Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: In a major effort to protect endangered whales, state officials plan to ban lobster fishing for several months a year

December 18, 2020 — In a major step to protect North Atlantic right whales, state officials are poised to ban lobster fishing in all Massachusetts waters during periods when the critically endangered species typically feeds in the region.

The proposed restrictions, which could be devastating for hundreds of fixed-gear fishermen from Buzzards Bay to Ipswich Bay, would prevent commercial lobstermen from setting their traps between February and May, and potentially longer if whales remain offshore. They would also require the state’s 800 lobstermen to use special rope that breaks more easily under pressure from whales, limit the state’s recreational lobster catch, and curtail the use of vertical mesh lines known as gillnets.

State officials said the rules, which were proposed a few weeks after scientists estimated that there are only about 356 right whales remaining, are likely to take effect as soon as February, after a public comment period.

“The draft regulations are designed to reduce the risk of endangered whales becoming entangled in fixed fishing gear,” said Dan McKiernan, director of the Division of Marine Fisheries who noted during recent online hearings that 32 right whales have died and another 14 have sustained life-threatening injuries since 2017.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Falmouth and New Bedford Battle Across Buzzards Bay for NOAA Headquarters

October 15, 2018 — A dispute across Buzzards Bay may break out between Falmouth and the City of New Bedford.

The Falmouth Board of Selectmen has been working to keep the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.

Other elected officials in the area have also been lobbying for NOAA to keep the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole for weeks.

In late September, Falmouth selectmen teamed up with Barnstable County state representatives and state senators, area chambers of commerce, directors from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Woods Hole Research Center to pen a letter to the federal agency urging them to stay put in the small section of Falmouth.

Operations Chief of the NOAA Fisheries Science Center Garth Smelser responded to that letter, and met with Falmouth and Barnstable County officials on Friday to discuss the possible move.

“For almost 150 years we’ve been studying fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and the marine environments that sustain them, and right here in Barnstable County we have over 300 employees and contractors that complete that work. The Fisheries Commission started right here in our community. We’ve been doing wonderful marine science for those 150 years,” Smelser told elected officials. “Yes, we are very proud of our presence in Woods Hole, but we’re much bigger than just Woods Hole. We have 225 federal staff and 165 contract staff spread around the east coast from Orono, Maine all the way down to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The majority of our folks are centered in Woods Hole, but we’re just as proud of our other people.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Project to Clean Buzzards Bay Watershed Receives $420K in Grant Funding

October 4, 2018 — The Buzzards Bay Coalition has received nearly $420,000 in grant funding for its effort to expand wastewater treatment to more upper Buzzards Bay watershed communities.

The Southeast New England Program awarded the funding for the Coalition’s partnership that would reduce tens of thousands of pounds of nitrogen each year to help clean several waterways in the watershed that are on the state’s dirty waters list.

The project would expand wasterwater treatment to more upper Bay communities in Wareham, Bourne, Plymouth and Marion.

Wastewater, particularly from traditional home septic systems, is the largest source of nitrogen pollution to the bay.

Nitrogen pollution turns the water cloudy and murky and harms habitat for underwater species like fish, crabs, quahogs, and bay scallops.

The waterways of the upper portion of Buzzards Bay – the Agawam River and Wareham River,Buttermilk Bay and Little Buttermilk Bay, Sippican Harbor,Aucoot Cove, and the Weweantic River– make up one-third of the entire Buzzards Bay watershed. Every single one of these waterways is on the state’s “dirty waters” list.

The first phase of this project, funded with a SNEP grant in 2015, studied whether it would be feasible to move the discharge pipe from the narrow, upstream waters of the Agawam River to the site of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s existing wastewater treatment plant discharge pipe at the Cape Cod Canal. Through sound science, the project showed that relocating the Wareham discharge pipe would not harm the upper Bay’s health – in fact, it could reduce approximately 80,000 pounds of nitrogen to the Bay per year.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Why Buzzards Bay is a saltwater fisherman’s paradise

August 13, 2018 — Whether you fish the sometime-angry seas of Buzzards Bay from a power boat, its quiet inshore waters from a rowboat, or if you prefer to keep your feet firmly planted along the 245 miles of her shoreline from Wareham to Westport, you can find fish of all shapes and sizes eager to tug on your line and put a welcome bend in your fishing rod, bringing primal excitement to anglers of all ages and abilities.

