Saving Seafood

Extended: Voluntary Vessel Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

March 4, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) previously established south of Nantucket has been extended to protect an aggregation of 10 right whales sighted in this area on March 1.

This DMA is in effect through March 17, 2019.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less. Whales were spotted in or near shipping lanes so please be especially vigilant when traveling in these areas.

Nantucket DMA coordinates:

41 12 N
40 28 N
070 36 W
069 31 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Cape Cod Bay SMA — in effect through May 15

Mid-Atlantic U.S. SMAs (includes Block Island) — in effect through April 30

Southeast U.S. SMA — in effect through April 15

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. With an unprecedented 20 right whale deaths documented in 2017 and 2018, NOAA is cautioning boaters to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking commercial fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales, remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements, and use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are slightly more than 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

The secret lives of New England sharks

February 28, 2019 — The New Bedford Science Café returns Wednesday March 6 with fisheries biologist Megan Winton, a PhD candidate at the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), UMass-Dartmouth.

His presentation, “You’re gonna need a bigger dataset: How statistics are shedding light on the secret lives of sharks,” is slated for 6 to 8 p.m. at Greasy Luck, 791 Purchase St., New Bedford. Open to everyone. Free, except for beer and food.

Little is known about the great white sharks that swim in these waters. Sharks are notoriously difficult to study in the wild, especially as they migrate vast distances, are elusive and difficult to capture, a press release about the event states. But, as Winton will relate, that’s changing thanks to the rapid development of electronic tags that are capable of recording a tagged shark’s location, movement patterns, and local environment. Scientists now have unprecedented volumes of information to make sense of.

How does the collected data tell scientists what an animal is actually up to? What can be revealed about the broader population? Since 2015, Winton has been working with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to unravel mysteries about great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod. As a quantitative fisheries biologist, she employs both math and her knowledge of species biology to gain insights into fish populations. The science, in the long run, can lend to better ways of protecting sharks and improving safety for humans.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Vineyard Wind: Massachusetts Certifies Environmental Impact Report

February 13, 2019 — Vineyard Wind announced on 5 February 2019 that Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Matthew A. Beaton has certified the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the United States’ first utility-scale offshore wind farm.

The decision finalizes the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review process for the proposed 800 megawatt (MW) offshore wind generation and transmission project, allowing the project to proceed with state, regional and local permitting.

“The MEPA environmental review process provided a significant benefit to the project, allowing numerous stakeholders, advocacy groups, and interested citizens to help identify and address impacts so they can be effectively managed or mitigated,” said Erich Stephens, Chief Development Officer for Vineyard Wind. “Our team will continue to work collaboratively with state, regional and local regulatory agencies – as well as all stakeholders- as the project moves forward.”

With MEPA’s certification, the project will now seek permit review from the Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard Commissions, and the Barnstable Conservation Commission, among others.

Read the full story at Ocean News & Technology

 

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Unity in opposition to Georges Bank drilling

January 31, 2019 — The methods vary, but the message should be clear: Keep oil rigs off of Georges Bank.

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has been looking to set up drilling operations in the waters off the Massachusetts coast. And for years, a coalition of local interests — primarily fishermen, lawmakers and the environmental lobby —have worked long and hard to keep them out.

If fishermen and environmentalists are standing side-by-side on the issue, you know it’s important. While the latest effort to stave off exploration — in the form of proposed legislation filed on Beacon Hill last week — may not pan out officially, it sends a strong signal that the state is united in opposition to the expansion of drilling into its historic local waters.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: As shutdown’s effects worsen, locals say ‘It’s wrong’

January 18, 2019 — On the Outer Cape there are 23 U.S. Coast Guard members, at least eight Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees and around 60 Cape Cod National Seashore workers not receiving paychecks due to the partial shutdown of the federal government.

And it’s not just federal employees who are missing their paychecks. Contract workers, like those who are rebuilding Herring Cove’s north parking lot in Provincetown, are also affected.

“It’s wrong,” said Arthur “Butch” Lisenby, the Provincetown Municipal Airport manager, of the TSA employees who, because they are deemed “essential,” are now working without compensation. “They are trying to do their jobs and not getting paid. That’s not fair. They have a nice attitude. I’m kind of surprised. I don’t know if I could do the same thing. They are doing their job and dealing with it the best they can.”

The TSA employees themselves were not allowed to speak to the press, according to an employee at the Provincetown airport.

Read the full story at Wicked Local Wellfleet

 

Commercial fishermen stand to lose billions from government shutdown

January 16, 2019 — The government shutdown is jeopardizing jobs and tens of billions of dollars in revenue for the heavily regulated commercial fishing industry, a coalition of groups representing fishermen from Cape Cod to Alaska said Tuesday. 

The Commerce Department’s fisheries service has furloughed key employees that help to oversee commercial fishing operation and the quotas handed out to fishermen that need to be in place and enforced before they can enter the water. 

