Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Special Investigation: Big fight over little fish

November 12, 2015 — REEDVILLE, Va. – Small business owners along the Chesapeake Bay are concerned that commercial fishing by Omega Protein is hurting their livelihood. Both rely on catching menhaden, a small bony fish that is valuable to Omega for its oil and bone meal, as well as for bait to charter boat captains and crabbers.

Omega has fished for menhaden out of Reedville since the 1870’s. It hauls in millions of them each weekday during a fishing season that is quota-based and runs roughly from May to November.

10 On Your Side visited the Reedville operation and spoke with several employees about the company’s importance to the community. We also met with a charter boat captain who is convinced that Omega’s large hauls are hurting his business along with hundreds of others – marinas, crabbers, tackles shops, etc.

“Used to be these creeks would just be chocked full of menhaden flipping all over the surface,” said Chris Newsome, owner of Bay Fly Fishing in Gloucester. Newsome’s charter clients fish for striped bass, bluefish, speckled trout and redfish, and they feed on menhaden. “They’ve definitely become a lot harder to find over the years.”

Read the full story at WAVY

Fishermen facing huge cost to pay for at-sea monitors as federal dollars dwindle

November 11, 2015 — QUINCY, Mass.  — The Northeast Fisheries Service Center said Wednesday that money to pay for at-sea monitors on fishing vessels is almost depleted, leaving fishermen and companies that own fishing vessels to cover the cost come January.

Bringing along a monitor to watch over the daily catch will cost local fishermen more than $700 a day.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program started five years ago, but the NOAA and taxpayers picked up the tab at a total cost of $18.4 million since 2010, said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the Gloucester-based fisheries service said.

Frady was unable to say how many fishing boats in the state are currently mandated to have a monitor.

Marshfield fisherman Ed Barrett said the regulation affects any fishing boat working under the federal catch share program.

“No one can afford to do this,” said Barrett, who is president of the Massachusetts Bay Ground Fishermen’s Association. “There’s just not that kind of profit margin in this.”

Forced to pay $710 to bring along an approved monitor, some fishermen would actually lose money depending on the day’s catch, he added.

It was unclear Wednesday whether Congress would vote to restore funding to the program.

Read the full story at the Marshfield Mariner

 

Mass. gov. Baker to Obama: Monument plan contrary to regional ocean planning

November 5, 2015 — Gov. Charlie Baker today directly addressed his concerns to President Obama about the potential designation of one or more National Marine Monuments off the coast of New England, saying the process has lacked stakeholder involvement and threatens to undermine existing fishery management systems.

“While the protection of critical marine habitats is a goal shared by many — including my Administration — significant questions and concerns have been raised regarding this possible designation,” Baker wrote in a letter to Obama, a copy of which was obtained by the Gloucester Daily Times. “I wish to convey my Administration’s apprehension as to both the process being implemented and the effects of such a unilateral declaration.”

The Obama administration, under significant pressure by environmental groups, is considering using the Antiquities Act to unilaterally designate areas of deep-sea canyons and seamounts — and possibly an area on Cashes Ledge — as National Marine Monuments, thus closing them off to commercial and other recreational uses.  Cashes Ledge is about 80 miles east of Gloucester.

“My Administration has been unable to determine how these areas were identified and selected,” Baker wrote to Obama. “NOAA held a single public meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, and I believe that this falls far short of any meaningful stakeholder process.”

By contrast, Baker reminded the president, Massachusetts is an active participant in two regional ocean management systems — the New England Fishery Management Council and the Northeast Regional Planning Body — that are “stakeholder-based, informed by rigorous science and provide for robust debate.”

He pointed out that the NEFMC approved a marine habitat plan in April that “continues long-standing protections for a large area covering Cashes Ledge and extending many miles beyond” and that the council is working on extending similar protections to the New England Canyons through the Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Report: Gloucester, Mass. landings down, but worth more

November 2, 2015 — The volume and value of U.S. seafood landings remained flat in 2014, while the declines locally in volume and value have leveled off from the ear-popping decline experienced the previous year, according to NOAA’s Fisheries of the U.S. report.

According to the annual report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Gloucester held serve at No. 22 among U.S. ports in volume of landings, but declined to 26th (from 25th last year) in the value of its landings.

New Bedford, riding the lucrative success of its scallop fishery, was ranked as the nation’s top revenue-producing port for the 15th consecutive year. It generated $329 million from the 140 million pounds of fish landed in 2014, but that was down 13.2 percent from the $379 million in value from 2013.

Dutch Harbor, Alaska, reported a catch of 762 million pounds, and came in second for value, at $191 million.

Nationally, U.S. ports landed 9.5 billion pounds of fish in 2013 worth $5.4 billion. That represents a 4 percent decline in landings and less than 1 percent decline in value.

“The overall trends from landings and value for U.S. wild-caught fish is positive even though landings and value are down slightly from last year,” said NOAA Chief Scientist Richard Merrick, who said the declines all fall within the range of statistical error.

Local data

For Gloucester, the report’s data produced a mixed bag, with a slight decrease in landings offset by a slightly higher value from those landings that NOAA primarily attributed to a strong pricing year for lobsters.

