For over three centuries Portuguese whalers and cod fishermen emigrated from their homes 3,000 miles to the west across the Atlantic Ocean to live and work the in the fertile north Atlantic Fisheries. The members of New Bedford’s United Fishermen’s Club have much in common with the fishermen in their ancestral home of Portugal. They speak the same language and celebrate with great passion an independent way of life. Unfortunately they too are victims of the collapse of the cod fishery.
For Maine lobstermen, less could mean more
It sounds like a fish tale of enormous proportions: Put fewer lobster traps in the cold waters off Maine, maybe a lot fewer, and still catch the same number of the crustaceans.
Yet state officials and even some lobstermen say the idea has merit and could reduce fishermen’s costs at a time when the $300 million industry is confronting a myriad challenges, from falling prices to higher bait and fuel expenses.
Supporters believe that the ocean floor off Maine is so thick with lobster pots – an estimated 2.5 million, or about two for every resident – that they don’t work efficiently. Fewer traps may not reduce the size of the catch, they say, because more lobsters would be caught in each trap.
‘Adventure’ in voting: Schooner could win $100,000 in preservation money
Schooner Adventure could continue a winning streak for Gloucester’s historic maritime landmarks.
Fresh off the decisive election of the Man at the Wheel statue to represent the Bay State on the back of U.S. quarters, the 83-year-old Adventure is vying with 24 other Massachusetts historic sites for a share of $1 million in preservation funding.
"It is going to be a challenge, but Gloucester competed against similar odds for the Man at the Wheel quarter, and we have the wheel he was standing before," said Marty Krugman, president of the nonprofit group restoring the Adventure. "We hope the city will show the same enthusiasm for the Adventure that it did for the quarter."
Like the quarter contest, the winner of this election will be decided by an online vote.
Final design for New Bedford Fishermen’s Monument revealed
Ending months of suspense, the winning design for the New Bedford Fishermen’s Monument was revealed Friday night at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Joseph Ingoldsby’s design of a granite fishing vessel was chosen from six finalists by the Fishermen’s Tribute Fund committee. The completed design will grace the northeast corner of Fort Taber by the harbor entrance.
"I think it’s important that New Bedford have a monument that’s going to stand the test of time," the Marshfield artist said at the fundraising event, billed as The Big Reveal.
Tug owner seeks legal protection
A Louisiana company has asked a federal judge in New Orleans to exonerate it from any liability in January’s sinking of the Gloucester fishing vessel Patriot, which was lost along with its family crew of two under mysterious circumstances.
Notified by the attorney for the co-owner of the Patriot, Josie Russo, that a suit was pending, Hornbeck Offshore Transportation LLC and a related operating company filed a "complaint for exoneration from and/or limitation of liability."
Hornbeck invoked the U.S. Limitation of Liability Act, which allows the court to limit liability to the actual value of the vessel responsible for the loss, bars any liability pending the results of a trial, and blocks any additional legal action litigants from enjoining the case until the trial is finished.
Gloucester Memorial Proposed for Reverse of Quarters
For 83 years, the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial has towered over the city’s main boulevard. Fishermen and their families consider it a holy place, and the bronze statue – which depicts a fisherman holding a boat’s wheel out at sea – is a magnet for tourists and locals. Even Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes shed tears when he saw the memorial, and its inscription inspired by the 107th Psalm, "They that go down to the sea in ships."
Massachusetts residents also feel the memorial has deep meaning. Last month, citizens voted overwhelmingly online to recommend a depiction of the memorial be minted on the back of a US quarter. The memorial – known by locals as the Man at the Wheel – received more than 100,000 votes, and bested sites such as the Lowell National Historic Park, the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, and the USS Constitution.
"This is an honor and to all of the fishermen," said Grace Favazza. Favazza’s brother, Vito Misuraca, was lost at sea on Sept. 8, 1978. Favazza frequently spends time at the memorial and considers it a sacred area.
United Nations Makes it Official: World Oceans Day is June 8
Sixteen years after it was first proposed, the United Nations (U.N.) has notified Oceana of its official resolution to designate June 8 as World Oceans Day. Both the U.N. and Oceana are preparing events to honor the inaugural celebration of the planet’s oceans.
The U.N. decision comes after thousands of supporters of Oceana and other conservation organizations, aquariums, universities, and agencies, signed petitions asking the international body to establish an official day for the oceans. World Oceans Day was first proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
“We applaud the United Nations for formally establishing a day for the other 71 percent of the planet,” said Andrew Sharpless, C.E.O. of Oceana. “Making World Oceans Day official will help us and other ocean groups to engage more people and to increase public support for efforts to reverse the declining health of marine ecosystems.”
BOOK REVIEW: “Bottomfeeder, How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood”
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe opens with a horrifyingly poetic description of a monkfish as the “Quasimodo of the Atlantic” whose “uncooked flesh, especially the liver can be virtually ambulant with marine worms”.
The book goes on in squirm-inducing detail to educate readers about why we shouldn’t be eating the fish we are eating and how, if we want to save our oceans, we’d all be well-advised to become bottomfeeders.
Expertly written, enthralling and suspenseful, this book goes deep into the reasons most top-of-the-food-chain fish aren’t sustainable and also lays out the facts about heavy metal contamination in many popular fish, like tuna and swordfish.
Marine Fisheries Observers Jobs in New Bedford Massachusetts 02741 – Green Careers Center
MARINE FISHERIES OBSERVERS Company: AIS, Inc. is hiring, please read the complete details at Environmental Career.
Hogarth’s impact felt among city fishermen
When William Hogarth visited New Bedford in January 2005, the city was reeling from the loss of five fishermen who had perished at sea when their scalloper sank off Nantucket in rough weather.
Hogarth, then the top federal fisheries administrator, listened to frustrated fishermen complain about rigid fishing rules that were responsible for tragedies such as the Northern Edge sinking.
Hogarth’s visit led to federal funding that helped then-Mayor Frederick Kalisz establish the city’s now successful safety training program for commercial fishermen. Prior to Hogarth’s visit, he had pledged his support for changing scallop fishing rules blamed for sinking the Northern Edge. The rules penalized fishermen for breaking fishing trips to avoid bad weather, forcing captains to choose between economic gain and the safety of their crews. The rules were later amended to accommodate bad weather.