It’s a combination of factors that make the Bay the popular fishing destination it is, explains Marine Fisheries Aquatic Biologist II John Boardman, who works from the New Bedford office, overlooking the Bay.

“Buzzards Bay has a variety of structure, such as rocky bottom, ledges and wrecks where many different species of fish congregate, and there’s an abundance of baitfish and other food sources like crustaceans and shellfish,” said Boardman. “Accessibility is another component with the coastline offering many boat ramps, marinas and shore fishing access. From spring through fall, there are fish to catch in the Bay.”

Boardman also notes that the black sea bass fishing has become phenomenal in the spring, during the spawning season at the east end of the Bay. “As the fish disperse after the spawn, they still can be caught through the summer and fall in deeper water,” he said. “The sea bass fishing is a big draw for fishermen.”

As coordinator for Marine Fisheries’ Saltwater Fishing Derby, Boardman also said he’s had many submissions into the derby for black sea bass running from four to six pounds this season. He also said that in the late summer and fall, anglers can look forward to the tautog fishing picking up, along with the fall run of stripers and bluefish.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

$13M settlement proposed for Buzzards Bay oil spill

October 20, 2017 — BOSTON — More than 14 years after a barge spilled 98,000 gallons of oil into Buzzards Bay, state and federal officials have announced a proposed settlement that would require the transportation company in charge of the vessel to pay more than $13 million for the damage done to migratory birds and their habitats.

In April 2003, a Bouchard Transportation Co. barge traveling to the power plant on the Cape Cod Canal in Sandwich struck rocks south of Westport. The crash ruptured the barge’s hull and spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the bay, damaging salt marshes, beaches, and hundreds of birds such as loons, sea ducks, terns and shorebirds.

The settlement proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island was filed in U.S. District Court, where it must be approved before being finalized.

If the settlement is approved, it would bring the total amount of money paid to resolve claims filed by the Natural Resource Damages Trustee Council, a group composed of several state and federal agencies, up to $19 million. Bouchard previously paid $6 million for claims on shoreline resources, piping plovers, and other damage recovery efforts.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Black sea bass poachers on Buzzards Bay return with the season

May 28, 2017 — Harbormaster and shellfish employees waded knee-deep in the Wareham River last weekend, fetching dead, floating fish and dropping them into black plastic trash bags.

Each fish would serve as evidence. An angler had spied Environmental Police seizing 225 black sea bass from another boat and dumped his own illegal catch to avoid arrest.

On the same sunny Sunday, beach-goers snapped cellphone pictures of boats that buzzed to the shoreline to drop off coolers, which Wareham Harbormaster Garry Buckminster believes were filled with illegal fish. The boats then motored back offshore to catch more.

“It’s really a wild west in some of these areas,” Buckminster said.

Black sea bass season had officially begun.

Hundreds of anglers converged on Wareham, Mattapoisett and other SouthCoast communities to take advantage of the pristine fishing conditions and haul sea bass from close-to-shore shallow waters. Most began the recreational season bagging the limit of five per person. But others hauled in 30 times that much, likely with their eyes on the black market, where black sea bass can sell for $5 a pound.

“As long as you have people buying the stuff, people are going to poach it,” Maj. Pat Moran of the Environmental Police said.

Smugglers stow the bass in hidden compartments within their boats, using false bottoms, plastic bags and beer coolers to collect their catch. Then it’s a rush to shore and out of town before they’re spotted by environmental police.

