Fishing laws need to reflect climate change

Roger Tellier of North Kingstown with a 26” cod fish he caught in the Seal Ledge area off Newport when tautog fishing Saturday.

Squeteague (or weakfish) caught by Mike Kwok from Palisades Park, NY while fishing the Frances Fleet.  Squeteague, once a popular fish in RI, is coming back with more and more caught in recent years.

Fishing laws need to reflect climate change

Climate change continues to warm local waters with mounting proof that it is changing our fishing environment.  Fishing is changing so much that warm water fish are moving into the northeast and cold water fish are moving to deeper cooler water. 

If the environment is changing then our fishing laws, which all stem from the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) need to be updated to reflect these changes too.  Our fishing laws are based on historical fishing and survey data (what fish were caught where) and what was true in the past may not necessarily be true today or tomorrow.

Climate change can have a positive, negative or neutral effect on species with different tolerances in any given geographic area.  Over time we have seen in influx of warm water fish hear in our region, some of the changes have been good for fishing and some not so good. 

In Rhode Island, more cobia (an exotic warm water fish) have been caught than ever before, enhanced summer flounder and black sea bass have moved into southern New England but yet we have seen a decline in cold water fish like cod.

Dr. Jonathan Hare, director of the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Narragansett Laboratory, has long spoke about climate change and its impact on marine fisheries.  Dr. Hare said that along the northeast continental shelf, “Since 1854 ocean temperatures have risen 1.3 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Dr. Hare has shared a time lapse illustration that showed how yellow-tail flounder and summer flounder (fluke) are actually migrating north toward Rhode Island and other northern coastal states as the water warms.  This time lapse illustration uses catch and effort data supplied to NOAA by commercial fishermen as a condition of their license.  The data and time lapse illustration showed fish leaving waters to the south and moving northward.  Dr. Hare’s work provides proof of warming water and species movement in and out of our region.

In a recent article written by Ted Morgan of the PEW Charitable Trust, Morgan said, “Fish managers often develop fishing rules expecting that the same species will be found in roughly the same place every year. Setting catch limits for fishing requires some assumptions—and until recently, one of them has been that the vast ocean, while subject to cycles, is basically stable over time. But new information challenges that notion, as scientists and some policymakers have grown increasingly aware of long-term shifts in the ocean environment.”

Dr. Malin Pinsky of Rutgers University is a pioneer in using historical fishing trawl survey data collected by NOAA for years and looking at it differently.  The data includes the fish caught in the trawl as well as latitudes, longitudes and the depths of each trawl.  Once the historical fishing survey data base was built Dr. Pinsky and his team were able to pinpoint where fish populations were found—and if those locations changed over time. His work has been developed into an interactive application; it clearly shows movement of a variety of species in our region and can be found at http://oceanadapt.rutgers.edu/.

How can fishing laws change to reflect climate change?

We can do a lot to make sure our fishing laws and regulations reflect climate change. Our nation through NOAA is divided into seven regional fishery councils, in our area it is the New England Fishery Management Council.  Ted Morton of PEW said, “Unfortunately, not all of the nation’s councils are having these important conversations (about climate change and fish movement) as they make decisions, because the law does not require them to practice this kind of modern management.

“When Congress next changes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, lawmakers should call for each council to create fishery ecosystem plans—road maps that can help managers understand the environmental factors that influence their fisheries so they can account for them and make more informed decisions.” said Morton. 

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is 40 years old and has been updated several times. It is now time for another update.

Striped bass fishing on Block Island

Capt. John Sheriff of Captain Sheriff’s Fishing Charters, LLC will give a RI Saltwater Anglers Association presentation on tips and techniques for catching striped bass with a focus on Block Island on Monday, November 30, 7:00 p.m. at the West Valley Inn, West Warwick.  Non-members welcome with a $10 donation to the RISAA Scholarship Fund, RISAA members attend free. Dinner offered by the West Valley Inn between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.  Visit www.risaa.org for information.

