Saving Seafood

Where have all the codfish in the Gulf of Maine gone?

July 30, 2021 — The “New World” was built on the codfish. In the 1600s, John Smith built a colony of fishermen on the Isles of Shoals off Strawberry Bank, New Hampshire.  According to his writings, the cod were so plentiful that you could walk across the water on their backs.

While this is obviously a huge exaggeration, there were a lot of cod.

Without means of refrigeration, salted fish was the best way to ship large amounts of protein to countries throughout the world without worry of spoilage. The colony of fishermen on the Isles of Shoals spent their days fishing, cutting and salting the cod for shipment to England.

What happened to the iconic New England cod?

The entire colonial economy in New England was built around this iconic fish. So much so that the weathervane atop the State House in Massachusetts is a golden codfish.

So, what has happened to the cod?  If you are a recreational fisherman, you know that you are allowed only one fish per day at certain times during the year. The commercial fishermen have all been given a personal quota for cod.  If they reach their quota, they need to purchase or lease more quota from someone who has extra. The price to “lease” these fish in order to catch them can be exorbitant.

To keep fishing for other fish, many of the commercial fishermen must pay more for leased cod than they can sell the actual fish for. Cod has become a commodity on the market being bought or hoarded by non-fishermen to make money off the backs of the active fishermen.

Read the full story at SeaCoast Online

eVTR Instructional Webinar This Thursday Afternoon

July 27, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The first in a series of instructional webinars to provide vessel operators and others with a walkthrough of GARFO’s two electronic vessel trip reporting applications- the Fish Online Web app, and the Fish Online iOS app- will be held this Thursday, July 29 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

This webinar is focused on operators in Port Agent Bill Duffy’s area of southern Massachusetts, including Boston, the South Shore, Cape Cod and the Islands, and New Bedford.

Future instructional webinars will include demonstrations of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program’s (ACCSP) eTrips/mobile v2 and eTrips online applications. Other eVTR applications may also be included in these webinars. Anyone is welcome to join any webinar.

How Do I Join?

More information can be found on our webpage for this series: How to Use Electronic Vessel Trip Reporting Apps. This page includes webinar login information.

Questions?

Contact your local Port Agent.

Massachusetts Makes Millions More Available in Aid for Fishing Industry

July 26, 2021 — As the hard-hit Massachusetts fishing industry work to get back on its feet from the pandemic, the state Division of Marine Fisheries announced last week the release of another $23.8 million in CARES act money to assist with recovery efforts.

Grant applications have gone out to seafood processors, commercial fishermen, shellfish farmers, and for-hire recreational vessel owners, Gov. Charlie Baker said in announcing the second round of funding.

“The fishing and seafood industries are integral parts of the economy, history, and culture of Massachusetts, and have suffered significant losses during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the governor said. “We were pleased to coordinate the distribution of $28 million through the CARES Act last year and our administration remains dedicated to supporting these industries with this second round of federal relief funding.”

Four months ago the U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced an additional $255 million in fisheries assistance funding for states with coastal and marine fisheries negatively affected by Covid-19. Massachusetts received the third-highest allocation, after Alaska and Washington state.

Speaking to the Gazette by phone last week, Dan McKiernan, director of DMF, said Island seafood markets, charter and party boat operators, commercial oyster farmers, shellfishermen and commercial fishermen are all potential grant recipients. All were hit hard in the pandemic’s earliest months.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Report finds most ships breaking U.S. right whale speed limits

July 23, 2021 — An analysis of automated ship tracking data shows that nearly 90 percent of vessels transiting mandatory speed zones to protect endangered northern right whales are violating the speed limits, according to a new report.

The highest level of compliance — with about one-third of vessels obeying the 10-knot limit — was documented in the Off Race Point seasonal management area, near Cape Cod, Mass., where NOAA regularly announces speed restrictions to protect migrating whales.

The lowest levels of compliance — with nearly 90 percent of vessels busting the 10-knot limit — was off the coast between Wilmington, N.C., and Brunswick, Ga. That reach includes approaches to the burgeoning ports of Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., where cargo traffic and container ship sizes are growing.

“If NOAA is serious about its mandate to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction, speed zones must be designated in the areas where whales currently are, and they must be enforced,” said Whitney Webber, campaign director at the environmental group Oceana, which compiled the analysis using Automatic Identification System data from 2017 to 2020. “Until speed zone rules are mandatory and violators held accountable, North Atlantic right whales will continue to die on NOAA’s watch.”