“They’ve really got their racket put together,” Buckminster said. “They’d going to do whatever they can. They’ve got a plan in place and they’re trying to make it happen.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Hearing Set for Southern New England Lobster Plan

March 24, 2017 — Interstate fishing managers will hold a public hearing Thursday night in Buzzards Bay on a plan to try and save Southern New England Lobsters. The stock has dwindled as water temperatures have warmed, leading the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to develop a number of proposals to improve the fishery’s health.

The plan includes changing the legal harvesting size limit, reducing the number of traps allowed in the water and implementing new seasonal closures. A public hearing on the matter begins at 6 p.m. at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CapeCod.com 

MASSACHUSETTS: Toxic algae outbreak halts shellfishing in Buzzards Bay, Mount Hope Bay

October 11, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The state’s Division of Marine Fisheries has banned shellfishing in the west side of Buzzards Bay and in Mount Hope Bay because of a breakout of toxic algae late last week.

The ban affects all SouthCoast towns and cities. “As a result of the closure, digging, harvesting, collecting and/or attempting to dig, harvest or collect shellfish, and the possession of shellfish, is prohibited in Bourne, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Gosnold, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Swansea and Westport,” the state said in a press release.

The trouble concerns a toxic kind of phytoplankton termed Pseudo-Nitzschia.

This algae can produce domoic acid, a biotoxin that concentrates in filter-feeding shellfish.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Season Opens for Dwindling Scallops in Buzzards Bay

October 5th, 2016 — The calendar has turned to October and that marks the opening of the recreational bay scallop harvest season in Buzzards Bay.

The bay scallop population in Buzzards Bay has suffered in part to nitrogen pollution – falling from 70,000 bushels harvested in the 1970s and 80s to just 1,500 bushels today, According to the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

Bay scallops live along eelgrass beds which grow underwater in shallow harbors, coves and tidal rivers. The scallops depend on the eelgrass during reproduction as small juvenile bay scallops attach to the blades before dropping off when they grow large enough.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com 

MASSACHUSETTS: 6 SouthCoast towns getting federal funds for habitat protection, restoration

August 5, 2016 — BOSTON  — A total of $210,924 in federal grant funding is being awarded to help towns in the Buzzards Bay watershed protect important habitat and drinking water resources and provide passage for migratory fish species, the Baker-Polito Administration said in a news release.

The grants are being matched by $114,447 in municipal and private contributions and will focus on permanently protecting or restoring habitat, as well as promoting passive recreation.

“These forward-thinking local projects will ensure the Commonwealth’s native species are being preserved and our drinking water resources are protected,” said Gov. Charlie Baker in a statement. “With this round of grants, our administration continues to focus on assisting Massachusetts land protection and conservation projects like these in Buzzards Bay.”

The grants are being awarded by the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program through the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management with funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The following seven grants were awarded to six towns:

Acushnet: $35,000 to work with the Buzzards Bay Coalition to protect a 9-acre property along the Acushnet River. The property contains field, forest and forested wetlands and is designated habitat for rare species. Protection of this property will advance the town’s long-term vision of a “greenbelt,” a corridor of connected conservation and recreation land along the Acushnet River.

Fairhaven: $35,000 to work with the Coalition to protect 61.5 acres in East Fairhaven that is part of a larger conservation effort. The property is designated as habitat for rare species and contains significant salt marsh, forested freshwater wetlands and frontage on a perennial stream.

Marion: $10,924 to remove an obstruction to fish passage on Borden Brook, which runs through Grassi Bog. Borden Brook is an existing American eel run and has the potential to support other fish species, including alewife. The town will remove an existing culvert and replace it with a larger culvert that will mimic natural stream channel conditions and provide unimpeded fish passage.

Mattapoisett & Rochester: $35,000 each to work with the Buzzards Bay Coalition, to protect 164-acres of land straddling the Rochester-Mattapoisett town boundary. The properties lie within a drinking water recharge area, are designated as habitat for rare species, contain extensive wetlands, have frontage on Branch Brook and abut existing protected lands owned by the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game and the Mattapoisett Water Department.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times