Saving Seafood

Atlantic Capes, Northern Wind, Don’s Gulf lead launch of new Mexican bay scallop FIP

December 6, 2019 — Three companies involved in the Mexican bay scallop fishery have launched a collaborative effort to create a fishery improvement project (FIP) in the hopes of securing Marine Stewardship Council certification of the fishery.

Atlantic Capes Fisheries, of Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.A., Northern Wind of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Don’s Gulf Select of Louisiana have announced a joint FIP to bring the fishery into line with international standards and move toward MSC certification.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US places further limitations on midwater trawlers catch of herring in New England

December 5, 2019 — As New England lobster harvesters struggle to keep up with the high cost of bait, due in large part to the short supply of Atlantic herring, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued further restrictions to protect the forage fish’s dwindling stocks.

As part of an amendment developed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) and approved Nov. 19 by NMFS, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, midwater trawling has been prohibited within 12 nautical miles of the coastline that runs from the US state of Maine to Rhode Island 20 miles off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, reports The Vineyard Gazette, a Massachusetts newspaper.

The change will give the herring a “buffer zone” to migrate without being pressured by commercial vessels but also allowing them to be eaten by other fish, aiding the health of the overall ecosystem, Janice Plante, the NEFMC’s public affairs officer, is quoted as saying.

Local fishermen, boards of selectmen, state legislators and environmental groups have been pushing for stronger management of the midwater trawl herring fishery for more than 20 years, according to the newspaper.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Herring Fishing To Be Limited Off New England For Months

December 4, 2019 — The inshore waters of the Gulf of Maine from Cape Cod to the Canadian border have been closed to herring fishing through the end of the year to prevent overharvesting.

Federal regulators cut this year’s catch limit for Atlantic herring based on last year’s stock assessment. Kirby Rootes-Murdy, with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, says regulations mandate that the fishery must be closed when 92% of the area catch limit has been harvested.

“There is a by-catch allowance, which is the non-directed fishery,” says Rootes-Murdy. “Two thousand pounds can be taken incidentally, but the directed fishery is closed.”

Read the full story at Maine Public

‘We caught him using his own words’ NOAA: Rafael’s own fishery complaints opened door to his downfall

December 4, 2019 — It turns out that it was Carlos Rafael himself who opened the door to the civil and criminal investigations that resulted in his exile from the commercial fishing industry and his current residency at the FMC Devens federal prison.

In January 2015, angered by cuts to his portion of federal groundfish disaster relief, Rafael publicly railed against the process and said he planned to sell his more than 40 vessels and the approximately 60 federal fishing permits attached to them.

And with that, according to a NOAA Office of Law Enforcement presentation Tuesday to the New England Fishery Management Council on the criminal case against Rafael, five federal law enforcement agencies saw their opening.

They began widespread undercover investigations that ultimately led to Rafael’s indictment and conviction in November 2017 for fisheries reporting violations, tax evasion and bulk smuggling.

“We took this as an opportunity to reach out to Carlos Rafael as interested buyers,” said OLE Special Agent Troy Audyatis. “We caught him using his own words.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NMFS approves 20-mile herring trawl buffer zone off Cape Cod

December 3, 2019 — NMFS approved the New England Fishery Management Council’s plan for a 12-mile offshore boundary for New England herring trawlers a few days before Thanksgiving, with a bump out to 20 miles off Cape Cod.

The decision culminates a two-decade battle over midwater trawling in the Gulf of Maine, and complaints that it causes localized depletion of herring and other fish that disrupts ecosystems and fishermen’s access to cod, haddock and other species.

“The council recommended the midwater trawl restricted area to mitigate potential negative socioeconomic impacts on other user groups resulting from short duration, high volume herring removals by midwater trawl vessels,” NMFS Northeast regional administrator Michael Pentony wrote in a decision letter approving the New England council’s proposal.

“Because midwater trawl vessels are able to fish offshore, the council recommended prohibiting them from inshore waters to help ensure herring are available inshore for other users groups and predators of herring,” Pentony wrote.

The decision sets a 12-nautical mile exclusion zone for the trawlers from the Maine-Canada border south to territorial waters off Connecticut. The line jogs out 20 miles off Cape Cod.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Pivotal week for groundfish ahead

December 2, 2019 — The term groundfish has always struck us with the ring of the improbable. Fish? Living on the ground? How can this be? We picture fish with feet, running in formation along the ocean bottom like the Ohio State band. No wonder we can’t find any cod. They’ve all run away.

