Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Three companies submit bids for offshore wind power

December 21, 2017 — Three offshore wind energy developers bid Wednesday on contracts to sell electricity to Massachusetts power companies, taking the next big step in a process that could set turbines spinning south of Martha’s Vineyard within the next five years.

“It’s in the hands of the utilities,” Vineyard Wind Chief Development Officer Erich Stephens said.

By April, Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind and Revolution Wind will hear whether their bids have been selected for negotiation by the handful of electric distribution companies that will buy the wind energy. By the end of July, the utilities and offshore wind energy companies are expected to finalize long-term contracts and hand them over to the state Department of Public Utilities for review and approval.

Depending on the wind energy company, construction of anywhere from 50 to 100 turbines in federally leased, submerged areas could begin within two to five years. In addition to securing contracts to sell their energy, the companies face federal and state permitting requirements, including through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“The critical path is the federal permit,” said Bay State Wind representative Michael Ausere, who is also vice president of business development for Eversource, which distributes electricity on Cape Cod and the Vineyard and is one of the utilities that would buy power from the wind farms. “This will be the first large-scale offshore wind farm.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

MAFMC Discontinues Development of Squid Buffer Framework

December 19, 2017 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted last week to discontinue development of a framework action that would have considered establishing a squid fishery buffer zone in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. This decision will allow the effects of the recently-approved Squid Amendment to be realized prior to any additional action.

The Council included the Squid Buffer Framework in its list of possible actions for 2017 in response to public concern regarding longfin squid fishing effort during Trimester 2 (May-August) in an area south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Commenters raised concerns about a lack of juvenile squid in some areas, high amounts of bycatch of squid eggs and other species, and reported poor recreational finfish catches.

The Squid Amendment includes a 250-pound trip limit for all permits once the Trimester 2 quota has been reached — a 90% reduction from the current post-closure trip limit of 2,500 pounds. Once the amendment is implemented by NOAA Fisheries, fishing effort will be constrained after a closure during the summer months. This may address some of the concerns raised regarding squid fishing near Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Allowing time for that action to be fully implemented will enable the Council to evaluate the need for buffers or other management measures more effectively in the future.

Prior to last week’s meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, the Council received a substantial number of public comments both in support of and opposed to the framework. Comments immediately prior to the meeting were mostly against proceeding with the buffer action. Also, the directors of the state fisheries agencies for Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the two states most directly impacted, recommended not moving forward with the action at this time.

After extensive discussion and consideration of public comments, the Council voted to discontinue development of the framework. In December 2018 the Council will consider if a 2019 workshop including the various interested parties could serve to further inform possible future actions.

Learn more about the MAFMC by visiting their site here.

 

Martha’s Vineyard herring stocks show alarming decline

November 30, 2017 — Herring Creek is a small stream that plays a mighty role in the Martha’s Vineyard ecosystem. It’s the one waterway that connects Menemsha Pond and Squibnocket Pond, and the one place on the Island where blueback herring and alewives — also known as river herring — come home to reproduce.

River herring are anadromous fish and live most of their lives, three to five years, in the ocean. When it’s time to breed, they return to the exact river or pond where they were born.

Twenty years ago, the herring run at Herring Creek was described as “one of the largest on the East Coast, with up to 1.5 million fish making their way through the creek,” according to David H. Killoy, then chief of permits and enforcement for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Abundant Peanut Bunker Contributes to a Great Season for False Albacore

September 15, 2017 — Anyone who’s been walking down by the water these days along the south side of the Cape, or on the Vineyard, has probably noticed a lot of boat activity on the water and plenty of fish action. What’s it all about? Most likely, it’s false albacore.

False albacore arrive in our waters in the late summer. They’re fast fish, related to tuna. We see them in the size range of 8-12lbs.  They’re notorious for their good eyesight, for being very picky about what they strike, and for driving fishermen crazy.

