Updates

Dover sole stuffed with crab and asparagus

Ingredients

  • 4 dover sole fillets
  • 8 fresh asparagus spears
  • 1 cup Dungeness crab meat
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped
  • 1 shallot, chopped
  • 1 tsp grated lemon peel
  • salt and pepper

Directions

Trim stalk end of asparagus. Wash and drain well.

In a sauce pot, combine heavy cream, shallot and fresh tarragon. Bring to a boil and then lower heat. Simmer until sole fillets are ready and stuffed.

Season fillets lightly with salt and freshly-ground pepper. Place two asparagus and 1/4 cup of crab meat on one end of sole. Roll into a log to wrap the fillet over filling.

Arrange prepared sole on a baking dish with seam side down. Sprinkle grated lemon peel on top of sole. Pour cream and tarragon mixture over fish to coat entirely.

Bake uncovered in a 350º oven until just cooked through, around 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Baked fish and potatoes with rosemary and garlic

This recipe can be made with lingcod, Pacific cod, halibut, or any other firm white fish. An easy weeknight dish for four.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound new potatoes, peeled (if desired), washed, and cut into wedges
  • An oven-to-table baking dish that can accommodate both the fish and the potatoes in one layer
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 or 5 fresh (not dried) rosemary sprigs
  • 4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
  • Fine sea salt
  • Black pepper ground fresh from the mill
  • A two-pound fillet (or fillets adding up to two pounds) from a firm-fleshed fish, such as Pacific cod, lingcod, or rockfish
  • 2 tablespoons fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Place the potato wedges in the baking dish, pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over them, add 2 sprigs of rosemary, all the garlic cloves, and salt, and pepper (may also mince garlic, if desired). Toss thoroughly. Put the dish in the preheated oven.

After 15 minutes, remove the dish to turn the potatoes over, then put it back in the oven. Cook until the potatoes feel tender when tested with a fork, another 10 minutes or so.

Remove the dish from the oven. Push the potatoes to the sides, making room in the center for the fish fillet to lie flat.

Wash the fish fillet, pat it dry with paper towels, and lay it flat in the dish, skin side down. Strip the leaves from the remaining rosemary sprigs, scatter them over the fish, add salt and pepper, and sprinkle the bread crumbs and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over the fillet. Return the dish to the oven and bake for 14 minutes. Let the dish settle out of the oven for 3 to 4 minutes before bringing it to the table.

2016 Electronic monitoring actions

In March, the Council received an update on individual fishing quota fixed-gear and bottom trawl exempted fishing permit (EFP) activity.

The Council extended the expiration date of the electronic monitoring EFPs for the bottom trawl, non-whiting mid-water trawl, whiting mid-water trawl, and fixed gear catch share fisheries through 2018. The EFPs were to end when fleetwide regulations were put in place. This was expected for whiting midwater trawl fisheries and fixed gear fisheries in the spring of 2018.

In April, the Council modified their final preferred alternative for electronic monitoring for the fixed-gear fishery:

  1. Individual Vessel Monitoring Plan expiration was changed from 1 year to no expiration;
  2. Declaration of electronic monitoring use was changed from annual declaration to no limit on frequency – declaration stands until changed;
  3. Data Transfer Process removed shoreside monitor and retained only vessel operator and crew;
  4. Video and data processing was clarified that the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission should be eligible to be a 3rd-party video reviewer.

The Council also recommended the following changes based on Groundfish Electronic Monitoring Advisory Committee (GEMPAC) recommendations:

  1. Remove references to particular modes of communication (i.e., email).
  2. Discuss in the preamble of the proposed rule National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) standards for electronic monitoring providers to provide free litigation support to NMFS.
  3. Include a one-page electronic monitoring application process for existing electronic monitoring participants to reduce the paperwork burden for the industry.
  4. Include a general statement in the regulations that would require electronic monitoring providers to comply with state and Federal warranty statutes.

The Council recommended maintaining the proposed three-year record retention requirement but specified that it be reviewed before transitioning to third-party video reviewers, in order to reduce the time required for electronic monitoring providers to retain records.

Finally, the Council deemed the draft regulations as meeting the intent of the whiting final preferred alternative (see November 2015 Decision Summary for whiting electronic monitoring final preferred alternatives) and for the fixed gear fishery, with the expectation that NMFS would incorporate the final preferred alternatives and other Council recommendations. NMFS’s proposed rule for whiting and fixed gear fisheries was available on Oct 6, 2016.

2015: Council looks at electronic monitoring for whiting and fixed-gear IFQ fleets

The Council received a report, cost analysis, and draft regulations for an electronic monitoring program for the whiting midwater trawl fishery in November. The Council confirmed its final preferred alternatives for the whiting fishery at the same meeting. The Council’s intent was to have regulations applicable fleet-wide in place by the 2017 season (May 15, 2017 or earlier).

