Saving Seafood

NEW Slow Speed Zone East of Boston to Protect Right Whales

April 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces a new voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area  or DMA) east of Boston.

This DMA is based on an April 9, 2020, sighting of an aggregation of right whales from a Boston-area beach by private citizens.

Mariners, please go around these areas or go slow (10 knots or less) inside these areas where groups of right whales have been sighted.

East of Boston DMA is in effect through April 24, 2020.

42 47 N
42 05 N
70 26W
71 23W

Active Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs)

A mandatory speed restriction of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) is in effect in the following areas:

Mid-Atlantic: November 1-April 30

Cape Cod Bay: January 1-May 15

Off Race Point: March 1-April 30

Great South Channel: April 1 – July 31

More info on Seasonal Management Areas

Right Whales Are Migrating 

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. NOAA is cautioning boaters and fishermen to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking all fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales and remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements. Commercial fishermen should use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are only about 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

North Atlantic right whales are NOAA Fisheries’ newest Species in the Spotlight. This initiative is a concerted, agency-wide effort to spotlight and save marine species that are among the most at risk of extinction in the near future. 

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

Read the full release here

Saving Seafood Launches COVID-19 Response and Aid Information Portal

April 9, 2020 — We are pleased to announce Saving Seafood’s COVID-19 Response and Aid Information portal, available on the Saving Seafood website at coronavirus.savingseafood.org.

The two-way portal will provide curated and up-to-date information to the domestic seafood harvesting and processing community, as well as serve as a way for us to collect concerns from industry members, and get those concerns to appropriate entities at the Federal level.

As we have been doing since the declaration of a national emergency using our existing Saving Seafood member email lists, we will send out updates as we receive them from the White House, Congress, the Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury, FEMA, DHS and other agencies. And we will add, modify, or update the information on this page.

If you would like to receive these updates by email, you may add you email address via the form at the top of the portal page.

We have heard from White House, Administration, Congressional offices and others who have asked that we keep them informed about any questions or concerns from the industry. This page will collect information received from members of the fishing industry, so we can provide that data to staff at relevant agencies and offices.

We will ensure that information sent out and posted here is reviewed and edited daily so that it is applicable to all types of businesses involved in seafood harvesting and processing in all regions of the U.S.

We will also include information that is relevant on a more local level, as we certainly are aware that the seafood industry and fisheries across the country are diverse. We want to work with appropriate state and local agencies to ensure that we have their updates as well.

Our friends at Massport — the Massachusetts Port Authority — and the New Bedford Port Authority were the first to agree to be partners in the effort, but since then numerous local agencies, companies and organizations have joined the effort. If your locale is not yet listed in the state area of the page, please reach out to your local/state agency that you feel would be our best partner in this effort and [1] introduce us or re-aquatint them with us, and [2] ask them if they’d partner with us (and you) on this project, and [3] let us know who you think we should work with in your region.

If your company or organization or agency is willing to be a partner in this effort, please contact derek@stoveboat.com to let us know and send a logo.

We would like to thank Pamela Lafreniere and Ed Anthes-Washburn at the Port of New Bedford, and Gordon Carr at Massport for helping us get this off the ground.

Reminder: Historic Shipwreck Avoidance on Stellwagen Bank

April 9, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries, in conjunction with NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, requests that vessels avoid shipwreck sites on southern Stellwagen Bank within the Sanctuary by keeping gear 400 feet away from each of the site locations listed below.

We recognize that fishermen want to avoid shipwrecks to ensure the safety of the crew and because of the risks of damaging their gear when the gear gets hung up on a wreck or other objects on the ocean floor.  Hanging up on a wreck can also cause serious damage to shipwrecks that have historical significance.

For more information read the permit holder bulletin posted on our website.

Read the full release here

Commercial fishing industry in free fall as restaurants close, consumers hunker down and vessels tie up

April 8, 2020 — Kenny Melanson has managed not to furlough or lay off employees at his seafood company, but all nonessential workers have been sent home. Now it’s core staff, hair-netted and suited up, spreading fat sea scallops across a mechanized belt and running them through two brine tanks and two washes and then a quick-freeze. There’s a wall of pallets, hundreds of boxes labeled “fresh seafood,” all of it enveloped in sheets of plastic wrap. Waiting for what’s next.

He runs Northern Wind in New Bedford, Mass., contracting with 74 fishing vessels and employing 125 people. In business 33 years, the company sells about 15 million pounds of scallops and about 6 million pounds of ahi tuna a year.

In the absence of sales, Melanson is running 150,000 pounds of sea scallops a day through individual tunnel freezers, banking them for when the pandemic is over. But cash flow is getting tight. And he worries that when regular life resumes, a glut of scallops will mean tanking prices.

“We could obviously tell our suppliers we would prefer if you don’t fish for the next 30 days,” Melanson said. “But I’m very concerned and nervous about the 28- and 29-year employees and the crews we’ve built up to produce these quantities. They all live paycheck to paycheck.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Facebook page helps Massachusetts captains sell lobsters direct

April 8, 2020 — A small group of lobster harvesters in the US state of Massachusetts are defying the horrible market conditions created by the coronavirus pandemic by selling direct to consumers at the dock, and using Facebook to promote their efforts.

