February 9, 2023 — FOX Business’ Madison Alworth reports from Islip, New York, where fishermen are worried rising fuel prices and wind turbine farm plans put jobs and profits at risk.
The Catch Share Reform Coalition goes to Congress
February 8, 2023 — Reacting to Will Sennott’s July 2022 ProPublica story about a European family owning a large chunk of New England groundfish quota, a consortium of fishermen and others from around the country have landed in Washington D.C. and will be meeting with the members of House and Senate Committees to advocate for more fishermen-friendly systems.
From Feb. 6-9 the Catch Share Reform Coalition will be raising awareness in Congress of the failures of Catch Shares and other Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) management schemes.
Consortium members cited Larry Marino, a representative of Louisiana’s Attorney General Office, as a high-profile critic of catch shares. Marino spoke at a recent meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council of the need to reform catch share programs.
Blue Harvest Fisheries Completes Purchase of New, Modern Groundfish Vessel
February 8, 2023 — The following was released by Blue Harvest Fisheries:
Blue Harvest Fisheries has completed the purchase of its newest, most modern groundfish vessel, the newly-christened Nobska. The new vessel is Blue Harvest’s latest investment in its groundfish fleet, and represents the first step in implementing the company’s plans for the future of its groundfish operations.
The Nobska, built in 2019 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts and originally known as the Francis Dawn, is one of the newest groundfish vessels currently operating in New England. It has several innovative features that allows it to land in-demand, premium groundfish. These include a state-of-the-art electronics system, and a slurry ice/vat system for the fish hold that allows the Nobska to keep groundfish fresher for longer, and to land a higher-quality product at the dock.
The Nobska is the first of Blue Harvest’s new investments to upgrade its groundfish operations and will be the replacement for an older Blue Harvest vessel, also named the Nobska. The purchase is part of the company’s strategy to assemble a new, modern fleet. By investing in newer vessels that can spend more days fishing every year, run more efficiently, and require less maintenance, Blue Harvest hopes to maintain its position as an innovator in the New England groundfish fishery.
“We are excited for the opportunities that a new, modern vessel like the Nobska will provide for our groundfish operations,” said Chip Wilson, CEO of Blue Harvest Fisheries. “We are committed to the long-term future of this fishery, and this purchase is the first step in our strategy to remain involved here in Massachusetts for years to come.”
Originally based in Maine, the new Nobska will fish for groundfish in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, landing its catch in both New Bedford and Gloucester. Blue Harvest will be working with the Nobska’s current captain, Aldie Leeman, who has been with the vessel since its initial launch and who brings decades of fishing experience to the company. Blue Harvest will also be working in the coming weeks to transfer the groundfish permit from the old Nobska to the new replacement vessel.
About Blue Harvest Fisheries
Blue Harvest Fisheries is a leading supplier of premium quality seafood sustainably harvested from MSC certified fisheries in the U.S. The company operates its own fleet of groundfish vessels as well as offload facilities in New Bedford and Fairhaven, MA and an SQF certified waterfront manufacturing facility in New Bedford, MA. The Blue Harvest Fisheries product line features haddock, ocean perch (Acadian redfish) and Atlantic pollock (saithe) as well as other groundfish harvested in the waters off New England. Blue Harvest Fisheries products are sold fresh and frozen to leading restaurants, wholesalers and distributors across the U.S. The company also offers custom processing and is a supplier of private label products to retailers and food service distributors.
Despite a pause on new regulations, U.S. and Canadian lobstermen see big challenges ahead
February 7, 2023 — After a two-year hiatus, members of the U.S. and Canadian lobster fisheries met in Portland over the weekend to discuss challenges facing their industry. Top of mind is how the industry will prepare before new federal regulations designed to protect endangered right whales begin in six years.
Fisheries in Maine had late last year expressed relief about the years-long delay in the rules change included in a federal spending bill, as it bought the industry more time to research and test new fishing techniques and other measures aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales.
Legal sizes for lobsters could change to protect population
February 7, 2023 — The rules about the minimum and maximum sizes of lobsters that can be trapped off New England could soon become stricter, potentially bringing big changes to one of the most valuable seafood industries in the country.
Fishers are required to measure lobsters from eyes to tail and must throw back the crustaceans if they’re too large or too small. The rules, which can vary slightly based on fishing grounds, are intended to maintain a breeding population of the lobsters in key areas such as the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.
The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering changing the standards by a fraction of an inch in some of the fishing grounds. The commission said it’s considering the changes because of a worrisome lack of baby lobsters growing off New England.
The changes would arrive at a time when the lobster industry is experiencing record highs in both catch and value, and consumers are paying more for lobsters — already a premium product — than they were just a few years ago. The industry is also challenged by warming oceans and new fishing rules designed to protect rare whales.
