Gloucester Archives - Page 29 of 47

MASSACHUSETTS: Building, wharf collapse on Gloucester waterfront

May 1, 2017 — Cape Ann Ice owner Scott Memhard was one relieved man last night as he stood surrounded by fire trucks off Commercial Street and surveyed the wreckage of a wharf — originally reported as his — that had collapsed into the Inner Harbor some 20 minutes earlier.

“It sounded over the scanner like it was ours,” Memhard said, although Cape Ann Ice’s wharf, located two buildings over, is in sound shape.

More reports came in that the collapse was at the old FBI Wharf, which became the North Atlantic Fish wharf, before North Atlantic was bought out by Channel Fish Processing in 2012. There was also confusion about the actual address; fire Capt. Tom Logrande said the storage building was likely 80 Commercial St. but Channel lists its address as No. 88.

Memhard said the collapsed wharf was leased from the Filetto family for storage by Channel Fish. LoGrande said Channel was aware of the wharf’s condition and had cordoned off it earlier in day, which Memhard confirmed.

“They knew it was at risk and were planning on moving to Braintree because of it,” said Memhard, shaking his head. “Then this afternoon they heard it creaking, and came and roped it off and moved some stuff out.”

They heard it creaking over at The Pub at Cape Ann Brewery at 11 Roger St., too, where at about 6:30 p.m. a deck full of patrons were drinking in the warm spring air along with the cold local brews.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New management could be coming to East Coast herring fishery

April 27, 2017 — Federal fishing regulators are considering a host of alternatives about new ways to manage the herring fishery.

Atlantic herring is a major industrial fishery on the East Coast, including in Gloucester, with fishermen frequently bringing more than 200 million pounds of the little fish to shore every year.

Herring are used as human food and bait for other fisheries, such as lobsters. The catch of herring off of New England has been inconsistent in recent years, leading to volatility in the lobster bait market.

The New England Fishery Management Council is considering nine alternatives about how to manage the fishery. The options would allow for measures such as area closures and restrictions on types of gear.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

2016 fishing review highlights monitors —human and electronic

April 24, 2017 — NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Office released its annual year in review for 2016 and nowhere does it mention the ever-churning debate over Gulf of Maine cod and the yawning divide between scientists’ data and the primary-source observations of fishermen.

For the most part, the report is a four-color chronicle of what officials at Gloucester-based GARFO — which manages the nation’s federal fisheries from the Gulf of Maine south to Cape Hatteras and west to the Great Lakes — consider the agency’s most tangible accomplishments in 2016.

Still, the review gives some insight into some of the agency’s management priorities and policy areas where it may marshal its resources in the future.

It specifically mentions the office’s work in drafting a recovery plan for endangered Atlantic salmon and a five-year action plan for the species. It highlights its work with commercial groundfishermen — many of them from Gloucester — on potential changes to the small-mesh whiting fishery.

The report also highlights the agency’s transfer of the cost of of at-sea monitoring to permit holders.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

States to host hearings on changes to squid fishery

National Fish executive makes deal in fraud case

April 24, 2017 — A senior executive at Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston and is set to be sentenced in July, the Justice Department announced.

Richard J. Pandolfo, 71, of North Andover, was indicted by a federal grand jury last June on four counts of filing false federal tax returns between 2009 and 2012.

The charges were reduced to one count as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Pandolfo, an executive vice president at the East Gloucester seafood processor, faces up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release, a fine of $100,000 and restitution of $25,879 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Prosecutors charge Pandolfo failed to pay federal tax on about $90,000 of the $95,000 in “substantial supplemental income” he received from former National Fish & Seafood executive and part-owner Jack Ventola from 2008 to 2012.

According to the original indictment, some of the supplemental income went directly to Pandolfo, while other payments went to a shell company established in the name of Pandolfo’s wife, who is not named in the indictment, through another shell company controlled by Ventola.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Troubled waters, heartfelt stories in ‘Sacred Cod’

April 13, 2017 — Of the two sacred emblems of Massachusetts — the bean and the cod — the cod gets all the glory but the bean is certainly more environmentally secure.

For centuries fishermen from Gloucester have relied on cod — and the world has relied on them to provide it — but recently scientists have determined that the fish stocks are being depleted at an unsustainable rate and soon there will be no more cod to fish. The fishermen protest that because of the regulations imposed on them, soon there will be no fishermen left to do the fishing.

Andy Laub, Endicott College’s Steve Liss, and Boston Globe reporter David Abel’s thoroughly researched, reasoned and surprisingly moving documentary “Sacred Cod,” premiering Thursday at 9 p.m. on Discovery, gives time to both sides. They offer warm, robust, and sympathetic portraits of these Gloucestermen with their powerful work ethic, fierce love of family, and faith in the American Dream. And they also thoughtfully and thoroughly present the point of view of the bureaucrats and scientists who are trying to do what’s best with the information they have. Emerging as heroes are those willing to consider both sides and seek new solutions.

