Saving Seafood

Aquarium wins grant to test ropeless fishing gear

August 27, 2018 — The New England Aquarium has been awarded a $227,000 grant to test a ropeless fishing prototype to eliminate large whale entanglements in pot fishing gear, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries announced.

The federal agency awarded more than $2.3 million to 14 groups to support bycatch reduction research projects. Bycatch includes fish, marine mammals and turtles in this program, which intends to work side-by-side with fishermen on their boats to develop solutions to some of the top bycatch challenges in the country, the agency said in its announcement.

“U.S. pot fisheries that target crustaceans are popular in New England, and are important economically and culturally,” according to the aquarium’s description of its project. “However, the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, and other large species of whale and protected species can become entangled in the ropes used in pot fisheries.”

“Ropeless fishing” involves securing ropes to the seafloor where traps are being fished, and when the trap is ready to be hauled to check for catch, ropes are released to the surface by an acoustically triggered device, according to the aquarium.

In mid-July, the International Fund for Animal Welfare also funded a $30,000 test with Sandwich lobsterman David Casoni of one type of ropeless technology — an acoustic release system by Desert Star Systems — in cooperation with the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester wins $110,000 to promote its fish, lobster

August 16, 2018 — The city’s Gloucester Fresh seafood marketing program got another boost this week when the Seaport Economic Council awarded it $110,000 to continue branding and promoting locally landed seafood to restaurants, retail seafood dealers and institutional purveyors.

The money, part of the $3.8 million dispersed in the latest round of Seaport Economic Council grant awards, will help the city enhance its website with more video and other technologies to attract what appears to be a growing international audience.

“We’re really excited about the attention the program is getting,” said Sal Di Stefano, the city’s economic development director and its point man on the Gloucester Fresh campaign. “This was just a concept a few years ago and now it’s an internationally recognized brand. We’re really proud of that.”

The grant also will allow Gloucester Fresh to embark in a new direction: to brand the Massachusetts lobster — thus removing it from the formidable shadow of Maine — and increase awareness of Gloucester as the Bay State’s premier lobster landing port.

In 2017, Massachusetts trailed only Maine in lobster landings, hauling in 16.57 million pounds with an estimated value of $81.54 million.

“We’re going to be working with the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association to promote and brand lobsters caught in our state’s waters,” Di Stefano said. “It’s time to bring attention to that. I know here in Gloucester, our mayor is tired of hearing about Maine lobsters. So, we want to get the word out there.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

First U.S. Offshore Wind Developer Acts on Fishing Gear

July 16, 2018 — U.S. offshore wind developer Deepwater Wind has adopted a first-of-its-kind procedure designed to prevent impacts to commercial fishing gear from its activities.

Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm is America’s first offshore wind farm, and the company is currently in active development on utility-scale wind farms to serve Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.

The procedure was developed in close coordination with the commercial fishing industry and is based off extensive feedback from fishermen in ports up and down the Atlantic coast. Deepwater Wind believes that keeping fishermen informed is the key to preventing damage to fishing gear.

“We know that offshore wind and all other ocean users can coexist – we see that happening every day at the Block Island Wind Farm. We are committed to working with the commercial fishing industry and ironing out our differences. We want to be good neighbors out there,” said Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski. “We’re taking this important step because it’s the right thing to do.”

The procedure’s key focus is on providing frequent updates on offshore activities to fishermen, via Deepwater Wind fisheries liaisons and a team of fisheries representatives based in regional ports, as well as through online updates for mariners and twice-daily updates on VHF channels.

While Deepwater Wind expects there will be only limited impacts on fishing gear from offshore wind activities, the company has included a process for gear-loss/damage claims should they occur. Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said: “We are hopeful these won’t be needed and with the multiple notices to mariners and ads in the MLA newspaper, our members are actively engaged in the development of offshore wind in Southern New England.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Deepwater Wind says it can coexist with commercial fishermen

July 13, 2018 — Saying it wants to be “a good neighbor” to commercial fishermen, Deepwater Wind – the company with wind energy turbines off Rhode Island’s coast – announced Thursday it has adopted what it calls “first-of-its-kind” procedures to avoid damaging fishing gear.

Beginning this month, Deepwater said it will provide fishermen with frequent updates on its offshore activities, and the company is requiring all its vessels and personnel to comply with the initiative.

The procedures involve Deepwater’s fisheries liaisons and a team of fisheries representatives in regional ports, as well as online updates for mariners and twice-daily updates on VHF channels.

While Deepwater expects there will be only “limited impact” on fishing gear, the company said it also has adopted a process for handling claims of loss and damage of fishing gear.

Read the full at Providence Business News

Sen. Markey pushes for $5M in grants to save right whales

July 12, 2018 — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey is co-sponsoring Senate legislation mandating the U.S. Department of Commerce appropriate $5 million in grants annually over the next decade to help rebuild the populations of the imperiled North Atlantic right whales.

The Senate bill co-sponsored by Markey and other senators closely mirrors a bill U.S. Rep Seth Moulton has filed as a primary sponsor in the House of Representatives.

If voted into law, the legislation would require the U.S. commerce secretary to provide competitive grants for projects aimed at the conservation of the endangered right whales. Marine scientists estimate there are fewer than 450 of the marine mammals left alive.

Both the House and Senate bills carry a non-federal matching requirement of 25 percent for successful applicants. They also authorize in-kind contributions as part of the matching requirement.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Sens. Markey, Warren support right whale legislation

July 11, 2018 — Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren will co-sponsor the SAVE Right Whales Act, filed June 7 by four other Atlantic Coast senators.

