Saving Seafood

We’ll take your lobsters, eh? Canadian imports from US soar

November 30, 2018 — Trade hostility from across the ocean was supposed to take a snip out of the U.S. lobster business, but the industry is getting a lifeline from its northern neighbor.

Heavy demand from Canada is buoying American lobster as both countries head into the busy holiday export season, according to federal statistics and members of the industry. It’s a positive sign for U.S. seafood dealers and fishermen, even as the industry struggles with Chinese tariffs.

China emerged as a major consumer of American lobster earlier this decade, but the country slapped heavy tariffs on exports in July amid its trade kerfuffle with President Donald Trump’s administration. Lobster exports slowed to a crawl.

Industry watchers forecast the move as a potential calamity for U.S. seafood, but Canada has boosted the value of its lobster imports from America by more than a third so far this year, up to more than $180 million through September.

Canada has its own lobster fishing industry, which harvests the same species as U.S. fishermen, and the country sells lobsters domestically as well as to Europe and Asia. The country’s importing so many from the U.S. this year because it needs enough supply to send to China, said members of the lobster industry on both sides of the border.

“They go there to go to China, to avoid the tariffs,” said Spiros Tourkakis, executive vice president of East Coast Seafood, a dealer in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times

Fishermen to NOAA: ‘We spend more time getting away from the fish than we do catching the fish’

November 30, 2018 — The fishing industry pleaded with NOAA on Thursday afternoon for the one thing the agency couldn’t promise: urgency.

“Unfortunately with the management process that we have, to abide by the law, which obviously we have to do as a federal agency, we have to abide by the law,” NOAA’s Northeast Regional Administrator Mike Pentony said. “We are subject to constraints. It is very difficult for us to react, to change quickly.”

To better understand the constraints experienced both by NOAA and the commercial fishing industry, about two dozen people involved in fishing, its regulations and development discussed the obstacles and solutions for about two hours during a monthly roundtable conversation held by the Port of New Bedford.

The turnout at the School of Marine Science and Technology was one of the best the meeting has seen, Pamela Lafreniere of the Port Authority said.

The roundtable looked at what vision the fishermen and NOAA have for the groundfish industry and then touched on quota.

A common theme emerged from the fishing industry as it pelted Pentony with grave concerns regarding the future of the groundfish fishery.

“This is the very bottom and the most discouraged mount of fishermen that I’ve seen since I’ve been involved in fisheries and that goes back to the mid-70s,” fisherman Ed Barrett said.

“I can’t tell you how bad it is. You can ask any fishermen,” fisherman Ron Borjeson said. “We spend more time getting away from the fish than we do catching the fish.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA seeks recreational fishermen’s input

November 29, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries is ramping up its plans to develop management strategies for the Northeast recreational groundfish fishery for 2019, beginning with three January workshops for stakeholder input.

The agency’s Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office has scheduled the workshops for Jan. 8 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Jan. 10 in Narragansett, Rhode Island; and Jan. 12 in Plymouth. Times still are to be determined.

The workshops, beyond soliciting stakeholder comment, also will jump-start the campaign to develop new short-term and long-term management measures for the recreational fishing industry “that balance the need to prevent overfishing with enabling profitability in the for-hire fleet” and provide other opportunities for recreational anglers.

In the short term, regulators are seeking potential new management measures to achieve, but not exceed, recreational catch limits in the upcoming 2019 fishing season, including Gulf of Maine cod and haddock.

In the long term, NOAA is exploring how to use new data — such as the information culled from the Marine Recreational Information Program — in its management of recreational groundfish stocks. It also is seeking the most effective manner to use available research to reduce or avoid bycatch mortality, calculate dead discards and the best methods of release.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

New Bedford Fishing Boat Captain Sentenced

November 29, 2018 — The former captain of a New Bedford fishing boat owned by Carlos Rafael, a/k/a “The Codfather,” was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for interfering with a U.S Coast Guard (USCG) inspection of a fishing boat off the Massachusetts coast.

Thomas D. Simpson, 57, of South Portland, Maine, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to two years of probation, with the first four months to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring, and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine. In August 2018, Simpson pleaded guilty to one count of destruction or removal of property subject to seizure and inspection.

