The Fish Site

Decisions on designating Marine Conservation Zones around the UK will be made in the autumn and will only be made on strong scientific evidence, writes Chris Harris.

This was the message from the British fisheries minister Richard Benyon (pictured) at the Shellfish Association of Great Britain annual conference in London on Tuesday.

Mr Benyon indicated that not all of the 127 prospective zones that had been identified around the shores of the UK would be finally legally designated.

He said that the Marine Conservation Zones are part of the wider agenda of the development of coastal conservati0on and the development of the marine and fishing industries, which includes marine management and planning, licensing, the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and environmental management.

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National Geographic

Smart fisheries management is a great place to start a conversation about putting the ocean at the center of the world’s biggest challenges.  This is because the most profitable type of fishing is sustainable fishing – better management helps fishermen and the ocean at the same time.

Sustainable fishing means keeping enough fish in the water to reproduce and ensure a bountiful catch in the future. It’s a balancing act, but sustainable fisheries are in everyone’s best interest – from fishermen to distributors to gear manufacturers to retailers to consumers. If you’re a fisherman and you want to pass on your traditions to the next generation, or you want to be able to make good money 10 years from now, the most profitable way to fish is sustainably.

Unfortunately, overfishing due to poor fisheries management remains a global problem that threatens ecosystem health and human survival. For example, without enough forage fish—small fish like anchovies, sardines, and squid—the larger predators, like tuna, that feed on them will start to disappear as well.

That matters because we are facing a future with 9 billion people on the planet, and with that future comes huge concerns for food security.  There is no way we can sustainably provide protein to that many people without fixing fisheries management around the world.

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The University of British Columbia

Climate change has been impacting global fisheries for the past four decades by driving species towards cooler, deeper waters, according to University of British Columbia scientists.

In a Nature study published this week, UBC researchers used temperature preferences of fish and other marine species as a sort of “thermometer” to assess effects of climate change on the worlds oceans between 1970 and 2006.

They found that global fisheries catches were increasingly dominated by warm-water species as a result of fish migrating towards the poles in response to rising ocean temperatures.

“One way for marine animals to respond to ocean warming is by moving to cooler regions,” says the study’s lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at UBC’s Fisheries Centre. “As a result, places like New England on the northeast coast of the U.S. saw new species typically found in warmer waters, closer to the tropics.

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The Miami Herald

Red snapper, one of the most popular fish in the Gulf of Mexico, are the biggest and most plentiful in years, but the red snapper season in federal waters keeps getting shorter.

On Tuesday, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rejected the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council’s request for a 22-day recreational season across the Gulf Coast rather than seasons varying by state.

This year’s federal recreational season is nine days off of Louisiana, 12 for Texas, 21 for Florida and 28 for Mississippi and Alabama. Those spans were set to give anglers across the Gulf an equal chance, because seasons in state waters vary widely, regional administrator Roy E. Crabtree wrote in a letter.

Texas keeps its waters open year-round. Louisiana’s 88-day season runs every weekend from March 23 through Sept. 30 – though it can be cut short if the quota is filled earlier. Louisiana also lets anglers keep three red snapper rather than the federal limit of two. Florida has a 44-day season starting June 1. Mississippi and Alabama matched the federal season.

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The Fish Site

New scientific analysis from environmental organization WWF reveals recovery of European fish stocks will take more than 100 years under current proposals by EU Fisheries Ministers.

“No law can end overfishing in one fell swoop but Ministers appear to be actively sidelining stock recovery”, says Roberto Ferrigno, WWF’s Common Fisheries Policy project coordinator.

“For the sake of fishermen, coastal communities and the health of our oceans, Ministers must set targets for the fastest possible recovery. 100 years plus is too long.”

Two out of three fish stocks in European waters are considered overfished. Ambitious reform of Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) could reverse this situation over the next 10 years. But core elements of the reform package relating to discards, subsidies and stock recovery are under dispute, and negotiations between the European Parliament and Fisheries Ministers over what shape future EU fishing laws should take, may collapse.

