Saving Seafood

New Slow Zone East of Boston to Protect Right Whales

April 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a Slow Zone east of Boston. On April 8, 2021 an aggregation of right whales was detected east of Boston, MA by the NOAA North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey. This right whale Slow Zone is in effect immediately through April 23, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

East of Boston, MA, April 8 – April 23, 2021 

42 39 N
41 54 N
070 08 W
071 06 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

Legal Sea Foods considers appeal after losing insurance case

March 9, 2021 — Legal Sea Foods is “considering its options” after a federal judge ruled against the seafood restaurant chain on its COVID-19 insurance case, the company’s attorney told SeafoodSource.

The Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based foodservice chain, which became embroiled in a separate controversy last month involving its creditors, sued Strathmore Insurance Company in May 2020 over failure to cover business losses Legal Sea Foods incurred from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Legal Sea Foods leaves some creditors in the lurch

February 18, 2021 — Several unsecured creditors of Legal Sea Foods still have not been paid by the seafood restaurant chain after its sale to PPX Hospitality Group, according to a news report.

It is not clear how many vendors are still owed funds, but several lawsuits were filed by vendors to Legal last year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced Legal to close its restaurant dining rooms for months, according to The Boston Globe.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Roger Berkowitz: Legal Sea Foods sale allows for retail, QVC expansion

December 23, 2020 — Transitioning from building a successful seafood restaurant chain to focus on retail, e-commerce, and other channels is almost like going home for Legal Sea Foods President and CEO Roger Berkowitz.

On 22 December, the Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based company announced it is selling its 27 restaurants to PPX Hospitality Brands, which also operate the Smith & Wollensky and The Strega Group restaurant chain.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Legal Sea Foods restaurant chain sold to Boston company

December 23, 2020 — The Boston-based restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods has been sold, Legal’s chief executive said Tuesday.

Legal’s 25 locations will now be operated by Boston-based PPX Hospitality Brands, which owns the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse restaurants and Strega Italian restaurants, according to a statement.

“It’s a bit of mixed emotions,” Legal President and CEO Roger Berkowitz told Boston.com. “It was a family business — particularly a family business that deals directly with the public. One of the great things, I suppose, about the restaurant business in general is that you come in contact with so many people from so many walks of life.”

Berkowitz will retain ownership rights of the Legal Sea Foods name for the company’s e-commerce and retail business.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: With sale of Legal Sea Foods, another Boston institution changes hands

December 21, 2020 — If it’s not Roger, is it Legal?

That’s the question as Roger Berkowitz, the chief executive and public face of Legal Sea Foods, is poised to sign off as soon as Monday on the the sale of the restaurant business his family started in 1968 to PPX Hospitality Group, owner of Smith & Wollensky steakhouses and three Boston-area Strega restaurants.

The pending deal is the latest chapter in Legal’s local lore: Roger’s family opening the first Legal Sea Foods restaurant in Cambridge, next to the fish market of the same name his father had opened in 1950. The expansion into Boston, the suburbs, and down the Eastern Seaboard to Florida. The feud between Roger and his brother Marc, after Roger took over as CEO. And the comical ads — some groan-inducing, some not-quite suitable for a family restaurant — with the tagline, “If it isn’t fresh, it isn’t Legal!”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Seafood Expo North America rescheduled for 11 to 13 July, 2021

December 3, 2020 — The 2021 edition of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America will take place Sunday, 11 July, to Tuesday, 13 July, organizer Diversified Communications announced on 3 December.

The trade show, which brings together seafood suppliers and buyers and which also features an educational conference, will take place at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coast Guard medevacs fisherman who fell overboard

November 20, 2020 — The Coast Guard reported it medevaced an injured fisherman 160 miles east of Boston on Thursday.

The crew of the 72-foot commercial fishing vessel Jennifer Anne notified the Coast Guard around 3:30 a.m. that a 35-year-old crew member had fallen overboard and was recovered by the other crew members.

The fisherman was experiencing hypothermia-like conditions and had minor lacerations, the crew reported

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Seafood Expo North America, Seafood Expo Global postponed to later in 2021

November 2, 2020 — The 2021 editions of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America and Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global, have been postponed to later in the year.

Seafood Expo North America, which had been scheduled for 14 to 16 March, 2021, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., will now take place in the summer of 2021. The event’s organizer, Diversified Communications, is working closely with the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center to find new dates for the event in mid-July. [Editor’s note: Diversified Communications also owns and operates SeafoodSource].

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: The future of fish is frozen: How the seafood industry is adapting to COVID-19

May 18, 2020 — Jared Auerbach first saw the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in early January, when seafood orders from Boston’s Chinatown — and Chinatowns across the country — slowly stopped coming in.

At first, the founder of Red’s Best, a Boston-based seafood distributor, wasn’t too worried.

“The second week of March, we were down about 20 percent,” he said. “Things were starting to get a little weird. We got through the weekend and I lost some sleep over the weekend, but I felt good.”

On March 17, restaurants in Mass. were ordered to shutdown, and Auerbach, who founded Red’s Best in 2008, saw his business fall out from under him as he made the difficult decision to furlough the vast majority of his staff. For someone who spent years intently focused on balancing the supply of the sea with the demand of the public — many of them restaurant chefs — he now wondered: “What’s our contingency plan?”

Read the full story at Boston.com