Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Cause of death sought for fin whale that washed ashore

August 21, 2018 — A 55-foot-long fin whale that was spotted floating in Cape Cod Bay on Sunday has washed ashore on Duxbury Beach, according to a New England Aquarium spokeswoman.

The whale was seen floating about 8 miles off Marshfield in the middle of the bay, said Diana Brown McCloy, a member of the aquarium’s media relations team. It appears to have been dead for about two or three days, she said.

The whale washed ashore Monday morning.

The aquarium’s marine mammal team conducted a necropsy on the whale, and the Yarmouth Port-based International Fund for Animal Welfare sent one person to assist, according to IFAW spokesman Rodger Correa.

There are no apparent traumatic injuries or fishing gear on the whale, which appears to be a less than full-length adult, said Tony LaCasse, the aquarium’s media relations director. After the necropsy, the whale will be buried on a barrier island.

A surrounding section of Duxbury Beach was closed Monday and police asked people to stay away from the area while town officials and marine biologists worked at the scene, according to a post on the Duxbury Police Department’s Facebook page.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Can dogfish save Cape Cod fisheries?

August 21, 2018 –Low clouds hang over the pier as fishing boats line up to drop off their catch for the day. Fishermen in orange suspendered waders and rugged boots perch on the edges of their boats. The fishermen, with weathered faces and hands toughened by their work, ignore the tourists gawking and snapping photos from a viewing platform overhead.

Then, the fog descends, giving the scene a sense of timelessness. But this scene has changed from decades past. For 400 years, fishermen across Cape Cod caught boatloads of, well, cod. The fish was so plentiful and valuable that fishermen bought houses and new boats off cod profits alone. But today, there’s a different fish filling the piers: spiny dogfish.

Cape Cod has nearly lost its namesake fish, due to overfishing and climate change. So fishermen have switched to dogfish, skates, and other more plentiful options. This move could help revive the Massachusetts fishing industry, and might even help the cod rebound, researchers say. But getting Americans to bite may not be as easy.

“This is the fish we could feed the United States with,” says Chatham fisherman Doug Feeney. “We have people that are hungry. We have prison systems. We have vets. We have homeless people. There’s just so much that can be done with this product.”

For a long time, fishermen saw dogfish as an annoyance. They were a “trash fish” with little value that often ended up clogging their nets. The large spines on their fins especially made them a pain to throw back, and they eat pretty much everything smaller than them – including juvenile codfish.

Read the full story at The Christian-Science Monitor

New England shrimp population still looks bad amid shutdown

August 20, 2018 — A new analysis of New England’s shrimp population doesn’t bode well for the future of the long-shuttered fishery for the crustaceans.

The Maine-based shrimp fishery has been shut down since 2013 because of concerns such as warming ocean temperatures and poor survival of young. Scientists working with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission are assessing the shrimp stock, and so far it looks like little has changed.

Results of the stock assessment “look fairly similar to what we’ve seen in previous years,” said Megan Ware, a fishery management plan coordinator with the Atlantic States. That means reopening the fishery any time soon could be a tough sell when regulators meet to discuss and vote on the subject this fall.

“We’re still seeing low trends for northern shrimp,” said Ware. “Low abundance, low biomass.”

The small, pinkish shrimp were previously a popular winter seafood item in New England and around the country before regulators shuttered the fishery. Fishermen sought them with trawler boats and traps in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, sometimes catching more than 10 million pounds in a single year.

Scientists have said the shrimp face a long-term threat from the warming of the Gulf of Maine, which is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water in the world. Warm water is inhospitable for the animal’s recovery, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has said.

The closure of the fishery has left New England fishermen, who also contend with other declining species such as cod, with one less option. Terry Alexander, a longtime fisherman from Harpswell, Maine, said he’d like to see the fishery reopen, but he’s not optimistic.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester hopes catch can claw its way to top

August 20, 2018 — Building on the success of its Gloucester Fresh seafood branding campaign, the city of Gloucester plans to apply the same formula to help brand and market Massachusetts lobsters to lobster lovers the world over.

Couldn’t happen in a better place.

If you go by the numbers, there is no better Bay State lobster port to take up the banner for distinguishing Massachusetts lobsters from those hauled from the waters of neighboring states.

Gloucester has dominated the lobster trade in Massachusetts and the industry’s high profile here has helped mitigate some of the misery foisted upon the community by the continuing groundfish crisis.

