Saving Seafood

Vessel owners fined for fishing in protected areas

May 4, 2016 — BOSTON — The owners of two fishing vessels paid civil fines after fishing in protected areas in 2013 and 2014.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration resolved the civil penalty cases after the crews of the vessels were found to have violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, according to a press release from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Following up on a referral from NOAA law enforcement officers, on March 21, 2014, a crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod spotted the fishing vessel Warrior, of New Bedford, fishing for scallops in Closed Area II Essential Fish Habitat, according to the release. The area, about 120 miles east of Cape Cod, is one of five closed fishing areas in New England that cover 8,000 square miles of protected waters, according to the release.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Chinese delegation to talk lobster, fish

April 22, 2016 — Gloucester will add more international visitors to its guest register when it welcomes a delegation of Chinese government officials and seafood executives, as well as Chinese-American business leaders, on Monday to talk about economic development opportunities.

The visit has been in the works since February, when Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken extended an invitation during a meeting with Chinese-American business leaders, many of them restaurateurs, and officials from Boston’s Chinatown Main Street association at an occasion celebrating the Chinese New Year.

The Chinese government delegation will feature some heavy hitters, including four officials from the the New York-based consulate general’s office of the People’s Republic of China. The visitors also will include three executives from The American Chinese Culinary Federation, a restaurant trade group that represents thousands of restaurants and seafood sellers nationwide, as well as officials of Chinatown Main Street and other businesses leaders from Boston’s Chinese-American community.

The mayor will host a meeting at City Hall with the visitors, who then will embark on a tour of the city’s waterfront and seafood infrastructure.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Why homemade gefilte fish is becoming an endangered species at Passover

April 19, 2016 — As if preparing for Passover wasn’t enough work and worry, now comes a gefilte fish crisis.

This might not be as consequential as, say, the Atlantic cod crisis. But for the diminishing few of us who still patshke (slave away) in the kitchen before Passover to make traditional gefilte fish from scratch, it’s definitely troubling.

What’s happened is that the freshwater fish used in making it — that tried-and-true trifecta of pike, carp, and whitefish — has become so hard to find and so expensive that homemade gefilte fish could someday soon be an endangered species. I worry we Jews are being priced out of our tradition.

“It’s all about supply and demand,” said Mike Machado, purchasing director of Boston Sword & Tuna, a fish wholesaler. “The species aren’t indigenous to this area. A lot of the whitefish nowadays, it goes to New York, which has the highest contingent of Jewish people.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Scallop fishermen poised for fight over shellfish

April 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Scallop fishing has increased dramatically off some parts of New England recently, and fishermen and regulators will soon meet to discuss how to avoid overexploiting the valuable shellfish.

The concern over scallop fishing centers on the northern Gulf of Maine, a management area that stretches roughly from the waters off of Boston to the Canadian border. Scallop grounds off of northern Massachusetts have been especially fertile, prompting increased fishing in that area.

The New England Fishery Management Council, a regulatory arm of the federal government, will hold a public meeting about the issue Wednesday and decide how to proceed.

Part of the concern arises from the fact that different classes of fishing boats harvest scallops in the area, and not all of them are restricted by a quota system. Alex Todd, a Maine-based fisherman who fishes off of Gloucester, Massachusetts, said he and others feel the rules are not equal.

“We’re playing by two different sets of rules,” Todd said, adding that fishermen who follow the quota system could reach quota as soon as next month.

But Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for Fisheries Survival Fund who represents many fishermen who don’t have to abide by the quota system, said he thinks the boats can coexist.

Read the full story at The Salt Lake Tribune

MASSACHUSETTS: Will Sea Bass Quota Go Up or Down?

April 7, 2016 — Last year, sea bass literally put some commercial fishermen in the black.

The black fish with the delicious pure white meat abundantly filled local waters and made up some financial losses for fishermen curtailed by otherwise stringent regulations on striped bass, cod, flounder and other lucrative species.

