Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod Local Seafood provides fish fresh from the boat

June 15, 2020 — Kevin Conway started Cape Cod Local Seafood with a mission to bridge a gap between fishermen and consumers.

Conway says it provides consumers with the opportunity to get a hold of “the freshest seafood at the best prices.”

Facebook users may connect with Cape Cod Local Seafood by subscribing to their page and signing up to purchase seafood fresh off the boat from various docks across the Cape.

Conway’s preorder system is designed to avoid a “free for all on the dock” that would make social distancing difficult to maintain. Signing up beforehand also gives consumers the added benefit of not having to “stand in line for a couple of hours” when paying for their orders.

The program is open to all people who want fresh seafood below market price. Conway says that “residents, tourists, people from off-Cape, anyone can participate.” The seafood available to consumers includes haddock, striped bass, bluefish, fluke, lobsters, tuna, blue tuna, yellow fin, and various types of shellfish.

Conway decided to launch Cape Cod Local Seafood’s page while using “other virtual marketplaces” on Facebook to buy some of his own fishing gear. His thinking was “this is pretty cool, I want to see if I could do this with seafood.”

Read the full story at Wicked Local

SEN. ED MARKEY: Fighting for fishermen during COVID-19

June 15, 2020 — Our historic and robust fishing industry is among the hardest-hit sectors of our state’s economy, in the fourth month of this pandemic. The “Sacred Cod” that has hung in the Massachusetts statehouse since the 1700s has seen the fishing industry go through many crises, but this one has been unique.

Restaurants have shuttered and large export markets have been disrupted. Fishermen have lost access to critical points of sale and sources of income. With a decreased demand for fresh seafood, many boats sit idle in port. Meanwhile, boat payments are due and families need to be fed.

In the U.S. Senate, I have been fighting on a bipartisan basis alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Alaska senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to secure dedicated economic assistance for the fishing and seafood industries in COVID-19 economic relief packages. Thankfully, this bi-coastal effort got results. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted into law on March 27, included $300 million in assistance for fishery participants and $9.5 billion for affected agricultural producers.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

BOEM report points to strict conditions for Atlantic offshore wind projects

June 12, 2020 — A new environmental assessment of offshore wind power projects issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could lead to stricter conditions for developers seeking to build new facilities off the Northeast coast.

BOEM’s new supplement to the draft environmental assessment for the Vineyard Wind facility, planned off the coast of Massachusetts, found the project posed potentially “major” adverse impacts to sea life and other industries, particularly commercial fishing.

The document is an update to the draft Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard that BOEM issued in 2018. Last year, the agency announced it would extend the permitting process for the 800 MW facility so it could assess the impacts not just of that wind farm, but others planned by Northeastern states to meet clean energy targets.

The report released Tuesday assesses an array of construction scenarios for Vineyard and 22 gigawatts of other facilities planned in New England waters. It considers the creation of a transit lane for fishing and other sea traffic, as well as changes to the project’s turbine layout and the siting of a substation to connect the project to the onshore power grid.

Read the full story at Politico

Federal fishing aid may not arrive until late July, August

June 11, 2020 — Eligible Massachusetts commercial fishermen and other seafood businesses could begin receiving funds in late July or early August from the $28 million in federal fishery assistance designated for the Massachusetts seafood industry, according to the state’s top fishery regulator.

But Dan McKiernan, the newly appointed director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, also joined the growing chorus of public officials and seafood stakeholders who say the funds won’t come close to covering the more than $500 million in losses projected for the state’s four major seafood components: commercial fishing, seafood processing, for-hire charter services and aquaculture.

“That’s the unfortunate aspect,” McKiernan said in an interview with the Gloucester Daily Times. “The losses are so great that they can’t be covered by the $28 million. Commercial fishing lost $28 million in March and April alone. That’s just fishing.”

McKiernan said four separate groups began working this week to develop spending plans for each of the four industry components, along with eligibility requirements and the structure of payment methods and systems.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Feds release Vineyard Wind environmental assessment

June 10, 2020 — Federal regulators on Tuesday released a detailed, 420-page environmental assessment of the proposed Vineyard Wind project that includes predictions about the future of wind energy along the East Coast and suggests the impact on commercial fishing of six possible wind farm configurations would be roughly the same.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management put Vineyard Wind on hold last year to take a look at the project through the broader lens of what’s going on in offshore wind overall along the East Coast.  The resulting assessment, called a supplementl to the company’s draft environmental impact statement, forecasts 22 gigawatts of offshore wind development along the East Coast over the next 10 years, the equivalent of about 2 percent of current electricity production. The analysis estimates as many as 2,000 wind turbines will be installed over the 10-year period.

Vineyard Wind would be located off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and consist of between 57 and 100 turbines producing 800 megawatts of power. The project is jointly owned by Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

First major U.S. offshore wind farm reaches permitting milestone

June 10, 2020 — The first major U.S. offshore wind farm, planned for the Massachusetts coast, reached a key permitting milestone on Tuesday with the release of a long-awaited federal environmental study that considers the project’s impacts on fisheries and navigation.

