Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford High School to Expand Marine Technology Program

January 11, 2021 — New Bedford High School has landed a $250,000 state grant to build a state-of-the-art Marine Technology Laboratory.

The new facility will prepare students for careers in marine and maritime industries. Skills training will be provided within the school’s Career Vocational Technical Education Program. The Massachusetts Skills Capital Grant was announced by the Baker-Polito administration.

“At a critical time in our Commonwealth, these Skills Capital Grants will increase flexibility and support for schools and educational institutions to launch new programs and help more students develop important technical skills and prepare them for high-demand industries,” Governor Charlie Baker stated.

Read the full story at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: Open Door, fishing vessel win food security grants

November 2, 2020 — The Open Door and a Gloucester fishing company will share in $5.9 million in state grants to help ensure a secure food supply chain for Massachusetts residents, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The administration of Gov. Charlie Baker announced the $5.9 million is being distributed to 47 recipients within the Massachusetts local food system, including farms, non-profit emergency food distributors, seafood harvesters, processors and other elements in the state’s food production and delivery system.

The Open Door, which operates food pantries in Gloucester and Ipswich and other food delivery services, received $201,073 to develop and implement an online food ordering and delivery system and enhance its Gloucester facility to provide more safe storage of locally produced food.

“We are reviewing software options now,” said Julie LaFontaine, president and CEO of The Open Door. “We expect to be rolling it out after the first of the new year.

The grant, part of the fourth round of funding from the state’s $36 million Food Infrastructure Security Grant program, also will help the non-profit on Emerson Avenue to expand its Mobile Market program throughout the Cape Ann community.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Cape Cod’s oyster growers struggle to recover from pandemic losses

October 12, 2020 — When Gov. Charlie Baker shut down restaurants and bars in March, Zack Dixon’s world, and that of hundreds of other shellfish farmers in Barnstable County, dropped off a cliff.

“Restaurants are our customers. When they closed in March, our business revenues went to zero,” said Dixon, who co-owns the Holbrook Oyster company with Justin and Jacob Dalby.

Over the past couple of decades, oysters have become the darling of the culinary world and aquaculture has expanded exponentially. Massachusetts landed nearly 8.7 million pounds of oysters, mostly from aquaculture farming, in 2018, worth $28.3 million. The Cape is home to 265 of the 391 licensed growers in the state, cultivating nearly 661 acres, half the state total of 1,203 acres.

When the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association surveyed larger dealers and wholesalers following the shutdown, they found that 98% of the market for oysters had evaporated overnight, said association president Bob Rheault.

“We knew we were inextricably tied to the food service industry, we didn’t realize how tied in we were,” said Rheault. “I don’t think any one of us would have guessed that amount.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NEMFC approves 100 percent observer coverage with federal funding

October 2, 2020 — The Northeast groundfish fleet will move toward 100 percent observer coverage – so long as full government funding if available, the New England Fishery Management Council decided in approving Amendment 23 to its multispecies plan Wednesday.

While most fishermen dispute the need for blanket coverage – whether by at-sea observers or electronic systems – the final amendment offers some temporary respite, in specifying that costs will be 100 percent reimbursed by federal funding for the first four years.

If federal funding is insufficient, industry will pay for a default of 40 percent coverage. In the third year of the program, the council will review results and could reset the requirements for year five.

It’s expected the amendment, if approved by NMFS, could take effect in 2021. The compromise devised by council members came a day after Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker wrote to council chairman John Quinn, urging a solution to monitoring costs.

At around $700 a day, requiring full monitoring on every trip would drive much of the fleet out of business, fishermen warned.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Baker to fish council: Consider industry’s sustainability

October 1, 2020 — Gov. Charlie Baker is urging the New England Fishery Management Council to develop a program that will take the commercial groundfish industry off the hook for paying for at-sea monitors aboard their vessels.

With the New England Fishery Management Council’s scheduled Wednesday, Sept. 30, to vote on the measure that will set future monitoring levels for groundfish vessels, Baker sent a letter to NEFMC Chairman John Quinn stating his administration’s commitment to the long-term viability of the state’s commercial fishing industry and its coastal fishing communities.

“The decision made by the council stands to have long-term impacts on the fishing industry at a time when it’s essential to protect the commonwealth’s working ports and fishing families,” Baker wrote to Quinn. “I urge the council to devise a program that accounts for the cost of trip monitors and does not place that burden on the industry.”

Baker, unlike a group of about a dozen state legislators, did not call for the council to reject Amendment 23 as currently constituted. But the governor did highlight the importance of building long-term sustainability for an industry that already feels under siege by regulation and pandemic.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

SEAN HORGAN: Fishery in Hail Mary mode

September 28, 2020 — A quick recap: The council has been working on the measure — Amendment 23 — for more than two years. It seems like 50.