Two vessels with captains from the town of Mattapoisett — the Miss Molly and the Mary Anne — kicked off the effort on Sunday with a test run by offering their fresh catch, first-come/first-serve, at Union Wharf, in the town of Fairhaven, for $6.00 per pound. All 600 lbs caught by the two vessels were sold out in 90 minutes.

The captains bought a commercial-grade scale and accepted cash and Venmo payments.

The price might’ve been a little below what lobsters were selling for before COVID-19 hit the US, but it was much higher than the $4.35/lb to $4.50/lb paid recently by processors, many of whom have now stopped buying altogether, Troy Durr, a Mattapoisett-based real estate agent and one of the direct-to-consumer event’s organizers, told Undercurrent News.

He said he and his uncle, Doug Durr, a crew member on the Miss Molly, were pushed into action after the Miss Molly’s captain, Dave Magee, was told earlier by a commercial buyer that it could only take 250 of the 500 pounds of lobster it brought in more than a week earlier. (Mike Asci is the captain of the Mary Anne.)

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Local fishermen use social media to sell directly to consumers

April 7, 2020 — With their normal markets shrinking amid the coronavirus outbreak, SouthCoast fishermen are coming up with creative ways to sell their catch directly to consumers.

Troy Durr created the Facebook group “SouthCoast Direct Source Seafood” on March 28, with the goal of connecting local boat captains with local residents who are willing to buy seafood directly from the source, according to a post on the page.

“A lot of the fish houses are not buying from the boats, which left them in a situation to stop working or figure out their own way to sell,” Durr said.

The new way to sell is directly off their boats.

Daniel McKiernan, acting director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said they have expedited seafood dealer permitting by waving the $65 fee.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fisheries hopeful as restaurants adapt to COVID-19 crisis

April 7, 2020 — Commercial fishermen depend on restaurants to survive.

Keith Decker, President of Blue Harvest Fisheries in New Bedford, says demand for seafood is down by 65-percent, and much of that is because many restaurants closed down at the beginning of the crisis.

Decker says blue and yellow fin tuna have been hit hard. When their last tuna vessel came in right after the coronavirus shock, “there were no buyers for the fish. That market dried up to zero.” The company inevitably had to sell off the fish for a fraction of its price or freeze it.

And while it’s unlikely high end sushi restaurants will be opening up anytime soon, some fishermen are hopeful. Wayne Reichle, owner of a scallop fishery in New Bedford, says there could be an uptick in demand for less expensive seafood.

“Restaurants are starting to re-open after they figured out they could do customer pick-up or home delivery,” Reichle says. “It’s taken two or three weeks but people sort of figured out how to continue supplying meals and keeping fresh seafood in the supply chain.”

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Cape scientists forge ahead with right whale research

April 7, 2020 — Over the past week, New England Aquarium scientist Philip Hamilton, manager of the right whale identification catalog at the aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, has received photos of about 30 right whales taken by people walking the shoreline around Race Point and off Nahant.

Unfortunately, researchers hoping to see them from the air and sea during what they consider the epicenter of right whale migration into Cape Cod Bay essentially have been grounded by weather and coronavirus.

“We lost 22 days there,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, a senior scientist and director of the Right Whale Ecology Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.

COVID-19 fears forced the New England Aquarium to close March 13. Admission fees account for 80% of their $3.5 million in annual operating expenses, and the aquarium announced layoffs and furloughs last week to cut costs.

The Center for Coastal Studies did not lay off anyone, spokesperson Cathrine Macort said, but its offices and lab are closed. The center is watching expenses and applying for federal payroll aid.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Massachusetts lawmakers call on government to help New England fisheries during COVID-19 crisis

April 6, 2020 — Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to give New England fisheries a needed boost as they battle through the COVID-19 outbreak.

U.S. senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with U.S. representatives William Keating and Seth Moulton, on 2 April sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking him to use part of the USD 9.5 billion (EUR 8.8 billion) earmarked for agricultural producers – from the USD 2.2 trillion (EUR 2.0 trillion) CARES Act Congress passed in late March – to help seafood processors and other companies.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Endangered right whales spotted in Cape Cod Bay during spring feeding season

April 6, 2020 — An increasing number of endangered North Atlantic right whales have been spotted feeding off of Massachusetts’ coast in recent weeks, a sign that spring is finally here, researchers at the New England Aquarium said.

The right whales live in shallow waters off the southeastern United States during late fall and winter, the aquarium said. After pregnant whales give birth to their calves while living with juvenile and male whales in the region during those months, the whales migrate to Cape Cod Bay during the spring to feed before heading further north.

“In a time when so much is changing around us, I find the appearance of right whales feeding in these waters as they have for hundreds, if not thousands, of years reassuring. Some ancient behaviors remain,” said Philip Hamilton, a research scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the aquarium.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe