Saving Seafood

Catch Of The Day Or Tuna From A Test Tube? How Innovation Could Change Seafood

December 10, 2018 — Massachusetts is home to the nation’s top fishing port. More than $300 million in seafood lands in New Bedford every year.

But the kinds of seafood are changing.

Rising ocean temperatures are driving southern fish species into our coastal waters. Today’s there are strict catch limits on Massachusetts’ state fish, the Atlantic cod. Scallops are now the New Bedford fishing industry’s primary source of revenue.

In response, local researchers are developing artificial intelligence to promote smarter fishing. And private companies are working on alternatives — including bioengineered fish and even fish flesh grown in laboratories.

Read the full story at WBUR

New England fishery council under fire for clam, wind decisions

December 10, 2018 — A decision this week by the New England Fishery Management Council to vote down a resolution that would’ve allowed clam harvesting in a 280 square mile area off Nantucket Shoals is drawing fire from the clam industry and others, South Coast Today, a New Bedford, Massachusetts-based newspaper, is reporting.

In particular, critics are pointing to the council’s decision to allow offshore wind development to continue in a 1,400 square mile area in a similar region, according to the newspaper.

“It’s amazing to me that they’ve turned this complete blind eye on really the most intrusive project that’s ever come on the East Coast, which is wind,” Scott Lang, a former New Bedford mayor and attorney for the clam industry, is quoted as saying. ”… They’re acting like that’s something we’re just going to have to live with, but a fishery that’s been around for a couple hundred years is a threat to the habitat.”

Read the full article at Undercurrent News

JACK SPILLANE: A rogue agency gets set to shut down another New Bedford fishery

December 10, 2018 — Scott Lang has been around fisheries issues for a long time.

Both when he was mayor and afterwards.

In 2013, Lang helped organize the Center for Sustainable Fisheries as a grassroots lobbying group to try to make sure New Bedford fishermen were not totally forgotten by NOAA. He’s worked for the industry for a long time and seen a lot of arguments from both sides back-and-forth over the years.

But until last week, he said he had never seen NOAA make a decision to close a fishery with no science behind it. Not even questionable science, as for years NOAA has used for New England groundfishing limits in the opinion of many.

NOAA’s decision to close the Rose and Crown Zone and Zone D to surf clammers is based on anecdotal evidence related to UMass Dartmouth scientist Kevin Stokesbury’s research for the scallop industry, first done almost two decades ago.

The camera net device Stokesbury invented was for measuring scallop habitats but NOAA has used his science to measure clam beds. It’s not the same, Stokesbury told The Standard-Times. The images his survey produces are of the ocean floor about a kilometer apart and clammers often dredge in much shorter distances.

The clammers have offered to do surveys that will be more applicable to clam beds in the areas of Nantucket Shoals in question. They would need about three years to do that but they would have to keep fishing in the closed areas in order to pay for it.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fishing quotas for cod, haddock to get a boost next year

December 10, 2018 — Commercial fishermen will be able to catch a little bit more cod and haddock off New England next year.

Fishermen seek the valuable groundfish species and others off the East Coast, with most coming to land in New England states. The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new catch limits for several species for the fishing year that begins May 1.

The largest catch limit will be for Georges Bank haddock. It’ll increase by almost 20 percent to more than 117 million pounds (53 million kilograms).

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WTNH

New England Shellfish Harvest OK’d, With More Monitoring

December 10, 2018 — A regulatory board is allowing shellfish harvesting in a key management area off of New England, though more monitoring of the fishery will now apply.

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new measures to allow the harvest of surfclams within the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area. The council says mussel fishermen will also be able to operate in the new areas.

The council says it wants fishermen and researchers to work together to get a better idea of where surfclams can be harvested without disturbing sensitive undersea habitat.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

Documentary Tracks Territory Dispute Over Lobster Bounty

December 7, 2018 — While many communities, including the Vineyard, have seen extreme declines in lobster populations over the years, the species has rebounded further north in a disputed area on the border of the United States and Canada. Fueled by warming waters due to climate change, this newly robust lobster area is being claimed by both countries, and it’s been dubbed the gray zone.

