April 1, 2021 — Days after taking office, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping new executive order to conserve 30% of the nation’s total land area and 30% of all waters it controls by 2030.
Leaked US intelligence document calls for support of South American countries’ fight against Chinese IUU
April 1, 2021 — A leaked document originating from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis – part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – has recommended the creation of a multilateral coalition with South American nations led by the U.S. to challenge China’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and trade practices.
The document was obtained by news service Axios and revealed in an article published 23 March.
Additional $255 million aid from CARES Act; NMFS extends observer waivers
April 1, 2021 — An additional $255 million in fisheries assistance funding is coming from Congressional CARES Act authorization of last year to help fishermen and related businesses hit by covid-19 income losses, NMFS announced Thursday.
Provided through the Congress’ Consolidated Appropriations Act of 202, the funding will be allocated to states and territories with coastal and marine fishery participants affected by the pandemic.
“Our priority is to award these funds as quickly as possible using existing processes established under the CARES Act,” said Paul Doremus, the acting assistant administrator for NMFS. “As a next step, we will use these allocations to provide additional funds to our partners – the interstate marine fisheries commissions, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands –to disburse funds to address direct or indirect fishery-related losses as well as subsistence, cultural, or ceremonial impacts related to covid-19.”
The commissions then will work with each state and territory to revise their prior spend plans to be consistent with the Consolidated Appropriations Act, the CARES Act, and NOAA’s guidance. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will submit spend plans to the agency directly.
MASSACHUSETTS: Vaccine site for seafood workers to open next weekend in New Bedford
April 1, 2021 — Meat processing plants have experienced some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks of any workplace in the country. Officials feared the same would be true of the New Bedford’s fish houses.
Last spring, Mayor Jon Mitchell’s administration passed an emergency order that set strict safety protocols for seafood companies and other manufacturers, threatening fines of $300 per day against companies that fail to provide PPE and enforce social distancing.
And on Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the mayor and other public officials introduced plans for a new vaccine clinic targeting the workers who kept America’s most valuable fishing port operating during the pandemic.
“This center is about protecting our essential workers,” Warren said. “It is about treating our fishermen with respect. It is about treating our food workers with respect.”
MASSACHUSETTS: Sen. Warren returns to New Bedford, touting $3.9M for waterfront vaccines
April 1, 2021 — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren made her first visit to New Bedford in more than two years on Wednesday, touring a new federally funded vaccination center and expressing gratitude to essential workers in the food sector.
Warren joined Mayor Jon Mitchell to inspect a waterfront building that the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center is turning into a vaccination site designed to serve employees in the nearby fish processing plants. It will begin offering Johnson & Johnson doses on April 10.
“This center is about protecting our essential workers,” Warren said. “It is about treating our fishermen with respect. It is about treating our food workers with respect.”
The Community Health Center has received a $3.9 million grant under the newly enacted American Rescue Plan Act that will help cover the cost of the vaccination site. The building where the shots will be administered is on Hervey Tichon Avenue, and was recently given to the city by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which had been using it for the Superfund cleanup of New Bedford Harbor.
“This center is a way of saying thank you, and opening up vaccinations so they are here, for the people who have been here for the rest of America over the past year,” Warren said.
Extended and New Slow Zones South of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard to Protect Right Whales
April 1, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries announces the extension of Slow Zones set to expire south of Nantucket and south of Martha’s Vineyard and establishes another Slow Zone south of Nantucket. On March 31, 2021 several aggregations of right whales were detected south of Nantucket, MA and south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA by the NOAA North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey. These three right whale Slow Zones are in effect immediately through April 14, 2021.
Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through them at 10 knots or less.
Slow Zone Coordinates:
South of Nantucket, MA, March 30 – April 14, 2021 *NEW*
41 01 N
40 19 N
069 50 W
070 46 W
South of Nantucket, MA, February 26 – April 14, 2021 *Extended*
41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35W
South of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, March 7 – April 14, 2021 *Extended*
41 21 N
40 41 N
070 15 W
071 06 W
See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.
MAINE: Fishing gear removed from path of offshore wind project survey
April 1, 2021 — Maine Marine Patrol officials and local fishermen have made headway over the last week in clearing fishing gear from a 23-mile long path being surveyed for an offshore wind development project, state marine officials say.
The monthlong survey for the New England Aqua Ventus project began earlier this month, but the presence of fishing gear on the path was making it difficult for the vessel conducting a survey of the seafloor to do its work, according to a project spokesperson and Maine Department of Marine Resources officials.
Fishermen were asked to move their gear in advance of the survey, but given the contentious issue of wind development of the Gulf of Maine, some fishermen felt they shouldn’t have to move their traps for a project that they feel threatens their livelihood.
NOAA allocates more CARES Act funding, but some states want more
March 31, 2021 — An additional USD 255 million (EUR 217.3 million) in CARES Act fisheries relief funding has been released to states, territories, and tribal entities to help fisheries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, once again, questions have been raised about the allocation process.
The move comes nearly a year after USD 300 million (EUR 255.6 million) was allocated to U.S. fisheries in the first round of funding.
New Rules to Protect Turtles From Shrimp Nets Postponed
March 31, 2021 — New rules designed to keep endangered and threatened sea turtles from drowning in some inshore shrimp nets are being postponed, and federal regulators are considering whether to expand the rules, officials said Tuesday.
Coronavirus pandemic restrictions over the past year have limited in-person workshops and training opportunities for fishermen to install escape hatches called turtle excluder devices, or TEDs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Therefore, the new rules announced in 2019 will take effect Aug. 1 instead of on Thursday.
“The delay … is to allow NOAA Fisheries additional time for training fishermen, ensuring TEDs are built and installed properly, and for responding to installation and maintenance problems when the regulations go in effect,” the statement said.
Six species of sea turtles, all of them endangered or threatened, are found in U.S. waters.
The rule requires the devices on skimmer trawls pulled by boats at least 40 feet (12 meters) long.
NOAA Fisheries is reconsidering whether to require the devices on boats shorter than 40 feet long, “and whether additional rulemaking is currently warranted,” the statement said.
MASSACHUSETTS: Nearly 90 endangered right whales spotted off Cape Cod in single day in March; Boaters urged to slow down to avoid injuring endangered animal
March 31, 2021 — The federal government is urging boaters off the coast of Massachusetts to slow down to avoid injuring right whales, as dozens of the endangered mammals were spotted off Cape Cod in a single day earlier this month.
Eighty-nine North Atlantic right whales were sighted in Cape Cod Bay on March 21, the most documented in a single day in the 2021 season, according to the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving marine mammals and ecosystems. That sightings included three mother-calf pairs, the organization noted.
The nonprofit began its day surveying the south of the bay from the air and found a large group of right whales offshore of Sandy Neck. All three mothers were seen feeding near the surface, maintaining contact with their calves nearby, the organization said.
Further north, more groups of right whales were discovered, one of whom, named Marlin, “appeared to be having the time of his life, tail-slapping at the surface,” according to the CCS.
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