Tag: fisheries

Final Decision Pertaining to the Marine Fisheries Public Hearing Items

Posted on behalf of RI DEM:

Please see the Final Decision Pertaining to the March 25, 2014 Marine Fisheries Public Hearing Items on several species. Note: Decision on Commercial and Recreational Conch can be found on Page 6, #12.

This document offers a description of the process and actions decided at the Marine Fisheries Council, including rationale for the decisions made. These Director’s Decisions for other actions can be found here.

Any questions, contact Mark.Gibson@DEM.RI.gov

The Secret Life of Whelks

Shared on behalf of 41°N, Rhode Island’s Ocean and Coastal Magazine, a publication of Rhode Island Sea Grant and the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island.

by Rudi Hempe
Photos by Melissa Devine

“Underwater, whelks are slow moving sea snails that like to pry open and devour quahogs. They are also the unlikely focus of a campaign by an energetic woman who catches them for a living to protect her chosen occupation.”

“Katie Eagan is a whelk fisherman, or as she and most of the other 200 – plus whelk fishermen in Rhode Island prefer to call themselves, a “conch fisherman,” even though the larger and quite different conchs live in far warmer waters down South.”

“At age 30, Eagan has fallen in love with a job that requires her to get up at dawn seven days a week to cruise parts of Narragansett Bay harvesting creatures that end up on plates in Asia and in the popular “snail salad” state side.”

Check out the full article here

Federal Legislation Proposed: Ocean Acidification

Shared on behalf of Tessa Getchis, Extension Educator of Connecticut Sea Grant.

EYES ON OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: Two House bills were introduced this week to promote research on ocean acidification, an issue biologists and the seafood industry are concerned about. Maine Democrat Chellie Pingree introduced a bill to require the NOAA study the impact of acidification on coastal communities; Washington state Democrat Derek Kilmer and Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler also introduced legislation that would direct federal agencies to create competitions to promote research and potentially open new ways of managing acidification.

Ocean acidification could be a real threat to the fisheries that are the lifeblood of coastal communities,” Pingree said. “The truth is, we don’t fully understand how it would impact a vital industry like the lobster fishery and what the effect would be on Maine. We know what’s causing ocean acidification but now we need to better understand how hard it is going to hit coastal economies.’ More on Pingree’s bill is here: https://pingree.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pingree-introduces-bill-study-impact-ocean-acidification-coastal Kilmer and Herrera Beutler’s bill is here: http://1.usa.gov/1mbY1DF

 

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