Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Four centuries and surviving

September 29, 2023 — Traditions and new thinking make Gloucester thrive

In Gloucester, Mass., it is easy to get the impression that its recognition as one of America’s oldest seaports is something that residents and those who make a living here do not take for granted. It is also not hard to feel far away from Boston – even though only around 20 nautical miles (or 40 miles by car) separate the cities.

Locals you meet in Gloucester are likely to mention the annual St. Peter’s Fiesta, where crowds have gathered since 1927 to celebrate St. Peter, the patron saint of netmakers, shipbuilders, and fishermen. For some, the centerpiece of the city-wide party is The Greasy Pole contest, where men of all ages, from teenagers to elders, climb out along a greased-up telephone pole extending from the pier, 25 feet above the surface of the ocean to capture an Italian flag at the end – without slipping and dropping into the water below.

While the St. Peter’s tradition brings together the close-knit community, there are other local connections and networks running throughout the city of about 32,000 residents, including some multigenerational women. The women are all active within the fishing industry and their leadership, advocacy, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit are central to Gloucester’s evolving fishing culture and community.

Read the full article the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: In Gloucester, fishing traditions inform art, culture, and tourism

September 29, 2023 — The feeling in Gloucester is of multiple layers of support for a fisheries tradition and honoring of the past, while simultaneously facing a new future, and how that all fits together with issues that other working harbors and cities are confronting.

Around every corner of the city, there is public art and interpretive trails, much of it connected to fishing. On the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce building is The Fish Workers Mural (featuring fishermen and quarry workers) organized by the organization Awesome Gloucester. The organization also helped create The Doryman’s Mural, in an exterior wall of the Dory Shop on the Maritime Gloucester campus. It commemorates the role dorymen played in the area.

The impressive legacy and efforts of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives, many women, and the group’s longtime president Angela Sanfillipo are on full display at the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wife Memorial, which is situated on a stretch of waterfront road that wraps around the city’s western harbor. The bronze statue depicts a woman facing out toward the sea, with a baby in her left arm, and her hand on the back of a young boy. The monument honors the women who have been, and continue to be, the soul of fishing communities.

The Fishermen’s Wife Memorial took over a decade to be fully realized. It was unveiled in the summer of 2001 after more than $700,000 was raised for its completion. For some, the sculpture complements the nearby Man at the Wheel sculpture built in 1925, a bronze fisherman braced at the wheel on the sloping deck of his ship, looking out to Gloucester Harbor. The heavily visited site memorializes the thousands of fishermen lost at sea in the first three centuries of Gloucester’s history.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fishing industry reps raise concerns about wind energy areas

July 20, 2023 — A recent webinar on the impacts of offshore wind energy had some members of the Gloucester fishing community sounding off on their concerns to officials of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The webinar, hosted by the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and the UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station, drew about 50 participants to listen to BOEM Project Coordinator Seth Theuerkauf and BOEM Fisheries Biologist Brandon Jensen outline the planning process for siting offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine.

Commercial fisherman Al Cottone, executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Commission, and Angela Sanfilippo, executive director of the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership and president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, outlined the fishing industry’s concerns with offshore wind development.

“First of all the construction process, the areas that are going to be used will probably be lost forever for commercial fishing,” Cottone said. “We are going through that right now locally with the LNG terminals that were put in that are going to be decommissioned.” He worried the bottom where the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are located might be lost to fishing when these facilities are decommissioned.

“This is going to be on a much larger scale and it’s going to be a vast area of bottom that’s going to be lost forever to commercial fishing, basically,” he said.

Read the full article at the Gloucester Times

Doubler-plated hull failure likely sank Gloucester dragger in 2022, NTSB says

July 12, 2o23 —  The Gloucester, Mass., trawler Grace Marie likely sank when its doubler-plated hull failed under the engine room in July 2022, sending it to the bottom 80 miles offshore after its crew were rescued without injury, according to a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Although doubler plating can be used as a temporary repair solution, it is not generally suitable as a permanent repair for a vessel’s hull,” the NTSB report warns. “Vessel owners should crop out wasted steel on the hull and replace it by inserting new plating, instead of covering it up with doubler plating.”

The 65.3’x21’ Grace Marie had been fishing for two days, loading up 70,000 pounds of redfish, close to the fish hold’s 80,000-pound capacity. The captain and crew had turned to head for another area to fish on July 8, 2022, when the engine room began flooding around 10 p.m. The crew was unable to control flooding with the bilge pumps, finally abandoning ship to be rescued by another fishing vessel nearby.