Lobster War, a new film about the building tension in the gray zone off the coast of Maine, will screen on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. Film director and Boston Globe reporter David Abel will appear for a question and answer session via Skype. He will be joined by Tubby Medeiros and Wes Brighton of the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, both of whom lobster in the waters around the Vineyard.

Speaking with the Gazette by phone, Mr. Abel said he learned about the gray zone through his environmental reporting for the Boston Globe.

“I’m interested in telling stories that look at how climate change affects us and how it’s not an abstract threat, but it’s having a real impact on people’s lives,” he said.

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette 

New England Council Finalizes 2019-20 Scallop Plan, Landings Will be 60 Million lbs or Higher

December 7, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The New England Fishery Management Council has finalized the scallop plan for 2019-20, the fishing year beginning on April 1st.

NMFS staff estimates that catches will be similar to this year, which are expected to be around 60 million lbs.

However, the plan adds one additional closed area trip for each of the approximately 310 full time vessels in the fishery.  At 18,000 lbs per trip, this has the potential to increase landings by around 5.5 million lbs.

Open access days will remain the same, meaning that the resource scientists expect to see a lower volume landed from the same number of days at sea.

Part of this is due to projected changes in size of scallops landed.

Bristol Seafoods, in Portland, has excellent customer facing information on Scallops, and CEO Peter Handy offered his take on the 2019 season.

Handy said that if the season plays out as the council expects, Bristol’s customers should see the same volumes of 10-20’s and 20-30’s as last year, but there may be a decline in U-10’s and U-12’s.

Whether such a decline materializes will depend on the size of the scallops in some of the closed areas now being fished for the second year.  Last year, says Handy, the area that produced the largest amount of U-10’s and U-12’s were from Closed area 1 and the Nantucket lightship.   This year, those areas will only be accessed once if at all, as part of a ‘flex’ trip allocated by the council.  Handy says “Overall, it looks like the trips to areas that have the most plentiful big scallops was reduced from two down to one.”

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Scallops hold steady for New England, but sizes could shrink

December 7, 2018 —  The New England Fishery Management Council yesterday released information on the upcoming scallop season, including an estimated 60 million pounds in landings.

The council approved Framework Adjustment 30 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, which still needs to be approved by NMFS before the season kicks off on April 1, 2019.

Peter Handy, president and CEO of Bristol Seafood, speculated that a reduction in trips to Nantucket Light Ship South and Closed Area 1 may also reduce the volume of U10 and U12 product on the market.

Last season, about half the catch in these areas were larger scallops.

“Overall, it looks like the trips to areas that have the most plentiful big scallops was reduced from two down to one,” Handy reported in a press release. However, he added, it is important to note that scallop sizes can change year to year within the same area.

The Northern Gulf of Maine TAC increased about 5,000 pounds to 205,000. However, last year the council’s prediction for the 2019 season was 135,000 pounds. The default for 2020 is set at 170,000.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Wind Farm Near Martha’s Vineyard In Jeopardy

December 6, 2018 — Rhode Island fishing interests, given the authority to weigh in on offshore wind projects that could damage their livelihoods, are flexing their muscles. As a result, a 94-turbine wind farm planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard is in serious jeopardy.

Like Deepwater Wind’s South Fork Wind farm planned off of Montauk, the Vineyard Wind project is owned by European energy companies with global wind-farm interests. Rhode Island, as part of the permitting process, asked for and was given “Federal Consistency” because even though the project originates in Massachusetts, it affects fisheries in neighboring states. New didn’t ask for the right to weigh in, even though local fishermen extensively fish that area.

On Tuesday, November 27, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council agreed to postpone its decision to grant a “consistency certification” for Vineyard Wind until the end of January. If Rhode Island denies certification, Vineyard Wind could appeal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It is not clear how the latest news affects the Deepwater Wind project off of Montauk Point but it is sure to come up during the state’s review of the project. In fact, fishing industry proponents are urging New York State officials to be proactive in the review of any proposed offshore wind farm in the immediate region.

