News Updates for The Week of October 6, 2021
NEFMC award of excellence, new northern shrimp study, and seven superpowered sharks!
Upcoming
Meetings


October 4-7: Red Drum Simulation Assessment Workshop Webinar

October 4: Horseshoe Crab ARM Review of the ARM Revision Webinar

October 5: American Eel Plan Development Team

October 5 & 12: Atlantic Large Whale Gillnet Trap Pot Scoping Meeting

October 5, 12, & 14: East Coast Gillnet and Trap/Pot Scoping Meetings


October 18-21: ASMFC 80th Annual Meeting

October 25: Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee Review of the ARM Revision Webinar

November 3-4: Bluefish State Data Review Workshop Webinar

November 6-10: AFS Baltimore Annual Meeting
Public Comment


October 21: The NC DEQ is accepting public comment on the Draft Coastal Habitat Protection Plan 2021 Amendment and Appendix. The Coastal Habitat Protection Plan is a long-term strategy to improve coastal fisheries through habitat protection and enhancement efforts.
(Find more here).
ASMFC: Commission Begins Preparations for Black Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment 

ASMFC has begun work on the next Black Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and is requesting data from academia, member states, federal partners, participating jurisdictions and stakeholders. A data workshop will occur in December 2021. The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance (fishery-independent survey catch rates, fishery-dependent catch per unit effort), biological samples (lengths, ages, weights), and life history information (growth, maturity, natural mortality, movement and migration). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format with accompanying description of methods to Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org by October 29, 2021.

Find more information here.
MD DNR: Applications Open for 2022 Keep Maryland Beautiful Grants

Forever Maryland, in partnership with the Maryland Environmental Trust, a unit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, is now accepting applications for the Keep Maryland Beautiful grants program. Four different grants are being offered to help volunteer and nonprofit groups, communities, and land trusts support environmental education projects, litter removal, citizen stewardship, and solve natural resource issues in urban and rural areas. The deadline to apply for funding is Nov. 15, 2021. Awards will be announced in spring 2022.

Find more information here.
MD DNR: Intentional Balloon Releases Banned in Maryland
September 30, 2021

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) remind Marylanders that a new state law that prohibits intentional balloon releases is now in effect.

The new Maryland law bans the releasing of balloons that, upon landing, create litter and threaten the health and safety of animals on the land in the water, effective Oct. 1. MDE is responsible for enforcing the law, and DNR is joining in raising public awareness through participation in a regional campaign funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Find more information here.
CT DEEP: Scup Winter II Commercial Fishery Possession Limit

Effective 0001 hours Friday, October 1, 2021, per NOAA Fisheries, the commercial fishery possession limit for Scup will be 21,000 pounds for the Winter 2 Period (October 1 – December 31). No Scup License Endorsement required. NOAA Fisheries is rolling over the unused coastwide quota from the Winter 1 Period (January 1 – April 30) to the Winter 2 Period. Only 63 percent of the 9,247,904 pound Winter 1 coastwide quota was harvested in 2021, leaving 3,415,629 pounds available to be rolled over to the Winter 2 coastwide quota. The revised Winter 2 commercial scup coastwide quota is raised to 6,683,454 pounds.

Find more information here.
NH FGD: Project WILD: Using Your School’s Outdoor Space for Learning Hybrid Workshop to Be Offered to Educators

Educators of students in grades K–4 interested in incorporating nature, wildlife, and science activities into their curriculum are invited to join the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department for a hybrid professional development workshop this October. This Project WILD: Using Your School’s Outdoor Space for Learning seminar is intended for instructors who want to build on a child’s sense of wonder about nature, encouraging them to explore wildlife and the world around them by using an outdoor classroom, schoolyard, or natural area.

Once enrolled, participants will be given a short pre-workshop homework assignment to be completed independently. On Thursday, October 21, participants will assemble from 4:30 pm–8:00 pm for hands-on learning at NH Fish and Game Headquarters at 11 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH. The in-person portion of the workshop will include a classroom experience as well as outdoor work. Indoor work will be conducted in a large conference room with space to spread out. Updated COVID protocols will be emailed to participants prior to the meeting.

Find more information here.
GA CRD: Georgia opens 2021 oyster harvest season in state waters Oct. 1

Georgia’s territorial waters will re-open to commercial and recreational oyster harvest effective 7:00 a.m., Friday, October 1, 2021. This was after Commissioner Mark Williams announced in May that oyster harvest in state waters would close at 6:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 1, 2021 through midnight on Thursday, September 30, 2021. A similar closure occurred in 2020 to meet the requirements of Georgia's Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) control plan.

Vp is a naturally occurring bacteria found in filter-feeding shellfish. It occurs at higher concentrations during the months of the year when coastal water temperatures are warm. “This closure ensures that Georgia meets the requirements of the National Shellfish Sanitation Program to protect public health during the summer months by implementing a Vp control plan,” explained Dominic Guadagnoli, shellfish fishery manager for the Coastal Resources Division.

Find more information here.