This will be a pivotal week for groundfishermen, and by extension we suppose, groundfish themselves. As you may have read last week in the pages of this newspaper, and online at gloucestertimes.com, the New England Fishery Management Council is expected on Wednesday to set catch quotas for the next three fishing seasons for 15 of the 20 groundfish stocks covered in the Northeast Multispecies groundfish management plan.

So, Wednesday will be an important day for the local fleet. The council is meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, from Tuesday through Thursday and we’ll get the news you can use as quickly as we’re able.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Science Café talking sea life and climate change

November 29, 2019 — The next New Bedford Science Café will examine how the changing climate affects marine life.

During “Changing Oceans, Moving Fish: How Can the Science that Informs Fisheries Management Keep Up?” science café guests will be three marine scientists, Mitchelle Agonsi, Ashleigh Novak, and Amanda Hart, graduate students and researchers from UMass-Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST).

Science Café will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at Greasy Luck Brewpub, 791 Purchase St., New Bedford. The event is open to everyone.

The public is invited to come a little early at 5:45 p.m. for the first annual holiday BioMixology Party. Celebrate science and mix-and-mingle with other Science Café goers. Cash bar, free appetizers.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Vineyard Wind supports potential onshore facilities

November 29, 2019 — Vineyard Wind will provide agencies in New Bedford and Fall River with $50,000 apiece with an eye toward developing property to support land-based operations for the offshore wind industry.

The company has announced a grant to the New Bedford Port Authority to develop publicly owned port facilities. The grant would go toward consultants for engineering studies on ways to develop the city’s waterfront.

Vineyard Wind also will provide the Fall River Redevelopment Authority with money as part of an agreement to prepare an analysis of potential uses of a parcel that lies within the city’s Water Urban Renewal Plan area and to redevelop a pier.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

‘Past point of no return’: Lone fisherman who survived shipwreck off Martha’s Vineyard recalls harrowing ordeal

November 29, 2019 — A fisherman who survived a shipwreck off Martha’s Vineyard spoke Tuesday from his hospital bed about the harrowing ordeal, one day after the United States Coast Guard suspended its search for three of his fellow crewmates.

Ernesto Garcia, 50, was aboard the Leonardo — a 56-foot scallop boat — that capsized and sank on Sunday afternoon as nine-foot swells and gusty winds battered the area. He was later rescued by a helicopter crew.

“We caught a rogue sea,” Garcia told 7’s Jonathan Hall. “A wave came across in the opposite direction in which the waves were running.”

Garcia says the boat was equipped with a device that automatically sends an emergency distress signal when it strikes the water but that three survival suits onboard sunk with the boat.

“We had no time. Half the port side of the boat was down in the water,” Garcia recalled. “We were past the point of no return.”

Crewmate Mark Cormier, 35, was with Garcia when the wave hit.

“The boat took a nice roll and flipped,” Garcia said. “He [Cormier] broke away from me and I ended up in some kind of air pocket.”

Read the full story at WHDH

Lone survivor recalls scallop boat sinking

November 29, 2019 — Three Fishermen were killed at sea this week in a tragedy that will be long remembered by their families and others in New Bedford.

A fourth man survived, and told his harrowing tale to WHDH reporter Jonathan Hall, who interviewed him in his hospital room where he was recovering from hypothermia.

“We took one over the stern,” said 50-year-old Ernesto Garcia, recounting how a “rogue sea” – a big wave moving in a different direction from the others – capsized the 56-foot F/V Leonardo during rough weather on Sunday.

Garcia described how he and his crewmate, 35-year-old Mark Cormier Jr., were plunged into the chilly water. Garcia swam up towards the light, and reached the surface where he found a floatation ring. He and Cormier held onto the ring and swam towards a life raft, but after about 20 minutes Cormier was “face down in the water” and he slipped off the ring, Garcia said.

A signal from the overturned scallop boat had alerted the Coast Guard, and Garcia was pulled out of the water by a helicopter with the help of a rescue swimmer.

The loss is compounded for the family of the boat’s skipper, 51-year-old Jerry Bretal and his 29-year-old stepson Xavier Vega. Those two were near the bridge of the vessel went it went over, according to Garcia, who believes they may still be inside the Leonardo, on the seafloor 250 feet below the surface.

Read the full story at CommonWealth Magazine