Saving Seafood

Gloucester Massachusetts Looks to Hook Interest in its Seafood

January 31, 2016—The icebreaker was last year, when the city of Gloucester made its first foray to the vast and international Seafood Expo North America at the Boston Convention Center.

The mission was simple: raise Gloucester’s profile among the thousands of seafood buyers who flock to the show from just about every point on the planet and develop the kind of relationships that will thrust the city’s harvesters, processors and, of course, seafood into the international mix.

The effort, both inside and outside the city, was viewed as a raging success. So, with that precedent, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken placed a little quest in front of point man Sal Di Stefano.

“The mayor challenged us to do it even bigger and better this year,” said Di Stefano, the city’s director of economic development.

Toward that end, Di Stefano has amassed an armada of city resources, Gloucester-based seafood businesses, volunteers, nonprofits and assistance from Endicott College to set sail for this year’s Seafood Expo North America with a more expansive plan centered on the city’s seafood marketing campaign of Gloucester Fresh Seafood.

“It’s a tremendous amount of work for everyone involved, but it’s really exciting how the entire community has responded,” Di Stefano said. “And we’re the only ones doing it like this.”

Seafood strategy

The city, which has budgeted $10,000 for the March 6-8 event and doubled the size of its booth, is the only Massachusetts municipality that will have a presence at the show.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Bill to Expand Lobster Sales Adopted by Massachusetts State Senate

January 28, 2016 — BOSTON — The following was released by the Office of State Senator Bruce Tarr:

The State Senate today adopted a bill which updates Massachusetts’ lobster laws to permit the processing, sale, and transportation of cooked and frozen in-shell lobster parts.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R- Gloucester) sponsored the measure to end prohibitions on in-state sales and processing of lobster parts to accommodate the growing interest of consumers.  The bill, supported by the Massachusetts lobster industry, is expected to cause an expansion of lobster processed in state and a reduction in lobster diversions to Canadian processors. 

“This bill will allow more American lobsters currently being harvested and purchased here and subsequently processed in Canada, to be prepared for market in Massachusetts,” said Tarr. “The net effect of modernizing the law will bolster local economic activity for lobstermen, processors, and local restaurants and food stores.”

Tarr expressed appreciation for coastal Senators Mark Montigny (D- New Bedford),Vinny deMacedo (R- Plymouth), Daniel Wolf (D-Harwich) and Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) for their efforts to strengthen the industry and in championing the bill.

“The time has come to eliminate such outdated restrictions on lobster processing and sales in the Commonwealth.  Easing constraints on processing operations will allow a thriving industry to further invest in our local economy through expanding operations and creating new jobs.  I commend Senator Tarr’s leadership as the sponsor of this bill and am proud to have partnered with him in seeing this through to passage.  It is my hope the House will quickly follow the Senate’s lead to have a bill on the Governor’s desk as soon as possible.” said Senator Montigny.

“I am thrilled that the Senate has taken steps to bring this bill forward with a unanimous vote and I know that the lobstermen will be pleased with the advancements that we’ve made,” said Senator deMacedo.

The lobster industry is a critical part of the Commonwealth’s economy and heritage with more than 900 licensed lobstermen.  A similar law in Maine has boosted Maine’s economy, produced local outlets for product sales, and created jobs in the state.

“The action of the Senate today helps consumers, suppliers and lobstermen, I expect that we will see an economic boost for the lobstermen in my district and in other coastal communities in the state as well,” said Senator Rodrigues.

 “Our historic lobster industry deserves the opportunity to be more creative and flexible in how they market and sell their popular product,” said Cape and Islands Senator Wolf. “This legislation is a huge help in that regard, and will create economic benefits that will ripple through our coastal communities.”

While the sale of live, cooked, and canned lobster is legal in the state, the legislation expands the industry market with the inclusion of other lobster products. The Senate bill allows Department of Public Health licensed wholesale dealers to process unfrozen lobsters, authorizes the importation of unfrozen shell-on lobster parts and tails, and it allows for the retail of previously frozen raw in-shell tails.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries will be responsible for maintaining essential regulations including enforcing minimum lobster shell size standards and processing standards. The lobster fishery adheres to stringent state regulations including trap limits and the release of live juveniles.

The bill now moves to the House for further consideration.

Feds to Help Gloucester Mass. Brand its Seafood

January 26, 2015 — Gloucester’s effort to develop a specific brand for the bounty of seafood yanked from local waters, as well as the means to promote food produced at local farms, is receiving a boost from the Obama administration.

The White House’s Rural Council chose Gloucester as one of 27 communities nationwide from about 350 municipal applicants to participate in the Local Foods, Local Places initiative designed to help transform locally harvested food into local economic development and healthier eating.

