Saving Seafood

NOAA: Gulf of Maine skate makes comeback

January 6, 2020 — After nine years in a rebuilding plan with strict management, including a prohibition on landings, Gulf of Maine smooth skate was declared rebuilt in 2018.

The declaration was included in “Status of U.S. Fisheries Annual Report to Congress,” prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and submitted to lawmakers this fall.

The report details the status of 479 federally managed stocks or stock complexes in the U.S. in an effort to identify which stocks are subject to overfishing, are overfished, or are rebuilt to sustainable levels.

Building on a trend of the past few years, the report noted that the vast majority of U.S. fish stocks were at sustainable population levels in 2018, and the number of U.S. fish stocks subject to overfishing remains at a near all-time low.

According to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, the Northeast skate complex fishery includes seven skate species and operates from Maine to North Carolina. The bottom-dwelling, kite-shaped skate is taken with long lines and gill nets, both as a targeted fishery and as by catch.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

NOAA Fisheries Announces Proposed Rule to Implement the Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment

January 3, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries published a proposed rule to designate coral protection areas on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. This action would:

  • Establish a deep-sea coral protection area in deep waters on the continental slope and rise in New England waters. It would complement the Frank R. Lautenberg Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area established by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in Amendment 16 to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. The area would run along the outer continental shelf in waters no shallower than 600 m and extend to the outer limit of U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone boundary to the east and north, and south to the Frank R. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area.
  • Restrict the use of all bottom-tending commercial fishing gear within the designated deep-sea coral area. The prohibition on these gears would protect deep-sea corals from interaction with and damage from bottom-tending fishing gear. Red crab pot gear would be exempt from the prohibition.
  • Designate a coral protection area in an area southwest of Mount Desert Rock off the eastern Maine. Vessels would be prohibited from fishing with bottom-tending mobile gear in this area.
  • Designate a coral protection area in an area on the Outer Schoodic Ridge, southeast of Mt. Desert Island. Vessels would be prohibited from fishing with bottom-tending mobile gear in this area.
  • Establish provisions for vessels transiting through the coral protection areas.
  • Designate the area around Jordan Basin in the Gulf of Maine as a dedicated habitat research area.
  • Expand framework adjustment provisions in the FMP for future modifications to the deep-sea coral protection measures.

Read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register. We will be accepting public comment on this proposed rule through February 18, 2020.  You may submit comments via the online portal or submit written comments to NMFS, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope “Comments on Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.”

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: New scalloper vessel, with unique shape, joins fleet in New Bedford

January 2, 2020 — A unique new fishing boat joins the fleet in New Bedford.

The scalloper Viking Power is now docked at Fish Island.

The different shape of the orange boat is what most people probably notice first.

“It’s designed to cut through the water better, to be more fuel efficient,” says the boat’s captain, Marty Harris.

Harris brought the Viking Power up from Alabama where it was built.

“Seemed like it didn’t slow down as much going into the weather and it seemed like it didn’t roll as much going into the weather,” Harris told NBC 10.

The weather it will likely face is 15 to 20 foot seas as scallop boats fish about 150 miles off shore.

“You’d probably be scared for your life,” Harris says of those kinds of conditions.

To him, though, “Just a day at work.”

Read the full story at NBC 10

MASSACHUSETTS: 2020 Exhibits and Programs at New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center

January 2, 2020 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

In 2020, New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will launch “We Came to Fish, We Came to Work,” a series of exhibits and programs exploring the rich cultural heritage of New Bedford’s fishing industry. 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 the Azores, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Guatemala, Newfoundland, Norway, Nova Scotia, and Portugal. Cultural traditions of these various immigrant groups including needlework, ceramics, holiday practices, music, and recipes are still practiced today. Through two temporary exhibits, cooking and craft demonstrations, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions, the Center will consider why people chose to leave their homeland, what fishing was like in the old country, what brings people to New Bedford, and in what ways their cultural heritage has endured.

These exhibits and programs are funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Commonwealth Initiative, and Dartmouth and New Bedford Cultural Council grants.

The first related programs will be “Stories of Immigration Scanning Days” on January 11th and February 8th from 10:00am- 12:00pm. Community members are encouraged to bring in any photographs, documents, or objects related to their own stories of immigration or enduring cultural heritage traditions.These items will be scanned and documented by Fishing Heritage Center staff and volunteers. Such items help the Center tell a more complete story of immigration and cultural heritage in New Bedford’s working waterfront.

Music is an integral part of a community’s cultural heritage, and the Fishing Heritage Center will host several concerts throughout the year that reflect these traditions. On Saturday, February 8th at 7:00pm, Golden Lane, a traditional Irish dance music group, will perform at the Fishing Heritage Center. Tickets are $10/ members, $12/ general public. On Wednesday, March 11th at 7:00pm, Matthew Byrne, a traditional singer, storyteller, and guitarist from Newfoundland, will perform at the Center. Tickets are $12/ members, $15/ general public. Tickets for both concerts are available at Brown Paper Ticket links accessible through the Center’s website calendar, by calling the Center at 508-993-8894, or at the Center’s gift shop.

For more information on these upcoming exhibits or programs, email programs@fishingheritagecenter.org.

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen Training Pilot Program Coming to Cape Cod in 2020

December 27, 2019 — The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is working with local partners and fishermen to conduct a pilot training program that will cover basic training such as navigation, boating safety, personal survival, and today’s fisheries.

The course will run in two sessions from late January to early February and from late February to early March in the coming year.

Students will learn about basic maritime terminology, crew responsibilities on board different types of fishing vessels, basic knot tying, offshore survival, first aid, Cape Cod fisheries, and the types of gears used in the region.

