Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Young humpback whale sighted in Boston shipping lanes

August 7, 2019 — A young humpback whale has been reported swimming for the past three days in the shipping channel in Boston Harbor, according to a statement issued Tuesday by New England Aquarium.

The 30- to 33-foot whale was born in 2018 to the well-known humpback Whirlygig and would likely have been weaned by its mother last fall, the statement says. It has probably been on its own since early this year. The young whale has been seen feeding alongside one of the dredge barges that is deepening the channel.

“It actually isn’t a calf, but rather a yearling, meaning it was born last year and no longer with a mom,” humpback expert Jooke Robbins, with the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, said. “We just haven’t named it yet and so we are still referring to it as Whirlygig 18 calf. It really isn’t unusual for young whales to wander into nearshore habitats.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

CCS Team Frees Minke Whale from Entanglement, Shark

August 7, 2019 — The Center for Coastal Studies’ Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team freed an entangled minke whale last Thursday off Rockport and saved it from a great white shark.

The 18-foot whale was anchored by gear with rope through its mouth and around its tail.

The whale had a deep cut from the rope and minor bleeding had attracted a great white.

A video showing the extent of the entanglement can be viewed below.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Looking at the lobster double-squeeze

August 7, 2019 — The forklifts didn’t stop for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton on Tuesday afternoon when the congressman visited a Gloucester lobster wholesaler to talk about the challenges facing the Massachusetts lobster industry. But that didn’t seem to deter the congressman.

As Moulton toured the tank room and docks at the Cape Ann Lobstermen co-op in East Gloucester with co-owner Tessa Browne, the blur of activity continued, the constant beep-beep of forklifts serving as the soundtrack to the discussion on the double-squeeze facing the industry — expanded Chinese and European tariffs internationally and new protections for the North Atlantic right whales here at home.

Moulton asked Browne, who owns and operates the business with her husband Ryan, how much drag the tariffs have created for the lobster dealer. She quickly offered him a palpable example. Moving to the larger of the two lobster tanks, she explained how the bugs were stored by size.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

You Asked, We Answered: How Will Vineyard Wind’s Compensation Plan To Fishermen Actually Work?

August 7, 2019 — Manuela Barrett, a listener, wants to know more about how Vineyard Wind’s compensation plan to Rhode Island and Massachusetts fisherman is actually going to work?

First off, the compensation package assumes that the presence of wind farms will have an economic impact to commercial fishermen. That’s the basis of this entire compensation plan offered to both Rhode Island and Massachusetts fishermen. Both plans include an annual direct payout to fishermen for potential lost income because of the wind farms and also a supplemental trust fund dedicated to paying fishermen for unforeseen situations including damaged gear.

Let’s say, for example, a fisherman gets his net destroyed in the wind farm’s transmission cables. Vineyard Wind will use the money from the trust fund in order to pay for that damage.

The Rhode Island compensation plan for commercial fishermen has been finalized. That’s a $16.7 million plan. But the Massachusetts plan is still currently being reviewed by state regulators. Right now Vineyard Wind has proposed a $10 million compensation plan.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

US fishing industry’s wind worries divide Trump camp, slow $2.8bn project

August 6, 2019 — The US Department of the Interior (DOI) had seemed poised to move forward with the environmental impact assessment (EIS) needed for Vineyard Wind to begin building the US’s first offshore wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean as soon as this year.

The New Bedford, Massachusetts-based company, a joint venture between Avangrid, a division of the Spanish wind giant Iberdrola, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Denmark-based investment firm with €6.8 billion ($7.6bn) under management, wants to erect more than 80 wind turbines that are 600-to-700-foot-tall – at least twice the height of the Statue of Liberty — in an 118 square mile stretch of the ocean starting some 15 miles from the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. It would contribute to America’s goal of reducing its dependence on fossil fuels by providing at least 400,000 New England homes and businesses with a combined 800 megawatts of power, while reducing carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tons per year.

One problem: Citing concerns expressed by New England’s commercial fishing industry, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is part of the US Department of Commerce — is not yet willing to give its blessing on the $2.8bn project’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS).

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Shark detection technology gets quiet rollout on Outer Cape

August 5, 2019 — With little fanfare, shark detection technology on Cape Cod took a small step forward last month off Newcomb Hollow Beach, the site of last year’s fatal shark attack on body boarder Arthur Medici.

Cape Cod and regional public safety officials have been hoping for years to employ a kind of souped-up version of what they already have, an acoustic receiver attached to a buoy that can not only detect signals from tagged great white sharks but relay an instantaneous alert to lifeguards and beach administrators.

One such device was deployed off Newcomb Hollow, state shark researcher Gregory Skomal said, and two more to be placed at Head of the Meadow Beach in Truro and at Nauset Beach in Orleans.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

More than 150 great white shark sightings logged off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, since June

August 5, 2019 — There have been more than 150 great white shark sightings since June off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a popular East Coast vacation spot, according to scientists.

This week alone, more than 20 great white shark sightings logged off the Cape, prompting three days of beach closures in a row beginning Tuesday.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s sharktivity app indicates that there have been more that 161 shark sightings off the coast of Massachusetts since June 1. The same shark can be spotted multiple times, scientists note.

Read the full story at NBC News

Rhode Island fishermen critical of wind farm plan

August 5, 2019 — The nation’s first major offshore wind farm won a key approval from Rhode Island regulators in February, but only after stirring acrimony within the state’s fishing industry.

Now, amid an atmosphere of suspicion created by the 84-turbine Vineyard Wind project, the next offshore wind proposal in line is being considered for a key approval by the state Coastal Resources Management Council. And there are concerns that the project, the South Fork Wind Farm, will lead to more difficulties for commercial fishermen who ply their trade in the waters between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard.

Just like with Vineyard Wind, the potential complications arise from the orientation and spacing of the project’s turbines.

Developers Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy say that they’ve taken into account the concerns of fishermen by configuring the wind farm’s up to 15 turbines from east to west with rows that are 1 nautical mile (about 1.2 miles) apart. The spacing from north to south, however, would be smaller, with either 0.8 or 1 mile between turbines.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Federal agencies, Vineyard Wind at odds over wind farm setup

August 2, 2019 — All three federal agencies that weighed in on Vineyard Wind’s construction and operations plan have coalesced around the east-to-west orientation of the 84 wind turbines.

The three agencies are supporting a distance of at least 1 mile between the turbines, which is a marked contrast to the company’s diagonal layout plan with less space between, according to the Times review of 349 public comments on the draft environmental impact statement.

National Marine Fisheries Service Regional Administrator Michael Pentony faults the draft statement with failing to fully analyze current data showing “clear patterns of east-west orientation of fishing activity throughout much of the lease area.”

While an east-to-west turbine layout “would not fully eliminate impacts to fishing operations, available information suggests impacts would be minimized for some fishing vessels, allowing them to continue to fish the area and thus reducing the negative economic impacts they incur,” Pentony said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Massachusetts governor signs bill, makes it legal to process lobster in state

August 2, 2019 — It is now legal to process raw, shell-on lobster parts in Massachusetts, the US’s second largest state for landings.

Charlie Baker, the state’s governor, on Wednesday signed the state’s $43.3 billion fiscal 2020 budget bill, which included a provision to end the decades-old prohibition, the Gloucester Daily Times reports.

Under the new measure, which went immediately into effect, wholesale seafood dealers licensed by the state’s Department of Public Health are permitted to process raw lobsters and import raw, shell-on lobster parts and tails. The change also allows for the retail sale of already-frozen raw, in-shell tails, the newspaper explains.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News