Saving Seafood

Plan to help lobsters survive climate change due in fall

August 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — A plan to try to save southern New England’s fading lobster population will come up for review as soon as fall.

The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is working on changes to the way fishermen harvest lobsters south of Cape Cod.

Scientists say the population of southern New England lobsters has declined as ocean waters have warmed.

The fisheries commission is going to consider new management measures that could include seasonal closures and changes to the minimum and maximum harvesting sizes of lobsters. A plan will come before the commission as soon as October and will likely go out for public comment next year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

AMY MACKOWN: Marine monument drowns antiquities

July 27, 2016 — Let’s talk Antiquities. In 1607 when Capt. John Smith, Admiral of New England, sailed the Chesapeake Bay, he lowered a net, hauled in his catch, and fed his crew. Jamestown, and similar settlements were developed and despite disease and famine, early colonial America, by the skin of its teeth, held on through trade with the American Indians for produce, meat, and fish. And there you have it—commercial fishing in America was born.  It’s a time-honored tradition that has fed our nation’s families for years and there is no place better known for its seafood than New England.

Now, an ironically named act, The Antiquities Act, threatens that culture, that heritage, that living history. About a year ago the movement to establish a marine monument in the North Atlantic stirred anger and distrust among New Englanders, and rightfully so. That’s because the area proposed for a marine monument means eliminating fishing from some of the richest fishing grounds our nation has to offer. Fish from these waters has been the keystone to our country’s development and sovereignty. Oil from New England’s historic whaling grounds produced the light by which our nation’s Declaration of Independence, and Constitution were written. The favorite vacation spot of American presidents, Cape Cod, is named for the codfish native to our waters. Lobster boils, clambakes, and chowder festivals, are every bit American as baseball and barbeques.

The motivation behind shutting down commercial fishing in areas of southeastern Georges Bank and beyond is for one reason, and one reason only—to preserve our nation’s historic coral habitats. Corals? Yes. And there is a reason why none of us had heard about these corals in any of our American history classes. That’s because these coral grounds are the corals our nation has respectfully left in peace and ignored since 1607.  And what a time-honored tradition it has been.

Read the full opinion column at Southern Rhode Island Newspapers

UPDATE: Coast Guard Recovers Body of Missing Fisherman off Nantucket

June 20, 2016 — The following was released by the U.S. Coast Guard:

BOSTON — Coast Guard rescue crews located and recovered the body of a missing fisherman from the 42-foot boat No Regrets Monday at approximately 1 p.m. near Nantucket.

The search lasted nearly 4 hours and included a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew and 29-foot rescue boat crew from Station Brant Point, a 42-foot rescue boat crew from Station Chatham, an Air Station Cape Cod HC-144 Ocean Sentry crew and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew. Other agencies involved in the search included the Massachusetts State Police, Harwich Regional Dive Team, Nantucket Harbormaster, Chatham Harbormaster, Chatham Fire Department Dive Team, and three good Samaritans.

“Our thoughts go out to the family of the victim and the entire fishing community who is affected by this tragedy,” said Cmdr. Marcus Gherardi, Chief of Response for Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England. “Anytime we are not able to accomplish our goal of saving lives, we are deeply saddened as we also take it to heart.”

Read the release at the U.S. Coast Guard Newsroom

Regulators close scallop fishery southeast of Cape Cod

June 16, 2016 — NANTUCKET, Mass. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is closing one of the key fishing areas off of New England where fishermen seek scallops.

The administration is closing the Nantucket Lightship North Scallop Access Area to scallop vessels that fish under “limited access general category” rules. The closure goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.

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

MASSACHUSETTS: South Shore lobster fishermen seek exemption from closure

June 9, 2016 — Finding ways to share the seas with important marine creatures, such as right whales, while keeping business afloat is a priority for local lobstermen and fishermen.

Representatives from local fishermen’s associations may have a solution they hope can lead to an exemption in a federally mandated closure that grounds local fishermen from Feb. 1 to April 30.

The closure encompasses nearly 3,000 square nautical miles, including parts of Massachusetts Bay and the waters around Cape Cod. It was first implemented in 2015 and affects fishermen who use vertical lines, such as lobster fishermen.

The goal behind the closure is to protect the right whale from possible entanglements. Since before the closure began, the fishermen have been looking for a compromise so they can help protect the endangered species without hurting their livelihoods.

“The commercial lobstermen want to coexist with the right whale. I don’t want to kill the whale, and I want to catch lobsters. We need to come up with a plan to make everyone happy,” said John Haviland, a Marshfield fisherman and president of the South Shore Lobster Fisherman’s Association.

The solution that may be the key to an exemption is a type of sleeve local fishermen have been trying out for about two years.

The sleeves wrap around the vertical lines, which are cut into 40-foot segments. Though the lines themselves break at around 4,000 pounds of pressure, the sleeves break with about 1,700 pounds of pressure—about the strength of the whale.

Read the full story at the Marshfield Mariner

MASSACHUSETTS: South Shore ground fishermen skeptical of plan to use digital cameras for monitoring mandate

June 9, 2016 — A program to get New England fishermen using video technology instead of human monitors to track their adherence to catch limits and document fish discarded from boats is getting mixed reviews in South Shore fishing ports.

