Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Jennifer Downing Named First Executive Director of the New Bedford Ocean Cluster

February 7, 2022 — The following was released by the New Bedford Ocean Cluster:

(New Bedford, MA) The Board of Directors of the newly established New Bedford Ocean Cluster (NBOC) is pleased to announce that Jennifer Downing of Acushnet will lead the organization as its first executive director. She brings over 20 years of nonprofit experience in the areas of local economic development, environmental sustainability, and leadership development to the NBOC.

The NBOC’s mission is to leverage New Bedford’s coastal position, marine knowledge base, and landside capacity to drive employment and wealth creation for New Bedford residents. Working collaboratively with a range of private sector, public sector, and academic partners, the NBOC will work to establish New Bedford as the leading ocean economy on the East Coast through a strategic focus on four interrelated industry pillars: commercial fishing & processing, aquaculture, offshore renewable energy, and innovation & technology.

“The entire NBOC Board is excited to have Jen lead our team,” John Bullard, President of the NBOC Board of Directors said recently announcing her appointment. “Because of her experience, her leadership skills and her passion for New Bedford she is already off to a very fast start mobilizing resources and gathering people together to seize the opportunity to create jobs around the possibilities that are before us in the blue economy. To be successful we need to bring a lot of people together, discover common objectives, work out our differences and move forward with a goal of increasing economic opportunities for all. Jen has the ability to help us do that.”

In her position, Downing will be responsible for setting up the operational needs of the NBOC, working with local maritime stakeholders to define and advance economic development priorities, and managing cluster activity. A primary focus of the NBOC will be to foster a maritime business network that can serve as both a convener and clearinghouse for business-to-business interaction and commercial collaboration. The goal is to attract investment to New Bedford and its Port, support the formation and growth of ocean economy businesses, and develop strategies to create more value from our ocean resources including fish, aquaculture, and wind.

“Jen is the ideal person to lead the New Bedford Ocean Cluster as it seeks to capitalize on the maritime opportunities that lie ahead for New Bedford. Her track record of facilitating teamwork, coupled with her understanding of New Bedford’s competitive advantages, will put the Ocean Cluster in a strong position to succeed,” Mayor Jon Mitchell, said.

In late 2021, the NBOC launched the Act Local program in partnership with Vineyard Wind and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to connect Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 companies with local businesses interested and able to participate in the offshore wind industry supply chain. The Act Local Program is an innovative and streamlined approach to matchmaking and is the first of its kind in the U.S. offshore wind industry. The program is part of Vineyard Wind’s commitment to Look Local First in support of its Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm.

“The NBOC is going to play a critical role in making sure that local businesses become part of the fabric of the growing offshore wind industry,” said Vineyard Wind’s Manager of Workforce & Supply Chain Development, Jennifer Cullen. “With her impressive experience, Jennifer is ideally positioned to lead the organization and ensure that it succeeds in its mission.”

Most recently, Downing served as the vice president of community engagement at the Buzzards Bay Coalition where she oversaw the organization’s fundraising, marketing & communications, and public engagement programs and events. Prior to that, she served as the executive director of Leadership Southcoast (LSC). At LSC, Downing introduced new curriculum and formats that strengthened the program, expanded, and diversified enrollment, and launched the organization’s first alumni engagement strategy.

Downing spent more than a decade in philanthropy working at the Garfield Foundation, a private foundation that awarded more than $2 million nationally to nonprofits addressing complex social and environmental problems through collaborative network approaches. She was responsible for both managing the operations of the foundation and serving as program officer for a place-based grant portfolio supporting economic and community revitalization projects in Greater New Bedford.

That experience sparked Downing’s interest in advancing collaborative leadership and cross-sector collaborative processes and prompted her to focus her graduate studies on the subject. In 2018, she received the Brian Webb Award for Outstanding Master of Arts Thesis by Union Institute & University for her paper, Action Learning to Develop Collaborative Capacity for Social Change.

“I’m really excited about joining the New Bedford Ocean Cluster,” Downing said. “A consistent thread running through my career has been a deep interest in advancing collaborative, network approaches locally to strengthen and revitalize our community. The ocean cluster ideology embodies this approach, and it is an honor to have the opportunity to leverage my background and skills to develop and lead such a model in New Bedford to advance its ocean economy.”

In 2020, Downing was honored as a recipient of the John S. Brayton Community Service Award by the One South Coast Chamber of Commerce. She is currently the Chair of the Acushnet School Committee and has served on numerous nonprofit boards and committees, such as the United Way of Greater New Bedford Board of Directors, the New Bedford Regeneration Committee, the SouthCoast Neighbors United Board of Directors, the Civic & Political Leadership Working Group for the Women’s Fund’s Task Force on Pathways for Women to a Living Wage, and the YWCA of Southeastern Massachusetts’ Building Diverse Boards and Commissions Working Group.

She holds a BFA from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City and an MA in Leadership, Public Policy and Social Issues from Union Institute & University. She is a proud 2009 graduate of Leadership SouthCoast and 2012 PLACES (Professionals Learning About Community, Equity & Sustainability) Fellow with The Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.