Publication of the document marks a step forward for the Vineyard Wind project, which has experienced delays over concerns that its wind turbines will hurt commercial fishing. The supplemental review by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, announced last year, also considered the impacts of many such projects due to the growing number of offshore wind farms planned for the East Coast.

The Trump administration has sought to fire up development of the nascent offshore wind industry as part of its policy to boost domestic energy production.

The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind is expected to generate enough power for more than 400,000 homes in Massachusetts. The lease area is located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

Read the full story at Reuters

Environmental groups fight rollback of marine monument protections

June 10, 2020 — Environmentalists are vowing they will sue to reinstate fishery closures to a marine national monument 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod that President Donald Trump removed by executive order last Friday at a meeting held in Maine.

 

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was created by President Barack Obama in 2016 using the Antiquities Act of 1906, a process President George W. Bush used to create a national marine monument off Hawaii in 2006, as well as 15 presidents dating back to Theodore Roosevelt. The Antiquities Act was used, proponents said, because it can be put in place more quickly than fisheries regulations that can take years, if not decades, to be implemented. Also, the protections are in theory permanent, whereas other fisheries regulations are often amended.

“We’re taking them to court,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation. “It’s a matter of putting the paperwork together and getting the strongest case possible.”

“It’s very clear that the president can establish these areas, but he has no authority to modify or remove them,” said Gib Brogan, fisheries campaign manager at Oceana.

Similar cases are being fought around two other national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, both in southern Utah. Trump stripped both monuments of federal protections by dramatically reducing them in size in December 2017 to allow for mineral extraction, mining, and off-road use.

Brad Sewell, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s oceans division, said his organization also intends to challenge the Northeast Canyons rollback in court.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Interior: Offshore wind to have major ‘adverse’ effects

June 10, 2020 — Offshore wind farms could have a major “adverse” impact on commercial fisheries, according to a long-awaited analysis from the Interior Department released yesterday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s draft supplemental environmental review for Vineyard Wind — the first anticipated large-scale wind project in the United States — arrives nearly a year after a final decision on the project was expected.

BOEM delayed a final environmental analysis at the eleventh hour last summer and announced the launch of the supplemental review, arguing that the rapid expansion of offshore wind proposals and coastal state wind procurement policies necessitated a broader examination of wind’s foreseeable impacts (E&E News PM, Aug. 9, 2019).

The supplemental study, which is to be published in the Federal Register at an unspecified time, looks beyond Vineyard Wind — which is planned off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. — and outlines a host of effects that the burgeoning offshore wind sector in the Northeast could have on other industries, the environment and marine life.

It notes, for example, major cumulative impacts to commercial and recreational fishing, scientific research, and in some cases environmental justice across a suite of development scenarios. Additionally, moderate cumulative impacts are expected to marine mammals and minor cumulative impacts to air quality.

Read the full story at E&E News

NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary seeks advisory council applicants

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

NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is seeking applicants for six primary and five alternate seats on its advisory council. The council ensures public participation in sanctuary management and provides advice to the sanctuary superintendent.

The sanctuary is accepting applications for the following seats: at large (two primary and one alternate), business industry (one primary and one alternate), conservation (one primary and one alternate), education (one alternate), marine transportation (alternate), mobile gear commercial fishing (primary), and research (one primary).

The application period opened on June 1. Completed applications are due by June 30, 2020. Applications received or postmarked after June 30 will not be considered. To receive an application or for further information, please contact Elizabeth Stokes at 781-546-6004 or by mail at 175 Edward Foster Road, Scituate, MA 02066. Applications can also be downloaded from the Sanctuary’s website.

Applicants accepted as members should expect to serve a three-year term. The advisory council consists of 36 primary and alternate members representing a variety of public interest groups. It also includes seven seats representing other federal and state government agencies.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary’s Advisory Council actively recruits for new members and alternates when positions are available. Check their website frequently for updates on how you can help manage New England’s only national marine sanctuary.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: NB Fishing Heritage Center highlights Portuguese immigration and culture

June 9, 2020 — This June, New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will present a series of digital programs related to Portuguese immigration and culture on New Bedford’s working waterfront. These programs are part of a series based on the Center’s latest exhibit, We Came to Fish, We Came to Work: Stories of Immigration.

The Port of New Bedford has long drawn immigrants from around the world. Despite differences in language and culture, a highly-valued fishing industry developed, drawing on the strengths of immigrants from all over the world including Norway, Cape Verde, Guatemala, Nova Scotia, Vietnam, and Portugal. “We Came to Fish, We Came to Work: Stories of Immigration” explores stories of immigration and cultural heritage on New Bedford’s working waterfront. Over the next 8 months, the center will look at cultural heritage through a variety of programs including film screenings, cooking and craft demos, performances and talks, which will be offered virtually until the center re-opens to the public.

Thursday, June 11 at 7 p.m. ”Portuguese Immigration and the Fishing Experience: A Virtual Illustrated Talk,” featuring sociologist Gloria deSa, photojournalist Peter Pereira, and photographer Ron Fortier will be presented. Learn about fishing in Portugal as well as about Portuguese immigration and the Portuguese community in New Bedford today. This event will be live streamed to the center’s Facebook page,facebook.com/NBFishingHeritageCenter.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times