WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) April 23, 2013 — NOAA Fisheries today announced its FY2014 budget request.
Listen to the presentation from Assistant Administrator Sam Rauch
Listen to the presentation questions & answer session
Bluefins lure famed fishing boat captain Linda Greenlaw to Portland, Maine
April 22, 2013 — Greenlaw, an Isle au Haut resident, author and world-renowned fisherman, will offer chartered fishing tours for bluefin tuna out of Portland Harbor through Browne Trading Co. on Commercial Street.
"It's really fun fishing," Greenlaw said of landing a hard-fighting bluefin with a rod and reel.
Trips will be aboard the Hazel Browne, a 46-foot Wesmac owned by Rod Mitchell, the owner of Browne Trading Co.
The boat, which is being prepared for the fishing season, will be berthed at Port Harbor Marine in South Portland starting May 5.
Rob Evon will captain the Hazel Browne during charter trips, which will cost $1,100 for 11 hours or $1,700 for an overnight trip. It will cost an additional $1,000 to fish with Greenlaw, who will go on selected trips because of her limited availability.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald
Mussel farm OK’d off Cape Cod
April 22, 2013 — On Tuesday, selectmen approved a deepwater aquaculture grant for Chatham Fisheries on the site of one of their existing weir grants north of Monomoy Island. The Eldredges will use the bottom to try and grow mussels in bags – they look like “socks” said Shannon Eldredge – over the next 18 months.
“If it works for you it could open up possibilities for other folks,” said Selectman Sean Summers.
Selectmen Chairman Florence Seldin agreed.
“It could be extremely advantageous for Chatham fishermen,” she said.
The experiment has already received support from several committees and department heads, including the shellfish advisory committee and the shellfish constable. At the meeting Bob Duncanson, the director of health and environment, also voiced his support saying that the endeavor could help provide further research in how filter feeders can improve water quality.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Day
NORTH CAROLINA: Often feuding fishing interests team up on marina
April 22, 2013 — A one-of-a-kind project in which recreational and commercial fishermen will be working together is about to take shape at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s waterfront property in Manns Harbor.
Historically, the commercial and recreational fishing industries have been at odds on a variety of issues.
But with the creation of the Manns Harbor Commission by the Dare County Board of Commissioners, commercial and recreational fishermen will be working side-by-side in helping to manage the property.
When the state bought the land, it was envisioned as a dual-use facility to include boat ramps for recreational fishermen and kayakers, and slips for commercial use and educational facilities.
Manns Harbor residents and others were strong advocates for state funding to preserve the site’s historical role as a working waterfront.
Locals might remember the old property as a private marina, hotel and, at times, a sometime raucous bar.
Read the full story at the Outer Banks Voice
German turbine city offers model for New Bedford development
CUXHAVEN, Germany — April 22, 2013 — This small city on the North Sea is more than 3,000 miles from New Bedford, but for Whaling City officials trying to build local tourism while luring a new industry to town, the similarities between the two places twinkle with promise.
A bleary-eyed New Bedford trade delegation stumbled off the bus Sunday morning in Cuxhaven, a longtime seaside escape and former fishing hub in northern Germany that has received millions of public dollars from the European Union and state of Lower Saxony to create port infrastructure for the offshore wind industry.
The group, which includes city and state officials, business leaders and professionals involved with workforce development, is visiting Germany as part of a weeklong fact-finding mission focused on offshore wind.
After a sightseeing tour of Cuxhaven on Sunday, New Bedford officials said they were as impressed by the offshore activity as with the seemingly harmonious coexistence of industrial facilities with about eight miles of popular beachfront, including areas of protected environmental lands.
"What I found very interesting was how seemingly well-integrated it is," said Mayor Jon Mitchell, who will sign a "Sister City" agreement with Cuxhaven officials tonight.
"They've been able to accommodate recreation, fishing, cargo and offshore wind very well."
Cuxhaven, which sits on the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River, developed more than 100 years ago as a beach town and many of its historic buildings date to the turn-of-the-century, when it served as a base for the Imperial Navy.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times
Fed cuts to mean NOAA furloughs
April 22, 2013 — The $85 billion federal budget sequestration — a stopgap solution to the federal spending cut impasse between the White House and Democratic allies in Congress and conservative Republicans — will force a temporary and likely brief shutdown sometime after May of NOAA’s Northeast regional office, which employs about 200 people in Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park.
Globally, NOAA has 12,500 employees, including hundreds involved in weather forecasting.
The furloughs and the dates have not been finalized, said Allison McHale, a special assistant to Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard. A NOAA source in Gloucester said the likely duration of the furloughs was four days. Who would be furloughed and whether some employees would be bypassed has not been announced, the source said.