Upon successful completion of the course, students and interested captains will be given an opportunity to attend a meet-and-greet event at the Fishermen’s Alliance office to discuss potential hiring opportunities.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: US auction owners seek to spoil Blue Harvest’s deal for Rafael groundfish vessels

December 26, 2019 — Carlos Rafael’s remaining fleet of as many as 35 groundfish vessels and skiffs in the US port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, may not be under Blue Harvest Fisheries’ Christmas tree after all.

Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), a nearly 26-year-old seafood auction house, also in New Bedford,  informed the members of New England fishing sector 7 on Friday that they are taking advantage of the group’s right of first refusal (ROFR) rules to seek acquisition of the vessels and their related permits, Undercurrent News has learned from its sources.

Additionally, the Canastras have filed another challenge to Rafaels’ earlier sale of six scallop boats and their related permits to Quinn Fisheries, a longtime New Bedford-based scalloping company, this time in federal court.

Undercurrent reported late last month how documents showed Blue Harvest, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, had signed a purchase agreement to buy the Rafael fleet and all of their associated permits for nearly $25 million. The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake and pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

US auction owners seek to spoil Blue Harvest’s deal for Rafael groundfish vessels

December 23, 2019 — Carlos Rafael’s remaining fleet of as many as 35 groundfish vessels and skiffs in the US port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, may not be under Blue Harvest Fisheries’ Christmas tree after all.

Richard and Raymond Canastra, the founders and owners of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE), a nearly 26-year-old seafood auction house in New Bedford, Massachusetts, informed the members of New England fishing sector 7 on Friday that they are taking advantage of the group’s right of first refusal (ROFR) rules to seek acquisition of the vessels and their related permits, Undercurrent News has learned from its sources.

Additionally, the Canastras have filed another challenge to Rafaels’ earlier sale of six scallop boats and their related permits to Quinn Fisheries, a longtime New Bedford-based scalloping company, this time in federal court.

Undercurrent reported late last month how documents showed Blue Harvest, a US scallop and groundfish supplier backed by New York City-based private equity Bregal Partners, had signed a purchase agreement to buy the Rafael fleet and all of their associated permits for nearly $25 million. The deal includes millions of pounds of quota for at least eight types of fish in the northeast multispecies fishery, including cod, haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, yellowtail flounder, redfish, white hake and pollock.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

New study looks at impact of ocean acidification on sea scallops

December 23, 2019 — Shannon Meseck, a research chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stood in a T-shirt, jeans and fishing boots as winter sunlight streamed in through the greenhouse windows of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy aquaculture lab. A couple of steps beyond the windows, the Cape Cod Canal raced by, a flat gray sheet of swirls and eddies.

Eight weeks of vital research on ocean acidification were drawing to a close, and Meseck was relieved and pleased. She’d already completed similar research on oysters and surf clams, but analyzing Atlantic sea scallops, the region’s preeminent fishery, was a tougher task.

The seawater at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s lab in Milford, Connecticut, was too warm for scallops, and filters on the water pumped into the lab stripped out the plankton and algae the scallops feed on. Milford Laboratory director Gary Wikfors, who had done some consulting with the academy when it set up its aquaculture lab years earlier, contacted the academy about a partnership. The research is being funded by a three-year NOAA grant of $172,000 annually.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Viking Power: New Bedford scallop boat launches in Alabama with a ‘positive energy bow’

December 23, 2019 — Lars Vinjerud II can’t stop growing his fisheries and seafood business. “I’m lucky,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of good people working for me.”

Vinjerud’s company Fleet Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., has 14 boats in the scallop, lobster and longline fisheries, and branches in the seafood marketing, a machine shop and more boats scheduled for construction. “Ya just keep rolling,” he says.
Vinjerud’s newest contribution to the New Bedford waterfront is the Viking Power, a vessel that is definitely outside the box. The Viking Power is 106 feet long, has a beam of 30 feet and draws around 14 feet, and catches the eye immediately because of its unique bow shape, which slants down forward into the water.

“I’ve been drawing this boat for 20 years,” says Vinjerud. “I took the design to Williams Fabrication [in Bayou La Batre, Ala.]and we took it to a company called C. Fly Marine. And they modeled it going 6 or 8 knots in 15-foot seas.” According to Vinjerud, the bow cuts through waves and reduces the motion of the vessel, giving the crew a safer more comfortable work platform.

“I call it the positive energy bow,” says Vinjerud. “Like how in judo you use the other person’s energy in your favor.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Erich Stephens leaving Vineyard Wind

December 20, 2019 — Erich Stephens, the public face of Vineyard Wind before it won an offshore wind contract in 2018, is leaving the company.

Vineyard Wind announced Thursday that Stephens, chief development officer and a founding principal of the company, would be departing.

Stephens told The Standard-Times it seemed like the right time to make a transition while the company waits for federal permitting of Vineyard Wind 1, to be located off Martha’s Vineyard, and before things ramp up for its second project in Connecticut.

“It’s really just a personal decision about the positions I want to have in my career,” he said.

Vineyard Wind has grown out of the entrepreneurial phase of its history and become a more mature development company, he said. Stephens said it’s not uncommon for the success of a young company to mean that, “exactly because of its success, it turns into something different in terms of your day-to-day work and responsibility.”

The company has tapped Rachel Pachter, vice president of permitting affairs, to replace him as chief development officer.

Stephens said he is excited about Pachter’s promotion because it allows her to advance her career and maintains continuity for Vineyard Wind.

Stephens has held senior leadership positions in the company, formerly called OffshoreMW, since 2009. Following last year’s selection of Vineyard Wind to build Massachusetts’ first offshore wind farm, he was responsible for pre-construction development.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times