Simpson was the captain of the fishing vessel Bulldog, a New Bedford based commercial fishing vessel and one of several fishing vessels owned by Carlos Rafael. On Sept. 25, 2017, Rafael, often referred to as “The Codfather,” was sentenced in federal court in Boston to 46 months in federal prison on a variety of charges related to the operation of his commercial fishing business.

On May 31, 2014, the Bulldog was engaged in commercial fishing off the cost of Massachusetts when the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) boarded the vessel to perform a routine inspection of the Bulldog and its fishing equipment. At the time of the boarding, the Bulldog’s net was deployed in the water and the crew was actively fishing. The USCG Boarding Officer encountered Simpson in the Bulldog’s wheelhouse and instructed Simpson to haul in the fishing net for inspection. The fishing net is controlled from the wheelhouse by an electric winch, which Simpson activated, but instead of hauling the fishing net onto the vessel, he let out more of the cable which attaches the net to the vessel. When the USCG Boarding Officer realized that Simpson was letting the net out, he instructed Simpson to stop and to haul the net in. Simpson ignored the order and continued to let out cable until the net became detached from the Bulldog and sank.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Clam controversy: Prime area may be closed to save fish

November 29, 2018 —  In June, at the Intershell dock on Commercial Street, owners Monte and Yibing Gao Rome launched their new 55-foot surf clam boat, F/V Bing Bing, amid the hoopla and happiness associated with a new Gloucester boat going into the water.

The Bing Bing sitting pretty at the dock that day was the most recent, and perhaps most palpable, reflection of Intershell’s commitment to the surf clam fishery. The metal-hulled boat, built in Mississippi in 1977 and just off a 10-month retrofit, became the third surf clam boat in the Intershell fleet.

But on Tuesday, in a ballroom of the aptly named Viking Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, Intershell and the other major surf clammers along the Northeast will find out if they still have a surf clam fishery to call home in the lucrative and historically rich Great South Channel of the Nantucket Shoals.

The New England Fishery Management Council, in a trailing action to its Omnibus 2 Essential Fish Habitat Amendment, will decide if a large swath of the current surf clam fishery, 10 to 20 miles east and southeast of Nantucket, will remain open to surf clamming or possibly be closed as part of a protectionist move to designate the full area as an essential fish habitat.

If designated as a full essential fish habitat, the whole Great South Channel would be closed to surf clammers and their hydraulic water-pressure dredging gear, as it already has been to all other types of mobile, bottom tending gear.

The clammers initially got a one-year extension to continue fishing when the council designated the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area. That exemption is set to expire April 9, 2019.

“The Nantucket Shoals are one of the premium, large-scale harvest areas on the East Coast and not an essential fish habitat,” Monte Rome said Wednesday as workers buzzed around the the sprawling Intershell facility in the Blackburn Industrial Park. “We’ve been going to habitat committee meetings and plan development meetings for months and they have constantly revealed that right now there is not anywhere near enough data to make a decision on whether this is an essential fish habitat. They say it might be. We say there is essentially no fish habitat within the area where we have fished for surf clams for the past 30 years.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Judge returns two vessels to Carlos Rafael’s wife

November 29, 2018 — The wife and another business partner of Carlos Rafael will retain ownership of two of the four fishing vessels seized by the federal government as part of the penalties for the array of crimes committed by the man known as “The Codfather.”

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young, in his final order of forfeiture, said the F/V Lady Patricia and the F/V Olivia & Rafaela — and all federal fishing permits associated with each vessel — will be forfeited to the federal government as part of the final seizure agreement.

Young also ordered the forfeiture of $306,490 to the federal government in addition to the $17,500 judgment already paid by Rafael as part of his plea agreement.

Two of the other forfeited vessels — the Bulldog and Southern Crusader II — will be released to corporations that include Rafael’s wife, Conceicao Rafael, as an owner.

The 75-foot Bulldog will be released to B & D Fishing Corp. and Conceicao Rafael. The 81-foot Southern Crusader II is set to be released to R and C Fishing Corp. The corporation, according to the order, includes Conceicao Rafael and Joao Camarao as owners.

