Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: No, sharks aren’t just freezing to death in Cape Cod Bay. But they are getting trapped

January 4, 2018 — Frigid temperatures may have transformed the waters off Cape Cod to ice, but it turns out the recent cold snap is not literally just freezing sharks to death.

It may, however, be contributing to the ocean predators getting trapped in Cape Cod Bay.

Greg Skomal, the senior fisheries scientist for the state Department of Fish and Game who leads the Massachusetts Shark Research program, said the thresher sharks — like the four that have been found dead in Wellfleet and Orleans in recent days — are dying as they attempt to swim to warmer southern waters but are getting stranded in shallow waters in Cape Cod Bay.

“The rapid cooling associated with this cold snap and water temps is forcing the sharks to move south at a faster pace, and the landmass of Cape Cod is contributing to them getting stranded in shallow water,” said Skomal, adding that the exact cause of the sharks’ deaths remains hypothetical at this time.

Cape Cod, with its shape of an outstretched human arm that hooks at Provincetown, can act as a natural trap for animals trying to move south quickly, and most shark species need to be continually moving in order to breathe effectively, he said.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

Massachusetts: Three companies submit bids for offshore wind power

December 21, 2017 — Three offshore wind energy developers bid Wednesday on contracts to sell electricity to Massachusetts power companies, taking the next big step in a process that could set turbines spinning south of Martha’s Vineyard within the next five years.

“It’s in the hands of the utilities,” Vineyard Wind Chief Development Officer Erich Stephens said.

By April, Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind and Revolution Wind will hear whether their bids have been selected for negotiation by the handful of electric distribution companies that will buy the wind energy. By the end of July, the utilities and offshore wind energy companies are expected to finalize long-term contracts and hand them over to the state Department of Public Utilities for review and approval.

Depending on the wind energy company, construction of anywhere from 50 to 100 turbines in federally leased, submerged areas could begin within two to five years. In addition to securing contracts to sell their energy, the companies face federal and state permitting requirements, including through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“The critical path is the federal permit,” said Bay State Wind representative Michael Ausere, who is also vice president of business development for Eversource, which distributes electricity on Cape Cod and the Vineyard and is one of the utilities that would buy power from the wind farms. “This will be the first large-scale offshore wind farm.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Maine: Big changes in store for herring fishery

December 20, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — For such a small fish, herring play a critical role in the ecosystem of the Gulf of Maine. Only a few inches long, the plankton-eating fish are an important prey species, providing food for top marine predators, and are an important source of bait for Maine’s $547 million lobster industry.

In the Gulf of Maine, besides feeding whales, seals, harbor porpoises and dolphins, herring, particularly juvenile herring, provide a principal source of food for sea birds such as Atlantic puffins, razorbills, common terns and Arctic terns. Much of their catch is fed to young birds still in the nest.

In the water itself, top predators such as bluefin tuna, bluefish and striped bass, as well as cod, hake, pollock, dogfish and many species of shark, feed on herring.

Man is another top predator that relies on herring. In 2016, fishermen landed more than 77 million pounds of herring in Maine, most of it to be used as lobster bait, and most of it caught by trawlers fishing far offshore. That number is down from 103.5 million pounds just three years ago.

Not surprisingly, the price of lobster bait has climbed significantly. According to the Department of Marine Resources, the price of herring increased 57 percent between 2014 and 2016, and lobstermen saw the price of herring increase by a third or more, according to Maine Lobstermen’s Association President David Cousens.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Big changes likely for national monument just outside Gulf of Maine

December 14, 2017 — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke may have decided Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument in northern Maine should be left as it is, but he’s proposing major changes to another monument established just last year in the Atlantic ocean, on the far side of the Gulf of Maine.

Zinke has recommended that commercial fishing activity resume in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and two other marine monuments in the Pacific.

The marine monument, which encompasses nearly 5,000 square miles, lies outside the Gulf of Maine, roughly 100 to 200 nautical miles southeast of Cape Cod along the edge of the continental shelf. It was created by then-President Barack Obama in September 2016.

Since President Donald Trump ordered a review this past spring, Zinke has been reviewing the status of 27 monuments, five of them marine monuments, that were created by prior presidents.

Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument in northern Maine, also created last year by Obama, was among those under review. Last week, Zinke recommended that no changes be made to the northern Maine monument.

As part of the same report, which was released Dec. 5, Zinke recommended that fisheries in the three marine monuments should be subject to the same federal laws that apply to fisheries nationwide.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Public gets say on changes to herring rules

December 12, 2017 — Cape Cod’s small boat fishermen, both commercial and recreational, have been asking for protection from a fleet of large herring trawlers for more than a decade.

They may get an answer to their plea as early as June, when the New England Fishery Management Council will likely vote on whether to create buffer zones that prohibit fishing close to shore by these large vessels for part or all of the year.

The council’s potential actions are focused on midwater trawlers which tow large nets, sometimes between pairs of vessels, targeting huge schools of herring swimming midway between the bottom and surface. Back in 2007, the council prohibited midwater trawlers from fishing during the summer months along the coast north of Provincetown to Canada. But they allowed them to come within three miles of the Cape and states to the south.