A year after losing about 25 percent of both the volume and the value of its landed catch, Gloucester in 2014 landed 61 million pounds of fish, down slightly from the 62 million pounds landed in 2013 and drastically below the 83 million pounds landed here in 2012, before the current slide commenced.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Federal Grant To Boost Gloucester Seafood Processing

October 14, 2015 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — A $550,500 matching grant from the federal government will help the city carry out a $1.11 million water and sewer project aimed at boosting the water capacity for a growing number of high-volume commercial users in the city’s Blackburn Industrial Park.

The grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, announced Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton at a gathering of city and area business leaders at the Gloucester Seafood Processing Inc. plant, the former Good Harbor Fillet facility, will allow companies like Gloucester Seafood, nearby Intershell and others within the park to grow, Moulton said.

It will also open the door to an estimated 150 new jobs within Gloucester’s “seafood processing innovation cluster,” Moulton’s announcement indicated.

Dave Anderson, manager for Gloucester Seafood Processing LLC — a division of the Illinois-based Mazzetta Corp., said his facility already has 180 full-time employees processing 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of lobster and up to 15,000 pounds of other home-caught seafood a day in a renovated plant that began production over the summer.

“This project is a project that means a lot for the city of Gloucester,” interim Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken told the gathering of more than two dozen in a Gloucester Seafood conference room. “This is not just about Gloucester Seafood, it’s about all of the business along this road (Great Republic Drive). It’s about economic development, jobs — it’s about ensuring that this industrial park brings in jobs to our city.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Loss of Research Center a Blow to Gloucester

September 29, 2015 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — It is difficult to think of the departure of the Large Pelagics Research Center as anything less than a great loss for Gloucester.

Officials from the facility, associated with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 2010, announced earlier this week that the center will move from Hodgkins Cove to Boston, and change its affiliation within the university system.

The research center will join UMass Boston’s School for the Environment, allowing founder and director Molly Lutcavage to work with researchers from that school as well as those from the New England Aquarium.

“It’s kind of like starting over again,” Lutcavage told reporter Sean Horgan. “But it’s a really exciting time and we’re really looking forward to working with an incredible cross-section of ocean and research scientists within the School for the Environment. This is really exciting for us to be affiliated with them.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times 

MASSACHUSETTS: Letter from Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 24, 2015 — Gloucester, Mass. Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken has written to top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in opposition to a recent proposal to designate Cashes Ledge, three deep sea canyons and four seamounts off the Atlantic Coast as national monuments. Gloucester, one of nation’s oldest fishing ports, is also noted for its relation to New England’s historic groundfish fishery.

Read the letter from Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

 

NOAA teaches about devices that return fish to the deep

September 15, 2015 — A group of about 20 NOAA Fisheries port agents and other staffers will be heading out on an educational mission Wednesday to learn techniques to more safely catch and release deep-water groundfish without piling up dead discards.

The group, scheduled to head out of Gloucester aboard the Yankee Fleet’s 75-foot Yankee Clipper for a half-day charter that will cost the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about $1,200, will learn how to use safe-handling devices designed to help return fish to the appropriate depths, even if they suffered barotrauma on the way up from the bottom.

“Our goal is to reduce the dead discards, which often occur because of barotrauma,” said Greg Power, a NOAA fisheries specialist who supervises the network of the agency port agents extending from Maine to Virginia. “We want to help get them safely back down to the bottom so they can survive.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

Gloucester’s Key Largo tows disabled fish boat into Boston

September 11, 2015 — The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Key Largo, homeported in Gloucester since April, assisted in the rescue of four people who were aboard a disabled fishing vessel 97 miles east of Boston.

The captain of the 80-foot fishing vessel Lydia and Mya, homeported in Boston, used a VHF-16 radio Wednesday about 9:30 a.m. to contact  Coast Guard Sector Boston to report Lydia and Mya was disabled due to mechanical problems.

Search and rescue coordinators at Sector Boston issued a marine assistance request broadcast soliciting assistance for Lydia and Mya from good Samaritans or a commercial salvage company. After the request went unanswered, the Coast Guard cutter Escanaba, a 270-foot cutter homeported in Boston, was sent to assist.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Warring plans delay awarding of fish aid

September 10, 2015 — The consensus toward developing a plan to distribute the approximately $6 million remaining in federal groundfish disaster aid seems to have degenerated into a contentious melee and now local stakeholders anxiously await the decision by the state Division of Marine Fisheries on which Massachusetts fishermen will qualify for assistance.

“I think we should hear something pretty soon,” Jackie Odell, the executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s as soon as the end of this week.”

The process for formulating a distribution plan turned ugly at a two-hour Friday afternoon meeting in New Bedford, according to several people who participated, with different Bay State fishing regions — and fishermen of different species — pitted against each other in their respective efforts to influence DMF’s final spending plan. The meeting had been expected to end with a decision on what plan to forward to DMF.

“When I left that call, I was feeling very frustrated and very upset,” said Gloucester Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano, who participated via conference call. “It was very unfortunate. We shouldn’t be pitting one fisherman against another. It shouldn’t be Gloucester versus the Cape or the Cape versus New Bedford. That doesn’t move the industry forward at all.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times