Fisheries Roundtable: Marine Spatial Planning and Commercial Fisheries

The most recent Fisheries Roundtable, held on May 16^th from 6-8 pm at the Lane Public Library in Hampton, N.H., was the start of a conversation about the various uses of the ocean. Attendees — mostly fishermen — were asked to weigh in on their activities to help inform the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) about their marine spatial planning.

NROC is a Federally funded partnership started at the request of New England governors to provide a forum for agencies and states to discuss marine activities. The N.H. point person, Steve Couture from the N.H. Coastal Program at the Department of Environmental Services (N.H. DES), introduced himself and the NROC program. He said that NROCs goals are focused on improving the data available about various ocean uses and improving communications among the different user groups. Organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, N.H. Fish and Game, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other representatives for the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have met quarterly since 2005 as part of this council in New England, he explained.

NROC is gearing up for a multi-year effort to enhance data and science related to human activities and natural resources in New England’s marine waters. This work, an important first phase in the region’s ocean planning effort, includes working with commercial fishermen to use existing information and data to characterize commercial fishing in marine waters. NROC is similarly gearing up projects to work with the maritime commerce (ports and shipping), recreational boating, and energy industries to provide information (spatial and otherwise) related to those human uses.

Matt Magnusson, adjunct instructor at the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics, presented data about the economic, environmental and social indicators of the N.H. seafood industry. The economic data, gleaned from NOAA’s commercial landings records, included information about the total harvest value and weight of lobster, groundfish and all species combined.

Joshua Weirsma, manager for the N.H. groundfish sectors 11 and 12, spoke next about productivity changes, behavioral adaptations and the future of sector management as it pertains to ocean uses.

Weirsma conducted a survey in 2011 asking N.H. fishermen for their input regarding sectors. Of the respondents, approximately 75% strongly agreed that the additional reporting, oversight and monitoring are burdensome and costly. However, respondents noted that sectors do allow more flexibility in fishing, such as when and where they can fish and what types of gear they can use. 

“Fishermen (also) need flexibility in spatial planning to switch fishing areas or gear type,” said Ellen Goethel, marine educator and wife of Hampton, N.H. fisherman David Goethel. “If something gets built in an area between where fishermen traverse to get from one of their fishing areas to the next that will effectively force them to travel 100 miles out of their way, that will be a problem,” she said.

George LaPointe, a consultant in Maine who is contracted by NROC, discussed the need for accurate fishing location data from current-day fishing activities as well as previous locations fishermen may have used before various closures went into effect.

Simply basing the fishing activity on vessel monitoring system (VMS) data isn’t a good solution, LaPointe said. It’s difficult to distinguish between when a fishing vessel is simply in transit and when it is actively fishing just based on the VMS data—which only goes back perhaps 10 years anyway, he explained. It is far more effective to receive input directly from fishermen, particularly if they’ve been in the industry for a long time.

“NROCs job is the plan for future activities,” LaPointe explained. “Accurate maps are clearly important, so we’ll start will charts of fishing activity and improve on them. We’ll map these fishing sites without focusing on individuals for confidentiality issues.”

Erik Anderson, a fisherman out of Portsmouth, N.H., asked the bigger questions. “Who are your end user groups? What is your intent? Is this Federally motivated?” he asked. “These are my major concerns. Once we document our use, will our group activities be laid against other people’s activities?”

“The perception is that you are cutting up the ocean for different, competing uses,” he added. “So the message is beware of how you cooperate because it might come back to burn you.”

Couture explained that if a new wind farm is proposed, but there are no data maps about where fishermen fish, then NROC has to play catch-up later to hastily document it all before the wind farm is finished being built.

“When we don’t have the data about what you do and where, you lose,” LaPointe responded to Anderson. “Yes, there are other competing users. But this will put you in a better spot. We can’t guarantee that other people won’t say certain uses are more important than yours. Tradeoffs happen all the time, but we need the best data we can get.”