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FIS

The Bristol Bay, Alaska commercial salmon fishery is the world’s most valuable wild salmon fishery and in total produces an astounding annual value of USD 1.5 billion, according to a new report, “The Economic Importance of the Bristol Bay Salmon Industry”.

The fishery supports a significant number of jobs in the four West Coast states, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, and the total value of Bristol Bay salmon product exports in 2010 was about USD 370 million, accounting for nearly 20% of the total value of all US seafood exports.

Written by researchers at the University of Alaska’s Institute for Social and Economic Research, the report marks the first time the full value and impact of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery has been measured.

The report was released during a phone conference last week that included Deadliest Catch Captain Johnathan Hillstrand , who said: “For everyone who counts on the salmon industry to make a living, the Pebble project (a mineral exploration project in the Bristol Bay) is the Deadliest Mine. The only people who want this mine don’t live in Alaska or even the United States. They’re foreign mining companies that want to sell gold and copper to the Chinese.”

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The Working Waterfront

Will the fish come back? Will the fish make it to their spawning grounds?

These are the questions on the minds of fisheries biologists and river advocates this time of year, as they pay close attention to dam removals and other restoration efforts on streams and rivers.

Many of these restoration projects began decades ago and focused sharply on the endangered Atlantic salmon, but scientific perspective has widened to the entire complex of sea-run or diadromous fish that move between salt and fresh water, in order to restore the complete ecology of coastal watersheds.

Recently, another group of people have been watching, too: commercial fishermen, oceanographers and marine biologists who suspect that restoring populations of smaller sea-run fish like alewives and rainbow smelt will benefit ocean fish like cod.

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Washington Post

When President Obama dined with Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto this month at the Mexican leader’s official residence, the meal started with “laminas de atun,” thin slices of tuna.

The appetizer was not a surprising choice. Mexico has tried to get its yellowfin tuna on American plates for decades. Its fishermen are essentially frozen out of the lucrative U.S. market because they catch tuna with a method that has led to the demise of millions of dolphins, and falls below a standard U.S. officials set as “dolphin safe.”

But in recent months, Mexico has made progress in convincing the world that it is being treated unfairly because the U.S. tuna fishing regulation is not applied uniformly.

Mexico’s challenge is an attempt to increase its $7.5 million share of a U.S. tuna import market worth more than a half-billion dollars. But it also raises questions for U.S. consumers about whether the tuna they eat is truly “dolphin safe” — not sold at the expense of a mammal Americans cherish.

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FIS

For more than 200 years, the catch of important fish such as cod,bass, sardines, salmon, and oysters and clams has helped America build ports, communities, and industries. These historic fisheries contributed not only to the nation’s food supply but also to its economy, culture, and trade, according to the Pew Environment Group.

Individual states regulated local fishing fleets, but their authority generally ended three miles from shore, far enough to oversee coastal fishing. The federal government had more pressing concerns than policing the millions of square miles where fishermen, frigate birds, and whales plied the waters.

Prosperity after World War II ushered in a golden age for America’s commercial and recreational fishermen. The former had a hungry nation to feed and faced few competitors as the world recovered from the conflict.

But America was not the only place where the engines of technology thrust fishing into the 20th century and far beyond nearshore waters. Bigger, faster, more powerful foreign factory ships arrived by the hundreds and began emptying the ocean’s larders off US shores.

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The Los Angeles Times

Two federal agencies on Friday announced a major review of how seismic testing for oil and gas deposits affects marine mammals and fish in deep waters off the Gulf of Mexico.

So-called seismic surveys entail blasts from air guns or other ship-borne devices that send out powerful sound waves that reflect the shape and extent of oil and gas fields under the ocean floor. Industry officials say the practice is necessary for efficient, safe exploration in deep seas.

The testing has long been controversial. Environmental groups have taken companies connected to the tests to court many times, contending that the blasts cause hearing loss in whales and other protected species.

In addition, scientists have observed avoidance behaviors among marine mammals and fish during testing, which can take place over weeks.

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