GA CRD: Additional COVID financial relief available to Georgia marine fishing-industry members

Participants in Georgia’s marine commercial and for-hire industry who experienced a greater than 35 percent loss in revenue during 2020 and/or 2021 due to COVID-19 may now apply for federal financial assistance.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress in March 2020 provided Georgia with nearly $2 million in funds to be distributed to marine fishery participants with economic loss from March through May 2020. The recent Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 has made an additional nearly $3 million in funds available to Georgia commercial fishermen, wholesale dealers, processors of saltwater species, bait shrimp dealers and harvesters, aquaculturists with a Georgia commercial fishing license, and for-hire guides with losses incurred during 2020 and/or 2021. Eligible applicants must have experienced a revenue loss of more than 35 percent compared to the same period for the five years between 2015 and 2019.

Find more information here.
FL FWC: Help improve data by submitting your catch-and-release fish info through iAngler

The FL FWC wants your help improving data on catch-and-release fishing, especially for redfish, snook and spotted seatrout caught in areas of southwest Florida that are currently catch-and-release only due to impacts of red tide.

“Anglers fishing these areas have their finger on the pulse of what is happening out there,” said FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute program administrator Luiz Barbieri. “By using the iAngler app, people fishing for these species can give us a better idea of participation while annual season closures and temporary catch-and-release measures are in place, which can help us have a better idea of how these fisheries are doing.”

Find more information here.
MAFMC: Electronic Vessel Trip Reporting: Upcoming Training Opportunities

Beginning on November 10, 2021, all commercial vessels with federal permits for species managed by the Mid-Atlantic or New England Councils will be required to submit vessel trip reports (VTRs) electronically as eVTRs within 48 hours of the end of a trip. Additional information about the new requirements is available on the Mid-Atlantic Council’s Commercial eVTR page.

Vessel owners and operators are encouraged to transition to electronic reporting as soon as possible. There are several NOAA Fisheries-approved eVTR applications to choose from. Visit the NOAA Fisheries eVTR Software Options page for detailed information about approved applications and other aspects of electronic reporting. NOAA Fisheries has also developed a Decision Tree to help permit holders determine which reporting applications will best meet their needs.

Find more information here.
NEFMC: Council Presents 2021 Award for Excellence to Frank Mirarchi

NEFMC presented its 2021 Janice Plante Award for Excellence to Frank Mirarchi of Scituate, MA. Frank has been involved in the fishing industry for over five decades, both as an active commercial fisherman and as a dedicated partner in cooperative research. The award was established by the Council in 2015 to annually honor an individual who has produced exceptional work “to further the effectiveness of the fishery management process in New England.” In particular, the Council seeks to pay special tribute to people who have displayed an outstanding commitment to the Council fishery management system and contributed time and energy to the process.

Find more information here.

NEFMC: Scallops: Council Receives 2021 Survey Season Overview; Updates on Framework 34 and Other Work Priorities

NEFMC received a high-level overview of the 2021 scallop survey season when it met by webinar for its September 28-30, 2021 meeting. It also received a progress report on Framework Adjustment 34 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan and short updates on: (1) the Scallop Survey Working Group’s recent meeting; and (2) a project to evaluate the scallop fishery’s Snapshots from 2021 VIMS surveys: (1) upper left, measuring scallops collected during the Closed Area I and II surveys; (2) the commercial dredge coming up from a tow in the Mid-Atlantic Bight; and (3) scallop muscle and digestive gland samples collected to investigate feeding ecology of scallops in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. rotational area management program.

Find more information here.

NEFMC: Council Seeks Contractor to Develop and Conduct EBFM Public Information Workshops

NEFMC is looking for an independent contractor to develop and conduct a series of six public information workshops about Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM). The deadline for submitting letters of interest and supporting materials is November 1, 2021. The Council has been working on an EBFM conceptual approach for several years. It developed an example Fishery Ecosystem Plan (eFEP) that shows how an EBFM approach might be carried out on Georges Bank.

Find more information here.
NOAA Fisheries: Why did the Northern Shrimp Population Collapse?

A recent study by scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Maine Department of Marine Resources found that warming ocean temperatures and increased predation by squid are linked to the collapse of northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine. Despite a fishing moratorium since 2013, the northern shrimp population has not recovered and the fishery remains closed. This study provides further evidence that changing species interactions will have major impacts as ecosystems reorganize due to climate change.

Find more information here.
NOAA Fisheries: Eyes Underwater: How Fish Use Oyster Aquaculture Gear

A tautog swimming above a shelf and bag style oyster cage, NOAA Fisheries Researchers at our Milford Lab have been using commercially available underwater video cameras to watch fish around oyster cages at shellfish farms. But what about species that are difficult to capture on camera? They combined the video approach with eDNA sampling techniques to detect more species. With colleagues at Rutgers University, they have started to build a more robust picture of how oyster cages can provide important habitat for a remarkable number of species.

Find more information here.
What We're Reading

The definitive climate fiction reading list. These 20 wildly imaginative books will shape the way you think about our planet’s future — and humanity’s place in it (Grist).


14% of world’s coral lost in less than a decade, study shows. Largest analysis of reef health reveals equivalent of more than all living coral in Australia was lost in 2009-18 (The Guardian).

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