LaPointe added that it is not NROCs job to apply values, but rather to simply map the various ocean activities and uses.

Weirsma suggested that the map would be better if it was dynamic. “If you build something, there should be projections on the shift in fishing effort that might occur, how ecosystems will be impacted, where the fish will move to, where fishermen might move in response to the fish movements,” he said. “It might make other areas more valuable. Some areas might not be used as much, and it might make value judgment easier or better if you have these predictive qualities. The maps need to be dynamic to reflect those changes,” he added.

“The bottom line is that there are risks in participating and risks in not participating,” said Erik Chapman, fisheries extension specialist for N.H. Sea Grant. 

After the meeting officially ended, the conversation continued on the steps of the library. This is clearly just the beginning of the discussion about marine spatial planning, and constructive feedback will be a welcome part to this process in the upcoming years.

For more information about NROC, please visit: http://collaborate.csc.noaa.gov/nroc/default.aspx

Why fleet diversity?

Diversity of the fishing fleet has become an important topic in our fishing communities.  Fleet diversity is the range and distribution of boat sizes that are used by our fishermen.  A diverse fleet has both large and small fishing boats which some believe imposes less of an impact on our marine ecosystems and supports more resilient fishing communities.  It has been argued that a diverse fleet  allows for fishing pressure to be distributed through management in a manner that is more flexible and adaptable to the needs of the marine ecosystem.   It has also been suggested that diverse fishing communities are more resilient because they also better able to adapt to ecological and management variability. 

Sector management introduces a system to our groundfishermen that poses a threat to fleet diversity by  creating an economic playing field that benefits the larger boats.  Thus, the net effect of this system would be to consolidate our fishing fleet to just the larger boats.  New Hampshire fishermen are mainly day fishermen who fish using smaller boats primarily in nearshore water.   In Maine, smaller dayboat fishermen are also facing challenges.  See this video below, posted by the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance which demonstrates how Maine Fishermen are responding to these trends in our fisheries:

Fisheries Roundtable discussion: the Gulf of Maine cod "crisis"

It's enough to make your head spin. Maximum sustainable yield, fishing mortality rate, spawning stock biomass -- these are terms fisheries managers are intimately aware of, yet they seem so esoteric that it's difficult for the layperson to wade into the discussion. But the reality is this: local fishermen could be faced with drastic cuts in the number of cod they're allowed to catch (total allowable catch, or TAC), unless an act of Congress is passed. No, really: it would take an amendment of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), originally passed in 1976, reauthorized in 1996 and 2006, to soften the potential impacts to fishing communities throughout New England.

First, let's talk about background issues that are influencing the current management "crisis" in New England. The basis of all this, the MSA, has good intentions -- it is meant to preserve healthy populations of fish species in our oceans. From an ecological perspective, the MSA is a home-run on paper. The reality of its associated rules -- and thus impacts on fishermen's livelihoods -- gets a bit complicated.

Stock assessments help fisheries managers keep tabs on various stocks to see if they are considered overfished (i.e., is the population already too low?) and if overfishing is occurring (i.e., are fishermen harvesting too many right now to maintain healthy stock levels into the future?). A fish stock can be considered overfished but not be exposed to overfishing, meaning that although the population is very low, the fishing rate is also set low to prevent further impacts to the fishery.

So when a fish stock is considered overfished, new measures need to be put in place to help rebuild the fish populations. That means cuts in the number of fish that fishermen are allowed to catch (TAC). All these decisions are based on assessments and surveys of the current fish populations. Stock assessment computer models provide estimates of the number of fish and their biomass using a complicated algorithm that takes into account factors like how many fish die naturally each year (natural mortality), how many fish are captured by fishermen (fishing mortality), the number of young fish that will soon be large enough to capture in nets (recruitment), and various other indices.

