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 SSFFF and RFA Outline Progress Made and the Work Still Ahead
In front of 70 concerned recreational anglers, party boat operators, tackle shop owners, and members of the fishing media, Tony Bogan, founding member of the Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund (SSFFF) and Jim Donofrio, RFA Executive Director, outlined the progress that has been made with regard to improvements with the summer flounder stock assessment since the groups engaged this problem last year. Specific to the stock status determination that found summer flounder to not be overfished and that overfishing was not occurring, SSFFF hired a renowned stock assessment scientist, Dr. Mark Maunder, who determined that sex-specific natural mortality values produced more reliable and accurate stock size estimates. Ultimately, his expertise and involvement with the benchmark assessment resulted in a revision to the assumed summer flounder natural mortality rate and the biomass rebuilding goal. Based on these revisions, the Mid-Atlantic Council approved a 2009 summer flounder total allowable landings, which is over 2.5 million pounds higher than in 2008... View full text |
 RFA Key Player in Aid to Massachusetts' For-Hire Industry
Back in December of 2007, Congress approved $13.4 million in emergency aid to Massachusetts' commercial fishermen suffering financially due to strict regulations on groundfishing contained in "Framework 42." The framework, a plan designed to reduce mortality on stocks of cod, haddock, flounder, and other bottom species, was implemented late in 2006 and contained measures that reduced the number of days at sea commercial fishermen could operate, and raised the minimum size for cod to 24"and closed the winter cod fishery for the recreational sector.
"I don't think any of these funds were originally intended for the party/charter sector," explained Capt. Barry Gibson, RFA's New England Regional Director, "but I wasn't going to sit by and watch the recreational sector get shut out again. Historically the party/charter sector has always been required to 'share the pain' of stock rebuilding, but has been categorically excluded from permit and vessel buy-backs and relief programs..." View full text
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 Fishermen and Scientists Discuss Problems in Spiny Dogfish Management
Fishermen and fisheries managers and researchers participated in a spiny dogfish forum held in Philadelphia last Tuesday, September 30th to discuss a species that has been portrayed in text as "voracious beyond belief" (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953). What can only be described as an infestation, the rapid and successful rebuilding of the spiny dogfish population is having significant ecological implications on Gulf of Maine and Mid-Atlantic species. Once a seasonal problem, fishermen are reporting an explosion of dogfish along the coast from North Carolina to Maine and throughout the entire fishing season. Dogfish are a nuisance to commercial and recreational fishermen often making fishing with bait all but impossible when dogfish are present. Furthermore, dogfish are aggressive predators and feed on the same species that fishermen are targeting. Schooling in massive sex-specific packs, dogfish can wipe out tons of groundfish, summer flounder, squid, and other important fish at a rate far beyond the annual quota set for these species... View full text
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