The convicted and currently incarcerated Carlos Rafael, according to the order, ceases to hold any “right, title or interest” in either the forfeited or released vessels. The order, however, retains Carlos Rafael’s ability to defend himself against any future claims from NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA extends protective zone to try to help right whales

November 29, 2018 — The federal government is extending a protective zone off Massachusetts to try to keep a large group of endangered whales safe from collisions with boats.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s applying the voluntary vessel speed restriction zone in an area 21 nautical miles south of Nantucket. A group of 17 right whales was seen in the area on Monday.

NOAA says the speed restriction zone will be in effect until Dec. 11. Mariners are asked to avoid the area or go through it at 10 knots or less.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

Feds looking to increase limits for skate fishing in Northeast

November 29, 2018 — The federal government’s considering allowing northeastern U.S. fishermen to harvest more skates, which are used for food and bait.

Skates are flat fish caught on both coasts of the U.S. and commonly sold as “skate wing.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s looking to increase the maximum catch of skate wing in the northeastern states from 19.2 million pounds to 23.1 million pounds.

The maximum amount of skate bait that can be brought to land would also be boosted from 9.7 million pounds to 11.6 million pounds.

American fishermen caught over 40 million pounds of skate in 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available.

The biggest skate fisheries in the northeastern U.S. are based in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

More information on the revised Framework Adjustment 6 may be found at https://bit.ly/2Pa8Zw2.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Climate report warns of impact on coastal communities

November 29, 2018 — Rising temperatures and sea levels caused by climate change threaten a way of life along the New England coast, and the region’s tourism, agriculture and fishing industries are at risk from damaging storms and flooding, according to a new federal report.

The report, produced by 13 federal agencies and more than 300 climate scientists, concludes the planet is getting warmer, human activity is contributing to it, and we are approaching a point of no return in terms of the damage to the climate. The government report details how that will hurt regions of the country.

In the Northeast, the report projects temperatures to rise faster than the global average, or about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-Industrial Age levels, by 2035.

“This would be the largest increase in the contiguous United States and would occur as much as two decades before global average temperatures reach a similar milestone,” it said.

Rising seas and storms will inundate seaside communities, eroding sections of coast at rates of 3.3 feet a year in the next century, according to the report.

“These changes to the coastal landscape would threaten the sustainability of communities and their livelihoods,” the report stated. “Many fishing communities rely on small docks and other shoreside infrastructure for their fishing operations, increasing the risk of substantial disruption if they are lost to sea level rise and increasing storm frequency.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Nantucket Bay Scalloping Struggling To Say Afloat

November 29, 2018 — The commercial bay scallop season opened on Nantucket at the beginning of November and will run through the end of March, but for bay scallopers, this year’s harvest is already looking to be pretty lean.

Out in Madaket Harbor on the western-most edge of Nantucket, scalloper Blair Perkins is throwing out a test dredge and scanning his catch for the iconic bivalve that seems to be getting scarcer and scarcer in a net full of shells, crabs and Spanish moss.

“It’s been a terrible season. I’ve been scalloping for 30-odd years, since the 80s off and on, and this is the worst year I’ve seen it, ever,” Perkins said.

Bay scalloping has never been an easy job. To do it right requires a fisherman to be out on the water during the coldest time of the year, and it’s a lot of physical work for, sometimes, not much reward. Perkins drags a mesh bag attached to a string into the water and will pull it up periodically to dump out the catch. Usually, he’ll pull up about 20 scallops in each dredge, but since the season opened this month, he’s pulling up closer to 10 to 15 in a catch. While at its peak in the 1980s, bay scallopers would bring in about one hundred thousand bushels of scallops a season. By comparison, this season’s catch is predicted to be around five thousand.

These scallops are particularly sensitive to water quality changes, and most importantly, they rely on the harbor’s eel grass for their spawn to grow. Scientists credit water pollution, which has stifled eel grass, as a primary reason for the decline in bay scallops.

“So the pressures are additional nutrients in the water, septic systems overloading, increased ferry traffic. All these things come down to water quality,” said Nantucket town biologist Tara Riley.

The town has been working to restore eel grass habitats around the island, but Riley is still worried that the tradition of bay scalloping, something Nantucketers have done over the winter since the 1800s, is drawing less fishermen today.

“There aren’t a lot of young people that are getting involved,” Riley said. “It’s not a dependable way to make your income in the winter, so you have to have options. You can’t just put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to the bay scallop fishery.”

Read the full story at WGBH