On one level, the debate comes down to point of view. Based on their extensive research and analysis, the scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency studying the problem and issuing regulations, say that the cod stock has declined to a fraction of what it must be to remain sustainable. The fishermen take a more empirical and anecdotal approach; they say that the figures are wrong, that from their experience plenty of cod are still out there. One fisherman takes John Bullard, NOAA’s regional administrator, on a fishing trip. The trawling net disgorges a mountain of fish. “There it is, the elusive cod!” the fisherman scoffs. He tells Bullard that he has just caught his entire annual quota in 45 minutes.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: How Did ‘The Codfather’ Rise? Some Say Fishing Rules Pull Up Big Fishermen

April 12, 2017 — While Carlos Rafael waits to hear his fate, some wonder whether there could be another “Codfather.”

Critics say fishing industry regulations pave the way for bigger and more corrupt fishing enterprises.

But, some, like Janice Plante of the New England Fisheries Managment Council, disagree with those who blame the regulatory system, insisting the rules don’t “make somebody a criminal.”

Joining Morning Edition is Niaz Dorry, of the Gloucester-based Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance. She explains why she believes Rafael’s success is connected to fishing industry rules.

Read the full story and listen to the radio piece at WBUR

MASSACHUSETTS: Poached fish served up by Gloucester food pantry

April 11, 2017 — About a half-dozen times a year, the folks at The Open Door in Gloucester receive a phone call — or even a knock on their Emerson Avenue door — to see if they’re interested in some donations of fresh seafood.

The offers don’t arrive from entrepreneurial fishermen or someone looking to unload a bunch of seafood off the books.

The offers come from the Environmental Police. And the answer is almost uniformly yes.

“Generally, they call, but sometimes they just show up,” said Julie LaFontaine, The Open Door’s executive director. “Our mission is to alleviate the impact of hunger in our community, so when we have the opportunity of receiving free food — especially something as healthy and beneficial as locally caught, fresh seafood, we take it and then we distribute it through our food pantry.”

The Environmental Police have made a practice of donating seized seafood — or seafood unable to be returned to the water — to social service agencies, such as food pantries, shelters, veterans organizations and the like.

“It something that we’ve been doing since before I even came on the force and something that we do all the time, distributing this fresh seafood in communities up and down the coast,” said Environmental Police Maj. Patrick Moran, who is in his 33rd year on the force. “Mostly, it’s donations of fresh fin fish.”

But not always.

In late March, the Environmental Police donated dozens of lobsters to the Veterans Transition House in New Bedford, which serves homeless and at-risk veterans and their families in the southeastern region of the state.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Gloucester Times: Good news arrives for Gloucester waterfront

April 10, 2017 — Gloucester’s fishing and waterfront communities received some good news on several fronts this past week.

First came the news that Massachusetts’ maritime economy grew faster than the state’s economy as a whole from 2005 to 2015.

The analysis, done by by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Public Policy Center, said the segments of the maritime economy that performed best over the prescribed decade include tourism and recreation — the largest employer, though a smaller contributor to wages and GSP — and marine transportation and technology — which accounts for only 13 percent of employment but 35 percent of the maritime economy’s total wages.

Those are segments Gloucester is and should continue working to build upon.

The city’s new harbormaster and assistant harbormaster are working to find more transitional mooring for tourists arriving by boat and setting up best protocols and seasonal boating pricing.

It is also considering setting up visitors center downtown. The center, which would be on the second-floor of the American Legion Hall on Washington Street,would serve visitors who may not get to the city’s main visitors center in Stage Fort Park.

Gloucester was also recently awarded nearly $3 million in Massachusetts Life Sciences Center state grants to the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, Gloucester High School and O’Maley Innovation Middle School.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: By knocking down barriers, bill could help reinvigorate Gloucester fleet

April 10, 2017 — With the wind-swept vista of the nation’s oldest fishing seaport on full display behind him, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton on Saturday stood with his feet on the Gloucester waterfront and his eye on the future of the commercial fishing industry.

Moulton was in Gloucester to announce legislation he believes will help rebuild the industry’s dwindling workforce by removing training and economic barriers to cultivate a new generation of fishermen.

“Today we’re celebrating the industry that is so fundamental to this community and frankly to our entire region,” said Moulton while flanked by a cadre of state and city officials. “The piece of legislation that we’re announcing today will go toward sustaining that industry into the future by ensuring that young people have a future in the fishing industry.”

The legislation, crafted in partnership with U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska, is the Young Fishermen’s Development Act. The bill, according to its sponsors, is a vehicle for addressing one of the fishing industry’s most pressing needs — building a new generation of fishermen that will take the industry into the future.

The bill is modeled after a similar and successful program initiated by the Department of Agriculture to re-energize the farming industry. It is designed to provide federal grants to local organizations to develop training, education and outreach to attract younger fishermen to help reverse the trend of an aging industry.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times