Interesting reading - though likely to cure insomnia for some

In depth review of evidence supporting the recommended marine conservation zones - MB0116

Defra commissioned an in-depth review of the Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) evidence to build on and extend the evidence-specific work of the MCZ Regional Projects to support the designation of MCZs. 

This work was commissioned following the recommendation from the independent Science Advisory Panel that the evidence base for MCZs required a further in-depth review of data and information. The aim of the project is to deliver a comprehensive review of the MCZ evidence and identify any new evidence that can be used. The project only covers ecological features (as defined within the Ecological Network Guidance) and provides opinions on the level of confidence in the data. It will complement the advice provided by JNCC and Natural England on the MCZ evidence base. The outputs and conclusions of the projects will be considered as part of future MCZ evidence assessment and prior to MCZ designation in 2013.

Key Customer Purpose 

The study will build on and extend the evidence base underpinning rMCZs, making an important contribution to the MCZ Project. The project will be led by ABPmer supported by the Marine Biological Association of the UK and Marine Planning Consultants. Defra, Natural England and JNCC have published statements on the report to clarify findings and set the context for how the report fits with wider MCZ work.
Summary:

COD - Ordinary legislative procedure (ex-codecision procedure)


Fishery resources: recovery of cod stocks, long-term plan; aligning the Regulation with
the TFEU (Commission delegated and implementing powers)

Amending Regulation (EC) No 1342/2008 2008/0063(CNS)

Subject:
3.15.01 Fish stocks, conservation of fishery resources
3.15.04 Management of fisheries, fisheries, fishing grounds
3.15.05 Fish catches, import tariff quotas

Awaiting Parliament 1st reading / single reading / budget 1st stage

The complete set of papers and reports can be found here.

The fleet is all at sea so not much fish on the market this morning

The beach at Newlyn Green is loaded yet again with kelp torn from the rocks during the recent bad weather, not even MPAs can prevent natural damage like this from occurring...

sun over the beam trawl...

as the light spreads across the Bay...

VesselTracker's handy little AIS app tracks the Rowse crabber Chris Tacha PL26 as she steams past Mousehole watched by Tom...

on the market a handful of boxes from a handful of boats...

but still the big cod keep coming...

and it won't be long before the red mullet begin to show in numbers...

nearly finished the planking job on the crabber...

boots in the black.

Plenty of Newlyn boats involved in the Seafish Responsible Fishing Scheme.

The Responsible Fishing Scheme - created by Seafish - has been developed to raise standards in the catching sector and to demonstrate responsible fishing practices to you and the supply chain. Based on quality standards of vessel, crew, catch and compliance, it is one way of ensuring that what reaches you on the plate has come from the highest standards of fishing management. 

Here, we introduce the scheme and some of the skippers involved tell us about the care they put into their boats, their catch and the environment. Who better to tell us about the modern day fishing industry than the skippers themselves?

Newlyn's Monday market for monk cheeks and more

Plenty of cod on the ground at this time of year...

along with a good run of hake...

for the local net fleet...

imagine these in any number of recipes for monk cheeks...

even the beamers are landing boxes of big cod...

and the elusive stripy fish have shown their noses in the Bay once or twice in the last few days...

as the boys on the Gary M take the time to scrub down the boat before going back into tier...

still waiting in the harbour, the survey vessel

and trawler meets netter up the end of the new quay...

ready for the next deluge it seems, sandbags at the ready grace the threshold of a Newlyn art gallery.

Fish at the Tolcarne Inn

Local blogger, Nick Strangelove who pens the Penzance Post pages with craftily observed lines has enjoyed the company of Newlyn and probably Penzance's best fish eating experience with a piece on Ben Tunnicliffe now well established in the cozily comfortable log-fired Tolcarne Inn.

"That is what won him his star at the Abbey, and that is what he continues to do at the Tolcarne. He wants to bring the same high standards to Newlyn without bringing the formality that is synonymous with it. He is out to prove that you can have great food at an affordable price."

The menu can change from day-to-day following the landings from the local fleet less than 100 yards away.

"He wants to do everything he can to help promote Newlyn and the fishing industry in a positive light, and spends study days with students at Penwith Collegedeveloping recipes for students to produce in conjunction with Stevenson and sell through their shops. It’s about connecting new culinary talent to the primary produce of the area – there's nothing more sustainable than that."

The full Penzance Post piece can be read here: 

ANALYSIS: Sylvia Earle Alliance Misleads Public on Habitat Closed Area Changes

On the back of the previous post!


ANALYSIS: Sylvia Earle Alliance Misleads Public on Habitat Closed Area Changes

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) March 18, 2013 - After nearly 20 years, there is little evidence that the habitat area closures off the New England coast benefit groundfish stocks. In addition, recent seabed mapping suggests that they are not even in locations best suited for habitat protection. Yet, the Sylvia Earle Alliance's web-story, "New England Fisheries Face Serious Setbacks (2/27)," misleads readers with the argument that the New England Fishery Management Council's (NEFMC) proposals to change the closures puts New England's Georges Bank seabed "at risk of serious ecological setback," when multiple studies prove otherwise.

The Council's proposed Omnibus Amendment, which recommends changing access to these New England closures, was developed using advice from their Habitat Plan Development Team (PDT), which determined that keeping the locations closed to fishing is ultimately more detrimental to the New England seabed.

Academic sources used in the preparation of this response are linked throughout and listed in the bibliography at the end of this alert.

The Truth About Trawling In New England

The Alliance's allegations about the ecological effects of trawling in New England do not appear to be informed by relevant scientific findings.

A significant portion of the Georges Bank seabed is a sandy, soft-bottom ecosystem. This type of benthic environment shifts frequently due to strong tidal changes and storms. These areas are considered "highly dynamic," meaning that they are accustomed to natural disturbances. A 2012 study by scientists from the Alaska Pacific University and the School of Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that tidal forces were strong enough to shift seafloor habitats every two weeks. Much of Georges Bank is subject to tidal forces so strong (roughly equivalent to or greater than 70 mph winds on land*) and shifts so much that very little permanent life can grow.

Multiple studies demonstrate that trawling in dynamic environments has minimal effects on the seabed's ecosystem and productivity. A 2001-2002 federal survey evaluating the effects of trawls on soft-bottom New England habitat concluded that the effects of trawls were comparable to the effects of natural disturbances. The study found no great ecological difference between seabeds in areas that have been trawled for over 50 years and areas that have only been disturbed by natural events. A later 2006 academic study reached a similar conclusion about the effects of trawling on Georges Bank, concluding that a "short-term sea scallop fishery" alters the environment "less than the natural dynamic environmental conditions of Georges Bank."

Managing Our Management

The Council's recommendations are mislabeled by the Alliance as "shortsided," when, in fact, the proposal attempts to increase overall habitat protection by accounting for new management practices and updated science.

In 2010, the Northeast abandoned a system of effort controls -- which managed the fishery by limiting when, where, and how fishermen could fish -- and switched to allocation-based management. Under this new regulatory system, only a pre-determined quota of fish can be taken from the ocean.

Currently, large areas of the closures remain as vestiges of the outdated effort controls from the early 1990s. This creates complications when managed alongside the new allocation system. By excluding fishermen from productive fishing grounds, these effort controls force fishermen to increase their overall fishing efforts to reach quota, ultimately affecting more habitat.

The comprehensive analysis backing the Amendment concludes that opening areas of the outdated closures to commercial fishing -- including trawling -- will minimize total adverse effects:

"We find that for nearly all area and gear type combinations, opening existing closed areas to fishing is predicted to decrease aggregate adverse effects. For mobile bottom tending gears, which comprise nearly 99% of all adverse effects in our region, allowing fishing in almost any portion of the area closures on Georges Bank is estimated to substantially decrease total adverse effects from fishing." (pg. 16)

This analysis has been praised by the NEFMC's Science and Statistical Committee.

