Other News

April 30, 2012 – Candidate says NH commercial fishermen, other small businesses plagued by too much government regulation.

Watch the video here.

 

April 30, 2012, OAKLAND, Calif.—A vintage Chinese fishing boat is going home to Taiwan more than a half-century after it crossed the ocean and landed in the San Francisco Bay area.

The Free China, a commercial vessel built about 100 years ago and thought to be one of the last salvageable boats of its kind, was loaded onto a Taiwanese freighter in Oakland on Monday for the return leg of its journey.

Dione Chen, the daughter of one of the six men who sailed the junk to California during a 1955 yacht race and made headlines with their daring voyage aboard the provocatively named Free China, says the Taiwan government plans to restore the boat and place it in a new maritime museum.

Chen, who lobbied to save the historic junk from a demolition yard, joined surviving crew members and members of the preservation effort aboard a small sail boat to bid the junk bon voyage as a crane lifted it onto the Yang Ming freighter for its 18-day trip.

Read the full story from the AP here.

 

 

SAVANNAH, Ga.—As government engineers work to keep the nation's fourth-busiest seaport from losing its competitive edge, they are also planning what amounts to a massive science project to ensure fish in the harbor can still breathe.

When the Savannah harbor is deepened to allow for supersized cargo ships, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to install a dozen machines that function like bubblers in a home aquarium to compensate for an expected drop in dissolved oxygen. The 20-foot-tall steel cones suck water from the river, swirl it with oxygen from a generator until the bubbles break down and then pump it back.

Buying and installing the machines costs a hefty $70 million, plus yearly operating costs of $1.2 million. And the manufacturer says they've never been used for a project of this scale.

Read the complete story by The AP at The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 26, 2012 – The following was released by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation:

BOSTON— April 26, 2012—The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is seeking outside parties interested in the opportunity to rehabilitate, reuse and maintain the Schooner Ernestina—the official ship of the Commonwealth. Through DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program, outside parties rehabilitate and maintain a historic property in return for a long-term lease. This is a unique opportunity to write the next chapter in the long and rich history of this national treasure.

“The Historic Curatorship Program demonstrates an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to preserving the history and culture of our park system,” said DCR Commissioner Edward M. Lambert, Jr. “By securing the long term preservation and maintenance of these historic resources, the partnership is a true win-win.”

DCR is not calling for formal proposals at this time, but is issuing a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to present the property and program to the general public, gauge general interest in the potential opportunity and collect information to guide the development of a formal Request for Proposals.

Responses to the RFP are due on Wednesday, July 25, 2012 by 5 p.m. An “open boat” will give respondents the opportunity to view the property, and is scheduled for June 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the schooner at the New Bedford State Pier. Parties interested in attending the open house should contact HCP.Requests@state.ma.us.

Schooner Ernestina, formerly known as the Effie M.Morrissey, was built in 1894 at the James and Tarr Shipyard for the Gloucester fleet and fished the Grand Banks until the 1920s. Purchased in 1926 by Canadian Captain Bob Bartlett, she sailed the arctic, collecting specimens for scientific institutions such as the Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural History. She broke wooden maritime records when she sailed to within 600 miles of the North Pole, and was later drafted into service during World War II. Saved from deterioration by Captain Henrique Mendes in 1948, Ernestina became a Cape Verdean packet ship and carried immigrants to the U.S. under the power of sail. Returned to the US in 1982 as a gift from the newly independent Cape Verdean people, she sailed as an educational vessel until 2005.

The RFEI describes the submission requirements and provides information on the property and the program, including a copy of a recent report which documents the ship’s current conditions and provides rehabilitation recommendations and cost estimates. Responses to the RFEI should briefly describe the respondent’s proposed reuse concept, experience and feasibility plan. Respondents will be added to the mailing list in anticipation of the release of a formal Request for Proposals.

Established in 1994, the Historic Curatorship Program matches some of the Commonwealth's significant historic resources with outside partners interested in providing rehabilitating and maintenance services in exchange for a long-term lease. Since the program’s inception, over $14 million in private funds has been leveraged toward the preservation of some of the state’s unused but significant historic properties. The program has become a national model, inspiring other government entities to add this innovative public-private partnership to their preservation toolbox.

