Saving Seafood

Regulators to put focus on New England scallop fishing

April 22, 2016 — Federal fishing regulators say potential changes to the rules that govern scallop fishing off of New England could be a priority in the coming years.

The rules are a source of tension as fishing boats move into the waters off the northern Massachusetts coast to seek scallops. Scallop grounds off of northern Massachusetts, including Cape Ann, have been especially fertile, prompting increased fishing in that area.

The New England Fishery Management Council passed a motion Wednesday that says changes to management of the northern Gulf of Maine fishing area will be a potential priority in 2017.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times 

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

SALEM NEWS: Cashes Ledge decision a victory for open government

March 29, 2016 — The decision by the Obama administration to pass on a proposal to make a large swath of the Gulf of Maine a national monument is not only a victory for fishermen. It’s also a win for those who favor open government.

News came late last week that the administration would not, in fact, use the federal Antiquities Act to make the the area around Cashes Ledge a permanent “maritime national monument” by executive decree.

Such status is set aside for for areas of outstanding scientific, cultural, conservation and aesthetic value. President George W. Bush established four and Obama expanded one, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, according to the Associated Press.

Cashes Ledge, about 80 miles off the coast of Cape Ann, provides a habitat to sharks, dolphins and sea turtles and migrating, endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The area, more than 520 square nautical miles, is certainly worth protecting. However, there are already rules in place doing just that. The area is currently off limits to fishing, and there are no plans for that to change.

Read the rest of the column at The Salem News

Gloucester boat captain in ill-fated Coast Guard rescue drowned

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (March 25, 2016) — The state medical examiner has determined that a Gloucester eel boat captain who died during an ill-fated rescue off Cape Ann late last year had drowned, a finding that brings new scrutiny to the equipment aboard the Coast Guard’s vessels.

David “Heavy D” Sutherland died moments after his 51-foot wooden boat, the Orin C, sank while under tow by the Coast Guard about 12 miles off Cape Ann on Dec. 3. The Coast Guard is investigating why the tow went awry and whether rescue vessels should be outfitted with more medical equipment.

Drowning victims can sometimes be saved if they’re underwater for only a few minutes and receive oxygen immediately, according to emergency medicine experts. But Sutherland didn’t receive oxygen because, unlike ambulances and airplanes, most Coast Guard vessels don’t carry it and crews aren’t trained to administer it, a Coast Guard official said.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Invasive species? Try new culinary treat

March 3, 2016 — It’s not easy being green . . . crabs, that is. Then, how could it be?

The green crabs are the poster child of invasive seafood species, prompting their fair share of hand-wringing and vitriol — not to mention legislative action here in Massachusetts to figure out ways to mitigate the far-flung eco-damage they’ve foisted on animal and plant species throughout the state’s Great Salt Marsh that stretches more than 20,000 acres from Cape Ann to the New Hampshire border.

Many people talk about the green crabs, but Spencer Montgomery is actually trying to do something about them. In short, he’d like restaurants and large-scale institutional food purveyors to start using them in recipes and for the consuming public to start eating them. 

Montgomery, a seafood buyer for Woburn-based food vendor Dole & Bailey, is trying to build up a consuming market for the small, ubiquitous crabs, even if he has to do it one chef and harvester at a time.

“There’s really no reason we shouldn’t be selling hundreds of pounds of the green crabs each week,” Montgomery said. “It would be better to get them out of the water to help protect our other seafood species and the marine environment, but they’re also a real alternative for chefs looking to use crabs and crab flavors in different ways and at a far lower price.”

Montgomery said he recently filled orders for about 70 pounds of the crabs from three New England restaurants and now he’s looking to build up his network of harvesters to handle the future demand he envisions from restaurants, hotels, universities and hospitals.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Maritime Gloucester Talk: A Marine National Monument off Cape Ann, Massachusetts?

February 22, 2016 — The following was released by Maritime Gloucester:

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Registration : MGTalks are free of charge. Please consider making a donation at the door.

Audience: General Audience; students encouraged.

A Panel with Vito Giacalone, Volunteer Chair of Governmental Affairs, Northeast Seafood Coalition and Peter Shelley, Senior Counsel, Conservation Law Foundation Massachusetts, with moderator, Sean Horgan, Gloucester Daily Times

A National Marine Monument for New England. Should the President designate the Cashes Ledge Closed Area and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts as the first Marine National Monument in the Atlantic? Come and hear experts Vito Giacalone from the Northeast Seafood Coalition and Peter Shelley of Conservation Law Foundation tackle the issues and the controversies surrounding Presidential action.

NOTE: THIS EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE GLOUCESTER HIGH SCHOOL LECTURE HALL.

Register for Maritime Gloucester’s event

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester must relentlessly promote locally harvested seafood

February 20, 2016 — Gloucester needs to be relentless in promoting the benefits of its locally harvested seafood, as well as the fishermen and processors that send it to market, a city official told the Fisheries Commission this week.

Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano said the city is addressing the challenges of operating in the modern, international seafood market with a marketing strategy designed to promote the city, its fresh seafood bounty, its fishermen and its shore-side businesses to the seafood-consuming world.

“If we don’t do this, other people will,” Di Stefano told the commission Thursday night during a discussion on the city’s plans for the upcoming Seafood Expo North America show in Boston. “And they will try to take it from us.”

The city’s new branding campaign, “Gloucester Fresh,” is at the heart of the promotional strategy aimed at helping consumers identify seafood harvested from the waters around Cape Ann and landed in Gloucester while appreciating its nutritional and sustainable benefits.

Working with Salem-based Sperling Interactive, the city is developing a website that Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken is scheduled to launch at the beginning of the Seafood Expo during the first week of March.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Fishermen, NOAA to talk whiting changes at workshop

February 11, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries will hold an informational workshop next week in Gloucester that could serve as the first step in potentially acceding to the requests of local fishermen to modify the access and fishing schedule in the exempted whiting areas.

The meeting is open to fishermen and potential research partners and is scheduled for Thursday from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional offices in the Blackburn Industrial Park.

“We’re really viewing this as the first part of the discussion,” said Mike Ruccio, a supervising fishery policy analyst at NOAA Fisheries. “We want to try to gather everybody together in one place and tackle this a little more holistically.”

Local fishermen, led by longtime fisherman Sam Novello, have been working for more than a year to convince NOAA to change the permitted gear and expand the access and fishing season for the whiting exempted areas — most notably the Small Mesh Gear Area 1 in Ipswich Bay.

Currently, that area is open for whiting fishing from July 15 to Nov. 15. Novello and other Cape Ann fishermen would like to see that fishing season expanded to open earlier and close later.

Ruccio said the workshop will provide an overview of the fishery, including the whiting exemption programs and the extent of regional Director John K. Bullard’s authority to make the changes sought by fishermen.

He said the workshop also will include discussions on possible bycatch and stock assessment issues, as well as identifying potential funding sources and research projects necessary to produce the data that ultimately would be used to determine if the changes sought are even feasible.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Delving into the deep

February 5, 2016 — Maritime Gloucester has embarked on an ambitious slate of programs for 2016, many designed as teaching tools providing information on a variety of topics within the overarching themes of ocean planning and innovation on the waterfront.

The working museum and maritime education center on Harbor Loop built the schedule — including the MGTalks and HarborLAB series — to provide relevant information to Cape Ann residents from all sides on maritime topics of local interest, ranging from fisheries to ocean exploration, said Melanie Murray-Brown, Maritime Gloucester’s director of program information. 

“We decided that we didn’t want to shy away from controversial topics,” Murray-Brown said Thursday. “We’re not advocating for any particular side on these issues, but providing the information more as a public service.”

The MGTalks series kicks off next Thursday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. at Maritime Gloucester with a free panel discussion on who owns the ocean and balancing interests while managing ocean sprawl.

The panel, including Bruce Carlisle, director of the state’s Office of Coastal Zone Management, and Jack Clarke, a Gloucester resident who is director of public policy and government relations for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, will discuss the formation and goals of the Massachusetts Ocean Plan.

The discussion is expected to include the roles of specific stakeholders and the areas of dissent on issues stretching from sand and gravel mining to the ramping up of the exploration for gas and oil near entry points to the Gulf of Maine by Canadian public and private interests.

John Sarrouf of the Gloucester Conversations project will moderate the panel.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Coast Guard aids disabled fishing vessel off Maine

February 5, 2016 —  BOSTON — The Jocka, a fishing boat with a crew of four aboard, had to be towed to port by the Coast Guard from 45 miles southeast of Portland, Maine, after the engine became disabled.

“It was a pretty rough night, but they’re almost in and everybody’s OK,” ship owner Terry Alexander said late Thursday afternoon. “They just had to sit it out because of the weather.”

At approximately 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, a crew member aboard the Jocka used a VHF-FM radio to contact Coast Guard watchstanders to report the ship’s engine was disabled and the crew needed assistance, the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The boat is owned by the corporation Jordan Lynn Inc. is which headed by New England Fishery Management Council member and former chairman Terry Alexander. The home address for the corporation is Harpswell, Maine, though Alexander said Thursday the Jocka’s hailing port is Boston. He said none of the crew was from Cape Ann.

Alexander said the boat, which is registered in Massachusetts and permitted for off-shore, non-trap lobstering, experienced general engine failure Wednesday and had to stay out on the water overnight because of the harsh weather conditions made it difficult for the Coast Guard to get a line to the 61-foot trawler.

The crew aboard the 110-foot Coast Guard cutter Ocracoke, homeported in South Portland, Maine, responded to the hail for help. Ocracoke had arrived on-scene at approximately 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, but, as Alexander said, was unable to get Jocka in tow due to the weather, the Coast Guard reported.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times