It’s been a great season so far for albies.  One likely reason is the plentiful numbers of baitfish known as peanut bunker. Peanut bunker are juvenile menhaden, and false albacore love to eat them.

Read the full story at WCAI

Endangered right whales seeing catastrophic die-off in New England, Canadian waters

The deaths of dozens of whales may be the result of a migration to less-protected areas because of lack of food in the Gulf of Maine.

August 15, 2017 — The North Atlantic right whale, the world’s second most endangered marine mammal, is having a catastrophic year in the waters off New England and Atlantic Canada, and scientists from Maine to Newfoundland are scrambling to figure out why.

At least a dozen right whales have been found dead this summer in the worst die-off researchers have recorded, a disastrous development for a species with a worldwide population of about 500.

“Just imagine you put 500 dollars in the bank, and every time you put five in, the bank takes 15 out,” says Moira Brown, a right whale researcher with the New England Aquarium who is based in Campobello Island, New Brunswick. “This is a species that has not been doing well, even before we had all the dead whales this summer.”

Canadian authorities have documented 12 dead whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence since June 7, though it’s possible that two carcasses that weren’t recovered after their initial sighting were counted twice. Two more of the rare, slow-moving whales were found dead off Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, bringing this summer’s mortality to between 12 and 14 whales, more than 3 percent of their total population.

Humans appear to have been the immediate cause of at least some of the deaths. Necropsy results have been issued for just four of the whales found off Canada, showing one had become entangled in snow crab fishing gear and three were apparently struck by ships.

The whales deaths have prompted Canadian officials to impose emergency restrictionson shipping and snow crab fishermen in parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence – the vast body of water bounded by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador and eastern Quebec – and an urgent effort by researchers to figure out what happened.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen’s Trust hosts third annual Meet the Fleet in Menemsha

August 10, 2017 — Crowds streamed along Menemsha’s docks last Thursday for the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust’s third annual Meet the Fleet, both a celebration of the Island’s fishing community and a fundraising event for the trust that supports it. “I think it was the best one yet,” trust director Shelly Edmundson said.

The three-hour event grossed approximately $20,000 from a silent auction, sponsorships, clothing sales, donations, rawbar sales, and tips given by the band Good Night Louise, which entertained visitors off the deck of Martha Elizabeth, a fishing boat owned by trust founder Wes Brighton.

The event included crab races, and shucking and net-mending competitions. The Coast Guard, environmental police, and numerous commercial fishing vessels — most of which the public could board — were on hand, along with the refurbished 20th century wooden draggers Roann and Little Lady. According to Ms. Edmundson, the Roann made the six-hour journey from its home at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, while the Little Lady still actively plies Vineyard waters.

Aaron Williams, who won the net-mending competition, brought his trawler Tradition to Menemsha, where it docked less than 100 feet from the Roann, his father’s former vessel—one Mr. Williams crewed on as a kid.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Martha’s Vineyard ‘Permit Bank’ Looks To Buoy Small Fishermen

June 21, 2017 — Out on the docks of Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard, Wes Brighton rigged up lobster pots he planned to set the next day.

In an ideal world, he’d also be fishing for other species — like scallops and groundfish — but he can’t afford the expensive government-issued permits that would grant him the fishing rights.

“They’ve turned a public resource into a commodity, and they haven’t limited the people who can own that commodity to commercial fisherman,” Brighton said. “And so a fisherman who wants to go catch scallop quota inside of a small community, like we have here on Martha’s Vineyard, can’t access that … without coming up with a ton of money. “

The fishing boats and docks of Menemsha present a postcard view of Martha’s Vineyard. But through Brighton’s eyes, there’s more to the picture.

“Every time you look somewhere you are losing dock space on our own town dock, which has always been allocated to commercial fishing,” he said. “And just recently we lost a big chunk to a charter boat. It’s up to us to keep this fight because if we lose our tradition, we lose our heritage, and that’s something we just can’t let [happen].”