Offshore wind energy plans in the Gulf take a back seat to oil drilling under new law
February 6, 2023 — President Joe Biden’s administration is tapping the brakes on offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico to make way for a new fast-tracked effort to open more federal waters to oil and gas drilling.
The move, which runs counter to Biden’s ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and speeding the growth of renewable energy, will delay the first-ever auction of wind energy lease areas in the Gulf by at least six months.
Wind energy companies had been lining up to bid on a 174,000-acre area south of Lake Charles and a 508,000-acre area near Galveston, Texas in late December. The two lease areas have the potential to generate enough power for almost 3 million homes, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. But Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act put those plans on hold, likely until sometime this summer, federal regulators confirmed this week.
18 NGOs call for US to implement restrictions on seafood imports from Costa Rica
February 3, 2023 — Costa Rica is violating at least two international fisheries conventions and U.S. law by its failure to adequately protect endangered shark and commercial billfish populations, according to a coalition of 18 marine conservation organizations.
The group, which includes MarViva, Marine Watch International, For The Oceans Foundation, Sea Legacy, The SeaChange Agency, La Asociación Centro Restauración Especies Marinas Amenazadas (CREMA), and the Turtle Island Restoration Network, among others, said it presented a report including evidence of the violations to the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service Office of International Affairs Trade on 27 January, 2023.
NMFS, Massachusetts order gear removal for right whales on the move
February 3, 2023 — An unusual winter concentration of endangered North Atlantic right whales in Cape Cod Bay prompted Massachusetts state officials and the National Marine Fisheries Service to order a three-month removal of trap and pot fishing gear in the region through April 30.
The emergency rule announced NMFS this week covers the Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge where the gear closure is intended to reduce the risk of gear entanglement “when large numbers of whales are exiting Cape Cod Bay at the same time and place where fishermen are either fishing or may be staging their trap/pot fishing gear in preparation for the May 1 opening of federal waters in the Massachusetts Restricted Area,” according to the agency.
NMFS last imposed an similar emergency rule for the Massachusetts wedge area in April 2022. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries requested the NMFS action, as the state imposed its own state-waters seasonal restrictions effective Feb. 1.
What’s next for Pebble mine, now that the federal government has taken extraordinary action to stop it?
February 2, 2023 — After a decades-long controversy, the Biden administration took a rare step this week to stop the giant Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska. But observers of the project say the fight could live on in court for years to come.
In separate statements, mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership and the state of Alaska on Tuesday threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency after it issued a preemptive veto of the project using its special power under the Clean Water Act.
Conservation and tribal groups and other entities opposed to the mine have said they’re equally ready to fight back to support the agency’s decision, if it must defend itself in court. They’re also looking for additional protections for the Bristol Bay fishery, beyond the EPA action, through potential legislation in Congress.
The EPA action means the project can’t be permitted for construction, even if Pebble wins its ongoing administrative appeal of a 2020 decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the company’s permit application.
The decision blocks a project that would have been among the largest open-pit mines in the world. The mine would have unlocked billions of dollars in mineral wealth. But the agency says scientific and technical records dating back more than two decades show the mine would unacceptably harm the world’s largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery and about two dozen Alaska Native villages in the region.
Less certain is what will happen to the project in the court battle likely to follow, though people familiar with past vetoes by the EPA — made only three times in the last 30 years — suggest that Pebble has little hope of winning in court.
The EPA’s decision also would seem to dim financial prospects for the project, though a financial analyst who tracks stocks tied to Pebble said major mining companies will always have the Pebble deposit on their radars because of its massive potential value.
The project is located on state land 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near headwaters of the Bristol Bay fishery.
But Pebble Limited, led by small Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals, has shown remarkable resilience for many years. The project has survived the loss of major mining partners and resistance from the presidential administrations of Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Donald Trump and now Democrat Joe Biden.
Pebble is “like a zombie. They never die,” said Dan Cheyette, a vice president with the Bristol Bay Native Corp., the region’s Alaska Native corporation and a mine opponent. “We’re the persistent ones who will pursue every avenue we have to stop them.”
U.S. takes aim at global shark fin trade
February 2, 2023 — The U.S. is about to take a bite out of the shark fin trade.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is currently reviewing the funding and implementation of a long-awaited ban on the trafficking of shark fins through U.S. ports, a move that could disrupt their broader global trade.
NOAA’s review comes after President Joe Biden signed the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act into law in December. It’s a move that some scientists and researchers have fought for years, pointing to a deep debate about just how the U.S. should use its influence to end the global fin trade.
On one side, many experts including some in NOAA and its parent agency, the Department of Commerce, have argued that the new law will undo decades of U.S. work to encourage sustainable practices.
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