April 6, 2021 — This year’s version of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, scheduled for 11 to 13 July, 2021, has been canceled by organizer Diversified Communications.
The next edition of the expo will take place 13 to 15 March, 2022, according to Diversified.
April 5, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Even without a pandemic, figuring out the number of eggs a fish will lay during its spawning season is a difficult task. While this information is important to fishery biologists, long-term data are scarce. That hampers researchers ability to answer a fundamental question important for fishery managers: What affects the ability of marine fish, and fish populations, to replace themselves in an open ocean? The pandemic made answering this question even more difficult—but our researchers persevered.
“Many marine fish produce hundreds of thousands to millions of eggs per female per year, the survival of which determines the future abundance of a population,” said Mark Wuenschel, a fish biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Wuenschel is leading a long-term study on “fecundity”—a term for reproductive potential—in two commercial flatfish species, winter flounder and yellowtail flounder. “We had to have enough samples, and we had to work out the methodology to do it.”
Annual fecundity — in this case, measured by the number of eggs — varies and depends on the size, age, and condition of the female fish. Environmental variables, such as temperature and available prey, also affect the growth, condition, and reproduction of the females. Like many things in life, timing is everything. To study fecundity, female fish have to be collected at just the right time from the right locations, and in large numbers. Then, lots of eggs need to be counted.
Enter Emilee Tholke and Yvonna Press, both center biologists who work with Wuenschel. They were granted access to their lab one day a week under specific safety protocols. They prepared egg samples and captured images of the eggs using a high-resolution camera with a macro lens and a microscope. Images were stored on a flash drive or transferred to a shared network file.
Then, working from home, each analyzed the images and entered the results into a shared database. Working from home not only kept the egg counts going, but ensured that critical sampling would continue, and prevented a back-log of sample processing work. This year’s effort completes a 10-year time-series of sampling, image analysis, and fecundity estimates for winter and yellowtail flounders.
April 5, 2021 — Louisiana fishermen and others in the industry will receive $12.5 million in federal aid to help offset financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s part of a $255 million package approved by Congress in December as part of a larger COVID relief and budget bill.
“Our priority is to award these funds as quickly as possible using existing processes established under the CARES Act,” Paul Doremus, acting assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said in announcing the aid last week.
It’s the second round of money aimed at helping fishermen weather the downturn in business caused by the pandemic.
Last year, Louisiana received $14.8 million from the CARES Act, which included about $300 million to aid the fishing industry throughout the U.S.
April 5, 2021 — Necessary design changes, along with delays from the COVID-19 pandemic, have stalled the construction of a new Guam Fishermen’s Cooperative Association facility. The initial groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2017.
Kin Flores, head of the committee overseeing the project, said officials were faced with various challenges. One of the first was compliance with the flood zone regulations. Much of Hagåtña is considered a flood zone. The co-op facility had to be raised 5 feet above ground level from the original design to comply with codes.
“Since then, it has gone through two versions of the design,” Flores said. “We’re at the final stages of completing. We’re reapplying for an Army Corps (of Engineers) permit for the new sea wall and also a (Department of Public Works) permit for the new building design. And that’s potentially scheduled for late this month or early in May when we can start that permitting process.”
Another factor was poor soil conditions nearer the sea wall, which is being built to reinforce the shoreline. This made the facility’s foundation design more expensive and required that it be moved farther away.
April 2, 2021 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, joined by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congressman Bill Keating, and members of the New Bedford City Council and state legislative delegation, announced Wednesday that the City of New Bedford has established a waterfront vaccination center on Tichon Avenue to vaccinate essential seafood industry workers.
The site is located at the former Environmental Protection Agency Dewatering Facility on the waterfront, recently turned over to the New Bedford Port Authority by the EPA. It will launch in the coming weeks with additional vaccine supply and through a partnership with the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center.
The waterfront vaccination center will be operated as a partnership between the City and the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center which will staff the vaccination site. The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center recently received an award of nearly $4 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of the American Rescue Plan to support its work, including direct receipt of vaccine, which makes possible the operation of this site.