To date, seventeen properties have been rehabilitated under the program, from the mountains of Berkshire County to the urban streets of Dorchester, from the banks of the Merrimack River in Lowell to the forests of Foxboro. Current uses for the properties include single-family homes, artist lofts, nonprofit groups, and events and lodging facilities. While the Ernestina is a very different kind of resource than the others in the program, the principles are the same – Curators are able to leverage their own ‘sweat equity’ or often that of volunteers towards preservation and management work.

 

 

April 24, 2012 – Established by Robert DeNiro, the Tribeca Film Festival has screened more than 1,200 films from over 80 countries since its first iteration in 2002. The 2012 festival goes from April 18-29. See the schedule of public screenings and purchase tickets here.

Fairhaven, written and directed by its star Tom O'Brien, is a beautifully observed film about the friendships of three grown men and what happens to them over the course of one weekend in their hometown of Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

Rooted in its evocative small fishing-town location, Fairhaven is O'Brien's first feature, premiering at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

Six years in development, and shot in only 18 days, O'Brien, a New Yorker, wrote the first draft of the script while visiting his mother, who was living in Fairhaven at the time.

"Chris [Messina] and I were friends for a long time and we were in a theatre company in New York and talked about wanting to make a movie together," O'Brien told me, in an interview.

O'Brien showed Messina his draft of the script and Messina loved it, and wanted to help him develop it.

"We worked on it slowly," said O'Brien, "because he was in Los Angeles and I was in New York. We would get together maybe three times a year for a week and do a week of script work. Meantime, I would be working on financing and reworking it and doing stuff on my own and he was having his career out in Los Angeles. It was a long process. I liked it like that because it allowed the script to grow organically."

Read the full story at Capital.

 

 

April 19, 2012 – A musical called "Six Pairs of Hands" and presented by the Regis College Theatre Company will debut Friday night at The Cape Ann Theater, also known as The Annie, at 1 Washington St.

And in coming to Gloucester, the presentation is returning to its roots — the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association.

The musical was created by Wendy Lement and her Regis students, based on oral histories obtained from interviewing members of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association, founded in 1969.

"The original musical honors the extraordinary lives and the political battles waged and won by these courageous women," said Lement in a prepared statement. There will be five performances in Gloucester, following a run at the Casey Theatre at Regis College in Weston where the cast received a standing ovation.

"They put their heart and soul into this production," said Nina Groppo, a member of the Gloucester Fisheremen's Wives since 1978. "It's very moving."

The students came to Gloucester where they interviewed fishermen's wives, including association president Angela Sanfilippo and vice president Sefatia Romeo.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

April 19, 2012, New York — Robert Pedigo has caught what is thought to be the largest Yellowfin tuna ever landed using fishing rod and reel – a 427.9-pounder – but the catch likely can’t be certified as a record because of a technical violation.

Pedigo reeled in the enormous tuna April 12 off Puerta Vallarta in Mexico, but it’s not eligible for record status by the certifying International Game Fish Association because someone else aboard the boat “Journeyman” touched the rod during Pedigo’s 30-minute struggle to land the fish.

“Yes, this fish is not going to be a world record because I touched the rod while Robert fought the fish,” Osuna said, the blog Phil Friedman Outdoors reported. “We never thought this fish was going to go over 400 pounds.”

They reportedly have not submitted the catch for record consideration.

IGFA regulations state that “the act of persons other than the angler in touching any part of the rod, reel, or line … either bodily or with any device, from the time a fish strikes or takes the bait or lure, until the fish is either landed or released” will generally disqualify the catch from consideration.

Read the full article here.

 

 

April 15, 2012 – Diminished but never extinguished describes Fairhaven's shipbuilding industry.

What was once a bustling set of shipyards servicing the world's largest whaling port may be reduced to a single shipyard that irregularly rolls out a new vessel, but pride in the storied seaside town's past remains strong.

"It may not be known to all of our readers that the business of shipbuilding was at one time prosecuted quite actively at the head of the Acushnet River," wrote Charles A. Harris in "Old-Time Fairhaven", one of the most widely read texts on Fairhaven history published in 1947.

According to Harris, though shipbuilding had been present in Fairhaven since the early 1700s, major shipbuilding efforts in town began with the construction of cod fishing ships. More than 30 such ships were built, with the first one finished in 1798.

"This is one of the earliest industries in Fairhaven," said Fairhaven Department of Tourism Director and "Mr. History Guy" Chris Richard.