Longtime commercial fishermen from Marshfield and Scituate said the project to equip some groundfishing boats with digital cameras comes with numerous pitfalls, including cost burdens and concerns about how video footage would be used.

Beginning this week, up to 20 groundfishermen from the Maine and Cape Cod will use three to four cameras to document fish handling on their vessels. At the end of each fishing trip, boat captains will send hard drives to third-party reviewers, who will view the footage and determine how much fish was discarded.

The Nature Conservancy is overseeing the project and hailed it Tuesday as a “new era in fisheries monitoring” that would be less costly than the current federal mandate, which requires having human monitors aboard boats on a percentage of fishing trips – at a cost to the fishermen of more than $700 a day.

Last December, South Shore fishermen threw their support behind a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Cause of Action on behalf of Northeast Fishery Sector 13, which represents fishermen from Massachusetts and New Hampshire down to North Carolina. The federal lawsuit challenges the legality of the federal mandate and came in the aftermath of news that government funding to cover the cost of monitors was running out.

Christopher McGuire, The Nature Conservancy’s marine program director, said his group has begun working with National Marine Fisheries Service personnel in hopes of winning approval for the video-monitoring program.

If video monitoring can deliver verifiable data at an affordable cost, McGuire expects federal approval to come within two years.

South Shore fisherman Ed Barrett questioned whether there would be any cost savings, saying the camera equipment would cost thousands of dollars.

“Then someone has to sit in a cubicle and watch the video,” said Barrett, who lives in Marshfield. “ In a multi-species complex like we have in New England, it’s impossible for the video to pick out which fish are being discarded.”

Read the full story at the Patriot Ledger

 

New Bedford Standard-Times: Cooperation pushes fishery advocacy to next level

June 6, 2016 — Last Thursday, House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) joined Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) and Mayor Jon Mitchell in New Bedford, Mass., to discuss issues relevant to the local seafood and fishing industries. The National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC), which helped organize Rep. Bishop’s visit, hopes to continue working with the Natural Resources Committee and its staff to arrange bipartisan visits to all the seaports where NCFC members conduct their business.The following editorial about Rep. Bishop and Rep. Keating’s visit to New Bedford was published yesterday by the New Bedford Standard-Times:

Geography is both a blessing and a curse for commercial fishermen in the U.S. They have access to rich fishing grounds along thousands of miles of seacoast, but the distance between the fish they catch and the American consumer prevents a full understanding of the lives of fishing communities.

The visit to New Bedford’s waterfront Thursday by the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, was more than a step in the right direction, it’s proof of treading the right path. The committee is responsible for ocean issues, including the current reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

City support

The National Coalition for Fishing Communities was formed with city-directed grant money, and the Harbor Development Commission’s membership in the coalition emphatically states the city’s commitment and leadership. Their advocacy is often first to be heard, which means they’ll wait longest for remedy.

Advocacy

Saving Seafood’s years of advocacy in Washington on behalf of the Port of New Bedford and the East Coast has enabled the creation of the coalition. More than two dozen municipalities, businesses, and associations from around the country are represented: Alaska, Hawaii, West Coast, Gulf Coast and East coast. Members from Rhode Island, Long Island, New Jersey and around New England had their voices heard by the chairman on Thursday. An industry with such diversity had its voice heard on national issues and discovered new resources to address local issues more effectively.

The coalition’s website says: “We are committed to the tenets of National Standard Eight of the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” which is summed up in the balancing of the sustainability of both the ocean environment and the fishing community. For the record, The Standard-Times is similarly committed.

Good government

There seems little good to be done recounting the sins of either fishermen or government agents, but it is instructive when considering the case of an alternative for the monument designation proposed to protect corals in fishing grounds south of Cape Cod. Industry representatives cooperated at the White House Executive Office level, the Council on Environmental Quality, to produce an alternative that satisfies preservation and fishing goals alike.

In addition, the CEQ’s counsel can influence how frequently deference might be claimed by regulators, nudging court decisions more in line with the statutory balancing act of National Standard 8.

The chairman’s visit to New Bedford is a recognition that there remain injustices and inequities in the administration of Magnuson-Stevens; reaching out leads to better decisions.

Bipartisanship

Chairman Bishop’s congressional district in Utah borders on the Great Salt Lake, which sees millions of pounds of brine shrimp eggs landed each year. The industry can move more than a billion dollars through the economy annually, but its fortunes are fickle. The lake’s changing salinity affects shrimp reproduction, which can shut the season down if severe enough.

The chairman may have seen the workers in his district reflected in those at the display auction in New Bedford on Thursday, icing down Gulf of Maine flounder. Or at Northern Wind, where workers use machines to process vast amounts of scallops, the port’s signature harvest.

The only “politics” surrounding the chairman’s visit was of the traditional variety: How can we get the people’s business done? New Bedford’s Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Keating could readily see eye to eye on the issues of fishing communities as they toured the New Bedford waterfront together.

Managing ocean resources may never be easy, but cooperation is what gets the people’s business done, moving toward National Standard 8’s goal of a sustainable balance between humanity and the environment.