Gulf of Maine cod and haddock experienced a population decline in the mid-1990s, and so the fishery was shut down for a number of years. Once it was reopened, New England fishermen worked hard to stick to the laws and help the population rebuild. So it was with a feeling of pride that scientists at the Groundfish Assessment Review Meeting (GARM III) in 2008 announced that the cod stock was rebuilding well, with an estimated 33,000 metric tonnes (mt) of cod in the Gulf of Maine. Data presented at the GARM also indicated there was a strong 2005 cod year class. These assumptions were based on computer model estimates and spring trawl surveys.

So fishery managers set the TAC limits accordingly. Fishermen followed these limits, and in fact only caught 84% of the limit in 2011 -- the first year of the catch share quota system, in which they were concerned about the staggering fines associated with overharvesting.

Then came news late last fall based on the 2011 stock assessment: the previous assessment in 2008 had dramatically overestimated the spawning stock biomass (SSB) -- it was closer to 14,000 mt than 33,000 mt -- and the 2005 year class was not nearly as strong as they thought. According to the 2011 stock assessment, the cod stock was considered overfished and overfishing was still occurring, requiring an end to the overfishing in two years and setting up a strict 10-year rebuilding plan. But the MSA doesn't include any protective measures for fishing communities. A wave of panic set in among the fishing industry, spurred by media headlines.

The most recent Fisheries Roundtable discussion, held on April 19th from 6-8 pm at the Portsmouth Public Library, focused on this issue. The goals of the meeting were to provide information about stock assessment and modeling, outline the current cod crisis, provide examples of alternatives to the current management system and to provide a forum for discussion about solutions to move forward. To meet these, goals, four speakers were invited to weigh in with their perspectives of the two very different stock assessments and their estimates.

Paul Rago, chief scientist of the Population Dynamics Branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said there is no "smoking gun" associated with the differences in populations estimates, such as an increase in cod predation, decreased forage fish populations, climate change impacts, unrecorded discards or landings.

Dr. Paul Rago, of the Notheast Fisheries Science Center

He said there will be a new Gulf of Maine stock assessment conducted this year, but no matter what they find, the bottom line is that cod populations won't be rebuilt by the 2014 deadline.

The 2011 assessment was developed with input from fishermen and scientists and was a peer-reviewed process. "These reviewers were not by any means wet behind the ears," Rago said. The assessment is considered to be an improvement due to more detailed meetings with the fishing industry, a complete review of historical data, and better accounting of total fish removals. This newer model is better able to deal with uncertainty in the data and provide what he says is a more accurate estimate.

The next speaker, David Goethel, a groundfisherman based out of Hampton, N.H. on the F/V Ellen Diane, said that despite being a member of the New England Fisheries Management Council -- the organization responsible for setting TAC to adhere to the MSA -- he spoke to the audience from a fisherman's perspective. "I feel the Council is between a rock and a hard place, with the rock being the MSA and the hard place being the devastation to fishing communities should these extreme (fishing) cuts take place," he said at the beginning of the presentation. "So we have two choices: Congress can amend the act, or we live with the cuts."

Captain David Goethel, FV Ellen-Diane, Hampton, NH

Goethel is quick to defend the scientists too, claiming that they have insufficient time and resources to fully investigate all the scientific issues involved in stock assessments to make accurate estimates.

"Stock assessment scientists are being rushed to set (fishing) limits too quickly, so we don't have the time to do things the right way," he said. He believes incorporating natural history aspects of the fishery --- such as fish behavior, bottom water temperatures, food availability and the like -- is critical to obtaining more accurate population estimates.

"We have become overly mathematic at the expense of actually studying the fishery," Goethel said. "Model estimates should be tested against common sense."

Goethel made an interesting case in comparing fish stock assessment models to weather models. Fisheries managers use only one model estimate on which they base their TAC decisions, and their decision based on the estimate is fixed for a period of time in management measures that fishermen must follow. Conversely, weather models predict numerous potential tracks where a storm could go, there is discussion about the options on how far the storm might veer from that track (called "uncertainty" in scientific terms), and the estimate evolves over time. If we applied the fishery model to weather, we might predict that a storm will head toward Nova Scotia when it ends up hitting downtown Manhattan instead, Goethel suggested.