Without the oversight, fishing data isn’t collected, and the risk of overfishing becomes a problem. That situation prevents fishermen from working and results in lost catches.

Specifically, a plan worked out between the federal government and anglers to fish for highly prized red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico could be in jeopardy due to the shutdown.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner

 

New England Shellfish Harvest OK’d, With More Monitoring

December 10, 2018 — A regulatory board is allowing shellfish harvesting in a key management area off of New England, though more monitoring of the fishery will now apply.

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new measures to allow the harvest of surfclams within the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area. The council says mussel fishermen will also be able to operate in the new areas.

The council says it wants fishermen and researchers to work together to get a better idea of where surfclams can be harvested without disturbing sensitive undersea habitat.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

Concern Grows for Future of Right Whales

November 30, 2018 — A group of 17 North Atlantic right whales was spotted by an aerial survey team 21 miles south of Nantucket early this week, prompting a renewed call for voluntary speed restrictions among mariners and also renewed concern for the future of the critically endangered mammals.

In response to the whale sighting early Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has instituted a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone, also known as a DMA, or dynamic management area, that encompasses Nantucket and extends to the southeastern coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Chappaquiddick. Boaters are asked to limit their speed to 10 knots or less when sailing through the area, which spans latitudinally from 40 degrees, 28 minutes north to 41 degrees, 22 minutes north, and longitudinally from 70 degrees, 39 minutes west to 69 degrees, 29 minutes west. Overall, the rectangular area encompasses approximately 360 square nautical miles.

With only about 400 whales remaining, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. The whales are known to appear around Cape Cod and the Islands around this time of year, fattening up on zooplankton before heading south to breed. Two weeks ago, NOAA reported a sighting of four right whales in a similar location off Nantucket’s south shore. But 17 is an entirely different story.

“That’s a lot of whales,” said Jennifer Goebel, a spokesman for NOAA, speaking to the Gazette Tuesday. “Usually when we set up these dynamic management areas we can do it on anything over three, sometimes four, maybe five. This was 17, so that tells you.”

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette

Fishing Leaders Seek Public Support for Herring Trawler Buffer Zone

November 26, 2018 — Local fishing industry leaders are seeking public support to finalize regulations that would push midwater herring trawlers at least 12 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

The New England Fishery Management Council voted in September to recommend the measure in an effort to help protect the struggling fishery.

Local fishermen and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance supported pushing the midwater trawlers back 50 miles to avoid localized depletion.

That concept is defined as a reduction of fish population, independent of the overall status of the stock, over a relatively small area as a result of intensive overfishing.

The new buffer zone would be estimated to reduce midwater trawler revenue by about 30 percent.

The midwater trawlers, which usually work in tandem, use large nets to scoop up entire schools of herring, which local fishermen have said negatively impact the local fishing industry and related economies.

Atlantic herring is a food, or forage fish for many larger fish species and whales which feed in the area. Herring is also an important bait fish in the New England lobster industry.

Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance CEO John Pappalardo says the restrictions now head to the National Marine Fisheries Service for review.

“I’m very confident that if all the people who helped us get a positive vote out of the council will one more time put effort in to making sure that the National Marine Fisheries Service adheres to the recommendation I am very confident we will end up with a positive result,” Pappalardo said.

Fisherman Charlie Dodge says the local industry and the public need to keep the pressure on at the political level to ensure the trawlers are pushed back.

“We’ve seen things before get to this point but even with keeping focus on it sometimes they never come to fruition,” Dodge said.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

As Lobsters Decline, Fishermen Switch to Jonah Crab

November 15, 2018 — The lobster industry in southern New England has been on the decline for decades. As waters warm, some lobster fishermen are adapting by switching their catch to Jonah crab, a crustacean once considered a trash species.

Mike Palombo is captain of a 72-foot lobster boat, but his main catch is crabs.

He leaves from the Sandwich Marina for three-day fishing trips, going out over 100 miles to haul traps in the Canyons. One day this fall, he and his crew returned with around 23,000 Jonah crab and 2,000 lobsters in big saltwater holding tanks. “It was a good trip, very productive,” he said.

Jonah crab are sturdy, hard-shelled creatures, with black-tipped claws. They’re about a pound apiece. You might not have heard of them, but Jonah crab are sustaining Southern New England fishermen left stranded by the decline of lobsters.

Tracy Pugh, a lobster biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said there’s been a drop in the lobster population south of the Cape, in part because the water temperature is rising. “The Southern New England lobsters are experiencing the bad aspects of climate change,” she said, “because they’re already in the southern extent of their range.”

Pugh says the warmer water is causing the lobsters to experience physiological stress. It’s also bringing in new diseases that affect lobster, and an uptick in predators like black seabass and tautog.

Read the full story at WCAI