Page 12. MAINE COASTAL NEWS January 2015


Distribution of Fish on the Northeast U.S. Shelf Infl uenced by both Fishing and Climate


Commercial Fishing News MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS


Scientists studying the distribution of four commercial and recreational fi sh stocks in Northeast U.S. waters have found that cli- mate change can have major impacts on the distribution of fi sh, but the effects of fi shing can be just as important and occur on a more immediate time scale.


The four species studied– black sea bass, scup, summer fl ounder, and southern New England/Mid-Atlantic Bight winter fl ounder – have varied in abundance and have experienced heavy fi shing pressure at times over the past 40 years. Scientists examined the distribution of the four species using Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) research trawl survey data col- lected between 1972 and 2008. Generalized additive models were used to determine if the distributions of the four species had changed over time, and if these changes refl ect changes in temperature or fi shing pressure.


The researchers found that black sea bass, scup, and summer fl ounder exhibited signifi cant poleward shifts in distribution in at least one season. The shifts in black sea bass and scup were related to temperature, while the shift in summer fl ounder was related to a decrease in fi shing pressure and an expansion of the population age structure. The southern New England/Mid-Atlantic Bight stock of winter fl ounder showed no change in distribution.


“The study combined a range of re- sources at the Center, long-term oceano- graphic data and trawl survey data,” said Richard Bell, who is a National Research Council research associate working at the


NEFSC’s Narragansett Laboratory in Rhode Island and lead author of the study. “Using these data, we demonstrated how a combi- nation of fi shing and climate can infl uence the distribution of marine fi sh. It is not one or the other.”


Increasing ocean temperatures have


signifi cantly affected marine life, inducing shifts in distribution and changes in abun- dance. Climate change alters the distribution of suitable habitats, forcing organisms to move to a more favorable area of their range or attempt to survive under less than ideal conditions. Fishing reduces the abundance of marine populations and truncates their size and age structure, which can lead to range contractions or shifts.


Fishing typically removes the larger


fi sh from a population. Larger, older summer fl ounder are typically found further north, and as exploitation reduced the numbers of summer fl ounder in the 1980s and 1990s, larger fi sh were preferentially harvested by the fi shery. The remaining summer fl ounder population, dominated by smaller fi sh, sub- sequently became centered further south. The northward shift of the stock in recent decades was linked to an increase in the number of larger, older fi sh as the population has rebuilt. “The fi sh were not shifting northward with warmer conditions, but simply re-colo- nizing their former habitat areas,” said Bell. Northerly shifts in scup and black sea bass are linked to increases in temperature and are more tied to climate than fi shing. The study suggests multiple factors


specifi c to individual species need to be considered when developing management regulations for living marine resources. The management of each of the four species an-


alyzed in this study is based on spatial allo- cations, and shifts in stock distributions can cause a mismatch between the distribution of fi sh and the catch allocations for different regions and states.


Findings from the study were published online in the ICES Journal of Marine Sci- ence


Federal Government Response to Call to Action an Important First Step To- ward Atlantic Salmon Restoration


St Andrews, N.B—The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is welcoming the an- nouncement in Miramichi City by the Hon- ourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), that the federal government will set up an advisory committee made up of members from the four Atlantic Prov- inces, Quebec and First Nations to address the serious decline in wild Atlantic salmon numbers.


“ASF appreciates the quick action by Minister Shea in response to the call to action that we issued in cooperation with the Mi- ramichi Salmon Association in September,” said ASF President Bill Taylor who spoke at the media event in Miramichi City. “Our call came toward the end of the season, when we realized salmon runs during 2014 had declined to a crisis state.”


The average number of salmon returns to the Miramichi River has declined rapidly from 82,000 annually in the 1990s to 53,000 in the fi rst decade of this century, to 23,000 a year since 2011. Preliminary numbers from DFO indicate even further declines in 2014. As this is a situation experienced on many rivers throughout Atlantic Canada and Quebec, ASF also appreciates the broad- based approach that will include consulta- tions in all areas, as well as the opportunity for concerned groups and citizens to provide written submissions.