Steve Cadrin, director for the NOAA/UMass Cooperative Marine Education and Research Program at the UMass/Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, put it a bit more simply: our science isn't perfect, but it's the best we have. However, he suggested that we should develop a management approach that acknowledges the limitations of that science that is currently available. He emphasized that the cod "crisis" isn't as much a population crisis as it is a management crisis.

 Dr. Steve Cadrin, UMass Dartmouth

"The current perception is that the 2008 assessment was wrong," Cadrin said. "This means that the population is not precipitously declining, but that it was just never that large to begin with."

"The crisis is not the result of irresponsible management, excessive fishing or a decline in the stock," he explained. "It results from the scientific uncertainty, infrequent stock assessments, an abrupt change in perception, a rapid stock rebuilding schedule and a poorly estimated rebuilding target."

While stock assessments are definitely useful for estimating stock status (overfished, overfishing) they are less well-suited for establishing catch limits -- which happens to be their current use. Cadrin suggested evaluating the performance of other types of models, perhaps not unlike taking the car for a test drive before you buy it.

"The management system requires accurate projections and estimates of uncertainty," he added. "We need a hurricane track we can trust, and an area of uncertainty around that we can also trust."

Tom Nies, the senior fishery analyst for the New England Fishery Management Council, said the upcoming couple of years will bring a lot of workshops and discussions about how to improve stock estimates. Models would likely benefit from the inclusion of data collected during tagging studies and cod genetic research.

 Tom Nies, New England Fisheries Management Council

Although fishermen caught 11,000 mt of cod in 2010, this year the catch will likely be set around 6,700 mt and 2013 could be as low as 1,100 mt, he said.

Haddock won't be an alternative to catching cod, Nies warned, as the low haddock stocks in the Gulf of Maine will also face a 60-70% cut in TAC.

"It looks pretty bleak for the next couple of years, and the Council is wrestling with this," Nies said.

All four speakers offered a panel discussion to answer audience questions after their presentations concluded. There was some exchange regarding whether or not predators like seals or spiny dogfish might be impacting cod populations, although Rago said there is very little evidence to suggest that is part of the problem. However, he acknowledged that natural mortality is difficult to assess.

Most of the speakers felt that setting a rebuilding target and deadline was causing a "roller coaster" effect of one year feeling confident to harvest a species and the next scrambling to quickly rebuild the population. Cadrin and Goethel suggested instead to set a goal of realizing some measure of rebuilding each year, making slow and steady progress. Goethel also suggested moving towards multi-species management might help, as ecosystems are complicated and a change in one species will likely result in impacts on other species anyway.

Regardless of their affiliation, all four speakers reiterated the fact that no one will benefit if the fishery collapses, so everyone wants to make sure a solution is found to keep things moving forward on a positive track.

For more information about basic stock assessment, please check out the N.H. Sea Grant Guide to Stock Assessment: http://seagrant.unh.edu/stockassessmentguide.pdf

One is never too young to make a difference...

As collaborators with Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation on their Marine Debris to Energy project, we work to clean up New Hampshire beaches and participate in outreach and education on the problem of marine debris.  One of our continued efforts is the collection and recycling of monofilament fishing line which poses an entanglement threat to marine mammals. 

During the summer of 2011, one of Blue Ocean Society's junior interns, Willy Jones (age 11), decided to spearhead a youth-driven fishing line recycling project. Willy collected about 90 tennis cans from 2 local tennis clubs in Pennsylvania, and with the help of campers from a local community center, he made personal fishing line recycling bins.  Each tennis can recycling bin has an informational pamphlet about the problem of marine mammal and sea turtle entanglements and what can be done to help prevent it.  It also contains contact information for Blue Ocean Society including where to get a bin and what to do once it is filled.