Read the full story at The Independent

Working Group Nears Consensus on Transit Lanes for Fishing Vessels in Northeast Wind Energy Areas

December 6, 2018 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), which consists of regional fishing industry representatives from Maine to North Carolina, convened an Offshore Wind Transit Lane Working Group meeting on December 3rd at the Hotel Viking in Newport, R.I.

Fishing industry representatives, offshore wind developer lease-holders, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and the U.S. Coast Guard, among others, joined RODA to continue an attempt to develop fishery transit lanes through the large group of Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in federal waters off of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The meeting was facilitated by the Consensus Building Institute. Currently, three WEAs are subject to active leases held by Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Vineyard Wind.  BOEM will hold an additional auction for three new leases in WEAs adjacent to the existing sites on December 13, 2018.

In addition to loss of access within the lease areas, commercial fishermen coastwide have long been concerned about their ability to safely travel across wind energy arrays to access other historical, traditional commercial fishing grounds. They are especially concerned with the size of the WEAs being proposed by BOEM, which are by far the largest in the world.

While fishing industry representatives and wind developers agree that minimizing transit time through wind energy arrays is a primary design goal, safety risks greatly increase due to the long distances—up to 50-70 miles—fishing boats may be required to transit either around or through wind energy arrays.

The Massachusetts Fisheries Working Group on Offshore Wind began to consider the development of transit lanes earlier this year, and RODA has since held a large workshop followed by the smaller working group meeting to continue this task. To prepare for the working group meeting, RODA asked NMFS and the Northeast Regional Ocean Council Data Portal team to evaluate historic transit patterns to identify options for safe and direct access to fishing grounds. NMFS presented an analysis based on VMS and AIS data that substantially supported input received from the fishing industry regarding prevailing transit patterns.

As some examples, vessels from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and other ports frequently cross the Wind Energy Areas in a “diagonal” Northwest-Southeast direction to access offshore fishing grounds, and will no longer have access to direct routes. Vessels from New York must additionally transit in an East-West direction, whereas other fisheries access grounds in a variety of directions including North-South in western and eastern portions of the lease areas.

Fishing industry representatives have considered a wide range of transit lane options and continue to support options that generally preserve these most important routes to their historic fisheries, which must include a “diagonal” route or, less favorably, smoothing out the Northwest-Southeast edges of the lease areas to allow more direct transit along the perimeters. Offshore wind lease-holding developers, for their part, have attempted to identify routes to meet those goals that also preserve the energy-generating nameplate capacity for each site that allows them to meet pricing goals for power procurement. Developers have various viewpoints on preferred transit lane locations and, as such, layouts have differing ranges of support including for the currently unleased areas.

The series of discussions regarding transit lane design was further from achieving consensus on the necessary width of transit lanes. Offshore fishermen have consistently requested lanes to be a minimum width of 4 nautical miles to allow for safe passage in an area known for extreme weather and tidal conditions, and to mitigate the anticipated effects of radar interference emanating from large monopole turbines. The developers have proposed lanes of only one to two nautical miles in order to optimize site layouts for wind exposure.

In order to foster evidence-based progress on necessary transit lane widths, RODA and others have requested the Coast Guard and BOEM to conduct an in-depth analysis regarding fisheries vessel position data, radar functionality, emergency incident reports, and other items.

While the group has not yet finalized recommendations, both fishermen and developers broadly agree that the most efficient timing for transit lane identification would occur before a lease is issued. RODA therefore strongly urges BOEM to include stipulations for the continuation of these transit lanes in its upcoming lease sale, and welcomes inquiries as to the status of these recommendations as potential bidders prepare proposals.

Additional materials, including a meeting summary with details regarding each of the options, will be available shortly on the RODA website.

About RODA
The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) is a broad, membership-based coalition of fishing industry associations and companies working to improve the compatibility of new offshore development with their businesses. It seeks to coordinate science and policy approaches, through public and private partnerships, to manage development of the Outer Continental Shelf in a way that minimizes conflicts with existing traditional and historical fishing.