Originally, whaling also came to Fairhaven and, for a brief moment, it was the second largest whaling port in the nation.

With New Bedford across the water, however, Fairhaven soon adapted to its larger neighbor's greater success at whaling. It became a town of builders, sailors, sail-makers and other marine trades, thus forging a cooperative rather than competitive relationship with New Bedford.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Standard-Times.

 

 

The following was released by the American Bluefin Tuna Association:

Salem, NH, April 12, 2012 – A one-hour film entitled, "Superfish: Bluefin Tuna", aired on the National Geographic Channel this evening, intends to capitalize on the heightened interest in bluefin tuna generated by National Geographic's own 10-part weekly series, "Wicked Tuna" that premiered on April 1, 2012. "Superfish: Bluefin Tuna" is a production of the Tag A Giant Foundation, a California-based not-for-profit that conducts scientific research on marine conservation issues. "Superfish: Bluefin Tuna" presents some of the most spectacular underwater footage ever taken of bluefin.

As mentioned in the film, bluefin tuna is found in all major oceans in the world. The three sub-species of bluefin are Southern, Pacific and Atlantic bluefin, each representing a genetically different spawning stock. Bluefin tuna attract regular attention by media and most of this interest is generated by not-for profit and environmental activist organizations. These organizations use media as a way of focusing interest in bluefin. However, bluefin is a very complex issue and the complexities are often overlooked. One simple example of the confusion that can be created are frequent statements made on the issue of "bluefin", giving rise to the mistaken concept that bluefin issues are generic or worldwide in nature, without specifying a particular sub-species of bluefin. Fortunately, for Atlantic bluefin tuna, there are noted scientific authorities to which media and the public can turn to understand the present state of the science of bluefin without incurring the bias or confusing data that is often found in the press releases and web content of these interest groups.

The Standing Committee for Research and Statistics (SCRS), the scientific arm of the International Committee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) and the preeminent authority on bluefin science, publishes a Stock Assessment on Atlantic bluefin every two years. The most recent stock assessment was in September 2010. A more recent and very extensive study, referred to as the "Status Review" on Atlantic bluefin, was undertaken by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and published in May of 2011, the culmination of a year-long process to determine if Atlantic bluefin warranted protection under the Endangered Species Act. Even more recently, at the beginning of 2012, the Canadian Government Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) published their own findings on the question of endangerment status for Atlantic bluefin under the Canadian "Species at Risk Act" (SARA). Many of the most highly regarded marine scientists and pelagic science specialists have been involved in these scientific studies. Viewed as a whole, these three papers represent the state of the science of Atlantic bluefin tuna. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments have separately determined in these studies that Atlantic bluefin is not endangered or threatened with endangerment. The SCRS have never stated that Atlantic bluefin was endangered and the scientists of SCRS have always advocated for sensible, sustainable harvest levels. The bona fides of the scientists involved in each of these scientific studies is unquestioned, and the findings in these studies are unchallenged.

"These studies should finally lay to rest the question of endangerment of Atlantic bluefin but some organizations and individuals prefer to take a more radical view in the media to serve their fundraising needs", said Rich Ruais, Executive Director of the American Bluefin Tuna Association.

Given that the U.S. purse seine fleet has been inactive in recent years, the only active directed U.S. commercial Atlantic bluefin fishery is an artisanal fishery comprised of small vessels that catch one fish at a time using rod and reel or harpoon. This artisanal fishery is the most highly regulated bluefin fishery in the world, has enjoyed decades of full compliance with regulations and is widely known and understood to harvest sustainably. In this fishery is embodied the concept of sustainable fishing practices and through its leadership in the area of conservation has become an exemplar for all other bluefin fisheries worldwide.

 

CHICAGO (AP) — They call this place the Back of the Yards, a neighborhood in the middle of the city once filled with acres and acres of stockyards.

In their heyday, those stockyards gave Chicago a reputation as the world's meat-packing capital — but also as an environmental and health horror brought to life in the stark images of Upton Sinclair's novel "The Jungle."

A few remnants of that industry remain here today. But the stockyards are long gone, replaced by an industrial park and a mindset that, from now on, Chicago will try to move past those images.

Now, you will find a jungle of a very different kind here.

View the video from The Gloucester Daily Times

Read the Associated Press article