Willy did a great job creating these personal fishing line recyclers and now we are in the process of ramping up our campaign to have them distributed.  If an 11-year old can mobilize volunteers to put together these bins, we would like to help ensure they get used for their intended purpose.  It is a simple way to make a big impact. 

To get more information or to get one of your own please email gabriela.bradt@unh.edu.

UNH Dining Services Hosts Sustainable Seafood Dinner

On Wednesday April 11, 2012 UNH Dining Services hosted a Sustainable/Local Seafood dinner at Holloway Commons.  It was a pretty elaborate affair and head chef Ralph Coughenour said that he had processed over 1,000 pounds of fresh seafood. According to Coughenour, he tried to purchase from local or fairly local vendors and most of the products were farmed.  Coughenour purchased about 400 pounds of fresh seafood (pollock, hake and lobster) from The Portsmouth Lobster Company based in Portsmouth NH.  Most of the rest of the seafood was purchased from North Coast Seafoods in Boston.  Some of the fish provided by North Coast included salmon and halibut.  Shrimp were bought locally in Portsmouth and also from Ipswich, MA and mussels originated from Prince Edward Island, Canada.

UNH Cooperative Extension Marine Fisheries Program was asked to set up an informational booth for students, staff and faculty that were dining in Holloway to visit.  North Coast Seafoods and Alaska Seafood also had booths / exhibits in Holloway with a lot of information on Sustainable seafood.

The dining staff under Chef Ralph Coughenour produced an unbelievable variety of seaood fare.  All but one station - which was serving up Buffalo Chicken Wraps- were seafood dishes.  Cedar smoked salmon, seafood chowder, sushi, tempura, salmon and crab mousse on endive and crostini, Bicoastal lobster macaroni and cheese (rock lobster from the west coast and american lobster from the east coast), halibut cakes, mussels, clams and seafood stirfry made to order are just some of the delectable dishes available.  But perhaps the most impressive part of this whole event was just the quantity of fresh seafood available.

    

NH Lobstermen respond to tough time with innovation, teamwork

DURHAM, NH - In 2009, the per-pound value of lobster was 15% less than it's average value during the previous three years. More lobsters were landed than ever before, yet revenue and profits were still on the decline. On top of that, diesel prices were climbing from $2 to around $4 per gallon. The future was beginning to look pretty dire.

Like many people, Damon Frampton was losing hope for "business as usual" lobstering. But later that year, he decided to take matters into his own hands, opening up a small lobster pound and naming it the Portsmouth Lobster Company.
The pound's business plan puts the lobstermen at the top of the pyramid. Damon is continually looking for ways to market lobsters from between three and six vessels in ways that send more money back to the boats.

Around the same time, people in the fishing industry and local community formed the Portsmouth Fishing Committee to publicize the challenges faced by the local seafood industry and the availability of locally caught lobster and fish.
Since 2009, the committee has produced both the Portsmouth Fish and Lobster Festival, which is known as "Fishtival" and held each year in Portsmouth in September, and the "NH Fresh and Local" seafood brand.

In forming the Portsmouth Lobster Company, Frampton boldly waded into the processing and distribution side of lobstering, and his education about the complexities and challenges of the lobster industry off the boat began. "I cannot believe all of the steps and issues that you have to get through to get lobster on someone’s table," he said. Early on in this journey, a new face showed up at the dock, asking about bait bag material and if he could go out on a lobster boat to learn more about the business. Frampton obliged.

The new guy was Dave Hickman, and when he appeared the next day without slickers and in leather boots, it looked to Frampton that he would be "one and done."
Hickman described that day this way: "Damon thought for sure that he’d be watching me cling to the rail, but I managed to keep my lunch down."

Soon after, Hickman found work on a lobster boat, not Frampton’s, but one that sat next to his and sold its catch to the Portsmouth Lobster Company. Then, after about a year, Hickman finally did get off the boat – to dedicate more time to selling live lobsters for Frampton’s lobster pound.