“Continued fiscal uncertainty and tight budgets have required that many government agencies, including NOAA, make tough choices,” NOAA’s director of communications, Ciaran Clayton, said in an email Friday. “Unfortunately, after much serious deliberation, in order to help address current budget shortfalls, we are moving forward with union consultations in order to implement furloughs across the agency,”
“When looking at the budget situation for fiscal 2013, we faced some serious challenges. While we have implemented options to help offset this, including a hiring freeze, unfortunately, furloughs are necessary to help close the gaps,” she said. “NOAA has taken steps to ensure that this step will not impact life- and property-saving missions, or any other critical products or services the American public has come to rely upon.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
Live Streaming Information – New England Fishery Management Council Meeting April 23-25
April 22, 2013 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
Dear Stakeholders and Interested Parties:
The public is invited to attend the April 23 – 25, 2013 New England Fishery Management Council meeting beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Hilton Hotel, 20 Coogan Boulevard, Mystic, CT. For further information about the location click here.
The webinar will be activated beginning at 8:30 a.m. and end at approximately 5:00 p.m. EDT or when the meeting adjourns.
Webinar Registration: For online access to the meeting, please register by clicking here. Once registered, you will receive an email confirmation with the information you will need to join the webinar.
Charges for Listening: There are no charges for accessing the webinar via your computer. If you would like to listen to the meeting on your telephone, please be aware that regular phone charges will apply.
Dial in number: 1 (415) 655-0057
Access Code: 181-295-660
Meeting Materials: Please consult the Council’s website at www.nefmc.org.
Questions: Feel free to call the Council office at (978-465-0492, ext.102), or email Pat Fiorelli at the meeting, pfiorelli@nefmc.org.
Read the agenda for the meeting here
Read directions to the meeting here
Boston businesses recovering after blasts, Legal Sea Foods closed 2 restaurants
April 18, 2013 — As of Thursday night, both sides of Boylston Street from Clarendon to Hereford are sealed off, and the MBTA Green Line trolley station in Copley Square is as well.
Legal Sea Foods closed down not one but two restaurants in a matter of seconds Monday, at the Prudential Center and Copley Place, after the bombs went off, leaving thousands of dollars of unpaid-for and un-served food to be thrown out when staff could return a day later to what became a floor-to-ceiling sterilizing job.
"It’s a lot of uneaten food on plates, cellphones, sunglasses, people who just got up and took off," Legal president Roger Berkowitz said. The company is pushing to get the Pru and Copley restaurants reopened by 5 p.m. Friday.
"Getting back up will be cathartic. It will get back to a semblance of normalcy," Berkowitz said, adding, "In retrospect, yes, you know we did lose business over the course of the last x number of days. But that's sort of a secondary issue. Obviously you look at the bigger picture as Bostonians and business people and residents here … It doesn't mean you stop living your life, it doesn't mean you stop doing the things you like to do. It just means you have to be more aware of everything around you."
Read the full story and watch the video at NECN
Seeking stability, some Maine lobstermen join union
PORTLAND, Maine — April 21, 2013 — A union representing thousands of Maine's shipbuilding and paper mill workers now has its sights set on lobstermen.
With promises to fight bad legislation and negotiate prices for their catch, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has been recruiting fishermen in some of Maine's most lobster-reliant communities, including Vinalhaven, Stonington and Jonesport. So far, more than 250 fishermen have signed up for what will be called the IAM Maine Lobstering Union.
The idea of lobstermen joining a labor union may be at odds with the traditional image of the self-reliant, independent lobsterman, said Riley Poole, who has joined the union. But with fishermen getting rock-bottom prices for their catch and expenses continuing to rise, lobstermen have to do something to preserve their way of life and Maine's traditional fishing communities, he said.
"I'm looking toward the future and if other people don't, they won't be able to continue being independent," said Poole, 29, a fourth-generation fisherman. "They'll have to get a job somewhere else or work on a corporate boat."
Others aren't so sure.
"I think commercial fishermen are fiercely independent, and to give up that independence to an organization without any experience in the industry would be a mistake," said Stonington lobsterman Genevieve Kurilec-McDonald.
Maine has more than 5,000 licensed lobstermen who account for about 85 percent of the U.S. harvest of North Atlantic lobsters, which are caught from roughly Maine to New Jersey.
With lobster prices on the decline in recent years, fishermen have struggled. Last year's prices — $2.69 a pound on average, the lowest price since 1994 — prompted Vinalhaven fisherman Magnus Lane to call up the machinists union in December in search of information.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
Atlantic Herring Section Days Out Meeting Scheduled for April 29 at 9:30 AM
ARLINGTON, VA — April 19, 2013 — For immediate release:
Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire, and the Massachusetts will meet at 9:30 am on April 29, 2013 to discuss ‘days out’ measures for the 2013 fishing season in Area 1A. This meeting will take place at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Region 3 Office and Marine Fisheries Division, 225 Main Street, Durham NH 03824. Parking is limited at the office, so please try to carpool.
The Section set the 2013 Area 1A total allowable catch at 31,200 metric tons. An additional 295 metric tons was set aside for the fixed gear fishery and 1,425 metric tons was taken out for the 2011 overage in 1A for a new TAC of 29,480 metric tons. The Section agreed to seasonal quotas with 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31. Previously in 2012, the Section agreed to begin the June 1 – September 30 fishery by taking 5 days out of the fishery, allowing landing on Monday and Tuesday only.
Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring harvested from Area 1A until June 1, 2013.
Please contact Toni Kerns at (703) 842-0740 for more information.