Saving Seafood

Contract Opportunity for Scallop Dredge Vessels

November 16, 2023 — The following was released by The New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council is broadly sharing the following information in support of our federal partners at NOAA Fisheries.

 
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT:  The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is looking for appropriate scallop dredge vessels to participate in the annual Atlantic sea scallop survey.  Vessels must be available between May and July 2024 – ideally in June – to participate in the survey.
 
FIRST STEP:  Step #1 is a call for information to help NOAA Fisheries identify vessels that meet a list of required specifications related to sufficient berth space, adequate deck space, equipment requirements, and more.  Interested applicants are being asked to respond to this initial request for information by November 22, 2023.
 
IMPORTANT:  Step #1 is important because it will lead interested vessel owners to register inSAM.gov.  Anyone who is not registered in SAM.gov cannot receive a government contract.  SAM stands for System for Award Management.  If you need help with this initial step, feel free to contactAmanda Rossiter or Carina Topasna, who are both contract specialists.
 
SECOND STEP:  Under Step #2, NOAA Fisheries will issue a solicitation for a vessel contract opportunity, which will happen “in the near future.”  Remember, Step #1 is critical to being able to participate in Step #2.  Each awarded contract will have a one-year base period in 2024 with “option years through 2028.”
 
SURVEY RANGE:  The Atlantic sea scallop survey is currently conducted along the U.S. continental shelf from New England to the Mid-Atlantic region and includes the U.S. waters of Georges Bank.
 
SURVEYS SUPPORT MANAGEMENT:  Survey data helps fishery managers make informed decisions.  The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is managed by the New England Fishery Management Council and administratively overseen by NOAA Fisheries.
 
QUESTIONS:  Additional information about this important scallop survey contract opportunity isposted here.  Questions should be directed to the contacts listed at the bottom of the webpage, which, in addition to Amanda Rossiter and Carina Topasna, include: Ecosystems Surveys Branch Chief Peter Chase; and Shellfish Survey Program Lead Chad Keith, who also is with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Ecosystems Surveys Branch.

Two left injured from scallop fleet dock collapse

October 12, 2023 — Two workers were injured after a dock collapsed in New Bedford on Wednesday afternoon. Fire chief Scott Kruger told WPRI 12 News that firefighters rushed to Hervey Tichon Avenue following reports of the dock giving way. The dock’s bulkhead was under construction when it split from the rest of the pier and sank. It is still unclear whether that played a role in the fracture, as the structure was supported by standard wooden piles capped with concrete.

“Engineers are going to be taking a look at that,” Kruger explained.

Four workers were on the dock at the time of the collapse, and all fell into the water, with one needing rescue. Kruger said that two of the workers were transported to the hospital with injuries that didn’t appear to be life-threatening. The cleanup is described as a “long-term operation” as divers are in the process of removing equipment and material from the water.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: A behind-the-scenes look at Maine’s growing scallop farming industry

August 18, 2023 — Maine’s wild scallop harvest is still a few months away, but a group of fishermen in Penobscot Bay can fish scallops year-round thanks to Maine’s growing aquaculture industry.

“This just puts another tool in the toolbox to allow them to adapt. We’re not looking to be replaced. We just want the opportunity to adapt,” said scallop farmer, Marsden Brewer.

Marsden has been fishing off of Stonington for decades.

He and his son, Robert, have been learning more about scallop farming, setting their nets in Penobscot Bay.

Read the full article at WABI

Flaws in Catch-Share System Frustrate Scallopers

August 10, 2023 — A decline in scallop stocks combined inexplicably with low wholesale prices have made this a tough year for small-boat scallop fishermen. But what Outer Cape scallopers say they’re most worried about is how these conditions exacerbate a bigger problem: the quota system that regulates the small-boat fleet.

Every year, regulators set a maximum number of pounds of scallops the entire small-boat fleet is allowed to catch. Each vessel owns or leases a share of that total, which determines how many pounds of scallops it can land that year. That share is called quota. Owning or leasing one percent in quota, for example, allows a vessel to take one percent of the total regulators set.

Each vessel must first purchase a permit — there are about 300 available for small-boat scalloping — before leasing or buying quota to attach to it. The permits and quota are generally bought and sold through marine brokerage firms.

Read the full article at Provincetown Independent 

MASSACHUSETTS: The Cape’s Scallopers Ride Out a Perfect Storm

July 20, 2023 — This summer, a perfect storm — combining sky-high fuel costs, a scarcity of experienced crew members, low wholesale prices, sharp declines in what scallop fishermen are allowed to take, and costly quota — has been keeping Cape Cod’s small-boat scallopers off the water.

“There are a quite a few changing over to do other kinds of fishing because they can’t afford to go scalloping right now,” said Max Nolan, a scalloper from Eastham who owns the F/V Outlaw. Nolan fishes out of Provincetown, Hyannis, and New Bedford and has come to rely on the work-intensive practice of selling his catch directly to consumers, including from a truck parked near the former T-Time property on Route 6, a strategy he hopes will make up for low wholesale prices.

