Saving Seafood

Fishing industry wins EPA exemption for deck wash

December 11, 2018 — Gloucester fishermen and their contemporaries across the nation, following years of uncertainty, finally caught a break in the new federal law regulating incidental deck discharges from fishing vessels.

A provision within the new Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, signed into law last week by President Donald Trump as part of an omnibus Coast Guard bill, exempts commercial fishing vessels of all sizes and other vessels up to 79 feet in length from having to obtain a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to cover incidental deck wash.

“Specifically, discharges incidental to the normal operation, except for ballast water, from small vessels (i.e., less than 79 feet in length) and commercial fishing vessels of all sizes no longer require National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit coverage,” the EPA said in its statement about the new law. “Thus, permit coverage for any vessel covered under the (Small Vessel General Permit) is automatically terminated.”

Commercial fishermen have operated under a series of temporary exemptions since the initial regulations were enacted in 2009 for commercial non-fishing vessels. But if forced to comply with the existing regulations, fishing vessels larger than 79 feet would have faced regulations dealing with 27 different types of discharges — including routine discharges such as deck wash, fish hold effluent and greywater.

The permanent exemption, according to industry stakeholders, removes an impediment that might have economically sunk commercial fishing nationwide.

“It could have killed the industry,” said Vito Giacalone, policy director for the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which worked with Washington-based consultant Glenn Delaney to help build a network of commercial fishing interests to change to obtain the permanent exemption. “It’s been a ticking time bomb for the entire fishing industry in the U.S. This is such a game-changer.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA seeks recreational fishermen’s input

November 29, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries is ramping up its plans to develop management strategies for the Northeast recreational groundfish fishery for 2019, beginning with three January workshops for stakeholder input.

The agency’s Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office has scheduled the workshops for Jan. 8 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Jan. 10 in Narragansett, Rhode Island; and Jan. 12 in Plymouth. Times still are to be determined.

The workshops, beyond soliciting stakeholder comment, also will jump-start the campaign to develop new short-term and long-term management measures for the recreational fishing industry “that balance the need to prevent overfishing with enabling profitability in the for-hire fleet” and provide other opportunities for recreational anglers.

In the short term, regulators are seeking potential new management measures to achieve, but not exceed, recreational catch limits in the upcoming 2019 fishing season, including Gulf of Maine cod and haddock.

In the long term, NOAA is exploring how to use new data — such as the information culled from the Marine Recreational Information Program — in its management of recreational groundfish stocks. It also is seeking the most effective manner to use available research to reduce or avoid bycatch mortality, calculate dead discards and the best methods of release.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Judge returns two vessels to Carlos Rafael’s wife

November 29, 2018 — The wife and another business partner of Carlos Rafael will retain ownership of two of the four fishing vessels seized by the federal government as part of the penalties for the array of crimes committed by the man known as “The Codfather.”

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young, in his final order of forfeiture, said the F/V Lady Patricia and the F/V Olivia & Rafaela — and all federal fishing permits associated with each vessel — will be forfeited to the federal government as part of the final seizure agreement.

Young also ordered the forfeiture of $306,490 to the federal government in addition to the $17,500 judgment already paid by Rafael as part of his plea agreement.

Two of the other forfeited vessels — the Bulldog and Southern Crusader II — will be released to corporations that include Rafael’s wife, Conceicao Rafael, as an owner.

The 75-foot Bulldog will be released to B & D Fishing Corp. and Conceicao Rafael. The 81-foot Southern Crusader II is set to be released to R and C Fishing Corp. The corporation, according to the order, includes Conceicao Rafael and Joao Camarao as owners.

The convicted and currently incarcerated Carlos Rafael, according to the order, ceases to hold any “right, title or interest” in either the forfeited or released vessels. The order, however, retains Carlos Rafael’s ability to defend himself against any future claims from NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

No research fishery for shrimp this year, either

November 26, 2018 — This winter there will be no Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken and other local northern shrimp lovers trooping down to the dock with buckets to try to buy the cold-water delicacies.

This winter will be no little different from the last four years when local shrimp disappeared from seafood retail shops as the shrimp fishery has been closed.

The shutdown of the New England shrimp industry has been extended to a limited, research-based fishery that helped provide a small amount of shrimp to the public in the past, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recently decided.

