Saving Seafood

New Bedford Standard-Times: Fishing industry may get a win from Washington

September 25, 2017 — The unexpected re-examination of the status of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument under President Trump is a welcome development for New Bedford’s commercial fisherman.

The nearly 5,000 square miles of protected waters that lie about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod was closed off to commercial fishing last year when President Obama designated the area the first Atlantic marine national monument. The decision came despite fishing industry outcries about both the lack of public input during the process and the harm to the fishing way of life.

Several industry organizations, including the New England Fishery Management Council, rightly pointed out, at the time, that fisheries have worked with government, scientific, and environmental communities for years to create regulations and oversight procedures to protect marine resources. And that important regional stakeholders were working on an ocean management plan to preserve resources.

Most notably, fisheries have been managed for more than 40 years under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, put in place to protect marine environments, prevent overfishing, and promote biological sustainability of marine life.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Trump Plan to Open Up Monuments Draws Industry Praise, Environmentalists’ Ire

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is also moving to expand fishing, hunting at national monuments

September 21, 2017 — More than 100 miles off Cape Cod, a patch of the Atlantic Ocean conceals four undersea mountains, three canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, and serves as a refuge for the world’s most endangered sea turtle.

It also supports a buffet of tuna and swordfish vital to the livelihood of New Jersey fisherman Dan Mears, whose lines have been banned from the zone since former President Barack Obama designated the area as the Atlantic’s first federal marine preserve last year.

But the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts could reopen to commercial fishing if President Donald Trump enacts the recent recommendations of his Interior Secretary to reduce protections of land and sea preserves known as national monuments.

“I couldn’t believe it when they cut that off,” said Mr. Mears, 58, of Barnegat Light, N.J., who owns the 70-foot fishing vessel Monica, and estimates he lost about one third of his catch after the area was closed to him and other types of commercial fishing last year. “It’s going to be huge if we can get that back.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department manages federal lands, is making major moves to open up protected swaths of land and ocean to industry, recreational hunting, shooting and fishing.

In Hawaii, Mr. Zinke’s recommendation to allow fishing in the Remote Pacific islands about 300 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands could increase the catch there by about 4%, said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association.

“That may not sound like much, but if you cut your salary by 3% or 4% it’s a big deal to you,” Mr. Martin said. “Certainly this will have economic importance to us.”

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

A new model for right whale estimates

New system confirms population decline as another death is reported in Canada.

September 21, 2017 — NEW BRUNSWICK, Canada — Another North Atlantic right whale death in Canadian waters has brought further attention to the threat of fishing gear to the endangered marine mammals.

“It’s considered a severe entanglement,” New England Aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse said of the dead female, believed to be around 3 years old. Fishing rope and gear, including a snow crab pot, entangled the pale, deeply cut carcass, estimated to be 36 feet long.

The right whales, which frequent Cape Cod waters in late winter and early spring, are among the rarest whales in the world, with 524 estimated in 2015 in a report by the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. The death brought the total fatalities this year to 14, representing about 3 percent of the population.

The carcass was spotted by airplane surveyors Friday off Miscou Island, New Brunswick. The dead whale was towed to the island Monday, and a necropsy was performed Tuesday.

“The key thing is that the animal was entangled,” said Tonya Wimmer of the Marine Animal Response Society in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Marine monument may be opened to fishing under Trump

September 19, 2017 — US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump make significant changes to 10 national monuments, including proposals to allow commercial fishing in a protected expanse off Cape Cod and to open woodlands in Northern Maine to “active timber management.”

Zinke’s recommendations, first reported by the Washington Post, could have significant consequences for New England. Allowing commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which encompasses nearly 5,000 square miles, would undermine the main goals of the controversial preserve, environmental advocates said.

Opponents of the marine monument, which includes most of the commercial fishing industry, hailed the recommendations. They have argued the area was protected with insufficient input from their industry.

“The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was designated after behind-closed-door campaigns led by large, multinational, environmental lobbying firms, despite vocal opposition from local and federal officials, fisheries managers, and the fishing industry,” said Eric Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside in Narragansett, R.I. “But the reported recommendations from the Interior Department make us hopeful that we can recover the areas we have fished sustainably for decades.”

Grant Moore, president of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, added: “There seems to be a huge misconception that there are limitless areas where displaced fishermen can go. Basically, with the stroke of a pen, President Obama put fishermen and their crews out of work and harmed all the shore-side businesses that support the fishing industry.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Abundant Peanut Bunker Contributes to a Great Season for False Albacore

September 15, 2017 — Anyone who’s been walking down by the water these days along the south side of the Cape, or on the Vineyard, has probably noticed a lot of boat activity on the water and plenty of fish action. What’s it all about? Most likely, it’s false albacore.

False albacore arrive in our waters in the late summer. They’re fast fish, related to tuna. We see them in the size range of 8-12lbs.  They’re notorious for their good eyesight, for being very picky about what they strike, and for driving fishermen crazy.

It’s been a great season so far for albies.  One likely reason is the plentiful numbers of baitfish known as peanut bunker. Peanut bunker are juvenile menhaden, and false albacore love to eat them.