Where’s the bite

Tautog fishing continues to be strong.  Stormy weather and dirty water did slow the number of angler trips last week but the water settled and anglers were out the fishing was good.  Capt. Charlie Donilon of Snappa Charters said, “Black fish off Newport has been very good with our largest fish averaging 7 or 8 points and last week during the big blow we managed to fish off Narragansett with angels limiting out.”  Ken Ferrara of Ray’s Bait & Tackle, Warwick said, “Things are slowing down in the Bay with a tautog bite weakening.  Customers that went south this weekend to Beavertail and the Kettlebottom area off Jamestown as well as off Newport did pretty good catching tautog and a cod every now and then.  I fished with Roger Tellier, secretary of the RISAA board of directors this weekend and he caught a 26” cod while fishing for tautog in the Seal Ledge are off Newport.  Angler Chris Jalbert from South County said “Went Monday morning (last week). Most finicky/delicate bite of the season so far. I missed a TON of fish. We got our limit in 3-4 hours. Most fish 4-6#. Also got one of the biggest of our season - 10 plus pounds."  "The tautog bite seems to be best in 80 feet of wae"  “The tautog bite seems to be best in 70 to 80 feet of water with anglers till catching in lower water too.  Fishing the edge of the Pinnacle off Narragansett at 70 feet, off Brenton Reef on the edges and areas at the mouth of the Sakonnet has been good." said Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marian, South Kingstown. South Kingstown. Capt. Frank Blount, of the Frances Fleet, said, “Tautog fishing continued to be good even after a couple days off due to heavy southerly winds.  Pool fish generally in the 8 to 11 pound range with many limit catches recorded. Tremendous amounts of short tog provided long lasting action in between the keepers. The sea bass have definitely become fewer but there has been a slight increase in the number of keeper cod fish being caught and more of them are gaff-worthy. In fact on a couple trips cod fish in the low teens took the pool honors of tautog trips.”

Cod fishing remained very strong, even in some areas close to shore this past week.  Capt. Charlie Donilon of Snappa Charters said, “Last week we did very well with cod and sea bass south of Pt. Judith and southeast of Block Island. We caught 31 keeper cod, the best in years.  We dropped anchor and it was like the way it used to be.  We limited out on black sea bass too with 42 fish.  It was definitely like the days of old.  In fact, we had to just stop fishing.   The largest cod were 10 and 11 pounds cod and 6 pound black sea bass.”  Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marina said, “Cod fishing has been good with angler’s dong well at the East Fishing Grounds, Cox’s Ledge and at Shark Ledge.”

Striped bass fishing has taken a back seat to tautog and cod fishing, however, anglers are catching migrating fish.  “Schools of herring were off the southern coastal shore this week with garnets diving on them so I’m sure some are picking up bass feeding on the herring .” sad Matt Conti of Snug Harbor Marine.

Water warming, fish are on the move… now you can track them

Black sea bass like this one caught by angler Steve Burstein of West Warwick are plentiful but RI quotas are tight.  Regulations have not caught up with migrating fish.

Water warming, fish are on the move… now you can track them

Ever wonder why black sea bass quotas are so low, yet fishermen catch so many?  Or why it’s easy for Rhode Island to overfish summer flounder quotas?   Why cod has moved offshore or why cobia, a warm water exotic fish, is now being caught in our waters more than ever before?

It all has to do with our oceans warming which has caused fish populations to move north and/or into deeper cooler water.  You can now track 80 northeast species (650 in total) on a new Rutgers University website called OceanAdapt at http://oceanadapt.rutgers.edu .

How warm is the water? URI Bay temperature studies confirm that Narragansett Bay has warmed 2 to 2.5 degrees depending on time of year in past 45 years. 

“Since 1854 ocean temperatures on the northeast continental shelf have risen 1.3 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit.” said Dr. Jonathan Hare, director of the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration’s Narragansett, RI Laboratory.

Dr.  Hare and Dr. Malin Pinsky of Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Science have developed “OceanAdapt” which is a collaboration between the Pinsky Lab at Rutgers and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).  The OceanAdapt website provides information about the impacts of changing climate and other factors on the distribution of marine life.  The website hosts an annually updated database of fisheries surveys and provides tools for exploring changes in marine fish distribution.

“We found that all over North America, marine fish and invertebrates are shifting their distributions quite rapidly,” said Dr. Pinsky.  OceanAdapt allows anglers to search and download data on the geographic and depth ranges of fish and invertebrates by region and track how those distributions have changed over time.

This data is a valuable tool for the fishermen, fishery managers, and scientists who are grappling with the challenge of adapting fishing regulations to a changing climate. 

Black sea bass are a good example of fish moving and how fishing regulations need to change to accommodate this movement.  The Rutgers website explains “Black sea bass are important to both recreational and commercial fishermen on the East Coast, and each state gets a fixed share of the total catch. That catch was divided up based on where black sea bass were in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At that time, the fish were most abundant off North Carolina, so that state got the largest share of the catch. Since then black sea bass have moved, but the regulations haven’t caught up. Today, New England fishermen are catching black sea bass as far north as the Gulf of Maine. Meanwhile, North Carolina fishermen often have to motor far north to fill their quota, with the extra fuel costs eating into their profits.”