You can find more information about the NBOC on the organization’s website: www.newbedfordoceancluster.org

 

New Bedford Ocean Cluster incorporated as nonprofit

August 24, 2021 — The New Bedford Ocean Cluster (NBOC) has announced its official incorporation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

The NBOC aims to enhance the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.’s maritime industries while “advancing new programs, start-ups, and technology partnerships with a primary focus in four different industry areas,” NBOC said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

John Bullard still bullish on politics, boats

Decemeber 17, 2018 — When last we saw John Bullard, the big man was sitting in his sun-splashed office at NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office in Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park, wearing an authentic, white Red Sox home jersey with David Ortiz’ No. 34 on the back.

By then, Bullard, who shepherded this region of NOAA Fisheries through the ongoing cod crisis, the remapping of available fishing areas, quota cuts, the imperiled state of right whales and the beginning of the end for Carlos Rafael, already had committed to heading off toward the pasture of retirement. He seemed totally relaxed and completely at ease.

We’ve been meaning to reach out to him for quite a while, if for no other reason than to talk about the Red Sox’ World Series championship and maybe a bit of Pats patter, particularly in the wake of the hideous defeat last week in the heat of South Florida.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

JOHN BULLARD: Trump policies threaten New England fishermen

December 5, 2018 — The Trump Administration just approved dangerous seismic blasting to look for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that will threaten marine wildlife and fisheries. This announcement came on the heels of the National Climate Assessment, which the Trump Administration tried to downplay by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving. That’s right, Trump just sidestepped science — twice — to deliver a one-two punch to fishermen.

The scientific report on climate change offers a devastating look at the impact of climate change on the American economy — including fisheries in New England — if we fail to act fast. According to the report, the American economy will decline by up to 10 percent by the end of this century. Failure to reduce carbon emissions will continue to negatively impact the health of fish stocks, threatening the economic stability of our fishing industry and coastal communities.

None of this is news to New England fishermen, who already know the changes happening in their place of business: the ocean. They know warming waters have driven lobster out of southern New England towards Canada. They know that despite difficult quota cuts, cod is much harder to rebuild, and many flounder species don’t reproduce the way they used to.

Fishermen know that warming oceans have pummeled the Maine lobster industry, where revenues fell by $99 million in 2017. Some scientists warn that ocean acidification could make the scallop industry, a $500 million-dollar mainstay of New England’s fishing economy, the next to go. There’s no Plan B if this happens. And new oil and gas development could accelerate the decline of these and other species. Without action, the working waterfronts of New England could cease to work.

What was President Trump’s response when asked about the climate report from his own administration? “I don’t believe it.” Apparently his self-professed intellect is superior to more than 300 scientists from inside and outside the government who wrote the report. Because of his inability to accept the advice of his own scientists on what may be the issue of gravest importance to future generations, the president is putting our region’s fishing industry at risk.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA’s recent Codfather update leaves New Bedford reeling

September 25, 2018 — Right when it seemed as if the seas were settling around New Bedford, Massachusetts and the crimes of disgraced fishing magnate Carlos “Codfather” Rafael, another wave of controversy has hit the beleagured city.

The latest contention in New Bedford comes in the wake of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) issuance of a 51-page superseding charging document related to the agency’s civil administrative case against Rafael, initiated in January 2018.

Earlier this month, NOAA filed the new document, which called for the revocation of 17 operator permits held by Rafael’s captains and increased the civil penalties associated with the case from just under USD 1 million (USD 983,528, EUR 834,673) to more than USD 3 million (USD 3.3 million, EUR 2.79 million). The noncriminal document also upped the number of alleged fishing law violations – ranging from misreporting species to gear, scallop, and observer violations – to 88, according to The Standard Times.

These new developments have left some stakeholders in New Bedford’s fishing industry baffled. Jim Kendall, a former fishing captain and executive director of New Bedford Seafood Consulting, told local newspaper South Coast Today that he suspects former New Bedford mayor and ex-regional administrator for NOAA John Bullard of continued involvement with the case, even though Bullard retired from his post back on 19 January.

“I’ll tell you right now, you can print it or not, but I think John Bullard still has his thumb on the scale,” Kendall said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New Bedford shocked by NOAA’s latest move in Carlos Rafael case

September 24, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jim Kendall sees fingerprints on NOAA’s most recent allegations that go beyond Carlos Rafael and loop 22 of his captains into the agency’s non-criminal civil action.

“I’ll tell you right now, you can print it or not, but I think John Bullard still has his thumb on the scale,” the former fishing captain and executive director of New Bedford Seafood Consulting said.

Kendall backed up his claims by saying, “because I know John. He’s a vindictive SOB.”

Bullard is the former mayor of New Bedford, but in this case more importantly acted as the regional administrator for NOAA when Rafael was criminally indicted, pled guilty and was sentenced. Bullard also imposed a groundfishing ban on Rafael-owned vessels.

Except Bullard retired Jan. 19, about nine months before NOAA filed the updated charging documents on Sept. 10.

“A comment like that is insulting to all the people who do very important and hard work in the enforcement arena,” Bullard said. “They just follow the facts and where the facts lead. The only scales are the scales of justice. Nobody’s influencing. The only thing they are following is the facts.”