“Senator Markey wanted to ensure that all of the stakeholders in Massachusetts that would be impacted by the legislation were briefed on the bill, understood its provisions, and had the opportunity to share their perspectives before he committed to co-sponsorship,” a spokesman for the senator said.

On Monday, Markey and Warren both became co-sponsors of the bill joining Democrats from New Jersey, Delaware, New Jersey, Florida and New York.

U.S. Rep. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., introduced a similar bill in the House on June 7 with three other representatives.

The legislation would allocate $5 million annually in grants through 2028 for conservation programs, and the development of new technology or other methods to reduce harm to right whales from fishing gear entanglements and ship collisions. Grants could promote cooperation with foreign governments, affected local communities, small businesses, others in the private sector or nongovernment groups. The National Marine Fisheries Service has funded North Atlantic right whale protections at more than $8 million annually since fiscal year 2009, with another $128,000 released last year with announcement of an unusual mortality event after 17 right whales were observed dead in Canadian and U.S. waters.

The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association gave its nod of approval on June 20 to the SAVE Act. The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance has endorsed the bill as well.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Local lobsterman to test ropeless buoy equipment

July 2, 2018 — Sonar technology used in Australia for southern rock lobster commercial fishing will be tested in July, possibly in Cape Cod Bay, as a method to better protect imperiled North Atlantic right whales from rope entanglements.

“Getting these and other systems into the hands of the fishermen and incorporating their ideas and feedback into their development is the key,” said Patrick Ramage, marine conservation program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has its operations center in Yarmouth Port.

IFAW will pay $30,000 to provide the equipment, a trainer and onboard support for what is expected to be a test by one member of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association of the acoustic release equipment manufactured by Desert Star Systems, a company based in Marina, California, and founded by Marco Flagg.

The equipment replaces the typical surface buoy and vertical rope that lobstermen attach to their traps on the seafloor to identify the trap locations. Instead, the new equipment has a bottom-anchored mesh bag full of rope and floats that can open and pop up to the surface with an acoustic command from a boat. The equipment dates from the mid-1990s when a lobster fisherman in Australia wanted to prevent trap losses from gear entanglement with ships.

The equipment was tested earlier this year by five commercial snow crab fishermen in Canadian waters, Flagg said.

“The Massachusetts test is on the small side but I’m happy it’s happening,” Flagg said of what is the first pilot of the product in United States waters. Each release mechanism costs about $1,500 to $1,700 and lasts for 10 years, he said.

A Sandwich-based lobsterman is expected to pilot the equipment, according to the lobstermen’s association president Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

SAVE Act gets boost

June 22, 2018 — A statewide association of commercial lobstermen has thrown its weight behind a $50 million federal bill to protect North Atlantic right whales with targeted research that emphasizes collaboration.

The group intends to work with the International Fund for Animal Welfare to develop a pilot program to test buoyless gear this summer, according to Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Beth Casoni.

“Massachusetts lobstermen are currently the leaders in the world for the conservation of right whales, and the association proudly supports the SAVE Right Whale Act of 2018,” Casoni wrote in an email.

Filed in Congress on June 7, the legislation would allocate $5 million annually in grants through 2028 for conservation programs, and the development of new technology or other methods to reduce harm to right whales from fishing gear entanglements and ship collisions. Grants could promote cooperation with foreign governments, affected local communities, small businesses, others in the private sector or nongovernment groups.

A grant program that is specific for right whale conservation and research will allow “the continued collaborative research needed for safe, realistic and viable outcomes for all that depend on the stocks’ success,” Casoni said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Legislators act to save right whales

June 14, 2018 — A $5 million annual grant program is proposed for fishermen, shippers and conservationists to collaborate to protect North Atlantic right whales but the state’s lobstermen are still considering it.

“We’ve read it,” Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Beth Casoni said of the SAVE Right Whales Act of 2018, filed in Congress June 7. “We have not had a chance to discuss it as an organization.” At a regularly scheduled monthly meeting Wednesday, the association’s elected delegates are expected to discuss and possibly determine whether to support the measure, Casoni said.

The filing of the SAVE Act comes a week after a report of the second right whale carcass this year, both off Virginia, based on preliminary analyses, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. The decomposed carcass was reported May 31 on Metompkin Island, Virginia. After a review of the photos, the carcass was tentatively identified as a North Atlantic right whale, and bone samples will be submitted for genetic verification.

The SAVE Act itself, which stands for Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, was introduced by U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and William Keating, both Democrats from Massachusetts, and House members from Arizona and California, and by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, with co-sponsors from New York, New Jersey, Florida and Delaware.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Lawsuit challenges fishing methods that could threaten right whales

April 27, 2018 — BOSTON — A noted environmental activist has gone to court to stop the use of vertical buoy fishing lines in Massachusetts waters to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

In a lawsuit filed in late February in U.S. District Court in Boston, Cambridge-based conservationist Richard Maximus Strahan names the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the assistant administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, the commissioners of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, as a representative of its 1,800 members.

The lawsuit is the third filed in federal court this year related to protecting North Atlantic right whales.

Strahan is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop lobstermen’s association members from further lobster pot and gill net commercial fishing operations that could result in the entanglement of any endangered whale or sea turtle, according to the amended complaint. In that same order, Strahan seeks to stop government defendants from licensing those types of commercial fisheries operations unless they can scientifically demonstrate that endangered whales and sea turtles would not be killed or injured.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times