 Gloucester is the only Massachusetts community included in the initiative, as well as the only city in the Northeast that will receive the technical support and advice from a bevy of experts on the best methods for developing local food projects specific to Gloucester and Cape Ann, according to Gloucester Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano.

“It’s really a feather in our cap for us as a city to be recognized in this way,” Di Stefano said. “Farm-to-table is a very recognizable concept these days, and what we want to do is develop a similar concept along the lines of sea-to-table or dock-to-dish.”

As part of the initiative, city officials will work with experts in the areas of agriculture, transportation, environmental affairs, public health and regional economics to produce local food projects that could help regenerate the city’s ailing fishing industry while also promoting other regional sources of food and healthier eating.

The projects, according to Di Stefano, could include test kitchens, downtown food hubs, food business incubators and food security outreach programs.

Working with the experts will help the city and its food businesses more narrowly focus on the specific methods for expanding markets for locally grown and harvested foods, whether from land or sea, he said.

“They’ll be able to come in and advise us on what’s worked best in other parts of the country that we might be able to tailor to Gloucester,” Di Stefano said. “That way, we’ll be able to sort through all the options and focus our energies in particular areas that give us the best way to connect our resources to our residents. Who knows what this can lead to?”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Ohio Gov. Kasich and the New Hampshire Fishermen

January 25, 2016 — When John Kasich tells you that he is a skilled executive, believe him.

Governor Kasich met with several New Hampshire fishermen on 8 January.  David Goethel, owner and captain of the 44-foot fishing trawler Ellen Diane, is suing NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for bureaucratic overreach and has explained his position in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.  Governor Kasich read the op-ed and as a result requested the meeting.

This was not a campaign stop.  Nobody took names for a mailing list; nobody handed out bumper stickers.  The governor was there to learn and to help.

The impromptu get-together was held indoors in the fish-processing bay at the Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative in Seabrook, N.H.  The aroma of fish guts filled the air, reminding me of my school-day summers working on the fish pier in Gloucester.

There were several fishermen present – a small several, as years of government assistance have driven many from the business.  The governor listened to them as they expanded their complaints beyond the scope of Mr. Goethel’s lawsuit.  I couldn’t hear well, as the non-campaign stop lacked an audio system.

After a few minutes, Governor Kasich said, “OK, can I speak now?” and then went on in a loud but conversational tone to outline what needs doing.  First and foremost, he said, get your congressional representatives involved.  Have them write letters, forceful letters, to the executive branch.  Get the powerful congressional leaders involved, Republicans and Democrats, like Senator Schumer among the latter group.

The fishermen told the governor that there had been several congressional letters in their behalf; all apparently fell on deaf ears.  There are currently two letters relative to Mr. Geothel’s lawsuit sent to Dr. Sullivan, the head of NOAA, in early January.  One was signed by nine senators and several House members from the five seacoast New England states.  The other was from the tenth senator of the region, the obsequious Edward Markey.

Read the full story at American Thinker

MASSACHUSETTS: Changes in law could buoy lobster sellers

January 21, 2016 — BOSTON, Mass. — Millions of pounds of lobster caught by Massachusetts fishermen are shipped to Canada for processing — mostly because a decades-old law prohibits the meat from being prepared locally.

Legislation set for a vote in the state Senate today, Jan. 21, would lift those restrictions, opening what some in the industry say is a multi-billion dollar market for processed lobster, in one of the few areas of the commercial fishing industry that is thriving.

The proposal sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester allows for the processing and sale of frozen, in-shell lobster parts in the state.

A 1997 state law allows wholesalers to process lobsters into frozen, shell-on tails for distribution outside the state, but they cannot be sold in Massachusetts. The law was intended to curb mutilations of undersized lobsters.

Tarr said Maine, a major player in the lobster industry, eased similar restrictions several years ago and has seen a “significant increase in processing capacity and demand for lobster processing licenses.”

“New businesses have taken root in previously abandoned factories, and this has translated into significant job growth and economic stimulation,” said Tarr, who expects the measure to pass when the Senate meets in formal session today.

The proposal would still need to be approved by the House and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker to become law.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Massachusetts fishermen fear new rules smothering industry

January 16, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Gerry O’Neill looks at the water world spinning around him, a world of regulation and re-regulation and over-regulation— in other words, the modern world of commercial fishing —and thinks that he’s seen this movie before.

Two days removed from the public comment hearing at the state Division of Marine Fisheries offices on Emerson Street on potential changes to rules governing the scope and the schedule of the herring season, O’Neill sits in his office on Jodrey State Fish Pier and wonders if his two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour and the Cape Seafood fish processing and sales operations that collectively employ almost 40 full-time workers— and even more when the product is flowing —will survive the future any better than the nearly decimated Gloucester groundfish fleet.

