EDFish

Pound Net Fishing on the Scuppernong River, North Carolina

By Tom Lalley / Bio / Published: June 2, 2009

EDF mostly works on ocean fisheries, but we took some time out a few months ago to meet with Willy Phillips from Columbia, North Carolina to see how he fishes using pound nets on the Scuppernong River. Willy owns Full Circle Crab Company, Inc. and he also fishes for yellow perch, shad and other fish that mostly come to the river after spending part of their life in the ocean.

Pound nets are an ancient fishing method. They’re basically fish traps: fish swim in but can’t swim out. Fishermen simply pull the nets up and harvest the fish. There’s virtually no bycatch or waste because unwanted fish are thrown back unharmed into the river.

Here are two video clips of my trip out on the river with Willy. I was on a rocking boat surrounded by flopping fish and working fishermen who were very gracious to this city boy.

VIDEO 1: This is the start of the pound net fishing process. The fishermen pull the nets up until the fish are close to the surface where upon they can be scooped up with smaller nets.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-QtQaJA0Kw

VIDEO 2: As you can see, the nets are loaded with fish. The herring fishery is closed in North Carolina and herring constitutes most of the fish you see here that are being thrown back into the river.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEBl9StVXfw

Also posted in Mid-Atlantic / Tagged Fishing, North Carolina, Pound Nets | Read 1 Response

Talkin’ Catch Shares on the Texas Coast

By Laura Williamson / Published: May 26, 2009

By Marcie Jones, Gulf of Mexico Program Coordinator, Environmental Defense Fund Oceans Program

I recently attended Corpus Christi’s 10th Annual Earth Day – Bay Day Festival on behalf of EDF’s Gulf of Mexico Oceans program. I’d heard about the festival since I started at EDF last year, so I was really excited to share our catch share message with the 10,000+ attendees.

This annual event is hosted by The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation so that locals can learn about bays, estuaries, wetlands, native plants and animals, recycling and general conservation and environmental issues.

Our booth was full of information, facts and photos that showcased the problems with fisheries, explained why people should care, and described how catch shares can help. I met many interesting people, from age 5 to 85, asking about our work, commenting on the booth photos and picking up information such as our Oceans of Abundance report.

By the end of the day, I’d talked with hundreds about our work and had lots of ideas to improve the booth for next year.

Cool tidbit: At the beginning of the festival the Gulf Coast Indian Confederation blessed the grounds with a drum circle ceremony.

Also posted in Gulf of Mexico / Tagged Catch Shares, Corpus Christi, Gulf of Mexico | Comments are closed

Recovering from Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico

By Laura Williamson / Published: May 20, 2009

Fishermen under IFQs were able to keep their businesses going after Hurricane Ike. Eight months after Hurricane Ike slammed Texas’ largest fishing community, Galveston is steadily recovering from the storm. Red snapper fishermen under IFQ management kept their businesses going because they could fish later in the year and lease quota to others when they couldn’t fish themselves. Read more.

Destroyed Kemp’s ridley turtle habitat
Endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles have shown a strong come-back in recent years. Unfortunately, Hurricane Ike damaged and piled debris on their South Padre Island nesting beaches. Volunteers worked to restore and clean up the sites before the turtles’ nesting season, which began last month. Experts are hopeful that these efforts will help Kemp’s ridleys keep recovering. Read more.

Also posted in Gulf of Mexico / Tagged Gulf of Mexico, hurricane ike, IFQ, kemp's ridley, Red Snapper, sea turtle | Comments are closed

New National Fishing Policy Announced Today Focused on Catch Shares

By Diane Regas / Bio / Published: May 19, 2009

Diane Regas is Associate Vice President for EDF’s Oceans program.

Diane Regas, Associate Vice President - EDF Oceans Program The top government official for the nation’s fisheries today took a giant step in the right direction for the U.S. fishing industry and the oceans. At a speech in Boston, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that she was creating a task force to develop a new policy on catch shares to ensure that they are fully considered when fishery management councils amend management plans.

Recent scientific studies have shown that catch shares perform dramatically better than conventionally-managed fisheries. The bottom line is that the new policy is likely to dramatically increase the number of fisheries managed by catch shares and that’s great news for the oceans and fishermen.

In her speech, Dr. Lubchenco said that NOAA would move “forward to implement more catch share programs” and that “all of the (fishery management) councils will see increases in their allocations in the 2010 (budget) request” for catch shares. She also announced a new task force to develop a nation-wide catch share strategy.

Here’s the full text of Dr. Lubchenco’s speech this morning:

Comments by Dr. Jane Lubchenco at the Council Coordination Committee Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts – Tuesday, May 19, 2009.

Also posted in New England / Tagged Catch Shares, Fishery Management, Jane Lubchenco, Magnuson Stevens Act, New England, NOAA, Overfishing | Read 3 Responses

Boston Globe Op-Ed by Peter Baker and Robert Johnston Raises Key Point

By / Published: May 19, 2009

Julie Wormser, NE Regional Director for EDF Oceans program. Yesterday’s Boston Globe op-ed by Peter Baker and Robert Johnston, and the economic report on which it’s based, make a key point that I think is the cause of a lot of the conflict and distrust between fishermen and fisheries managers.

The underlying economics of any effort-based regulation–such as the current “days-at-sea” system for New England groundfish–mean that the average profitability of the fishing fleet is zero at the target catch level regulators set. This drives fishermen with capital to be more productive than the fleet average, and fishermen without access to capital are driven out of the fishery. Overfishing continues and regulators are forced to continually clamp down on fishing effort.

Under sectors, a form of “catch shares,” the underlying economics are to maximize profitability–both of individual boats and the fleet as a whole. Regulators set an annual catch limit, allocate portions of that catch limit in this case to fishing cooperatives, and fishermen are free to fish when and how they can make the most money per fish. It takes pressure off fishermen to catch as much fish as they possibly can just to break even.

Also posted in New England / Tagged Catch Shares, Fishing, New England, Sectors | Comments are closed

New England Fishery Management Council Member Supports Catch Shares

By / Published: May 15, 2009

Julie Wormser, NE Regional Director of EDF Oceans Program By Julie Wormser, New England Regional Director – Environmental Defense Fund Oceans Program.

I want to share Dave Preble’s terrific op-ed that was just published in the New Bedford Standard-Times, Prosperity for New England Fishermen. He wrote it just as groundfish fishermen in New England are preparing to fish under “sectors,” a fishing cooperative based form of catch shares.

I first met Dave at a New England Fishery Management Council meeting last summer. He sits on the Council and is one of the most thoughtful voices on that body. Born into a fishing family, Dave has been involved in both commercial and recreational fishing and fishery management for over 45 years. He has taught me quite a lot about how public policy decisions affect both fish and the fishing communities that depend on them.

Also posted in New England / Tagged Dave Preble, Jane Lubchenco, New England | Comments are closed