But that might change soon.

In a memo dated March 18 from the Division of Marine Fisheries in Boston, while regulations for striped bass, bluefish, fluke and scup will likely remain unchanged this year in Massachusetts, “Regulations for black sea bass have been amended to achieve a mandatory 23 percent harvest reduction.”

The Massachusetts regulatory agency says these revisions are being implemented along the entire Atlantic seaboard via “emergency rulemaking” to take effect prior to the onset of the 2016 season. Public hearings will be held to discuss proposals before changes are finalized.

Read the full story at Newport This Week

BOSTON HERALD: ‘Monument’ plan dries up

April 4, 2016 — It turns out there are limits to how far even the Obama administration will go to please the green lobby. The White House has opted not to designate an area of the Atlantic off Cape Ann as a national monument, which would have closed it to commercial fishing and activities such as oil or gas exploration or extraction — permanently.

Gov. Charlie Baker last fall had written to President Obama of his objections to the pending national monument designation for Cashes Ledge and a second area known as the New England Canyons and Seamounts, largely because of the unilateral nature of the decision. Some members of the state’s congressional delegation had also raised concerns.

Commercial fishing is already restricted around Cashes Ledge, an underwater mountain range. The monument designation was expected to make those restrictions permanent, but the White House Council on Environmental Quality told a gathering of fishermen and regulators March 24 that Cashes Ledge is no longer being considered (no decision has been made on the other area).

Read the full editorial at The Boston Herald

Traceability in seafood chain about money, not just ethics

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 28, 2016) — A coalition of environmentalists and seafood industry professionals is campaigning to make the case that traceability in the seafood industry is about success in the marketplace as much as it’s about ethics.

Ocean conservation group Oceana, based in Washington, D.C., has assembled the contingent of fishermen, processors, wholesalers and others to make the case that customers will pay a premium for verifiable seafood. They seek to link customers with the backstory of the product, such as where the fish was caught, whether it was sustainably harvested and when it was brought ashore.

The group includes representatives from more than a dozen businesses, including Virginia oyster farmers, a Boston seafood distributor and the fishmonger for a D.C. restaurant group. It is making its case as federal regulators consider tightening seafood importation standards.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Why Gulf of Maine waters won’t be a national monument

March 28, 2016 — Despite substantial pressure from environmental groups, Obama administration officials this week said the president won’t declare a national monument in a distinct portion of the Gulf of Maine that features glacier-sculpted mountain ranges and billowy kelp forests.

Over the past year, environmental advocates have lobbied the administration to designate an area known as Cashes Ledge as a national monument, a decision that would have permanently banned fishing around the submerged mountain range.

The ecosystem, about 80 miles off the coast of Gloucester, is home to an abundant array of life, from multicolored anemones to massive cod. Fishermen have opposed the designation and said they were relieved when they learned about the decision in meetings this week with officials with the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Politicians seek historic recognition for Boston Fish Pier

March 11, 2016 — A group of South Boston politicians is pushing state officials for new measures to protect the Boston Fish Pier, including putting the 102-year-old wharf on the National Register of Historic Places.

The effort comes as the Seaport area undergoes massive changes, with high-end offices, restaurants, apartments, and condos opening near the pier. Meanwhile, the pier continues to operate as the city’s primary fishing port: More than 20 commercial fishing boats have berths there, and 15 seafood businesses, primarily processors and distributors, occupy two of the pier’s three buildings. It’s also home to the No Name Restaurant, a popular seafood eatery.

Last month, five politicians wrote to Secretary of State William Galvin, asking for his direct involvement in preserving the Fish Pier. Galvin chairs the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which administers the National Register program in this state on behalf of the National Park Service.

A National Register listing brings recognition for a property, the potential for tax incentives, and some limited protections from federally funded projects. The listing also automatically puts a property on a similar state register, which then offers eligibility for state-funded grants for restoration projects.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe