Saving Seafood

Proposed Rule – 1st Phase of a U.S. Seafood Traceability Program to Combat IUU Fishing Products & Seafood Fraud

February 9, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA

Today, NOAA Fisheries is publishing the proposed rule to establish the first phase of a seafood traceability program through the collection or retention of data regarding the harvest, landing, and chain of custody of certain fish and fish products imported into the United States that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and seafood fraud. It is important to note that there will be no new reporting requirements for domestic landings of wild-caught seafood. Similar information for domestically harvested seafood is already reported under numerous state and federal regulatory requirements.

Establishing a traceability program is a key tool for ensuring these illicit activities are prevented from entering U.S. Commerce and helping combat them in the complex system of international seafood trade.

This proposed rule is designed to build on existing resources and processes—maximizing effectiveness and efficiency, while minimizing impacts on the fishing and seafood trade community. To achieve these objectives, NOAA Fisheries is encouraging detailed comments from the fishing and seafood industry, conservation community, and other interested stakeholders engaged with sustainable seafood. Additionally, we have scheduled two webinar conference calls in February and an in-person public meeting on March 7, at the Seafood Expo N. America in Boston to provide opportunities for anyone to ask questions.

Gloucester, Mass. investment in seafood expo is money well spent

February 3, 2016 — Of all the initiatives begun last year by then-interim Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, the return of the city to the international Seafood Expo North America in Boston was a no-brainer, given Theken’s deep ties to the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.

By all accounts, the endeavor was a success. The city’s booth stood out amid a sea of sterile, cardboard convention center displays, thanks to the presence of the mayor and Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Fishermen’s Wives, and a bubbling, aromatic pot of redfish soup. That end product — the food people actually put in their mouths — is as emblematic of the Gloucester fishing industry as its hard-working fleet or the Man at the Wheel. Gloucester fishes so people can eat. What better way to bring home the point than with 40 steaming gallons of fish stew?

The end result was an increased awareness of the Gloucester brand, and a series of meetings among city officials, waterfront businesses and potential clients from the United States and abroad. It’s exactly the kind of result one would hope for from a long weekend’s attendance at a trade expo.

Last year’s expo, in fact, is still paying off: On the Monday of this year’s event, the city will play host to potential buyers and trade representatives from more than a dozen countries, including Canada, Turkey, Mexico, Iceland, Taiwan, Morocco, Spain, Indonesia and the Netherlands. Those are real contacts.

Read the full editorial at Gloucester Daily Times

Southeastern New England Coast Guard Saves Five Lives in Three Incidents

January 15, 2016 — HYANNIS – The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan teamed up to respond to three separate Southeastern New England maritime emergencies last night.

“Since last night, the command center’s four person watch team utilized our technology and partnerships with local agencies to expertly execute three separate search and rescue cases, saving five lives,” said Captain John Kondratowicz, Commander of Sector Southeastern New England.

At about 4:30 a.m. this morning, the captain aboard the fishing boat Sasha Lee used contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England and relayed they were taking on water 11 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard and had four people aboard.

A 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from Coast Guard Station Menemsha was dispatched and the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, a 270-foot cutter homeported in Boston, also diverted to help.

Once on scene, two Coast Guard station members went aboard the Sasha Lee with a dewatering pump and controled the flooding.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Study eyes fish freed from hooks

December 24, 2015 — Researchers at the New England Aquarium, in conjunction with those from state agencies, are getting closer to releasing study results on the collateral impact of recreational haddock discards on the overall mortality rate of the species.

Dr. John Mandelman, director of research at the Boston-based aquarium, said the the field work for the study was completed in early November. He expects the New England Fishery Management Council, which helped fund the study, to complete vetting the analysis sometime early next spring.

The field work was performed with significant assistance from recreational fishing operators such as Gloucester-based Yankee Fleet and Seabrook, New Hampshire-based Eastman’s Docks Fishing Fleet.

“As with all studies, what we very much tried to do was to work as much as possible as part of a legitimate fishing effort, or what we call a fishery-dependent exercise” Mandelman said. “This was a really nice partnership.”

Mandelman said project researchers made about eight trips last spring aboard some of the Yankee Fleet’s larger party boats, focusing on observing how a full range of anglers — from novice to veteran — performed catch-and-release of haddock discards, while also charting catch gear, catch conditions, injuries to the fish, time out of water and sea temperatures.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Tuna fisherman teams up with engineers to build ‘Zombait’ robotic lure

December 21, 2015 — Two years ago over Christmas dinner, Maine tuna fisherman Rink Varian aired a favorite gripe: The tuna he caught vastly preferred live bait fish, but he almost never had enough of the little critters on hand. What if someone built a device that could re-animate dead bait fish into effective lures?

Varian’s musings fell on deaf ears season after season, but this time he snagged a partner. Engineer Matthew Borowski, Varian’s family friend, decided to team up with the fisherman build such a device.

This month, a version of the tool Varian dreamed up is finally on sale. It’s called ‘Zombait’ and looks like a giant crayon with a tail. Place it in the mouth of a thawed-out bait fish, toss it in water, and voila, the wriggling electronics inside the fish create the illusion that it’s come alive.

Along the way, Varian and Borowski reeled in Boston project designer Jessy Cusack to join the project and started a company in Medford — Magurobotics — to manufacture the device and sell to recreational and commercial fishermen.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

 

Fish Gets Most Boston Reaction Ever

September 23, 2015 — What happens when a couple of Bostonians come across a giant fish in the ocean? Why hilarity, of course.

Like a Saturday Night Live mashup of Good Will Hunting and Deadliest Catch, this clip of a Massachusetts native’s expletive-laced incredulous exclaiming as he follows what appears to be an ocean sunfish around will make you want a Wahlburger, a cup of Dunkin’ and a Red Sox hat in a fu–in’ instant.

Read the full story and watch the video at The Daily Beast

Gloucester’s Key Largo tows disabled fish boat into Boston

September 11, 2015 — The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Key Largo, homeported in Gloucester since April, assisted in the rescue of four people who were aboard a disabled fishing vessel 97 miles east of Boston.

The captain of the 80-foot fishing vessel Lydia and Mya, homeported in Boston, used a VHF-16 radio Wednesday about 9:30 a.m. to contact  Coast Guard Sector Boston to report Lydia and Mya was disabled due to mechanical problems.

Search and rescue coordinators at Sector Boston issued a marine assistance request broadcast soliciting assistance for Lydia and Mya from good Samaritans or a commercial salvage company. After the request went unanswered, the Coast Guard cutter Escanaba, a 270-foot cutter homeported in Boston, was sent to assist.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Can Boston’s Cult-Favorite Sushi Bar Cut It in New York?

August 25, 2015 — You know from that first bite of nigiri, a ripple of Japanese amberjack under pureed banana pepper, that you’ve arrived at the beginning of something good. The fish has been torched at the counter, and it’s glossy with melted butter. The rice is this close to falling apart in your fingers. It’s simply composed, but every element—fish, pepper, rice—is on the same level, warm and mellow and soft around the edges, like three friends who’ve been smoking from the same pipe all afternoon.

Boston-based restaurateurs Tim and Nancy Cushman opened their sushi bar O Ya in South Boston back in 2007. A year later, then-New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni declared it one of the best new restaurants in the country. Some dishes the Cushmans served back then have made it over to their new location, which opened a couple of months ago in Manhattan’s Curry Hill; the bare, sliced chanterelles and shiitake mushrooms under a sesame-flavored froth, for example, are still slick with a beloved rosemary-garlic oil.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Business

 

 

Thomas Glynn: Boston’s future depends on a thriving seafood industry

August 25, 2015 — THERE IS A REASON a cod hangs in the State House as our official emblem. For almost as long as there has been a port in Boston, seafood has been a part of it. Seafood is linked to our regional identity, it is embedded in New England’s food system, and it needs to be — and can be — part of our economic future. But it should not be taken for granted.

The metropolitan area’s neighborhoods are, in many ways, known by their industries. Longwood equals medicine. Kendall Square is high tech. South Boston’s waterfront has become an innovation center. But few know it’s also home to innovative ways to process seafood. Long before the biotech firms, cool restaurants, and law firms made a home there, seafood companies were doing business in that part of town. It is important that there be room for the industry going forward.

Massachusetts ranks second to Alaska in the value of seafood caught nationally. Several of the state’s ports — especially New Bedford and Gloucester — bring in bigger catches than Boston. But Boston has the rare ingredients that position it as an epicenter of the state’s seafood processing industry. In close proximity, it has dockside access to fishing boats and seafood processors, an international airport, the interstate highway system, and a global shipping container facility.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

 

Coast Guard tows scalloper to safety

August 18, 2015 — BOSTON, MA — A fishing vessel carrying 650 pounds of scallops had to be towed to port by the Coast Gaurd when it became disabled.

Coast Guard crews aboard the cutters Escanaba and Hammerhead brought the disabled scalloper safely to shore early Monday.

Coast Guard watchstanders at Woods Hole received a phone call from the captain of the vessel Challenge on Sunday morning, stating a line had fouled the vessel’s propeller, and it was disabled and adrift 70 miles southeast of Nantucket.

Search and rescue coordinators from the Sector Southeastern New England command center in Woods Hole diverted the Coast Guard Cutters Escanaba and Hammerhead to assist.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times