PROVIDENCE—
Are Rhode Island's fish stocks doing better or worse? According to the state
Department of Environmental Management (DEM), local fish and shellfish are
healthier than it may seem.
“I
think if there is one thing we could all resolve to do, it is to highlight the
positives, because so many of the fishing press is about cod and groundfish
collapse and disasters and there really ... are a lot positives and a lot more
we can do to promote it,” DEM director Janet Coit said at a recent hearing of
the Special Senate Task Force on Fisheries.
Monthly
surveys by a DEM research vessel show that the total volume of fish swimming in
Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound has been constant from year to year,
said Mark Gibson, DEM’s deputy chief of Marine Resources.
Yet,
the health of individual fish stocks change. Gibson ranked the most popular
fish and shellfish.
Squid, the most-caught
commercial fish, is considered fully rebuilt. Gibson, however, said more
research is needed to understand the science of species that have short lives.
Sea scallops earned
Gibson’s highest ranking. “They are considered the gold standard of the New
England Fisheries Management Council,“ he said. “They are very well managed.
Industry and science cooperates to generate the best science can be.”
Summer flounder also earned a top ranking.
Quahogs are
well below their peak from 20 or 30 years ago, Gibson said. “That’s of some
concern.” More research is anticipated on quahogs from a new partnership
between the University of Rhode Island and DEM.
Blue fish and monkfish are
considered stable populations.
Striped bass stocks
are considered fully rebuilt and stable.
Cod is unstable, but
has been appearing off Block Island.
“Overall
it looks like fairly good news,” said Sen. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown.
The
DEM also touted new programs to benefit local fishermen, such as a plan to
address the surge in Atlantic herring and restore menhaden stocks. DEM’s marine
fisheries regulations will be simplified and shrunk from 361 pages to 100
pages. This spring, a $1 million federal grant will fund low-interest loans for
ground fishermen.
As
part of an overall aquaculture initiative, an oyster restoration project is
underway for restoring oysters in Rhode Island waters.
Commercial fishing
Since the 1990s, the tonnage of seafood caught is down by almost half due to the decline of groundfish stocks and heavy regulation, according to Gibson. The dollar value and purchasing power of landings is about half of what it was in the 1980s.
Squid
by far generates the most revenue for commercial fishing, at $20 million.
Lobster sales generate about $13 million. Sea scallops earn $7 million. The
Rhode Island fleet has 1,506 permitted state and federal fishing boats. The
industry employs 4,968 workers and generates $201 million in annual sales.
Chris
Joy of Seafreeze Ltd., a large producer of frozen seafood, based out of the
Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, asked the commission to encourage
federal regulators for real-time management of short-lived species such as
butterfish and squid.
“Sometimes
(regulators) use trawl surveys that are five years old to manage fish and squid
stocks. This makes no sense," he said. "They’re generations too
late.”
Joy
also wants Rhode Island to secure a seat on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management
Council, so that other states don’t block policies that help Rhode Island. “Our
biggest competitor, based in Cape May, New Jersey, does not want Rhode Island
on the council.”
Sosnowski
praised Seafreeze for its plan to open a fish processing facility in Point
Judith. A project that is expected to create 40 new jobs.
Recreational fishing
Gibson noted that recreational fishing delivers nearly the same economic value to Rhode Island as commercial fishing. Recreational fishing consists of 151,000 anglers, spending $135 million a year, while creating 2,056 jobs.
Last
year, 5 million fish were caught through more than a million excursions on
charter boats, private boats and shore fishing. The top five fish caught are
scup, bluefish, black sea bass, summer flounder and tautog.
Climate change
“So there is dramatic changes taking place,” Gibson said. “This is being seen in many places around the world. It’s probably associated with climate change. (It's) creating winners and losers.”
Species
such as mullet and spot fish are now common in Rhode Island waters, and
commercial fishermen can catch them due to a lack of regulations, Gibson said.
Seasonal
fish, such as scup, squid, butterfish, summer flounder and striped bass, have
increased dramatically and are now more common than resident fish.
“Narragansett Bay is now more hospitable to fish from the mid-Atlantic area,”
Gibson said. “(The bay) is less hospitable to resident (fish) that naturally
evolved for the southern New England area.”
Offshore wind
DEM said it’s collaborating with the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), URI, the Office of Energy Resources, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the fishing community on offshore wind projects.
Bill
McElroy, of the Rhode Island Lobstermen’s Association, was initially a skeptic
of offshore wind. “At this point I have to say it’s been a pleasure to work
with Deepwater Wind,” McElroy said. He called Deepwater Wind “a good corporate
citizen” and praised them for engaging the fishing community.
“They’ve
got plenty of people in the press that are happy to give them a hard time. I
thought it would be good to point out they are trying to do some good as
well," McElroy said.
Four initiatives
Coit outlined the DEM’s main projects. Many rolling out this spring.
•
Seafood Marketing Collaborative. It has a new logo and website. This effort will promote retail sales of local seafood. With
the help of Farm Fresh Rhode Island, it will establish and manage a market and
distribution system.
“We
need to make it clear to the consumer when they are buying it at the farmers
market, restaurant or marketplace that it is a Rhode Island fresh product,”
Coit said.
•
Infrastructure Improvements. A $3 million improvement project is underway at
the Port of Galilee. The project is funded through a federal grant and state
funds. One project will include an upgrade of the electrical system at the
port, so that fishermen aren’t running their diesel engines as frequently while
docked.
•
Shellfish Management Plan. The DEM is part of a collaborative plan with Roger
Williams University, CRMC, Rhode Island Sea Grant and URI. The plan will aid
aquaculture and wild shellfish harvests.
•
Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Institute. A research-based institute will be
created in collaboration with URI. “We came together and realized that we had a
common set of challenges, which is we don’t have enough resources to do the
research that we wanted,” Coit said.