Read the editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Rep. Bishop Discusses Federal Policy Reforms with Regional Fishing Leaders in New Bedford

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From left: Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), Mayor Jon Mitchell, and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) talk with representatives of New Bedford’s seafood industry on Thursday, June 2. (Photo: House Committee on Natural Resources)

June 3, 2016 — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) spent the day touring the United States’ highest grossing commercial fishing port in New Bedford, Massachusetts and meeting with Mayor Jonathan Mitchell, Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) and local fishing leaders. June 1, 2016 marks the one-year anniversary of the House passage of H.R. 1335, legislation reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Act. This legislation tailors federal fishery management plans to allow more flexibility and local input while also supporting a more robust domestic seafood industry.

Despite bipartisan support in the House and backing from Democratic elected officials in many of the nation’s coastal fisheries communities, the bill waits for action in the Senate.

“I thank Mayor Mitchell, local fishermen and area residents for the warm welcome during today’s visit. I’m also thankful that Congressman Keating was able to join me during this educational experience.

“Today’s trip to New Bedford was another reminder of the challenges facing America’s fisheries and how lackluster policies from Washington are a root cause of the problem. As we heard today, the science and data used to regulate the industry is inadequate, outmoded and must be reformed.

“Threats from Washington of a unilateral national marine monument designation off the coast of Cape Cod is another major concern for these communities. This will only worsen access and do irreparable damage to the fishery industry in the Nation’s top grossing port and others.

“I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to modernize our fishery laws and bring hope to our coastal communities that rely upon a robust and enduring fishing industry.”

The trip included a tour of a shipyard, seafood processing plant and the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The House Committee on Natural Resources has jurisdiction over federal fisheries laws.

Click here for additional information on the H.R. 1335.

Fishermen from Maine to Cape start monitoring landings by camera

June 3, 2016 — A program to get New England fishermen using video technology instead of human monitors to track their adherence to catch limits and document fish discarded from boats is getting mixed reviews in South Shore fishing ports.

Longtime commercial fishermen from Marshfield and Scituate said the project to equip some groundfishing boats with digital cameras comes with numerous pitfalls, including cost burdens and concerns about how video footage would be used.

Beginning this week, up to 20 groundfishermen from the Maine and Cape Cod will use three to four cameras to document fish handling on their vessels. At the end of each fishing trip, boat captains send hard drives to third party reviewers who view the footage and count the amount of fish that was discarded.

The Nature Conservancy is overseeing the project and hailed it Tuesday as a ‘‘new era in fisheries monitoring” that would be less costly than the current federal mandate that requires a percentage of fishing trips to carry at-sea monitors on their vessels at a cost of more than $700 a day.

Last December South Shore fishermen threw their support behind a lawsuit filed by the non-profit Cause of Action on behalf of Northeast Fishery Sector 13, which represents fishermen from Massachusetts and New Hampshire down to North Carolina. The federal lawsuit challenges the legality of the federal mandate and came in the aftermath of news that government funding to cover the cost of monitors was running out.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Seafood Industry Airs Views During Congressman’s Visit to New Bedford Waterfront

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New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell (left) and Rep. Rob Bishop (right) discuss fishing issues in New Bedford on Thursday, June 2. (Photo: House Natural Resources Committee)

June 3, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a story published today by the New Bedford Standard-Times:

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — A congressman from the Mountain West got a full dose of a New England coast Thursday, as seafood and fishing industry representatives aired their views on several contentious issues — including the ongoing marine monument debate — during a whirlwind tour of New Bedford’s waterfront.

U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, visited the city to get a firsthand look at the highest-value commercial fishing port in the country. Numerous industry leaders from across the region took the opportunity to speak to the committee chairman, particularly about the push for monument status in the New England Canyons and Seamounts, about 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Eric Reid, a general manager with Rhode Island frozen fish business Seafreeze, told Bishop during a noontime forum at the New Bedford Whaling Museum that economic impacts from monument status, which would restrict commercial fishing, could cost $500 million and “countless jobs.”

Reid unfurled a map of ocean waters on a Whaling Museum table and pointed out to Bishop where he felt commercial fishing businesses could, and could not, survive if a monument status was put in place. Reid suggested a line of demarcation in the Canyons and Seamounts area, where bottom-fishing would be allowed north of the line but not to the south.

“We can protect the industry, and we can protect the corals,” Reid said, urging that “pelagic” fishing, or fishing that occurs well above ocean floors, be allowed in both zones.

Bishop called the map an “extremely good” start to alternative proposals for which he could advocate as the issue unfolds in coming months, during the final stretch of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Bob Vanasse, a New Bedford native and executive director of Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization Saving Seafood, said Bishop’s visit hopefully was the first of many lawmaker visits facilitated by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC). Saving Seafood launched the coalition last fall, with members that span the country and include New Bedford’s Harbor Development Commission.

“We want to bring these members of Congress who have jurisdiction over the fishing industry, to visit the ports that their laws regulate,” Vanasse said. “This is the kind of communication effort that the National Coalition is about.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford-Standard Times