Saving Seafood

First dead right whale of 2018 found off Virginia

January 26, 2018 — A whale carcass tangled in fishing line that was reported off Virginia Monday is confirmed as the first documented death of a North Atlantic right whale this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The imperiled right whales, which lost nearly 4 percent of their total population last year in Canadian and U.S. waters, and with only five documented births, faces significant man-made threats from both fishing gear and ship strikes, according to researchers.

“This isn’t just a crisis, this is a countdown to extinction,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, which has an office in Plymouth.

A stranding response team with the Virginia Aquarium received notice and a photo of the carcass Wednesday, at which point the whale was identified as a North Atlantic right whale that appeared to show it was was alive and swimming when it ran into the line.

Entanglements of whales in ropes prevents them from surfacing for air, leading to drowning, or creates a drag that hampers feeding, movement and reproduction, and reduces energy stores, according to scientists.

NOAA requested a drift analysis from the Coast Guard to determine where the carcass might be, and to determine if it can be towed to shore for a necropsy.

The sex and identify of the dead whale has not be determined.

“Disaster, depressing,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, who directs right whale research at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, said of the latest whale carcass. “These are our whales, the humans who live along the Gulf of Maine. We are obviously not doing a very good job as stewards. Something’s got to change soon.”

In addition to a voluntary ship slow-down announced this week for 30 miles south of Nantucket, NOAA announced Thursday another voluntary slow-down 100 miles east-southeast of Virginia Beach, where a U.S. military ship crew had seen the carcass and four other live right whales.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Study: Warming Gulf of Maine endangering lobster stock

January 24, 2018 — Is the lobster boom on the decline in the Gulf of Maine because of warming waters? A newly released study by a Maine-based marine research group suggests that is the case.

The study, released Monday by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, touched on many of the same climate issues that have left researchers and lobster stakeholders anxious about the future.

“In the Gulf of Maine, the lobster fishery is vulnerable to future temperature increases,” GMRI said in the statement released with the study. “The researchers’ population projections suggest that lobster productivity will decrease as temperatures continue to warm, but continued conservation efforts can mitigate the impacts of future warming.”

The study, compiled with the University of Maine and NOAA Fisheries, said the anticipated decline highlights the need for vigilant conservation within the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery, especially since scientists say the gulf’s waters are warming faster than 99 percent of the rest of the world’s oceans.

Researchers said they expect the lobster population to decline from recent highs — GMRI pegs the peak year at 2010, when it estimated the Gulf of Maine lobster stock contained 518 million lobsters — to levels more in keeping with traditional lobstering years.

It estimates the population could shrink to about 261 million lobsters in 2050.

“The 30-year outlook for the Gulf of Maine fishery looks positive if conservation practices continue,” GMRI said. “In their 30-year projection, the researchers anticipate average populations similar to those in the early 2000s.”

Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said lobster stock assessments in the Gulf of Maine have shown the annual settlement of young lobsters — when they transition from floating in open waters as plankton to settling on the bottom to begin the seven- to eight-year stretch it requires to mature — has declined from previous assessments.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Massachusetts: Frozen lobstermen face additional winter challenges

January 4, 2018 — MARSHFIELD, Mass. — With inches of ice covering the harbor and no end of severe winter weather in site, local lobstermen are struggling to keep their boats in the water during the last month of the legal lobstering season. Tuesday and Wednesday saw captains breaking up ice surrounding their boats and trying to move their vessels to safer locations before a storm pummels the region today.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw captains breaking up ice surrounding their boats and trying to move their vessels to safer locations before a storm pummels the region today.

“There are so many dependencies here in this business,” president of the South Shore Lobster Fishermen’s Association John Haviland said. “When everything goes smoothly it’s wonderful, but when everything doesn’t – there is nothing I can do. I have no control over winds blowing 60 mph, and I have no control over 3 inches of ice in my harbor.”

A week of single-digit temperatures has left Scituate and Plymouth harbors coated in a thick layer of ice, and most commercial fishermen have moved their boats to Green Harbor, where freezing hasn’t been as significant.

Read the full story at the Patriot Ledger

 

Fishers Hope They’ll Return to Atlantic Monument

August 25, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Fishing groups say they’re optimistic that they will be able to return to the area of ocean designated as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says Thursday the monument will remain, but also says it could be altered. He hasn’t yet offered more specifics.

Many fishermen have opposed the creation of the monument because it limits their ability to harvest valuable species such as swordfish, lobsters, crabs and squid.

Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance executive director Richard Fuka says he’s “extremely optimistic” fishermen will be able to return to the fishing grounds. He says the area should be kept open because of demand for locally caught seafood.

Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association executive director Beth Casoni says she would like to see the monument redefined as the size of “a postage stamp.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News & World Report

RI And MA Lobstermen At Odds With Regulators Over Conservation Efforts

August 4, 2017 — Some Rhode Island and Massachusetts lobstermen say they’re frustrated that interstate regulators rejected new catch limits at a meeting Tuesday. The lobstermen say new rules are needed to stem dwindling lobster populations in New England.

Regulators rejected a proposal that would have allowed lobstermen to choose from a menu of conservation options, providing flexibility for different harvest regions.

Closing off certain fishing areas or reducing the number of lobster traps by 50 percent were among the options the proposal would have provided, options the lobstermen helped craft.

Beth Casoni, director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, represents members from both the Bay and Ocean States. She said lobstermen in the south coast of Massachusetts were in favor of passing the rules and giving regions autonomy over how they deal with conservation.

“The fishing industry, you know, they’re hopeful that managers will listen with them and work with them,” Casoni explained. “And when stuff like this happens they want to throw their hands up and walk away because they don’t get paid to go to these meetings.”

Read the full story at RIPR

Concerns aired about marine monument

June 21, 2017 — Editor’s Note:

Fishing groups have widely criticized the Obama Administration’s marine monument designation process as opaque, and argued that administration officials did not adequately address concerns raised. Conversely, in this Cape Cod Times article, Priscilla Brooks, Vice President and Director of Ocean Conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation, claimed that the Obama administration adequately took fishermen’s concerns into account before designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Ms. Brooks said this was evidenced by the administration’s decision to reduce the size of the monument by 60 percent from the original proposal.

However, there was never an official Atlantic marine monument proposal from the Obama administration. Fishermen, elected officials, regulators, and concerned shoreside businesses were not apprised of the specifics of the Obama Administration’s monument plan until the final shape of it was shared just days and hours before it was announced.

The environmental community, including the Conservation Law Foundation, provided a proposal to the Administration, which officials referred to at times in meetings, but always with the caveat that the environmentalist proposal was not an official Administration proposal. At no time before the announcement was imminent did the commercial fishing community have any idea of what action the Administration might take.

It is possible that Ms. Brooks was stating that the monument eventually proposed by the Obama Administration was reduced by 60 percent from the plan that CLF and other environmental groups proposed. Commercial fishermen were apprehensive about the relationship between the Administration and the environmental community with due cause, since in 2015 environmental activists attempted to push a monument designation through the Administration in secret before the Our Ocean conference in Chile.

Ms. Brooks also claimed that “there was a robust public process.”

In the lead-up to the 2016 monument designation, there was one public meeting in Rhode Island where fishermen were allowed just 2 minutes to talk.

There were a number of subsequent meetings in fishing ports, and in the White House complex. But those who attended those meeting largely felt their views were being ignored. In fact, many of them participated in the recent meeting with new Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.

In July 2016, Eric Reid, General Manager at Seafreeze, who participated in both regional and White House meetings wrote, “No one in the Obama administration’s Council on Environmental Quality has put forward an actual, concrete proposal of what an Atlantic monument might look like.” He added, “The uncertain and opaque nature of the process that has so far surrounded the potential marine monument has left fishermen with no idea as to what areas and which fisheries will be affected, nor which activities will be prohibited.”

BOSTON — Fishing groups from around New England met with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday to air complaints about former President Barack Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument last year.

The monument, the first marine national monument in U.S. Atlantic waters, protects about 4,000 square miles of ocean 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Fishermen say the protected area in which fishing is prohibited hurts their business and places an undue burden on an already heavily regulated industry. But scientists say the area, which is home to hundreds of species of marine life and fragile coral, is an important natural resource that must be protected.

In his proclamation creating the marine monument, Obama prohibited fossil fuel or mineral exploration, all commercial fishing, and other activities that could disturb the sea floor. Scientific research is allowed with a permit. Commercial red crab and lobster fishermen have to phase out their operations within the monument area over the next seven years.

During their meeting with Zinke at Legal Sea Foods on Boston Harbor, fishermen and industry representatives asked the secretary to consider dissolving the monument or changing the regulations within its boundaries and complained about the way it was originally designated.

“As an American, this brought me to tears at my desk,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “No one should have the power to sign people out of work.”

Some commercial fishermen said they felt the former administration did not take their concerns into account before designating the monument.

“Even though we were allowed minimal — and that’s an understatement — input, we received mostly lip service,” said Eric Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside in Narragansett, Rhode Island. “Small businesses like me that need stability to grow their business and invest in America are at risk. We can make America and commercial fishing great again.”

But Priscilla Brooks, vice president and director of ocean conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation, said the former administration did take fishermen’s concerns into account. Obama reduced the size of the original proposed monument by 60 percent and allowed lobster and crab fishermen a seven-year grace period to continue fishing there.