Bullard was at the helm when NOAA first filed charging documents on Jan. 10.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Regulators push for rope removal to save North Atlantic right whale

April 18, 2018 — In a multinational drive to protect the North Atlantic right whale, fisheries along the east coasts of the Canada and the United States are being mandated, legislated, or volunteering to reduce rope use as much as possible.

The Canadian government has instituted steps that requires snow crab fishermen use less rope, use more easily breakable rope and report any lost gear as soon as possible. These conditions apply to all fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

While Canada’s federal effort has been heavily on the snow crab fishery, the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) recently laid out its own plan to reduce potential entanglements and involvements with the endangered whales.

No right whale has been found entangled in lobster gear, but nevertheless, the lobster fishermen in Area 24, along Prince Edward Islands’s North Shore, have agreed to voluntarily reduce what the gear they put in the water by at least 25 percent – setting their traps in bunches of six rather than a one trap set or smaller bunches.

“We feel we’re eliminating somewhere around 16,000 Styrofoam buoys out of the system and each of those buoys is responsible for 130 or 140 feet of rope, which go from the buoy down to the trap,” Francis Morrissey, of the Area 24 Lobster Advisory Board, said. “So we feel that by doing this, there’s 16,000 less chances for marine mammals to get entangled.”

South of the border, an op-ed in The Boston Globe by John K. Bullard, the retiring regional administrator for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, challenged the U.S. lobster industry to take the lead in heading off the extinction of the North Atlantc right whale.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Bullard’s right whale challenge angers lobstermen

April 4, 2018 — In January, on his way out the door of NOAA Fisheries and into retirement, former Regional Administrator John K. Bullard didn’t hesitate when asked for the most critical management issue facing the federal fisheries regulator.

Clearly, he said, it is the desperate plight of the North Atlantic right whales.

Bullard may have left behind the daily responsibilities of running the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, but he took his bully pulpit with him.

On Monday, he published an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe challenging the U.S. commercial lobster industry — predominately based in Maine and Massachusetts, where Gloucester and Rockport are the top ports — to take the lead in trying to head off the extinction of the North Atlantic right whales.

“The $669 million lobster industry must assume a leadership role in solving a problem that it bears significant responsibility for creating,” Bullard wrote in his piece. “Entanglements occur in other fixed-gear fisheries, but the number of lobster trawls in the ocean swamps other fisheries.”

While he also carved out a role for scientists, non-governmental organizations and fishery managers in the hunt for solutions, Bullard’s emphasis on the lobster industry did not sit well with local lobstermen, who believed their industry was being singled out.

“Most of what I have to say you probably couldn’t print,” said longtime lobsterman Johnny “Doc” Herrick, who ties up his Dog & I at the Everett R. Jodrey State Fish Pier. “We’ve done everything that they’ve asked us to do.”

“And then some,” said Scott McPhail, the skipper of the Black & Gold lobster boat, which also docks at the state fish pier. “They won’t be happy until we have to drop and haul all our gear out of the water at the end of every day we fish.”

‘Canada needs to get on board’

Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said her membership continues to be concerned that the focus for solving the North Atlantic right whale crisis is zeroed in on the lobster industry.

“We feel like we’re continually in the cross-hairs,” she said.

Casoni and lobstermen cited, as examples of the industry’s cooperation, existing modifications to gear and area closures. They spoke of the lobstermen’s role in joint research projects and of a fishery that prides itself on self-regulation, where cheating often is dealt with in camera among the boats.

They also pointed out that the majority of whale mortalities are the product of ship strikes and that 12 of the 17 North Atlantic right whale deaths in 2017 occurred in Canadian waters.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

John Bullard: Lobster industry must lead on right whales

April 2, 2018 — A number of events over the past two weeks have probably gotten the full attention of the US lobster industry and increased pressure for it to take the lead in fighting the potential extinction of the North Atlantic right whale.

In response to the deaths of the endangered whale, including 12 in Canada last year, Canada has imposed new restrictions on ship speeds and snow crab fishing, as well as earmarked $1 million more annually to help free marine mammals from fishing gear.

In addition, survey teams on Saturday ended their aerial search for right whale calves off the southeastern US coast. For the first time since the spotters began their survey, in 1989, they recorded zero births this calving season. Last year only five births were recorded, well below what used to be the average of 15 per year. Last year there were 17 confirmed right whale deaths. Already this year, a 10-year-old female, who was just entering her breeding years, died after becoming entangled in fishing gear. She was discovered off Virginia.

There are only about 450 North Atlantic right whales, including about 100 breeding females. Females used to give birth every three to four years. Now they give birth only every eight years, if at all. Photographic evidence suggests that about 85 percent of right whales show signs of entanglement in fishing gear, which affects the whale’s fitness and is likely one of the reasons for the longer breeding cycle.

The $669 million lobster industry must assume a leadership role in solving a problem that it bears significant responsibility for creating. Entanglements occur in other fixed-gear fisheries, but the number of lobster trawls in the ocean swamps the other fisheries.

Read the full opinion piece at the Boston Globe