August 5, 2020 — Northern Wind Seafood’s facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts, suffered an ammonia leak prompting an evacuation of the building on 4 August, South Coast Today reported.
The New Bedford Fired Department announced via a Facebook post that the facility had been evacuated for an ammonia leak at around 9 a.m. on 4 August. The leak, according to local media, elevated to a “Tier 2” hazardous response and required a state hazmat team to investigate.
August 4, 2020 — Maine’s first shark-caused human fatality came as a shock to residents and vacationers alike, but the odds of that occurring in Massachusetts waters increase virtually daily, thanks to conservation efforts that have swelled both seal and shark populations.
Authorities have confirmed that a 63-year-old woman from New York City was killed by a great white shark on Monday while swimming with her daughter off Harpswell, Maine’s Bailey Island.
Julie Dimperio Holowach became the first known person to die from a shark attack in Maine’s history, Patrick Keliher, the state’s Marine Patrol Commissioner, said at a Tuesday press conference.
Holowach, wearing a wetsuit, was swimming with her daughter about 20 yards from the shore when she was attacked. Thankfully her daughter escaped injury.
August 4, 2020 — Commercial fishermen and lobstermen in Massachusetts already “crippled” by the coronavirus pandemic say they fear a second wave in the fall would sink the industry.
“If there’s a shutdown then, it could be catastrophic,” said Joey Ciaramitaro, co-owner of Gloucester-based Captain Joe & Sons wholesale lobsters.
The state’s spring lockdown hurt local fishermen on two fronts: seafood-selling restaurants closed, and air travel nearly ground to a halt. Contrary to popular belief, most local fishermen and lobstermen don’t just sell their catch to tourist-flocked seafood restaurants and markets in New England.
August 3, 2020 — For the past few years, second–generation Gloucester fisherman B.G. Brown has been selling much of his catch to a major food retailer, earning higher-than-average prices because of his commitment to sustainable fishing techniques. Then the coronavirus hit.
With shoppers staying home, Brown’s main customer had to lower the prices it paid and eventually cut back on how much fish it could take. Now he has to sell his catch at regular market prices, which have dropped so low that every fishing trip requires a careful calculation, Brown says.
“You have to weigh it out: Is it worth going out for these super-low prices, or do you just tie the boat up?” he muses. “It’s a hard call right now.”
Gloucester has been a fishing town since its founding in the early 1620s, and the industry was the backbone of the local economy well into the 20th century. In recent decades, however, the industry has struggled as it grapples with regulations designed to prevent over-fishing and limit environmental damages. Many fishermen with long family histories in the business have had to turn to new professions, and the city’s fishing fleet has declined significantly since its peak.
July 31, 2020 — Three days after a great white killed a swimmer off Bailey Island in Harpswell, officers from the Maine Marine Patrol continued to scour coastal waters for sharks by land and by sea.
If they find a great white shark, they won’t kill it. Instead, state officials mostly seek information to document the presence of sharks and alert coastal communities.
Scientists and researchers also hope to learn more information about the species, saying that photos and reports of sharks and seals killed by sharks are helpful to them. Those can be shared with their local marine patrol officer, including as much specific information as possible.
“They tell us what species the shark is biting, where and when that’s happening, and the potential size and shape of the shark based on bite wounds,” Greg Skomal, a shark expert from Massachusetts said of the photos of seals attacked by sharks. “That is very useful information. We can start to piece together the predatory behavior of white sharks.”
July 31, 2020 — The legal battle over the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of Massachusetts is starting to feel like the Hundred Years’ War in Europe of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Commercial fishing interests, with the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association as lead plaintiffs, this week filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge of the use of the federal Antiquities Act by President Barack Obama in 2016 to create the 5,000 square-mile marine national monument about 130 miles off Cape Cod.
The petition represents the third time fishing interests have tried legal challenges to the creation of the only marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean. They were unsuccessful in the first two.