Herring are considered a forage species, a vital link between the massive food source contained in the plankton they eat, and the protein needed by important commercial species like striped bass, cod and bluefin tuna that prey on them. But Cape and other East Coast fishermen have argued that the massive nets and large vessels used by the herring fleet are so efficient that cod, tuna and other species, with no herring to eat, do not come close enough to shore for the smaller vessels of the inshore fleet.

“Our guys are not fishing the way they did 12 years ago around the Cape because those fish aren’t there because the bait isn’t there,” said John Pappalardo, executive director of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance and a member of the fishery council. “We live in a migratory corridor here. We depend on the bait to be there.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Future Of Northeast Marine National Monument Protections Still Uncertain

December 7, 2017 — Protections of a marine national monument made up of underwater mountains and canyons 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod could be at risk after President Donald Trump significantly scaled back the boundaries of two national monuments in Utah Monday – the biggest reduction of monument protections in U.S. history.

On Tuesday, U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke officially released his review of the designations of 27 national monuments, including the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean.

The three-million-acre monument was designated in September 2016 by former-president Barrack Obama under authority granted by the 1906 Antiquities Act. Since then, commercial fishing, with the exception of lobster and red crab fishing, has been banned within the monuments boundaries.

Read the full story at RI NPR

 

An emotional day for family, friends of lost Misty Blue crew

December 6, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Authorities believe they have located the Misty Blue underwater but not the two crew members who went missing after the 69-foot surf clam harvester overturned Monday night, according to Chad Brayton, the vessel manager for Atlantic Capes Fisheries Inc.

Details of what happened remained scarce Tuesday as the Coast Guard and four fishing vessels continued scouring the waters about 10 miles off Nantucket looking for the two Misty Blue crew members.

Misty Blue’s Captain Eric Arabian, 44, and a crew member, Colby McMullen 22, were rescued by the fishing vessel Enterprise on Monday night and are “fine,” Brayton said. Arabian and McMullen were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital Tuesday evening to be checked out after the Coast Guard brought them back to shore.

The search for Michael Roberts, 44, and Jonathan Saraiva, 32, continued throughout Tuesday as the Coast Guard kept assets in the water overnight. Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrew Barresi said at first light Tuesday, the Cape Cod air station launched an ocean sentry aircraft to aid in the search.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

NMFS finalizing new rules for New England fisheries

December 5, 2017 — Tuesday, 5 December is the final day for the public to submit comments on a series of proposed changes to essential fish habitats and areas within the New England Fishery Management Council’s jurisdiction.

The new regulations were designed to keep the council in compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which calls on the councils to review designated habitat areas and protect those areas as much as possible to allow fish to mature and spawn.

The proposed changes include opening the northern portion of Georges Bank, a shallow plateau located between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, to scallop fishermen.

The council said the potential economic benefits outweigh the benefits of keeping the area closed. The scallop fishery have averaged nearly USD 500 million (EUR 421.2 million) in revenue over the past five years. By allowing fishermen in Georges Bank, it could increase their revenue by almost USD 190 million (EUR 160 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Scientists: Maine coast could see more great white sharks

December 5, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — A great white shark detected in waters off Maine could be a sign that the big fish will become a more common sight in the years to come, say scientists who study sharks in New England.

White sharks are near the northern edge of their range along the Maine coast, though they are not commonly seen in the area. One of the sharks was spotted in the waters off Kennebunkport in the summer of 2016, sparking interest in finding out how many live off Maine.

University of New England marine scientist James Sulikowski has set out to answer that question, and he’s making his first findings public. Tracking devices discovered a different, 12-foot great white about 1.5 miles off of Old Orchard Beach in September of this year, he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Herald

 

Massachusetts: The final blow for Cape Wind

December 4, 2017 — The proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm is no longer.

After more than 16 years, tens of millions of dollars spent and seemingly endless, at times deafening, debate, the announcement Friday that Cape Wind is officially dead came quietly by email.

“Cape Wind has confirmed to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that it has ceased development of its proposed offshore wind farm project in Nantucket Sound and has filed to terminate its offshore wind development lease that was issued in 2010,” according to a statement sent to the Times by Cape Wind vice president Dennis Duffy.

The project first proposed in 2001 and reviewed by dozens of local, state and federal agencies succumbed not under the weight of pressure from opponents or failure to clear any particular regulatory hurdle but rather from a combination of time and financial constraints that tightened and loosened over many years before constricting for good when utilities killed the contracts to buy power from the project’s 130 wind turbines in early January 2015.

Even after losing customers for its power, however, Cape Wind Associates LLC continued to shell out $88,278 to pay for a lease secured in 2010 covering 46 square miles of federal waters in the middle of the sound. That amount was a drop in the bucket compared to the more than $100 million the company had already spent on the project but whether it was what finally tipped the scales is unclear.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times