“Our fisheries regulations are built around the idea that fish distributions don’t change very much. When they do, that makes things complicated for fishermen and for managers trying to maintain a sustainable fishery,” Pinsky said.

Visit the OceanAdapt website and experiment.  It is easy to use.  I ran data graphs on black sea bass, summer flounder and cod.  The most telling graphic for me was looking at the movement and depth change of all east coast species together… the shift north was dramatic. 

As a fishermen and fish policy advocate, OceanAdapt gave  me a better understanding as to how fishing in Rhode Island has been impacted by climate change and how fishing policy and regulations have to be flexible and change faster to adapt to climate change.

Summer flounder and black sea bass regulations to tighten

Last week the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) had a joint meeting to discuss summer flounder (fluke), black sea bass and scup.  These two organizations have a direct impact on fishing regulations in Rhode Island as some of our species fall under the MAFMC and migratory species that travel the east coast are regulated by the ASMFC.

Scup saw liberalization in Federal waters with the recreational catch limit increased to 50 fish, scup regulations will likely be liberalized in RI waters too.

A summer flounder addendum will go out to public hearing in January.  East coast anglers overfished their quota in RI and other coastal states this year. Capt. Rick Bellavance, president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat Association, said, “I am concerned about the options that bring RI into the NY/CT/NJ region, mostly because of the uncertain data and how dramatically it can change from year to year. I got the sense that a lot of people want to see us in the NY region which could reduce our (recreational) bag limit to five and shorten our season by quite a few days.”

Capt. Bellavance continued, “Black Sea Bass is a train wreck. The Northern Region has to take a 28% reduction so I would think we will look at a shortened season and a reduced bag limit. I know this does not make any sense with what we see on the water, but we are stuck with the existing law right now.”

 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to meet February

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2015 Winter Meeting has been scheduled for February 3-5, 2015 at the Westin Hotel in Alessandria, VA. The agenda is available online at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2015-winter-meeting. Meeting materials will be available on January 23, 2015 on the Commission website. Agenda highlights include such items as winter flounder plans, Atlantic herring, American lobster, Atlantic menhaden, weakfish and big decisions are on the agenda for  summer flounder, scup and black sea bass.

The Striped Bass Management Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 5 from 8:00 a.m. to noon.  The key agenda item to be discussed and considered for approval are Addendum IV Conservation Equivalency Proposals and Implementation Plans which coastal states have been working on. 

Rhode Island is expected to submit a plan that would allow the party and charter boat industry to take two fish at 32” or 33” minimum size which is expected to surpass the 25% reduction mandated by the new striped bass conservation equivalency threshold.  Coastwide one fish at 28” was approved by the ASMFC for recreational anglers which is a 31% reduction.  Other states may opt for a two fish solution for recreational anglers in general and/or charter boats as long as they meet the “conservation equivalency” reduction goal of 25%. 

More conservative anglers want to stay with the one striped bass fish at 28” regulation for 2015 while other recreational fishermen (and states) want to meet the 25% reduction goal but do it with two fish rather than one even though the two fish would have to be a larger minimum size.

Where’s the bite

Tautog season closes, cod and black sea bass fishing still good. The tautog fishing season closed December 15^th.  Angler Larry Norin reports a slow cod bite off Jamestown and Newport last week.  This weekend the Frances Fleet had good cod and black sea bass trips.  Capt. Frank Blount said, “Weather sidelined us for a good chunk of the past week. Friday saw a pick of nice green market cod to nearly ten pounds and a decent amount of keeper sea bass with a bunch of sea bass limits. One angler did really well with the cod boxing 8 nice keepers and while his score was not representative of the average, most of the anglers aboard did leave with a cod fish...On Saturday's run the cod fish were a bit more evenly distributed around the boat. Hi hook boxed four keepers and two other anglers recorded three keepers apiece. The sea bass bite was very good as well with many anglers limited out and they were much bigger average size than the day prior. A lot of jumbos in the 2 to 3.5 lb range with a handful of bigger ones to over 4 lbs.” Elisa Martin of Sung Harbor Marina, South Kingstown said, “The Island Current party boat started sailing this weekend form our docks, too early to tell how they doing. The only other highlight was our customer appreciation holiday party last week on.  The fish chowder continues to be a big hit with customers.” Party boats sailing for cod fish at this time include the Frances Fleet at www.francesfleet.com , the Seven B’s (with Capt. Andy Dangelo at the helm this week) at www.sevenbs.com, and the Island Current at www.islandcurrent.com .