That means Joe Jurek,a Gloucester-based groundfisherman, who held the rarified position as the only Massachusetts fisherman allowed to fish for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine, will likely sticking to his specialization in yellow-tail flounder on most fishing days

The regulators have extended the moratorium on northern shrimp fishing until 2021. In some previous years of the moratorium, shrimp trawlers and trappers had been able to bring some of the popular seafood item to market via a program called the “research set aside.”

Besides Jurek, owner and skipper of the 42-foot FV Mystique Lady, last year’s study also included eight trawlers from Maine and one from New Hampshire.

Each participating boat was allowed to shrimp once a week for eight weeks. Each vessel was allowed to catch and sell up to 1,200 pounds of northern shrimp per week at a price to be determined by the market. There was no other compensation.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Only $720 of $10K fine paid for illegal lobsters

November 15, 2018 — When James A. Santapaola Jr. got nabbed landing 183 illegal lobsters at a local lobster wholesaler two years ago, the Gloucester lobsterman eventually cut a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to 20 of the counts and pay two fines totaling $10,050.

Later, the state Division of Marine Fisheries suspended his state lobstering license for three months.

Now, nearly two years after the plea deal, Santapaola Jr. — who was arrested again last week on charges of possessing 47 illegal lobsters — has paid only $720 of the $10,050 in fines, according to the clerk’s office at the Gloucester District Court.

Melissa Teixeira Prince, chief court clerk, on Wednesday said Santapaola Jr. is scheduled for a status review with court officials on Monday, Nov. 19, to discuss the outstanding balance on the fines from the previous offenses.

Last Friday afternoon, the Massachusetts Environmental Police, operating with Gloucester police and officers from NOAA Law Enforcement, arrested the 42-year-old Santapaola Jr. for possessing five crates and one tote of illegal live lobsters which law enforcement officers estimated collectively to weigh between 500 and 600 pounds.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Trial date set in case of clam espionage

November 7, 2018 — The federal trial between Gloucester-based National Fish and Seafood and the Florida-based seafood processing competitor it accuses of corporate espionage now is not expected to commence until at least midway through 2019.

U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin on Monday set next July 22 as the opening trial date in the lawsuit between National Fish and competitor Tampa Bay Fisheries of Dover, Florida.

In the lawsuit, initially filed last July, National Fish accuses Tampa Bay Fisheries of hiring away Kathleen A. Scanlon, a 23-year employee at National Fish, and using her to help steal recipes, client information and other trade secrets on her way out the door from the Gloucester company.

The order by Sorokin, who sits in the U.S. District Court in Boston, also established the discovery schedule for the trial and set a status conference with attorneys from both sides for the afternoon of April 17.

If Sorokin’s trial date holds, the trial will begin almost exactly one year since the the intellectual property battle between the two seafood processing competitors burst into the public consciousness.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Losing lobster lines

November 6, 2018 — Scientists from the New England Aquarium will spend much of next year testing ropeless lobster gear as part of the escalating effort to mitigate entanglements with right whales and other marine species.

The research project, funded with a $226,616 grant recently received from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will involve co-operative research with active lobstermen, possibly including some from the state’s most lucrative lobster port in Gloucester, according to one of the aquarium’s chief scientists.

“We want to get good technology in the hands of fishermen so they can evaluate its potential,” said Tim Werner, the aquarium’s senior scientist and director of its Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction. “They need to be able to use it and find out what it needs to be functional.”

Werner said researchers already have begun to develop various types of ropeless traps, using different technologies to achieve the same goal of drastically reducing or eliminating entanglements of leatherback sea turtles and whales in the forest of vertical lines stretching from fishing gear on the ocean floor to the ocean’s surface.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen’s Wives tout Gov. Baker’s support

October 15, 2018 — Gov. Charlie Baker said he and his wife, Lauren, have taken 20 vacation days over the last three years. On 17 of them, he said, they’ve visited Gloucester.

The affinity between the governor and the city continued on Saturday morning, when the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association held an event at the Gloucester House Restaurant to thank Baker for his support of the fishing industry.