While underway at 9:50 p.m., an engine room bilge high-level sensor alarmed in the wheelhouse. The crew later told investigators that engine room bilge high-level alarms were normal when the vessel was underway and fishing, as crew quarters sinks, deck drains and fish hold overflows drained to the bilge . (Many of the vessel’s accommodation sinks and deck drains fed into the engine room bilge. Crewmembers told investigators that they would typically receive an alarm once per day; the alarm would normally clear after several minutes of pumping.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Failure of plating on hull cited in sinking of Gloucester fishing vessel, federal investigators say

July 11, 2o23 — The sinking of a Gloucester fishing vessel last summer was likely caused by the failure of plating along the hull, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

The vessel Grace Marie was moving to fishing grounds on July 8, 2022, when its engine room started flooding, the NTSB said in a statement.

The seven-person crew couldn’t remove the water with the vessel’s bilge pumping system, officials said, so they abandoned ship and were rescued from a life raft by another boat.

The Grace Marie eventually sank, with a total loss of $650,000. No one was hurt.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Candidates for governor, AG, tackle fishing industry concerns

August 15, 2022 — Representatives of the Gloucester fishing industry caught the ears of Democratic candidate for governor Attorney General Maura Healey, and a Democratic candidate for attorney general, Andrea Campbell, during a meeting at the Gloucester House Restaurant on Rogers Street around noon before a campaign canvass kickoff.

The pair heard concerns about the high cost of fuel and offshore wind, among others.

“The price of fuel is killing us right now,” said fisherman Joe Orlando, president of Northeast Fishery Sector II.

“I can’t even imagine. How much does it cost?” Healey asked.

Orlando said the cost went from $2,000 to $6,000.

Healey said it is important for the state to support the fishing industry economically, culturally and historically.

Read the full article at Gloucester Times

Fishery Management Council to hold first scallop leasing meeting in Gloucester

April 27, 2022 — Scallopers, Gloucester will be the scene of the first of seven in-person meetings and two webinars over the next two months as the New England Fishery Management Council conducts scoping for a limited access Atlantic sea scallop program.

The meeting will take place Wednesday, April 27, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Cruiseport Gloucester, 6 Rowe Square.

The Newburyport-based council “is charged with conserving and managing fishery resources from 3 to 200 miles off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut,” with major ports Gloucester, New Bedford, and including Portland, Maine, according to its website.

“In September of 2022, the council will decide whether to initiate an amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan that may allow the leasing of access area allocations and DAS (days-at-sea) in the Limited Access component of the fishery,” says the council’s scoping document dated April 15. The fishery takes place along the East Coast from Maine to Virginia.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

NOAA acknowledges shortage of gear to protect whales

April 22, 2022 — The federal government is acknowledging that supply chain issues will prevent all lobstermen from having gear needed to protect North Atlantic right whales before a May 1 deadline.

The rules will still go into effect on that date, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it will use a “graduated enforcement effort” until supply problems are resolved.

“I want to assure fishermen who are making good faith efforts to comply with these new measures but are not able to procure compliant gear that we understand the difficulty of their situation,” wrote Michael Pentony, NOAA Fisheries’ Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic regional administrator, in a letter.

“We are working closely with our state and federal enforcement partners to implement a graduated enforcement effort that will focus on compliance assistance rather than civil penalties until we have determined that localized supply chain issues have been sufficiently resolved,” he continued.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Scallop leasing on the table? New England council starts scoping meetings

April 21, 2022 — The possibility of allowing leasing in the Atlantic scallop fishery will be explored by the New England Fishery Management Council in the coming weeks.

A preceding publicity campaign aims to get everyone in the industry out to comment in public meetings. It’s a first step for the council to investigate whether a days-at-sea and access area leasing program is needed in the limited access component of the scallop fishery.

Depending on what they learn, council members could vote to initiate a leasing amendment to the scallop management plan when they meet Sept. 27-29 in Gloucester, Mass.

Leasing has been suggested by some scallop operators, and the council approved a scoping plan at its April 12-14 meeting in Mystic, Conn. It calls for public meetings from Gloucester to New Bern, N.C., starting April 27, plus two online webinars in June, to gauge opinions.

The proposal could have broad effects, so the council is looking to go in depth.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEFMC Approves Scallop Leasing Scoping Document; Readies for Seven In-Person Meetings and Two Webinars

April 19, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold seven in-person scoping meetings and two webinars over the next two months to solicit public input on whether a leasing program is needed in the limited access component of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery.

The Council approved the scoping document during its April 12-14, 2022 hybrid meeting, which was held in Mystic, CT. In addition, the Council received short updates on:

Scoping Meetings Kick Off April 27th in Gloucester

The first scoping meeting for limited access leasing will be held on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 in Gloucester, Massachusetts at the Cruiseport beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Other in-person meeting locations run from New Bedford down to New Bern, North Carolina. The in-person meetings will not have a remote participation option, but two separate webinar scoping meetings are scheduled for June 17 and June 24, 2022.

Read the full release from the NEFMC