April 2, 2021 — Earlier this week NOAA Fisheries announced that an additional $255 million will be allocated to states and territories with coastal and marine fishery participants who have been negatively affected by COVID-19. The new funding, which falls under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), follows an initial $300 million that was set aside for fisheries assistance earlier this year. Now, we’re taking a look at the latest funding and how it’s being broken down by state. You can find the full rundown below:
Alaska – $40 million
Washington – $40 million
Massachusetts – $23,632,530
“Our fishing industries are at the core of our culture and economy in Massachusetts,” said state Senator Ed Markey. “Given the unrelenting challenges associated with the pandemic, the $23 million in aid for the Commonwealth is another down-payment on the help these industries deserve. We are home to the highest grossing port in the nation, and additional support will be needed to match our vital contribution to the fishing economy.”
April 2, 2021 — There aren’t too many times someone can offer you $12.4 million dollars and you feel like you’ve been cheated. However, that’s exactly the way a number of Louisiana fishing families and business owners must be feeling this morning after finding out just how badly Louisiana is getting hosed by administrators of the CARES Act Fisheries Funding program.
That program authorized $255 million dollars in federal money to support states whose fishing industries were severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a good thing. Especially when you consider that Louisiana is the second-largest producer of seafood in the country.
Just so you can understand just how distorted the distribution of funds from this federal program actually is, please consider this. Louisiana will receive $12.4 million dollars under the program. Washington state will receive $40 million even though Louisiana has a 50% greater value to our fisheries landings.
April 2, 2021 — Later this month, an old U.S. Environmental Protection Agency facility on the waterfront in New Bedford, Massachusetts, will be teeming with seafood industry workers taking the next step toward the industry’s – and the nation’s – recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to nearly USD 4 million (EUR 3.4 million) in funds from the recently enacted American Rescue Plan, the facility will become a COVID-19 vaccination site. A release from the city indicates it will handle up to 125 inoculations an hour and potentially up to 1,000 people daily, and the focus will be on fishermen and others in the commercial seafood industry.
April 2, 2021 — Elements of the Massachusetts seafood industry are set to receive another $23.6 million as part of continuing federal and state efforts to mitigate the detrimental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Massachusetts allocation represents 9% of the total $255 million in new federal fisheries assistance funding and supplements the $28 million allocated to the Bay State fishing industry from the CARES Act in March 2020.
“It’s basically the same as the first round,” said Dan McKiernan, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “We’re being urged to get the money out as quickly as possible.”
McKiernan expects the process for distributing the money to be almost identical that in 2020 when the state distributed the $28 million from the CARES Act appropriation.
As in 2020, the Massachusetts allocation is the third largest among all states. Only Alaska and Washington, at $40 million each, received more.
Elsewhere in New England, Maine was fifth among all states with a $17.14 million allocation. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut each received $3 million.
April 1, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Ed Markey (D-MA):
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its plan to distribute $255 million in fisheries disaster funds appropriated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, supporting previously authorized activities in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Massachusetts received $23 million, the third-highest award out of the 28 fishing states and territories that were listed. In 2020, Massachusetts received $28 million from the initial CARES Act fisheries disaster funding appropriations. For 20 consecutive years, New Bedford has remained the highest grossing port in the country, bringing in more than $430 million annually.
“Our fishing industries are at the core of our culture and economy in Massachusetts. Given the unrelenting challenges associated with the pandemic, the $23 million in aid for the Commonwealth is another down-payment on the help these industries deserve,” said Senator Markey. “We are home to the highest grossing port in the nation, and additional support will be needed to match our vital contribution to the fishing economy.”
Massachusetts lawmakers, led by Senators Markey and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have championed the allocation of financial aid to fishery participants. In March 2020, Senators Markey and Warren, and Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan called on Senate leadership to include support for the fishing industry in coronavirus economic relief packages and secured a $20 million USDA procurement of Atlantic seafood.
In April 2020, Senators Markey and Warren led a letter urging the Department of Commerce and NOAA to act swiftly, equitably, and transparently in allocating fisheries disaster assistance funding. Also in April of last year, Senators Markey and Warren led a letter to the Commerce Department demanding immediate release of federal guidance on how fishery participants could access the $300 million in CARES Act funds, and identified the bureaucratic inefficiencies that were behind the failure to issue this guidance in a timely manner. In June 2020, Senators Markey and Warren called on Senate leadership to include additional fisheries assistance in the next coronavirus relief package.