The group has officially endorsed Baker, who is running for re-election against Democrat Jay Gonzalez in the November election. The governor, whose office listed the event as part of his campaign schedule, received both praise and a bouquet of flowers from Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association President Angela Sanfilippo and Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, the group’s vice president.

“We need representation and Charlie Baker is our representation,” Romeo Theken, who has also endorsed Baker, said. “He will listen to us and we will be heard.”

Sanfilippo said the governor’s ties to Gloucester and the fishing industry go back two decades, when Baker, then a health care executive, worked on a plan to obtain health insurance for fishermen.

When Baker decided to run for governor, Sanfilippo said he showed up in her office one day and said, “I want to learn all about the fishing industry because if I become governor I want to know what to do.”

In his remarks to the crowd of about 75 people, Baker, wearing a blue shirt and jeans, ran down several issues of concern to the fishing industry and ways the state is trying to help. He said the state has contributed about $500,000 to an industry-based survey, invested grant money in the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, and continues to work on making sure the fishing industry has access to health insurance.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Lobster pots becoming research platforms

October 11, 2018 — Massachusetts boasts more than 1,200 commercially licensed lobstermen who set more than 300,000 traps in state waters each season — and most of the gear is set without much in the way of credible scientific data on habitat or ocean conditions.

A project call LobsterNet is looking to change the old world approach to the analytics of harvesting lobsters by attaching sensors to the traps to collect data on ocean conditions such as acidity, or pH, and temperature.

The enhanced traps, which automatically will upload the marine data to a satellite network when pulled from the water, will be woven into a data collection network to help advance understanding of ocean conditions and potentially develop new business elements of a “Blue Economy.”

“It’s really kind of a transformative,” said Tom Balf, a Gloucester-based marine consultant on the LobsterNet project. “We’re taking an existing device, a lobster trap, and turning it into a research platform. At the same time, we’re adding value to the existing practice of going out and putting traps in the water by turning lobstermen into data collectors and researchers.”

LobsterNet received a $133,156 grant from the state Seaport Economic Council on Tuesday to begin developing and deploying the low-cost network of lobster pots that can collect and distribute key environmental data for fishermen and researchers alike.

The project’s other partners are Gloucester Innovation, the UMass Gloucester Marine Station, the Angle Center for Entrepreneurship at Endicott College, the SigFox network provider and the Scituate-based Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts.

“Data such as temperature and pH will be captured at depth and in greater spatial and temporal resolution than is now possible,” the Seaport Economic Council said in a release announcing the grants through its Grand Challenge program to promote Internet of Things, or IoT, technologies to bolster the state’s marine economy. “This information will help fishermen and researchers better understand what is affecting lobster habitats in general and individual lobster fertility, lifespan or health in particular.”

The sensors used in the project already have been developed, though Balf said they now will undergo further, more rigorous testing as the project ramps up. He said the project’s organizers expect to conduct trials with lobstermen “in the early fall and winter” across Cape Ann while simultaneously testing the SigFox wireless communication network.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

ROBERT E. JOHNSON: Creating a ‘blue economy’ on the South Coast

October 5, 2018 — From the earliest days of the whaling industry, the ocean has run through the veins of the South Coast economy. Before anybody knew the term, the “blue economy” sustained families and communities along the I-195 corridor.

According to the World Bank, the blue economy is “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health.”

Today, the challenge for business, government, and academic leaders is to create a new blue economy ecosystem along the South Coast, one that sheds the natural tendency toward parochialism, and is driven by collaboration and innovation.

With its location and resources, the South Coast is uniquely positioned to drive this process. The stakes are high: the average median family income in New Bedford and Fall River (where most SouthCoast citizens live) is about half the state average of $70,000. The unemployment rate is chronically higher than the state average and the educational attainment level is lower. We have a moral obligation to confront that economic reality.

Last April, UMass Dartmouth and the National Council on Competitiveness brought 100 leaders together to discuss the possibilities. From Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito to Congressmen Bill Keating and Joe Kennedy, from General Dynamics to the MF Foley Fish Company, and from the New England Council to the Mass. Business Roundtable, there was a consensus that the SouthCoast has the DNA to build a job-creating, income-increasing “Blue Economy Corridor” from Rhode Island to the Cape Cod Canal.

Read the full story at the Boston Business Journal