Read the full story at WBUR

MASSACHUSETTS: West Tisbury School students learn about sustainable seafood

May 25, 2017 — West Tisbury School students enjoyed clam chowder and a lobster boil for lunch on a recent Friday, part of their “local catch of the day” program, and learned from local experts how choosing sustainable seafood supports New England fishermen.

The event on May 19 at the West Tisbury School gave students the opportunity to learn firsthand what the ocean has to offer. It was part of a celebration of Island Grown Schools’ “harvest of the month.” The organization brings garden-based learning and locally sourced food to Island schoolchildren, and seafood was the local harvest for the month of May.

Jared Auerbach, the founder of Boston-based regional seafood purveyor Red’s Best, which supplies seafood to the school, shared with students the importance of eating locally-sourced and sustainably-harvested fish.

“Let mother nature dictate what you’re going to eat,” Mr. Auerbach said.

Read the full story at The Martha’s Vineyard Times

MASSACHUSETTS: How to Catch a Hungry Student? Bait the Hook With Fresh Fish

May 23, 2017 — Fish belongs in schools. Jenny DeVivo, head chef at the West Tisbury School, certainly thinks so. In November she began Fish Fridays at the school, partnering with Red’s Best, a seafood wholesaler, to provide the school with locally caught, underutilized fish on a weekly basis.

All year long students have been enjoying fresh fish lunches, and on Friday they met the whole fish food chain at the Massachusetts Farm to School’s Harvest of the Month seafood celebration.

The interactive event organized by Ms. DeVivo featured booths run by Cottage City Oysters, the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, Island Grown Initiative, the Wampanoag tribe natural resources department and the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group. Throughout the day the students learned about sustainable fishing and how the latest lunch initiative supports local fishermen. Students also posed with monkfish, squid, lobsters and more at a photo booth. Then they enjoyed meals that included fresh pollock, mussels and lobster.

There were also numerous educational opportunities as they watched a demonstration of mussels cleaning algae-filled water, saw how fish create fertilizer that grows the salad greens they eat every day and learned about the efforts of the Wampanoag tribe to track the Island’s herring population.

In one presentation, Jared Auerbach, founder of Red’s Best, explained the process of how local fish ends up on their lunch trays. He emphasized that the school’s demand for fish is “playing a really important part in our thriving local fishing community.”

The partnership entails a weekly commitment to purchase a set quantity of fish at a fixed price. The fish­ — whatever is fresh and abundant at the moment — is caught by members of the Menemsha Fish House and then processed by Red’s Best and distributed to the school.

Ms. DeVivo described the initiative as “the missing piece to the local puzzle that I had been searching for,” supplementing the cafeteria’s Island sources for meat, dairy, eggs, vegetables and fruit. As she serves up the latest catch each week, she tells the students the story of who caught it and where it was caught.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Reality check for commercial fishermen

April 11, 2017 — Don’t put the injured on the raft first, they can slow down the evacuation.

Don’t stow survival suits below decks.

Don’t leave port without a Nerf football.

This was some of the wisdom imparted to a group of 35 commercial fishermen gathered at Coast Guard Station Menemsha on a gray, windy Thursday morning, where, appropriately, a storm front was bearing down on the Vineyard.

It was day one of two training days for commercial fishermen — along with sailors, harbormasters, and shellfish constables — provided by Burlington-based Fishing Partnership Support Services (FPSS).

The focus of the day one was safety and survival. Participants rotated among six training modules: man overboard procedure, firefighting and flares, survival suits, helicopter hoist operations, flooding and pump operations, first aid and CPR, and life raft equipment.

“Part of the success of this program is that it’s very hands-on,” Ed Dennehy, FPSS Director of Safety told The Times. “They will put out an actual fire. They will put on survival suits and get into the cold water. They control flooding and leaks in a simulator provided by the Coast Guard.”

FPSS has been providing this training all over New England, primarily in Massachusetts, for the past 11 years. The program has been so successful, it has spread beyond New England to New York.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times