Research Transformed Into Action

Since the late 1990s, when habitat areas considered important to groundfish were closed as part of the Magnuson-Steven Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the science behind the boundaries has become outdated. When the areas were designated, scientists had limited information (charts with over 100 hand-drawn habitat samples compared to the 70,000 video sample points from a ten-year study available today) about the New England seabed. The areas were chosen based largely on the locations of the previous effort control closures from earlier in the decade that were intended to limit fishing ability, not protect specialized habitat.

This ten-year study, which between 1999-2009 mapped the Georges Bank seabed using underwater video, indicated that the current closures are not in locations that would best protect important habitats. The closure boundaries appear to be geographically arbitrary and do not include many of the rocky habitats that are most susceptible to fishing disturbances. These rocky areas are also most likely to harbor juvenile groundfish and feature unique habitats. This creates a no-win situation for both the fishermen and the fish.

*70mph winds are the rough equivalent to the 1 newton-per-meter-squared amount of force the seabed faces twice a month.

Read the full story from the Sylvia Earle Alliance

Bibliography

Harris, Bradley; Cowles, Geoffrey; Stokesbury, Kevin, "Surficial sediment stability on Georges Bank, in the Great South Channel and on eastern Nantucket Shoals," Continental Shelf Research, Volume 49, September 23, 2012, p. 65-72

Harris, Bradley; Stokesbury, Kevin, "The spatial structure of local surficial sediment characteristics on Georges Bank, USA," Continental Shelf Research, Volume 30, Issue 17, October 15, 2010, p. 1840-1853

NOAA/NMFS Unallied Science Project, Cooperative Agreement, " Bottom Net Trawl Fishing Gear Effect on the Seabed: Investigation of Temporal and Cumulative Effects." December 2005

Stokesbury, Kevin; Harris, Bradley, "Impact of limited short-term sea scallop fishery on epibenthic community of Georges Bank closed areas," Marine Ecology Progress Series, Volume 307, January 24, 2006, p. 85-100

New study shows just how little damage is done to the sea bed by trawling - in fact, less than the elements!

Just the sort of long-term rigorous study needed by the fishing community to help  counteract the claims made by the likes of HFW and other less-than-well-informed-parties as to the true nature of the fishing industry. No, it there are obviously exceptions to this study but hard, not anecdotal evidence is needed.

Impact of limited short-term sea scallop fishery on epibenthic community of Georges Bank closed areas

Kevin D. E. Stokesbury*, Bradley P. Harris School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 706 South Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford, Massachusetts 02744-1221, USA

Email: kstokesbury@umassd.edu

ABSTRACT: On Georges Bank, 2 areas that had been closed to sea scallop fishing since 1994 were opened for a limited harvest from August 2000 to February 2001. The effects of this limited short-term fishery on the epibenthic community were examined using a ‘before/after, control/impact’ environmental design conducted with video surveys. A centric systematic survey with 1379 stations placed on a 1.57 km grid, with 4 video quadrats collected at each station (3.235 m2 per quadrat equaling 17789 m2 total sample area), was completed in 2 control and 2 impact areas before and after the fishery. The sea scallops Placopecten magellanicus and starfishes (primarily Asterias vulgaris) comprised more than 84% of the fauna. Changes in the number of taxonomic categories and the density of individuals within each category in the areas impacted by the fishery were similar to changes in the control areas that remained closed to fishing. Further, sediment composition shifted between surveys more than epibenthic faunal composition, suggesting that this community is adapted to a dynamic environment. The limited short-term sea scallop fishery on Georges Bank appeared to alter the epibenthic community less than the natural dynamic environmental conditions.

KEY WORDS:

Sea scallop · Video · Georges Bank · Fishing impact · Before/after, control/impact BACI · Closed areas