Read the full story at WCAI

Pier to Plate Brings Sustainably Harvested, ‘Under-Loved’ Fish to New England Diners

September 8, 2017 — Every summer, tourists flock to Chatham Pier on Cape Cod, Massachusetts to watch commercial fishermen unload their catch. And for hundreds of years, it was cod that fishermen hauled into Chatham’s storied harbor—and cod that gave this coastal region its name.

Today, however, it’s dogfish and skate the fishermen are hauling, as warming waters, prior bad management, and a host of other factors have made cod increasingly hard to find in New England’s Gulf of Maine.

The fishermen are paid pennies for their catch—literally 20 cents per pound for dogfish—and the majority of the fish is whisked off to markets in Europe and Asia, where higher demand fetches better prices.

Tired of telling Chatham Pier’s tourists, “You have to go to Europe!” when asked what their catch was and where it could be bought, a group of fisherman launched Pier to Plate, a Cape Cod effort to shift the market away from cod and toward the lesser-known species that are more readily available in the New England waters, says Nancy Civetta, a spokesperson for the Cape Cod Commercial Fisherman’s Alliance.

“Pier to Plate is a way for the public to support local fishermen,” said Civetta. “The truth is, what used to be the bread and butter for Cape fishermen has changed. Now it’s dogfish and skate.”

Launched this year, the initiative provides the fish for free to chefs at participating restaurants, an idea that came from the fishermen themselves. “We all sat around and brainstormed, and the fishermen said, ‘Just give it away for free,’” Civetta said, at least until the effort gets off the ground. “Chefs still need to experiment with the fish, but they’re not going to do it out of pocket.”

Read the full story at Civil Eats

 

MASSACHUSETTS: You can see the seal population in Chatham from space

August 29, 2017 — There are so many seals on the coast of Massachusetts that you can see them from space.

Literally. If you zoom in on Cape Cod using the satellite photo feature on Google Maps, you won’t miss the herds of seals scattered along the coast.

Start at the southern tip of Monomoy Island near Monomoy Point and move north on the ocean side of Monomoy Island.

Kimberly Murray, a research coordinator for the seal program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said officials this year observed up to 25,000 seals off Massachusetts in a single day.

The number of seals currently residing in the waters off the state’s coast is likely as high as 50,000, based on recent research that also factored in the number of seals in the water.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Lt. Gov Polito: Monument Should ‘Support Fishing Industry’

August 28, 2017 — FALL RIVER, Mass. — Even though she was visiting the city for a ribbon cutting ceremony at a new UMASS Dartmouth facility, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Karyn Polito couldn’t escape questions surrounding the fishing monument controversy.

The Seamount’s Marine Monument was designated as a national monument by former President Barack Obama in 2016 along with 27 others nationwide. The monument status placed on the roughly 4,900 square mile fishing area south of Cape Cod restricts any commercial activity within it, including fishing.

The designation of this area as a Monument Status is to prevent offshore drilling for oil off the coast of Massachusetts. This prevents any and all commercial activity in that designated area for any reason, leaving a considerable effect on the fishing industry in the south coast of the state.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced on Thursday that he completed his review of the 27 monuments. Zinke says that none of the 27 national monuments will be rescinded under the Trump administration, but suggested the possibility of changing the borders to a handful of monuments, none of which were specified.

Read the full story at WBSM

Fate of First Marine National Monument May Be Decided in Court

August 28, 2017 — The future of the first Atlantic marine national monument will likely be decided in court. A lawsuit that challenges the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument remains on hold, as fishermen’s groups wait to hear specific recommendations from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Zinke announced this week he would not recommend eliminating any national monuments, but he would propose some changes. Supporters of the marine monument off of Cape Cod say if any changes go through, they’ll mount a legal challenge.

The creation of the 5,000 square-mile monument on the edge of Georges Bank this past September closed the area to commercial fishing. Soon after, five fishing organizations across New England filed a lawsuit. The attorney who represents them, Jonathan Wood of the Pacific Legal Foundation, says the suit was put on hold while the monuments were under review.

“It remains on hold, and I suppose until we know what the president is going to do, it will stay on hold,” Wood says.

The lawsuit challenges the authority that President Obama used when he created the monument. Wood says federal law only allows presidents to designate monuments on land owned or controlled by the government.

“And the ocean, 100 miles from the United States, is obviously not land,” says Wood. “But it’s also not owned or controlled by the federal government.”

Read and listen to the full story at Maine Public Radio

Few Answers on Marine Monument as review ends

August 25, 2017 — BOSTON — The future of a national monument off the coast of Massachusetts is unclear Thursday after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wrapped up a review of 27 monuments, but did not publicly disclose his recommendations.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument, a roughly 4,900 square-mile area south of Cape Cod designated as a monument by President Barack Obama in 2016, was among those targeted for review by the Trump Administration.

While environmental advocates applauded Obama’s decision, made under powers granted through the Antiquities Act, the commercial fishing industry, port communities and some elected officials pushed back against its strict limits on fishing.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration had knocked what they described as a lack of public process and conflicts with existing marine planning processes. Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton said in May that he hoped the review would yield modifications “recognizing the work that went into the ocean management plan and the public process around this issue.”

Zinke announced Thursday that he had sent his recommendations and findings to President Donald Trump. The announcement named the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts as among eight monuments Zinke visited during his 120-day review, but did not specify if he was suggesting any changes to that area or others.

Read the full story from State House News Service at the New Bedford Standard-Times