Problem becomes opportunity
In the summer of 2011, Frampton and Hickman identified a clear problem they needed to deal with -- culls. These one-clawed lobsters can be upwards of 20% of the total catch for New Hampshire lobstermen, and they are a problem because they bring down the price significantly. "Sold directly to wholesale, culls can cost you between 10 cents and 25 cents a pound," said Hickman. That’s a significant loss for a lobsterman who lands 50,000 pounds of lobster in a year.

"Our goal was to have all the lobsters we sell wholesale be able to do handstands," Hickman quipped. "That way, we’d get the best price possible for our catch."
But how to get rid of them was the question. What can you make with the unwanted, misfit, one-armed lobsters? Would you believe ravioli?

Frampton and Hickman hatched the idea and then decided to dive headlong into exploring the creation of a value-added product line for their lobsters.
Hickman first approached Kevin Cambridge, founder of the Terra Cotta Pasta Company in Dover to see if it could be done. Cambridge immediately liked the idea and the first batch of lobster ravioli was made on Sept. 15, 2011.

Next, Hickman, looking for a buyer, brought the product to The Common Man in Portsmouth. The Common Man is a family of 18 restaurants throughout the state of New Hampshire. "From the beginning, they liked the idea, and they wanted to support local lobstermen," Hickman said. Unfortunately, it was too late in the seasonal schedule to get on the menu -- the gold standard for marketing to a restaurant. But lobster ravioli would run as a special in Common Man restaurants.

In order to get the ravioli to the Common Man, Hickman worked with Tides Fish Market in Rochester to process the lobster. There, the lobsters were separated into meat and bodies.

The meat was destined to become lobster ravioli served at The Common Man via the Terra Cotta Pasta Company, but what about the bodies?
Enter yet another local business, the Portsmouth Chowder Company. Hickman and Frampton worked with the company to use the bodies to make a lobster chowder, which The Common Man agreed to sell. The only thing still left to do is find a market for the shells."It would make a great fertilizer," said Hickman.
So stay tuned. The chain of local businesses engaged in this project may become longer still.

Teamwork key
The Common Man is one company on a growing list of businesses selling seafood with the NH Fresh and Local seafood brand. The brand tells consumers that they are supporting local fishermen and eating the freshest seafood possible that is responsibly harvested. As a result, the Portsmouth Lobster Company is on its way to solving its cull problem. "We just wanted the 'culls' to go away, and now many of them are, plus they are giving us additional profits," said Frampton. "It’s a start."

Hickman explained that developing new markets like these is not easy.
"Any time you do something new in the seafood industry, there can be unintended consequences," he said. "But teamwork has been the key for us."
Frampton and Hickman have cautiously moved forward while respecting their neighbors and working together to promote and develop a value chain that directs more money to the boats. Each defers credit to the other for their success, and it is clear they share a tremendous amount of mutual respect. Their experience demonstrates how improved relationships and trust among harvesters, processors, distributors, and marketers can shed light on new business opportunities that can help fishermen.
In the end, the Portsmouth Lobster Company has successfully helped several small businesses through local branding and cultivating relationships among businessmen and women who care about supporting local seafood harvesters, who, in turn, sell to customers who also care about supporting local fishermen and want responsibly harvested, locally caught, fresh seafood.

This is one exceptionally positive story to come out of difficult times.

Erik Chapman

Erik Chapman is an Assistant Fisheries Extension Professor at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension/New Hampshire Sea Grant College Program. He may be reached at (603) 862-1935 or e-mail him at . More information on the NH Fresh and Local seafood brand is available online at .
Portsmouth Lobster Company's lobster ravioli is now available at retail and restaurant locations throughout New Hampshire. For more information on where you can purchase it, call Favorite Foods in Somersworth, NH at (603) 692-4990 or Dave Hickman at (603) 801-5796.

Scientists help fishemen avoid dogfish bycatch.

Here is a video that documents an ongoing project to work with Northeast fishermen to reduce their bycatch....not sure what bycatch is?  Take a look!