The Committee is slated to meet a minimum of four times between February and June 2015 in preparation for its advice on approaches to stem the decline of wild Atlantic salmon throughout eastern Canada. ASF is hopeful that the Advisory Committee will recommend precautionary management measures that the Government of Canada can implement in time for the 2015 season. “Short-term actions and measures need to be taken before the salmon runs begin next summer, but there are also long-term investments that need to be made,” said Taylor. “Wild Atlantic salmon are extreme- ly important environmentally, socially and culturally to the people of eastern Canada.” A Gardner Pinfold report estimated the total economic value for wild Atlantic salmon in 2010 at $255 million, with the recreational fi shery alone worth nearly $130 million, supporting nearly 4,000 full-time equivalent jobs.


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For more on the situation in Miramichi, please click on the link below to read Voices from the Valley, written by Martin Silver- stone, Editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal. Voices from the Valley centres around the people who are in the business of fl y fi shing for wild Atlantic salmon. It was published in the recent winter 2014 issue of the Atlantic Salmon Journal: http://asf.ca/voices-of- the-valley-in-winter-14-asj.html


ASMFC Releases Summer Flounder Draft Addendum XXVI for Public Comment & Approves Continuation of Ad-Hoc Regional Management Approaches for 2015 Black Sea Bass Recreational Fishery The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries


Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Draft Addendum XXVI for public comment at the Joint Commission/


Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Baltimore, Maryland earlier this month. Draft Addendum XXVI proposes alternate management approaches for the 2015 summer fl ounder recreational fi shery, including regional management options that are intended to provide more equity in recreational harvest opportunities along the coast. The states of Massachusetts through Virginia will be conducting public hearings on the Draft Addendum throughout January. The details of those hearings follow:


Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries


January 8, 2015 at 6 PM


Bourne Fire Station #3, Meeting Room 53 Meetinghouse Lane Sagamore, Massachusetts Contact: David Pierce at 617. 626.1532


Draft Addendum XXVI was initiated to consider the continuation of the adaptive regional management approach for the rec- reational summer fl ounder as established in Addendum XXV, which allowed for the use of regional management for the 2014 fi shing season only. Regional management measures required states within a region to utilize the same size limit, bag limit, and sea- son length. Addendum XXV was developed to address a growing concern that summer fl ounder management measures prior to 2014 were not providing recreational fi sher- men along the coast with equitable harvest opportunities to the resource. Its adaptive re- gional management approach was designed to allow the management program to adjust to past, current, and future changes to the resource and the fi shery. Under the provisions of Addendum


XXV, the Board also approved the con- tinuation of ad-hoc regional management approaches for the 2015 recreational black sea bass fi shery. Addendum XXV allowed for the Board to extend the ad-hoc regional management measures by northern (Massa- chusetts-New Jersey) and southern regions (Delaware-North Carolina (north of Hat- teras)) utilized in 2014 for up to one year. This approach has been used since 2011 and offers some advantages over coastwide regulations, which can disproportionately impact states within the management unit. The Technical Committee will work with the states to develop regional management measures for Board consideration and ap- proval at the Commission Winter Meeting in early February. Under the stipulation that the northern region states implement man- agement measures to account for overages in previous years and constrain harvest to 2015 recreational harvest limit, the Board and Council approved federal waters man- agement measures for recreational black sea bass that include a 12.5-inch TL minimum size, a 15 fi sh possession limit, and an open season of May15-September 21 and October 22-December 31.


Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on Draft Ad- dendum XXVI either by attending state pub- lic hearings or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum is available at http:// www.asmfc.org/uploads/fi le/5499c682S- FlounderDraftAddendumXXVI_Pub- licComment_Dec2014.pdf and can also be accessed on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on January 23, 2015 and should be forwarded to Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Vir- ginia 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or at kro- otes-murdy@asmfc.org (Subject line: Draft Addendum XXVI). For more information,


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