THE STATE OF MAINE'S BOATING NEWSPAPER Volume 27 Issue 12 December 2014 Top Ports - Addendem Drafts and Approvals - Shrimp Closure - Cod Stock - Federal Funds for Herring - Tuna Commercial Fishing News
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The lobster boat SHIELA MARIE sitting on her mooring at Center Harbor, Brooklin.
NOAA report fi nds 2013 U.S. seafood landings and value increased from 2012 Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and New Bedford, Mass., remain top fi shing ports; landings of wild salmon set new record In its annual report, Fisheries of the United States 2013, released today, NOAA Fisheries announced that U.S. fi shermen landed 9.9 billion pounds of fi sh and shell- fi sh, an increase of 245 million pounds from 2012. Valued at $5.5 billion, these landings represent an increase of $388 million from 2012.
“Commercial and recreational fi shing are important contributors to our economy and help create jobs throughout our nation’s communities,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “Working with our partners, the regional fi shery management councils, and the fi sh- ing industry, we’ve made great strides on ending overfi shing and are working toward building resilient, healthy and sustainable fi sh and shellfi sh stocks.”
The report shows that while national
total of fi sh and shellfi sh landings remained about the same, total landings of wild salm- on topped one billion pounds, setting a new record, up 68 percent from 2012. The report also shows that for the 17th consecutive year, the Alaska port of Dutch Harbor led the nation with the highest amount of seafood landed, primarily walleye pollock. Dutch Harbor fi shers landed 753 million pounds
valued at $197 million.
For the 14th consecutive year, New Bedford, Massachusetts, had the highest valued catch--130 million pounds, valued at $379 million--due mostly to the highly valued sea scallop fi shery. Sea scallops accounted for more than 81 percent of the value of New Bedford landings. Figures for recreational fi shing activ- ities remained strong. Nearly 9.5 million recreational saltwater anglers in the United States took more than 71 million marine fi shing trips in 2013 and caught more than 430 million fi sh, of which, 61 percent were released alive.
Spotted seatrout was the top catch for recreational anglers, with 38 million fi sh caught in 2013. Atlantic croaker, black sea bass, summer fl ounder and red drum were the other most common catches for saltwater anglers.
Marine aquaculture production in the U.S. has been increasing steadily in recent years, about 10 percent a year from 2008 to 2012, the latest fi gures available. The top U.S. marine aquaculture species are oysters ($136 million), clams ($99 million), and Atlantic salmon ($77 million).
The report also shows that the average American ate 14.5 pounds of fi sh and shell- fi sh in 2013, essentially unchanged from 2012.
ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup, Black
Sea Bass Board Initiates Draft Adden- dum to Address 2015 Summer Flounder Recreational Fishery
Mystic, CT – The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Man- agement Board initiated the development of Draft Addendum XXVI to the Summer Flounder Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The Draft Addendum will propose alternate regional management approaches for the 2015 recreational summer fl ounder fi shery to continue to improve equity in recreational harvest opportunities along the coast. The Draft Addendum will include options to allow for the averaging of harvest estimates, mandatory regions, and the sharing of un- used quota. Draft Addendum XXVI is initiated to continue the use of regional management to harvest the coastwide recreational harvest limit for summer fl ounder. In 2014, the Board approved Addendum XXV which provided a shift away from state-by-state harvest targets used in previous years. Regional management allowed for the use of the same management measures within regions, as well as more similar management measures between regions. State-by-state harvest targets created diffi culties for some states as overages occurred due largely to state shares and limits not refl ecting local abundance of summer flounder and its availability to recreational fi shermen. State targets were based solely upon the 1998
C o n t e n t s
Publisher's Note Calendar of Events
Les Thurston Obituary C. W. Hood
BlueJacket Shipcrafters
4 4 4 5 6
Apprenticeshop News U. S. Navy News
Waterfront News Maine Maritime News Two Fish Passage Projects 9 10
6 7
Penobscot Marine Museum Grant 10 Commercial Fishing News
DELA Director Report
Misc. Commercial Fishing News Boat Yard News
11 13 14
COMANCHE Sets Sail DELA Membership
Maritime History
History from the Past Classifi ed Ads
24 26-31
15 23
estimate of harvest from the Marine Recre- ational Fishery Statistics Survey. The 2014 management regions are: Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut-New Jersey; Delaware-Virginia; and North Carolina. The Board appointed new members to its Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Advisory Panel. At the Commission’s Summer Meeting in August 2014, the Board moved to consolidate the individual advisory panels for each of the three species into one group. This action was prompted by recent declines in participation and engagement of advisory panel members. Commission staff will continue to work closely with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council as it repopulates its Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Advisory Panel with the intent of improving meeting effi ciencies and cost, and coordination of the two advisory panels.
Draft Addendum XXVI will be pre- sented to the Board for its consideration and approval for public comment at its joint De- cember meeting with the Council in Balti- more, Maryland. At this meeting, the Board and Council will also consider management measures for 2015 black sea bass fi shery. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at
krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
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