The amendment will set future monitoring levels for sector-based groundfish vessels. The council faces four alternatives: Monitors aboard 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of groundfish trips. The council has chosen 100% coverage as its preferred alternative.

That’s not good for the groundfishermen. Once the federal government stops harvesting spare change from between the sofa cushions to keep reimbursing the fleet for at-sea monitoring, the onus for paying falls on the fishermen at a current tune of about $700 per day per vessel.

If 100% monitoring carries the day, it will add an estimated $6.4 million of additional costs across the fishery. The fishermen aren’t even patting their pockets. They are serious when they say it could easily spell the end of the fleet.

So this is a big deal.

Environmental groups have poured in resources and comment in support of the preferred alternative. If they set a betting line on fisheries management, conservationists would probably be heavy favorites.

The industry is in Hail Mary mode. The long pass, not the prayer. Though at this point, it’s a difference without a distinction.

In a letter, the Northeast Seafood Coalition reached out to Gov. Charlie Baker for support and leadership on the issue — Massachusetts stands the most to lose within the fishery — and was rewarded with a palpable silence.

Sixteen members of the Massachusetts Legislature, at the urging of Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and others from fishing communities, signed a letter asking the council to reject Amendment 23 as currently constituted. They cited the measure’s inconsistency with a number of standards within the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and executive orders.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing group asks Baker to fight ‘crippling’ monitor measure

September 23, 2020 — The Northeast Seafood Coalition is trying to enlist Gov. Charlie Baker in its campaign against the monitoring measure that it charges has the “strong potential” to financially cripple the state’s commercial groundfish industry.

The Gloucester-based coalition sent Baker a letter last Friday laying out its case that Amendment 23 — which will set future monitoring levels for sector-based, Northeast commercial groundfish vessels —  is highly flawed and should be withdrawn by the New England Fishery Management Council.

The council, which has been developing the monitoring measure for more than two years, is scheduled to take final action on it next Wednesday during the middle day of its three-day meeting that will be conducted via webinar.

“The letter is really a cry for leadership,” NSC Executive Director Jackie Odell said Tuesday. “We’re looking for leadership on this issue. We’re looking for attention on this issue.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Massachusetts launches online platform for food system connections

August 17, 2020 — The Baker-Polito Administration recently announced the launch of MassGrown Exchange, an online platform designed to facilitate business-to-business connections within the local food system for products and services.

The platform was developed following recommendations from the administration’s Food Security Task Force, which promotes ongoing efforts to ensure that individuals and families throughout the commonwealth “have access to healthy, local food.”

“Our administration developed MassGrown Exchange to serve as an important tool for the commonwealth’s agricultural and seafood industries to expand business opportunities and access new markets, and improve food security for the people of Massachusetts,” said Gov. Charlie Baker. “Through this new platform, a variety of businesses, including farmers, fisheries, restaurants and food banks, will be able to source locally caught and produced food more efficiently.”

“Our Food Security Task Force found that there was a critical need to develop a system to connect processing, storage and distribution resources to ensure ongoing supply of food,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. “Though the platform was designed to address COVID-19 disruptions to the local food supply, it will continue to benefit the local food system long after the pandemic has passed.”

Read the full story at Wicked Local

MASSACHUSETTS: Baker Polito Administration Announces Disaster Relief Funding for Fishing and Seafood Industries

August 10, 2020 — The Baker-Polito Administration has announced the distribution of $27.8 million in federal disaster relief funding to mitigate the financial impacts to the fishing and seafood industries from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Division of Marine Fisheries worked with fishing industry stakeholders to develop a plan to distribute the federal fisheries assistance, which has now been approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The fishing and seafood industries are integral parts of the economy, history and culture of Massachusetts,” said Governor Charlie Baker.

“Our Administration remains dedicated to supporting these industries, and we look forward to getting these needed relief funds to impacted fishermen and businesses as quickly as possible.”

Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito added, “These funds will be a needed lifeline for the Commonwealth’s fishing and seafood businesses, as well as the families and coastal communities who rely on these industries.”

“The distribution of these CARES Act funds is another important step in our efforts to help those who have been impacted by the pandemic.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Baker announces $17.8 million in disaster relief for seafood industry

August 9, 2020 — BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker said Massachusetts is providing $17.8 million in disaster relief funding for the fishing and seafood industries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Eligible recipients of the relief funding include tribes, commercial fishing businesses, for-hire fishing businesses, aquaculture businesses and seafood wholesalers and processors in the state who have suffered at least a 35% loss of revenue during the pandemic.

“The fishing and seafood industries are integral parts of the economy, history and culture of Massachusetts,” Baker said. “Our administration remains dedicated to supporting these industries, and we look forward to getting these needed relief funds to impacted fishermen and businesses as quickly as possible.”

Read the full story at WPRI