It is the state’s No. 1 port in both number of active lobstermen — an average of 136 annually during the past five years — and amount of lobster annually landed. Gloucester has averaged 2.94 million pounds per year over the past five years, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

During that period, no other Massachusetts lobster port ever claimed more than 60 active lobstermen in any given year, and none but Gloucester ever cracked double-digits in the percentage of statewide landings.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘We all wondered what happened’

August 20, 2018 — Around 70 people who attended the annual Fishermen’s Memorial Service were held rapt by the words of local author and filmmaker Ron Gilson as he shared the stories of friends he has lost, fishermen who were taken by the sea.

Gilson was the keynote speaker at the service Saturday, which was held on the second floor of the Capt. Lester S. Wass American Legion Post 3 hall because of inclement weather. Painted oars that would have been carried to the Man at the Wheel statue and its accompanying cenotaphs at Stacy Boulevard had it not rained were propped up against either side of tall windows in the hall.

Family, friends, and community members drove down to the statue to place floral arrangements and toss flowers into the harbor in memory of those they lost after the service.

“When an accident happens and you loose someone, you’re hurt, but you put them to rest,” Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said after the service. “For those who have not returned, there is no closure. I feel every year, it’s a little closer to that closure. It’s just hard.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford, the city of oysters? City Council wants to explore that idea

August 17, 2018 — In many ways, the city is the mecca for scallops. Now, Dana Rebeiro wants to expand that to oysters.

The Ward 4 councilor filed a written motion Thursday asking the Committee on Fisheries to help draft an ordinance that Mayor Jon Mitchell’s administration has been crafting regarding aquaculture permits.

The permits would allow fishermen to begin growing oysters as part of the city’s movement toward aquaculture.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Quota Concerns Prompt Massachusetts Flounder Fishery to Shut Down

August 17, 2018 — Federal regulators are shutting down the fishery for a popular food fish in Massachusetts because of concerns about exceeding quota.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says vessels are prohibited from bringing summer flounder to the docks in Massachusetts for the remainder of the fishing year. The closure went into effect on Tuesday.

The NOAA says the closure is needed because Massachusetts fishermen had caught 85 percent of their quota by Aug. 4 and were projected to reach their limit by Tuesday.

Read the full story at NECN

NCFC Members Urge BOEM to Include Commercial Fishermen in Windmill Siting Decisions in the New York Bight

August 17, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities:

Late last month, members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) submitted two letters asking Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to consider the economic importance of the commercial fishing industry before deciding where to site windmills in the New York Bight.

367 individuals signed a national letter calling on Secretary Zinke not to rush offshore energy development and to ensure projects are “sited, constructed, and operated using the best scientific information available.”

“The Interior Department should provide for intelligent and deliberate offshore renewable energy development, rather than fall prey to the gold rush mentality promoted by BOEM and financially-interested wind developers, most of which are foreign-owned,” the NCFC members wrote.

The signers also invoked President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to support working class Americans.

“When President Trump campaigned and was elected, he promised to look after America’s working middle class, of which we are all a part,” the letter stated. “You will not be honoring the President’s commitment if you allow BOEM to lease ocean areas first, and ask and answer the necessary questions later.”

Another 103 individuals and 32 vessels and businesses from Massachusetts signed a separate letter asking BOEM to reconsider its plan to develop four offshore wind farms in the New York Bight. They specifically cited the damage such development would cause to important Northeast fisheries such as the scallop fishery.

“This is an ill-conceived idea that will cause irreparable economic harm within the fishing communities along the entire East Coast,” the signers wrote. “The harm to Massachusetts will be especially significant, given that it is the center of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery and contains major surf clam and ocean quahog operations.”

The letter pointed out that, on average, nearly $54 million is generated by scallop landings annually from the areas under consideration in the New York Bight, according to data from the National Marine Fisheries Service. An additional $8 million is generated by surf clam and ocean quahog.

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford’s Seafood Throwdown shows how delicious under-appreciated fish can be

August 16, 2018 — Two local chefs.

One mystery fish.

One local farmers’ market. And a live New Bedford audience.

We usually talk music in Spotlight, my friends, but this slice of outdoor summer entertainment is way too fun not to mention this week.

Think Food Network’s “Iron Chef,” but with local chefs, local ingredients, local judges, and a live showdown performed in downtown New Bedford. Oh, and it’s free. Limited sampling will be available.

Yup, you’re invited to bring a lawn chair to Custom House Square Aug. 23 at 5:30 p.m. for New Bedford’s 2018 Seafood Throwdown. The event is presented by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, in collaboration with the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, Coastal Foodshed, and New Bedford Farmers’ Market.

This year it’s UMD vs. URI, baby.

In one corner, [ding ding ding!] we have Chef Kevin Gibbons, executive chef at UMass-Dartmouth. In the other corner, we have Chef Michael Comire, executive chef at the University of Rhode Island.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-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