Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: NB Fishing Heritage Center to Reopen July 9

July 6, 2020 — Phase 3 of Governor Baker’s reopening plan begins on Monday, July 6. Museums and galleries are among those attractions planning to reopen this week. Among them is the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center at 38 Bethel Street in the Historic District.

Hannah Mooney, the Center’s Exhibits, Programs and Engagement Specialist, spoke with Townsquare Sunday host Jim Phillips about the July 9 reopening, the protocols now in place, and what live and virtual programs are planned for this summer.

Hannah also shared details about future fundraising events and the Center’s work with DATMA that helped bring about the “Vessels” exhibit in Downtown New Bedford. The interview is available here:

Read the full story at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: Atlantic Capes Fisheries donates 10,000 lbs of seafood to SouthCoast food banks

July 6, 2020 — Atlantic Capes Fisheries, with operations in New Bedford and Fall River, has donated 10,000 pounds of restaurant-quality fish to the food banks run in both cities by Citizens for Citizens in Fall River, and PACE (People Acting in Community Endeavors) in New Bedford, according to a company press release.

The donation of yellowtail flounder, caught by Atlantic Capes boats, will help ensure that those in need in the South Coast area will have access to healthy, fresh food during the current crisis, the release said.

PACE’s Executive Director Pam Kuechler has seen a significant increase in the use of their Food Bank, including families who have never reached out to a Food Bank before the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are grateful for this generous donation,” Kuechler stated in the release. “We have seen our numbers skyrocket in the past few weeks. In addition to our Main Food Bank at 166 William Street, we now have a mobile food pantry to serve our most vulnerable neighborhoods.”

Kuechler added that these types of donations help the food bank expand its offerings to a growing numbers of participants, and provides families with healthy options in their weekly grocery bags, “something that is critical in the middle of this health crisis,” she added.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Extends Fisheries Observer Waiver to August

July 6, 2020 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued an extension of its waiver on observer requirements granted to vessels operating in the U.S. Greater Atlantic Region.

Originally, NOAA was planning to resume observer deployments on July 1, however the resurgence of COVID-19 cases within the country prompted the agency to re-evaluate this time-frame.

“We intend to begin redeploying observers and at-sea monitors on vessels fishing in northeast fisheries on August 1,” said the agency in a statement.

“During the month of July, we will continue to work with regional observer and at-sea monitoring service providers to finalize their observer redeployment plans, conduct outreach with industry, and finalize our internal programs and policies that will support the safe and effective redeployment of observers and at-sea monitors in the region.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts senators push Trump for aid for their states’ seafood industries

July 6, 2020 — Four U.S. senators representing the Chesapeake Bay region wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday, 1 July, urging him to invest COVID-19 funding to the area’s shellfish farmers whose businesses have been greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter, written by Virginia’s U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Maryland’s U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, all Democrats, asks Perdue to use some of the USD 16 billion (EUR 14.2 billion) appropriated through the CARES Act to purchase oysters and clams from Chesapeake-based aquaculture businesses.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Developing World Loses Billions in Money From Migrant Workers

July 6, 2020 — Migrant workers—from Polish farmhands working the fields of southern France to Filipino cruise-ship workers in the Caribbean—who lost their jobs because of the pandemic’s economic impact are running out of cash to send home, dealing a blow to the fragile economic health of the developing world.

Tens of millions of Indians, Filipinos, Mexicans and others from developing countries working overseas sent a record $554 billion back to their home countries last year. That’s an amount greater than all foreign direct investment in low- and middle-income countries and more than three times the development aid from foreign governments, according to the World Bank.

The drop-off in the payments, known as remittances, has affected life for millions around the globe who rely on the cash for food, fuel and medical care. Families from South Asia to Latin America can’t afford mortgage payments and tuition.

“There are households that critically depend on the remittance lifeline, and that lifeline has been ruptured,” said Dilip Ratha, lead economist on remittances at the World Bank, which estimates that the transfers to developing countries will decline by 20% this year.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

Fish council seeking input on monitor rule

July 6, 2020 — The New England Fishery Management Council has been toiling for two years on the amendment that would set monitoring levels for vessels in the Northeast groundfish fishery and now appears to be hitting the home stretch.

Final action on the measure — known as Amendment 23 — now is expected at the council’s September meeting. The meeting, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1,  currently is set for the Beauport Hotel Gloucester on Commercial Street, but could be shifted to a webinar depending on the state of the COVID-19 virus and its associated restrictions.

The council, which extended the public comment period to Aug. 31, already has held three public hearings via webinar on Amendment 23 and plans more in July and August. The next is scheduled for July 16 at 4 p.m. and interested participants can access all related documents in the Amendment 23 library on the council website, nefmc.org.

The council also is reaching out to commercial fishermen and other stakeholders, offering a variety of platforms to help them understand the complexities of the amendment and ease their participation in the online public hearings.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

For Maine Lobstermen, a Perfect Storm Threatens the Summer Season

July 6, 2020 — As he pulled alongside one of his lobster pots, marked by a red and yellow buoy on the Penobscot Bay, Mike Hutchings extracted and measured several of the crustaceans that would contribute to his 130-pound catch that day. It was a decent haul but his assessment of the fishing season was grim: “The worst it’s ever been.”

Mr. Hutchings’s catch on the final Saturday in June came as the lobster trade approached its money-making time. With the Fourth of July holiday around the corner, Mr. Hutchings and his fellow lobstermen were supposed to be gearing up for a major payday as out-of-staters, cruise ships, warmer weather and bounties of lobsters, having just molted their shells and been lured into the thousands of traps anchored on the rocky bottom of Maine’s coastal waters, came together in a seasonal windfall.

But like many businesses across the country, the Maine lobster industry, which makes up the bulk of the fishing revenue the state brings in every year, is being battered by the coronavirus, which has crushed the tourism trade that Mr. Hutchings and his fellow fishermen rely on for a living.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Ocean-Going Robots Poised to Enter Bering Sea to Start Unconventional Fisheries Survey

July 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Three saildrones left Alameda, California in May and have arrived at Unimak Pass in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands. The ocean drones have sailed nearly 2,700 miles at a walking pace, about 2.5 miles per hour (2 knots), which is just about the distance from Seattle to Miami. Once they navigate through the pass, the drones will enter the Bering Sea. This is where they will conduct a two month-long acoustic survey of walleye pollock. They are expected to reach their first survey station in about a week.

Several key standard manned-vessel surveys were cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data the drones collect will help to fill in the gap for fisheries stock assessment scientists who monitor the changes in pollock populations to advise fisheries management. The sonar measurements made by the ocean drones will provide valuable insights on pollock abundance and distribution in 2020.

Stay tuned. We will share more when ocean drones reach their destination.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Atlantic Capes Fisheries Donates 10,000 Pounds of Fresh Seafood to South Coast Food Banks

July 2, 2020 — Atlantic Capes Fisheries has partnered with local food banks in Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts, to donate 10,000 pounds of fresh seafood.

“It’s important for us, as part of the South Coast community, to support members of our community who are in need,” said Jeff Bolton, CEO of Atlantic Capes Fisheries. “We hope that this donation of fresh seafood will provide some relief to those experiencing food insecurity during this difficult time.”

Read the full story at Seafood News