“There was a robust public process,” she said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Lobster battle over? U.S., Canada hope so

October 18th, 2016 — The remainder of the European Union may be distancing itself from Sweden’s campaign to declare American lobsters an invasive species, but the head of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association isn’t yet ready to declare complete victory.

“We’re very excited about the news out of Europe that the rest of the EU doesn’t seem ready to follow Sweden’s lead,” MLA Executive Director Beth Casoni said Monday. “But we’re going to stay on this because it’s not over by any stretch.”

Last week, The EU Committee on Invasive Alien Species informed Sweden it would not support listing American lobsters as an invasive species because of the lack of strong scientific evidence. Doing so would have opened the door to a total EU ban on importing live American lobsters landed in the U.S. and Canada.

While that decision seems to strike a deadly blow to Sweden’s push to ban the importation of American lobsters, Casoni said the European Union Commission still plans to vote next spring on potential invasive alien species even if the American lobsters no longer are on the list.

“The lobsters were the only consumable product on the list of potential invasive species,” Casoni said. “The rest are plants. But we don’t know everything that could happen between now and then. Sweden might continue to try to persuade other countries to join them. So, we’re going to keep working on it and not let go.”

Casoni credited the full-court pressure mounted by scientists, regulators, members of the commercial lobster industry and elected state and federal officials for rebuffing the Swedish effort. An EU ban on imports would have crippled the approximately $200 million live lobster trade between the EU and the U.S. and Canadian lobster industries.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times 

Fishermen considering legal steps to alter marine monument in Northeast US

September 22, 2016 — Fishing organizations, including those representing lobster fishermen in the Northeast United States, have expressed outrage over U.S. President Barack Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument on 15 September.

Several groups representing the fishing and seafood industries are investigating the possibility of taking legal action in the hopes of altering the monument’s boundaries or challenging the president’s authority to declare national monuments through executive order under the legal umbrella of the Antiquities Act.

“We’re looking forward to working with Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, and also meeting with the governor next week to get continued support to challenge the monument, even to the point of getting the attorney general’s office to look at the legality of the executive order,” Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts’ Lobstermen’s Association said. “My understanding is that no presidential executive order has been overturned, but it has been amended.”

Casoni said that about 100 members of her association fish in the area designated for the monument, with many hundreds more fishing there from other parts of the U.S. While the monument’s designation allows lobster and crab fishing to continue in the monument’s area for seven more years before the fishery is closed off, Casoni said the loss of a “highly valuable area” will be another harsh blow for New England fishermen.

“We’re not giving up this fight,” she said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

National monument in waters off Cape Cod causes rift

September 16, 2016 — The establishment of the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean drew mixed reactions Thursday, with environmental groups hailing the new protections that some New England fishermen denounced as a threat to their livelihood.

The designation bans commercial fishing in an expansive ecosystem off Cape Cod in a concerted effort to protect the area from the impact of climate change, President Obama said as he announced the designation at the Our Ocean Conference in Washington, D.C.

But fishermen said the area should remain open, asserting that decades of commercial fishing have not damaged the ecosystem. They accused the Obama administration of ignoring their recommendations for compromise measures.

One proposal would have allowed fishing in the area as far down as 450 meters and kept the area open to red crab fishing, said Grant Moore, president of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association. An average of 800,000 pounds of lobster are taken from the monument area every year, he said.

Denny Colbert, who runs Trebloc Seafood in Plymouth with his brother, said he sends two vessels to the area to catch lobster and Jonah crabs.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I’m going to have to find another place to go.”

Bill Palombo, president of Palombo Fishing Corp. in Newport, R.I., said lobster and red crab are plentiful in the area.

“It’s going to be devastating for us,” said Palombo.

The designation prevents access to the main source of red crab in New England, said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “The red crab industry is primarily fished in these canyons,” she said. “I don’t see them going anywhere else. That’s where it is.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Europe studies claims of American ‘invaders.’ They are clawed and delicious.

September 7, 2016 — Today’s special: American lobster in European hot water.

The European Union’s Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species announced Tuesday that there was sufficient scientific evidence to push ahead with a review of Sweden’s request to declare the American lobster an invasive species that threatens native lobsters and other marine life.

It could mean a ban on the clawed cousins from across the pond.

Now, before European foodies go off the deep end, the whole spat is based on only a handful of American lobsters found in Swedish waters. And any final decision — not expected before April — will take into account potential fallout on international trade. That includes weighing the risks of possible retaliatory bans against Europe by the United States and Canada, which stand to lose a lobster market valued at up to $200 million by some estimates.

Overall, it is little more than a side dish compared with other transatlantic trade issues, such as last week’s E.U. order for Ireland to recover up to $14.5 billion in taxes from tech giant Apple. But out in places like the Gulf of Maine or the coast of Nova Scotia, the lobster showdown is a very big deal.

“Is this really about invasion of a species or invasion of [an] economy?” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story at The Washington Post