The AIS data comes via Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization founded by Oceana in partnership with Google and SkyTruth. That database recently yielded another report about foreign squid fishing vessels mounting possible incursions into Argentina’s exclusive economic zone.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Massachusetts Begins Sending Out Applications For Round 2 of Cares Act Fisheries Relief Funding

July 22, 2021 — Almost four months after the U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced the additional allocation of $255 million in fisheries assistance funding through the CARES Act, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries is just starting the process of distributing the funds.

Massachusetts received the third largest amount in funding, having been allocated $23,632,530 for fisheries assistance.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Bernhardt: Trump tried to boost offshore wind, not kill it

July 22, 2021 — Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt defended the Trump administration’s lengthy review of America’s first offshore wind farm in an interview yesterday, saying the additional environmental analysis he ordered was intended to strengthen the project against legal challenges rather than kill it.

The Trump administration had initially planned to complete a review of Vineyard Wind in the summer of 2019. But Bernhardt surprised the project’s developers, who proposed a $2.8 billion wind farm near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., by expanding a government study of the project to consider other wind farms proposed along the East Coast.

The announcement cast a pall over the wind industry. It slowed planning work on other projects and raised questions about the viability of offshore wind in the United States. Many industry supporters suspected the move was a reflection of former President Trump’s disdain for wind power, which he regularly lambasted as an eyesore and a danger to birds. Trump erroneously claimed wind turbines could cause cancer.

But in a phone interview yesterday while vacationing at a North Carolina beach, Bernhardt said it was “fundamentally false” that the administration was playing politics with Vineyard Wind. Instead, he said his call for more analysis was driven by the growing number of wind projects proposed along the East Coast and by divisions among federal agencies over Vineyard Wind’s potential impact on commercial fishing and marine navigation.

“You can’t proceed with federal agencies warring with each other,” he said. “I was like, ‘Look, we don’t have our ducks in a row.’”

He added, “The last thing we wanted to do is put out a finalized program that wasn’t legally sustainable.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Lawsuit seeking to stop Vineyard Wind claims NOAA Fisheries opinion was faulty

July 22, 2021 — The Vineyard Wind project, an 800-megawatt offshore wind energy installation slated to be built off the coast of the U.S. state of Massachusetts, is now facing a federal lawsuit.

The suit is challenging the permit for the Vineyard Wind offshore energy. It was filed by a solar energy generation company, but the potential impact on the commercial fishing industry is a cornerstone of the suit’s argument against the project.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Report: Many boats fail to brake for endangered whales

July 21, 2021 — Many boats aren’t complying with federal speed restrictions designed to protect an endangered species of whale, an environmental advocacy group said Wednesday.

The federal government uses voluntary and mandatory speed reduction zones to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 360 and are vulnerable to ship strikes. Oceana’s analysis concluded noncompliance was as high as nearly 90% in the voluntary zones, and wasn’t much better in the mandatory zones.

The group said it analyzed vessel speeds from 2017 to 2020. The analysis found that noncompliance in mandatory areas was generally worse in more southern zones. The Cape Cod Bay zone had a noncompliance rate around 45% in the most recent year, while protection zones off southeastern states were above 69%, the report said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

Massachusetts urges fishing industry to apply for $24M in virus aid

July 21, 2021 — Massachusetts’ fishing industry is being urged to apply for nearly $24 million in federal coronavirus relief funds.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration said Tuesday that commercial fishermen, shellfish farmers and seafood processors, and for-hire recreational vessel owners are eligible for the aid through $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress last year.

Baker said the funds are meant to mitigate losses incurred last year when demand for seafood and for-hire fishing services declined.

“The fishing industry was particularly hard hit during the pandemic, with very limited exports of seafood and a big downturn in restaurant sales,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said in a statement. “The distribution of an additional $23.8 million will give needed relief to fishermen and fishing related businesses who have been severely impacted by the pandemic.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

MASSACHUSETTS: Applications open for second round of COVID-19 fisheries relief

July 21, 2021 — The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries mailed applications to seafood processers, wholesalers, commercial fishermen and aquaculture farmers on Tuesday — officially opening the state’s second round of CARES Act relief for fisheries.

The funds are intended to mitigate the financial impacts on marine fisheries participants that suffered more than a 35% loss of revenue due to the pandemic.

“Things are definitely recovering, we’re seeing high prices for many shellfish species, finfish, lobster, scallops,” said DMF Director Daniel McKiernan. “There’s a lot of demand for seafood right now so 2021 is looking like a really great year for the industry, but there’s still deficits from what happened last year that these funds will help mitigate.”

This may be the last chance for fisheries to get major COVID-19 relief funds. McKiernan said he wasn’t aware of any state or federal relief planned beyond this round.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times