“I don’t know how anyone is making it,” said Chris Merl, a Wellfleet scalloper and captain of the F/V Isabel & Lilee, who does the same, selling his catch at the Orleans Farmers Market, the Bass River Farmers Market, and at Cape Cod Beer in Hyannis.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Northeast sea scallop survey cancelled after vessel sidelined

June 27, 2023 — Officials at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center say the 2023 sea scallop survey has been cancelled because of mechanical problems on the survey vessel, the R/V Hugh R. Sharp.

Owned and operated by the University of Delaware, the Sharp has been chartered by NOAA Fisheries annually since 2008 for the survey. This year’s cruise was scheduled for May 13 to June 13, before the Sharp “encountered licensed engineering shortages and mechanical difficulties at the dock in its homeport of Lewes, Del.,” according to science center statement.

After repairs and sea trials were completed June 12, the cruise was rescheduled for June 14-21, and the Sharp departed sailed from Woods Hole, Mass., with the scientific crew on board.

“However, the ship encountered further mechanical failures at sea and returned to port on June 16, ending the NOAA cruise,” according to the science center.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Northern Edge: Council Adopts Goal, Objectives for Action to Consider Scallop Access to Tip of Georges Bank Closed Area II

April 26, 2023 —  The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has initiated a management action to consider allowing scallop fishery access into the habitat management area (HMA) on the Northern Edge of Georges Bank.

During its April 18-20, 2023 meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, the Council first approved a goal and objectives for this action and then initiated a habitat-scallop framework to develop a range of alternatives that will continue to address habitat protection while balancing controlled harvest of the valuable scallop resource within the HMA.

The Closed Area II Habitat Management Area covers a large part of what is commonly referred to as the Northern Edge of Georges Bank (see map below). It has the same boundaries as the Council’s Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) in Closed Area II and is designated in regulation as the Habitat Closure Area.

 

MAINE: More than a job: Can sea scallop help preserve the working waterfront?

March 30, 2023 — At the beginning of Andrew Peters’ first Econ 101 class at elite Middlebury College in 2005, the professor asked students to introduce themselves and share their career interests. “Law,” “technology,” and “investment banking” echoed among the 80 or so in the lecture hall, with one stand-out. “Lobsterman,” Peters stated.

It was a goal the Albany native had fixed on as a 12-year-old during a family sailing trip and, although he eventually worked for several years as a sternman, the profession proved out of reach because of the limited number of commercial lobstering licenses in Maine.  A job at Google would have been easier to nab. 

But now Andrew Peters is making his way on the water in a role that defines entrepreneurship. He is one of just a handful of ocean farmers growing sea scallops in Maine. If his econ professor were to illustrate his vocation as a Venn diagram, it would lie at the intersection of passion, hard work, and innovation.

Peters’ foray into sea scallop aquaculture comes as the future of Maine’s $730 million lobster industry faces serious challenges, including northward lobster migrations due to warming waters and federal regulations of gear related to right whale entanglements. But at the same time, fisheries are diversifying with bivalve and kelp farming, and the economy has been invigorated with an influx of Millennials, including remote workers who permanently fled cities to Maine’s great outdoors and more affordable real estate during the pandemic. Despite wariness about the lobster fishery, there’s a sparkle in Maine’s Blue Economy.

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America

Scientists Scramble to Help Bay Scallops Survive Climate Change

March 27, 2023 — Stephen Tettelbach was surveying the bay scallop population in Nantucket with colleagues late in the summer of 2019 when he got the call: A longtime friend and fisherman on Long Island reported a mass die-off of scallops in Peconic Bay, Long Island’s legendary fishery.

Tettelbach, head of the Peconic Bay Scallop Restoration Program at Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) in Suffolk County, New York, said his first response was denial. Peconic Bay’s prized shellfish had been thriving in June. In fact, it was supposed to be another banner season—commercial landings in the two preceding years had been the largest since 1994, topping 110,000 pounds.

But after returning to Long Island a few days later and setting out on his annual October surveys of Peconic Bay, an estuary nestled between eastern Long Island’s North and South Forks known for its pristine waters, lush eelgrass meadows, and scallops considered to be the best in the country, Tettelbach saw the devastation for himself. “There were almost no living scallops anywhere,” he remembers.

Once the country’s leading bay scallop fishery, Peconic Bay is now holding on for dear life. 2019 marked the first in a series of die-offs that has led to the collapse of one of the few remaining fisheries of wild bay scallops, whose native East Coast populations have declined dramatically in recent decades.

Coastal change in the Northeast is fast outpacing other areas, with summer water temperatures increasing at a rate more than twice the global average, according to research published in Global Change Biology in January.

Read the full article at Civil Eats