
124
prexar.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32