In the petition, attorneys representing the MLA and other commercial fishing stakeholders, question whether the Antiquities Act “applies to ocean areas beyond the United States’ sovereignty where the federal government has only limited regulatory authority.”
The petition charges the use of the Antiquities Act circumvents the National Marine Sanctuaries Act and questions whether Obama evaded the Antiquities Act’s “smallest area requirement” by designating “ocean monuments larger than most states.” It also maintains that the use of the act to create the marine national monument is a threat to the Constitution’s separation of powers.
July 31, 2020 — Seals are thriving off the Northeast coast thanks to decades of protections, and that victory for wildlife has brought a consequence for humans — more encounters with sharks.
Seals are a favorite prey of large sharks such as the great white. The recent death of swimmer Julie Dimperio Holowach, who was killed by a great white off Harpswell, Maine, might have happened because the shark mistook her for a seal, authorities said.
Swimmers off the New England states have learned to be more mindful in recent years due to a spate of sightings of great whites, the apex predator made famous in the movie “Jaws.” A shark that killed a man off Cape Cod in 2018 was also believed to be a great white.
That was the first fatal shark attack in Massachusetts in more than eight decades, while the death of Holowach on Monday was the first documented fatal shark attack in Maine history.
“They’re not vindictive or mad or angry or preferring human flesh. They just occasionally make a mistake. And it’s tragic when they do,” said Greg Skomal, a shark specialist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “As we restore top predators, the potential for these interactions could increase.”
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times
July 30, 2020 — Gulf of Maine white hake, Georges Bank winter flounder and Atlantic Coast bluefish have been added to a list of fish stocks considered “overfishered,” according to a federal government report.
The report, released Tuesday, also said that the list of fish stocks subject to overfishing in the U.S. fell to an all-time low in 2019.
The National Marine Fisheries Service tracks the health of species that U.S. fishermen seek for commercial and recreational fishing. The agency places stocks on its overfishing list when the rate of catch is too big.
The agency determined that only 22 of 321 fishing stocks were subject to overfishing last year, the agency said on Tuesday. Fish stocks are sub-populations of fish species that typically live in a geographic area.
July 30, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set effort control measures for the Area 1A fishery via Days Out webinars. Current effort controls for Season 1 (June – September) are detailed in Memo 20-50 which is available on the Commission’s website (click here).
The previously scheduled Days Out call on July 31, 2020 at 8:30 AM has been cancelled. Given the current weekly landings limit in the Area 1A fishery has not been fully harvested by all vessels and catch rates have not exceeded projections, the states have decided a Days Out call is not warranted at this time.
The Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort on:
If it is decided that this meeting is also not needed, it may be canceled. Please contact Max Appelman, FMP Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.
A copy of this announcement, can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/files/
July 30, 2020 — Maine saw its first fatal shark attack in the state’s history Monday when a shark killed a 63-year-old New York woman off Bailey Island, Maine, northeast of Portland.
“Based on the information I have from the state of Maine, including photos of tooth fragments, this was definitely caused by a white shark attack,” says Greg Skomal, a leading Atlantic great white shark expert and senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Maine officials invited Skomal to consult on the investigation into the attack.
The return of great white sharks to New England over the past two decades is both a conservation success story and an emerging public safety concern. Though it is extremely rare for a shark to attack—much less kill—a human, incidents are on the rise in New England. Since 2012, there have been five attacks in the region, all in Massachusetts. Only two have been fatal: Monday’s, and the death of a boogie boarder off Cape Cod in 2018. Before 2012, the most recent attack occurred in 1936. (Read about how Cape Cod has grappled with becoming a great white shark hotspot.)
It’s not known precisely how many great white sharks are in New England waters, but a tagging program Skomal started in 2009 suggests the number is growing steadily. Data from a five-year population study he launched in 2014 is still being processed, but he tagged a record-breaking 50 white sharks off Cape Cod in 2019.