‘‘At the end of the day, the groundfishermen are struggling and everybody knows that and it’s because of over-regulation as well,’’ O’Neill said. ‘‘We’re not dying yet. But if they keep doing what they’re doing, we’re going to go the same way as the groundfishermen.’’

Given the state of the groundfish fleet, that is a chilling phrase, made even more-so by his matter-of-fact delivery in the soft brogue of his native Ireland and his admission that he favors regulations that will sustain the fishery even when they cost him fish and money.

His voice was steady and calm, just as it was at last week’s session in which David Pierce, the executive director of DMF and the state’s representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission which governs the Northeast herring fishery, conceded the fishery remains robust.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Commission to talk monitoring, seafood show

January 13, 2016 — The city’s Fisheries Commission is set to discuss a variety of issues dealing with at-sea monitoring at its meeting Thursday night at City Hall, as well as details of Gloucester’s participation in the upcoming international seafood show in Boston.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 7 in the conference room on the first floor.

The groundfish at-sea monitoring items involve a request from the Northeast Seafood Coalition for the commission to support the recent votes by the New England Fishery Management Council to reduce the level — and ultimately the cost — of at-sea monitoring coverage mandated for groundfish vessels.

NOAA Fisheries has said it has enough money to continue paying for the monitoring — at an estimated cost of $710 per day per vessel — into some point early in 2016 and then plans to shift those costs to the permit holders.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

‘Wicked Tuna’ star agrees to plea deal

January 12, 2016 — “Wicked Tuna” cast member Paul Hebert, facing federal charges in Vermont that he illegally collected more than $44,000 in Social Security, disability and Medicaid payments for two years, is looking to make a deal that could keep him out of jail.

The Gloucester fisherman and one of the long-running cast members on the popular fishing reality show on the National Geographic Network, has agreed to a plea deal that recommends probation in return for Hebert pleading guilty to two of the original counts and paying $53,561 in restitution, according to the plea agreement on file in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vermont.

The other two counts originally contained in the indictment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ophardt said Monday, will be dismissed if the agreement is accepted by the court and Hebert meets all conditions.

Hebert originally pleaded not guilty to all counts at his arraignment. 

“Paul Hebert agrees to plead guilty because he is, in fact, guilty of the above crimes,” said the plea agreement, filed Jan. 7 in U.S. District Court in Burlington.

The proposed plea agreement between Hebert and the U.S. Attorney’s office will be presented to the trial judge in Burlington on Jan. 20 and, if accepted, will result in sentencing in about 90 days, Ophardt said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘We’re not dying yet. But …’

January 8, 2016 —  Gerry O’Neill looks at the water world spinning around him, a world of regulation and re-regulation and over-regulation — in other words, the modern world of commercial fishing — and thinks that he’s seen this movie before.

Two days removed from the public comment hearing at the state Division of Marine Fisheries offices on Emerson Street on potential changes to rules governing the scope and the schedule of the herring season, O’Neill sits in his office on Jodrey State Fish Pier and wonders if his two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour and the Cape Seafood fish processing and sales operations that collectively employ almost 40 full-time workers — and even more when the product is flowing — will survive the future any better than the nearly decimated Gloucester groundfish fleet.

“At the end of the day, the groundfishermen are struggling and everybody knows that and it’s because of over-regulation as well,” O’Neill said. “We’re not dying yet. But if they keep doing what they’re doing, we’re going to go the same way as the groundfishermen.”

Given the state of the groundfish fleet, that is a chilling phrase, made even more-so by his matter-of-fact delivery in the soft brogue of his native Ireland and his admission that he favors regulations that will sustain the fishery even when they cost him fish and money.

Fishery not broken

His voice was steady and calm, just as it was at Tuesday’s session in which David Pierce, the executive director of DMF and the state’s representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission which governs the Northeast herring fishery, conceded the fishery remains robust.

“The stock remains rebuilt and over-fishing is not occurring,” Pierce told the approximately 20 stakeholders that attended. “The mortality seems to be under control and the stock appears to be in a good shape.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

NOAA may move science center from Woods Hole

January 7, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass.— Gloucester officials, reacting to reports that NOAA Fisheries might relocate its Northeast Science Center out of Woods Hole, want the federal agency to consider America’s oldest seaport as a potential new home for the premier fisheries science facility in the Northeast.

Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said Gloucester could provide the perfect setting for the science center, which employs about 240 federal and contract employees at its current 3.4-acre site on Vineyard Sound and in facilities in other parts of Falmouth.

“We’re definitely interested if that’s what NOAA decides to do,” Romeo Theken said. “We think we have everything they need here.”

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center, first built in 1885 and reconstructed in 1961 after sustaining hurricane damage, was the first laboratory of the nation’s federal marine fishery service that was established in 1871 and which evolved into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times