Saving Seafood

UMass: valuable independent science for region’s fisheries

May 19, 2025 — Anyone who doubts the value of having UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford should take a look at the situation developing in the scalloping industry.

Directly because of survey data collected by CMAST, government regulators are being forced to do some hard re-thinking of their plans to cut back even further on the number of fishing days scallopers are allowed. It’s not a moment too soon Unless something changes, next year the fishing limit will be down to 51 days from the current 121 days. Sebastian O’Kelly, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s new ombudsman, was in New Bedford for a visit this week and said, “It would be a substantial cutback if that goes into effect and will have a substantial impact on New Bedford, no question.”

Read the full article at South Coast Today

MASSCHUSETTS: Two Guatemalan fisheries workers arrested in early-morning operation

May 15, 2025 — Two Guatemalan men — one of whom is waiting for a kidney transplant — never made it to work at a seafood processing plant on Monday.

Marvin Yobani Chitic Us, 30, and Justo Rufino Chitic Us, 33, both undocumented immigrants without any criminal history in Massachusetts, were allegedly taken into custody by federal agents before their early-morning shift at Oceans Fleet, where they have worked for years processing scallops. Though they share a surname, they are not related, their families say.

The first sign something was wrong came shortly after 5 a.m., when Marvin’s sister — who also works at Oceans Fleet — noticed that both men were missing. She called her other brother, Gerardo, to tell him that Marvin did not show up for work.

Alarmed, Gerardo contacted Isaias, Justo’s brother. The two began searching the neighborhood and soon found the car the men used to drive to work. It was parked one block from Marvin’s usual spot on Purchase Street, near his apartment. Inside were two cups of coffee, two pastries, and the car keys in the glove compartment.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Trump reinstating commercial fishing in northeast marine monument

May 12, 2025 — President Trump is reinstating commercial fishing in a national marine monument after the practice was blocked by his Democratic predecessors.

Trump is expected to issue a proclamation Friday reinstating commercial fishing access in all 4,913 square miles of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which is located off the coast of Massachusetts.

The proclamation was first reported by the NH Journal.

The national monument was established by former President Obama to protect deep-sea canyons with unique ecosystems. The administration said at the time that these ecosystems are significantly impacted by climate change.

Read the full article at The Hill

Supreme Court declines to hear challenges to Vineyard Wind

May 7, 2025 — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases challenging the federal approval of Vineyard Wind. The court denied the petitions Monday.

Commercial fishing interests sued the federal agencies involved in approving the wind farm, which is under construction 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The lawsuits were originally filed in 2021 and 2022.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Supreme Court rejects 2 challenges to Vineyard Wind

May 6, 2025 — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied petitions from the fishing industry and a conservative think tank challenging the Vineyard Wind project, rejecting their March requests that the country’s highest court hear their cases.

A fishing industry lobbying group, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), sued the lead government regulator of offshore wind in early 2022, alleging that by approving Vineyard Wind, the agency had violated several acts, including those protecting existing ocean users and endangered species. The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which represents fishermen and a fishing company in Rhode Island in another lawsuit, had also petitioned the Supreme Court.

RODA had already lost its case in two other courts: first, in 2023 in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, where a judge sided with the project and regulators; and second, in 2024 in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, where the judge upheld the lower court’s decision. TPPF also had its case dismissed by the lower courts.

“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court denied our petition,” said Lane Johnston, executive director of RODA, in an email Monday. “This issue is of such importance to members of the commercial fishing industry. RODA will continue our efforts to combat the destructive industrialization of the nation’s marine resources.”

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

Supreme Court declines Vineyard Wind challenge

May 5, 2025 — The Supreme Court has declined to reconsider the Biden administration’s approval of a major offshore wind project off the Massachusetts coast, in a reprieve for an industry facing rising political headwinds.

On Monday morning, the justices denied the parallel petitions led by the fishing company Seafreeze Shoreside and the fishing industry trade group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) challenging agencies’ approvals for the Vineyard Wind 1 project.

The 62-turbine wind farm is under construction 15 miles off the coast of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and is expected to be completed this year. Vineyard Wind’s joint developers Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners declined through their attorney to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision.

Read the full story at E&E News

More than a quarter of staff gone at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center

May 5, 2025 — The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with an office in Woods Hole—has seen a 27 percent reduction in staff since President Donald Trump took office, according to current and former NOAA employees, who asked not to be named in this story for fear of retaliation.

In addition to the lab in Woods Hole, the NEFSC has four other offices—one each in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine. It is not yet clear how many of the departed staff worked in Woods Hole, which is described on the NOAA Fisheries website as the “focal point for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s operations, management and information needs.”

The 27 percent reduction in staff includes people who took early retirement or voluntary separations. It also includes individuals who were let go as “probationary” employees—new hires or employees who have moved into a new role.

NOAA declined to comment, citing a policy at the agency not to discuss internal personnel matters. This reduction in staff comes as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal spending.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford dock collapses on waterfront, the third failure in two years

April 25, 2025 — For the third time in less than two years, a hunk of dock fell into New Bedford Harbor on Wednesday afternoon, again raising red flags about neglected port maintenance. The collapse injured no one but dropped a metal shed into the water.

The asphalt-surface dock and the shed dropped into about 20 feet of water late Wednesday afternoon outside the Sea Watch International processing plant along Antonio Costa Avenue, said Gordon Carr, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority.

He said it happened when no one was around, at about 3:30 p.m. The sunken storage shed had stood in an area that had been blocked by Jersey barriers since a neighboring section of the dock collapsed a year ago.

Carr said there was a “small sheen” on the water Wednesday, but it was not clear what, if anything, was in the shed and if anything spilled into the water.

“There’s a boom out there now to contain” any possible contamination, he said, referring to a long, floating tube used to corral spills of oil and other substances on the water. He said representatives of Sea Watch, a clam and quahog operation that uses that pier to unload catch, were trying to figure out what was in the shed.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

Gulf of Maine scallop season resumes

April 24, 2025 — Regulators have reopened commercial scallop fishing in the Northern Gulf of Maine after the season was briefly paused when federal officials failed to approve recommended catch limits in time.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) approved new quotas for the 2025 and 2026 scallop seasons in December 2024, setting a quota of 675,563 pounds for 2025 and a quota of 506,672 pounds for 2026 in the Northern Gulf of Maine federal fishery. However, the federal government still hadn’t approved those quotas before the 2025 season launched 1 April.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Industry Could Benefit From Trump Order

April 24, 2025 — Before the environmentalists and fearmongers in the press get their oil skins, jumpers and mesh undies in a bind over President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning the fishing industry, they need to catch their collective breath and slowly exhale.

First of all, read the damn thing!

The Associated Press says, “The order represents a dramatic shift in federal policy on fishing in U.S. waters by prioritizing commercial fishing interests over efforts to allow the fish supply to increase.”

That is fake news.

The executive order calls for the Secretary of Commerce to immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overburden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.

Read the full story at WBSM