Also in November, the Council received an update on potential implementation of an electronic monitoring program for the IFQ fixed gear fleet along with the whiting fishery electronic monitoring program. The Council asked the GEMPAC and GEMTAC to review regulations for the whiting and fixed gear fisheries over the winter.

2014: Final preferred alternatives developed

In April 2014 the Council heard an update on the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission study on electronic monitoring, received a new draft analysis of alternatives, and reviewed exempted fishing permit (EFP) applications. The Council approved preliminary EFPs and asked that applicants consider resubmitting applications in June with certain alternations, mainly limiting the number of vessels involved and requiring up to 100 percent observer coverage. The Council also requested that the EFPs address how halibut viability assessments could be conducted without human observers, with the intention that halibut retention not be permitted.

In May 2014 the groundfish electronic monitoring committees met to discuss initial program alternatives and options that had been adopted for analysis. The Groundfish Electronic Monitoring Policy Advisory Committee (GEMPAC) revised and added some options for further Council consideration.

In June, the Council reviewed the draft analysis and modified some of the regulatory options. The Council also received four revised EFPs and recommended that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) implement them for the whiting midwater trawl, non-whiting midwater trawl, fixed gear, and bottom trawl fisheries in 2015 and 2016. Specifically, the Council recommended the electronic monitoring EFPs be issued to test electronic monitoring in the fisheries on in limited capacity with some additional permit conditions.

In September 2014, the Council reviewed the draft analysis for regulatory development of the electronic monitoring program. It included the new options added by the Council in June. The Council reviewed the GEMPAC report and other advisory body reports, and picked its final preferred alternatives for an electronic monitoring program for all groundfish fisheries operating under the trawl catch shares program, contingent on review before final implementation.

To preserve the conservation and accountability aspects of the individual fishing quota program, the Council told NMFS that the electronic monitoring program must accurately capture discard events (i.e., whether discard has occurred), amount of discard (i.e., volume in weight and size of individual fish), disposition of discard (i.e., consider providing survivability credit for released fish, such as halibut), and rare events (e.g., catch and discard of rebuilding rockfish, by species).

In developing performance standards and accountability measures, the Council recommended NMFS consider the economic incentives to misreport or underreport catches and mortalities of overfished rockfish and Pacific halibut.

The Council noted that adequate enforcement, with strong consequences in place for violations, was key to success in ensuring compliance with the electronic monitoring program.

The preferred alternatives and options were tested using the EFPs. Testing began in the spring of 2015 and continued through 2018.

2013: GEMPAC and GEMTAC created, alternatives developed

In 2013 the Council continued to consider the use of electronic monitoring for the trawl catch share program.

The Council decided the program would focus on monitoring the compliance required for individual accountability of catch and discard, as opposed to biological data collection or other scientific monitoring (such protected species interactions).

In April, the Council adopted regulatory objectives, reviewed a 2012 electronic monitoring field study report by Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and approved recommendations for the 2013 field study. The studies focused on comparison of video and human observer data on retained and discarded catch.

In May, NMFS released its policy for Electronic Technologies and Fishery Dependent Data Collection.

In June, the Council established the Groundfish Electronic Monitoring Policy Advisory Committee (GEMPAC) and the Groundfish Electronic Monitoring Technical Advisory Committee (GEMTAC) to focus on developing alternatives and options for electronic monitoring. The Council established a timeline for considering electronic monitoring, reviewed a white paper on performance standards for an electronic monitoring program, and received a final 2012 field study report from PSMFC.

In August, both of the committees met to further the Council scoping process. The GEMPAC developed a draft set of electronic monitoring program alternatives for the Council’s consideration in September 2013. At the same meeting, the Council asked the GEMPAC to continue developing alternatives. Specifically, the Council asked the GEM Committees to discuss a “phased-in” approach for electronic monitoring, starting with midwater trawl and fixed-gear fisheries, with a separate phase for bottom trawl fisheries. The Council also asked the committees to discuss the use of data logger systems, to discuss alternatives for an electronic monitoring program that includes species that may be discarded under maximize retention fisheries, and to explore ways to minimize discards for safety reasons.

The committees met again in October. The GEMPAC refined the draft alternatives and developed a report with recommendations for Council consideration in November 2013. At that meeting, the Council received a draft set of alternatives for an electronic monitoring program, revised them as recommended by the Enforcement Consultants, and moved forward with further analysis.

The Council also scheduled consideration of special, out-of-cycle exempted fishing permit (EFP) proposals for electronic monitoring, with maximized retention requirements. The Council announced that it would accept EFP applications at the April 2013 meeting. At the GEMPAC meeting in March, applicants received feedback for refinement of their EFP applications prior to submission to the Council.